Chocolate Chip Cookies

I love chocolate chip cookies. 

I mean LOVE!

So when I kept seeing this picture labeled

best ever chewy chocolate chip cookies

all over Pinterest, I knew I had to give it a try.
Here are the ingredients:

 

It starts off like most other recipes,

but apparently, the big secret ingredient is corn starch.

The dough was great,

and the cookies - delicious!

 I'm not tossing out every other cookie recipe I own
or anything like that, but these were quite good.

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

3/4 c. unsalted butter, softened 

3/4 c. brown sugar 

1/4 c. sugar 

1 egg 

2 tsp. vanilla extract 

2 c. flour 

2 tsp. cornstarch 

1 tsp. baking soda 

1/2 tsp. salt 

1 c. chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugars until fluffy and light in color. Add egg and vanilla and blend. Mix in flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt. Stir in chocolate chips. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until barely golden brown around the edges.

Walter's Big Day!

What wears camo jammies,

light up snow boots,

and turned three last month?

 

THIS GUY!

(modeling some of his new birthday gear.)

We recently donned party hats,

and ate a bunch of food,

in celebration of Walt's 3rd birthday.

It was pretty fun this year because he finally understood
the day was all about him and picked out the Cars theme himself.

Here he is blowing out the candles on the cake I made him,

and opening up some of his many wonderful gifts.

He was pretty excited about this one -

 and was outside tearing around on it before long!

We did a scavenger hunt for Cars characters in the yard, 

 

but the real fun came
when everyone gathered in the back for race time!

I'd seen this Cars party online
complete with cardboard box cars for the kids to race in.

 I knew I wasn't going to go all out like these cars,

but still never found the time to make any.

So here I was a few hours before the party,

unshowered, and painting diaper boxes with craft paint 

because I just couldn't let go of the idea
and knew the kids would have such fun.

 

(FYI - next time I'd use spray paint, but this was so last minute!)

All I managed to do before I needed to get myself ready
was rip the flaps off 4 diapers boxes
and hastily paint one yellow, red, green, and blue.

Luckily, 2 teenage cousins arrived for the party who loved

sitting in the garage adding all of the details to turn my sad little painted boxes into Cars characters.

Thanks Lex & Kailey - you girls saved the day!

 Here's Walt in his Lightning McQueen race car -
 

And here are the rest of the cars
lined up for the first race of the day!

Seriously, how cute are they?

We set up a course, had checkered flags to wave,
and gave treats to the winner of each race.

 

Then they'd switch out cars and runners and start again. 

The big kids ran a few,

 

 and even Miss Ruby gave it a shot.

 

Walt took a turn running the show -

 and even raced Daddy!

He had such a great day and was happy to see his Grandmasand Grandpa from Long Prairie.

 

Love that little Lightning McQueen -

Can't wait to see what he picks out next year!

Just a Swinging

Want your kids to have a place to swing 

but don't want to commit to a giant swing set in your backyard?

I hear you.

Since we finally got a deck this summer -

we had a nice place to hang this cute little swing 

that Grandma picked up on clearance for $5!

 

Adam just screwed 2 of these screw eyes

 

into boards he attached to the underside of the deck

and then we hooked the swing in.

That's all it took!

Even though it's pink, Walt was still pretty pumped about it.

He loves riding in it

just as much as Ruby does!

And when they don't like it anymore we can just take it down.