States visited: 49!


visited 49 states (98%)
Create your own visited map of The United States
Miles driven so far -
LOOP 1 (Aug 2009 - Aug 2010): 29,000
LOOP 2 (May - August 2012): 10,800

Highest altitude with camper: 11,158ft (I-70, CO)

Monday, March 30, 2009

Jake's party

Jake just had 3 friends (Evan, Santiago and Patrick) over for a more informal birthday gathering this year. I collected them all from school, they came home and played, played, played: football, soccer, basketball, jumped on the trampoline. Before heading off to the bowling alley with Dave, they devoured freshly-made cookies, when I say those cookies disappeared in the blink of an eye, I didn't even manage to start the blink and the full plate was empty!

They came home from bowling to eat pizza and cake, headed outside for jump-in-the-dark time on the trampoline and then hit the Playstation. We'd had the foresight earlier in the day to buy a couple of extra PS2 controllers and a 4-way adapter - they were thrilled! It was tough to drag them away. A FUN day!







Saturday, March 28, 2009

KISS class pages

In addition to the monthly class with scrapbooks n smiles, I occasionally head up to memory lane, pa in Quakertown to take Sarah's KISS class (Keep It Simple Scrapper), these are a few pages I've finally completed from her classes.

September 2004 @ Brandywine Outfitters annual Friendsfest w/e:
January 2005:
Flying to the UK, December 2004:
Boxing Day, 2004 @ Red Lion Cottage:
Boxing Day afternoon, 2004 @ Needham Lake, Suffolk:

March 2009 Scrapbooks n Smiles class pages

We always complete 4 double pages in class, the 4th one this month was a baking page, I have photos but they're not printed yet - still only just printing photos from 2005! Once again, pages from Melinda at scrapbooks n smiles.

Andy & Lou's, Jan 2005:
Dzwonczyk's, early Christmas, December 2004:
Morris Arboretum, July 2004:

The following class pages have been waiting for photos for a while and I finally got around to adding them (there are plenty more laying around my desk awaiting pics, I'll get there slowly!).

Jake's 5th birthday party (March 2004) (just had his 10th party yesterday!):

Eric's party in the garden of the NJ (now Adventure) Aquarium (July 2004):

Fall 2004:

also Fall 2004, using up scraps for extra photos:

Chocolate Chip Cookies



I have been on a baking kick the last couple of weeks, trying out new recipes and also trying out old recipes on smaller trays and dishes, in an attempt to figure out what will work in the camper for next year.

I have always used the Nestle Tollhouse recipe for choc chip cookies but, when baked on the Pampered Chef stone, they spread too much and do not come out well (the camper oven has a tendency to burn things but the stone disperses the heat). So, I tried a new recipe and the cookies are SO good, have now baked way more batches than I should have but somehow they all get eaten - quickly!

Here's the recipe:

Chocolate Chip Cookies (from: ‘What’s Cooking: Chocolate’)

1½ cups flour
1tsp baking powder
1 stick of butter
½ cup brown sugar
¼ cup sugar
½ tsp vanilla
1 egg
⅔ cup chocolate chips

Beat all ingredients in a large mixing bowl until well combined.

Place tablespoonfuls of mixture onto cookie sheets.

Bake in preheated oven: 375°F for 10-12 minutes.

March 21st: Caitlin's 8!

'Tis the week of birthdays, we all know what that means: LOTS of cake! No photos from Dave's birthday but he did get a brownie cake, apparently that did not count - another cake has been made for him this w/e....

Caitlin's big gift this year was a beautiful pink DS, this means Becca now inherits the beautiful pink Gameboy (apparently not nearly as good as the DS because it doesn't have a pen, oh big sigh....!). Anyway, Caitlin's gifts also included fish webkinz, DS games, American Girl clothes, crafts and books. She was thrilled with everything.






March 19th: Jake's 10!

I cannot believe we have a 10 year old: double digits - we ALL made it 10 years and we're still smiling!

Jake is such a goofball, so easy-going in some areas but uber-competitive in others; some days can be very challenging, others are joy - you just never know!

This year's birthday brought him mainly books and games (outside, card, PS2 and DS), with his big personality, he loved everything - there are no bad presents in Jake's world.






New DS games, for whatever reason, all the kids seem to enjoy watching the tiny screen, regardless of whether they're in control or not!

Upward Basketball ceremony



Another basketball season has come to an end. Once again, everyone had a lot of fun this year. Dave coached Jake's team (3rd and 4th graders): Tigers and was also the assistant coach for the girls' team (K, 1st and 2nd graders): Lady Cougars.

March 14th was the awards ceremony, Seth Franco, an ex-Harlem Globetrotters player was the guest speaker, he was amazing, really held the kids attention, demonstrated some serious ball skills and captivated his audience. He needed a volunteer to help him at one point and chose CAITLIN! She performed well on stage, managed to get a couple of pics, using the big screen so the quality isn't that good.