Mother's Day & Banana Bread

This weekend was a hectic one.  Friday night we took my nephews to see my school's production of "The Little Mermaid."  The show was great and the boys were so well behaved!  We all really enjoyed the show.  Saturday, we went to Tom's cousin's son's Communion party.  On Sunday, Tom and I worked around our house.  We are trying to help out our poor front lawn!  It was covered with dandelions, but after tons of fertilizer and weed killer it is finally starting to clear up a bit.  We put down some new topsoil and seed and are hoping with time to make our lawn look a little better.  A beautiful butterfly was flying around that I managed to snap a shot of.  I am hoping it was a hello from my mom on Mother's Day.

Our lawn or lack of lawn

We also went to the most amazing landscape nursery Ver Der Ber's Landscape Nursery and Garden Center. We want to someday redo a lot of our trees and shrubs and this place is so much fun to walk around!  It is like walking around an enchanted garden!






Mother's Day was tough for me this year.  It always is, but I really felt emotional seeing everyone's posts on Facebook about what they were doing with their moms.  I had to put a brave face on all week at school too, watching my students enthusiastically talk about their moms and look at their eagerness to give their moms the presents we had spent so much time in class making. I would have loved to have spoiled my mom too, to let her know how special she is and how much she meant to our family, but all I could do was look at her picture and say a prayer.  I did enjoy going to my father in laws for a BBQ to celebrate my sister-in-law who is a terrific mom.  I love her and her boys so much and the joy they bring to my life.

My cousin recently became a new mom.  I made her a crocheted blanket which my dad and Eric brought down with them to Florida.  I love this new pattern and was thrilled with how it came out.














A North Fork suggestion for you is "Funcho's Fajita Grill" in Main Street in Riverhead.  It is actually right next door to Snowflake Ice Cream that I mentioned in a previous post.  Tom and I greatly over-ordered but we enjoyed quesadillas, chips, salsa, beans, and rice!








Lastly, tonight I made my mom's banana cake recipe.  It is really a Bisquick recipe and my mom always made this when our bananas got too ripe.  I find myself doing the same and sometimes I think I purposely let my bananas get to ripe so I can make this treat!  Sometimes I make it as a loaf, muffins, or like tonight a 13x9 cake.  You just have to adjust your cook time (cake 30 minutes, muffins 12 minutes, loaf 50 minutes).  You can vary it too, icing or plain, chocolate chips, nuts, etc!

2 1/3 cup Bisquick
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup oil
3 eggs
3 large ripe bananas
1 tsp vanilla

Mix together well.  Pour into desire pan and bake at 350 degrees (use times listed above).

Lastly, I have been obsessed with writing my children's chapter book, "K.C. the Kindergarten Dog."  I am so pleased with it and have completed 8 chapters, with 2 more to go!  Anyone know of a good illustrator?  Or publisher for that matter lol?  Hope to let you read an excerpt sometime soon!