Shurley, Petting Zoo Party & Massage, oh my!

Wow another week has passed, I swear that time is just flying by.  So what’s been happening in the life of Maisie?  Well my girl loves pulling out her white board and playing teacher.  She especially loves teaching me math and Shurley English.  For the time being I’m still able to keep up with her math but she’s already ahead of me with the English.

Last Sunday Maisie attended her teammate Laila’s 10th birthday party.  The party had an amazing petting zoo which included a mini zebra, pony, camel, spider monkey, lemur, baby pigs, porcupine, a hedgehog and even a kangaroo. There were more animals but I can’t remember them all but Maisie had fun and it was a gorgeous day.

Maisie’s back has been bothering her and we’ve been treating it at home with ibuprofen, epsom salt baths and sports cream rubs but it just wasn’t cutting it.  Then Monday morning at practice she said that she was in too much pain to tumble so I made an appointment for her to see Tony, my massage therapist.  Her coach wanted her to take a little time away from the gym to rest her muscles.  So Monday afternoon and Tuesday she was home from practice and Tuesday afternoon she had her massage which thankfully really helped loosen up her back muscles.  Wednesday afternoon she returned to the gym for TOPs and today she returned to her regular practice.  Maisie’s scheduled for another massage next week so hopefully by next Friday, for her first USA Level 5 meet in Savannah, she’ll be feeling good.

New recipe posted over on Cook Lisa Cook for Thai Massaman Curry which was a wonderful holiday meal for Chinese New Year and also a perfect meal on a cold winter night.  Click on the link or the picture to be taken to Cook Lisa Cook and the recipe.

More curry recipes on Cook Lisa Cook include:  Curried Grilled Thai Chicken Salad, Curried Shepherd’s Pie, Mom’s Curried Chicken Salad, Home Style Chicken Curry, Shrimp & Vegetable Madras Curry, Lamb Curry, Red Curry Chicken, Slow Cooker Chicken Curry, Red Chinese Long Bean with Peppers & Red Curry, Red Curry Soup, Hearty Beef Curry, Roasted & Curried Veggie Soup and Curried Israeli Couscous.   

Enjoy!

新年快樂 Year of the snake / Valentines Day and catching up

I am so far behind on updating this blog it’s just crazy so here’s a catch-up post.

This year we passed on all of the Chinese New Year celebrations and instead, Maisie spent the day doing what she loves best, being upside-down doing gymnastics with one of her besties.  Not a traditional way to celebrate CNY but oh-well, lots of fun for my girl.

We also didn’t do anything special for Valentine’s Day.  Maisie did make a flying butterfly love box for her school party but on the the actual day I dropped Maisie at school at 8:30am, she went home with a friend then straight to her gymnastics practice and by the time that was over and we walked back into the house it was 9PM.  We did exchange cards and Maisie got a jewelry box but that was it.

Of course Maisie has spent lots of time with her favorite people & at her favorite place, with her teammates at the gym.

Last Friday after morning practice we went out for brunch with some of Maisie’s teammates and their siblings.

Sunday we spent the entire day watching the USA Level 7 & 8 girls compete at the Mardi Gras Invitational.  Maisie loved watching and cheering on the girls and sitting with them waiting for awards.

Below are two quick videos from Maisie’s practices.  To see her you’ll need to open the videos up in a full screen and view in HD.  

Maisie practicing cast to handstand on the pit bar.

Maisie practicing back handsprings on the high beam.  She’s in the back, far right corner.

Today I posted a new recipe over on Cook Lisa Cook as it’s my Improv Cooking Challenge reveal day.  This month we were challenged to make anything of our choosing using the ingredients Hearts and Flours.  Thankfully we didn’t need to use actual hearts, we just needed to make something heart shaped or photographed on a heart plate, but we did need to use some sort of flour.  Anyhow, I made some totally delicious and super simple Three Ingredient Fudgy Nutella Brownie Bites.  Click on the link or the picture to be taken to Cook Lisa Cook and the recipe and in less than 15 minutes you too can be enjoying these totally delicious treats.

Other sweet treat recipes posted on Cook Lisa Cook include: Toll House Double Stuff Oreo Brownies, Math Book No Bake Cookies, Piggy-Out Cookies, 24-Layer Crêpe Cake, Spicy Brown Sugar Bacon, Kicked Up Piggy-Out Cookies, Nutella Crêpes, Mango, Lime & Chile Spiced Ice Box Pie, Nutella No Bake Cookies, Welsh Cakes, Lime Jewels, Walnut Roca Squares, Chocolate Chip Gingersnaps, Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies, Happy 6th Birthday Maisie Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting, Caramel Stuffed Apple Cider Cookies, Thin Mint Irish Coffee, Caramel Apples, Mango Upside Down Cake, Pink Strawberry Cake Balls, Praline Pumpkin Cheesecake, Apple Dumplings, Apple, Cranberry & Rhubarb Crisp, Crunchy Oat, Almond, Cashew & Pebbles Granola Bars, Biscoff Fudge, Oatmeal, Cashew & Chocolate Granola Bars, Glazed Lemon Squares, Maisie “safe” No Bake Cookies, Ponderosa Lemon & Sour Cream Tart, Dark Chocolate Dipped Candied Lemon Peel, Crunchy Fudgy Heart Bites, Double Chocolate Meyer Lemon Mousse Cake, Malted Pretzel Crunch, Apple Pancakes, Health(ier) Peanut Brittle, Skinny Blueberry Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins, Peanut Butter & Jelly Bars, Strawberry Soup, Mango Melon Banana & Chia Smoothie, Dried Cherry Almond Tart, Double Chocolate Mousse Cake, Mini Cheesecake Bites, S’mores Granola Bars, Marshmallow Pops, Crockpot Baked Stuffed Apples, White Chocolate Marshmallow Cranberry Cashew Bark, Sweet Potato Cranberry Nut Cookies, Creamy Mints, Baked Bananas and Lemon Almond Biscotti.

Enjoy!

Chani is six!

Yesterday Maisie attended another one of Chani's awesome birthday parties.  I’m telling you, Kathy is the Queen of birthday party planning and all the children had a fabulous time.  When the children entered the lab they first signed in, had a retinal scan and the computer verified their identity and by name, welcomed them to the lab.  The next step was finding and putting on their lab coat, goggles and credentials.

Dr. Maisie and Dr. Briana ready to perform their lab experiments.

Maisie making molecules with marshmallows and tooth picks.

Birthday girl Chani, Briana & Maisie.  Three bespectacled cuties.

The dessert table.

Such a creative cake and one of Kathy’s beautiful bows decorates the table.

The food table, also decorated with Kathy’s bows.  (check out her website Kathy’s Bows)

The front of the lab.

The set up at each child’s place.

My beautiful little lab scientist.

Following along and performing the experiments.

Maisie and Briana, so cute in their lab coats and goggles.

Ewwww…slime!  In the end the children performed ten experiments:  color blending, swirling milk, drops on a penny, invisible ink, instant snow, slime, magic sand, fizzy balloons, elephant toothpaste & exploding sandwich bags.  All the children had a great time, Chani’s parties rock!

Check out her past parties here:  Chani’s Mane Event (5), Mickey Extravaganza (4), Colorful Crayola (3), Bouncy Fun (2) and unfortunately we missed Chani’s first birthday as we were sick and didn’t want to spread that “love” to anyone else.  Already Maisie’s looking forward to Chani’s 7 year old party and I’m looking forward to seeing how Kathy outdoes herself yet again.

Happy birthday Chani, wishing you a wonderful year of being six!

The other day I posted a new recipe over on Cook Lisa Cook for Lemon Almond Biscotti.  These crunchy little treats are just perfect and sort of a little fresh taste of summer sunshine on these cold winter days.  We enjoyed these biscotti paired with nice hot cups of tea & coffee.  Click on the link or the picture to be taken to Cook Lisa Cook and the recipe.

Other sweet treat recipes posted on Cook Lisa Cook include: Toll House Double Stuff Oreo Brownies, Math Book No Bake Cookies, Piggy-Out Cookies, 24-Layer Crêpe Cake, Spicy Brown Sugar Bacon, Kicked Up Piggy-Out Cookies, Nutella Crêpes, Mango, Lime & Chile Spiced Ice Box Pie, Nutella No Bake Cookies, Welsh Cakes, Lime Jewels, Walnut Roca Squares, Chocolate Chip Gingersnaps, Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies, Happy 6th Birthday Maisie Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting, Caramel Stuffed Apple Cider Cookies, Thin Mint Irish Coffee, Caramel Apples, Mango Upside Down Cake, Pink Strawberry Cake Balls, Praline Pumpkin Cheesecake, Apple Dumplings, Apple, Cranberry & Rhubarb Crisp, Crunchy Oat, Almond, Cashew & Pebbles Granola Bars, Biscoff Fudge, Oatmeal, Cashew & Chocolate Granola Bars, Glazed Lemon Squares, Maisie “safe” No Bake Cookies, Ponderosa Lemon & Sour Cream Tart, Dark Chocolate Dipped Candied Lemon Peel, Crunchy Fudgy Heart Bites, Double Chocolate Meyer Lemon Mousse Cake, Malted Pretzel Crunch, Apple Pancakes, Health(ier) Peanut Brittle, Skinny Blueberry Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins, Peanut Butter & Jelly Bars, Strawberry Soup, Mango Melon Banana & Chia Smoothie, Dried Cherry Almond Tart, Double Chocolate Mousse Cake, Mini Cheesecake Bites, S’mores Granola Bars, Marshmallow Pops, Crockpot Baked Stuffed Apples, White Chocolate Marshmallow Cranberry Cashew Bark, Sweet Potato Cranberry Nut Cookies, Creamy Mints and Baked Bananas.

Enjoy!

Cheering on the girls

Oh my goodness, another week has passed without a blog post.  I’ve sure become a slacker again as I’m just not getting around to posting here on the blog.  Trust me it’s not that nothing is happening, just the opposite.  Maisie’s schedule has us up and out early and home late and in between it’s shuffling back and forth between school and the gym.  Her schedule is six days a week so once home we’re just happy to just hang together and relax.  In addition I have two new addictions, Downton Abby and Breaking Bad.  We recently ditched the Dish and are now using a ROKU box and watching shows through Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime.  So all these shows I’ve never seen, I’m happily watching multiple seasons.  Unfortunately I’m all caught up with one and almost there with the other so I’m open to show suggestions  ;-)

Anyhow, back to cheering on the girls.  Today some of Maisie’s teammates were competing locally so she and a few other non-competing teammates went to cheer them on.  It was fun to watch the girls but let me tell you, I was just as nervous and keyed up as when Maisie competes, I just want to see them all do their best and have a great meet…and they did as the NMGG girls rocked and as a team took second place. 

Maisie has a full weekend of plans and hopefully I’ll get some pictures and actually tear myself away from my shows to get up a post or two.

Even though I’m busy, dinner still needs to be made and served.  Though I’ve never tired one, Eammon adores Reuben sandwiches so when I saw a recipe for a Reuben Casserole I had to make it for him.  This Baked Reuben Casserole combines all the flavors of the sandwich into one easy dish.  Eammon really loved the casserole and I loved that it was easy to prepare and freezes and reheats beautifully.  If you or someone you love is a Reuben lover, click on the link or the picture to be taken to Cook Lisa Cook and the recipe.

Other wonderful casseroles on Cook Lisa Cook include:  Corn Soufflé,  Loaded Potato & Buffalo Chicken Casserole, Grilled Corn & Bacon Pudding, Slimmed Down Loaded Potato & Buffalo Chicken Casserole,  Sweet Potato Casserole and Baked Macaroni & Cheese.

Enjoy!

Pottery painting Saturday

Maisie and I used to go pottery painting quite regularly but after a while we both got a bit burned out.  It’s probably been about a year since our last time and just this past week Maisie mentioned that she’d like to go again.  Amazingly, the next day there was a 50% off Groupon for our favorite place so I bought two vouchers and figured that we would find a couple of days where we could make it over there to paint.  Well that day happened sooner than I had anticipated because as luck would have it, Maisie’s gymnastics practice this morning was cancelled as the big girls and her coaches are up at Clemson University for the Tiger Paw Classic Meet so we had the entire day free.  We wished all the NMGC girls good luck and my girl and I enjoyed girl time together painting pottery.

Tomorrow is Super bowl Sunday and today I posted the most delicious Loaded Buffalo Chicken Texas Toast recipe over on Cook Lisa Cook, a perfect appetizer for your game day menu.  If you’re like me and not hosting a party (or even watching or feigning interest in the game) this recipe would make an easy and delicious lunch.  Either way, click on the link or the picture to be taken to Cook Lisa Cook and the recipe.

Other buffalo-ed foods and delicious appetizers on Cook Lisa Cook include:  Loaded Potato & Buffalo Chicken Casserole, Buffalo Cauliflower, Baked Buffalo Chicken Wings, Slimmed Down Loaded Potato & Buffalo Chicken Casserole, Chinese Five Spice Wings, Crab Cake Stuffed Mushrooms, Sweet Italian Sausage & Roasted Chestnut Stuffed Mushrooms, Lacy Cheese Crackers, Slow Cooker Ranch Mushrooms, Crispy Zucchini Chips, Fried Green Tomatoes, Bacon & Cheese Zucchini Fritters, Chicken Tenders, Strawberry Soup, Broiled Sushi, Pork Dumplings with Rice Wrappers, Rum Cured Salmon, Aloo Tikki, Jamaican Jerk Meat Pies, Pesto Pita Pizza, Spicy Brown Sugar Bacon, Grilled Prawns, Wicked Good New England Lobster Rolls, Holy Guacamole, Grilled Corn, Avocado & Tomato Salad with Honey Lime Dressing, Lasagna Soup and BBQ Chicken Quesadillas.

Enjoy!