Reading Together

Some days when I am busy, I need Jane to just entertain herself for a few minutes. She mostly does that by playing with Millie, one reason we got Millie sooner, rather than later.

They run and wrestle and play hide & seek (our dog can actually play hide and seek!)

You have to admit that what I saw as I came downstairs was pretty cute.

Maybe if Jane teaches Millie to read she can be like "Nanna" in Peter Pan and put the kids to bed for me!

Who Has The Sweetest Husband Ever?

I do! I do!

Absence Makes the Heart.....

Man, Millie hates it when anyone leaves without her.

She is actually very good at staying in the doorway if we go in and out & not leaving the house until we tell her "OK." Unless, she sees the car door open. Then she realizes that there's a chance for her to stow away and quick a a shot she's out the dor and has leapt into the car. Sometimes I take her on errands with me, just because I can't face those sad eyes at being left!

This day, Rick and the kids left and I stayed home with her. I was trying not ot be offended that she so clearly wanted to go with them!

She's a good dog!

Kindergarten Valentine Party

I had wanted to leave on our ski trip on February 12th but Emily requested that we be here for Valentine's Day. My kids love Valentine's Day & the activities they do in class and trading Valentine's with each other. Last year we missed it. I sent in Emily's Valentine's early - but no one saved the one's she received. She was pretty bummed about it.

So this year we stayed for Valentine' s Day and left on the 15th. That meant I got to be here for Jacob's class party too. I am Jacob's class Mom this year and I have really loved being in his class a much as I can, getting to know the other students and the teachers and seeing him in that setting.

He really is a great little boy.

However, since I hadn't planned initially planned on being here we had asked another Mother to take over the craft for that day. She is a florist and had the kids do a little flower arranging project. She did a great job & really put a  lot of work into it.

The kids really liked it.

Since we stayed in town, I did still do the snack. We had fresh strawberries and I made them all heart shaped sugar cookies - a small white one and a big pink one. They were a hit.

The flower buckets were adorable. 

I was kind of sad we were heading out of town and had to leave ours!

Valentine's Dinner

I like to make Sunday dinners special. Rick doesn't eat with us through the week and Rebekah is often not home by dinner time on weekday evenings, so on the weekend I love having the whole family together for dinner. Saturday is usually more casual and so busy with all the kids sports that we often go out - so on Sundays I really like to have a nice sit down, whole family meal.

Since the day before Valentine's Day was a Sunday I decided to add a few extra touches to dinner. We had a Family Home Evening lesson in the afternoon - it's the one we traditionally have right before Valentine's Day about the Good Samaritan and loving our neighbors. We decorated heart shaped sugar cookies and then Rick took the kids to deliver them & while they were out I sprung into action!

Really, I only did a few extra things...
I had made little place cards and put them on the plates, I used goblets instead of glasses and we had sparkling pink lemonade. I lit candles in the middle of the table.

When the kids came home it was all set up. Emily walked into the dining room and I saw her notice the table .... it was delightful to watch her face as she saw the candles, drinks and place cards. First she looked a little puzzled and then a slow smile spread across her face as she recognized that something special was going on.

I didn't really do anything different for dinner. We usually have something nicer on Sundays anyway. We had Honey Baked Chicken (they all love that) green beans, and rice pilaf.

For dessert I did make Creme Brulee. I love Creme Brulee, it's my favorite dessert! I haven't made it in forever and I don't think the younger kids have ever had it before. They were fascinated with the blow torch and all really liked it.

Mmmmmmm!

I had leftover custard, so I made an extra in this small pyrex dish (and it became my "bonus" dessert!) Like I said - I LOVE Creme Brulee!!

I had cut out a bunch of card stock hearts and after dinner we all wrote out hearts to each other. We each took 5 hearts and made one for each other member of the family - writing something you loved about them, or a talent or quality you thought they had.

I loved seeing them put a lot of thought into what they would write about each other.

Rick helped Jane with some of hers, giving her some spelling tips!

This one had to be one of my favorites.

I love snuggling you to Janie!

We all had a great dinner and it was a good reminder to me that it doesn't require much to make a family memory. I am so lucky to have this family, I sure love you guys!

Emily in the kitchen

Emily doesn't like to eat very many things but she LOVES to cook. I was one computer click away from signing her up for cooking classes at Stone Barns (which I am sure would have been fantastic) when I reconsidered.

I can cook.

I would save myself the TIME of driving her there & back and the money if I just taught her at home. I pondered it for a moment - but would I? Would I be sure to stick to it & be consistent?

I decided I could!

So, Emily and I have been making a new recipe (of her choosing) each Saturday. So far, we've made chocolate marble fudge, brownies, and Nutella cookies. We should probably move onto something a little healthier!

Today she wanted to try chocolate molten lava cakes. One of her favorite desserts! The Sister missionaries were coming over for dinner, so it was a perfect excuse to make them (we usually only have dessert on Sundays).

We found this recipe on Pioneer Woman's blog.

• 4 pieces (squares) Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate
• ½ cups Butter
• 1 cup Powdered Sugar
• 2 whole Eggs
• 2 whole Egg Yolks
• 6 Tablespoons Flour
• 2 cups Real Whipping Cream
• 2 Tablespoons Sugar

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Spray 4 custard cups with Pam and place on cookie sheet.

Microwave chocolate and butter in large bowl on high for about 1 minute, until butter is melted.

Whisk until chocolate is also melted.

Stir in sugar until well blended.

Whisk in eggs and egg yolks.

Stir in flour.

Divide between cups.

Bake 13-14 minutes until sides are firm and center is soft. Let stand 1 minute.

  

Honestly, this was SOOO easy. Emily did it with minimal supervision from me (I was whipping up white bean chicken chili and cornbread for dinner.) We didn't have any custard cups, so we made them in ramekins and left them that way. (We doubled it and made 8 ramekins.)

They were delicious & a huge hit.

When the Sisters arrived Jane said "Those are the missionaries???" I said they were.
"Missionaries are 'posed to be boys!"
Yes, we'll be having the Sister's back over for sure! (At least until my girlies know how awesome sister missionaries are.)

Valentine Lollipops

Australia doesn't celebrate Valentine's Day the way they do in America. It's really just for adults and serious relationships. Getting a Valentine from someone is a BIG DEAL - - at least it was when I was a kid. So I never gave out Valentine's to a whole class load of kids.

Skip forward to Valentine's Day 1999 and Rebekah in kindergarten, getting ready to hand out her first Valentine's. I knew I wanted something fun and unique that we could make a tradition and we decided on homemade lollipops. We made 22 for all the kids in her class + her teacher. They were a raging success and we decide it was going to be an awesome tradition.

Now skip forward again to Valentine's Day 2011. With 4 kids in school (+ a few other neighborhood and church friends) I need to make over 110 lollipops! I was wishing that I had more carefully thought through the tradition that I started when I only had 1 child ....

Actually, it was fine. It just meant that my counters were covered with lollipop supplies for several days. The up-side was that the whole house smelled like sugar!

Although I prefer to make them while the kids are at school or pre-school (since I heat the syrup to such high temps and DO NOT want to spill any on kids rushing through the kitchen) I did make a couple batches when they were home. They LOVED watching me and telling me which color / flavor they wanted and eating the small squiggly spills that I peel off the Silpat mat.

I like to use essential oils to flavor them. We made;

Red - Strawberry

Pink - Cotton Candy (OK, that one wasn't an essential oil)

Yellow - Lemon

Light Orange - Mango

Green - Lime

I have 2 sizes of molds. I use them both, so as not to waste any syrup & get the most out of each batch (and save my time more than anything else!) The bigger kids gave out the bigger size and Jane gave out the smaller one's because no 4yr old needs a lollipop that big! It's actually quite the dose of sugar, even for a big kid!

 

Actually, it was a bittersweet moment for me. This is my 13th year making these - and Rebekah's last year in school. Reflecting on all the years I had made them and that they had spanned her school career. That soon she would be off in the big, scary, bad world all by herself where people wouldn't be joyously handing out lollipops to everyone they know..... I got a little teary.

The table was COVERED when I was finished.

I tied on ribbons while the kids wrote their tags. Man, I adore sitting together at the table and working on a project together. I like the shared goal we have, working together and the bonding sense of being a "team,"  I love the conversations we have and that they tell me about their classmates as they write the names. I don't know if they will remember these times that much but I will always think of them as highlights of my mothering. Also, I let them snitch a few candies form the "decoration only" jars. They'll probably remember that more than the bonding conversation!

I cut a bunch of tags & ran them through the printer & had the kids write their friends names on them & then sign them. I did less of these - Bek is apparently still young enough to hand out lollipops, but way too cool, & old to have them have tags ....

I am totally sending these to Bek for her to hand out at college next year!

Superbowl

This was far & away the best commercial of the Superbowl.

My kids giggled & giggled though this (even when we viewed it several times on You Tube later.)

Then my six year old son said "Can we get that car?"

Advertising works.

Snuggle Buddies - Part 2.

Jacob & Jane have always been very close. When Jacob left on the bus for the first day of kindergarten this year Jane turned to me and said "Now what?"

I really thought she'd struggle without him around, or that they wouldn't be as close as they had been - but my fears were unfounded, they still ADORE each other (and also frequently fight.)

When I walked into the living room after dinner and saw them like this - I had to grab my camera!

Snow Day # 1,267 ...........

We've had a lot of snow days this winter. I love snow days. I actually wish my kids only went to school 3 or 4 days a week so they could be home more! I suppose if they were regularly home it wouldn't be as wonderful as a snow day because a snow day is unexpected. A bonus day.

I love knowing a big storm is coming and hoping for a snow day .... the kids put an ice cube in the toilet, a white crayon & spoon under their pillow, wear their undies inside out - all the tricks that are supposed to make it snow hard! I love being roused at 5am to the sound of the phone ringing and (knowing it is the automated system from the school) rolling over, turning off my alarm and smiling to myself.

We usually go sledding and make cinnamon rolls on snow days, then head out again in the afternoon to build snow forts but this day was mostly ice. So, we decided to stay in our pj's, make sugar cookies pop popcorn & watch a movie.

I had Jacob's kindergarten Valentine's party coming up so we made several batches of heart shaped sugar cookies & froze them.

We had to "practice" frosting and eating a few - just to test how they would turn out :)

Mmmmm, sprinkles.

Jane gave them her full approval.

Like I said - I love snow days!

Still Winter Here ....

The ice did get worse today. Much worse. It's actually treacherous to venture out my front door.

Danger aside, I think that the ice is just beautiful. I love how it has evenly coated every branch of all the trees (& coated everything else as well.) I think it makes them look magical.

And we're also just loving all the icicles that are forming outside our windows to look at.

ICE

We've had so many storms this winter!

I haven't minded them because I love snow, I'm not afraid to drive in snow, Rebekah & Rick shovel the snow and we like to play, sled and ski in snow!

{iPhone photo}

Ice is a totally different story. I AM afraid to drive on ice, we can't play out in it and it is miserable to shovel (although my sweet husband still gets up before dawn to do it for us.)
I did venture out this afternoon to go get pizza for lunch for the kids (who were home from school again) and drop off the dry cleaning. The car had a thick coating of ice all over it. It looked as if it had been encased in glass.

{iPhone photo}

Since I hear it's only going to get worse, I headed out again this evening to return library books & pick up a few groceries so that we can hunker down tomorrow.