Jazz with the boys...

When the kids play basketball with the Junior Jazz program, they receive two free Jazz tickets (nosebleed section, of course). I had two tickets in my purse so that I could take Connor to his game, but in the meantime I had taken Cassy out to breakfast at Mcdonald's and there was a BOGO coupon for a McMuffin on the back of the Jazz ticket. I totally forgot that the ticket was for an upcoming game rather than one that I had already been to and I used it up. I realized this mistake the night before the game and had planned on just buying another nosebleed ticket (really, how much could they be?). We called Glen Draper (the Jazz expert) to get the scoop on where to get a ticket and such and he said that all the cheap seats were sold out. AAAHHHH! He said the cheapest ticket was $40. So...it was 5:05 the day of the game and it started at 7. I got a hold of Ogden city rec and they had some spare tickets. It turns out that I got enough for our whole family! Matt wasn't up for it, so I ended up taking Connor, Ford, and Alex.

We had a great time! Alex was doing some serious jamming to the music... I am sure if we would have had tickets close enough for the cameras to see us we would have been on the Jumbotron. After a jam session finished and Alex sat down, the Jazz resumed their game, and Alex leaned over to me... "Mom, will you sign me up to play with them next year?"

I love that he thinks I have the ability to do anything for him....and if I could, you know I would!

p.s. The Jazz lost, but it was a close game. It was sold out because Boozer ( a former Jazz player) was playing for the Bulls and it was his first time back on the opposing team. It also turned out to be coach Jerry Sloan's last game....he announced his retirement the next day.

Hell, Great Scot!, & A Monkey's Uncle...

I am going to try to get this blog going again! I want to remember every precious thing that my kids do and I have such a bad memory that I need to get it recorded or it will be gone forever....

Addy was helping me fix dinner the other night and as we were about to get started she looked at me and said,"Mom, WHAT THE HELL ARE WE FIXING FOR DINNER?"

"What did you say?"

"What the hell are we fixing for dinner?"

"Addy, that is a swear word."

"Oh..."

A couple of days later she was calling me from upstairs and I didn't respond as quickly as she wanted so she stomped down the stairs...

"Why the hell won't you answer me?"

"I didn't hear you, you just swore again."

"OH...Sorry"

About half an hour later she came in with a question.

"Mom, can I ask you if something is a swear word?"

"Sure."

"What about 'Great Scot!'"

I assured her she was safe with that one. A few minutes later....

"What about 'A Monkey's Uncle'?"

I let her know that one was OK too. A week or two later...

"What about 'Hail to the Princess Aurora'?"

TOO FUNNY!

Chocolate Mint Brownies

I just used two boxes of brownie mix and cooked it in a jelly roll pan as directed.

Mint Frosting:

1/4 c softened butter

2 1/2 c powdered sugar

1 1/2 - 3 TBS milk

1/2 tsp peppermint extract

green food coloring

I doubled this recipe since I did the cookie sheet of brownies.  To make the mint frosting, cream the butter and sugar.  Add the milk 1 tbs at a time, beating until it is smooth and spreadable.  Beat in peppermint extract and tint to desired shade with greeen food coloring.  Frost the cooled brownies, cover, and chill 1 hour.  

Chocolate Topping:

3/4 c semisweet chocolate chips

3 tbs butter

I doubled this recipe too...Pour chips into microwave safe bowl, add the butter, and microwave on high for 1 1/2 min or until chocolate melts.  Stir until smooth.  Pour the chocolate over the brownies and smooth it with a knife.  Refrigerate for 45 minutes or until the coating hardens.  Bring brownies to room temperature, then cut into pieces.

Carmel Corn Recipe (the yummy, sticky, gooey kind)

1 1/2- 2 cups unpopped popcorn

Pop popcorn in air popper, sift out unpopped kernals.

2 1/4 c brown sugar

1 c butter

1 c light karo syrup

1/2 tsp salt

Mix together ingredients, heat on med to med/high, bring to a rolling boil.  Boil 1 minute, then remove from heat.

1 c sweetened condensed milk

1 tsp vanilla

Mix in sweetened condensed milk and vanilla.  Pour over popped corn and stir to cover.

Summertime Fun?

We have had such a busy summer so far!  The majority of the month of June we saw lots and lots of rain and cool weather.  Luckily we were able to plant the garden earlier in June and we have only had to water it once so far.  We have been running kids all around for baseball, softball, and soccer.  Cassy has softball games Mon and Wed. nights with a practice Sat. mornings.  Connor's games are Tues. and Thurs. nights.  Cassy has soccer three mornings a week at 8:00 am.  The whole Howard family has been busy doing fundraising so we can go to Jackson over the Fourth of July.  The girls have each hosted a "kids camp" at their houses.  The kids camp is a 4 hour block of activities and lunch.  We hosted 24 kids on our camp day (including 4 Howard kids) and it poured rain and hailed (so much that it looked like we had a layer of snow), lightening and thunder.  You name it we had it, even about a half hour of sun.  The sun lasted just long enough to set out the food and for all the kids to get their plates full and their lemonade poured, then the downpour started and everyone came running in, plates, cups and all.  What a mess!  We were so glad when our turn was over.  We are possibly going to host another one in July and in August.  We'll see if we can muster up the energy!  This last Saturday we had a garage sale and a bake sale at Grandma Maddy's, the bake sale continued on over at the Bike Shoppe til we were out of goods.  Overall we did quite well.  We made $165 at the bake sale and $275 at the garage sale, with a few more items to go on to the ksl classifieds.  The kids and moms have worked really hard and we plan on doing a car wash tomorrow to finish up before we go to Jackson Hole this Thursday.  We have earned enough to just have to pay about $100/family for the condo in Teton Village....yay!  

We have also been very busy hosting birthday parties for Connor and Addy this month and we were so excited to celebrate Connor's baptism on Sunday, June 20th.  He was so excited to be baptized.  I will talk more about it in another post.

I will include some of the yummy recipes we made for the bake sale.

Wicked Weekend!

This weekend we had a girl's getaway and headed to SLC to see the traveling Broadway production of Wicked!  We had a great time.  Grandma Marilyn put us up at the Hotel Monaco, one of our favorite Salt Lake hotels.

This is the view from our hotel room, we could see everything!

Cassidy and I outside the Capitol Theatre.

Grandma and Cassy in the hotel room.

Our self portrait of the three of us in the room.

The play definitely lived up to the hype.  I had read the book a couple of years ago and was very interested to see how they could possibly turn it into a play.  The book was much darker and the details were different, but I thought they did a great job of adapting the book into a play.  We have been walking around singing "Defying Gravity".  I also liked the "Popular" song.  Some weekend highlights:  Phase 10 in the hotel lobby, yummy Bambara food, drizzling rain, and great company!  

More pictures of the fun at Discovery Gateway!