Sunday, April 29: – When I flew home from New York my luggage decided to take a detour to Nashville. I was feeling very lucky when it decided to return home, finally, the next evening! (Taken with my iPhone)

Monday, April 30th: I started this book on the flight back from NYC. I ended up finishing it today (5-13) and will tell you about it soon!

Tuesday, May 1st: The 1st day of May was exactly as it should be… a gorgeous day of outside play. Here, Ella is showing me her super talented hula hoop skills.

Wednesday, May 2nd: Sometimes my favorite food pictures are the accidental ones… the ones after I start cleaning up from a shoot. That’s what happened when I made homemade pita bread and started cleaning up. I turned around and just really liked the light on the crumpled up parchment paper.

Thursday, May 3rd: Just a quick picture of the girls before the older two went off to school for the day.

Friday, May 4th: I had an extremely challenging afternoon with Leah and was trying to get out of the house to run some errands. The problem was, she did not want to put on clothes. After an hour long struggle, I went back upstairs to grab her dress. When I came back downstairs, this is what I found. Needless to say, the errands didn’t get finished that day. (Taken with my iPhone)

Saturday, May 5th: I took Jacob and Kelly out to see if we could capture the Super Moon tonight.We went to Shawnee Mission Park and joined several other people, all around, doing the same thing!

Sunday, May 6th: For the Picture Black & White class with Tracey Clark – shapes.

Monday, May 7th: It rained all day today. This evening, the reflection of the sunset on the street outside our house caught my eye.

Tuesday, May 8th: Ella got to be my model this week for Yum Food & Fun for Kids Magazine. This is one of the outtakes from that photo shoot.

Wednesday, May 9th: One of my favorite breakfasts… coffee and fruit with yogurt.

Thursday, May 10th: Took all four kids to the dentist today. I have serious dentist anxiety so hate even being there, but they did such a great job! No fear at all.

Friday, May 11th: Leah turned 3 today! I still can’t believe that my baby is three. She was very excited!

Saturday, May 12th: Today was my 20 year high school reunion! The current principal gave us a tour of the high school, which has changed so much. This is the hallway of my recurring dreams – one where I forget my locker combination and cannot get my locker open all year. The other is that I walk this hall every day and don’t realize until the last day of school that I never went to Algebra or Geometry class. (Taken with my iPhone)

That’s it for weeks 18 & 19! I hope you all have had a great start to May. Thanks for stopping by.

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The post Project 365 2012 – Weeks 18 & 19 – A Photo a Day Journey appeared first on Dine and Dish.

Living in the proximity of two small towns away from each other, it didn’t take long for the two of us to find out about each other. Travis first called me up to ask me out a short while after we met. We chatted for a long while on the phone the first time he called and he ended the call with “I was wondering if you would like to go get a Coke sometime.” Random, but of course I would! Next call to ask me out… “Would you like to go get a Coke?” Even if our date was dinner out, a movie, going over to his parents house to hang out, he would always ask me if I wanted to go get a Coke. Eventually, after we had been dating for awhile, I called him on it. “Why do you always ask me if I want to go get a Coke? Even if we aren’t going some place for a Coke, you ask me if I want to get a Coke?” He explained that it is just what guys say if they want to hang out with you. Ummmm, okay. Travis and I continued to get Cokes for 4 years after that.

Fast forward to life as I know it now. I’m an almost 35 year old mom of 3, living in the burbs, and surrounded by other women living very similar lives. A few years ago, I noticed a shift in things that took me back to my “Wanna get a Coke?” years. I would get calls on a regular basis from other moms asking me if I wanted to go get a coffee. I didn’t really like coffee back then, but the thought of hanging out with other adults during the witching hours with the kids really appealed to me. We would go out, kids in hand, and get “coffee”. Eventually, I realized that getting coffee was similar to getting a coke. It was just a way of one person asking another person if they wanted to get out of the house and get to know each other. Getting coffee, in the life of a suburban mom, is something I now look forward to on a regular basis. A chance to hang out with other women to share frustrations, joys, woes, ideas, etc. More sophisticated than “wanna get a coke”, going for coffee is the same thing, only all grown up.

Speaking of “all grown up”, were you an Oreo cookie fan? I still find myself craving those things dunked in a big glass of cold milk. I now tend to be a closet dunker as it doesn’t seem very acceptable for someone of my age to have a Oreo cookie mustache. If you want to enjoy a kiddo treat but in a grown up acceptable format, give this Cookies ‘n Cream Cake a try. Like your Oreos and milk, only all grown up.

Cookies ‘n Cream Cake from Pampered Chef Delightful Desserts

CAKE
12 crème-filled chocolate sandwich cookies, coarsely chopped
1 package white cake mix
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup sour cream
3 egg whites
2 Tbs vegetable oil

ICING
6 crème-filled chocolate sandwich cookies, coarsely chopped
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup sour cream
3 Tbs butter, softened

1 Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spray fluted cake pan with nonstick cooking spray. For cake, coarsely chop cookies, set aside. Combine cake mix, water, sour cream, egg whites and oil; mix according to package directions.
2.  Pour half of the batter into pan. Sprinkle chopped cookies evenly over top of batter but not touching sides of pan. Spoon remaining batter over cookies.
3. Bake 50-55 minutes or until center of cake comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Loosen cake from sides and center tube of pan. Invert onto cooling rack; remove pan. Cool completely.
4. For icing, coarsely chop cookies; sest aside. Combine powdered sugar, sour cream and butter; beat until smooth. Ice top of cake allowing some to flow down the sides. Sprinkle top with cookies. Let stand until icing is set. Cut into slices. Store leftover cake, covered in refrigerator
Yields 16 servings.

Come out of the closet and get your Oreo fix. Here is what other food bloggers are doing with these yummy cookies!

• Oreo Cupcakes from Baking Bites
• Oreo Cheesecake from Happy Home Baking
• Oreo Truffles from The Savory Notebook
• Homemade Oreos from Love and Olive Oil

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• Have you had the chance to check out my Mom’s blog yet? She is amazing me each and every day with her stories! I am so proud of her!
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The post All Grown Up appeared first on Dine and Dish.