Tea Parties, Dancing, French Toast & Friends

Yesterday we had a full day of rain.  I love the rain.  I wish we had more of it.  When we do have it, I just enjoy every minute of it!  My granddaughters Hannah and Claire came over yesterday morning while Mommy went for a check up.  We had a lot of fun.  First we had tea party.  Don't you just love our little Hannah's new haircut?  Her Mommy, my Gennifer, is the best hair stylist around!!

 We had a couple of cowboys and Indians join us for the tea party.  Noah insisted!  Clairey brought the horses.

 I asked Noah for hot tea with Blue Agave Syrup.  He said, we are all out of Blue Agave Gamma, but I can mix red and yellow together to make Blue Agave!!!  I cracked up!!

Clairey played with the school bus and Little People.  And laughed herself silly over the wind up Choo-Choo.

They all took a nap.  (Pretended, that is.)
 And soon it was time to get Noah off to school.
 It was pouring rain, and luckily my son Drew was home, so I didn't have to take all three of them out in it when I took Noah.  When I came back home, I found that Uncle "Goo" had made eggs and shared them with the girls, and when I walked into the house I found the sweetest thing.  Drew had pushed the coffee table out of the way, and put in the Wii bowling game and was teaching the girls how to play.  He was standing next to Hannah talking to her and telling her how to use the controller, while holding little Clairey's hand.  I had to run and get my camera!!

It just melted my heart!!

Uncle "Goo" is a musician, and he sometimes lets the girls play his instruments.  They both got to strum the guitar a little bit.  And then Uncle "Goo" played for them, and they had dance party.

They just make me laugh.  So much energy!!  I hope they always want to come to Gamma and Geeps house!
The rain continued all day, and I thought it was a good night for potato cheese soup.  I got the soup on, and cooked a pound of bacon in the oven to top our soup, and froze the rest for later.  Geeps stopped off at the store on his way home for a nice loaf of crusty French bread.  We had a little more than a half of that loaf leftover, and I was thinking of making French Toast for breakfast today.  But then while reading through some of my favorite blogs this morning, I came upon my friend Pam's blog,

For the love of cooking and got right to the kitchen to put together this fabulous oven baked French Toast with Streusel Topping.  

You can alter this to suit the number of people you may be serving.  I started with 5 eggs, but then after pouring the egg and milk mixture into the bread cubes, I felt it needed a bit more.

     So I cracked one more egg, added a splash more of 1/2 & 1/2, a bit of vanilla and poured it over the bread cubes.

Then, the thing that makes this so different, is the streusel topping.  

  Bake it for 55 minutes, and serve with warm pure maple syrup.

   DIVINE!!!!    I microwaved the bacon that I saved from last night, and cut up some fruit.  So delicious.  And so easy!  This will definitely be on the menu the next time I have a crowd for breakfast.  Go check out Pam's blog for the right measurements.  This is a Pioneer Woman recipe, although not in her current book.  But it is on her blog.

For lunch today, I met up with my dear friend Sue.  She was in town to pick up her darling grandson for a few days, and her daughter Courtney met up with us too.  I had made Court a purple Bloomie after learning that she had borrowed Sue's and loved the color purple.  

Here is Sue and Courtney.  Sue and her husband Ron and I all went to high school together.  And then when we moved out here to Corona, 28 years ago, we discovered that we were only 4 doors up from them!!!  We have been having fun together ever since. 

 Courtney is a school teacher, and recently got this beautiful bag from her students and their parents!!!

 I would say that she is much loved in the classroom!!!!!

Sue's little pride and joy, Ayden.  

    He just started to walk a little bit.    Love those Frankenstein arms!!!                                                               Sue and Ron lived here by us for many years, but now live in Palm Desert.    Even though we miss seeing them as often as we used to, we do get to spend a lot of fun times together.   We both spend a lot of time up in Big Bear, and do a lot of boating together.  We are already thinking about the upcoming summer and how many fish we will catch.  Sue's friend Susan was with her today, but I didn't get a picture!  Sorry Susan!!!!  It was fun to meet up with  you ladies....and cute little Ayden!        

I have a wonderful looking recipe for Georgia Lemon Bars to try, from my friend Thea.  I will be sharing that with you soon.

Before I go, I want to thank Deb for the ever so thoughtful email and message you sent to me.  It made my day to hear from you!!!!   Deb says she has been following my blog for a couple of years and feels like she knows me.  We have shared a few emails back and forth, and I sure wish she didn't live so far away!  I know we would be have a lot of fun together!   Blogging has been nothing but a positive experience for me.  I could never understand when people would say otherwise.  Like anything else in life, it is whatever YOU make it!  

See you soon with what I hope will be a wonderful lip puckering recipe!!!
XO  Kris