Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Bars

I prefer the bar variation to the cookies, so I whipped up a couple of batches this afternoon to take to the hospital with me for my Sunday shift. Instead of 2 cups of the chocolate chips, in one of the batches I used 1 cup of the chocolate chips and 1 cup of white chocolate chips. The other batch was made as directed.

Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Bars

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2 large eggs

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 375º.

Combine flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels and nuts. Spread into a greased 15x10 inch jelly roll pan.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheet for 15-20 minutes and then cut.

From Erin

"Dedicated to: Mom and Dad

You are my iPod

I am your music.

You are my bananas

I am your monkey.

I am your ink

You are my pen.

When I am next to you I feel like you are the world to me!!!!"

As written by Erin on 5/29.

(I made no changes to grammar or form)

India

There is someone in New Delhi, India that reads my blog somewhat frequently. If it's you, please leave a comment and let me know if you have a blog. I would love to "meet" you.

Purple

The lilly pads are blooming, and every day when I drive past them I cannot help but admire the beauty. Earlier in the day they are a more vibrant purple, but by early evening when I stopped to take this picture they had started to close up a bit. They are still so pretty.

Fun house

One of my favorite things about being a parent is having all of the friends of my kiddos over all of the time. I'm very close to their good friends, and as a result they all feel comfortable being here in our home. This is the "go to" place for them all to hang out, and I love it.

Yes, it's very blurry, but I love the picture. This is very typical of these three. Their favorite thing to do on a late Friday or Saturday night recently has been to watch old horror movies, including (recently) Poltergeist and The Exorcist. Left to right is Aspen, Taylor and Sean.

Cinco de Mayo

We didn't do much for Cinco de Mayo this year (we usually don't), but we did prepare a taco buffet and strawberry margaritas (virgin for the kiddos).

Sean and Taylor.

Plenty of food-tacos, burritos and nachos!

Erin ad Ashley

These two are inseparable. They are together during school, after school, and usually all weekend long. Two peas in a pod, but polar opposites in nearly every way (except that they both love Justin Beiber)!

Walking through their school on the way to their art festival.

Sean, Taylor, and Aspen

These three have been best friends since elementary school. Back in April they all three participated in the Prom Promise at the high school. It's a huge event that the school does every year, re-enacting a fatal crash after prom. Their school utilizes the local police department, fire department, the jaws of life, a local funeral home, and even flight for life. Students, parents, and faculty are used for the production, and it is so realistic that the majority of the parents and students that attended were in tears. The entire school is brought out to the football field to watch the re-enactment.

You can see pictures from the event this year by clicking here. Note that there are a total of three pages of photos (scroll at the bottom of the first page).

Anyway, the reason that they are all three wearing black is that on the day of the prom promise re-enactment a number of students wear solid black to represent the students that are killed each year in prom related crashes. These three happened to be a part of it this year. This photo was taken after school (I usually pick them up).

Driving

Sean just drove part of the way home from the DMV after getting his license. We stopped in the high school parking lot to practice for a little bit, and then he drove home from there. Not too bad, but I was ready to get out of the car!

So excited for Sean

He was accepted into the medical academy at his high school! Beginning next year, as a sophomore, he will not only be in all honors and advanced placement courses, but will be participating in courses that will prepare him for pre-med upon graduation from high school. He has known for many years that he would go into some type of medical field, and this will prepare him more than just the regular high school course work and electives would.

The medical academy is the most difficult to obtain admission to in his school, and I'm so proud of him. He has a lot of challenging years ahead of him, but I know that he's up to the challenge and will succeed.

In early June the students and parents of those accepted into the academy will be attending an induction ceremony. I'll post pictures then.

Not gone

I haven't disappeared. I have just been swamped with school, and finishing up the semester. I had my last final exam on Monday, and now I have two weeks off to relax and recuperate. I'm going to be planting my garden this week, and I'll have pictures of that process.

The kids have about three weeks left of school, and then they'll be out for the summer. Aside from our trip to Peru (me, Sean, and my brother, Tony) we don't have any other big plans for summer break. I'll be in class, and they'll likely spend a lot of days at Busch Gardens since it's about two miles from USF. It's nice to just be able to drop them off on my way to school, and then pick them up afterwards. They love it.

More soon!