Digging Deep

Remember on Monday how the Bean helped me make play-doh?  (Pink and purple of course!)  Today we had our play-doh play date with some of my friends from MOPS and it turned into one great morning.  I am so thankful for these ladies that have come into my life over the past couple of years.  Not only did Mikayla have a great time playing with some of her friends, but I got to have some adult conversation with three fabulous women, too.  Many thanks to Alyson, Amber and Tess for bringing their adorable kiddos over this morning to play and for reminding me how wonderful it is to connect.  I've had a smile on my face all day because of it!

The other big highlight of our day I unfortunately didn't get to partake in as I was off at a PTA meeting tonight. (Duty calls!)  But given their interest in mining gems, I found a kit for Grant and the kids to try just that tonight.  Complete with it's own little pick ax, according to Grant it was all that my twosome needed to see that perhaps the finding of actual gems and precious metals was a little more difficult than they anticipated.  Noah still wants to go to Idaho, though.

It was my original intention tonight to make this Barley Bake for dinner tonight as barley is a prime crop grown in Idaho and I thought it would be something different for the kiddos to try.  But I ran into some problems finding all the ingredients and decided to scrap it for the night.  Instead, I pulled out one of my (and the whole crew's) favorite potato recipes to add as a side to dinner tonight.  I can't even claim to have a recipe for this one, it's simply a potato foil packet.  My friend, Brie in Florida first introduced me to this "almost like a campfire" side.  Super easy - slice up some potatoes fairly thin, top with some sliced onions and pats of butter and season to your own taste preferences.  Wrap it all up in foil, bake at 350 for an hour and voila!

I ended up making tonight's dessert last night as I wasn't sure how wrapped up I'd get this morning.  But honestly, a phrase came out of my mouth while making them that I didn't ever expect to say "Those cookies totally make the house smell like twice baked potatoes!"  That's right, I made Baked Potato Cookies with Sour Cream and Chives.  I can't say that this is one of my favorites (for a cookie) but it was something fun to try.  Loaded with actual potatoes, sour cream and chives, it really reminded me more of a biscuit as it lacked the sweet of a cookie.  But everyone here had fun trying them out none the less.  Can't say I'll be rushing right out to make them again (kind of like when I made the dill pickle cupcakes) but it was worth the effort.

Looking forward to tomorrow as I don't have to crammed full of 'stuff to do'.  I get to hang out with Tess' daughter in the morning while my kiddos are off at school, which I'm looking forward to.  Then tomorrow night we're going to be trying trout, doing our Idaho mail call and the "We've Been There" State.  The kiddos have also been in deep discussion about what to color on their maps tomorrow, so you can be sure that you'll want to check back for that.  Until then...

Idaho Fun Fact of the Day:  Seven Devils' Peaks, one of the highest mountain ranges in Idaho, Includes Heaven's Gate Lookout, where sightseers can look into four states.

Mashed Potato Cookies

Ready for some playdoh fun!

Foil Packet potatoes before

All baked!

Our mining kit

Chiseling away

Quite the miner

Perhaps not as easy as they thought...

But success!