Cloudy With a Chance of...."Cupcakes"????

My friend Emily sent me this cute idea she saw on a blog. Since we were having a field trip this month to watch "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" at the theater, it was a PERFECT idea for the kids snack. The original post called for Ferrero Roche chocolates on top (those would be the BEST looking "meatballs") and cherry pie filling-but I went for the "preschool" version = WHOPPERS and Smuckers Strawberry pancake syrup. Here's how they turned out:

It took Emma a while to dive in because, let's face it, they DO look a little, shall we say....halloweenish? Once she stuck her finger in the frosting and snuck a little taste, she was hooked! She's a cupcake lover. Bryce-well is there really any question as to how he felt about a frosting, syrup and whopper topped cupcake???? I didn't think so :)
I even got to use my new cupcake courier! The verdict: IT IS AMAZINGLY PERFECT IN EVERY WAY! Go get yours at Costco today! Emily told me she even has "cupcake courier envy" :) Gotta love it. Thanks for the great idea Emily!

Memories of My Big Grandpa

Today is my Big Grandpa's birthday. If he were still with us, he would have been 83 today! Crazy! My Uncle Thomas sparked some fond memories of him this morning when he posted a happy birthday message to Gramps on Facebook-so here is my own trip down memory lane:

• We always called him Big Grandpa because he was a "BIG" guy-tall & broad....especially compared to my mom's dad, whom we affectionately called Little Grandpa :) Grandpa Allison shopped at Big & Tall, if that gives you any indication of what I mean :) 
• I used to LOVE when mom & dad would take us to P.Q. to visit Grandma Verna & Big Grandpa-they ALWAYS had a pool (no matter how many times they moved) and it was LOADS of fun! 
• Uncle Thomas was usually there, and used to play marbles with us, since he was nearer our age (to some degree) and the only kid still at home.
• Grandpa always made the YUMMIEST smelling and tasting mexican food-except WHOA spicey :)
• He always called us his "little rascals"
• He gave the biggest, tightest hugs!
• When he'd come visit us in Escondido-he always used to take us out to Kings Table restaurant (we LOVED that place) and he'd have HUGE toys for us. Like giant stuffed animals, etc. 
• Even when he was very sick towards the end, he still let us sit on his lap in the big recliner. He never said much, but even through the silence you could feel that he loved you very much.
• At the hospital in San Diego, when he died, was the first time in my life I remember seeing my dad cry :( 

He was most definately the patriarch of the Allison Family-everyone respected him and looked up to him. There are many reasons for that. Some of my great admirations are:

• He had a P.H.d in Linguistics and could speak 7 different languages.
• He was a heavyweight boxing champion when he was in the Navy (Hollie and I used to love to sneak a peak at the golden boxing glove trinket that he won-my dad always had it in a "safe" spot, but we knew how to get at it to admire it! :) Sorry Dad :)
• He was the Executive Vice President at the Univeristy my dad attended in England 
• He was the University Provost at BYU Hawaii and then became their Executive Vice President

My grandpa always upheld our family name with the greatest of care-and he is partially the reason why I decided to earn a Master's Degree while I was pregnant with Em :) My name on all 3 of my degrees say "Allison-Martone" because I am proud of who I am and the lineage I come from (as well as where I am going.) There have been times in my life when I have stopped and thought "what would Grandpa think or do about this or that" and then made a better decision than I may have originally. I was 8 when he died but he had a lifelong inpact on me....especially coming to realize at such a young age that CANCER SERIOUSLY SUCKS! Nevertheless, I'm grateful for the time we shared with him. I love you Big Grandpa.

Cooking with Kids

My kids LOVE LOVE LOVE to be in the kitchen, especially when it means they get to be the chefs. Our kitchen is pretty small and quickly gets crazy if we are all in there-so we took the tools to the dining room instead and made some gooey yummy fun with edible playdough-here's how the fun panned out:

1. Concentrate HARD while you pour in the Powdered Sugar

2. DUMP in the Peanut Butter (half in the bowl & half down the side works best :)

3. Add some Honey with a look of shock

4. Get a big strong guy to turn on the mixer for you

5. Sit back and watch the mystery unfold....

6. Create a masterpiece!

Bowled Over!

This afternoon we decided to take the kids to do one of Mike's favorite things: Bowling. Though we had good intentions-the idea was pretty much a flop. Bryce instantly had a meltdown because he wasn't allowed to run down the lanes to get the pins, and decided he would rather play on the arcade. Emma on the other hand, had a great time bonding with her dad. As long as she's got a pink ball, pink score screen and bumpers up....she's ready to roll!

March Madness

This month is a fun one at school. To start March, we celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday by making Cat in the Hat projects, this is EmmaLee's:

(yes it is missing a mouth :)

and then we got to have yet another holiday....Saint Patty's Day!
At breakfast, Em & Bryce were SHOCKED to find their Lucky Charms turning GREEN!

I put a splash of green food coloring in the bowl, covered it with cereal and gave it to the kids with their spoons. Emma of course said "Oh Mom! You forgot the milk!" (shhhh....silly momma), so I poured in the milk and all of a sudden everything started to turn green-it was pretty fun.

The preschool kids were given the assignment of making family leprechaun traps to set out at school the night before. This was Emma's....it's a Leprechaun Terrarium! She was pretty proud of it to say the least!

In the morning-the kids found that their traps had not tricked the little leprechaun. His little footprints were spotted EVERYWHERE, and inside each trap was a gold chocolate coin which had "bought the leprechaun's freedom". They had cute snacks brought by one of the kids-pretzel shamrocks! It was a fun morning and great excitement for the kids :)

Workin' at the Carwash!

Kidquest with Grandma & Papa

Since EmmaLee had an event today in Bellevue at the Kidquest Museum we thought Bryce would enjoy hanging out & exploring the place too! We'd never been before but thought it sounded like a fun opportunity. Grandma & Papa were even planning on meeting us there to spend the day with us! To be quite honest-I wasn't sure WE were going to even make it out of Ellensburg, let alone Seattle, this morning. Bryce was being a turkey and WOULD NOT get dressed. Finally I had a stroke of genius and said "Brycey-do you want to see Grandma? If you do, you need to get your clothes on. Grandma is going to go bye bye with us!" He stopped IMMEDIATELY and said "O-tay!" So with 2 fully clothed kids-we were out the door and only 10 minutes after our desired departure time! Not too shabby.
As an added bonus-Grandma & Papa brought Cousin Stephanie (whom the kids adore!) So while Em & Steph attended the Mad Hatter Tea Party, Grandma, Papa and Dadda made the rounds of all the exhibits with Brycey. From what I understand-he didn't say much-he just played and explored to his hearts content! When I saw him-he was smiling away-playing on the scarf shooter with Grandma. Emma & Steph joined in, and when they had FINALLY explored all there was to do, we dragged them out of there for a little lunch. Grandma & Papa treated everyone to a super yummy lunch at Red Robin. Bryce of course had to sit on Grandma's lap while he ate her lunch AND his, making him a seriously happy camper. I can't remember going to Red Robin together since before Steph was born....(it was after a dance recital that Sam had invited us all to in Redmond) Anyways-it was a great day and we're so happy to have been able to share it with our family!