Muffin and cupcake wars

We have had a lot of activities with girl scouts recently. We took Sarah's troop (15 first grade girls - yikes!) to Cozy Cat cottage to tour the facility, donate items, and pet the cats. The girls loved it and Sarah especially loved petting the cats and attempted to persuade us to get another cat. She is wearing her girl scout vest holding a cat. There were cats everywhere!

Sarah and the cat she loved

Jenna's troop needed to make a breakfast item for the cooking badge. So the girls split up into four groups and each team made a muffin at my house. We had "muffin wars" just like cupcake wars. This was AWESOME! The girls had an absolute blast doing this. There are three leaders and each of us was in charge of one group and Erik was in charge of the fourth group. We really didn't help them much - they did everything on their own. My team did not win but we all had a great time. The girls are next talking about cupcake wars.I loved it. Erik thought it was crazy.

Jenna's troop muffin wars

Matthew and our flowering plant - what is this plant??

Jenna had her first strings concert of the year. She has really been enjoying playing the viola and it has been fun to see her grow throughout the year. She is turning into quite the musician.

Strings concert

Great job!

Since the kids had Friday off, we went up to see my parents and go to the MAPS museum. This was an aviation museum with planes the kids could climb in and walk through. The girls really loved it and asked a lot of questions. We had a tour guide and pretty much had the place to ourselves. It was very interesting!

MAPS museum

Jenna's friend Grace came over and said she would like to do cupcake wars. I would never say no to a request like this. So Grace and Jenna competed against me and they won 8 to 7 points (out of 10). Erik was the judge. They made smores cupcakes and I made peppermint mocha cupcakes. Matthew and Sarah attempted to make "yucky cupcakes". Yucky cupcakes they were! They put tabasco sauce, garlic, cheese, onions, sugar, sprinkles, garam marsala, etc. Just crazy stuff in these cupcakes. They truly were awful.

Cupcake wars

In other news:

• Erik will be 40 in 10 days. I can't believe it is almost here. His brothers along with a surprise person are flying here to game all day with him for his birthday. He will have a party on the 27th and will be playing board games all night! I think he will have a great birthday weekend.
• I finally finished the course development project I was working on so I feel like I can breathe again. I was pretty busy with it. This course should be pretty good (I'm hoping!)
• I finished the All Souls Trilogy by Deborah Harkness. Was this good? Yes. Better than Brandon Sanderson? No.
• Downton Abbey is my Sunday night entertainment every week. I don't like to miss even for something like the Superbowl.
• For Valentines Day Erik and I went to Kogens for sushi. I've been wanting to go there and it didn't seem like a place you can take kids (also Matthew will say "I don't like sushi!"). It was delicious!