Sabbath Day S'mores

We had such a wonderful Sunday.  Two good friends found themselves back in town for the holiday weekend and came back to their "old ward" for a visit.  We had a great time catching up with Matt and Camie and Harold and Andrea, reminiscing of when we were younger mothers together, settling back into the same comfortable grooves of friendship we had before.  I cherish these friendships and am so grateful to have had a chance to visit with these good women whom I love dearly.  

Andrea and Harold joined us for dessert ... s'mores of course.  The summer has been so blasted hot, we've hardly spent anytime around the fire pit, and it was high time we changed that.  It was great to pull out all the s'mores supplies and enjoy the late evening together.

10 Year Reunion

Last Saturday we got the news that our dear friends Nate and CC would be back in town for a visit and wanting to get together with all as many LUW-E people as they could.  It's been 10 years.  10 years since they moved away and 10 years since we've seen them.  It was soo good to see them and instantly have years shed from my memory and be transported back to that time.  We looked through Sister E's scrapbooks, laughing and crying, remembering all the good times - oh the stories!, the struggles and the tragedies that have beset our little band of friends, while we were together and while we've been apart.

Our reunion was by no means complete, so many missing faces ... missing in person but not in thought or conversation!  No fear dear friends who couldn't come, you were fondly reminisced about! 

It's interesting isn't it, how strongly some shared experiences can bind you with others.  This circle, this group of people who all dated, and married and had babies "together," looking back, became part of my foundation, and I will be forever grateful for them and the experiences I feel so privileged to have shared with them. 

Pumpkin Carving

Remember our chili and pumpkin carving get together a couple of years ago.  We wanted to do it again this year since we'll be out of town next weekend.  With no school Friday, and Papa's schedule clear, last night was the perfect evening to have everyone over.  

We did some quick decorating yesterday afternoon.  I saw a cute idea on MADE with bat cutouts taped to the wall.  I thought our entry way would be perfect for a swarm of bats, and it was!  The kids loved this project, and with four of them working, they quickly had 50 cut from construction paper ready to use.

We had such a great time with everyone.  It was fun and relaxed, and some amazing pumpkins were carved. 

Rebecca did the ghost/grave yard on the far left, Sam did the bat flying in front of the moon, Alex and GR worked on the dragon, Anna's is the baby pumpkin to the right of the dragon, and Emily's is the skull on the right.

The Launch

Friday night the big girls spent the night with Grandma and Grandpa and we took the three little kids on an adventure.  An evening balloon launch was held not too far away and we thought it would be fun to go watch.  Thanks to mainly back roads (see all the dust from the gravel roads?), and leaving a bit later than we expected (thank you Old Navy 50% off clearance!) it took longer to get there than we expected, but it was a great sight to see so many balloons in the air.  And the kids LOVED it!

GR came into some new-to-him camera lenses which he used to shoot most of these pictures: 

They had one balloon tethered to the ground so people could get close and see how it works.  Kids and parents, lined up to climb in the basket and watch the propane fueled engine fire hot, hot flames up in to the balloon, heating the air.  Alex was the first little kid they'd seen who was excited to get inside and wanted to see the flame and know how it worked.  I love the look on Alex's face in this shot, and Sam's delight at both of their enjoyment.

We had hoped to take the girls back Saturday night, but once again the day was too full, and something had to give.  Instead, the kids played out back in the field with papa, while I helped a friend pack up her kitchen.  We are planning a return trip to this park for more intensive play.  It is AMAZING.  Built a couple years ago, it's prefect for multi-age kids!  It has a little tikes play area, sand pit, larger kids play area, huge web-like climbing tower, long bumpy slides, rock climbing structure, large covered pavilion, pond, ball fields, soccer fields, and probably more.  I'm looking forward to going back when it isn't covered with a couple hundred kids (which it easily accommodated).

In other news, Bob's been helping us get the pool ready to swim.  It won't be ready for Memorial Day, but by the weekend it will be close.  When it is, I hope you'll "come on!" over and join us for a dip. 

[Anna motioning to Papa to come on! and walk with us]

Turning back time

Some "old" friends were in town for the weekend and we had a chance to hang out after church for a bit, let the kids run wild in the fields and eat a good dinner. We got a picture of all the kids together, just before they pulled out for the night. Dawn and Rebecca are a day shy of being 3 months apart. Her parents moved into our ward midway through her pregnancy and they have been good friends ever since. I dug through our picture archives and pulled up some fun photos of the kids together over the last 10 years. There are some holes given my picture deleting incident, and living many, many miles apart.

It seems like only yesterday they were toddlers playing together, and yet, in the same breath, a life time ago in all they have experienced. Both families have added four more babies (actually they are about to add baby number five this summer). There is something so grounding and comforting in relationships like these.

Best Friends

Oh the snow! WOW! What fun the kids have had!! And I found snow pants in the next three necessary sizes. Apparently, the last time I purchased snow pants I needed 5T ... ahem ... yeah, that doesn't even fit Sam now.

So ... the kids four day weekend was spent playing out in the snow with their good friends from up the street. Oh how I will miss these kids being able to play with each other next month. While I'm really looking forward to the space that country living will allow, the appeal of the neighborhood and children being able to arrange/transport themselves to and from play dates, I am really going to miss this, and so are they.

GR & Kate plus Eight

Tonight we - actually I guess it was really only me, GR didn't get home until the night was well underway, hummm anyway - got a taste of what it would be like to feed 8 children 10 and under. The oldest three are the same ages, roughly speaking. At most they are about 6 months apart. So here's our family if we'd had three sets of twins:

I managed to satisfy all but one child's taste buds with chicken enchiladas. I was pretty impressed by that turn out.

Last weekend while GR and I were packing and moving boxes, their family invited the three big kids to stay for pizza at their house - so very unexpected and very generous. School was canceled for tomorrow making it the perfect chance to return the favor. Plus the girls were itching to make a new special dessert and this was a great chance to share it with everyone:


It's inspired by dessert parfaits they saw in an American Girl Magazine from the library. But it's basically a variation of Death by Chocolate - one of GR's signature desserts. Brownie bites, crushed Girl Scout Thin Mints, chocolate pudding, topped with a bit of whipped cream and a sprinkling of mini chocolate chips. Yum!!

Gingerbread Houses 2009

The Saturday before Thanksgiving continues to be Gingerbread House day at Grandma & Grandpa's. We invited friends to join us again this year and many were able to join us which made the morning a lot of fun. As I've mentioned before we try and include new families each year and we had lots of new additions, young and old, to our long standing family tradition.

The weather this week didn't help my gingerbread much. It's been unseasonably warm - fantastic for kids playing outside, not fantastic for gingerbread that needs to be brick hard. With Emily's help, we made 5 batches on Monday, and by Friday, after sitting out on the counter all week long, they were still VERY soft. Typically a week on the counter and those puppies are dry and ready to get loaded up with all the candy a kid can cram on the roof. An additional 15 minutes in the oven Friday night and the gingerbread, albeit slightly smoked, was ready.

I still make my gingerbread using Sharon's recipe from 30 some years ago. At some point I might go to the kits, but when you need 5 houses, even buying them on sale ... well I'd just rather put that money toward something else. I got three of them done before the kids got home from school and then Emily made the remaining two before dinner. Now that there are multiple bakers in the house, I can foresee years when the kids each make their own house - the whole blessed concoction.

Thank you to all who were able to join us!! In all we had 14 kids decorating houses and two babies sneaking candy. I think that's a record for this branch of the tradition. We had tables set up everywhere. Rebecca is already planning out next years house, and Sam has requested an additional batch of gingerbread be made so he can build a garage. Yeah, it's a good thing they are getting old enough to bake their own.

Before I share pictures, I will mention, that this year I decorated a house. The kids didn't quite know what to think of that, Mom decorating a house. It raised lots of questions. I'm very pleased with how it turned out. I promise to share pictures, but not right now - I need a reason to get you back here.

I need to speak with our photographer ... we don't have a single picture of the kids looking at the camera with their houses. I have pictures of other peoples kids and their houses, but not ours. There's something slightly wrong about that isn't there?




The candy ... this picture doesn't include the candy canes, pretzel sticks, marshmallows, sanding sugars, chocolate Santa's, or ice cream cones ... that all has to go on a separate table.


The assembly ... we had mostly homemade gingerbread this year ... just a handful of kits. The gal assembling houses in this picture works with GR. Her husband had never done a gingerbread house before - today at 30 something, he helped make three.


Emily:


Sam:

Special Date Night

We don't go out on dates but a few times each year - and really, the times we do get out, it's for church or work functions and I hardly call those dates ... five kids the ages of ours just make it less than easy to have a date night, even with willing family and favorite loyal babysitters.

But when our friends Kevin and Katrina called to see if we'd be interested in attending a Friday night cooking class at a Whole Foods type store that included being served the gourmet dinner we'd be shown how to make, we moved heaven and earth to go.

Over the years I've heard amazing things about the chefs they have teach here - my favorite scone recipe, Alyson got from a class she took from them, and it was great fun to finally experience it first hand. Chef Paige, shared with us a Mediterranean-Inspired Summer Menu that was fantastic and so satisfying. I have to admit that GR and I both felt extremely uncultured and uneducated in the ways of the culinary world, something that hopefully we can remedy once the kids are a little older and can be a bit more self sufficient. We've had a taste of the outside world and well, it was nice.

Potato Gnocchi with Asparagus, Browned Butter & Herbs (we forgot to take a picture until we were all to the very, very last bites on our plates, between the four plates, there was just enough to piece together this fork full. It was amazing, and I hope I can learn to duplicate it at home!


Roasted Rack of Lamb with Mustard Breadcrumbs served with Green Salad with Seasonal Vegetables & Olives


Apricot Custard Tart with Almonds


We truly had a magnificent time. It was a wonderful way to spend the eve of our 11th wedding anniversary. And it was so nice to spend it with friends, thank you Kevin and Katrina for thinking of us. Thank you again to your friends for making other plans and giving us their spots! And thank you to Grandma and Grandpa for making sure the right child made it to the right activity - both scheduled at the exact same time - Sam to his t-ball game, the girls to practice.

It was such a memorable treat for us.

Saying Goodbye to Friends

GR helped our good friends Tiffany and Brandon load up their truck today. Monday they will be pulling out leaving Kansas to move out west and be near family. We had their family in our home their first weekend in Kansas - three years ago, they were house hunting the first weekend in October and GR invited their family to join ours for dinner. It was an instant friendship, a kinship. We will miss their sweet family and wish them the very best.

In quiet moments when the reality that Carson is moving very far away starts to sink in, his little eyes well up with tears. But Saturday night it was all giggles and laughing and jumping and leaping, so much so that as soon as they'd had a few bites of food, we sent them outside as the house was clearly not large enough to contain four free spirits.

We took this picture of the four boys just as they were heading back to their house ... the boys to sleep, mom and dad to finish retouching paint. You can just see their cheeks glowing pink and hair dripping with sweat - evidence that they had had a blast together and played on so very hard!

Our Annual Christmas Brunch

The weather cooperated beautifully this year, and we had a really nice turn out. Diane and I both estimate that about 70 women came, which was really nice. Everyone who came seemed to want and need the time to sit and talk and enjoy the warmth of good friendship. Every year, Diane sits back and chuckles when she watches the little chatting groups that form, and this year was no different. We had the "Methodist" room and the "Mormon" room with a few who didn't fit in either category bridging the gap.

Each year I have good intentions of taking pictures, but I never get to it. This year to insure I had a better record of the event, I asked my friend Lori to bring her camera and take a few casual shots. Thanks to her, I can show those who live far away, a little glimpse of what the brunch is like. Thanks Lori!!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

I am coming to accept the fact that we will always have leftovers, no matter how carefully we plan the menu and calculate quantities, that's just part of the tradition of having the brunch. But this year we found a wonderful use for some of the extra platters of food. A friend who has taught for many years suggested taking a couple plates to the kids school and putting it in the teachers lounge. That was a fantastic idea! We took a large platter of sweet breads and two cheesecakes with us Monday morning and the teachers were thrilled! The kids have already had recipe requests for Grandma Mum's Magic Marshmallow Puffs.

A special thanks to those who came and shared their Saturday morning with us, and to those who couldn't you were definitely missed.

- - - - -

While the women were at the brunch, GR took the kids to IHOP for breakfast. He called a couple of friends with kids about the ages of ours who's wives were coming to the brunch to join him ... four dads and twelve kids. The joke among the mom's was that if anyone drove past and noticed police cars in the parking lot or the roof blown off, we didn't want to know about it until at least 12:30. Thankfully everyone had a good time. The kids all ate their breakfast and the dad's are actually talking about doing it again next year!

A Night with Girlfriends

It's been well over a year since I got together with girlfriends for an evening away ... I'm not talking getting together with girlfriends for something church related, I'm talking about the get togethers you have with girlfriends where you eat amazing food, and talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly that's been happening in life ... work, family, health ... you name it gets discussed. So when I got a call Friday night asking if I had time to get together with some other girlfriends starved for a night out, I instantly said I'd make time and then ran the idea past GR (bless him for not even thinking twice about it!).

Have you heard about the gourmet dinner clubs? Where friends get together, a specific menu is planned, ingredient assignments are made, then you meet at one persons house and make the menu together and then enjoy the meal.

That is basically what the five of us did, except we just had the head chef purchase everything and we all pitched in $5. So we spent a little over three hours together, making dinner together and chatting - it was glorious! Of the five, I am the least adapt in the kitchen - the other four are amazing in the kitchen, each with different strengths and talents. So the collaborative effort made for an amazing meal - and I don't have a single recipe (for shame I know ... be grateful I have pictures ... I'll work on the recipes).

The main course was a won ton soup - shrimp and sausage stuffed won tons, beautifully steamed shrimp, in chicken broth, seasoned with ginger & green onion. While it was tasty, I think we all agreed we wouldn't make it again ... labor intensive and not hardy enough for our "meaty" men. The two appetizers were by far our favorite, super yummy and easy to prepare ... prosciutto wrapped asparagus - yum! And then little mini pizzas ... basically bruschetta with seasoned tomato, pine nuts and Parmesan cheese.

At the end of the night, we all agreed we should do it again, before another year or more passes!

Pumpking Carving with Friends

After years of less than ideal attempts to carve pumpkins with the children we finally had a successful attempt! Bob and Diane graciously opened up their backyard Saturday night for a simple, fall family gathering to carve pumpkins, eat chili and roast marshmallows. Looking at the pictures it almost looks like it came right out of the pages of Midwest Living Magazine ... everything worked out perfectly. There weren't too many people, the weather wasn't too cold or too hot, the kids got along fantastically, no one got hurt, everyone went home with a beautifully carved pumpkin, and they all had a really fun time!


GR spent all of Friday night on the living room floor scraping the guts out of four huge pumpkins so the kids could start designing and carving right away. This I think is key to successfully carving pumpkins with your kids at home ... having them prepped and ready to carve, and having those small kiddie pumpkin carving saws they sell in the kits. Fantastic inventions!

We invited a few families we haven't hung out with in ages ... all friends from collage who have married, had kids and moved around a bit in the last 10 years. But on the rare occasion that we're all together, the years melt away and we all instantly become 20ish again. The three oldest kids of this group spent their first Halloween together 7 years ago, and although they don't all remember each other, as parents it's still fun to see them back together again.

We also invited Emily's soccer coach and family to join us. They are such an awesome family ... turns out they do serious pumpkin carving every year ... when we found this out, we were all a little relieved we had decided against a contest.

As you can see, everyone did an amazing job on their pumpkins and I think the kids really enjoyed being allowed to be as involved in their pumpkins as they wanted. Most of the older ones (5 and up) stuck with it and finished theirs with a little help here and there from Mom or Dad. Even the parents got into it and carved their own pumpkins.

Once everyone got their pumpkins carved, we had some yummy kid friendly chili ... we finished two of the four crock-pots of chili I made, Diane's homemade cornbread and apple cider. And then kids all gathered around the fire pit and roasted marshmallows for s'mores.

Taking care of Baby

Well, yes it does seem the masses have spoken ... after posting that super cute picture of Sam sporting his new haircut, I thought ... no one is going to believe me when they see this picture that the cut is really the butcher job I'm describing, but it is. I keep finding problem area's that need fixing, so I'm waiting a few weeks (to give his hair a chance to grow just a bit so there is something to work with) before I call Ann to work her magic on all the kids.

* * * *

GR got a call Thursday from his doctor confirming his worst fears ... the MRI didn't show any signs of a herniated disc. The doc reading the MRI labeled it ... degenerative disc disease. We still aren't really sure what that means. Friends who read charts frequently say it's a very common notation on back MRIs and so we aren't sure if it's a catch all phrase for "welcome to being 33 and by the way, your back sucks!" His doctor has him scheduled for physical therapy to help him learn how to strengthen specific areas of his back. The hope is that PT will allow him fully recover from his injury, if not we'll consult a neurosurgeon.

* * * *

Rob and Amy Lynne (from NYC) were in town for a long weekend because Rob's baby brother leaves tomorrow for the MTC; he'll be serving a 2 year mission for our church in Oregon. So Friday night while the three older kids had a sleepover with Grandma & Grandpa breaking in the new fire pit in the backyard, GR, Alex and I drove up to GR's old hometown to visit with Rob and some of his family.

Rob and Amy Lynne have two adorable little girls. Their youngest, Genevieve was born in early September and is such a beautiful baby! And for not quite six weeks, she is so tiny ... barely as big as Alex was at birth. How quickly you forget ... it was so fun to hold a new born again and try and remember my own kids being so tiny.

Alex was very interested in the little baby. I had him sit next to me on the couch and placed Genevieve in front of him so he could study her more. He instantly, took hold of her clothes with both hands ... left hand at her collar, right hand at her chest and firmly yet carefully pulled her toward him. If we'd have let him, I'm sure he would have held her right to his chest, skooched off the couch and toddled around the living room with her, just like he does with the girls baby dolls. He was determined to make sure he give that baby plenty of loves! Once we got Alex to relinquish his hold on sweet Genevieve, I returned her to the safety of her mama. We kept a very close watch on her and her admirer the rest of the night.

You'll have to be quick

So Heather has two fantastically cute burp & bib sets that need a home. She's having a little giveaway on her blog - but she's picking her winners Wednesday AM, so you'll need to comment quickly to be considered! Hurry, hurry!

Valentine's Day, part 1

Monday, 12 February 2007

Friends, Peter and Michelle invited us over to their home to decorate heart cookies for Valentine's Day. It made for a really fun FHE. It was cute watching each of the children decorate their cookies, as you can imagine, each one had a slightly different approach. We had a great time and the cookies were oh so yummy!