Book Club - "Dear John" by Nicholas Sparks

In November, it was my turn to host book club. My new favorite author is Nicholas Sparks. In October, I read 5 of his books in 3 weeks. I would decide to choose one book for book club, but then read it and I didn't want to wait that long to discuss it. So finally, I decided to just choose a book, but then not read it until just before book club. But they all sounded good, so I couldn't choose one. Finally, I choose "Dear John" because the main character shares my name. ;)

Thursday night, we got together for book club. I served Hawaiian Haystacks for dinner. Then we watched the movie. Of course, it doesn't follow the book closely, I still loved the movie. 

We always take a break in December because of the holidays. So until January. :)

Book Club - "Carribean Crossroads" by Connie E. Sokol

For October, Jessica got to choose the book. She choose "Carribean Crossroads" by Connie E. Sokol.

 

It made me miss being on our cruise ship. :( Which I am missing again right now, because my cousin is on the SAME cruise ship right now.

 

Jessica made a fun new treat, Sweet ' n Salty Caramel Moose Cups and also served hot chocolate. They were both delish and I couldn't stay out of them! It was a fun night. I love book club so much. Sometimes, we only discuss the book for like 5 minutes. But then we spend the next hour or so just visiting and I love that.

 

I'm in charge next month and can't wait!

 

 

Halloween Party 2012

This weekend, we had our 2nd annual Halloween Party with the EECO's. I had a harder time getting into it this, because I had hoped we'd be in a new house by now. But since its my favorite holiday, I decided to still host my party. (Which means clean my house, which I rarely do anymore because I just want to move.)

 

This year, I decided that we would be pirates. I looked into buying costumes, but decided to make them instead. I LOVE how they turned out (and can't wait to dress up again on Halloween).

 

The table

The glasses, dripping in blood. I ordered these wine glasses just for this, but decided to get a design I could use year round. 

The feast.

Meatloaf mummies and rats. 

Monster Mash Bites. They were my favorite thing that night. They were a little bit of work, but I will be making them again. 

Wiggly Pumpkins. 

Cheesy Crescent Ghosts

 

 

Creepy Critter Cheesecake with mice.

 

 

I had everyone else bring the makings for a veggie tray, veggie dip, fruit tray and I made the fruit dip. I used THIS recipe, but then mixed in some poppy seeds and called it Fruit Dip with Ants.

 

We also had Pickeled Eyeball Punch (minus the eyballs because I couldn't find what I needed) for the guests and Happy Hallow-Tini for Josh and I. I forgot to get a picture of either, but they were both good. We did agree that the orange drinks showed the dripping blood on the glasses better then the red punch. Something to remember for the future.

 

 

Everyone's costumes turned out super cute.

 

Andrew was Bob Ross and Jessica was Julie Child.

 

Brandon & Kim were minnions.

Randi was a farie. (Todd had to go out of town, but we are so glad she joined us anyways.)

When I saw this recipe for Trash Mix w/ Worms, I decided to make it as a party favor. It was so YUMMY! I had to buy 2 extra bags of popcorn because I ate them before mixing everything together.

 

Then I made these cute Witch Broomstick bags to put the trail mix in. 

We had a great time and can't wait for next year. Espceially since, after the party, I remembered I had bought a Jenga skeleton game just for this party, but then forgot to pull it out. Oh well, there is always next year. ;)

 



Book Club - "Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder" by Joanne Fluke

This month, Randi choose "Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder" by Joanne Fluke.

The book includes a few recipes for cookies that are mentioned in the book. We decided to each choose a recipe to try and bring samples to book club. I choose Black & Whites.

Every one's cookies turned out yummy. Randy made sugar cookies, Vanessa made Chocolate Chip Crunch Cookies, Tammy made Pecan Chews and Jessica made Regency Ginger Crisps.

 

Randi also made a yummy dinner of BBQ chicken sandwiches. So good, that I made them for Josh 2 nights later. Can't wait for next month.

Book Club - "The Giver" by Lois Lowry

This month, it was my sister's turn to pick the book. She mentioned she wasn't sure what she wanted to choose, so I told her about the book I was originally going to choose, before my grandma's book came out. It was "The Giver" by Lois Lowry. 

This is actually the 3rd time I've read this book. When I was very young (like 5th grade or so), my mom read this book to us. She told us that one year, my sister's teacher, insisted parents read a book with their child. The only requirement was that it be a Newbery  Medal Award book. My mom loved this book so much, she made sure to read it to each of us when we were young.

Then a few years later (I think it was the summer of my freshman year), I was in a summer program called Upward Bound. Each summer, I would live with my high school peers in a dorm in Provo. To keep us in line, we had an adult supervisor that lived with us. My first year, that "den mom" decided to read us a book. She choose "The Giver". I couldn't remember it exactly, but I remembered it was a good book. Each night, we would read a little bit. As we got towards the end, the suspense was too much! One of my room mates decided to swipe the book one night so we could finish it. She crawled into the room on her belly, snatched the book, and we stayed up to finish it. Then she crawled back in to put the book back. Of course we loved it, but the next night, when our den mom finished it, she was disappointed in our reaction. I guess its like opening your presents before your birthday. Its just not as exciting the 2nd time.

As I read "The Hunger Games" they very vaguely reminded me of this book. But since it had been YEARS since I read this book last, I decided to read it again. I had it chosen as my book, but the day before I told the group, my grandma's book came out, so I choose it instead. I decided I would just wait the 4-6 months until it was my turn again. So when Vanessa seemed stumped, I mentioned this book in hopes she would choose it so I wouldn't have to wait. ;)

Vanessa served us a dinner of kabobs grilled outside on the grill. It was delish. I love book club so much and can't wait for next month. 

Book Club - "The Litigators" by John Grisham

Last month, when we discussed my grandma's book, we invited my mom and sister to join us since they had read the book too. Then at the end of the night, we invited them to join book club permanetly. Our book club had started to shrink, but I was not ready to see it end.

We invited my mom to choose the next book. She choose "The Litigators" by John Grisham. I was excited! About 10 years ago I was hooked on John Grisham. I was a part time janitor at the junior high and during my breaks, I would go to the library and read one of his books. About the time I left that job, I had read all of his books that had been printed, up to that point in time. After that, I didn't stay caught up on his newest books as they came out. Reading this book had me ready to dive back into all of his works.

My mom decided to serve us dinner. She made a potato bar and home made ice cream. We had a great time discussing the book. I'm glad we were able to get a few new people to join book club.

My sister picked the next book, which I read this weekend. Can't wait to discuss it with everyone. ;)

Easter Brunch

A few weeks ago, Jessica and I talked about Easter traditions, and well, the lack of them. So we decided we needed to start one of our own. It was decided that a nice Easter brunch would be perfect. That way, we could leave the afternoon open if we wanted to spend it with our extended families.

Jessica offered to host it at her house. After we had started planning this, things came up in my family and I decided I wanted to have them all up to my house for dinner. But I still wanted to make sure we could do brunch with Andrew & Jessica. Josh just wanted to make sure he got hot crossed bun and deviled eggs. I don't like either, so I never make them. But since we wouldn't be at his mom's for dinner, I agreed to make them. I decided to do the eggs for my family dinner and the hot crossed buns for the brunch. Jessica took care of everything else for breakfast by making a baked bacon & swiss omelet, home made granola, a fruit tray and raspberry butter.

 I made the hot crossed buns the day before so I wouldn't have to get up early in the morning to make them. I started to read the RECIPE and it called for 12 eggs! So then I read more and figured out it made 6 dozen rolls, way more then I needed for 4 people. So I cut the recipe in half and still ended up with a ton of rolls. We ate about a dozen and then I sent the rest with Josh to work today.

Josh kept helping himself to the buns before we could sit down to eat. Which really was only like 5 minutes. Just long enough for Jessica and I to get a few pictures.

We had a blast and hope to be able to do this every year.

Easter Eggs

Easter weekend was a blast for us. Our fun started Friday night and didn't stop until Sunday night.

Friday night, Randi & Todd invited us, along with Jessica & Andrew, to dinner. Todd had a leg of lamb he was excited to cook for all the boys. He was also kind enough to cook chicken for the girls. Then he and Randi made other yummy side dishes to go with dinner. It was all delish.

Dessert was an assortment of puff pastries. I think the chocolate caramel was my favorite. There was also peanut butter & chocolate and then a plain chocolate one.

Jessica and I had planned on dying eggs that night. So when Randi invited us to dinner, Jessica asked if we could dye eggs there. So after dinner, we got all the dyes ready. I had bought a few things to try out. One was a kit that came with markers, but I wasn't impressed. If you drew on the eggs before dying them, the color washed the ink off. You could draw on them afterwards, but it was messy.

The thing I was most excited about was something I saw on Pinterest. You wrap a few rubber bands around the egg and then let it dye. Then if you like you can take the rubber bands off and dye it again in a different color, but I never did that; I was fine with one color.

My egg wrapped in rubber bands. (The thicker rubber bands work better.)

Sitting in the blue dye.

Drying for a minute before removing the rubber bands.

I really liked how it turned out.

I think in total, I did 3 different versions. I know every one else did a few of their own too. I think Randi was the only one to dye it in one color and then take the rubber bands off and dye it in a lighter color so the stripes wouldn't be white.

It was easy to see where the rubber bands crossed, because the dye soaked in a little. So I thought I'd try a simple eggs with just three rubber bands that I just happened to place in the orange dye cup. When I pulled it out, I saw that I had managed to make it look like a football.

I wanted to draw a cat on one egg and since the markers didn't work well, I decided to use the white crayon. Its hard to draw on a white egg with a white crayon. Case in point. When I went to pull my egg out, I caught a glimpse of it. Then I dropped it back in and started laughing hysterically. I couldn't even stop long enough to say why I was laughing. Each time I tried to tell them what was wrong, I just started laughing again. After a few attempts, Josh finally took the cup and looked at the egg. Then he was laughing too. So the cup was passed around the table so everyone could see what was so funny.

We ended up dying a dozen eggs total. It was a lot of fun. I'm so glad we started this tradition last year with our friends and were able to do it again this year. And I even made sure to turn them into deviled eggs later in the weekend. 

April Swap Group - Easter Baskets

This month, Naomi was in charge of swap group. She had a great idea. We each brought a basket and decorated it. Then we also each brought a small craft or gift for each of the ten baskets. After decorating our baskets, we each put one of our items in each basket so that each basket had all the same stuff in it. Then each basket was numbered and we drew numbers to see which basket we won.

I wasn't feeling crafty enough to make something for everyone, but I still found a super fun (and super quick) idea so I could still feel like I made something for everyone. I bought some jam jars and then filled them with M&M's and Peeps. I thought they turned out really cute and everyone seemed to love them.

When I went to the DI, they didn't have very many baskets to choose from, at least not many in good shape. I finally decided on a red basket, even though I thought it was too bright for Easter. I didn't really have many decorations ideas, so I decided to just line it with tissue paper and then wrap it in cellophane. (Which I didn't even know I had until I found THREE rolls while deep cleaning the attic.)(

One of the gals was late to swap so my basket was already wrapped. But I was able to find a hole and slip it in. You can't see it in the top picture, but in the below picture there is a small nest sitting on my Peeps jar.

We set all the baskets up so we could get a picture before drawing numbers for them. Here is one side of the table.

And the other side of the table.

A group shot of all the baskets. My favorite is the one just right of mine in the very back.

This is why it was my favorite. It took Sarah about 2 minutes to make that super cute flower. I wanted to win her basket just for the flower. But with my luck, the very first person to draw a number won that basket. :(

I'm not even sure whose basket I did end up winning, but it was just as cute. I love the heart shape of it. Before leaving that night, Jessica and I did a little swapping of our own so we could have slightly different colored stuff.

Every thing turned out so cute. It was just the motivation I needed to take down my St. Patrick's Day decorations and put up Easter decorations.

This month marked the end of another year for the group. So it was time to decide if we wanted to keep meeting, which we all agreed it was too much fun to stop. Then we had to decide what to do next. Every one seemed to really enjoy it when they did a tuck swap so we are going to do that again. Each month we will make one tuck. Then when we get together we will swap around with every one else and leave with a different tuck. We will each take turns hosting. I immediately volunteered for October since that's my favorite time of year. I'm a little nervous because every one hand makes their tucks and it will be something new for me to figure out. And it involves that "S" word (sewing) I dislike so much. But I'm willing to try. If all else fails, I'll just hurry and buy one before we meet.