Lakauai {Life is Good} » Life at the Anderson’s

Environmental Alphabet Art

lakauai — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 00:13:35 +0000

I’m sure some of you have heard of Environmental Alphabet Art or at least seen these pictures. A photographer goes out with sharp eyes and looks for the alphabet depicted by wrought iron railings, fences, trees, antennas etc. Pretty much anything can become a letter if you look at it closely enough! The trick is seeing the world through that filter. I have walked down Main Street in Madison tons of times but never noticed all the letters just waiting to be captured by my camera lens! I took tons of pictures and then realized I had a bunch of pictures of the same letters. So, I had to go out again and really look harder for those elusive letters. I have posted them here on my blog so that you can download them if you would like to create your own environmental alphabet art. I don’t have all the letters yet, but am still working on it!
If you click on the images below, a REALLY large image will pop up. You can right-click on it to download it.

Favorite Christmas Ornaments

lakauai — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 03:53:09 +0000

Cub Scouts Ice Skating

lakauai — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 03:29:50 +0000

Caeden’s Cub Scout troop planned an ice skating event. They said that siblings could attend, so of course Lael was all in! Caeden would rather die than attend a Girl Scout even, but Lael is always up for a Cub Scout event. It’s not because she *likes* any of the boys. Thank goodness she isn’t boy crazy like some of the girls her age. A couple of the boys in Caeden’s den are in Lael’s class too, so that is part of it. I started out skating with them, but wow, it has obviously been a LONG time since I’ve skated. After going around the rink a few times my ankles were killing me! I decided to stop and just take pictures from the sides of the rink.

Supper Club

lakauai — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 21:06:35 +0000

My Turn! Supper Club at my house! I decided to go with a Surf’s Up Santa theme. It was great, I told everyone I would not let them n unless they were wearing a Hawaiian shirt or hula skirt, or BOTH! We went all-out beachy, with seafood and such. Since the host is responsible for the main course, I went with a Low Country Boil. I was afraid that it would be freezing and that Todd would freeze to death while outside cooking. But, it turned out to be decent weather. Everybody else brought either apps or desserts. This was our first time to do a low country boil ourselves. We have eaten them before, but never made it. Super easy though! This is the recipe we followed:

Low Country Boil

Ingredients

Old Bay Seasoning TM to taste
5 pounds new potatoes
3 (16 ounce) packages cooked kielbasa sausage, cut into 1 inch pieces
8 ears fresh corn, husks and silks removed
5 pounds whole crab, broken into pieces
4 pounds fresh shrimp, peeled and deveined
newspapers
beer

Directions

Heat a large pot of water over an outdoor cooker, or medium-high heat indoors. Add Old Bay Seasoning to taste, and bring to a boil. Add potatoes, and sausage, and cook for about 10 minutes. Add the corn and crab; cook for another 5 minutes, then add the shrimp when everything else is almost done, and cook for another 3 or 4 minutes.
Drain off the water, and pour the contents out onto a picnic table covered with newspaper. Grab a paper plate and a beer and enjoy!

I printed off some cute photo props and pretty much demanded that everyone choose two or three and have their photo taken. I love the way these turned out!!!

Roll Tide!

lakauai — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 20:47:39 +0000

Cheerleading at Thanksgiving

lakauai — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 20:01:19 +0000

Instead of passing out on the sofa after eating Thanksgiving dinner, we went outside to try out some new cheerleading skills led by Myrisa, Maygan and Allie. Chace, Madeline, Mallory and Lael, the amateurs, were fast learners! There was plenty of other fun to be had too, football, backhandsprings, cartwheels and general play!

The Fam at LaLa’s

lakauai — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 19:54:39 +0000

We spent a weekend at LaLa’s with some of our favorite people, the Smith’s! Mayson was turning 4 so of course LaLa had made one of her famous cookie cakes, YUM! It’s super simple, recipe is on the back of the Nestle chocolate chips bag, but here it is also:
Original Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Pan Cookie
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 (12-ounce) package or 2 cups NESTLÉ TOLL HOUSE Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
1 cup chopped nuts
1. Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C). Grease 15 x 10-inch jelly roll pan.
2. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels and nuts. Spread into prepared pan.
3. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool pan on wire rack.

One of Lael and Mayson’s favorite things at LaLa’s is ‘swimming’ in her bathtub. They usually put too much bubble stuff in and end up with oodles of bubbles!

Supper Club

lakauai — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 19:15:41 +0000

It’s that time again – Supper Club. This time Marcia was hosting and as usual we had lots of delicious food. I brought chicken & dressing and macaroni & cheese. Two of my favorite recipes! Aimee brought her new favorite dessert – Apple Dapple Cake. It is seriously yummy!! Here are the recipes if you are interested in trying them.
Macaroni & Cheese

3 cups uncooked macaroni
1 can Cream of Mushroom soup
4 cups grated cheese
1 2 oz. jar chopped pimientos, drained
1 cup mayonnaise
½ stick butter, melted
1 sleeve Ritz crackers

Preheat oven to 350.
Cook macaroni as directed.
Combine 1st five ingredients, pour into greased casserole dish.
Mix crushed crackers with melted butter, spread on top of casserole.
Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes.

Chicken & Dressing

6 cups cornbread
3 cups Pepperidge Farm Herbed Seasoned Stuffing
2 cups chopped onions
2 cups chopped celery
2 cans Cream of Mushroom soup
3 eggs, beaten
1 stick butter
4-6 cans chicken broth
4-5 chicken breast, cooked and shredded

Saute celery and onions in stick of butter.
Stir all ingredi`ents together. Add more or less broth to make it just moister than you want to eat it.
Bake at 350 for 40-50 minutes.

Serves 8-10

Apple Dapple Cake
1 ¼ cup shortening
2 cup sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
3 cup flour
2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
1 ½ cup chopped pecans
3 cup chopped raw apples, peeled
Mix together shortening, sugar, eggs and vanilla. Sift together flour, salt and baking soda.
Add flour mixture slowly to wet mixture.
Fold in pecans and apples.
Bake in greased tube pan at 350 degrees for one hour.

Topping
1 ½ cup packed brown sugar
½ or ¼ cup milk
¾ stick butter

Mix all ingredients and bring to a boil. Cook for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Pour over cake, let stand 2 hours.

The entertainment provided by the kids at Supper Club is always……entertaining!

It’s Halloween!

lakauai — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 19:06:48 +0000

Halloween is big business around here. All the kids from our street gather together to go trick or treating every year, plus a few extras thrown in for good measure. It is rather difficult to keep 15-20 kids together moving from house to house. We, the parents, just basically try to corral them on one side of the street and to stop at the end of the block to wait on the others to catch up. Our neighborhood is pretty big, with lots of intersecting streets. The good thing is that it is fairly level and the houses are close together, so it makes for pretty easy trick or treating. This year Lael dressed up as an Indian, Caeden was a mummy, I was sort of going for a gypsy look, but put together with items from my closet, so technically it wasn’t much of a costume, lol!! After we get about halfway into the neighborhood, the kids start complaining that they are tired, their bags are heavy, they are thirsty, their feet hurt, their costume is itchy, they are ready to go home and check out their haul! But, of course we have to walk all the way back!!

3rd Grade Halloween party

lakauai — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 18:57:01 +0000