Grandpa John's {Birthday} Week

Because grandpa is extra special to us, we thought we'd make his Birthday week extra special... I was going to do a "picture post", but we all know I can't refrain from making comments...

Last Saturday, we celebrated a week early by making him a cake...

Whoops.. got some on my fingers!

Pretty proud of his job!

Adding his personal favorite cake topping.

The final product! I asked Trice how old he thought Grandpa was and he said, "Well, he sure acts a lot like me so he must be 1."

Cute little fish Trice made!

We went to grandpa's house and made BLT's and played/watched some football!

Other gifts Trice made grandpa this week...

For his room at g-pa's house! We are searching for a train bed to put in there... FYI.

I don't think I have a picture of the final product, BUT it was a tissue paper heart and it was really cute!

We were going to be out of town on his actual Birthday, so we decided to surprise him a day early ... I found this grocery cart at a garage sale this summer and didn't even hesitate buying it. I knew Trice (and all my future children) would LOVE having a cart like the ones at grandpa's store. I hid it ALL summer from my dad, but I did let Trice play with it .. because I wanted to make sure Trice could really push it in the store before we surprised him. Then I decided to just save it for his Birthday. I snuck in a different door and bought him a balloon to attach to it and luckily ran into a guy I know who works there to go get a donut (because he would have seen us if we went to get it) to put in the cart. Then I got to the produce section and let Trice go. They paged my dad and told him a customer needed help. He came around the corner to Trice pushing the grocery cart and his face just lit up! It was so much fun!

Just like Grandpa!

Grandpa, how does this one look? Ripe enough?

Last, but not least, we KNEW g-pa needed this shirt... who doesn't? ;)

We had to get one of these for G-pa!

Happy Birthday to the best daddy and grandpa in the whole world! Your love for your family continues to hold us together and we wouldn't know what to do without you in our lives. Trice is blessed to have someone love him so very, very much!!

{Banana} Bread

I realize I've been MIA from my blog for awhile. There are several reasons for this, and I'm sad that I'm so far behind I don't think I'll ever catch up .. but this will be an easy peasy post to write so maybe it will get me back in the groove!

Trice LOVES bananas. Trice LOVES bread. I LOVE new ideas for him for breakfast/snack. 

I don't do homemade. If I bake anything, it's from a box or the freezer section. However, I had 3 really ripe bananas and since Benny has become so anti-wastey over here, I decided I better use them up. I didn't want to make banana pies because they would never be as delicious as my neighbor Ashlee's pies. I came across a recipe on Pinterest and decided to give it a try! I bought a Pampered Chef (ohhh. fancy!) loaf pan that has sat collecting dust in the back of my cupboard for let's just say a few years... so it was time to see how great it was.

I wish I could tell you if it was good or not, but honestly I think banana bread is disgusting. Like really disgusting. So I have nothing to compare it to... However, Trice gobbled it up and Benny gave it a thumbs up without knowing I had baked it. He did say the texture was a little different and when I admitted I switched out some ingredients, he admitted that he noticed. ;) But most importantly, Trice liked it and it was an easy thing to take along travelling to Ames this weekend.

Enough mumbo jumbo .. 

Ingredients

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup sugar free applesauce
• 3/4 cup honey (WARNING: Do NOT give honey to children under 1 year of age or as directed by your doctor)
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 3 mashed overripe bananas
• 
  

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.

What the directions said to do: In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, mix together applesauce and honey. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.

What Grace actually did: Poured all ingredients in no particular order into bowl using minimal measuring devices because I apparently can't read. Stirred as long as I felt it needed to be stirred. 

Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 65 minutes (my oven is possessed so 40 minutes did the trick), until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.

Yummm..? 

Anywho, I'm not sure how "healthy" this really is. I'm no nutritionist. I just ate half a bag of candy corn pumpkins for supper.. but I felt better using the whole wheat flour, applesauce, and honey. Some people offered suggestions for making it even healthier so maybe I'll have to give those a try. Happy Baking!!