Hi, fancy seeing you here 😄

This week I was off Instagram. I posted a little every day to my subscriber story, but I stayed off my feed and main story. It was good timing! Cam has been in Tennessee for a few days, so I'm glad I took that one thing off my plate.

Today's email theme is ✨FUN✨.

🚗 Tyler TX

It was last minute, but we decided to go to Tyler Texas last week. Why Tyler? Well, honestly, it's about 1.5 hours away from us. The other small-but-fun towns near us are 3 hours (Hot Springs AR, Broken Bow OK, Houston TX). This is close and also really charming. Some good coffee shops, quiet safe neighborhoods, an amazing kids' museum. We found a little (really quite big for us!) house in a nice area; the owner, an older woman, lived right next door in case we needed anything.

While we were there, we did 2 escape rooms. It's been a few years since we have done one, and man, they are so fun! I wish they were not so expensive, or we would do them a lot more. We did not escape the first room, but we made it out of the second one with a few minutes to spare. The kid running the rooms when we went was an 18-year-old college student; he told us some of his favorite local eateries. We only had a chance to try one of them, but it was excellent!

The place we picked was called Ruby's. The woman who owns it used to make food in a food truck, but locals loved her food so much, they said she should open a brick-and-mortar. And now she has 3 locations! Isn't that lovely?

🍦 Ice cream and a cookie butter latte

There are lots of ice cream recipes out there. I've got a 1.5 quart Cuisinart ice cream maker (affiliate) that doesn't need all the ice and salt like the old school machines need. 

Before I got this machine, I made no-churn ice cream. I'll give you two recipes: one for a machine and one no-churn! I won't give you a recipe for "nice cream" because it's sort of a non-recipe: You just freeze some peeled bananas then blend them until creamy. It's really quite good! 

No-churn ice cream base

1. Basically, make some unsweet whipped cream. Beat together 2 cups of whipping cream with a little vanilla and a pinch of salt.

2. Once that's fluffy and stiff, scoop a bit of it (a cup full is fine - no need to measure) into a separate smaller bowl. To that bowl, add 1 small can of sweetened condensed milk. Beat that until fully combined.

3. Slowly incorporate that back into your whipped cream bowl. Beat until it's fluffy again, a few minutes.

4. Transfer to a freezer-safe container and freeze at least 4 hours!

Ice cream base for an ice cream machine

1. Mix all of this in a big bowl: 1.5 cups of heavy cream, 1.5 cups of milk, 3/4 cup sugar, 1 tbsp corn starch, pinch of salt, and vanilla.

2. Turn on your machine, and slowly pour in the mixture.

3. Churn for 15 minutes or so, then transfer to a freezer-safe container and freeze a few hours!

A cookie butter latte is something I saw on TikTok and then tried it myself. It's so simple and it really is yummy. I'm not a huge fan of cookie butter on its own, but I liked this a lot. I put about 2 tbsp into a small pot and melted it on the stove (or you can microwave it!). Then I stirred that into a fresh shot of espresso. Once those melded (is that the word?) together, I poured in my steamed milk!

🎂 Birthday updates

Last time, I mentioned that both Annabelle and Cameron had birthdays coming up. Here's how they went!

Cameron spent most of his day at the Toyota dealership getting the truck's tires realigned since he would be driving it the 8+ hours to and from Tennessee. Fun! But then I made a meal he requested (butter chicken, rice, naan). And for his couple of presents, I made him a little "escape room." 

Okay, you know how a treasure hunt is usually pretty linear? Clue 1 leads to clue 2, which leads to clue 3, and so on? An escape room (if you're unfamiliar with them) is like a treasure hunt that isn't linear. Clue 1 might actually lead to clue 9, and so you have to keep up with the info and clues because you never know when you will need them. 

When I say I made an escape room, that's what I mean: it was a tiny little treasure hunt that was not totally linear. For example, one clue mentioned something about a black light, but he wouldn't get the black light until 2 clues later. Do you get what I'm saying? The kids had fun helping him figure all that out!

As for Annabelle? She wanted a pink cake with leaves falling down the sides as well as her and her brothers on there somewhere. Here's what I came up with:

She also wanted to go to the trampoline park, which we did. And she specifically requested 2 presents, which she got, in addition to a few other things.

All in all, birthday month went well!!

🤓 Two games

If you know me, you know I like games, specifically math-y ones. So this first one falls into that category: it's called Proof. It's a weekly math challenge that's online. It's also a board game, but we do not have it.

Level 265 was particularly challenging for me, until I figured out the trick. If you like math challenges or just math in general, I think you'd like this! Let me know if you figure it out!

The second game is not really a game. It is a TikTok filter that someone turned into a game. You're shown 3 random celebrities. If all 3 are actors, then your challenge is to name 20 (TWENTY!!) movies that those 3 actors have been in. That's 20 together, not 20 each. 

For example, let's say you get Jim Carrey, Halle Berry, and Will Ferrell. Could you do it? I really thought I'd crush it, but nope! It's trickier than I thought!

💃🏼 Two kid things

First up, I saw a video about play therapy. The guy was talking about why kids like to play and how we parents should play with them a little each day. The overwhelming majority of comments were about how hard it is for grown-ups to play! Most of us are just not great at it. 

One comment jumped out at me. Someone said (paraphrased), "Watch Bluey! Her parents are great at playing!" And that's so true. 

Shortly after I saw that video, I came across a silly Bluey-related video that I want to share. We did it during our morning time this week, and it was SO silly and fun!

The second kid thing is this Spotify playlist. I don't like a ton of kid songs. This is a playlist of fun songs that grown-ups and kids can all enjoy. I've had it on repeat in the car and in the house this week! Enjoy!

Hope you have a great weekend. See you soon!❤️ Bethany