happy halloween

Happy Halloween from our house to yours!

Patriotic Jell-o

Since it is almost the Fourth of July, I thought it would be nice to re post this recipe.

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I am not one to make JELL-O molds frequently, but on the Fourth of July . . . we just have to because we have this perfect USA mold!! (can't let it go to waste!!)

I got it free many, many years ago at a grocery store in Virginia. (it was one of those "buy 2 boxes of JELL-O, get the mold free" deal)

Even though you probably don't have a mold like this, I thought I would give you the recipe so you can make the layers in a different shape.

Layered Patriotic Jell-o

3 3/4 cups boiling water

1 pkg. (8-serving size) or 2 pkg.(4-serving size) any red flavor JELL-O

1 pkg. (8-serving size) or 2 pkg.(4-serving size) Berry Blue Flavor JELL-O

2 cups cold water

1 pkg. (4-serving size) Lemon JELL-O

1 pint vanilla ice cream, softened

Spray mold (or shallow dish) with no stick cooking spray.

Stir 1 1/2 cups boiling water into red and blue gelatin in separate bowls at least 2 minutes until completely dissolved. Stir 1 cup cold water into each bowl.

Pour red JELL-O into prepared mold. Refrigerate 1 hour or until set but not firm. Reserve blue JELL-O at room temperature.

Stir 3/4 cup boiling water into lemon JELL-O in bowl. Stir in ice cream with wire whisk until melted and smooth. Spoon over red JELL-O in mold. Refrigerate 30 minutes longer or until set but not firm. Refrigerate blue JELL-O (not in mold, just in bowl) 30 minutes or until slightly thickened.

Spoon blue JELL-O over lemon layer in mold. Refrigerate 4 hours or until firm. Unmold.

Wow!

Enjoy!!

linking up with:

 

remember

In between all of the picnics, the baseball games, and the swimming . . .

. . . let us take some time to remember those who sacrificed everything for our freedom.

Happy Memorial Day

Easter Greetings

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter season celebrating the death and resurrection of our Lord.

We cannot even begin to fathom the importance of the events that took place during that special weekend.

Because Jesus died for our sins on the cross, if we believe in Him and ask Him into our lives . . .

. . . we will live forever with Him in Heaven.

What a wonderful gift!!

Please don't let life go on another minute without receiving the gift of eternal life that Jesus has given to you.

Ask Him to forgive your sins and enter in.  It is the most important thing you could ever do.

God loves you enough that He sent His Son to die for you.

Happy Easter!!

xox

cheryl

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

John 3:16 

I "Heart" Food

I have been starting to plan our little "fancy" Valentine's Day dinner.
I found some cute heart shaped food ideas.
Here are a few that caught my eye:


I could totally do this!  So cute!

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These cookies are beautiful!

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 This, I could do for breakfast . . .

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 . . . . along with some of these from Dunkin . . .

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  . . . maybe some heart-shaped pancakes?? (served with my brother's yummy syrup of course!!)

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Aren't these pretty??

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Oh yum . . .

What will YOU be eating on Valentine's Day??

Our "Fancy" Valentine's Day Dinners

Every year on Valentine's Day, our family has a "fancy" dinner.
The kids help set the table.
Everything is heart-shaped.
I make love notes for everyone.
We go around the table and tell each other what we love about each other.
I love our sweet Valentine's dinners.

Last year, in addition to our little fancy dinner, we had a fancy lunch for my daughter and her friends.

We made favors. (my daughter even wrote everyone's names in cursive on them)

We had flowers.

We let the girls decorate their own cupcakes.

We had "tea" (raspberry lemonade) and little heart shaped cookies. (I found the cookies at Aldi .. . saw them there again this year)

We had Jell-o jigglers . . .heart-shaped, of course.

We had heart-shaped sandwiches. (peanut butter/jelly and ham/cheese)

We had red fruit . . . heart-shaped watermelon and strawberries.

Every girl brought their favorite doll . . . my daughter (and her doll) had a fabulous time.

I'm still trying to decide what our Valentine's Day will look like this year . . . I'm always looking for something new I can make "heart-shaped".

Any ideas??

I'm linking up with Debbiedoo's Newbie Linky Party . . .  http://debbie-debbiedoos.blogspot.com/2011/02/lets-get-it-started-again-lets-get-it.html

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. . . and

Thanksgiving

I decided to take a little break from posting Florida pictures and show you a little of what went on around here for Thanksgiving.

My goal this year was to decorate cheap (as in free).
For name cards, I cut up a Trader Joe's bag into the shapes of little leaves, wrote everyone's names on them, and tied them onto the napkins with twine.

My mom brought a bunch of Indian corn, so I made a corn garland using twine and hung it on our dining room mirror.

John's mom brought flowers for the table.

My sweet friend, Megan, quilted me a runner for my birthday. 
It looked great on our table!

John's mom brought a cute turkey to put flowers in for the food table.

Oh, the food was pretty good, too! :)

My dad made sugar free/gluten free desserts that were DELICIOUS!!
He made a pumpkin pie . . .

 . . . and a cheesecake (low carb, too!!).

If you would like the recipes for these, just e-mail me at FiveKoz@sbcglobal.net .

Trick or Treat!!!!!

We had a lovely evening to go out gathering candy with friends.  (a little chilly, but beautiful)

Who dat??

Well, it's Drew Brees from the New Orleans Saints, of course! (Jake wanted to be Jermon Bushrod, but we couldn't get his jersey)

I tried to not spend $$ on the costumes this year, so I used an old helmet from the neighbors and spray painted it to look similar to a real Saints helmet.  Here is the "before" . . .

. . . and here is the "after". 

Not bad, right?? 

Jake thoroughly enjoyed being a football player for the evening.  (his over protective mom won't let him play on a football team yet)

He looks pretty good as a football player, I must say.

Caroline went as a dog.

The costume was from a neighbor and her good buddy, Alie, just happened to have the very same costume!!

And look at that sweet cupcake!

Luke went as Brian Urlacher from the Bears.

He loved running from house to house gathering his treats.

"Daddy . . . stop eating my candy!!"

The whole gang . . .

Friendship is so very sweeeet.

:)