Adventures with Girls

I took Emma and Cate to the state park yesterday for some “beach” fun. It takes about 30 minutes to drive to this place. Cost me $10 to get us in and then another $7.50 in hotdogs at lunchtime but we had a blast. I’m paying for it today with a sunburned back but other than that, it was money well spent.

I saw a little girl walking towards us and I told Cate to go see if she wanted to play. As it turned out, the little girl is actually someone I know’s kid. It worked out nicely. The chick and her husband came over and sat with us. I had someone to talk to and her daughter had an instant playmate. It was a win-win. Not to mention that it’s always nice to have a few extra pairs of eyes watching the kids near water. I don’t trust those bikini wearing teenage lifeguards any farther than I could throw them.

We stayed a little bit too long though thus the sunburn. When we got home, Emma was crashed out. I put Cate down, too. It was perfect! Then my friend Tammy came over to cut my hair. She is a bargain at $15 and lives close by. I just needed a trim but if I go to a salon, they want at least $25 (not including tip!) and I have to go there. That’s just a real pain in the ass since I don’t get out much without kids and when I do, time is of the essence.

I should head out to weed my garden this morning before it gets too hot. I have been procrastinating and now the weeds have taken over. I checked it out last night and I have a bunch of green tomatoes, flowers on my pepper plants and everything’s getting bigger and bigger. Supposed to rain today so that’s good. I can’t wait to eat homegrown tomatoes. *drool*

Well, off to make these peanut butter cookie bars for breakfast. A girl Billy knows from high school posted the recipe last night on Facebook. Her mom was the lunch lady. I’ll share it with you. They are yummy! I think I’m going to make my own chocolate icing though. 1) I don’t want to go to the store and 2) store bought frosting is ick.

Peanut Butter Fingers

Ingredients:

Bars:
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanila
1 1/2 cup raw oatmeal (not instant)
2 eggs
2 3/4 cup Peanut butter (smooth, use a good brand like Jiff)
1 tsp Baking soda (do NOT use baking powder!!!)
1 tsp salt
2 cups flour

Frosting:
any chocolate tub of icing you like! (Or be a bad ass like me and just whip up your own with some butter, vanilla, cocoa and powdered sugar.) Here’s a recipe.

Mix all bar ingredients together, beat on medium speed.
Press into a greased pan, bake at 350 for *20 minutes. After cooled, frost with favorite chocolate icing
*** the SECRET is to UNDERBAKE about 3- 4 minutes, ovens vary, and it also keeps the bars chewy and moist!!!

Edited:

Ok, I just stuck these in the oven. I didn’t use as much peanut butter as it called for. I cut the sugar by about 1/2 a cup and added 2 Tblsp. of ground flax seed to add some health to it. Ha!

I’m not sure chocolate icing is necessary. I think these would be yummy as is. Also, it made two cookie sheet pans of this stuff so I am going to freeze half of it.

Edited again:

Delicious! The flax gave it a little nutty crunch I think. It’s really good and I didn’t miss the full amount of sugar or peanut butter. Might post a pic of them later. . .