Luke's Birthday Party at the Gorman Track

This past Saturday, we threw Luke a birthday party at the Gorman motocross track. We invited family and all of Luke's motorcycle riding friends. It was SO much fun. Luke requested chili dogs, and wanted a cupcake bar for dessert. Easy enough! Did you know that Tommy's sells their chili by the quart? I ran over to Tommy's and got a couple to serve over the chili dogs, and it was a hit! And who doesn't need an occasional Tommy's fix in their life? I think once a year is sufficient.



We suprised Luke with a BIG birthday present this year. A new (well, used) CR85 dirt bike. He was ready to move up, and so was Vance, so we pushed everyone up a bike, and were able to sell our smallest bike to buy the new one. I tell you folks, if you are ever considering getting into the sport, ALWAYS buy used. Hondas and Yamahas (and the other three brands as well) run and run and run, with very little work required. It's so cheap to buy them used, and then when you are done with them, you can usually sell them and get your money back so you can upgrade. The kids grow so fast and their skills increase, making it necessary every once in a while to do so. Dave decided to go with a CR85 two stroke for Luke, since he really is a great rider.



We made EVERY EFFORT to conceal Luke's gift from him until the day of his party. Dave went out and bought the bike, and we hid it in our friends' garage until Luke was gone at church one night. We brought it home, cleaned it up, and stashed it inside the back of our trailer. Luke never goes in there, so we thought we would be safe. I made every effort to refrain from sending the boy into the trailer for anything. When we were packing up the trailer for the party, I made sure to send the other boys into the trailer with food and such. Until it totally slipped my mind and I sent Luke out there to put something in the fridge. He came back into the house, speechless, yet talkative (if that's possible), and with excitement in his voice, began frantically asking about the "foreign bike" in the trailer. I tried to fabricate a story. FAIL. Austin tried to convince him it was my sister's bike. EPIC FAIL. Up until that moment he literally had NO CLUE he was getting a bike for his birthday. Yet, when he saw it, he was convinced it was his. And he was thrilled. So the cat was out of the bag a little early and I was disappointed, but the suprise factor was definitely accomplished, just a little early!



The day of the party, he was just so excited to ride his new bike, and he did AWESOME on that thing. Dave thought it would "scare the pants off of him" since it has significantly more power than the last bikes he has ridden. But he did amazing! Mission accomplished! We also had to give him a disclaimer: "No Luke, you will NOT be getting a gift like this every year for your birthday"....haha.

Happy 11th Birthday Luke!

Luke's Birthday Breakfast

Delicious Cinnamon Rolls...Recipe to come

Today our middlest, craziest, most energetic, most lovable, sensitive yet tough at the same time, athletically inclined, fast learning, talkative, friendly, people oriented, dirt bike riding, bike riding, skateboarding middle child turns 11!!!! That just blows me away. I still remember the day he climbed out of his crib and was standing on his dresser when I went in to greet him in the morning. He doesn't do that anymore.

Luke is a gift from God to our family. God chose Luke as our child and Dave and I as his parents. What a great responsibility and privilege we have!!! It has been both a blessing and a challenge, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. It has been encouraging to watch him grow and learn. I can't wait to see what the future holds for him, and even what this next year may bring. For now, I trust that the Lord has a plan for his life, and He continues to hold Luke's every moment is His very hand. I pray that the Lord would do a mighty work in Luke's heart, even if just little by little. For with God little is MUCH, and I will rejoice in little!

Today we are celebrating Luke's birthday with the following meals, personally chosen by the birthday boy himself:

Breakfast: Cinnamon Rolls

Lunch: Pizza with Dad at his office

Dinner: Steak, mashed potatoes and gravy, and a lettuce wedge salad with blue cheese crumbles and bacon bits

Tomorrow we will celebrate his birthday with family and dirt bike riding friends at the Gorman track, where he will open his presents. For now I will not reveal any details, but there will be pictures to come, courtesy of my beautiful niece Emma, who I'm sure will capture all the excitement of the day! Stay tuned. Excitement to come!

Field Trip to the Van Nuys Airport

Yesterday, some of the families from Lighthouse visited the Van Nuys Airport for a field trip. It was a really fun and informative trip! We boarded a tour bus and were driven around the hangars and down the runway, and given information about the airport itself and the planes and people who own them. Did you know that Amelia Earhart flew out of this airport? We also saw Jim Carrey's private jet, news helicopters, and planes belonging to various large corporations.

We were taken to the Fire Station's hangar, where they keep all the emergency fire response vehicles, helicopters, and the Super Soaker. We watched a trainee who was learning to make water drops circle around several times and drop the water. It was a great time! Here are some pics from the day.


Group shot in front of the super soaker .

Vance standing in front of a $13 million dollar helicopter.

The Fireman explaining info about the helicopters.

Very cool.

Luke and Jimmy checking out the Super Soaker.

A trainee making a water drop.

The boys in the Fire Station Hangar saluting the flag!

Vance in front of one of the emergency response vehicles. Note the size of the tire in relation to his height. That's one MEGA machine!

Tasty Tuesday {Potato Pan Rolls}

We had a great time of fellowship this past weekend with some of our Juniors staff. We attended two staff dinners both evenings and had a great time of food and fun. I brought one of my favorite bread recipes to one of the dinners, and I was asked for the recipe, so I thought I would share it here today. Sometimes I feel lazy, and when asked to bring rolls, I will buy the Kings Hawaiian rolls because they are good. But they can be expensive for a large group of people, so I always go to this recipe because it makes lots of rolls with minimal effort, and for very little cost. I am working very hard to be budget mindful, in light of my growing boys and growing food bill. I can't believe how much I spend on food, and how quickly it disappears! Anyways, one batch of this recipe turns out 36 deliciously soft potato rolls. It is an excellent recipe to use for Thanksgiving or Christmas meals where you need to feed a crowd. They also freeze really well, so you can make them ahead of time. Just make sure you cut the baking time back a couple of minutes and just undercook them slightly, so that when you reheat them, they don't dry out.


Potato Pan Rolls

2 medium potatoes, peeled, quartered, cooked in 1 1/2 cups water, then mashed to equal 1 cup of potatoes, and also reserving 1 cup cooking liquid
4 1/2 tsp yeast
1 tsp sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup honey
2 eggs
1/4 cup oil
2 tsp salt
6 cups bread flour (or half white, half whole wheat flour)

Cool cooking liquid (should be 1 cup) from potatoes to 110-115 degrees. Set aside. Cool the 1 cup of mashed potatoes to same temp. In a mixing bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar with cooking liquid. Let stand for 5 minutes (should foam up). Add mashed potatoes, butter, honey, oil, eggs, salt, and 1 1/2 cups of the flour. Beat until smooth. Add remaining 4 1/2 cups flour and mix until it forms a soft dough. Knead in mixer with dough hook for about 6-8 minutes, or until smooth and elastic. Place in a greased bowl, and turn once to coat. Cover, and let rise for 1 hour or until doubled in size. Punch down dough and turn onto floured surface. Divide the dough into three equal portions. Divide each portion into 10-12 pieces, forming each piece into a ball with your hands. Place each group of 10-12 into a greased round cake pan. Cover and let rise 30 minutes or until doubled. Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until lightly golden brown. Cool on wire racks.

Tasty Tuesday

Today's recipe is a new one I just tried for the first time, and WOW, were they good. They had the perfect texture, perfect crumb, perfect amount of sweetness, and they're healthy to boot! OK, well......somewhat healthy. Hey, it's got carrots in it, come on!

Carrot Cake Muffins

1 1/4 cups flour (I used half whole wheat)

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp EACH baking powder and baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup finely grated carrots

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce or sour cream (either works fantastic)

2 eggs

1/4 cup milk

1/4 cup oil or butter

3/4 cup raisins

Combine wet ingredients, then add all dry ingredients except raisins, and mix well. Stir in the raisins. Spoon into greased muffin tins. Bake 20 minutes, or until done.

frosting:

powdered sugar

milk

vanilla

Mix a small amount of milk into about 2 cups of powdered sugar, adding more milk if necessary to get it to drizzling consistency. Stir in about 1/2 tsp vanilla. When muffins are cooled, drizzle the frosting over the muffins.

Disneyland

"Luke, I am your father."

"I am going to blow up the world with my X1-Z2 modulator."

Big Thunder Mountain!

Love the Toy Story ride....TOO much fun!

Ready with the 3D glasses!

Dave and his boyz.....

A is for Austin.....

F is for Fuzzy (well, there was no V)

L is for Luke!

Our friends gave us some Disney passes last year, and we finally found a good day to go. We went on a Friday, and it was the perfect day. Perfect weather, perfect crowds...We did both parks and just had so much fun together! Dave hadn't been to Disneyland as a patron since he was a teenager. He has done some special effects work there, but has not been there "for fun"! It is so different now, and he had never been to California Adventure. Now that the boys are older, it is so much fun to go on all the rides together. Long gone are the days when we would take one child on a ride at a time, while one parent waited. What a blessing and privilege to spend such a fun day together!

The Perfect Cheesecake

My husband's favorite dessert: Cheesecake.

Number of failed attempts to make the perfect cheesecake: Innumerable.

Until I found this recipe. This gem of a recipe was found on Recipezaar, the virtues of which I have extoled in the past. I love this website because you can search a recipe by ratings, meaning the highest and best rated recipes will show up at the top. After reading literally hundreds of rave reviews for this cheesecake recipe, I decided to give it a try. I had no idea it would come out this perfect. There is now no need to look any further. This is the one. Forever. If you follow the directions closely, you will end up with the most beautiful, perfectly creamy, perfectly cooked, crackless cheesecake, I promise you. I made this for Dave's birthday yesterday, and he raved about it. And if you know Dave, you know he doesn't rave. He's just not a raver. Is that a word? Anyways, I like to serve this cheesecake with strawberry sauce on top. I also think it would be equally divine with an oreo crust. Next time.

Suzanne's Cheesecake

15 graham crackers, crushed
4 tbsp butter, melted
4 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese, soft
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup milk
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 tbsp vanilla
1/4 cup flour

Preheat oven to 350. Mix the graham cracker crumbs with the melted butter, and press into a greased springform pan. Set aside. Mix the cream cheese and the sugar until smooth. Blend in milk, then mix in eggs, one at a time, mixing just enough to incorporate. Mix in sour cream, vanilla, and flour and mix until smooth. Pour over crust. Bake for one hour. TURN OFF OVEN AND LET CAKE COOL IN OVEN WITH THE DOOR CLOSED FOR 5-6 HOURS. Chill before serving.

Strawberry Sauce:

1 lb frozen strawberries
2-3 tbsp sugar
1/4 cup water
1 tbsp cornstarch

Mix the first three ingredients in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Mix the cornstarch with a small amount of cold water, and add to mixture. Boil for about a minute or until thickened. Let cool, and then refrigerate.

Tasty Tuesday Teaser

Stay tuned for Tasty Tuesday's recipe of the week. I will be posting pictures and the recipe tonight for the most beautiful and delicious......



CHEESECAKE!!!!!!


Also, a Disneyland post coming soon, too!

Tasty Tuesdays - {Potato Salad}

This past weekend I had the privilege of helping make and serve food for a memorial service held at one of my dear friend's home. Her Mom recently passed away, and she was hosting about 60 people in her home for the service and dinner. One of the things I made was my family recipe for potato salad. I have been making this for many years, and don't really even know where it originated. All I know is, it is not your supermarket deli's potato salad. It is not vinegary (is that a word), nor pasty. It is chock full of everything but the kitchen sink. I usually just throw in whatever I have in the veggie bin, but I will list the things I usually like to put in. Oh, and a disclaimer:

This recipe has an obscene, and I mean obscene amount of mayo.

Best Foods mayo. You cannot use anything else. Don't even bother making it without Best Foods mayo, I am dead serious. It will not taste the same, I promise. What I do promise is that everyone will love it, and it will be the hit wherever you take it. It's one of those things that makes people happy. Potato salad. Yum. So here's how I make it. You can adjust the quantities accordingly. This recipe fills a very large Tupperware Bowl.

Suzanne's Potato Salad

10 lbs russet potatoes, peeled and diced
3 carrots, peeled and diced
4 hard boiled eggs, chopped, plus about 4 more, sliced to garnish the top
4-6 green onions, chopped
3 large dill pickles, chopped
1/3 cup jarred jalapenos, chopped
lots and lots of Best Foods mayo, added until creamy
salt and pepper to taste
cayenne to taste
other nice things to add: chopped radishes, red bell pepper, etc.

Place diced potatoes in a large pot and cover with water. Boil until fork tender and almost falling apart. Drain and cool. While the potatoes are cooking, chop remaining ingredients and set aside. When the potatoes are cooled, place them in a large bowl, and add chopped veggies. Dump in some Best Foods mayo (are you getting the hint?), and begin stirring. Continue to add mayo until it becomes very creamy. Don't be horrified by the amount of mayo you are adding, it's perfectly normal. Add salt, pepper and cayenne to taste. Garnish the top with sliced hard boiled eggs. Serve. Find a sandwich so you can add the last teaspoon of Best Foods mayo left in the jar after making the potato salad.