Cup of S'mores

One of my fondest memories is driving out to the middle of the country with my dad to enjoy a drive~in movie.  It was so much better than watching a movie at the theater, though I have yet to understand why.  Perhaps it was the fresh night air with the sounds of the outdoors in the middle of a quiet scene.  Or maybe the hike to the snack stand and numerous bathroom trips made the evening more of an adventure than just pure entertainment.

The only part of these summer and fall evenings I didn't appreciate was the drive home.  It seemed to me to be so much colder and to take eons longer than the trip out to the drive~in.  Though now that is probably the part I like to remember the most.  My dad would always have a blanket or shirt he would give me.  I could curl up next to him on the bench seat of our car.  And often he would have a little snack left over, something like a caramel cream {I still love those today}.

We have a drive~in in our area.  It would be a long drive out to the country like it was in my childhood, and I plan to do this with the family sometime this summer.  Until then, we have decided to turn our backyard into a theater.  My two older boys set up our dvd player system with a projector. We had a small fire in our fire bowl and all worked on roasting marshmallows as we waited until it was dark enough to watch our feature presentation {The Fantastic Mr. Fox, we loved it!}. As we were waiting, some of us noticed how peculiar the clouds looked.  It only took a few raindrops before we were packing up. Thankfully, the boys got all of the equipment inside before the downpour!

I know we'll try to make it out there again soon, and hopefully I'll have picked a better night of weather for our home drive~in show. I already have a snack for the next showing~ Cup of S'mores. I like to make a variety of pudding cups {Pumpkin Pie and Chocolate Pots of Gold} and thought I could whip up something like s'mores. Unlike the mousse I make, these pudding cups are a bit sweeter and are inspired by the pudding from my Old Fashioned Banana Pudding {which is out of this world!}.

Cup of S'mores
1 5.9 oz box instant chocolate pudding mix
2 c cold milk
1 c cold whipping cream
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
3/4 c graham cracker crumbs
3 c mini marshmallows
semi~sweet chocolate chips, for garnish
For Serving~ 12 clear punch cups {9 oz size}

Whip cream on medium~high until stiff. Set in fridge. Blend pudding mix and milk; set in fridge til ready to use. Blend cream cheese and sweetened condensed milk until smooth. Fold pudding into cream cheese blend; fold in whipped cream. Set aside.

To assemble~ In the bottom of each clear punch cup put one tablespoon of graham cracker crumbs. Top with one fourth cup of mini marshmallows. Lastly, divide pudding mixture between the twelve cups of graham cracker crumbs and marshmallows. Refrigerate until serving.

After I made these, I decided the next time to actually toast the mini marshmallows in the oven and let them cool before assembling the cups.  Fun!

Dianna Lee

Recently our family was given a wonderful blessing and her name is Dianna Lee.  Born April 5, 2012,  named after my late mother, she is just so sweet and very strong. Delivering her was not at all what I expected it to be, but her delivery was probably the greatest lesson in understanding that all things are out of my control.

Right now we (our family) are very happy to have both of us home.  Dianna has Down syndrome.  Some have expressed condolences and I can understand that it may be difficult to know what to say.  But we are anything but sad.  She is beautiful.  I'm certain we will have some hardships ahead but are looking forward to all the blessings she will bring, just as with our other children.

Once I have recovered completely, and I am certain that all of my children are getting plenty of loving from me, I'll resume posting.  Until then, here's one of my favorite pictures of Dianna so far.  My five year old was so excited when we brought her home to finally get to see his little sister.  He was kissing her and talking to her, "Your name is Dianna.  You're so sweet.  I love you."  She just burst into a huge grin.  I love my family.

Nesting

Lately I have been depleted of most of my energy due to a little one that should be arriving within the next couple of weeks. Mostly my daily routine consists of short periods of normal activity {laundry, picking up after my toddler and reading the same book to him over and over and over} alternated with longer periods of sitting with my feet up. These times of rest have not been completely unproductive. Not only are they allowing me to have ankles for part of the day, I've taken a refresher course in crocheting.

Refresher course is not completely accurate seeing as I learned to crochet when I was about eight years old and haven't really crocheted since then. Thanks to Pinterest {Am I wrong in assuming you've heard of it?}, I came across http://www.craftyminx.com/crochet-school/ on Craftyminx's site as well as a few crochet patterns.

The Crochet School is well organized and, for any other visual learners out there, she has all of her lessons in video {for both right and left handed}. I did not watch every single video before I began my first real crocheting project in quite some years. Instead, I worked through a pattern for this baby hat. Whenever I was a bit confused, I referred to the applicable Crochet School lesson for the instruction I was working through. After the hat was complete {after my second attempt; I didn't like the first one}, I used this pattern for the flower and added it on. The hat was done in a short part of the day.

I was quite pleased with my little hat for my baby girl. I've packed it {along with a cute outfit of course} so she can wear it home from the hospital. I made a couple of the hats actually, but I am in love with these colors~ turquoise and coral. One of the nicer things about this hat is it can be made with a finer yarn so that it is fine to wear in the summer ; with all of the spaces, it is rather airy.

Hopefully soon I'll have a picture of my little one modeling this hat, as I feel I have gone into full swing nesting {making hats, blankets, reorganizing the kitchen and family room}.  I'm also hoping to get up a tutorial for the taggie blanket there in the background {it was so simple but fun to make}.  And if you are interested in seeing what else I have found on Pinterest or added to my boards, hop over and look at my pins.