Aimee's Home Made Strawberry Ice Cream

I was in Afghanistan for Christmas 2012, but I managed to order Aimee a KitchenAid 6-quart standing mixer from Amazon.com.  This Valentine's day, I bought her an ice cream maker attachment for her mixer at Target.  It was on sale!  Aimee just tried it out.

The recipe requires egg yolks, so you have to cook the mixture.

Eli's into making funny faces every time we take his picture lately.

The bowl is double-walled and filled with a liquid between the walls.  You have to freeze it before using it.

Here it is, mixing away.

Strawberries!

At this point, the mixture has already turned into ice cream.

You add the strawberries near the end of the process.

Oops; we made too much!  It overloaded and made a big mess.

Into the freezer overnight.

The finished product.

I like Hershey's syrup and almonds in mine, but it really doesn't need any toppings.

It's delicious!  And it's incredibly sweet, considering how little sugar Aimee used.  But it's not overwhelmingly sweet.  We'll have to try a few more flavors.

Build-a-Bear Workshop & Chuck E. Cheese's

I'm backed up on special occasions to post.  For Eli's birthday (7 February), we took him to Build-a-Bear Workshop in Overland Park, a suburb of Kansas City.  We'd already been there once for Abi's birthday and Christmas, but Aimee forgot to make photos that time.  I stayed with Jer-Bear and the other kids in the children's section of Barnes & Noble.  Jer-Bear loves the train set there.

Picking out a bear.

It's a polar bear!

Aimee tells me you get to pick out your bear's personality traits and drop them into its heart.

Eli with his polar bear, and Abi with her dog, Sally.

Eli picked out a football uniform.

This is where they stuff the bears.

They let Eli activate the machine.

Eli named his bear Mario after the video game character.

Abi and Eli with Sally and Mario.

Afterward, we had lunch at Golden Corral, then we took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese's.  Why eat before going to a place that serves pizza?  Because Chuck E. Cheese's is a whole lot more expensive than Golden Corral!  Besides, buffets have a lot more variety, so we all get what we want.

Unfortunately, Chuck E. Cheese's was insanely busy, so I only snapped a couple photos.  We let the big kids run off in pairs while Aimee and I stayed with Eli and Jer-Bear.

Jer-Bear loved this little fire truck.

Eli spent most of the time in this play structure.

Had I known how much he'd love this structure, we could've saved a lot of money on tokens!

That's it for now.  Until next time!

Happy 4th Birthday, Elijah!

Elijah turned four today.  I really love this stage in his life.  He's big enough that he can express himself well enough for Aimee and me to understand him, and that playing with him - mostly some form of rough housing - is a lot of fun for me.  I love how excited he gets about things.  He jumps up and down, yells, waves his arms...  I especially loved when I picked him up from his Sunday school class and when I took him to Aimee he said (jumping excitedly), "Mom, my teacher said God loves me!  And my teacher loves me too!"

Anyway, here's the Little Man opening presents.  As always, click on the pics to enlarge them.

Eli asked for this Flashlight Friend, and Gamma and Gampa got it for him.  I wish I'd been filming him at this point so I could've captured his excitement.

This was a Mario Brothers themed birthday, starting with these action figures.

Mario Kart!

He loves these steering wheels, though he still has a hard time playing game.

Toy shaving cream and razor!

Mario Karts!

This is one of his Mario Karts.

Eli loves the Berenstain Bears, and has an extensive collection of their books and cartoons, but this one is new to him.

After presents, the little boys took a bath.

That shaving cream came in handy.  Even Jer-Bear got in on the act!

After their bath, it was cake time.  Yeah, that's backward, but it's the way things worked out.

The Mario Brothers theme continues!

I was deployed over 2013-2014.  I missed All the kids' and Aimee's birthdays.  Eli's is the first birthday of 2014, and I'm grateful to know this year I'll be present for all their birthdays and other holidays.

Happy birthday, my Little Man!  I'll always remember you like this!

7 February 2010.  "Dad!  Get me away from this crazy lady!"