Arkansas for birthdays; a recipe and Africa ties

After being home for a week (on our trip to Colorado), we were off to Arkansas.  We left early in the morning to go and celebrate the grandkids' birthdays.

As we got closer to Arkansas, the clouds thickened and we ran into rain.  It was cold and just felt like a soup kind of day, so, since we had told the kids we would arrive after lunch, we stopped at one of our favorite places, Panera, for soup bowls.

When we got to Josh's, we watched Emeri decorate Eli's cake.  She loves to decorate cakes!  Eli has such a thoughtful heart and he said instead of ordering a cake from Sam's, he wanted Grami's chocolate sheet cake so Emeri could decorate it! 

I have the same recipe.  It was popular back in the 1970's!  Lisa (the other grandma) calls it Rusty's sheetcake.  They don't know who Rusty is; they got it out of a Little Rock cookbook.  We call our recipe "Grandma Stucky's sheet cake."  She is really our Aunt Helen, Al's Dad's sister.   (His mom also had a sister named Helen, as did my Dad!   Popular name back in the 1920's.) 

2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 t. baking soda
(some people add 1 t. cinnamon, but I like it better without)
Mix and set aside.

1 cup butter (2 sticks)
3-4 T. cocoa (can use Hershey's dark cocoa, which is better)
Melt and stir over low heat.  Add:
1 cup water.
Bring to boil only.

Mix:
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup buttermilk (if you don't have buttermilk, you can make it.  Add 1 tsp vinegar to 1/2 c milk and let sour for 5 minutes)

Mix flour/sugar mix alternately with egg mix to the butter/cocoa mix.  Pour into greased 11x14 pan 30 minutes.

5 minutes before cake is finished, make the icing:
1 stick butter
4 Tablespoons cocoa
6 Tablespoons milk
Bring to a boil.  Add:
1 pound box powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup pecans
Mix well and pour on hot cake.

Eli finished the decorating of his Minecraft cake.

He had to show me his latest Lego project, which included Nana and Papa Legos!  

I'm holding a Starbucks cup.

 And of course he had to wrestle with Papa!

We love playing Racko!

Maybe Al is a little frustrated with the hand he was dealt?

The rain finally began to let up.  Thank goodness, because Eli's celebration was going to be outside!  Every year, he invites his friends and their families for a hot dog roast, along with s'mores.  

It had rained for 3 days.  They kept the logs covered, but with the dampness, it was hard to start the fire and keep it going.

 

The grandparents.

 Friends arrived and we began to roast the hotdogs and go through the food line.

We had to put old blankets on the logs as they were still wet. 

 Staci's first cousin with Staci's mom.  Ashli has been serving in Africa.  She is looking for a new place to land there.  As we talked, we found out that the place she is thinking of going is a place we visited back in '92!!  The very people we visited!!

 This is the Scheenstras, who Ashli may serve with!  We didn't know them prior to this trip.  We had gone to visit our friends, the Swarts and they took us to the Scheenstra's home, as they were fellow co-workers.                                             
                                           Donna

Dick

Sheila and Mindy 

Jill and Leah

                                                           Josh                  Al

Ashli has written a book titled "Boundless".  

It is a very encouraging book that, even if you don't suffer an eating disorder, which is her story, is so good to draw you closer to God.  Available here. 

When it got dark, there was a hayrack ride through windy (curvy, not breezy) trails in backwoods Arkansas.  Their friend, Josh, told spooky tales while we passed rather sketchy homes and barking dogs.

 Eli opened gifts when we got back to the house.

Happy 10th birthday, Eli!

A trip to the Flint Hills

We wanted to take our young friend, Kaho, to the Flint Hills, to see the wide spaces of Kansas.  She invited her friend, Yoko. 

 Bikers on 1st street.

We told the girls we better stop for bathrooms as we would not find any for a while.  

We drove to Matfield Green and then turned east into the Flinthills.

The road we had planned to take was closed.  Bridge out.  So we had to take a detour.

 

 After driving for some time, Al stopped the truck and had us get out to just listen.  No noise.  Just a little wind, some crickets and the swishing of prairie grasses.

 

The cell tower cast a shadow across the grasses.

 

 The trees showed that there must be a creek (do you pronounce it creeeek or crick?  We tend to say crick.)

When rainy, this is much fuller. 

 How would you like to live way out in the boonies?  It would take a L-O-N-G time to get here when you have to get groceries.  But what a beautiful home!  We found out later that it was a weekend get-away.

We came upon a couple who had just moved to the area and were trying to go home from grocery shopping in Emporia via the Flinthills.  They assumed that the roads would be north/south and east/west every mile apart, as it is in most of Kansas.  And then they had car trouble.  And no cell phone.

Al took the husband with him to a nearby rancher to get some help.

 We girls went for a little walk while we waited.

 Help was coming so we wished them luck and headed back home.

 We were wrong!  There IS a bathroom out in the middle of nowhere!  

Back to civilization.

 Back to town on 1st street, about 45 minutes.

The Flinthills are NOT like Japan at all!  I still recall the culture shock of seeing this place called Kansas where my parents brought me.  Here is where I grew up.  

Mountains and sea

But the Flinthills have a beauty of their own!