Friday, November 26, 2010

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Good Friends, Good Times

On our way home from vacation we stopped for an overnight visit with our good friends.  It was short, too short the kids all said (and the parents agreed), but much fun was had.

The boys played with lincoln logs and Playmobil.



This cutey-pie continued to steal the show and allowed David and I to hold and snuggle him once again.


These two girls enjoyed playing Barbies.


And the older group of girls barely slept.  They were too busy filming a movie music video to a Taylor Swift song.  I think they said they finally went to sleep about 3am - ahhh to be young and with friends.

After we got home, Hannah and Ellie worked on editing the video in iMovie and then showed it to us.  We thought it was pretty good and were amazed they did not one but two videos and a mock interview with the actresses.

What did the parents do?  Why of course we chatted away a mile-a-minute, we only had a short time to get everything in don't ya know.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Well That Didn't Work

Not all the recipes we've tried for our culinary trips to various countries have turned out edible.

Take the doughnuts from Brazil as an example:
Those look tasty huh?
The girls tried to make them by themselves first, but I quickly realized what they were doing (deep-frying having never, ever done that type of cooking) and jumped in to help.  Many problems, I think, led to the failure of the recipe.  The girls' inexperience with deep frying led them to chose the wrong pan, and the oil go too hot so the dough simply burned.
Who would want to try that?


I turned down the heat, let the oil cool some and tried frying some more.  The batter was quite runny so it made interesting shaped doughnuts, but they seemed to be cooking better.

It is looking more edible now.

But alas, they weren't good either.  When I cut one open I found this:
This isn't what is supposed to be inside a doughnut!

I had no more brain power to figure out what was wrong, so we gave up.  No doughnuts for breakfast.  As much as I'm intrigued by trying to figure out how to make the recipe work, I think I'll just stick with the tried and true doughnuts I've made in the past.

Monday, November 22, 2010

Birthday Boy

While on vacation, our son had his birthday!

I can't believe my youngest is 8!

His menu choices for the day:
Breakfast: doughnuts
Lunch: Corn dogs, baked beans, and Doritoes
Supper: Wendi's (we were even able to share this meal with a friend's oldest daughter who is a sophomore at Indiana University - what a nice treat to see her and visit with her for a short time!)

His gifts:
From his sister: A dvd movie of Tom and Jerry cartoons
From his brother: A nerf gun
From his sister: Pop-tarts and gum
From his sister: Oatmeal cream pies and a super-man card that plays the theme song when opened
From his parents: A Lands' End library bag* and a nerf gun


*At the beginning of last year David and I decided that we would buy each of the children for their birthday a Lands' End tote to hold library books.  I bought all of them at one time, each a different color.  After giving the first one in March, Samuel asked for one.  He even asked how much they cost so that he could save his money.  With each sibling's birthday he kept seeing them get one and yet he still had none.  He was quite delighted that he finally got one and I don't think he even suspected that would be his gift until he saw the box I had wrapped for his birthday.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Helping Hands

Last spring I bought this handy octopus from Ikea with the intention that it would hold the kids' snow hats and snow gloves nicely for them to dry.  I have a sink in my laundry room which is the room right inside the back door.  The octopus fits nicely on the upper cabinet door handle allowing all the wet gloves and hats to drip into the sink and not all over the floor - yippeee!



There are two clips for each of the eight arms of the octopus, so there is plenty of room for all of the kids to hang their hat and gloves.


And the clips are easy to open so I don't have to help, they can do it themselves when they come in from playing.

Yes I know that all those gloves and hats over my sink make it hard for me to actually use the sink while doing laundry.  But I'm willing to sacrifice because now I don't have all those gloves and hats on the floor or hither thither and yon.  They're dripping right into the sink and that makes me happy.

Thank you Mr. Octopus!



Saturday, November 20, 2010

Christmas Music in a Public Place

Have you seen this?

A Love Story - Who Can Say if it is True?

On our vacation last week, as usual, I read aloud to the family while David was driving to our destination(s).  First, I finished the last chapters of Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone.  This is the second time I've read this aloud.  But before I started the second Harry Potter, I read one for our history study.

This is a very good book and gave great insight to Arabian culture.  My kids were able to tell right away that C.S. Lewis used his knowledge of these stories in his portrayal of the Calormens in The Horse and His Boy.  They liked some stories such as "The Everlasting Shoes," and disliked others, like "The Keys of Destiny."  But we all enjoyed this love story and the stories and now reference various characters in our daily talk with one another.  If you haven't read this, consider picking it up at the library or at Amazon or wherever you like to buy books.

Friday, November 19, 2010

Saturday, November 06, 2010

Austria - Day Two

Since we had already done Austria day once before, but Hannah wanted to do all the countries in order, the children decided they would still fix a couple of meals only choose different ones to try.


For breakfast, therefore, Hannah and Ellie made a jelly roll


and cinnamon almond snails (some with nuts and some without)


They even made the dough from scratch.  It was all quite tasty!




Ellie had been wanting to try to make French bread for awhile.  So even though it was Austria day, this was the day she had time to make the bread.  It turned out beautifully!



For the rest of our Austria supper, the girls, with the help of their younger siblings made Paprika Chicken



with boiled potatoes


 and a pan gravy from the chicken drippings.



It was all very good.