Mother's Day Weekend

I know, I am late posting, but that's how it goes with kiddos.  Do I think Casey had a nice mother's day weekend.  It all started off with cleaning the house for her on Saturday, which obviously the heavens above were please with my cleaning as they blessed us with a beautiful rainbow that afternoon. ;)

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Casey and I enjoyed a movie later that evening, Blind side.  We both enjoyed it, check it out next time you are looking for something good.

Sunday, the kids got out their mother's day card they made Casey, it was huge, like 1.5ft x 2 ft.  Funny how the kids area already realizing how different aspect of gifts get more reactions.  We then hurried and got everyone ready and went out for breakfast at the waffle shop on Atherton.  We knew there was going to be a line and we were prepared, snacks, toys, games, etc just to keep them entertained till we got to the table.  It was definitely the least pleasant trip to the waffle shop ever.  I know it was mother's day, but taking like 25mins to get our food seemed a bit ridiculous.

We then went over to my grandmother's house to visit.  We also took some flowers and a vase.  She enjoyed the flowers and got a kick out of watching Hailey and Tyler play.

Later that evening, I cooked Casey her dinner request for gluten-free Mac n Cheese with grilled rosemary balsamic vinegar chicken. And to finish off dinner I made a Cranberry Mint Martini (her new fav).

[caption id="attachment_527" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Cranberry Mint Martini"][/caption]

Happy Mother's Day!

MillBrook Marsh Nature Center Visit

Today I took the kids to the Millbrook Marsh Nature Center in State College. We have never been to the place, so we decided to check it out.  It was a nice day, sunny and not too hot.  The kids loved walking on the board walk, but also enjoyed walking on the grassy paths.

We saw lots of birds, even heard a wood pecker once.  We saw fish in the streams. We also got to observe a really big ant hill.  The kids were very interested in the ant hill, since it was almost 2 feet high.  We met some nice doggies and their owners walking on the trails.

Below are a few photos we took while on our visit to Millbrook.

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Butterflies: Hailey is excited and they are growing

So Hailey asked me to show a photo of her with her gift, the butterfly garden kit.  Here she is excited about her gift and can't wait to see how they grow.

[caption id="attachment_490" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Hailey excited about her butterfly garden kit present"][/caption]

The caterpillars at this point are about 1/2 inch long.  They are also very active, moving around and eating a lot.

[caption id="attachment_491" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Caterpillars: day 2"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_492" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Caterpillars: day 2"][/caption]

Stay tuned for more butterfly updates.

Butterflies: Package Arrived

Today my daughter's birthday present from my sister's family arrived.  It is an Insect Lore Butterfly Garden kit!

[caption id="attachment_486" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Butterfly Garden Kit"][/caption]

So basically as you can see in the image you get a container with butterfly caterpillars in it and a butterfly habitat.  The caterpillars are currently a little over 1cm long.

[caption id="attachment_487" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Caterpillars"][/caption]

Hailey and I are going to try to post photos and descriptions every few days just to show how they are growing.  Should be exciting.

Gluten-Free Stromboli

I finally got some photos taken of a gluten-free stromboli that I made for dinner one evening.  I used the same recipe that I use for my gluten-free pizza.

1. Make the pizza dough following the pizza recipe instructions


2. Spread it out onto a large piece of parchment paper, just like in the my pizza recipe instructions, except make the entire thing flat, no extra dough needed around the edge for a crust.


3. Cover spread out dough with your favorite topping stuffers (veggies, meats, cheeses)


4. Pick up one edge of the parchment paper and fold it over to the other side.


5. Now push the dough together around the edges to create a sealed stromboli.


6. DON"T try to pull the parchment paper away now, wait until it is cooked


7. Place stromboli into the oven to bake (on a pizza stone works best)


8. After 5-8 minutes, its time to flip it, so very carefully flip it over onto its other side


9. After another 10 minutes, its time to take it out and enjoy

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State College Celiac Support Group with guest Lisa Lundy

Tonight I attended the State College Celiac Support Group meeting.  Lisa Lundy, author of Super Allergy Girl, presented a guide to Allergy and Gluten Free Cooking to our group.  It was really nice having Lisa come speak with our group and it was nice to finally meet her .  If you remember from one of my Allergy Free White Cake post, she suggested a recipe to try when I was making the allergy free cake for my friends daughter.

Lisa's presentation was good. I was surprised to learn just how many studies have been done and the amount of research being associated with Celiac Disease (CD) in the past few years.  It is obvious that CD is main stream and more people are becoming aware of it.   I appreciated her taking the time to come visit with our group.

Tonight's meeting had an attendance of 22 people, of which 4 faces were at the meeting, hope those individuals enjoyed the meeting.  Heidi stated that we now have 50 people on our groups yahoo list server, woohoo!  This is pretty awesome.

Product Samples at the meeting tonight included:

• Allergy Free Homebaked Goods - Thanks Lisa Lundy


• GF Betty Crocker mini iced chocolate cupcakes - Thanks Janelle


• GF Bread, Graham Crackers, and Cheese Crackers - Thanks Grainless Baker


• Living Without Magazines (April/May Issue) - Thanks Living Without and Ken for making the effort to get the free copies

It was a great meeting and thanks again goes out to those that helped make it happen.

Speaking of Celiac research and awareness... tomorrow (3/18) there are two seminars happening in Happy Valley:

1. Penn State University's Food Sciences Department will be having a seminar tomorrow afternoon @ 4:30pm; Celiac Disease: How Nutrition Can Go From Joy to Nightmare, presented by Alessio Fasano, MD, professor of pediatrics, medicine, physiology; and director, Mucosal Biology Research Center, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD.


2. The Mount Nittany Medical Center is also having an educational seminar tomorrow night @ 6:30pm; How to Identify A Clinical Chameleon: A Focus on Celiac Disease,  also presented by Alessio Fasano, MD.  If you can make it, check it out, besides its FREE (for a fee you can go early 6pm and enjoy a gluten free buffet).

Visit to Curiosity Connection

Being winter time here, there isn't really a lot to do in the winter for the kids (unless it snows).  So over the weekend we took a road trip down to Harrisburg to check out the State Museum's Curiosity Connection for kids.  Curiosity Connection is a hands on play environment for kids ages 1-5 and their families.  Time slots of 1 hour throughout the day have been created to provide an equal play opportunity, so we planned on attending the 2:30-3:30pm one.

We arrived at downtown Harrisburg around 2pm and found street parking (is free on the weekends).  Walked to the museum, and got our tickets for the play session ($5/person), and didn't have to wait to long until it was our turn to go in.