day 4 - road trip

i'm officially on day 4 of my "done with chocolate" road trip. i now have 17 more days to go. (i've already decided how i'm going to reward myself on day 22...dove has some new chocolates out that j lovingly pointed out at the grocery store over the weekend...dove with peanut butter centers....mmmm...yummy.

i don't think that's a very good sign that i've already got a "reward" picked out & it so happens to be a chocolate reward. who knows. maybe by the time my road trip ends i won't be so inclined to gravitate towards chocolate after all...??)

the weekend proved to be very enjoyable. we ended up over at uncle nate's for a bbq with kris, mike, j, ella & i - here are some pics:

i was asked to bring the dessert for the bbq and nate requested "peanut butter extravaganza".

if you are watching calories or fat intake...don't bother with this dessert. i've never actually sampled a piece of it even though i've made it for nate on two separate occasions now. he claims it is "incredible"...

sunday ended with a candlelight dinner for j & i - his idea.  we grilled together, cleaned dishes together - and was the perfect way to end the weekend. (his weekend anyway, he had to work yesterday).

speaking of yesterday, it was a day filled with driving to & from ormond beach with clara, ema, ella, ava and grandma kirkland. all 3 of the older girls had their feet checked for custom supports/inserts. we then drove over to cracker barrel for lunch and by the time we got back home it was 4p.m.  thanks grandma k for spending your day with us.

as you know, saturday is the day we will officially be celebrating clara's 13th birthday. she has requested a marble swirl cheesecake for her birthday dessert - (she's not a big "cake" fan and frankly, i'm not either...we normally opt for ice cream cake, if anything). but anyway, i allow the girls to pick what kind of birthday dessert they want and we've had everything from cheesecakes, volcano cakes and just massive ice cream sundaes. with cheesecake on my mind i was delighted when i came across this:

a new site called bakerella i've bookmarked and "sidebarred"...i love little finds like this. they are such treasures!

and again, speaking of treasures...look at this "j-inspired" creation:

yes...ella is officially a "bubble head"...how cute is she??

have a wonderful tuesday - only 4 full days this week - make them all count.