Sopapilla Cheesecake

Ingredients

2 cans butter crescent rolls
1 package cream cheese (softened)
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup butter (melted)
cinnamon and sugar

Directions

Unroll and spread one can of crescent rolls on bottom of ungreased 8x8 pan.  Combine softened cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla.  Spread mixture over crescent rolls.  Unroll and spread remaining crescent rolls over mixture.  Spead melted butter over the top and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.  Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes.

This thing is dangerously delicious!! I'm starting to wish I used fat free cream cheese instead of regular even though fat free never cooks the same. :-/ While this is yummy warm, I personally like it cold. :)


This recipe came from My Yellow Umbrella.

A Great and Fun Visit!

Miss me? Yeah, I figured. ;) For four days I was in Clarksville visiting family. I went there for a friend's birthday party, the 4th, and my dad's birthday--just me and the kids.  Yep yep. But praise the Lord both trips to and from went very smooth. :)

After two years my parents were finally able to get a new liner on the pool and fill it up again! Both Autumn and Emma were in utero last time the pool was up and running. Nice they were able to actually see it in person this time. :)

We also had a birthday party to go to for my mom's friend's daughter.  Parker is only 10 months older than Hannah.  The party was at Chuck E Cheese, and I wasn't sure what to think about that. LOL But it was really fun and the kids of course loved it. Things were so crazy there we didn't even get a chance to get a pic with the birthday girl! :-/

We actually celebrated the 4th on the 3rd since there was a chance of storms, so we grilled out and shot off fireworks. The kids weren't too keen on the noise (or even the sparklers really), so after they were off at Grammie's spending the night we were able to enjoy it without anyone freaking out.

No, she did not set her foot on fire.

Emma the Brave

Looks like my mom's hair is on fire...or maybe it was!

Oooooooo.....aaaaaaah

Richard was also brave for holding a sparkler :)

The 5th was my dad's birthday and we just had cake and ice cream.  The girls made their papaw cards and I got him a Clint Eastwood movie.  There is no telling what movies my parents have and don't have since they raid the $5 bin at Wal-Mart somewhat often. :)

A proud papaw and his "grandbeauties" :)

Like I said before, the trip to and from went very smooth and uneventful.  It wasn't until I was actually in Clarksville, at my parents' house before I turned totally stupid.  I broke the driver side mirror of my truck. It was originally dangling from the wire and my dad put it back on with black tape (definitely better than duct tape you usually see on cars :-p).  It was dark at the time so I couldn't find the mirror itself but my dad found it the next day. Yeeeeaaaaah. Good going, B.J.  What is so pathetic about the whole thing is I have been up and down that driveway at least 8 million times and never did such a stupid thing. Fortunately, Ryan found a used mirror on Ebay for $50 and it should be here any day now.  Ugh.  Guess it could be a lot worse.

Our next big trip is next month. The girl and I are going back to Clarksville and then a bunch of us are going to the Atlanta Zoo to meet our friend, Po the Panda! :) Should be great fun!

My Top Ten Apps

 Holy Bible, Price: FREE, Tons and tons of languages, translations, and devotionals!

 Bubble Shooter, Price: $0.99, Definitely one of the more mindless games but still good for when you're standing around waiting :-p

 ColorBlast!, Price: $0.99 (currently 50% off!), I have the lite version which is, of course, free.

 Livestrong, Price: $2.99, I know there are free calorie counters but I had already been using this one on my Blackberry.

 MSNBC, Price: FREE, Updated many times throughout the day

 On This Day..., Price: FREE, Every day you see different events that happened throughout history on that particular date.

 Pandora, Price: FREE, This one is kind of a duh thing. :-p I mostly use this for Toddler Radio for the kids.

Pinterest, Price: FREE, Go to their website and sign up first. It's amazing! I want to do a post just about this!

RunKeeper, Price: FREE, Through the GPS you can keep track of your mileage on your walk or run and even see a map of where you've been! I usually use this when we go to the zoo.


Memphis Zoo, Price: FREE, Speak of the devil! You keep up with news at the zoo, which is their live Twitter feed.  There are also schedules of keeper chats and feedings and a map of the zoo.

Our Favorite Educational Apps, Part 2

 Pizza Fractions, Price: FREE, A great way to introduce kids to fractions! It shows a pizza sliced in x amount of slices and from three fractions show you are to pick the correct one.

 Skill Builders Spelling, Price: FREE, Create your own spelling lists

 Stack the Countries, Price: $1.99, Of course the "Lite" version is free but those only last so long.  This would make for a great supplement to any geography curriculum.

 Toddler Teasers Shapes, Price: FREE, Shape recognition,  I can honestly give this app 90% of the credit for Autumn learning her shapes!

Kindergarten.com Zoo Animals, Price: FREE, there are lots of other flashcard apps like this from kindergarten.com. I gravitated toward this because of the icon. ;) These show real photos and say the name of each animal.

Our Favorite Educational Apps, Part 1

 ABC Tracing, Price: FREE, great for introducing handwriting but of course it can't replace pencil and paper. :) It's also auditory telling you the letter each time you change to the next.

 Dolch First Grade, Price: FREE, This is a list of all of the words first graders "should" know. It's a great reference and I am pleased to say Hannah sailed right through it! There is a play button to hear the world if you get stuck.  .

 Giraffe's Preschool Playground, Price: $0.99, Number/Letter/Animal recognition.  Two levels: Junior Explorer (clues are spoken and shown) and Ace Adventurer (clues are spoken only).  You can also create your own scene using different animals.

Giraffe's Matching Zoo, Price: FREE, animal memory game. Animals make sounds whenever you press on a card.  Some of the sounds are a bit ridiculous which makes Autumn laugh. This is definitely the second top game she plays.

Nick Jr. A-Z, Price: $1.99, Now this is the top game Autumn plays! She loves Nick Jr and Moose A. Moose! :) Awesome for letter recognition and the graphics are wonderful!

Chocolate Syrup Brownies

This is great because the batter is just like what it would be if it came from a box of Pillsbury or Betty Crocker (the cooked result ended up pretty yummy, too)! Chocolate syrup plus all your basic baking ingredients most likely already in your kitchen!

1 egg
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup chocolate syrup (I used Nestle Quik)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 dash salt
1/2 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup pecans or walnuts, chopped (optional)

Preheat over to 350 degrees.  Grease 9 in square baking pan.  In a small bowl beat egg; add brown sugar and chocolate syrup, beating until well-blended.  Stir together flour, baking soda, and salt; add to egg mixture, beating until blended.  Fold in butter and nuts.

Spread batter into prepared pan.  Bake 35-40 minutes or until the brownies begin to pull away from the sides of the pan.

Recipe originally from CDKitchen

Pipecleaner Fireworks: 4th of July craft

Two materials: sparkly pipecleaners and thread (well, I guess three if you count the scotch tape used to hang them from the ceiling.

Cut the pipecleaners all in half. Take 4-5 pieces and twist them around each other to make sure they stay connected. Curve the ends to look like fireworks when they explode up in the sky. Tie various-sized pieces of thread around them and hang from the ceiling. You can use thumb tacks, but I just didn't feel like dealing with those. :)