Mr. Dunderbaks

It's Friday night and we are home from soccer and my desire to have this snack/meal at this moment is leading me to instead blog about it, because I am out of cheese and pickles (not pretzels cause i bought those at Sams).

Growing up we made semi-frequent trips to McCain mall to partake in the yummyness that was a Dunderbaks pretzel. As a teenager my friends and i would go to the mall and have pretzels for dinner. Nothing like it! Mr Dunderbaks was a restaurant in the mall that sold a variety of sausages as well as pretzels and beer..pretty sure until it closed you could smoke in there...in the mall-crazy! It closed sometime while Pete and I lived in Fayetteville and in honor we started "making" Dunderbaks pretzels. We didn't really make the pretzels, just piled them with the same goodies. Alison did actually find a recipe for the pretzels at smitten kitchen, but i just use the frozen kind that you can buy at WalMart or Sams. You then top them with port wine cheese, salami and pickles.
They are delicious!!!!

fun t-shirts

Mary Polly's birthday was a few weeks ago and to help celebrate she and I made t-shirts as a party favor for her and the 2 girls that were spending the night. I had seen this project on someones blog, can't remember where, and thought I could tackle it. I often find projects that I need to do with MP, because they are not really boy projects..though the blog I saw this on had little boy shirts made this way with neckties made out of fabric-too cute!!!

I bought Heat n Bond, a no sew adhesive, and then ironed it on to our chosen fabric, per the package instructions. We printed letters in MP's chosen font and cut them out and traced them onto the paper (tip: you want to trace the letters backwards so they will be the correct way when you cut them out. We learned this the hard way.)

Then we cut out the traced letters and laid them out on the shirt..we had 2 little boys who were eager to help.

Once the letter was stuck on the shirt I sewed around them by hand in a corresponding thread. I liked the way the hand stitch looked, but if I was doing more than one at a time again i would do this on a machine.

They turned out super cute and were really very easy and inexpensive. I got the shirts for $2.50 at Wal-Mart, the adhesive cost under $3.00 (I used it on all 3 shirts and have lots left) and I used fabric and thread that I already had.

I think the Birthday girl was pleased.

We even sewed some of the extra fabric on the bottom of a skirt that was too short.

I always feel guilty to send lots of little things home for party favors that I know the moms just want to throw away...I think this is such a fun option for a small party.

wilson grandkids and granddog

The boys and i headed to Hot Springs on Saturday to spend the day with my parents and my brother and his family (including their new pup).

Campbell wanted to bring him home. He is so cute!

Before we left we took the kids out for a way overdue photo shoot. I can't remember the last time I took a picture of the 4 of them together and my mom has some frames she is dying to fill.

I will be posting a few more of these pics on my photo blog, whitneyloibner.blogspot.com, in the next few days.

loibner fam

It is a rare thing to get a family picture that includes everyone, but somehow we managed to get Jeanne to snap one as we headed out of Nashville on our way to the Smokys. And I even snapped this picture of the original loibner5, we are now the loibner-chino-davidson17.

my mom might be a bit jealous because i'm pretty sure the last time we did one was before reese was born...sorry mom!

1st day, 1st grade

Wilson is a first grader. I really can't believe it. The summer flew by and now our little guy is a big first grader. He was excited about the big first day, seeing his friends and meeting his new teacher.

He had a great day. It was so weird to be up there waiting for him and see the kindergartners and how little they seem. So weird how fast these little guys are growing up.

time traveler's wife

Last week I went out with some girls to see 500 days of Summer (great movie) and we had a conversation about movies that are coming to the theater. I said I really wanted to see Time Traveler's Wife (I like Rachel McAdams) and they all had a conversation about how great the book was. I was one of only 2 of the 6 of us who had not read it. I came home and decided that maybe I should read it before I saw the movie. I am not really the person that feels like I have to do that, but all the girls said they liked the book and one even said it might be her favorite. So on Thursday (6 days ago) Pete was heading to B & N and I asked him if he would pick it up for me. When he got home I was surprised to find that I had committed myself to a book that is 537 PAGES!!!! Friends that is a long book. I want to be a "reader", but I am really not. Pete even said that if I finished it before it was out of the theater he would take me to see it, then he made jokes about the dollar theater. But instead he will be shelling out the big bucks and looking for a sitter because I DID IT!!! I read it all in just 6 days, I truly can not believe it. I have never read a book and felt so much like I could not put it down, couldn't wait to see what happened and how it happened, certainly have not read 500 pages in a week. It was a great book! and now that I've read it I am anxious to see what the movie will be like. Anybody seen it? Would love to know...and if anybody is looking for a good read I would recommend it, I even have a copy I would be happy to loan you.

sticks and firepits

Rain or shine all 9 kids were VERY entertained by all the sticks. There were big sticks and little sticks, real sticks and metal "sticks", fire sticks and smore sticks and sticks for weapons.....there were even special spots where the sticks were bigger and better.

Grace played with sticks too, not sure why I don't have a picture of it-sorry Grace.
On the dry nights we had a fire (with sticks) and smores.

swimming

This is the water than ran through our campground. As I'm writing this I'm thinking i don't know what it was, river/stream??? on this day it was moving nicely, but not rushing like it was later in the week. It was a lovely little spot with clear water and a bridge over it and the water was FREEZING! I can't believe the kids braved it, but they did and didn't even whine about it.

It took some courage building, but by the end the kids were jumping off this rock and letting the current carry them under the bridge- so fun (wish I was brave enough to get in that cold water).