The Recipe...

These are seriously yummy - not too chocolatey, just enough sweetness to keep you coming back for more. The first time I had these at Jessica's house, I thought they were pretty good, but then the next day I started craving them. Needless to say, I now have the recipe.

Waffle Brownies
Recipe from the kitchen of the famous chef, Jessica Egnew

1/2 c. butter
7 Tbsp. cocoa
2 eggs
1 1/2 c. sugar
2 c. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla

Melt butter in saucepan and add cocoa. Turn heat to very low and add the rest of the ingredients. Keep batter on low heat, stirring frequently while cooking brownies. Scoop 1/4 c. of batter into a hot waffle iron, sprayed with cooking spray, and cook for 45-50 seconds (do not overcook, or they will be crunchy). They are usually too soft to lift off, so I lift the waffle iron up and dump them onto a plate. After cooling, they can be stored in a ziploc bag.

Art Gallery...

The kids' love of painting has apparently rubbed off on their Dad - Rob painted his first watercolor on Friday, and on Saturday he went out and bought himself a "real" set of paints. The creative juices were flowing at our house on Sunday night - we had our first ever artists' showcase. Here they all are, in deep concentration. I was not in on the painting, I chose a more refined art form: dessert. My job was to feed the creativity, and keep the waffle brownies coming (mmmmm, I love those). Ana, apalled that I was peeking at her masterpiece... The supplies: paint and brownies. What more does a kid need? Sophie swiped Hayden's prize creation, the chain snake. Watch out Soph, he's coming! Don't mess with a sugar-buzzed artist! The final product: Solar System, by Hayden Clark. Not bad, considering Dad wouldn't let him use the "real" paints.

Spring Break Kick Off...

First day of Spring Break: 75 degrees, sunny and no wind.
We decided to take advantage of the weather and head up to Dinosaur Ridge. We took our friends with us and had a blast hiking along the road and checking out the awesome footprints and fossils...
If you couldn't tell, Ana is actually sitting in the footprint. Next, excavation of an Allosaurus. The girls didn't last long, they decided to make soup instead.
"Did you find anything Dr. Hayden?"
"Not yet, Dr. Alax, look over there, I don't think that we moved that sand yet."
Budding paleontologists at work.
After our dig we headed over to Red Rocks Amphitheatre - If any of you haven't been there, it's totally worth checking out, I'm definitely going to see a concert there. The kids hiked up ALL of the stairs to get there and then climbed to the top of the theatre - I was seriously impressed at their stamina! Behind the stage was a really cool spot for the kids to climb on the rocks...
They have a rockin' musician's gallery under the amphitheatre where the kids could try out the equipment, needless to say, it was a HIT!
The first day of spring break was a blast, I should have saved it for the last day, now I have alot to live up to for the rest of the week.

Floam, Floam on the Range... or the table...

Great Grandmom and Grandpa Clark sent the Kids some super fun FLOAM for their birthdays, they loved it! They spent hours creating and recreating the perfect beasts.

 

Mom: "Those look so awesome, what are they?"
Hayden: "Mine's an owl."
Ana: "Mine's a Lamanite."

 

The Return of the Little Green Men...

Hayden and Ana were very excited about the return of the leprechauns this year... Hayden had a million questions the night before and could hardly sleep because he was sure that he was going to spy one. I kept assuring him that they never let anyone see them, not even moms and dads. He finally fell asleep, and sure enough, that is when they returned with all of their mischief... leaving footprints where ever they roamed.

 

They even left green kisses on all good little boys and girls - Mom still thinks that they may have made a mistake on these two.

 

But apparently Hayden and Ana were good enough, because the leprechauns even left their hats for them, green garden tools to plant a garden ("because gardens have lots of green," Hayden decided), and paints ("to paint all the rainbows in the whole wide world," Ana surmised).

 

Happy St. Patty's Day everyone! Hope you all had a very GREEN day.

The "Perfect" Game...

Hayden had his last basketball game this week, it was bittersweet... bitter for Hayden, he still wanted to play more - sweet for Rob, coaching kindergarteners is harder than it looks. After the game, each player got a trophy - it was Hayden's first trophy ever, he was so excited. On our way home I asked him how his game went, he replied " It was the perfect game." Me:"Oh yeah, how come?" Hayden, exasperated that I couldn't figure out why: "Because I got a trophy!" So apparently, in order for it to be the "perfect" game, a trophy has to be involved - we're going to have to talk about that one, or we are in for some serious disappointment in the future.

 

All in all, it was a great first season, Hayden improved so much - he went from not being able to dribble at all, to being able to take the ball all the way down the court. But I think he enjoyed defense the most, the kid he was covering would usually get very annoyed with him because he took "man-to-man" very literally - they didn't go anywhere without him. And in his last game he had 2 blocked shots - Way to go Hayden! We are so proud you!

Sweet Teas...

Ana was invited to the funnest birthday party for her friend Tyler (yes, Tyler is a girl.) Tyler's grandma has a business, called "Sweet Teas," where she hosts Tea Parties for little girls - she made over her front room to be a little girl's dream come true. They got their nails and make-up done, made a little picture frame, got dressed up with gloves and jewels, learned tea party ettiquette, and had a smashing time dining on tea and scones...







I had to take a picture of the room, it was so adorable...

Karen Dunlap is the owner and did a fabulous job!
www.mysweetteasparty.com

New home for the Clark kids...

We got some new furniture for our bedroom (after almost 10 years of marriage, it is so fun to have bedroom furniture!) But what was even more fun was the boxes (for the kids anyways.) Hayden and Ana literally lived in their "fort" for days, and Sophie visited often as well. I had to snap a pic before the "fort" went to the recycling bin...

 

 

In like a lamb... Or was it the lion...

All I can say is, the weather here rocks. It was seriously in the 50's and 60's for most of February, and March started out no differently, like a lamb some would say...

But as for the lion, we experienced it in a different way, it came in the form of the flu...
What a way to start the month, especially when the weather was so beautiful. Hayden and Ana both came down with it at the same time... I guess that's the way to do it, if it has to be done. Poor things... they were so sick.

The Birthday Bonanza continues...

February, is birthday month in the Clark household. We start out with my birthday, then Ana's and we finish off with Hayden (not to mention a few cousins and aunt's and uncles thrown in there - let's just say, it's a little busy.) So Hayden is our big 6 year-old now. I can't believe that I have a child that is 6! Hayden is growing up so fast and is learning so much - we are so proud of how hard he works in school and for being such a fun, sweet big brother.

For Hayden's birthday, we tried to see how many things we could stick a candle in to celebrate. So we started off with a doughnut in bed for breakfast (he requested a doughnut instead of the traditional cake.)

Then it was off to the zoo (Hayden's favorite place in the entire world!) It was a special day at the zoo because there was a brand new, baby giraffe just born there, so Hayden said we needed to celebrate the giraffe's birthday along with his...

We had "Zebra Cakes" at the zoo, which of course had a candle...

And we ended the day with Hayden's favorite - Pizza with a candle...

Hayden had seen some PJ's with a cameleon on them at a store a while ago, he had begged to get them, but we had to say no - so he was super stoked when he unwrapped them for is birthday...

What a great birthday day!!

The following week, Hayden's kindergarten class celebrated all of the February birthdays and invited the families to come and bring treats. Hayden wanted animal cupcakes, so we found these in a cupcake book my friend lent to me, they turned out super cute and they were a hit with the class...

Notice no uniforms... it was also college spirit day at school. The kids get so excited about this because, let's be honest, plain polo shirts can get pretty boring day after day...
Ana thought that she was pretty hot stuff getting to sit at the table with the big kids, I don't know who enjoyed the party more...

Finally the birthday bonanza could come to an end... another year older, happier and sweeter is our Hayden.