monday confessions...actually it's our weekend!

What a whirlwind of a weekend we have had! It started on Friday actually. Hopefully my creative brain is working and my blogger block is gone... even if it's Monday! And a typical Monday it has been for me thus far! :-)

Friday, late morning my SIL came over and dropped her three girls off for the day. She had things to do and I was more then happy to watch the girls for the day. Little Matt was gone with Daddy for the afternoon. He really didn't want to stay home with 6 girls! So the girls were all happily playing outside. What a beautiful day it was too. Warm and sunny. Finally! It's been such a cold spring, compared to last spring! I had lots of baking to do for the weekend that was coming. Salads and desserts and bread to make for the Easter weekend. So in between checking on the kiddos and cooking I was busy. We were having an Easter with my family on Saturday and with Matthew's family on Sunday after church. I made an Oreo Cookie Cake, and hamburger buns for my family get together. We (meaning my family) tend to not always go with everyone elses' "traditional", and kinda go by what we want and enjoy doing. So we had a BBQ! Oh and yes I have a picture of the cake too! Oh it's a wonderful little, ahem OK so it's not little, but it is good cake!  I stick it in right here! If anyone wants the recipe I'll post it later! Oh and yes it tastes like an Oreo Cookie!

Oreo Cookie Cake!

Then I made the rolls. Well the first batch was a disaster! I could only think of two things I did wrong. I either killed the yeast with the temp of the hot milk, or I didn't put enough yeast in it, I mean with everything else going on that was the best I could come up with. I made a double batch. And at this point in the day it was getting late and we were heading to church for a Good Friday service. I still needed to get the kiddos bathed, they were a mess, and I still had my SIL kiddos. Matthew and Little Matt were still not home and it was almost time to milk, and I still needed to make more buns, and supper! So I threw out the first batch and made the second. My BIL came and got the kiddos, and dropped off some bunnies. He needed to get things ready at his house and wanted to keep it a secret from his kiddos. Well, long story short I got the kiddos bathed, the buns made, and supper, Matthew and I got the chores done and we were off to church a little later then we planned, but we made it there safe and sound! Phew!

Saturday proved to be just as busy! Chores, and getting everything ready to get to my parents. OK, so it wasn't really that busy just regular stuff to do and then we were on our way. Had a great day too! It was cold. It was about 40 degrees, but the wind was just raw. Mom had set out some eggs for a hunt, and we all bundled up (some of us wished we had a snow suit), went out and looked for eggs. It was SNOWING! What??!! Yup snowing. Great big fat snow flakes. It didn't last long, maybe 20 minutes. But crazy weather! When we got home I made a pasta salad for the meal on Sunday. I was going to make another dessert, but still had half of the Oreo Cake left and decided that was going to be good enough. It was late, I was cold, tired, and I really just didn't feel like cooking anymore. So I didn't!

Sunday we went to church, and had a wonderful service. Lunch was going to be at two, at my MIL, so that worked out well. We had to come home and check on the animals, and again, load up the car. We had a traditional meal of ham, carrots, rolls, and salads. Oh and the desserts. There are always tons of desserts at Matthew's family functions. They all have a sweet tooth!  Four out of the 5 boys and families were there too, and that means 13 were kiddos! Ages 15-10months! Yea! (I think the oldest is 15, maybe 16). Oh and Matthew's grand mother was there too! We had another Easter egg hunt, for the younger kiddos, and so of course more sugar! But we had another great day!
When we got home around 5 to do chores, Maggie was way out in the field. She looked up and watched the car coming down the road, recognized it was us and ran down to the barn and was waiting there when we pulled in the driveway! Just like a dog happy to see her people! We all thought that was funny. Rachel was asleep in the car. Matthew had to go get some more hay so Little Matt, DaLaney and I started chores, while Emma, Rachel and Matthew went to go get it. It was nice to sit and milk Maggie and relax after a very busy weekend of running around.  Listening to Maggie munch on her grain, the two older kiddos running around helping feed the smaller animals, and the light chatter of them coming in and out of the barn. It turned out to be an OK day, not real warm, but warmer then Saturday. Late in the day it warmed up even more. When Matthew and the girls got home and the hay put away, and finished feeding the animals we all started to play ball. Then we got out the kiddos BB guns and had target practice on the back lawn. It was so nice to just laugh, run and play with the kiddos. Just us coming back together as a family and enjoying ourselves after a long, busy weekend!!