Boat ride and entertaining a 4 year old!

I remember Tina mentioning how hard it was to occupy a toddler during the summer months and let me tell you it is hard. You don't want them to sit in front of the tv all day, and it's so hot and muggy outside that being outside all day isn't a good idea either...so...what I really enjoy doing with Lacey is baking and cooking. She loves it too! We decided to make cupcakes and at first she wanted to make batman cupcakes after I made a batman cake that weekend. I eventually talked her out of it and we decided on butterflies, after a lot of encouraging! We rolled out the fondant and used a cookie cutter to cut out the butterflies. We then bent them up a little and let them dry while we made the cupcakes. Once they dried I gave Lacey 4 medicine cups of foodcoloring and water and a paintbrush that hadn't been used and let her hand paint the butterflies. She also rolled the center bodies out and did a really good job. We let them dry on an upside down cake pan and waited for the cupcakes to cool!

Mixed some yellow icing, per her request! Added the handpainted butterflies and some pastel flower sprinkles!
Wednesday we headed up to the creek to borrow a friend's boat for a 2 hour boat ride. Lacey and I wore our matching dresses just to get some sun. Lynn, I love the dresses but after the boat ride Lacey and I had to go to Winn Dixie and boy did we get stared at! I won't ever wear these in public again...atleast not at the same time!

I love, love, love Lacey's smile on this one! She enjoyed going under the bridges! An alligator that we saw swimming close by. He was moving fast so it was hard to get a good picture of him. Zane felt like he was about 7-8 feet long or so!


A bird feeding her babies! Lacey loved the wildlife we saw on the water. Her favorite part was watching the turtles slip off the logs into the water when we passed by! I didn't catch a picture of that, maybe next time!

After our Monday cupcake making session, Lacey saw a Backyardigan's episode that had them making a pie so she wanted to make a pie. I thought, once again what a great way to entertain a 4 year old, so we went through about 10 recipe books to find the perfect....well easiest pie recipe! We found a recipe for a carmel chocolate pecan pie and immediately daddy loved the sound of that one! So we decided after the boat ride on Wednesday that we would make the pie and then take it to a friends house to be eaten! We gathered our ingredients after going to the grocery store and it costing $25 to make this pie. The pecans were $12, so I don't really recommend this recipe that is why I'm not going to put it on this blog. Basically it was a pecan, sugar and butter crust, melted caramel, a layer of chopped pecans, and melted chocolate on top...one big ole' turtle candy if you ask me. Now, don't get me wrong, it was good but it was super rich! Maybe a graham cracker crust would have worked better!The hardest part to making the pies....opening all those dang caramels! You'd think, since they are made for baking you could buy them unwrapped! Oh well, that was something that Lacey enjoyed doing!

This is Lacey opening the Ghiradelli chocolate bar. She is pretending it is a "Wonka bar" and she's looking for a golden ticket like in the movie, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". Much to her disappointment there wasn't a golden ticket, maybe next time! (ah, just noticed all the art work covering my refridgerator in the background! Everything has to make it on the refridgerator. I think most moms have a fridge like this!)
And the finished product a scrumptious pie and a proud little girl!