Ice Skating Party

Family birthdays around here are always lots of fun! Granni chose for us all to go to a skating rink for hers-

Eric hasn't been in several years, but he picked it up again very easily.

Leah started out VERY timidly-she wouldn't let Dennis let go of her skating walker for a second. She eventually let mom do it with her, and before we knew it, she was flying around the rink in the security of her green walker.

Scowls turned to smiles

The rink was very crowded with kids (it was family skate), so when one of our little ones had to go to the bathroom, an adult was left in charge of guarding the walker. Dennis and Bay are having a race I think.

Uncle Andy started a game of ice rink tag...always fun to sneak up on the unsuspecting.

Afterward we gathered for a nice family dinner, presents, cake and all 3 kids (who are now all taking lessons) gave Granni her own private piano recital.

Irene and other stories

I realize that I have been very absent from the blogosphere lately-life otherwise seems to have consumed us, but in good ways.

This, our generator, kept us operating at home for 5 days without power during and after Hurricane Irene. We did not have significant damage, but did have numerous trees down.

Notice the nice little shed Dennis built to keep the generator in. It doesn't look quite as nice now-on the first day he ran the generator, it vibrated itself too close to the shed and the exhaust caught the shed on fire! Thankfully, my mom's keen eyes spotted smoke and the fire was quickly extinguished, but the shed now has a nice large black hole! Lesson learned: secure the generator during use so it doesn't move around!

Our very large Bradford Pear tree with the nice cedar bench around it did not make it through the storm. I'm sure the bench will be rebuilt at some point.

I rescued our sunflower heads from the garden before the storm, and gathered all of the seeds out of them. In order to save the seeds for bird food, I roasted them in the oven at a low temperature. I'm sure the birds will enjoy the black oil sunflower seeds this winter!

Our basement suffered a bit of water seepage...Eric's room got the worst of it, and so the carpet had to be pulled and dried. Nothing a bit of steam cleaning and lots of fans couldn't take care of!

After Hurricane Irene was gone, we had a brief respite from the rain to celebrate Dennis' birthday. This year, the Blue Angels came and we went out for a sail on the grandparent's boat to watch. We all agree that watching from the boat is the way to watch the Blue's!

Our Labor Day Weekend was scheduled to end with our annual camping trip to Ohiopyle. Unfortuantely, rain was in the forecast for the entire week. Undaunted, we decided to go anyways, hoping for the best. We arrived, set up in the rain, spent the night listening to pouring rain, woke up to rain and read forecasts calling for 100 percent chance of rain all week as well as flood warnings. Both us and the family with us decided it was not a good use of vacation time, so we wimped out, packed up, and left.

It turned out to be a good decision-there was heavy flooding in the area, as well as the danger of trees falling within the campground-so we are sorry we missed our big trip this year, but glad of our decision.

Bay has a birthday and other news...

Bay turned 8 this past weekend. He is such a handsome boy and the smile you see on his face is a true reflection of his heart. He is a joy to our whole family.


We went bowling for his birthday. Bay and Leah shared their own lane with the bumpers down. They bowled 2 games...the adults bowled too, but we had more fun watching them drop, throw and push the ball down the lane!

Poor Leah could barely pick up the ball!

In other news...my dad recenly retired from working. It has been so much fun for the kids (and me too) to get to see more of him during the day and evenings. He loves to take them out to breakfast, come over for dinner sometimes, go fishing, or just lay on the couch and read a book to appease a hungry lion!

He also has more time to do some other things he enjoys (besides all of those projects waiting at the house) like go fishing with a friend of his. They brought back 7 HUGE rockfish...he shared his fish with us. I made fish tacos with some of the meat---delicious!

Leah turns Six!

or as Leah likes to say, "I've made 6 laps around the sun, Mom" That makes me smile! Both boys made something for her present. Eric freezer paper stenciled a pair of jeans and matching t-shirt. I was quite impressed..

He came up with the designs on his own and did everything except the cutting with the exacto knife. Bay made her a set of star-shaped crayons from recycled bits of crayon. He arranged them in a silicone star-shaped cupcake mold and we melted till they were blended. Then cooled, popped out and now she has a set of 6 cute individual color blended star crayons.

Turning 6 (and indeed the months preceeding) has found Leah spending more time in the kitchen with mom...either helping prepare dinner or making a recipe of her own. She loves to try out new recipes from her Highlights magazine or from the Mini Pages and other sources. Today she made turkey-veggie pinwheels for her lunch. She almost always cuts up the lettuce, tomatoes and other veggies for our salad at dinnertime, sets the table and butters the bread. Some other recipes she has made are Oreo Surprise Cupcakes, Orange Pancakes and Chocolate Caramel Pretzels.

She would like to share the recipe from today's lunch with you.

Spread on 1 tortilla: mayonnaise or cream cheese (she chose cream cheese), 2 slices of deli turkey. Sprinkle with grated cheese and your choice of veggie (grated zucchini, grated carrot or sliced cucumber-Leah chose grated carrot).

Roll up the tortilla.

Have an adult slice the roll into pinwheels. YUM!

Best Use of Shot Glasses Ever!

My brother just celebrated his birthday and requested a different type of dessert. Instead of the typical cake, he wanted some of those mini-desserts that are being served now at restaurants. Conveniently, he has quite a collection of shot glasses from Hard Rock Cafes from all over the country!
I found after searching that there are not really special recipes for this, you just take your favorite trifle or layer type recipe and make everything smaller. I made tiramisu: ladyfingers chopped into tiny bits, layered with espresso, the mascarpone cheese mixture and topped with shaved bittersweet chocolate. YUM!

Andy's favorite dessert is cheesecake, so these little desserts packed all of the flavor and a fraction of the calories! For the cheesecake shots I layered graham cracker crumbs, a white chocolate cheesecake filling (no-bake), homemade raspberry sauce and topped it with a fresh raspberry. Yum for him (I'm not so big on cheesecake, so I didn't even taste this one!)

The pumpkin gingerbread shots were adapted from a Paula Deen recipe for Pumpkin Gingerbread trifle. This was layered gingersnap cookie crumbs, a pumpkin mousse, and gingerbread cut into tiny cubes. It was topped off with chocolate shavings also.

The last one was very interesting. The basic recipe came from Big Red Kitchen for apple salad. Essentially this is vanilla pudding, cool whip and granny smith apples. I cut up the apples teeny tiny for the shot glasses. This was layered with graham cracker crumbs, caramel sauce and snickers candy bars cut into tiny pieces. This one was second to the tiramisu in my book!

This ended up being a REALLY fun dessert to make and create. Everyone loved it and we all got to have a couple and not feel horrible about a horrible amount of calories.

#1 is now 12

In so many ways I can't believe that these two pictures are of my same boy, but really, not much about him has ever changed. I don't guess it ever really will, and for that I am thankful.

Eric has always had a clear sense of his own self. This may be because he is first-born, I don't know. He knows what he likes and is unwavering in that. He has always been my biggest helper. In fact, when he was 2, I wrote him a little book called, "The Big Helper". I can leave him with any list and he will get it done, any time. He has a particular taste and preference for his clothing and hair, for as long as I can remember. Eric's personality is strong and powerful...his electricity and energy can light up a room just when he walks in. Eric brings so much joy to the house through his musical talents...he has gotten to a level where it is soothing (and not painful) to listen to him play!
Our prayer for Eric is that he will allow God to use his particular qualities in mighty ways throughout his life...what a wonderful and special boy we have in our home!

Happy Birthday Eric!

Bay turned 7

Bay celebrated his 7th birthday recently. I can't believe my sweet, compassionate, nurturing Bay is getting so big. Just so long as he'll still cuddle on my lap!

Bay and Leah with their recently new pj's and Bay with his birthday breakfast...cereal with milk...

One of Bay's big interests is space. He has had the space helmet for  few years now, but got the space suit for his birthday. He plans to live on the ISS someday...

The ice-cream cake that I have made now for 3 birthdays is gaining in popularity...

Gramps going through Bay's new tackle box and a coupon for a fishing trip with Gramps.

One of the most wonderful things about Bay and his developing personality is seeing his tender heart develop. The other morning I had made some oatmeal and offered some to Bay for breakfast. After a short contemplation, Bay said to me, "Mom, would it hurt your feelings if I didn't want any?"

Tea party for Leah

Leah is turning 5 tomorrow. She has been talking about and planning a tea party since she turned 4. It was wonderful. I was totally shocked at how quiet and relaxed and "tame" the party was. You see, I was prepared for what I have always experienced, boys' parties. We have had lots of them and by the end of the party, I am hot, tired and worn out. This totally took me by surprise. Not to say that the boys' parties aren't fun, because they are loads of fun! But this was soooo different :) If you have a girl, I am certain you know what I mean and have been keeping it secret from me all of this time. Probably better that way!

The girls dressed up with accessories...scarves, earring, necklaces, purses and then got their pictures taken. Then we had our tea...delicate china tea cups, fancy gloves, lots of delicious treats, and blueberry tea or pink lemonade. The lemonade was a big hit. Everyone ate with their gloves on, at least to start.

Leah is not a big fan of cake I have learned. Since we were having fancy tea...I decided to make petit fours. If you want to know about the whole experience of actually making them, you'll have to ask me about it sometime. Anyways, she got 5 individual petit fours, with her name spelled out and the number "5" on the last one...we put candles in them for her to blow out.

She was thrilled with the whole day. When she talked about her party while we were preparing, she made reference to "when my girls come....I'm going to..." or "I will show this to my girls" or "Let's get out these pretty dresses for my girls".

After tea and cakes, we played games and did crafts-

Pin the butterfly on the flower

Relay race to set the table for tea

Sticker hunt

Make and decorate a fan

Bracelets

I just can't believe how grown-up our little girl is getting!

I have posted MANY pictures of her party to snapfish. There is a link in my sidebar to the photos.

January Birthdays

Eric and I share birthdays 1 day apart from each other, (I actually went into labor with him on my birthday, but that is another story!) so it is always a fun week when our birthdays roll around! Leah and Eric baked me a cake and then each of them decorated a third of it. I took a cooking class at our local kitchen store and my mom, brother and 2 friends joined me for the class. It was a superb way to spend my birthday...and it was one of the best classes I have taken.

Eric had a great day as well. I can't believe he is 11 years old! He opened half of his presents in the morning, and the rest at dinner when my parents came over.
I'm not sure who's more excited in this picture, Eric or Leah!

Shortly after breakfast, Eric and Bay took their bows and arrows outside to practice with Eric's present, a free-standing target! This is a big deal for them...no more trying to find a place to tack up the paper target anymore. And this can be left outside, which is a bonus because they always forget to bring stuff in anyways!

Eric and his Gramps

Eric chose lasagna, salad and bread for dinner with an ice-cream cake (that I usually make in the summer) for dessert. Yummy!

Summer Fun

Our summer has been full of lots of activities. I don't want to make a long post, and it's been a while since I posted due to the busyness that summer brings to our house, but I will give a few snippets.

Dennis' sister Karen, and her husband, David, came to visit for a few days. We enjoyed their company, and the kids did too. David (who we haven't ever really gotten to know) was great to have around...the kids loved him and he and Eric even went out canoeing one afternoon. Karen got to spend lots of time with her mom, which was the main purpose of the visit :)

We celebrated the Fourth of July with just our family this year. We were considering a last minute weekend sailing trip, but couldn't quite pull it off. After a great cookout of slow-roasted ribs and fresh corn on the cob, we did our own little fireworks before going out on the boat to see the big fireworks. Dennis surprised us all this year by letting Eric set off some fireworks! Below is a picture of Eric with the blow torch. Of course, Dennis had to scare his pants off by making a big "Bang!" sound the first time Eric went to touch the fuse with the torch! Eric did a great job and was responsible and safe. Above is a picture of us watching Eric. Granni was sitting down with Bay and Leah, and Elsa, always vying for attention, had to get on her lap as well. Silly dog ;)

Eric recently had a 1/2 birthday party in our pool. He had delayed a party this year in hopes of being able to have a pool party this summer. The first one was rained out, but we rescheduled and the boys had a blast. There were just 5 boys, but I filled their time with pool games, diving contests, relays, an obstacle course, water balloon races, and more, and the time flew by. It was a good thing too! Ten year olds sure do get into trouble rather quickly if left to themselves for more than a few minutes!!!!