Zumba in the Park

Nothing like posting 3 times in one night!   I have to catch up and I probably won’t have much time next week.

A friend (the second one from the left in the above photo) invited Steph and me to attend the first annual Zumba in the Park fundraiser for Operation NOW (Not on Our Watch).  The money raised will be used to help prevent teen deaths due to distracted driving.  We paid $25 for an afternoon of zumba-ing in the great outdoors with some of the most talented master instructors out there.  And the money went to such a great cause.  How could I not participate?!

We got to meet Erick Santana.  He’s kind of a big deal in the Zumba world.  He leads a bunch of training courses and is featured in many of the Zumba DVDs out there.  To say that he is expressive is an understatement…

The weather was cloudy, windy and rainy.  Thank goodness for that!  We danced for over 2 hours straight.  If it were any hotter out there I probably would have passed out.

Steph ended up borrowing my Zumba clothes and, wouldn’t you know it, her Zubma clothing twin stood right beside her 🙂

Our friend even got called up on stage to do a hip-hop number with Jenny, a master instructor.

It was a great day!  I’m sure that I probably burned over 1,000 calories this afternoon.  I’ll probably be really sore tomorrow too.  But it was so worth it!

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BCC Planetarium

The Saturn V model I get. The surfboard I don't.

Wildman’s preschool arranged a field trip last Wednesday to the Brevard Community College Planetarium.  BCC or Beer Can College has several campuses scattered throughout our county.  The one with the planetarium is in the ‘hood.  Seriously.  It would not be safe to travel there at night. Most of the businesses and homes have bars on the windows.  There are pawn shops on many a street corner.  You see an unusual number of police patrol cars around.  I guess the police presence is a good thing.  But still…

The last time I visited the planetarium I think J and I were in college.  We were probably home on a break of some sort and had nothing better to do than take in the Pink Floyd laser light show in the ‘hood.  Good times.

Anyway, it was neat for Wildman and his buds to experience the two shows at the planetarium.  The first one they saw was a movie about the living sea.  Narrated by Meryl Streep no less.  And the music was by Sting.  The second show was in the domed theater.  It was called The Cardboard Rocket.  It was about two little boys who built a rocket out of a box in their backyard and imagined themselves flying through space visiting all of the planets in our solar system.

The seats in the theater were in a permanent recline position so everyone could easily look up on the ceiling to watch the show.

The boys loved checking out the cool exhibits too.  The Whisper Dish was pretty fascinating for Wildman.  When he spoke into one dish his friend way on the other side of the huge room could hear what he said in the other dish.

The pendulum clock deal was neat as well.  I caught T-bone sneaking under the railing to get a better look at the golf balls…

All in all, the planetarium was probably a tad too advanced for the preschool set.  But the children enjoyed the field trip nonetheless.  It’s nice to get out and do something different every once in a while.

Oh, and get this.  Steph and I are practically celebrities amongst the preschool kids.  We’re known as “the Zumba ladies”.  So many kids came up to us to say how much fun they had doing Zumba on Monday.  We were so happy to hear the positive feedback.  Hopefully, we’ll be asked back again before the end of the school year.

Key Lime Cheesecakes

I’ve been so neglectful to my dear ol’ blog. My apologies.  It’s been a busy a week.

I finally uploaded the photos I took of the easiest St. Patrick’s Day recipe ever, i.e. mini key lime cheesecakes.

While grocery shopping last week I ran across a tub of Philadelphia ready-made cheesecake filling.  You just dump the filling into a crust and *poof * insta-dessert.  That’s my kind of cooking!  I figured it would be the perfect exercise to satisfy the boys’ requests to help me in the kitchen.

One for the recipe, two for me...

We opted not to use a graham cracker crust as the cheesecake filling tub suggested.   Rebels, I know!  Can you stand it?  I let the boys put Nilla wafers into the bottom of muffin papers instead.

The boys enjoyed scooping out the filling and dropping it onto the cookies.

Once the muffin papers were full of filling, I stuck the mini cheesecakes in the fridge to set up a bit.  The filling had become kind of soft during the scooping process.  After 15 minutes or so, they were ready to enjoy.  And enjoy we did 🙂  With whipped cream and sprinkles…

They didn’t look too fancy but, boy, did they taste yummy!  I love key lime pie and cheesecake!