Our holiday weekend was packed with activity despite lots of rain. My parents came to visit providing much grandparently attention and giving Brent and me a much needed date night. We drank wine, ate cheese, bread, and olives and talked uninterrupted. Amazing!
On Saturday, M ended year three of ballet lessons with a fantastic recital performance. We went out for ice cream afterwards, sweet cream with raspberries in a dark chocolate-coated cone for me, “brown” a.k.a. chocolate for C, and raspberry sorbet with white chocolate chips and gummy bears for M (not a combo I plan on trying any time soon 
). We wrapped up the day with take-out eaten picnic style while watching Madagascar.
On Sunday, I ran errands all by myself on my own and Brent got some much needed yard work done while my mom and C played endless games with counting bears and my dad and M played art shop. My parents departed in the afternoon and we had some friends over for the traditional Memorial Day grilling of hot dogs. For dessert, I made a scrumptious Texas sheet cake (recipe below). The evening included bubbles, digging in the dirt, playing musical instruments and a spectacular meltdown by M who missed her grandparents very much.
Today we’ve gone to the bookstore, done some worksheets on counting money, re-discovered our dry-erase letter cards, built a marble run, taken a walk in the rain, met a new neighbor, sent M to another neighbor’s for a playdate, eaten more cake, and watched several episodes of Dora. I also made a Sam’s run and sewed this drawstring backpack for M to use for carrying a water bottle, a notebook, pencils or other small items when we go for walks. I saw a similar bag at Old Navy and thought “I can make that.” So I got over my usual need for a pattern and gave it a shot hoping the design was as simple as I thought and luckily, it was.
A weekend well spent! I’m gearing up for a busy week as M’s school comes to an end for the year and we get ready for a week at the beach!
Texas Sheet Cake (adapted from Bonny Wolf’s Talking With My Mouth Full)
For the cake:
1 cups (2 sticks) of butter
1 cup water
1/4 cup cocoa powder
2.25 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup sour cream
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
Preheat oven to 375F. Mix butter, water, cocoa in a saucepan and heat until butter is melted, stirring occasionally. Add flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda to an electric mixer bowl. Stir to combine. Add butter mixture and combine thoroughly. Save the saucepan to use for the frosting. Add sour cream, eggs, and vanilla. Mix until combined. The batter will be thin. Pour into a greased and floured 15.5 x 10.5 x 1 inch jelly roll pan. (I didn’t have a pan this size so I used a 9×13 inch pan and didn’t use quite all of the batter.) Bake 20-25 minutes.
For the frosting:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1 lb confectioner sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
6 T milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup pecans (to scatter on top) (optional)
Mix all ingredients in reserved saucepan and heat, stirring until smooth. Pour frosting over cake while it is still hot from the oven. Scatter pecans on top.
i *love* texas cake!! :^)
funny — we made those same backpack-type bags and i also copied one from old navy! i bought one on clearance for a dollar and then examined it to see how to run the strings. ;^)
we made ours from old t-shirts, double thick — the boys loved them!