Good People

There's nothing much to explain here. Good friends having a good time.

Basketball

Pat's coworker had some extra college basketball game tickets so we took the kids over the weekend. They had an inflatable area for the kids to play in before and during the first half of the game and that was probably their favorite part of the whole experience. They were great for the game though too! We made it through the whole game without any complaints (and won too! Hooray!) and afterwards everyone was invited down to get autographs. We didn't stand in line to meet the players but we did walk around on the court and play some line tag.

Slide! (Paige's favorite inflatable)

Obstacle course! (Owen's favorite inflatable)

Owen spun a wheel and won this kazoo, which didn't sound nearly as obnoxious as I was fearing (especially since we had some people sitting right in front of us!)

On the court

Blabarsoppa

I got this amazing book from the library and I've been selfishly keeping it contained in our house by renewing it online. It's called Maps. If you've been over recently, I've probably eagerly foisted it into your lap leaving you no choice but to agree with how good it is. I don't know why I'm so taken with it. It's a large, wonderfully illustrated book that shows not just countries but tons of information about them like: common names, animals, landmarks and traditional foods, etc. This is all coming around to Blabarsoppa, a Swedish blueberry soup/drink. We saw it on a map of Sweden and needed to try it. The ingredients are exactly what you see in the first picture boiled down (oh, and some cornstarch added later). It's basically blueberry syrup, not very drinkable. We mixed it into yogurt after dinner one night and into some plain oatmeal the next morning though and it was great!

Skiing Part 2

I don't have too much more to say about our skiing trip but felt like I should post these pictures of us in action because I received them after I did the last blog post. Owen was always eager to be the first one down the hill so he would get off the lift and immediately start asking if he could go down. At one point he slowly slid into a hole that was around one of the posts for the chair lift. Also, Pat told me later that whenever he would tell Paige to slow down by putting the tips of her skis together she would also do it with her arms-that's why picture #5 is extra amusing to me.

Skiing!

We finally went skiing! Part of me was hoping no one would like it or have fun so we wouldn't have to worry about going again but our experience was the exact opposite. The kids were in tears when we had to leave after being there for 7 1/2 hours but they were so worn out it didn't make sense to stay. Pat helped Paige down the hills and a friend taught Owen. By the end, Owen was skiing ahead of everyone and even ended up on a lift by himself! Pat took some time to do the harder trails while we took a break in the lodge (despite the kids protests). It was so fun, now I just have to think about how soon we can go back.

Valentiney Days

 Happy Belated Valentine's Day! The kids woke up to their mailboxes filled with jellybeans (yum), an animal in a fizzy egg (fun) and a hot chocolate stirrer (yuck). Paige had a friendship party in her preschool class but Owen's class did the classic celebration complete with handing out valentines. I was lucky enough to get to help out at the party but mostly I just watched a bunch of first graders eat too much candy and run around like crazy. We had homemade heart(ish) shaped pizza for dinner and I think it was our best version yet! Usually the crust is too thick but this time it was pretty close to perfect. The next day Pat and I went to a super tasty "Euro-American" restaurant and had some amazing food. I want to go back. Very soon.

Mailboxes waiting to be noticed.

They still look sleepy but were already chowing down on jellybeans.

Required Valentine photo shoot. They paused their fighting for these pictures and then picked up right where they left off when I was done.

Dinner

Pat with his Bavarian Mac and Cheese

My dinner-German Pot Roast Club with Garlic Rosemary Fries

Me and my valentine!

Fun With Paige

Just some random photos today that have nothing to do with each other except that Paige is featured in all of them!

I sewed a sleeping bag for Paige's doll the other week and they had a sleepover. Paige's doll did more sleeping than she did.

We've been getting out the paints a lot lately.

And painting nails too!

Paige let me do her hair! I tried to recreate it the next day but was not as successful, good thing I took a picture the first time!

New Recipes!

I bought some broccoli slaw at the grocery store the other day and it might be my new favorite thing. Super versatile but the rest of the family needs a little convincing. I made Thai Peanut Chicken Wraps with it and this recipe is going on my list of things to make again. I was so excited to eat them that I forgot to add the extra peanuts and cilantro at the end (and I purposely cut back on the suggested butter amount) but it didn't really matter. The textures and flavor were great!

 Let's just say someone had a hankering for some cookies the other day... I found a bag of sugar cookie mix in the cupboard and Paige and I made some impromptu s'more thumbprint cookies. We rolled the dough into balls, made a little indention for a small piece of chocolate and two marshmallows and they baked perfectly. The marshmallows were perfectly roasted by the time the cookies were baked.

Cardboard Slide

At first glance, a cardboard slide is a terrible idea. But. When you have extra cardboard boxes around and you want to see your kids act super excited about doing something they think you would never let them do...it's the only way to go. I started off the process with lots of warnings and blah blah blah. Then we moved on to the fun part. We ended up moving to the basement for a larger landing space but these two videos were taken on each kid's first slide down.

Flying Tea Rocket!

Flying Tea Rocket sounds like a great experiment, right?! Ours didn't work as we expected but I still got some great videos. I took a bunch hoping to capture the magic of the flying tea rocket but instead got some good stuff of the kids:)

Video 1-Owen gives Paige tips on how to stay safe during an experiment.

Video 2-Experiment attempt number one.

Video 3-After a few more tries...

Snow Days!

We had a lot of snow days in January! Here are some of the things that kept us occupied during the freezing weather.

Dolls

Friends and superhero masks

Cardboard slide! (Video to come later!)

Wrapping paper tube fights!

Smoothies

Movies

Whatever these things are...

Fun with the camera

Sitting in storage bins

While Shopping...

"Mom!!! Look at me!"

Banana Bread!

There's no new recipe in this post. I've made the same banana bread recipe with the kids for so long now I decided to see how it would come out if they made it on their own. I put everything I thought they would need on the table and told them to go for it. I read the directions one by one and told them to ask me if they needed help. They threw me off when they used the plate to crack the eggs on instead of using it for mashing the bananas as I had intended, but I decided to see how it would play out and they did great! They were excited to take the lead and the banana bread came out just fine.

Family Party!

Normally we have one big party with friends and family but since we went to the bowling alley we did things a little differently this year and had family over the next day. As with most of our family functions, I was terrible about getting pictures so I don't even have Pat's family in any pictures (sorry!). We all enjoyed some pizza together and I made an Apple Crisp that turned out to be a new favorite recipe! I told Owen he was having cupcakes on his birthday and at his bowling party so I could make a different dessert for the family party if he wanted. He said he did want something else-cake. We still had some leftover cupcakes so I opted for the Apple Crisp instead and he was very pleased with it.

Still 7 (again!)

Apple Crisp for dessert