Trekin' through Thursday

I have to admit that the weather has me kind of feeling 'blah' today.  It can't seem to decide if it's going to be hot or cold, cloudy or sunny or even rain and it's messing with me (and in turn the kiddos) for sure.  On top of it, they are SUPER excited about going to Cinci for the weekend so we've just kind of spent the day scattered to the wind.  We didn't have any plans really, so we just kind of hung out, got them ready for their vacation and (mostly) enjoyed being together.

This afternoon after naps all around (yep, totally a 'mom needs a 20 minute cat nap, too' day) they did work on their state coloring pages.  I had a hunch I knew what they'd create, but as always they did surprise me.  They also spent a good chunk of the afternoon in heated conference about what few books and toys they were being allowed to take in the car to occupy them on their trip.  With one small bag each it was quite the 'what is most important' dilemma.  Aunt Shell, I'm hoping that their choices make the trip to Cinci at least a little easier...

I also finished up our Mississippi culinary tour with them this evening.  Since it shares a border (and some bayous) with Louisiana, there tends to be culinary influences from there that seep into Mississippi cooking as well.  So tonight we had Creole Steaks in honor of that.  Grant is a huge fan of cube steak recipes so I figured this would be easy and pleasing all around.  In addition, I made this Awesome Sweet Potato Casserole to go with it.  Mississippi is actually the nation's second leading producer of sweet potatoes so I knew we had to work them into the menu this week.  Be warned - this recipe is sweet!  But the gang here liked it.  I finished it up with one more salute to Mississippi mud with these Mississippi Mud Bars.  While a little messy (I probably should have added a touch more powdered sugar to the icing to get it to firm up a bit) if this is what mud tastes like in Mississippi, pass me a fork!

Taking the kids to Bowling Green to drop them off with Shell tomorrow then they're off to Cinci on Saturday!  In the meantime, Grant and I are back here trying to catch up on some of those 'eventually' projects around the house sans kiddos.  Oh boy :-p  So most likely little to no blogging until they are back here late next week.  Remember we're on a State Project hiatus until the 30th!  But look for us to be back up and running here next Thursday probably.  (maybe an update or two between now and then as I hear what they're up to!)  So until the next time...

Mississippi Fun Fact of the Day:  On April 25, 1866, women in Columbus decorated the graves of Confederate and Union soldiers in Friendship Cemetery. This gesture became known as Decoration Day, the beginning of what we observe as Memorial Day.

Mmmm, Mud Bars...

The camera and I are fighting today, but I was trying to get a good shot of the layers

Working on their states

Having been meaning to show more pictures of this.  This is the cotton project from the other day.  Well the longer it's sat the more intense the colors have become.  It's GORGEOUS now!

Noah's Mississippi, complete with cotton, catfish, a bottle of Coke and the Muppets

Mikyala's Mississippi (though I can't quite figure out why it's upside down...) Hers has the Muppet she created and a bottle of coke

At least she was holding it the right way

Awesome Sweet Potato Casserole - my whole crew LOVED this recipe.  Only change I made to the recipe was to halve it and I used walnuts instead of pecans as that's what I had at home.

Creole Steak