Birthday Festivities

This year, I vetoed the traditional birthday cake. Since Ty is kinda picky when it comes to desserts, I figured it was safe to make, what he called "the best treat he's ever eaten." Melanie made these peanut butter chocolate chip ball thingies the other day and Ty fell in love (with the thingies, not Melanie). They are basically peanut butter rice krispie treats on steroids.

We spent Ty's birthday night watching the long awaited LOST premiere. Needless to say we were disappointed when we discovered that the first hour of the 2 hour premiere was a recap. LAME. But otherwise, a good start to the season.

Friday Ty didn't have school so we devoted the entire day to celebrating! We went to the Children's Museum in the morning. I'm not sure if Ty or Mckinlay had more fun. It was equally as thrilling for me to see how excited they both were to be there! OK, so maybe this isn't the best "excited Mckinlay" picture. But trust me, she was excited. This little contraption took some serious muscle power! I know Ty makes it look like it is easy-peesy-lemon-squeezy, but I'll admit I darn near broke a sweat on my turn. Yeah, yeah I know the words "pathetic" and "weakling" are probably coming to mind. Go try it for yourself and then call me names. Or maybe don't try it for yourself...
We had some quality dress up opportunities......then our camera mysteriously stopped working. Mckinlay and I climbed into a canoe and then I handed Ty the camera to take a picture of us so that "I could prove that I came too" and nothin'. The camera would turn on, but that's about all. Then magically it started working again this morning. I guess I wasn't meant to have my picture taken. But believe it or not, I was there.

Last night, thanks to the Fillmore's excellent baby monitor listening skills, Ty and I went out to the Texas Roadhouse. It was our first time there, and we were quite pleased. But maybe not as pleased as the table next to us. They were very obviously not from the US and were so pumped when the waitresses started line dancing in the isles. They pulled out their video camera and everything. Pretty funny.

We decided it would be fun to have a camp out in our living room (sleep on the air mattress so we could watch a movie). We got all of 5 mins into the movie and then decided it was bed time. What a bunch of old fogies we are turning into. All the partying lately did us in, I guess. It's kinda sad to think my birthday isn't until September! I guess were gonna have to find some other things to celebrate in the months between now and then.

Here is the treat recipe if you want to give it a try:

Chocolate Chip Ball Surprise
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups creamy peanut butter
3 cups confectioners' sugar
3 cups crispy rice cereal, crushed (recommended: Rice Krispies)
1 cup semisweet mini chocolate morsels
2 (12-ounce) packages semisweet chocolate morsels

In a large mixing bowl, combine butter, peanut butter, sugar, rice cereal and mini chocolate morsels. (I first creamed my butter, sugar and peanut butter, then added the rice krispies...) Roll mixture into 1-inch balls and place onto a parchment lined sheet pan in the freezer. In a double boiler, (or you can use the microwave like I did), melt semisweet morsels. Stir constantly until melted and smooth. With fingers, dip half the frozen balls in melted chocolate. Place on a cool cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Place in freezer for 5 to10 minutes until the chocolate has set. Store the balls in an airtight container at room temperature.