Pattie's Place

4th of July Party Cupcakes!

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My finished chocolate 4th of July cupcakes! Yummo!

Today Grandpa opens his pool. We all go up for a BBQ and we celebrate 4th of July too!  I think I’ll bring some cool fireworks so Tyler our resident pyro can have some fun.  AND some fun 4th of July cupcakes to share with all the relatives!
                                        

Happy 4th of July! Snap, Crackle, Pop! Did you hear that all night?  
The girls….
There were lots of little girls…lots of cousins the same age too! 3 were born a few weeks of each other!
My son Jeff, and Wendy his wife,  and little Josie, 1 year last week!
Megan got brave and wanted to do the slide and diving board…..she has no fear I swear!
John with his granddaughter Josie
Grandpa always does a BBQ for us at the 4th of July Party…Here is John and his dad, Don Moss.

 I looked online and found lots of cute decorated cupcakes with the patriotic red, white and blue theme going.  I really wanted to find some I could use with blueberries and strawberries because I bought a HUGE package at Costco and I need to use them up since Johnny isn’t such a fruit lover….as much as I am!
                                      

My 4th of July Decorations on my entry table…

So on Diana’s Desserts website I found a simple 4th of July cupcake decorated with marshmallow whip and real cream that sounded great, and it uses the 2 fruits.  It looked very cute too so I decided to copy. Thanks Diana! Her website link is HERE.

They turned out really yummy.  I used cream cheese and marshmallow whip and cool whip because I thought the real whip cream would melt in the heat.  They were marvelicious!  Mmmmm…..I’m thinkin’ of one of those babies right now! 

4th of July cupcakes from Hoosier Homemade… 

                              

Another cute decorating idea was from Cupcake Heaven’s ideas at Hoosier Homemade. Her link is HERE.
I liked the red licorice striped cupcakes with the little candy blue balls.  I have some peel apart red licorice so I will try that one too.  And maybe I can come up with some little picks in a patriotic theme. 

Dining Room decorations for 4th of July….
My 4th of July cupcakes!
Uncle Sam and my patriotic quilt…
My finished chocolate cupcakes! Yummo!

So my cake is chocolate… I always add about a 1/2 cup of sour cream and a small chocolate pudding mix.  It makes it a lot richer……and my icing I made with Marshmallow Creme (fluff stuff) about a cup or so, and cream cheese (about a half of a large block) and about a cup of Cool Whip. I just mess with it till it looks and tastes the consistency I want. And I gave it a little 4 drops of lime juice for a kick.  It is sooooo delicious!  You can also use it as a fruit dip. It’s to die for. 

I found some little flags and stuck them on toothpicks

These 3 ingredients make THE BEST ICING EVER!  (or fruit dip)

Marisa and Megan my granddaughters rocking in the hammock….so cute!

Happy 4th everybody!  We’re off to grandpa’s pool party!

Why I like Chore Charts

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Sutton Grace: chore chart:  The Sutton Grace website has a link to the chore chart for kids. I liked the idea of chore charts for my kids. They had charts for everything from how to clean a toilet to folding laudry and setting the table.  And summer is a GREAT time to get kids into a routine to help get the house cleaned through and through.  And hey…you’ve got a little bit of built in slave labor! 😀  The Free Printables website has a lot more HERE.

     
                   

My daughter had a house cleaning business when she was at BYU. People would ask her how she learned to clean so well. She told everybody (and I’m just relaying the story) that her mom taught her with little charts taped to the insides of cabinets in the bathroom. (How to clean the bathroom. Step 1…) So there your are. My success at chore charts is right there for all to see and admire 😀

 I think chore charts make working a lot more fun for kids….and they teach responsibility and pride in a job well done too! It’s a win-win situation with a chore chart! mmmmhmmm….

                      

Bad Things Happen….But You Can Still Live”

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I read this horrible story in the paper today. This poor 16 year old kid lost the rest of his family in a 2nd plane crash that previously killed half of his family. I can’t imagine how he will go on living….if he even survives.  Why would the Lord do this to the poor kid? Sometimes I just don’t understand things when they are just so awful.

Austin Hatch was a standout high school basketball player in Indiana – on his way to college on a full scholarship – when the unthinkable happened.


AUSTIN HATCH – Basketball star on fullride scholarship – critically injured Friday in a  plane crash that killed his dad and step mom. First crash killed his mom and 2 siblings.

“Hatch, 16, was critically injured in a plane crash on Friday that killed his father, Dr. Stephen Hatch, and his stepmother, Kim. Even more unfathomable? It’s happened to him before. In 2003, Hatch and his father survived a plane crash that took the lives of his mother and two siblings. He is now the sole survivor of his immediate family.

“They’re all gone,” Dan Kline, Hatch’s basketball coach at Canterbury High School told the Associated Press. “He’s the only one left. What’s the chance of that happening? A million to one, if that. It’s just unbelievable.”  Austin, who remains in critical condition at a northern Michigan hospital, is in a medically induced coma, suffering bruising on his brain among other injuries. Close friends of the teen have been keeping a vigil at the hospital.”

Taken from the Associated Press.

I’m just so sad for this poor kid. Why do these horrific things happen? I have a few questions for the Lord when I meet him at the pearly gates. It is unfathomable to me that he will be able to have a normal life after this. I’m thinking his basketball scholarship is probably toast if he is really brain injured. It is such a sad story.  Hug your family today. You never know what will happen in a split second to change the family dynamics.

 It is awful to lose a loved one. Unthinkable to lose the whole family….a second time.  I reminds me of the ending to the movie Super 8 when the closing line is “Bad Things Happen….But You Can Still Live!” It’s gonna be so hard for this kid to be normal….to live a normal life…. all my well wishes and love go out to him……May  God bless you Austin….

Josie’s First Birthday Party

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Josie had a birthday! Jeff and Wendy hosted her party at their house and had lots of relatives and friends over. I didn’t take enough pictures but the ones I got turned out pretty cute.  I loved her little dress that looked like a black and white tutu. I never got a good shot of her cute outfit, darn! But you can tell she had a fun time.  And the homemade hamburger and hot dog buns were so yummy. I took four of them home with me!              

Jeff was cute cooking all the meat on his barbeque. And he put together her pirate slide for her too.

The cutest thing was watching my grandkids all chasing after Jeff’s egg laying hens. So funny!   We got her a dress, a tutu looking pink polka dot bathing suit and cute striped and polka dot hoodie towel and a bubble lawnmower.

They were so cute!   Happy Birthday little Miss Josie!

Zions National Park and Lake Powell

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I am finally ready to sit down and post some of our fun times on our Summer vacation to St. George to see Grease at Tuacahn and other travels.  We had fun spending some time in the car on our “ROAD TRIP”.
When we first got to St. George we went to visit my fav spot, T.J.Maxx Superstore! John got the car gassed up. Then we went out to dinner, and came back and swam in our hotel pool. We got there pretty early.

John and I being geeks….he looks a little mental in this one!
I got the tickets like in January for 30% off…I’m always lookin for a deal…

This is a beautiful waterfall that runs the whole length of the Tuacahn parking lot…It runs downhill and it’s always fun to walk along it as we get up to the top of the hill where the amphitheater is.



You can see why I love this venue so much…



We got there so early so John’s enjoying the rest…he’s not shaving all week either! Hey it’s a vacation isn’t it?



The orchestra pit was just to the left of us…hi guys!

!The next day we got up and had breakfast and then went to go see Snow Canyon, which is very close to Tuacahn, only like10 minutes drive! It is a state park so it’s only like 6 bucks to get in. It is so beautiful!
There was lot of shifting rock hills…I thought this was a cool area!
Off in the distrance of our like 20 minute hike….
We saw lots of lizards on the hike we took….
You can barely see some guys rock climbing behind us here on this sheer face of rock! Very cool! But I’d never do it…
Hi Johnny!
It was so peaceful to sit up on the tops of volcanic rock and enjoy the serenity!

Well that was the first part of our trip. We got in the car and headed down to Kanab and Zions National Park. Last year we tried to get in and they wouldn’t let us drive our car in. Something about it being too packed that day! Can you imagine!  We sure had fun in St. George…Now on to Zions…
                                  

I’ve always wanted to see Zions and Lake Powell. All my sons have seen it, water skied on it, camped, hiked Zions and so has my husband. So this year I told him, I wanted to go see what all the fuss was about. Well now I know. Both are beautiful spots and both are wonders of our world. I see what all the hype is about now.


Cactus everywhere….



Johnny at the trading post….



We stopped at a trading post for some snacks…



They had lots of cute stuff in the yard…looked very cowboys and Indians….



We pulled over at an ostrich farm…I’ve never seen one close up!



I had to snap this pic…a tree full of shoes….wth?
Old time bank and Jail miniatures..so cute!



We stopped at the Magui cave.  It looked kinda cool.



But as caves go…it’s not a cool limestone cave…more of a old gold rush museum and gift shop…



I loved looking at all the metal whirligig sculptures…I’d love one at my Bear Lake cabin…



Okay so this is Zions….we didn’t do much more than drive through…we are not campers so I don’t know
If I’ll ever get the real experience of Zions…..hiking The Narrows is probably not in my future…..
We also saw Buffalo on the side of the road….cool! BUFFALO!

  







We stopped when we saw a family of mountain goats along Zions Canyon road….everybody on both sides stopped to took too…..There must have been a dozen cars all stopped to take pics! The goats just lumbered along…

Well here was my first view of Lake Powell…beautiful!



The beach at Powell is really quite magical. The silty brown fine sand under your feet is delightful….water is warm.





We went down to the harbor and talked to some houseboat owners. Did you know it cost $4,000 bucks to gas one of these babies up? Yeah…..I won’t complain about filling my car and it costing $70 bucks anymore.

The owners we talked to owned their houseboats outright. I was thinking it might be fun to have a yearly time share. That way it only costs to pay your upkeep and the space rent on the slip. But that is still like $1500 to $2,000 bucks even in a group of owners.

I think for now we’ll just bring our boat and stay in hotels.





Here’s the Glen Canyon Dam….we took lots of pictures here….
Here is one of the concrete buckets that built the dam. It weighs like 20 tons and they used more than 400 buckets full to do the dam….
The blue water of Lake Powell was very inviting….
Here’s one of the turbines that spin underground to make all the power….
 I took this shot at the bottom of the dam at the end of our cool tour.  It is scarier looking down the dam….
John and I are both people who love to TOUR places more than just look at nature. So funny enough we both liked the Glen Canyon Dam tour more than Lake Powell.  We just enjoyed seeing it. It’s not as massive as the Hoover Dam, but it is a good side trip. I think the entrance fee was about 5 bucks. And the tour guide was cute. The funny thing was we were followed the whole way about 20 feet behind us by an armed security guard. And we were told NOT to talk or take pictures of him.  Scary! I guess these dams could be a terrorist hot spot. 
We will have to go back to Powell and stay a few days with our whole family cliff diving and seeing Rainbow Bridge. I talked it up enough on Father’s Day so that everybody wants to plan a trip in July to go back. He he…there’s a method to my madness… And it only took us 5 1/2 hours to get back home…..from Wahweep!  I liked Wahweep better than I’d have liked Bullfrog.  Lots of nice restaurants to eat at and places to stay.  I’m not cooking on my vacation…thank you very much!  Happy Summer!

Our Trip to Zions, Tuacahn and Lake Powell

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I am finally ready to sit down and post some of our fun times on our Summer vacation to St. George to see Grease at Tuacahn and other travels.  We had fun spending some time in the car on our “ROAD TRIP”.
When we first got to St. George we went to visit my fav spot, T.J.Maxx Superstore! John got the car gassed up. Then we went out to dinner, and came back and swam in our hotel pool. We got there pretty early.

John and I being geeks….he looks a little mental in this one!
I got the tickets like in January for 30% off…I’m always lookin for a deal…

This is a beautiful waterfall that runs the whole length of the Tuacahn parking lot…It runs downhill and it’s always fun to walk along it as we get up to the top of the hill where the amphitheater is.



You can see why I love this venue so much…



We got there so early so John’s enjoying the rest…he’s not shaving all week either! Hey it’s a vacation isn’t it?



The orchestra pit was just to the left of us…hi guys!

!The next day we got up and had breakfast and then went to go see Snow Canyon, which is very close to Tuacahn, only like10 minutes drive! It is a state park so it’s only like 6 bucks to get in. It is so beautiful!
There was lot of shifting rock hills…I thought this was a cool area!
Off in the distrance of our like 20 minute hike….
We saw lots of lizards on the hike we took….
You can barely see some guys rock climbing behind us here on this sheer face of rock! Very cool! But I’d never do it…
Hi Johnny!
It was so peaceful to sit up on the tops of volcanic rock and enjoy the serenity!

Well that was the first part of our trip. We got in the car and headed down to Kanab and Zions National Park. Last year we tried to get in and they wouldn’t let us drive our car in. Something about it being too packed that day! Can you imagine!  We sure had fun in St. George…Now on to Zions…I’ll post more pics soon…..

Marisa’s Preschool Musical Show

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Marisa Belle, my first grandbaby had her preschool “graduation” the other night. It sure was sweet seeing 60 kids up on tiny little chairs singing the likes of “I’m a Little Teapot Short and Stout” to the piano.
Here she is getting a little shy when she see’s the stage full of chairs and realizes SHE is part of the show….snicker…..Tiff had to talk her down…..snicker ……
Megan always knows where to find the fun…”Hey let’s go look at the balloons, man!”



Mom, do I HAVE to? Yes, and you’ll like it…I promise….



Do you think your teacher will let us have these cool balloons later?



Megan liked watching the singing for about 10 minutes and then she got a little bored. We took turns holding her on our lap. She is just the cutest little thing.  She was running away from Marisa with a favorite rock in her hand and Marisa calling for her to give it back…..finally Marisa pooped out and Megan came over to me and said, “And you’ll NEVER, ever find it!”  I laughed out loud.  Tiff said it is from a movie. She cracks me up though. 2 1/2!



I didn’t get any good ones of the group….I zoomed in too close I guess…





She did look like she was having fun most of the time….





Here we are taking some fun pictures…



After singing the kids went backstage and we watched a dvd of everything they did all year….20 minutes later….

We took more pictures and the kids all got their certificates….

So cute!  Boy they rake in the dough at a preschool….they had like 120 kids x $100 per month. And this gal has two preschools!  Makes my paycheck feel kinda tiny……Oh well…..congrats my Marisa Belle!  

Great Summer Foodie Websites

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This summer I am trying to eat healthier and take off some of these awful pounds I’ve accumulated. I found a few really interesting websites to help me in food selection.  Some of them rate drinks, juices, fast food things that are new and hyped up. I like that.

I am one to get sucked into hype when it comes to food and snacks. So I’ve decided to rid my house of junkfood and try to eat more whole foods, fruits, veggies and healthy snacks. It is amazing what I used to eat and not even think about the calories I was consuming. I’m late to the game I guess. Maybe I never got invited to the party….hehe….
                           

Here is a groovy list I got from SNACK GIRL, my new fav blog. She has a PhD so I think I can trust her.
The link to her website is HERE. She has this yummo and amazing sounding onion soup dip mix to eat with ruffles chips. (my personal downfall). I went to a wedding recently where they had a similar low cal ingredient for dip. It was this Greek plain yogurt in lieu of sour cream. It was mixed at the wedding with some dill weed and some tiny bits of cucumber. It was fantastic on veggies. So try it and try this blog. It’s a keeper.

Healthy Food Blogs           
             

A Loser For Life
Andrea’s Wellness Notes
Bran Appetit!
Camp Shane
duhlicious
Eating Bird Food
Feast On The Cheap
Feed Me I’m Cranky
Food For Laughter
Gina’s Skinny Recipes
Jrnl of a Junk Food Addict
Kath Eats
Leftovers For Lunch
Lick The Bowl Good

Losing Weight and Getting Fit
The Peanut Butter Boy
Slim Shoppin’
Steph Chows
Striving for Thriving
The Cuisinerd
The Hungry Wife

The Salad Girl
This Mama Cooks!
The Wellness Bitch

I mean how FUNNY is Peanut Butter Boy? That’s guy’s just GOT to have a sense of humor! And how about STEPH CHOWS? Anybody who can think up that blog title has to be funny! I can’t wait to get pickled in the juices of these entertaining and informative blogs. 


No this is not me on the scales…I haven’t weighed in the 120s since high school!



I’ve lost 6 pounds already with NO EXCERCISING! Maybe that will come later…..when I actually get inspired to do more than some gardening or walking around the mall shopping.  My goal is to lose 30 pounds by the end of August for a reunion. So I think I’m on my way.

First Grade-itis…or Spring Fever…

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Today was the last day of school. I’ve enjoyed this year and I’m looking forward to a great summer!
School’s OUT!  Woo Hoo!  Have a good one! We’re off to St. George, Zions, Tuacahn Theater and
Lake Powell. Happy Summer Vacation!
                                                                  

                                                      

Week of Movies

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We saw a really good movie yesterday. It was the new one called THOR. I loved the cute blonde star of it and Natalie Portman was good in it too. The bad guys are all really cute too.

 It has everything a good movie should; a love story, special effects, good dialogue and a really interesting problem and an equally inventive solution with a surprise at the end.

Everybody I’ve talked to who has seen it really loved it.

Another one we saw was I Am Number Four. It was a bit cheesy but it had a good ending that will probably soon become a sequel. It would really appeal to the younger than 20 set.

It also has lots of not to bad to look at people in it; one of my favorites is Timothy Oliphant. He is a real badass in every one of his movies and on cable. I like that in a guy I guess. 😀 It is another supernatural story.

It had been such a long time since I’d been drawn to see a movie. Most of the time they seem just so depressing, or too much skin or too much swearing. It makes me just want to rent a Redbox.  I am glad that there are some good decent and clean movies out there to choose from.  I wish Hollywood would get that.