More Girls in the Kitchen

On Sundays where Shawn is gone and I have meetings, I have just enough time to drop the girls off at home after church, leave them to their own devices for lunch, and then get back to the church. The last time this happened, they asked if they could make a cafeteria for lunch. I was hesitant - visions of arguments about who gets to do what or who gets to be what - dancing in my head. Against my instincts, I let them go ahead and do it and they had a blast - got along and everything! That is what they did again today - making a menu board on the white board, setting up a card table in the kitchen as the lunch counter, taking orders and serving each other peanut butter sandwiches, quesadillas with sour cream and clementines. Are they creative, or what? And it keeps them busy :)

Tonight the girls were all still in a cooking mood, so we just rolled with it. Felicity started out by browsing through a Rachel Ray kids cookbook we had and wanted to make a batch of her famous 5 minute fudge. Well, we didn't quite have the right ingredients, so we had to settle for the regular old-fashioned Fantasy Fudge from the marshmallow creme jar. Yummy!

Then it was time for Brinner - that's breakfast for dinner. We decided on waffles with eggs sunny side up (some like their eggs on the waffles, other prefer them on the side, I prefer them not to touch.) This is how Evie likes them.Felicity tried out one of those Rachel Ray recipes - a fruit and yogurt parfait made with layers of vanilla yogurt, clementine slices (substituted for mandarin oranges), rice crispy cereal, and crushed pineapple. I'll admit, I was skeptical about the rice crispies - hello, soggy! They did get soggy, but it wasn't too bad and was a yummy accompaniment to the rest of the meal.Lydia helped me mix up the waffles and poured them into the waffle iron. She thought it was pretty cool to beat the egg whites into stiff peaks.
Evelyn set a beautiful table with our white tablecloth and white dishes. She even put the napkins in the cups just like they do at fancy restaurants. Notice the little notebook she has out to take everyone's orders and she assigned herself the role of "bussing" the table also. I don't know if you can see them very well, but next to the milk and o.j. are 2 little pieces of paper - one is the menu and one is directions for passing the menu around the table. She also wore her apron and made herself a little name tag (hiding behind the cup she is holding). My girls are so cute! We all enjoyed the tasty meal and the time together, practicing our good manners (one of Lydia's Faith in God goals) and complimenting each other on the fine meal we had made together. I love my girls!

Just for Mom

Here is a picture of Lydia's knee. There are 3 little black stitches, but the steritape hadn't come off yet, so it is hard to tell. I'll see if we can get a better pic tomorrow.

Easter Dresses

The girls finally got to wear their new Easter/Spring dresses last week. For some reason, I have discovered that we have the best luck finding dresses for the girls at K-Mart - they are a good length and a good price. Felicity found hers this year at T.J. Maxx when we were shopping with Grandma Karen and Aleah.Here you can see how they all measure up to one another - Lydia is nearly as tall as Felicity.Evelyn liked the silky feel of this dress and the ribbon around the waist.This is a dress like Lydia has "always admired" on other girls, but it "looked expensive" and so she is thrilled to have one of her own (for a whopping 10 bucks).Felicity liked the tight-stretchy-ruched top on this dress (I forget what it's called) - and it has her favorite color, green, in it.My three beautiful girls!

Girls in the Kitchen

The girls have really been enjoying doing more in the kitchen lately, so here are some pictures of them at work. I think we were getting a dinner ready after we had gotten a bunch of produce from a co-op program we have here, Bountiful Baskets.Evie and Lissy working side by side at the sink.

Evie cut some strawberries for us.

Felicity whipped up some ants on a log.

And we can't leave Lydia out, she helped set the table this time.

Freezer Meals Group

Through our Relief Society I have been participating in a freezer meals group where we meet once a month and swap meals that are ready to go. I love it! Of course, figuring out a meal that is relatively easy to make in multiples and that freezes well is a little tricky, but I love having meals ready to go on those busy nights where I need something quick or don't really feel like cooking. So far I have contributed my great-grandma's Swedish Meatballs with rice and our favorite Sweet and Sour Meatloaf from my friend Denise at BYU. Here are my meatloaves ready to go:
In fact, I like it so much, I've even started making extra of some meals and freezing part of it for another night, or freezing individual portions for the girls' lunches. They are thawed by lunch time and ready to re-heat. If you want to check out some of our yummy recipes, they are here at Freezer Goddesses.

Today...

... was a beautiful day. Here's a quick rundown:
- Croissant egg sandwiches for breakfast - yummy!
- Primary activity - good turn out, good fun
- Shawn's business meeting leftovers for lunch and a quick trip to Walgreens for bandage supplies
- Lissy cleaned up all the dog poo
- finished "Secrets of the Mountain" T.V. movie with the girls and a friend and the girls folded their laundry
- puttered around the house for awhile while the girls "felt crafted" again - this time doll clothes for Tinkerbell
- Popsicles on the back porch
- Took the girls out to dinner - love that they are old enough we can enjoy that
- Girls all opted for a walk in the park instead of playing Wii - took Cedric, scooters and a bike
- the girls are all bathed, in bed and reading quietly
- Ahhhh, just one thing missing....

Doctors visits

Guess where I’ve been twice today? To Urgent Care – that’s where. I've been having an allergic reaction on my face for a couple of weeks and when I woke up this morning my left eye was swollen shut, so Shawn and I went over and opened the book fair (which I have been doing all week) at school and then went to the doctor as soon as someone else got there to cover for me. He gave me a prescription for Prednisone and recommend a daily dose of Zyrtec for awhile.

Then today after school, while I ran to the bank, Lydia fell off the counter and hit her knee on the corner of a cupboard. Lissy took good care of it and I didn’t think it was too bad, but when we had to change the band-aid for the third time, Shawn took a closer look at it and there was a dime sized flap of skin that was pretty deep. So, back to the doctor for a 2 ½ hour wait for 3 stitches. She was scared and cried before the stitches but was very brave and chatty during the procedure. Funny kid. She is our first child to have to get stitches - so not bad, eh?

They say bad things happen in threes, so I am on my guard. Guess I better not let the kids play rough at all this weekend. In fact, maybe I should just keep them indoors and separated for awhile.... just kidding. It is beautiful here and so I think we will need to spend sometime outside this weekend.

Snow Day

The girls went back to school after spring break on Monday and that night we got 6-8 inches of snow, so Tuesday was a snow day! Some mystery Samaritan plowed our driveway and sidewalk, which was so nice! If it was you, thank you! The girls had already gotten up and started getting ready for school, so Shawn sent them down to watch T.V. and we got to sleep in! When we got up I made pancakes for breakfast and then Shawn went to work and the girls sorted the laundry for me.

Lydia and Evelyn spent a couple hours playing out in the snow and building a snowman. Felicity had a friend over and they watched a couple you-tube videos (with my approval) then made some brownies.They all warmed up some leftover pizza for lunch then enjoyed a little screen time. Felicity and her friend played Beatles RockBand, Evelyn played on the computer, and Lydia watched the movie Tinkerbell. When that had worn off, we got out the felt, embroidery floss, and needles and I showed them how to make a pattern and cut out felt to make stuffed animals. They were very creative and even added details! Lydia decided to make a snake as a birthday present for a boy in her class who likes to read, but didn't stuff it so it could be a bookmark. I think they really enjoyed making them, so we'll have to pull that activity out again sometime.Evie's flower

Lydia's snake

Felicity's penguin

Spring Break Recap

We had yucky weather here over spring break, so we didn't really do anything too exciting. Shawn did take Monday off, so we decided to go to Salt Lake and spend the day there. We left Sunday night after the girls' Easter program and arrived at my Grandma's a little after 10 p.m. She was so nice to let us come and stay at the last minute and fixed a yummy quiche for breakfast. As a bonus, my parents were also there on their way to their vacation, so we got to see them too!

Monday morning after breakfast, we drove into Salt Lake and parked the van. Then we just walked around and saw the sights around Temple Square - toured the conference center, went up to the observation deck of the Church office building, ate lunch at the Lion House (I wasn't that impressed, but I'd never been there before), toured the Beehive House, and then walked right through Temple Square to the Church History Museum where we spent 2-3 hours. There were so many neat things to see there and a large exhibit of interactive activities (redundant, I know) for kids based on the song "I Am a Child of God." We left around 5 pm, stopped in Tremonton for dinner, and got The Princess and the Frog from the Redbox there for the girls to watch on the rest of the way home. It was a fun day and it was nice to have a mini-vacation.






Tuesday we must have just hung out. Wednesday morning Felicity helped me make Shawn a patchwork fleece BSU/Football blanket for his birthday. Later she helped me bake a cake for that night. On Wednesday Lissy also got new glasses. She calls them her Tinkerbell glasses because they are purple on the outside and green on the inside - Tinkerbell colors. We decided to go with glasses because the contacts would have been 3 times as much for the year! Shawn and I went out to dinner with the Bones with the Romeo and Juliet gift certificates they got for Shawn's birthday dinner. The girls watched the Bone's little boy as gift to Shawn so we could enjoy a "grown-ups" dinner. After dinner we came back and chatted and then had birthday cake.
Thursday the girls helped me clean and get ready for company. Shawn's parents came that night to stay on their way to General Conference. They had dinner with us, and then we played some games before bed. Friday morning Karen, Aleah, Felicity and I went shopping for dresses. Karen and Aleah each got a dress and Felicity found one we went and bought a few days later. After that, we met the rest of the gang at our favorite Japanese restaurant for sushi, etc.

Saturday morning I woke up with a rash on my face that just spread and was even worse on Sunday. I'm thinking it was an allergic reaction to something I ate, but I'm not sure. I'm glad I didn't have to go to church this week. It was itchy on Sunday, so I kept taking Benadryl and didn't do a very good job staying awake for the conference sessions. I did stay awake Saturday thanks to the little packet we passed out in primary and some light note taking. I did enjoy all the talks (and portions of talks) I heard and will definitely need to read them all. There seemed to be a theme of families and teaching children, which is very relevant to us right now. During the Priesthood session, the girls and I watched "A Wrinkle in Time" - well, they watched, I fell asleep.

Saturday, between sessions, our neighborhood had an Easter egg hunt. It was windy and chilly, so we all bundled up and drove over to the neighborhood park. For our Easter dinner we roasted a chicken, I don't remember what else we had... must be the Benadryl....