DC Cupcakes on TLC - I am in love!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have been living in the dark for no telling how long. On Thursday, Dana tells me about DC Cupcakes - a cutesie bakery owned by two Greek sisters. I happened to catch a glimpse of my favorite shade of pink on two aprons and I zipped back through the channels and there they were! Sophie and Katherine - the very show Dana was telling me about. I am in love LOVE LOVE! Amazingly enough, I have been able to watch 4 shows already (yes, so I stayed up until the wee hours to do it) and they are just adorable - and FIESTY - two traits I like best! There are only two teeny tiny flaws I found with the show - Dana should OBVIOUSLY be on this show, being very Greek - and I should be on the show too - due to my overwhelming love of cupcakes, bakeries, the color pink and aprons in general. Catch the show on Fridays at 10pm, but hurry - it is only a 6 part series.

If you want to see the real bakery that Sophie and Katherine own that is featured on the show - Georgetown Cupcake - visit their website...

http://www.georgetowncupcake.com/

Things to know!

Dana, my sweet friend who could easily be mistaken for a Kardashian, sent this email to me and it was too good not to share IMMEDIATELY!

THINGS TO KNOW:

1. Budweiser beer conditions the hair

2. Pam cooking spray will dry finger nail polish

3. Cool whip will condition your hair in 15 minutes

4. Mayonnaise will KILL LICE, it will also condition your hair

5. Elmer's Glue - paint on your face, allow it to dry, peel off and see the dead skin and blackheads if any

6. Shiny Hair - use brewed Lipton Tea

7. Sunburn - empty a large jar of Nestea into your bath water

8. Minor burn - Colgate or Crest toothpaste

9. Burn your tongue? Put sugar on it!

10. Arthritis? WD-40 Spray and rub in, kill insect stings too

11. Bee stings - meat tenderizer

12. Chigger bite - Preparation H

13. Puffy eyes - Preparation H

14. Paper cut - crazy glue or chap stick (glue is used instead of sutures at most hospitals)

15. Stinky feet - Jello!

16. Athletes feet - cornstarch

17. Fungus on toenails or fingernails - Vick's vapor rub

18. Kool aid to clean dishwasher pipes. Just put in the detergent section and run a cycle, it will also clean a toilet. (Wow, and we drink this stuff)

19. Kool Aid can be used as a dye in paint also Kool Aid in Dannon plain yogurt as a finger paint, your kids will love it and it won't hurt them if they eat it!

20. Peanut butter - will get scratches out of Cd's! Wipe off with a coffee filter paper

21. Sticking bicycle chain - Pam no-stick cooking spray

22. Pam will also remove paint, and grease from your hands! Keep a can in your garage for your hubby

23. Peanut butter will remove ink from the face of dolls

24. When the doll clothes are hard to put on, sprinkle with corn starch and watch them slide on

25. Heavy dandruff - pour on the vinegar!

26. Body paint - Crisco mixed with food coloring. Heat the Crisco in the microwave, pour in to an empty film container and mix with the food color of your choice!

27. Tie Dye T-shirt - mix a solution of Kool Aid in a container, tie a rubber band around a section of the T-shirt and soak

28. Preserving a newspaper clipping - large bottle of club soda and cup of milk of magnesia, soak for 20 min. and let dry, will last for many years!

29. A Slinky will hold toast and Cd's!

30. To keep goggles and glasses from fogging, coat with Colgate toothpaste

31. Wine stains, pour on the Morton salt and watch it absorb into the salt.

32. To remove wax - Take a paper towel and iron it over the wax stain, it will absorb into the towel.

33. Remove labels off glassware etc. rub with Peanut butter!

34. Baked on food - fill container with water, get a Bounce paper softener and the static from the Bounce towel will cause the baked on food to adhere to it. Soak overnight. Also; you can use 2 Efferdent tablets, soak overnight!

35. Crayon on the wall - Colgate toothpaste and brush it!

36. Dirty grout - Listerine

37 Stains on clothes - Colgate

38. Grass stains - Karo Syrup

39. Grease Stains - Coca Cola, it will also remove grease stains from the driveway overnight. We know it will take corrosion from car batteries!

40. Fleas in your carpet? 20 Mule Team Borax- sprinkle and let stand for 24 hours. Maybe this will work if you get them back again.

41. To keep FRESH FLOWERS longer Add a little Clorox, or 2 Bayer aspirin, or just use 7-up instead of water

42. When you go to buy bread in the grocery store, have you ever wondered which is the freshest, so you 'squeeze' for freshness or softness? Did you know that bread is delivered fresh to the stores five days a week? Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Each day has a different color twist tie. They are:

Monday = Blue
Tuesday = Green
Thursday = Red
Friday = White
Saturday = Yellow

So if today was Thursday, you would want a red twist tie; not white which is Fridays (almost a week old)! The colors go alphabetically by color Blue- Green - Red - White - Yellow, Monday through Saturday. Very easy to remember. I thought this was interesting. I looked in the grocery store and the bread wrappers DO have different twist ties, and even the ones with the plastic clips have different colors. You learn something new everyday! Enjoy fresh bread when you buy bread with the right color on the day you are shopping.

"Here's to you, Ms. Robinson ..."

Aren't these "smart," as Ms. Robinson would say. I love these shoes! Alas, they are only one of many pairs in her closet. Oh, how I wish to live there one day!

Just a "normal" Wednesday in the life...

(Send help for the mamas!)

Decadent Dark Chocolate Ice Cream

I love it when my parents call and say the magic words "White or Red...?" because this usually means good things! This time it came in the form of twin red ice cream makers! The only bad part was that the inside freezer bowl of the machine had to be washed and frozen solid in order to make the decadent concoctions. I didn't find this out until the next morning when two little boys were prancing around in the kitchen in their pjs wanting to make ice cream.

If you buy one - take it out of the box, rinse it and pop it into the freezer immediately!

Here it is, all ready to make ice cream!



Here is what you need:

2-1/4 cups whole milk
2-1/4 cups heavy cream
1 vanilla bean
1-1/8 cups granulated sugar
1-1/8 cups Dutch process cocoa
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
12 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped

Here is what you do:

In a large saucepan, combine the whole milk and heavy cream over medium-low heat. With a sharp knife, split the vanilla bean lengthwise; use the blunt edge of the knife to scrape out the "seeds" of the vanilla bean.
Stir the seeds and bean pod into the milk/cream mixture. Simmer the milk/cream mixture over low heat for 30 minutes. Remove the vanilla bean pod and discard it or rinse and reserve for another use.

Combine the sugar, cocoa, eggs, and egg yolks in a medium bowl; using a hand mixer on medium speed, beat until thickened like mayonnaise.
Measure out 1 cup of the hot milk/cream mixture. With the mixer on low speed, add the cup of hot milk/cream to the cocoa mixture in a slow, steady stream and mix until completely incorporated. Stir the chopped chocolate into the saucepan with the hot milk/cream. Stir the egg mixture into the hot milk/cream. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens and begins to resemble a chocolate pudding. Transfer the chocolate mixture to a bowl and stir in vanilla. Cover with plastic wrap placed directly on the surface of the chocolate mixture, and refrigerate until completely cooled.



Pour the chilled custard into the freezer bowl, turn the machine on and let mix until thickened, about 25 to 30 minutes. The ice cream will have a soft, creamy texture. If a firmer consistency is desired, transfer the ice cream to an airtight container and place in freezer for about 2 hours. Remove from freezer about 15 minutes before serving.

Animal Crackers ... remember these?

I haven't seen these sold in the original boxes in awhile. Maybe it is because I shop at a Super Wal-mart - where the selection is slim pickin'. So we went to Kroger, land of a million things Wal-mart doesn't carry, low and behold the animal crackers from my past! I quickly bought 2 boxes, one for each of the animals that live in my house!

P.S. Wouldn't it be just so simple and cute to have these as birthday party favors?

Girlie Wal-mart Plates - .75 cents STEAL

Aren't these cute? You like them, don't you?!!! I found them on the 4th of July clearance section at Wal-mart. Well, I guess I should add that I didn't buy them all from the same Wal-mart. I bought the first 2 at the Rincon Wal-mart. Then I went to the Pooler Wal-mart desperate to buy more (ALL ALL!!!) of them. I found most of this stack at the Hwy. 17 Wal-mart, where I discovered that "they" have a much better selection of EVERYTHING at that store and began to calculate how I planned to start shopping there instead of the one in my own county. Every now and then Wal-mart is a good thing.

Very Blogworthy: Jim's Boxed Cinnamon Streusel Muffins

So, Jim buys this box of muffins at the grocery store. A week ago on Saturday morning, he gets up and bakes them himself. He even has the audacity to ask if I think they are "blogworthy", to which I turned up my nose and cackled. As if all of this isn't enough - that boy had the nerve to bake those boxed muffins in my new Wilton pan! Well, when I am wrong, I say I am wrong - and lawd was I wrong! They are GOOD! And just to make sure you can get a box of your own - this is what to look for...
(You will have to get your own man to cook them for you.)

Kenner Tree Tots Treehouse circa 1975

If ever there was something blogworthy, this is it. Most people who have known me for long enough, have heard me reminisce over my sold-at-a-garage-sale Kenner Treetots Tree House. Once, about 8 years ago, I found one on eBay and I proceeded to fight like a mad toddler over it until the bidding reached $70 and I decided to back away from the clicker.



So, tonight, as we were all sitting on the living room floor playing Slap Jack, Miles reeling from Owen's teasing, I thought of the long lost Kenner Tree House. Unbelievably, a few are still out there, but apparently in the land of plastic and weeble-wobbles, the real estate market is still booming. This one goes for $225.00.


Perhaps one day I will be able to score a foreclosure Tree Tots Treehouse or one going for a short-sale, something I can finance for a 30 year fixed rate. Until then, I will have my blog to look back on, fondly remembering the little elevator in the tree trunk that goes up and down... There's always the dream...

Not Yo' Mama's Banana Pudding...

A sassy version of the wrist wranglin' original...



Now this recipe has a story behind it. I have a good buddy by the name of Joe Gibbons. If I am talking about Joe - I mean Joe Gibbons, period. So Joe is a senior citizen, but by numbers alone (he often acts like a 35 year old.) Joe is a character - a little naughty at times, like most men, but funny - man is he funny. He has a story for everything and if you want to laugh even harder, you need to hang out with his friend Homer Collins. I love Joe and Homer. My life would've not been complete without meeting the two of them, nor the other people I met working at CoastLine Travel for those few years. They changed my life and my way of thinking completely and boy did we have a good time.

So Joe was often without a wife. It wasn't that he didn't have a wife, it was just that they didn't live together that much while I worked with Joe. I couldn't figure this out for the life of me, as Joe had all of the qualities that I think a man should possess. He was funny, he thought I was funny (this is the most important trait) and he liked to eat. In fact, Joe would even eat Mexican food over and over again in the same week - what a good man. We'd often talk, while we were eating lunch, about what we'd like to eat next!

Now, back to the real story - Joe, being without a wife, often missed having some dessert... what he really wanted were some pies - and this girl don't do pies! (Joe even propositioned me once to bake him pies for payment - one pie a week, brought in each Monday! As if!) So for Joe's birthday, I decided to make him another of his favorites - banana pudding. I made him this very recipe "Not Yo' Mama's Banana Pudding." I was so proud of it! I brought it in that morning to CoastLine, beaming like a bride, and after he had finished a bowl full of it, he said to me, "Gurl, this is a good dessert ... but it's not banana pudding." Well, I was fit to be tied! I have never in my whoooooole life had someone say something like that before, especially while still chewing! The next year, my competitive streak convinced me to make homemade banana pudding - the kind you stir on the stove forever, whip egg whites to make meringue and bake it in the oven to make the peaks golden - the whole bit! Now when I brought that version in, he had to pick his jaw up from the floor to taste it - and he told me it was some the best he ever had and that, girls, is a compliment from a man his age.

So here is "Not Yo' Mama's Banana Pudding"...

Ingredients:
2 bags Pepperidge Farm Chessmen Cookies (or vanilla wafers if you don't have time to run to the store!)
6 to 8 bananas (not green), sliced
2 cups milk
1 5oz. box French Vanilla Pudding
1 8oz. package cream cheese, softened
1 14oz. can sweetened condensed milk
1 12oz. container Cool Whip, thawed


Line bottom of a 13x9 inch dish with a bag of cookies and put sliced bananas on top. Blend milk with pudding mix well with electric beater. In a separate bowl, beat cream cheese and condensed milk until smooth, fold in Cool Whip - add top pudding mixture, stirring (not beating) until well blended. Pour mixture over cookies and bananas; cover with remaining cookies. Refrigerate. Gets better by the day!

Piggy-back Pimento Cheese...

Miles and Owen named this recipe. I hope that explains things a little...



Piggy-back Pimento Cheese
(dip & sandwich spread)

Ingredients:
2 cups sharp cheddar, grated
2 cups jalepeno jack cheese, grated
1 8z. block cream cheese, room temp
1 large jar diced pimentos, drained
1 lb. bacon, fried crisp & crumbled
Mayonaise
Salt & Pepper to taste
2 smidgens Garlic Powder (two pinches for you non-southerners)

Grate cheese and set aside. Whip room temp cream cheese in mixing bowl, then whip in grated cheese. Add in drained pimentos, then add in mayonaise little by little until you like the consistency. Add in bacon crumbles, garlic powder and begin adding salt and pepper to taste. You are looking for a slightly salty, smoky flavor.

Serve on bread or crackers or celery sticks if you are trying to be skinny.

What do Chocolate ShooFly Pie, The Duggar Family & the Amish have in common?

Now that's a loaded question! First the fly swatters - I came across the cutest flower fly swatters at the Dollar Tree in Garden City and just had to have one. Later on, I decided that a few of my friends and family needed one too. I decided that what better way to give this cute little gift than to attach a ShooFly Pie recipe to it!



ShooFly Pie is an Amish recipe and although I have actually never met a real Amish person, I long ago decided that I would like to be Amish myself. (I would also like to be a Duggar and not so many people understand that either! You can read all about the Duggars at http://www.duggarfamily.com.)



A side note - if you enjoy reading about the Amish way of life, here is the first book in a series called Ellie's People. I first read this book when I was a teenager. I can't believe that it is still available!

http://www.amazon.com/Ellie-Ellies-People-Christner-Borntrager/dp/0836134680

Now back to those fly swatters. This is what they looked like after I attached the recipe cards. I threw a few into mailboxes and on front porches for a fun little surprise for my friends and family.

Anthropologie - if we only had one here!

Here are some lovely things I'd buy...

First start off with the aprons - obviously!




Dishcloths






Cute bottle opener


Measuring spoons


Ceramic egg carton - how do I live without it?

Wall hook


Perfect for lemonade on the porch!

Dollar Tree ... a treasure trove of things!

If you haven’t been to your local Dollar Tree lately, you might want to stop by ... before your trip to Walmart. Here is what I found the last time Jessica Brady and I hit the Dollar Tree on Hwy. 80 in Garden City. Most (if not all) of these items are sold at the Rincon Dollar Tree too!

Let me start with the most important item:

Nature’s Own Honey Wheat Bread and White Wheat Bread.
You will pay $1.88 and $1.98 at Wal-mart (or $2.98 at Fresh Market!) for this same bread that you can buy every day of the week for $1 at Dollar Tree in Rincon and Garden City! Yes, it is fresh daily - I have never ran into a loaf that wasn't completely squishy fresh. I got this little tip from Amy Quick over a year ago and I have been getting my bread there ever since!


Seasonal/Holiday decorating/houseware items
Summer items included straw hats, canvas bags (think Lands End canvas, only thinner), floats, swimmies, beach balls, fiesta party decorations, 4th of July baskets, plates, cups, serving pieces & décor, pool noodles, water guns, hard plastic plates/cups for outdoor dining, matching plastic tablecloths, etc.

Silk Flowers
These yellow cuties came from Dollar Tree! Told ya I was finished with real flowers for the window boxes! I have some beautiful hot pink ones in a box outside my kitchen window too! It's all in the arranging!



Greeting/Birthday cards
There are some cute ones! You might have to spend an extra few minutes to find something fun, but they are there for the taking!

Assorted packs of blank/birthday/thank you cards
I bought a pack and discovered that I could run them right through my office printer!

Party supplies
Assorted primary & pastel (matching) plates, cups, napkins, cutlery, signs and party hats. Printed cellophane bags, gift tags of all kinds, favor boxes, curling ribbon, filler paper (the shredded kind), gift bags galore.

30 Sheets of Primary & Pastel Tissue Paper
This miight not sound that exciting upon first glance, but let me tell you - I go through a ton of tissue paper because I like to wrap gifts in cellophane and use tissue paper inside the cellophane and the result looks like a piece of wrapped candy. Getting 30 sheets of tissue paper - and two of the colors are lime green and hot pink - this is BIG STUFF for me!

Now we can move on to the stuff that we use on a regular basis – and I was so surprised to find at the Dollar Tree!

Reynolds Aluminum Foil

Gladware Containers

Ajax and Palmolive Dish Liquid

Windex Wipes

Furniture Polish Wipes – two or three brands (they do not carry Pledge brand though)

Ziploc Baggies – all sizes

Brown paper sacks – good for making cute gift bags - all you need is a hole puncher and some ribbon.

Disposable Aluminum Baking pans, pie plates, cake pans, muffin pans, etc.

Glass condiment cups
I bought two sets of these - I use them for measuring out spices and vanilla before I start baking. You get 4 glass cups for only $1 (I priced them at Walmart for at least $4 a pack!) They also carry plastic red and white ribbed condiment cups – cute for BBQs or to use to set out ice cream toppings.

Shirt Boxes

Recipe Cards

Post-It Notes – only 2 colors, but still!

Latex Gloves – I keep these for when I chop jalapenos

Dish towels – not the best selection, but if you need some in a pinch

Plastic bins/Plastic Baskets galore – including the plastic red/white striped popcorn set!

Soft Soap brand hand soap – they have the Black Raspberry and Meyer Lemon (my fave!)scents.


Toilet Paper

Paper Towels

Lysol brand cleaners

Movie-size candy – all the favorites

Libby Brand Canned Veggies

Hunts Ketchup (my fave is Heinz, but in a pinch!)

Glassware of all kinds

Tea light candles – I use these outside on my patio.

Glass rocks – those that you can use in vases, craft projects and fish tanks

Florist wire, florist pliers, florist Styrofoam (all sizes)

Frames – cheap, but if you need to frame a document or make a framed sign - they are there for the taking.

VITAMINS!
Now, I am not going to stop buying the brands we use daily, but I did find some Fish Oil and Calcium with Vitamin D that I bought - can't beat it for $1! They expire in 2012.

Check out the Dollar Tree before your weekly Walmart shopping trip (drudgery.) If you are like me and you can't stand that Wal-mart gets all of your money, especially since they continue to get slack about carrying some of our favorite products... Might as well spread the money around and for a buck - I am in!

Father's Day ... A grown-up boy gets a new glove.

Here is one of Jim's Father's Day gifts. Can you guess what is inside?

1:20am German Chocolate "Grandpa" Cake

My stepdad LOVES either Mrs. Crockers or Mr. Hines' German Chocolate Cake with Caramel Pecan Icing - and the poor thing only gets it once a year, on February 7th. So I decided this year, I'd make him a German Chocolate Cake from scratch.

WARNING 1: THIS IS NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART, NOR FAINT OF WRIST!

WARNING 2: THIS IS A MONSTROSITY OF A CAKE!

SPECIAL NOTE: Pictures couldn't be taken at regular intervals due to baker being in the trenches separating whites from yolks, warming milk, further mincing shredded coconut to get a finer grate, and stiring, stirring, stirring.

For the cake, you will need:

4 oz. Bakers Semi-Sweet Dark Chocolate Baking Squares
2 sticks Land O' Lakes Butter at room temp
1/4 cup warm milk
2 1/2 cups SIFTED cake flour (this means sift first, then measure)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
5 medium egg whites
2 cups sugar
5 medium egg yolks at room temp
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup buttermilk, well shaken

For the Coconut Frosting, you will need:
2 cups sugar
8 medium egg yolks
2 cups evaporated milk
2 sticks Land O' Lakes Butter
2 tsp vanilla extract
20 oz. grated coconut - you will have to run this through a food processor for finer grate
2 cups finely ground pecans

Prepare the chocolate by melting it in the top of a double boiler, stirring until it is smooth (or if you can be trusted to not walk around, melt it in the microve at 1 minute intervals on 30% power - stirring after each interval.) Add 1/2 stick of butter and stir until it is melted and blended. Add 1/4 cup warm milk and stir until smooth. Set the chocolate aside to cool.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease with Crisco (butter will not do here, neither will Pam spray) and flour 3 9-inch cake pans.

Sift together sifted flour, baking soda and salt.

Using electric mixer, whip the egg whites using wire beater attachment until stiff peaks form, transfer to another bowl and set aside. Wash mixing bowl.

In washed mixing bowl, cream remaining 1 1/2 sticks of butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add the egg yolks, one at a time beating well after each addition. Add the melted and cooled chocolate and vanilla. Mix well.

With the mixer on very low, stir in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk. Do this by adding about a third of the flour and slowly stirring it in completely. Then add half the buttermilk and stir it in. Continue adding flour and buttermilk in this manner, ending with flour. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl and stir again. With a long-handled spoon or spatula, fold and stir beaten egg whites into the batter until the batter is smooth with no visible clumps of whites.

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans and bake for 30 to 40 minutes. Bake on the middle rack of the oven, allowing at least 1/4 inch clearance between the pans and the oven walls. The cake will rise above the pan edges as it bakes, but will not spill over and will settle back down as it continues to bake. The cake is done when it begins to pull away from the sides of the pans and springs back to a light touch. Cool layers in the pans for about 8 minutes.

Run a knife around the edges of each pan and turn the layers out onto wire racks that have been sprayed with cooking spray. Cool layers completely before frosting.

To make the frosting, combine the sugar, egg yolks, and evaporated milk in the top of a double boiler (see note at bottom.) Stir with a wire whisk until the yolks are fully incorporated. Add the butter. Place over simmering water and bring to a boil. Simmer for 12 - 15 minutes longer, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens. Add the vanilla, coconut and nuts. Cool.



(At this point, it was 1:20am, so I layered my cakes on top of each other with buttered sheets of aluminum foil in between each layer (for lack of parchment or waxed paper) and then covered with the lid to keep the cake moist overnight.



To assemble the cake, place one layer on a cake stand and spread with frosting. Frost each layer completely, tops and sides, as it is added to the cake.

Note: You can also make the frosting in a regular saucepan (large) being sure to stir constantly as it scorches easy.

Dinner and a Pudding ...

I have decided that my plethora of casserole recipes = one round mama + too much time spent in the kitchen. Today, I have embarked on a road less traveled (by southern girls) and decided to live a casserole-less life! No more cream of this and cheesy that. Casseroles, while heart and soul warming, take too much time to bake - and more time to pick out the scary green parts for the boys.

Tonight's Menu:
Baked Parmesan Encrusted Tilapia (in your local Sam's freezer!)
Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Green Beans (made super lowfat with Goya Ham seasoning packets!)

Dessert for the Monkeys:
Tiny banana puddings with Reddi Whip and Nilla Wafers

And for the Mama:
Blackberries with 15 calorie Reddi Whip

My Dearest Liz ...

Surprise! I have updated my blog! Just in time for you to enjoy with your cuppa' PG Tips on Saturday morning! See you Tuesday!

Kitchens on the Square

Recently I met Jennifer for lunch at the Express Cafe and Bakery.

http://www.goosefeatherscafe.com/

After lunch (I got the Hermitage, a cucumber/tomato/sprouts with cream cheese on wheat baguette) and after the pumpkin whoopie pies, we went across the street to Kitchens on the Square. They have all of the cute, funky pottery and platters that I adore, along with any new and trendy kitchen item you can imagine! They also have a twice weekly Lunch & Learn, where you get to watch a chef prepare a yummy menu of appetizer, entree and dessert and then get to eat it! They also have a once monthly girl's night out with dessert and wine!

Love the cute dish towels that they have hanging from the ceiling...



Adorable stack of tea cups!

The Lazy Days of Summer ...

Backyard Tic-Tac-Stone

Poor Jim has a wife with too many ideas. Here was today's ...

Tic Tac Stone



Here is what you need:
(9) 4 inch brick pavers (Lowes for .68 each)
(1) bag of stones (Walmart craft dept for $4)
white interior/exterior paint
kids paint brushes (watercolor ones work)
couple of kids
(1) willing and able man

Once you have everything you need, wipe off 10 similar in size, flat stones. Pour paint into a disposable plastic container and set out brushes. Sit your children down at the (covered) table and proceed to instruct the older one to do the O's and try to convince the little one to do the X's (because the O's are harder to paint.) Let the stones dry.

Next, head outside and carry the stone pavers to the area of choice (shade) and lay out half an inch apart, 3 on the top, 3 in the middle, 3 on the bottom. Now, go find your willing and able man. Tell him that you've tried (you will need a shovel propped up near the digging site) and you just can't break through the soil and would be come and help. He will be impressed that you have the tools (shovel) and the pavers already in place. He will gladly take over. Stand back.

This man will note the square footage of the work area. He will then set aside the stones and remove the grass and 1 inch top layer of soil. He will then tamp down the soil to make the bottom flat and even. Then he will place the pavers as you had them before and will add back in the soil by shaking it from the clumps of grass.



Spread out evenly and tamp down with your foot.



Carefully sweep the stones off and you can now add back in some tiny sprigs of grass to help along the regrowth. Grass will fill in the dirt area between the pavers.

Sit down and enjoy the game!