TWD--Vanilla Ice Cream and THE MALL

Our perfectly chosen recipe for today from Dorie Greenspan's Baking From My Home to Yours was picked by Lynne at Cafe Lynny Lu.  She chose Dorie's Vanilla Ice Cream.  I really don't have a whole lot to say about it, because it was simple and perfect as vanilla ice cream goes.  I followed the recipe exactly (shocker!) and used vanilla extract instead of vanilla bean. 

I had some cherries and wanted to try making a "healthier" cherry pie.  I did so, then topped  a piece with some of the vanilla ice cream.  The pie wasn't very good, but the ice cream was GREAT!

Still, it felt like something was missing.

There, that's better.  I couldn't resist when I saw that it looked like a smiley face on the ice cream.

But I couldn't just make plain ol' vanilla ice cream (although, it is one of my favorite flavors!)  So I added some of these---to most of it.

Now we're talkin'.

I wanted to make this a couple more times before this post, with different yummy things added in, but we made a quick, last-minute trip out of town this past weekend, so I wasn't able to.  It's okay--I REALLY need to not eat so much of this stuff (and all I've done is clean out the ice cream maker.  I actually haven't eaten any more of it, and the Oreo kind is still in the freezer.  What?  Oh, it calls my name, but isn't nice to my gut. ;)  The boys have eaten a little of it, but since we went out of town we haven't had the chance to finish it off.  I'm happy to have this great vanilla ice cream recipe now in my arsenal.  Check out the recipe on Lynne's blog (link above).  Go see what the other TWDers have done with this.  I KNOW there's going to be some amazing, yummy versions of this out there!  Thanks for stopping by.

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We took a weekend trip to Minneapolis.  It was a 7-8-9 hour car drive.  We left Friday and drove all day.  We grabbed a quick dinner and by the time we got settled in our hotel it was nearing 11 p.m.  before everyone was in bed.  Saturday we went and checked out the farmer's market (no one was really thrilled except me).  But the boys did find some cool welded metal sculptures of a guy playing the drums and one playing the guitar that they ended up getting.  Taylor was saving his pick for Legoland at the Mall of America.  After the farmer's market, we made our way to the Mall.  The boys had a blast.  How cool is it that there is an amusement park INSIDE the mall!  I had not been on a roller coaster for YEARS.  Taylor was not thrilled with the idea of going on any of the rides, so Kevin and I took turns with Scott and Parker, then Taylor and Sam.  There was plenty for everyone to do.  S & P had a BLAST going on rides.  I thought it was pretty fun, too.  But even more than that was seeing them so happy and excited and loving it.  A couple of the rides were actually pretty "scary", but still fun.  We had gotten the two of them unlimited passes to ride all day as many times as they wanted and just bought a certain amount for Kevin and I.  It worked out great.  Here's a few photos from the day.

Legos!

The Water Log Ride

Flyin'

Parker wanted to ride the carousel.  Goofus.

Parker's horse was really buckin'.  ;)

Who knew one of this little 50 cent rides would be so fun?!

Big Truck' Ridin'

Daddy wanted to ride, too.

Okay, maybe it was so Sam could go.

Ghost Blasters

Waiting in line for my turn with the boys on the log.  I just couldn't wait to get wet. (read-sarcasm.)  It was fun!  I loved screaming like I was scared to death and making the boys think I was more scared than I really was.  Builds the excitement for them, you know.  The big roller coasters were awesome, but it's pretty hard to get pictures while zooming around on them.

After a fun day, we found a really yummy pizza place for dinner (not at the mall), called Broadway Pizza.  Then everyone tuckered out back at the hotel after driving each other nuts for a bit in the hotel room.

That evening out of nowhere, Taylor discovered that he had his first loose tooth.  It was REALLY loose, having not been loose at all until then.  The boys have all been a little slow for losing teeth so far.  Scott was in 2nd grade before losing his front teeth.  Parker still has his (about to go in to 2nd grade) and has only lost his two bottom teeth with a third one loose.  It's hereditary.  I didn't loose my two top front teeth until 3rd grade.  You can see in my 4th grade picture my new teeth still coming in.  Taylor worked on that tooth all night.

And in the car on the drive home Sunday.

Sam thought he needed a paper towel to work on his tooth, too.

Parker was trying like crazy to get his tooth out before Taylor.  Taylor's was a lot more loose though.  And just like that, Taylor pulled out the tooth.  Kind of surprised himself.  So now one of the boys has a first tooth out before starting kindergarten (he's almost 6).  And by this time, he wouldn't let me take a picture with the missing tooth.  That's my Taylor!

Hiding behind Froggy.

Not gonna smile.

Gotcha, T.  We can see it!  He's pretty proud of this accomplishment--even moreso that he got his out before Parker could get his out.  It was a great, quick trip and a lot of car time.  I'm glad we got to go.  But I'm thinking next time we want to take the boys to an amusement park, we should just go to the one an hour away in Kansas City! ; )  (Minnesota was really pretty with gorgeous weather!)  And to think, this next weekend I'm going to take the boys to Indiana (about 8-9 hours) without Kevin.  I'll write you later about "what was I thinking?"