What Happened in May? Crazy Ice Cream Day!

You may remember we have an annual Thiel holiday, created by Carley: Crazy Ice Cream Day. Usually we celebrate during the last weekend in April but this year it was postponed a weekend. 

We held our 3rd annual Crazy Ice Cream Day the first Sunday of May. 

This year the kids invited a couple more friends to join us. I put together a couple games to make the event more fun than just eating ice cream. 

I think the mini-party was quite a hit and the ice cream was delicious, of course. Just looking at these photos makes me smile, especially the ones where you can tell the kids are really having a good time. 

Pin the cherry on the ice cream.

Our sundae bar.

First person to get the cherry out of the whip cream and stand up wins!

2nd Annual Crazy Ice Cream Day!

Did you forget the last Sunday in April is Crazy Ice Cream Day? At least it is in the Thiel household.

Crazy ice cream, that's how we roll.




It all started last year when Carley had the bright idea to have a "crazy" sugar filled celebration and it morphed into Crazy Ice Cream day.

This year the kids invited friends over to join in the yummy goodness.

We had three ice cream flavors, waffle bowls and lots of toppings for many crazy ice cream possibilities! And let me tell you, the ice cream got pretty crazy.





Ice cream instead for lunch once a year isn't bad, right?

April Fool's Tradition

Every year on April Fool's Day I make the kids something to eat that looks like something other than what it is. You can see many of the past fool food in my blog post from 2011.

This year Walt had the kids at Taekwondo class why I whipped up some "meat loaf and mashed potatoes." Neither Josh or Carley like mashed potatoes and sort of dismissed dinner when they walked in the door.


Carley was the first to sit down. She touched the mashed potatoes and said "the potatoes are really cold.... like ICE CREAM!" She discovered the prank before taking a bite.


The meatloaf is a cocoa rice crispy treat loaf and the potatoes are ice cream with caramel sauce. The ice cream melted so fast so it was a giveaway.





This is one dorky tradition I plan to continue even if the kids figure out the trick before their first bite.

Crazy Ice Cream Day

April 28th was Crazy Ice Cream Day. 

You celebrated, right?

Back in April, Carley asked if we could create a holiday called Crazy Cookie Day. We talked about the concept a bit before changing it to Crazy Ice Cream Day. She picked the date and wrote it on the calendar so we wouldn't forget.

Ice cream for lunch. Loads and loads of toppings. It was crazy!

Carley dressed for the occasion, as an ice cream princess. 

Homemade Cinnamon Rolls: Life List #57

Lately I've been feeling uncreative and like I have nothing to photograph. I want to photograph something but the intensity of my last semester of school sort of squelched my creative abilities. Or at least my creativity is in hibernation. 

One thing I like to document through photography is accomplishing the items on my Life List. I figured it could give me something small to focus on, just a little something to make me pick up my camera. So yesterday I did.

Life List #57: Make cinnamon rolls from scratch.

I used The Pioneer Woman's recipe. I didn't realize until into the process that her recipe is for 40-50 rolls! Half the dough is still sitting in the fridge until later today.













I ran out of powder sugar so the maple icing was a little runnier than it was supposed to be.

The final result was one thumb up. I think I would have gotten two thumbs up if Carley wasn't busy finishing the last of her cinnamon roll. They were absolutely delicious!

Move More, Eat Less Update

I'm off the wagon. WAY off the wagon. Move more, eat less? What's that?

I'm not going to stop talking about it because that means I give up completely.


The last time I ran was March 4th. MARCH! That's well over a month ago.

I have gone mountain biking since March 4th, but not much. Probably only once.

As far as Weight Watchers goes, the last day I tracked my food for a full day was March 31st. MARCH! That's nearly a month ago.

The good news is I've stayed about the same weight; 20 pounds lost since December.

The bad news is since I haven't been exercising but have been eating no so well I'm probably losing muscle.

The point of this "confession" post is to get me in gear again and let you know I haven't given up. Yet.

Four Fools and a Birthday

Josh's 11th birthday is tomorrow. Last night, he had a couple friends sleepover to celebrate. The sleepover happened to fall on April Fool's day and I couldn't resist pulling a couple pranks on the boys.

First of all, I felt compelled to continue my tradition of April Fool's Day food.

It all started in 2007 with 'chicken nuggets'. Josh nearly puked when he discovered it was banana, peanut butter and graham cracker crumbs. I can't find a photo or the recipe.


2008 cupcakes.


2009 fish sticks.


2010 spaghetti.


2011 grilled cheese sandwiches


My kids are on to me though. Josh noticed something was up as soon as I handed him his plate. His friends almost took a bite before they figured it out but the oozy "cheese" stuck to a finger and he was shocked to learn it had the texture of frosting. Ultimately they had their cake before dinner and everyone still had a good laugh.

Besides fools food I put Vaseline on doorknobs, hid a couple whoopee cushions and sewed sleeping bags shut. I'm sure his friends think I'm a crazy mom but my kids are used to it.


Josh had the relighting candles on his brownies too. He requested them recently and they were quite appropriated on April Fool's Day.


Those candles were awfully smoky.


The friends assisted. Only a couple kept relighting.


Video games and gamer stuff was the hit this year.


The night was low key but quite fun. Josh is having a happy birthday weekend.

We celebrate with just us tomorrow. Biscuits and gravy is his breakfast choice and tacos for dinner. Yum.

Eleven, already.

Purple Pancakes

Aunt Janeice taught me that coloring pancakes make them taste so much better. At least the kids think it does.

Colored pancakes are a special treat; I don't color them every time I make them. But Josh and Carley sure love it when I do.



Sometimes it's the little things that make life memorable.

Around the World in a Day

My sister, Shelly, visited for a week just about the time that the kids started school. While she was here we went to San Francisco for the day. Just us, no children allowed.


First stop was Coit Tower.


Then we parked the car at Ghirardelli Square and travel the "world" via cable car.


We had a light snack at a little English tea shop. Oolong tea and scones for me. It was lovely.


Lunch was in Chinatown. Chinatown was my favorite spot of the day. It truly felt like we were somewhere different than San Francisco.


While in Chinatown, we visited a fortune cookie factory. These women stuff and fold 10,000 fortune cookies a day! Of course we bought some to bring home.


We took an hour rest in Washington Square Park across the street from Saint Peter & Paul's Cathedral. It was a beautiful day.


Dinner was in North Beach (Little Italy) and was absolutely delicious. The gnocchi I had was made fresh that day and melted in my mouth like soft cheese.


We headed back to Ghirardelli Square for a hot fudge sundae dessert. Oh the chocolate!


We drove over the Golden Gate bridge on the way home. Shelly's never been across it before. Unfortunately the fog had rolled in and this was the only view we got of the bridge. Oh well, next time.

To view Shelly's post of this trip, click here.