Today I thought I would do some cookin' with the kids. In addition having my mother visiting, some friends of my husband are bringing Persian food to our house for dinner. I am so excited I love to try new foods. I will be making a large ginger peach cobbler for dessert and a nice salad with veggies.


All this talk of food made me think about recipes for kids. My kids love to get in the kitchen and help me cook. They also like to cook stuff on there own. So, I was thinking what would my kids like to learn to make so I asked. Pineapple upside down cake was the unanimous answer. Well, I wanted to make sure everyone got to make there own with out making three whole cakes hmmmmmm..... I thought and thought and I then it hit me, individual mini upside down cakes!! (recipe below)


I love our new winter P.E. routine. The two oldest are learning Tai'Chi (it is rather comical to watch my children try to do the moves without falling into a heaping pile of laughter). Or an even better event to watch is me doing Taebo.... Ok here is the story while living in base housing in Misawa I had heard several people talking about how much weight they lost doing Taebo so, I thought since I had a some baby weight from my last child to loose I would try it out. Well, one afternoon I was sweatin' it out and really putting my all into this work out when during a move my sneaker snagged in the carpet and I tripped and thudded rather loudly into the huge sliding glass door. The sound was defining and my body position was a full body plant much to the surprise and amusement of the Japanese nationals that were working in the area behind our house. They were laughing and bowing all at the same time.LOL I swear to you my cheeks were still blushing when my husband come home from work and my son who was waiting on the door step to be able to tell him was still giggling so much it was hard for my husband to understand what he had said.


I hope you will all join me in wishing my son a happy 16th birthday today!! I am so very proud of him. I am also secretly happy that he has no interest in driving yet. I have truly enjoyed each stage of our ever growing relationship. Each stage has been a joy to experience when he was a baby I truly enjoyed witnessing all of his firsts, when he was 5 I loved that he was a snuggler and loved to talk about dinosaurs,bugs, and sharks. Now we have great conversations about what he wants out of life and how he can accomplish those goals, we can watch documentaries and talk about them afterwards, he also watches boring adult movies with me. You also gotta love a kid who only wants speakers for his computer and to dye his hair green. He has always wanted to dye his hair green. I think he was 6 when he first asked and I told him then that when he was 16 he would be old enough to make choices like that. So here we are today at 16 and I will be true to my word and I will help my son dye his hair green. I guess he gets it from me I have had several crazy colors and several normal colors. Oh my stars one time I tried blonde lets just say that some people should not dye there hair certain colors. Tonight I will make some of his favorites: tator tot casserole and a homemade chocolate pudding cake with scratch chocolate frosting. The girls have made up songs to sing to him on the karaoke machine and little shows to entertain him/us. Do you ever sit around and think about all the incredible things that your children do,say or think I do especially around their birthdays.(remind me to tell you some time when my son age 7 blew up the car yes you read that right BOOM blew up the car not had a small fire base officials were so happy with us let me tell you. Please join me in singing:
Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear Lukas. Happy birthday youuuuuuuuuu!!

Here is the recipe I talked about earlier. Individual Pineapple upside down cakes.

Ingredients:
1 muffin pan or 12 well cleaned tuna cans
2 cans of pineapple rings (keep the juice)
1 jar of cherries (I don't like the cherry personally)
brown sugar
butter
1 box of yellow cake mix

Prepare the cake mix according to directions except to use the reserved liquid from the pineapple can instead of water. Melt 1 stick of butter in a bowl in the microwave. While butter is being melted place one pineapple ring in the bottom of the muffin pan or tuna can then place a cherry in the center of each one. Pour about 1tbs or so on top of the fruit. Pack down 1-2 tbs of brown sugar into each muffin cup or tuna can. Now just add cake batter to fill 2/3 of your chosen vessels. If you used muffin pans just pop in your oven 400 degrees and bake till a tooth pick comes out clean about 20-25 mins if you used the tuna cans you can put them on a tray and bake in the oven OR you can cook them on the coals of a campfire or grill. (how cool is that) I have also used a solar cooker as well. So much fun!! I hope you all enjoy. Have a great day!!