"Madeline at the Ballet"

I took Madeline to this particular ballet titled, "Madeline at the Ballet" based on the character and story developed by Ludwig Bemelmans. She really enjoyed seeing her dance teachers and other kids from her dance studio perform.




The character, Madeline


Madeline's Acro Instructor

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A Visit to Global Wildlife

This year for Mother's Day, my Mom, wanted to visit Global Wildlife in Folsom, LA, with her kids and grandkids. My brother, his wife, Seamus, Madeline, my Mom, and I headed to the beautiful grassy "plains" of Louisiana. It is amazing that we have something like this so close to where I live. It's much better than a zoo, to me. The animals have plenty of room to roam free on 500 acres, and you can actually feed them. One of the interesting stories that the tour guide told was that during Hurricane Katrina, they kind of had to let the animals fend for themselves (where do you put buffalo, zebra, giraffes, deer, etc during a hurricane anyway). Following the hurricane, some people went to check on the animals and could not find them. They thought that they had all escaped or died. They kept searching and eventually found all of the animals, with an addition of two or three newborns, all lined up, big and small, on the highest point on the property.

Below you will see two zebras that are only three weeks old, a picture of the giraffes, this is as close as we could get to them today, and a llama who was 13 months pregnant. We learned that llamas carry there unborn babies for 15 months.

Our Easter Weekend

We always enjoy being with family during holidays, and Easter is no exception. We were just sad that Jason got called to work at the last minute.

The rabbit cake that Mom and Dad made for the kids

The hat, purse, and gloves Aunt Lesley found for Madeline

Seamus finding an Easter egg

More eggs for Seamus

The Easter Bunny is so good to me






Courtney and Madeline

...and the Easter Holiday Begins!

We always look forward to dying eggs. This year, Madeline chose Spongebob as the theme for her eggs....surprise, surprise! It's amazing to see how much better she gets each year with this process.

Our Room Makeover

Jason has really been wanting to remodel our living room/office area ever since we moved into our house four years ago, and finally we were able to do it. What a process that he underwent, too. Fortunately, most of this took place while I was at work; however, I did have to get rid of a lot of clutter and find other places for Madeline's toys that had collected in the living room. Here are some pictures from beginning to end. I love our new floors and our new furniture. Hopefully Madeline and the new baby won't be too hard on them.

Our New Little Prince

"Hi everyone."

"My Hand and Fingers"

"Yeap, I'm a boy!"

My Masterpiece-Oreo Cookie Cake

Okay okay, so I adapted a Family Circle recipe into my own. It's the working woman's adaptation. On a scale of level of difficulty 1-10, I give this a 3. It's a very pretty cake, I think, and very easy to make.

Cake

1 Chocolate Cake Mix

Prepared as directions suggest

in round cake pans

Filling

4 oz cream cheese softened

1/2 c unsalted butter

1 box (16 oz) confectioners sugar

3-4 tbsp milk

Frosting

1 can vanilla frosting

Oreo cookies

Prepare Cake and allow to cool on racks. When layers have cooled, trim off any crowned cake from the tops and eat or discard (ha ha). Cut each layer in half horizontally with a serrated knife.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, with mixer on medium speed, beat cream cheese and butter until smooth. Gradually add confectioners' sugar, then milk. Beat for 2 min or until light and fluffy.

Place one cut layer on a cake stand or plate and top with one third of filling, spread evenly over top. Repeat with 2 more cake layers. Place last layer on top cut side down. Refridgerate for 20 min or until filling is set.

Frost with vanilla frosting, using back of spoon to make peaks on top. Place chopped cookies onto sides of cake.

Enjoy!!!