A Little Bit of This And That Plus a Birthday!

I am still alive! Well, at least I think I am! The kids keep us pretty busy and something is always going on! As I look at the calendar, the next few months seem like they will be busier than ever! Blogging could be pretty sporadic!

The past 2 weekends have been JBQ and TBQ State competitions. I am proud to report that our kids did really well. Our JBQ A-League team (which includes Anna and Sammy) was in a 3 way tie for second place. So it ends up that they were 4th in the gold division. That was good enough for them to go on to Regionals! Anna came in 3rd place individually! She is pretty competitive and she has worked really hard! I should also mention her teammate Tyler came in fourth! They did so well, and we are so proud of them!

The B-League team also did really well. It is an all girl team and they came in first place in the silver division. Micah and Luke are in C-League and they did awesome too! They came in first place in the gold division. Luke worked harder at the end, so he answered more questions than he has before! I believe it has help to build his confidence! He got 8th place individually and was so excited to get a trophy!

Our TBQ teams did awesome too! Rebekah's team came in first and Rebekah got First place individually! This is her Senior year, so what a wonderful way to end her TBQ career! She will be going to Regionals next month with her team. Victoria's team came in second place! So Awesome! They too, will be going to Regionals!

Matthew is on the Middle School Team and they came in First in their division. His Team will be going to Regionals as well!

So, as you can see, there are some of the things that are on our upcoming agenda, not to mention the possibility of Anna and Sammy's team, Rebekah's team, and Victoria's team advancing to Nationals! I will also have to be running our kids to practices every week for our Church's Musical. There are actually 2 different musicals for 2 different age groups. I will have 3 kids in one and 4 in the other. Their practices are on different nights, so it will be a lot of transporting going on. The performances are in August with each group having two performances each. I would also like to fit in a trip to Virginia so that I can visit my Mom and the rest of my extended family.

To add to all of that, Rebekah and Josh will be starting College in the Fall. We will have to help them get ready for that and do all the necessary preparations! I personally find having older kids a bit more challenging than the little ones!

Recently Hubby celebrated his Birthday. I made his cake this year. He pretty much said that he would like any cake except chocolate. I scoured through recipes and decided on a Caramel Cake. Looking through so many recipes on the Internet, I came to the conclusion that most of the recipes were of a yellow cake with a Caramel Frosting. So, I decided to cheat just a little!

I used a yellow cake mix and mixed it up according to the directions and then stirred in some melted butterscotch chips. Originally I made a layered cake, but evidently left the cakes in the pans too long or something. When I tried to take them out, they were completely stuck! I had sprayed the pans with PAM, so that was not the problem. In the process of trying to get them out of the pans, one of the layers broke into pieces.

Yeah, so I mixed up 2 cake mixes and stirred in some melted butterscotch chips and poured it into a large pan. I am not sure of the dimensions, but it is a lot bigger than a 13x9 pan. I thought that since it was such a large cake that I probably should double the recipe for the Frosting. Well, in all actuality it probably wasn't needed. The Frosting was sort of like fudge and in the middle it was at least as thick as the cake! It was really yummy and the kids did not complain about too much Frosting! I wish I had taken pictures after it was cut so that you could see how thick the icing was!

Happy Birthday Hubby!

Here is the Recipe for the Frosting!


Caramel Frosting From Scratch

2 sticks butter
2 cups light brown sugar
1/2 cup Pet's Evaporated Milk
1 tsp vanilla
4 cups powdered sugar

Melt butter and brown sugar and evaporated milk. Cook two minutes over medium heat (no longer than two minutes). Add vanilla. Remove immediately from heat. Add powdered sugar. Beat until smooth.. Will frost a three layer cake!

I found this recipe here along with a cake recipe.

Warning: It will give you a major sugar rush!



Have a Great Weekend Everyone!

 

~ Hello There! ~

I am a bit behind updating on here. Life seems to keep moving so fast and sometimes I feel like I am just holding on for dear life! With 3 kids in TBQ and 4 in JBQ, that in itself can make for a busy schedule. JBQ has their meets on the first Saturday of the month and TBQ on the second.

This year I have been working on being more involved with the kids in Bible Quiz. The JBQers have practice on Sunday Mornings and so far I have never made it to a practice. The TBQers have their practice on Sunday afternoons. I have been helping out with the TBQ practices and I am learning as I go along.

My Hubby is the coordinator for JBQ at our church as well as for our part of the State. He has had me jump right in and officiate at the 2 meets we have had so far this year. The last meet I was the Quiz Master for the very first time in my life and I hope to never do that again, at least for quite a long time. I need to learn more about the rules and how things run. I am sure that the people that had to endure will agree with me!

I have been working on some different projects around here. I have needed to get some of my school things in better order, so I have been working on that. I still have a bit to do in the department.

On Saturday, Hubby and I worked on cleaning out the garage. We accomplished quite a bit and got rid of quite a lot of stuff, but we still have a ways to go. This was for two purposes. One was because it needed it badly and the other was so we could get to our Christmas Decorations. We are wanting to get lights up outside while it is still warm. In years passed we have always waited just a week too long and it was soooo cold! This year our goal is to get it done when it is warm. And no, I do not care that it is too early! Anyway, we probably won't put up our tree until after Thanksgiving.

It is such a busy season around here, so I do not know how much I will be posting. Besides Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up, we have four Birthdays to celebrate in November. Having a large family sure keeps us busy in the Birthday department.

I have a couple of more posts in the works. One is sharing pictures from Faith's Birthday and the other is on all the other Birthdays that we have celebrated recently. So watch for them!

That's all for now, I just wanted to stop by and say Hi! Hopefully I will be back soon!