So, Troy has been requesting a chocolate pie for some time now. I made what I called a chocolate pie a few weeks ago, which consisted of the instant pudding mix that was sugar-free and fat-free, on a store bought graham cracker crust and topped with fat-free Cool Whip.

OK, now that I'm describing this in detail it really doesn't sound that great. And it wasn't all that great. I mean, if you're trying to eat less sugar and less fat, you sometimes take what you can get, right? So maybe you convince yourself that it's great. It wasn't.

He sensed this "lack of greatness" from the initial pie and never had any. I finally threw it out.

Because I am madly in love with my man, I want to make him this pie. So I searched several cookbooks and settled on one from Richland Springs, my parents' hometown and the area where my grandmother still lives. If those ladies don't know how to make a fabulous chocolate pie, no one does.

Turns out, there are many chocolate pie recipes in this cookbook. One might be from Mrs. Thomas, several from Billie Perkins, a couple from Dorene Mills' Aunt Fae, etc. I'm making up names here, but it was an interesting mix of submissions. I just picked one at random.

I thought it was going to be a disaster. In the first batch of chocolate filling I tried making actually scrambled the eggs as I added them to the mixture. Who does this? I've always laughed at the thought, but here I was scrambling eggs in my chocolate pie. Guess I was rushing too much. I actually thought about leaving it that way and seeing if anyone would notice, but thankfully my better judgement won out. I threw it out and called my mom for advice.

Her main suggestion was to add more corn starch than it called for so it would be sure to thicken. Makes sense to me...who likes a runny pie? So I added a TON of cornstarch. So much, that after this thing cooked, I really felt certain we could insulate windows with it. I know she didn't mean to add that much. Thought it was going to be awful, but we had to try it.

Guess what - it was so good!!! We all loved it and if the process wasn't so painful, I'd make this on a regular basis. Maybe someday I'll try again. All my respect goes to those who can succesfully bake chocolate meringue pies.

I wonder if I could make a chocolate meringue cupcake...

Open House

We had Open House tonight at the boys' school. They were very excited to show us their rooms and all the special things their classes had planned.

In Davis' classroom, there was a special place to pot a plant in a pot he had painted. He and Daddy are hard at work doing some gardening.

Davis had a special gift for mom, too.

In Andrew's class, we got to see lots of crafts they had been doing. Here's Andrew and Dad checking out Humpty Dumpty on the wall. Check out that band-aid on Humpty's head...he's already had a fall!

I got a squeeze in front of the tree full of bumble bees and baby birds.

Andrew is checking out his other craft, which was a tile that had his picture with the flower cross at the church. What a great keepsake!

Here's Andrew and his teachers, Ms. Brenda and Ms. Tracy. They have been so fun to have as his teachers this year. We'll miss them!

The Easter parties at school were so fun. Here are Davis and Andrew on their way in, so excited about the day.

They are hanging on to their bags full of candy-filled eggs for their class Easter egg hunt.







I went back and forth between their parties, as usual, but they are very understanding about it. Lucky for me, their classrooms are close together!

Davis and I at the beginning of his party...

...and he and some of his buddies in his class.

And here are Andrew and I in his party, where someone got to him before I did and drew a bunny face on him!

Once we started the Easter egg hunt, I got to see the whole ensemble, ears & all.












After their parties we headed to the playground where one of the moms was passing out bubbles to Davis's class. It was a perfect ending to a great day at school.

Found the cupcake carrier!!!

Life is so good. I went back to Target this morning, and looking in a different part of the store found exactly what I wanted. It's genius, really, this cupcake carrier. You can get as many of the stacking layers as you want and they all hook together. Since I had 24 cupcakes, I just got the 2 layers for now. Love it, love it, love it!!!! I will be volunteering for lots of cupcakes at parties now.


I also managed to find the last soccer ball Easter basket that they had in the store. Lucked out on that - I had seen it last night and thought it might be gone, but it was still there and Andrew is very pleased. Now he has a basket similar to Davis's basketball Easter basket.

It's the little things!

Cupcakes...who knew?

Who knew that cupcakes would be one of my favorite parts about being a mom? Aside from the overall concept that cupcakes are just about the most perfect treat imaginable - they are the perfect size, just the right amount of icing, portion control is built in (unless you eat the whole pan, which I am often tempted to try)...

But making cupcakes for Davis and Andrew has to be one of the most fun things I do. I don't do it often, mostly because I would eat the whole pan, but when I do it is SO fun. They love to spread their own icing, and it's really cool to see their technique improve. They've even moved past just eating the icing off the top (which we secretly all want to do) to eating the whole cupcake - at least for today.

Today I am making cupcakes for Easter parties tomorrow at school. I went to Target this evening in search of the 24-cupcake carrier so I would be organized and cool taking all these cupcakes to school in the morning. But after hauling both kids up to Target at 6:00 pm, they were in fact SOLD OUT of the 24-cupcake carrier. I've actually been waiting for months to buy this carrier. Being without one the night before the party is really sad, but my own fault for waiting until the last minute. I am not above checking Wal-Mart early tomorrow morning, though.

I'd love to say that I made these lovely little gems from scratch, but we got the "funfetti" mix and whipped up a couple of batches. The funfetti is, well, so fun with all those little candy bits in the cupcake and we were very excited about it all until...I forgot to put the candy bits into the first batch. This will be the batch we mostly eat at home. We'll let the kids at school enjoy the funfetti with us.

So now, I am on to icing 26 cupcakes and sprinkling the funfetti topping on them. As I am doing this, I'm listening to my sweet boys play upstairs, looking for dinosaurs and Davis's "not-so-scary monster", Malcolm. They are calling for me to come open the closet and help them look (yes, I still have door-knob covers on the closets) so I should go where duty calls.