Moira's Early Birthday Celebration

We began celebrating Moira's birthday last week! I took her to the Clayworks Gallery downtown where she made an art project for her gift. She chose to make a message board to hang in her bedroom.

A cylinder of clay was rolled through a machine, much like a giant pasta maker. Then she cut it to size.

After discussing various design options, she decided to write "notes" at the top and make a pen holder on the side. Keeping it simple, she said.

After several minutes of gently scraping any texture imprint from the cloth used in rolling out the clay, she smoothed the edges, made her free-form letters, applied the letters and pen holder with "slip", made holes for hanging wire and chose her glaze option. The board will be white and letters and pen holder in blue. She will be able to write on it, just like a dry erase board. We left it at the gallery where they will fire, glaze, and fire it again. The first firing will be at a temperature of 1787 degrees, the second at 2300 degrees! We'll have to wait until they have enough objects to fill the kiln before they fire, so it will be a few weeks before she receives her finished piece.

We came back home, made an ice cream pie (her choice for birthday dinner dessert), had dinner and then she spent the night. As it turned out we were under a tornado warning, so after dinner we went downstairs where she, Papa and I played games. Papa won at Chinese Checkers and I won at Monopoly. She went to jail four times and every third roll I rolled doubles! It was a lot of laughing and she was a REALLY good sport. Her "stuffie" gave comfort in the storm!

Fortunately the storm changed direction and we were fine. Had a beautiful rainbow!

Yesterday was her birthday dinner, which we actually had for lunch since they have evening VBS this week. Audrey was SOOO excited to give Mo her birthday gift - a locket. Just what she had been wanting! It was very sweet.

Now we could take that ice cream pie out of the freezer! It was a big hit!

Four beautiful little girls love a celebration!

Mint 'n Chip Ice Cream Pie
Crust:
25-27 oreo cookies
3 tablespoons melted butter
Crush cookies in a ziplock bag. Mix with butter. Reserve some for topping. Press into a 9" pie plate. Bake at 350 degrees for 7 minutes. Cool completely.

Mint 'n chip ice cream - we made our own!
1-1/2 containers of vanilla ice cream (about a half gallon)
2/3 cup green/white spearmint candies (like red/white Starlight mints)
mint flavoring to taste
few drops green food coloring
4 ounces mini chocolate chips
1 11.5 ounce jar hot fudge topping

Put ice cream in large bowl to soften. Crush mint candies in ziplock bag. They should vary from fine to smallish pieces. Add crushed mints to ice cream and stir well. Add flavoring. Start with 1/4 teaspoon and add to taste. Add food coloring. Stir. Add mini chocolate chips and stir well. Taste for desired "mintiness". Layer half of ice cream in pie crust. Spread hot fudge topping over all. Put in freezer for about 10 minutes. Add another layer of ice cream. Spread top smooth. Sprinkle remaining crumbs over top. Wrap in plastic wrap and aluminum foil and freeze. Make a day to a couple of months ahead. YUM! (You can do the same ting with red/white Starlight mints - or candy canes, peppermint flavoring and red food color. Mini chips optional.