Chocolate Heaven

Our second day in Chicago I treated Susan to a guided chocolate tour (best idea ever!) of the financial district in Chicago. We were the only two people on the tour and our guide was a bubbly opera student who holds six part-time jobs! We started at my favorite chocolate shop in the world Leonidas. Oh, how to describe the deliciousness that is Leonidas? I could eat them all day long, every day. They make me so very happy!

Hmmm, in this photo it looks suspiciously like I HAVE been eating chocolates every day for hours on end! All of this traveling lately has not been kind to my gut. I'm working on it.

Look inside that case - every one of chocolates is pure heaven in a dainty little package!


We had samples in all of the shops we visited (except Godiva's - they were rather rude and I find their chocolate sub-par and way overpriced - trust me, find a Leonidas and thank your lucky stars you read this post).

This was our favorite new shop. They have a wall of chocolate where they sell over 300 different kinds of gourmet chocolate bars! The owner gave us a tour and let us sample somewhere like seven different bars of chocolate! He was so friendly and kind and both Susan and I bought a fistful of new chocolate varieties to try. THEN, he gave us a free bretzel which is a hot baked pretzel stick thing that was sooooo tasty and soft and warm and if you're headed to Chicago, you must get one - or six.


Then, as if that were not enough, we went to the pastry shop next door and had white chocolate cheesecake!!! Look at these cakes - aren't they gorgeous?


We also tried some Frango chocolates at Macy's and their frozen chocolate mint cake as well. By the end, we were rolling ourselves into a taxi. But, not to worry, we felt well enough a hour or two later to stop by another famous Chicago pastry shop (Sara's) for amazing carrot-cake cupcakes. Hey, carrots are a vegetable!

Wicked!

What can I say about Wicked? It was incredible, marvelous, amazing, wonderful - really everything I imagined it would be! I have been listening to the music for over a year and even the kids know most of the words now! Susan got us the best seats - I was actually hit by flying streamers as the show opened! We got all dressed up and were treated to hor'deurves and drinks before the show and during intermission in a special VIP suite that I had no idea even existed! It was all very posh and so much fun!

The theater was a 15 minute walk from our hotel. Actually we took a cab there due to rain and walked home.
Susan and the girls - we were practically giddy; we were so excited to see the show!

The cast was phenomenal - I was so impressed with the chorus , every time they sang it just gave me goosebumps! Glinda was hysterical and amazing and started the role at age 20!!!! This was a sad moment for me when I realized this fact as she is living my dream life. Wow! I cannot imagine what it must be like to star in Wicked at such a young age.

Elphaba had the best voice of the cast (though the Wizard was another favorite). She was so expressive and strong and just made me happy to watch her performance.

After the show we saw the bishop and his family who had come to Chicago the same day to see the show! This is Elphaba (AMAZING) at the stage door after the show.

This tiny little thing is Glinda - she is seriously less than a size 0.

Overall, the evening was just magical. I cannot think of a more enjoyable way to spend an evening. Thank you Susan!!!!

Road Trip!

My dear friend Susan gave me the best birthday gift I have ever received - a ticket to the musical Wicked! I know, I know, all you jealous types, but she is MY friend and you cannot have her! So, this last week, we took a 2-day road trip to Chicago to see the show with Susan's oldest daughters Emily and Melanie and our friend, the other Emily. Another trip the weekend after my scrapbooking trip took some major planning/begging/promises of baked goods in order to pawn off all of my children to various friends while I was gone. In the end it all worked out - except for the minor glitch with the Thursday night babysitter who called when I was halfway to Chicago to let me know that she was vomiting and could not watch the kids that night. Ooops.
Chicago is a beautiful city and I am not sure why I have never spent time there before. I have driven through Chicago many times, but had never actually explored the city. Susan managed to score a great deal at a fancy hotel on the water just a few blocks from the magnificent mile by booking it the night before. More on the hotel later. . . the architecture of the city is amazing! I must have taken hundreds of photos of just the buildings!

Our pianist

Max wanted me to video him playing a new piece he is working on for this weeks lesson so I am trying a video again! I cannot edit so I made him skip the repeats to try and make it short enough to load!

Birthday Boy

So Bryan had a birthday in the middle of all of the scrapbooking and going to Chicago hubbub! We ended up having two celebrations for him as I could not manage to whip up a cake on his actual birthday! It's a good thing too as Max was insisting that Daddy wanted "Green Slime Cake".

Max found this truly disgusting cookbook on clearance (surprise, surprise) at TJMaxx on Daddy's birthday called "Stir, Squirt, Sizzle." He BEGGED and BEGGED until he drove me to distraction, so, like a good mommy, I caved and bought him the $3.00 cookbook. I let Max and Sophie each pick one recipe to make for Daddy's birthday dinner. Sophie picked "Baby Talk Tacos" and Max chose "Serengeti Soda". We then went to the grocery store where they had to read their recipe and find all of the ingredients. (Now we all understand why I did not have time to make an actual cake.) Dinner actually came out really well - the kids were so proud of their creations and served them lovingly to their dad! After dinner we all snuggled up on the couch with ""Kelp Kettle Corn Balls" - also from the dreaded cookbook - and watched the first Harry Potter Movie.

On Sunday, we had dinner with the missionaries and I made Bryan the Barefoot Contessa's Coconut Cake. Yummy! I am not a huge coconut fan, but this cake was delicious and like any good Barefoot Contessa recipe, it calls for a pound of butter! The kids gave Bryan their gifts on Sunday as well - a goldfinch feeder, a bag of peanuts in the shell for the blue jays, thistle for the finches and some other bird food - Bryan is really into bird watching these days in case you are wondering. One of the missionaries did not know what a robin was so Sophie explained that the male robin is brown with a red breast and the females are brown with a pink breast!

Things that make me happy!

I love antiquing and I love junking. There is a little town about 15 minutes from the scrapbooking retreat that has some great shops for browsing and getting decorating ideas. My "overachieving neighbor", Lisa and I took a couple of hours on Saturday afternoon to check out the new inventory!

I love this idea for the front porch!

Isn't this is great idea for decorating a pumpkin?! And, if it is used inside and the ribbon taken off before the pumpkin turns to mush, you can reuse the ribbon!

This is a restored black fan that Lisa loved. They were asking $250 for it. She offered $30, but they were not having it. Lisa did find a really cool old black wooden wine box that she couldn't pass up!

See the darling tin globe in the back? I own it now. I collect globes and especially love the little ones.

I bought this shutter and plan on displaying Christmas cards in it. It is tall enough to just lean against the wall in the family room.
Love these candle holders!
I also found some funky Halloween ornaments for my wire tree - I'll posts some photos when it is decorated!

Things that make me happy!

I love fall. I love the colors, the crispness in the air, the tart apples; I love a vibrant red maple. Minnesota has some beautiful fall scenes like this little market in Lindstrom, MN, but hands down the best place for a glorious fall is New England.

A Princess Party

Sophie received an invitation for a Princes Party on Monday the 15th. She and Natalie were most excited at the prospect of mingling with their other princess acquaintances!

Here are the lovely hosts: Queen Emily and her sister The Duchess of Laura.

The party was held at the great estate of Princess Reagan.

Princess Reagan is known for her keen fashion sense and she did not disappoint in this floor sweeping purple ensemble!


The stunning Praetor sisters were in attendance . . . .

This one is quite the little heart breaker with those gorgeous blue eyes!


Princess Natalie is a Princess of few words . . . . ha! ha! hee! hee! hee! sniff. wipe tear.

Princess Sophia is know far and wide as the most flexible Princess in the land!

This mystery princess is from a neighboring kingdom but was quite cute!

A more demure Princess Sophia.




Princess Anabelle looked ravishing as ever with her crimsom locks!

I brought along a very handsome Prince to pick up the girls (actually, I brought 3, but the other two are quite young!) They enjoyed some delicious royal pizza graciously offered by the queen.


The princesses enjoyed a lovely luncheon and crafts - an excellent way to spend the morning here in The Land of Eagan.

My completed pages

Most of my finished pages from this trip.

Scrapbooking Retreat Weekend

This was the weekend of my yearly scrapbooking retreat (yippee!) This is the second year I have gone and I look forward to it the entire year!

We stay at a home in St. Croix Falls, WI with a total of 18 crafty gals and share ideas, high calorie foods and a lot of laughs.

This year was a complete nightmare getting out the door. Bryan had an emergency thing come up at work and could not come home to be with the kids and I spent the afternoon trying to pack the car, calling everyone I know to try and get them to come and take care of my kids and literally crying with frustration and stress. In the end, a wonderful neighbor and kind friend from the ward came to my rescue and took the kids for me for a few hours until Bryan could get home.

I had the best time and got a lot of pages done. Though I missed everyone at home, I wished I could have stayed a full week and really caught up! As it was, I finished 2004 and started in on 2005!


The scrappin roomSusan was making Christmas cards - look at all that glitter!


My scrappin area - it was seriously messy at all times and I had the biggest pile of scraps on the floor when the weekend was over. I did not get a prize.

This is Kristen - first time scrapper and was making gorgeous pages her first day!

Here is Susan in her spot- keep in mind that we spent most of the weekend in our pajamas!

More changes!

Today was another big day in the Erickson household. Calvin went on his very first field trip! His little preschool had a trip today to the Apple Orchard and Pumpkin Patch. He was very excited about the whole thing - especially the idea of riding a school bus!

I must say, it was a tiny bit emotional for me. Calvin is my baby. I have a hard time accepting that he is growing up into someone old enough to ride a school bus. Sniff.

Here he is getting on the bus. He is so little that he had to be lifted onto the first step!


Here is the Mormon preschool contingent back from the apple orchard! It was freezing cold today - a big change from Sunday's weather!


Each child got to pick and apple (in the while bag) and a small pumpkin. Natalie and Calvin with their loot!