notes from home

Different things happening around here,
Last week Josie and Sky had their piano recitals. They both performed excellently, Sky was very nervous... I know how difficult it is to play in front of others, poor guy- but he did great! Josie knew her piece by heart and played beautifully, we were so proud of her. Grandparents attended, as did my sister and my new niece.

Here is Sky concentrating- he did really well and you couldn't tell how nervous he was.

Once a month now we have some of the Bible School (called the Full time training) girls over for dinner, instead of the boys. We can't have them over at the same time, "no patty fingers in the holy water, if you please..." -hah! I love that quote and movie!!

Anyways, the girls had been trying to plan a good ole southern craw-fish fry...or whatever, but they failed to hunt up any live craw fish here in the OC, so oh joy! They brought over a live crab, instead! I wouldn't even know how to how
cook that, nor could I- It was alive! Luckily, Sky

knew just what to do and took care of it, I fled
the room till it was all over. And, I couldn't eat it...I love crab, but I couldn't eat it after it died in my kitchen. Amie and Demi-Sky were very entranced by the whole, live crustacean thing-and they dined very happily on him, too.

Here is a new chapter on "cooking with Jen"...
It was Sky's birthday, and he requested a spice cake. Here are some of the gathered ingredients...
It, unfortunately stuck to the pan...and here is
the sad result. And no, I didn't drop it!! Sky laughed and said it looked like I had...and then he took these photos because he thought this episode was blog-worthy...
the moral of the story is to get the cake out of the bundt
pan post-haste, because if you let it sit while you go out for some orange spiced chicken, this will likely be the result. umm, ummm...

The Dragon cake

For Demi-Sky's birthday, I made up this dragon cake- and it turned out fabulous! Directions can be found over at the *Family Fun Magazine site*, we also made the goblets craft found there. Amie now drinks her milk everyday from her goblet. (just a hint if you try the craft, tacky glue did not work well, the gems slid all over and made a mess, I ended up getting out the glue gun.) The party was a lot of fun, mostly family and a few friends, Demi loved his cake.

how the other half lives, sort of

Sky's brother called the other night, this is the Dr. Brother.
To set the stage, he is the Dr. Brother who is not a high-powered, highly-paid surgeon...but the Dr. Bro who is in a small private practice, who has more than the average number of kids, who used loans to live off of and to pay for medical school, who has a mortgage, private school and a few horses to keep up.

Dr. Brother: "Sky, you'll never guess where I am right now!"

Sky: "No, I probably won't, so tell me."

Dr. Brother: "I'm in a private season ticket suite for the xyz team (insert fav. sports team), eating hors-d'oeuvres and getting a sales pitch for this private suite for the next 5 seasons.!"

Sky: "Wow! Sounds fun, but expensive, how much are they going for?"

Dr. Brother: " $100,000.00" (a little aside here, no that is not a typo!)

Sky: "So....when are you going to tell them that you're broke, pretty much?"

Dr. Brother: "not till after dessert, they're treating us to dinner, too."

okay then....

the blawg is under construction...

If you are wondering what is going on with names, well- I decided a while ago to take our real first names off the blog and go with pen names. All in the name of better security, of course. I try to keep it a little vague here, but I guess we could be more anonymous. I frankly put it off a bit, because of the sheer amount of work involved in going through all my old posts and changing out the names! I will be working my way back, I hope you don't get all confused.

Just to review....

Cast of characters:

Me- I'm still Jen, so far

Hubby- Sky
Oldest daughter- Meg
Next daughter - Josie (or Jo for short)
Son- Demi-Sky (or Demi for short)
Youngest Daughter- Amie (didn't change)

aebleskivers, it's what's for dinner...

Can you guess where we took the kids last week?
Um, no...not Denmark, that would be way expensive.

We chose a much closer substitute, only 3 hours away, much
more easy on the budget...
-we went to Solvang, Ca!

We pretty much ate our way thru Solvang, it's
just what we do best...

First on the snack agenda were aebleskivers, yum!

Our second night in town we went to A.J. Spurs for some
serious steak and ribs. You know when your filet mignon slices
like warm butter?? ...yeah, just like that....

We walked around the very cute Danish town, visited shops, relaxed
at the timeshare... Animal Planet 24/7- oh my!!! Seriously, a very big
treat for kids who do not watch t.v.

We took a very gentle, beautiful 10 minute hike to visit this waterfall.

Sky took some great pics of the kids at the lake, they had
several adventures...

I have an awesome husband!! You all are going to agree when I tell you what he did. He took all 4 kids out camping at a near-by lake and left me home alone to hold the fort down at the
time-share/condo-type place. Did I mention it had cable? And that he paid extra for an internet connection for me?

I wish I could say I did some serious, thoughtful blogging- uh, but I didn't.
I did do some serious girl-type unwinding.

First, I wandered the cutesy shops...then I ordered a nice sandwich for dinner ( I love a good sandwich) and then I spent a very long time browsing the corner bookstore, picked up a
Meg Cabot novel..then went and bought some *truffles*, oh my!!

I realized what a walking cliche I was as I set my book on the counter to pay for my truffles...
and paused to savor the ridiculous moment...
Dignity is really only a form or vain-glory, now- isn't it?? I stayed up way too late watching
a few sitcoms and HGTV, catching up on all my blog reading, and sad to say, I just about polished off the novel in one sitting. I finally went to bed, leaving 3 chapters to enjoy in
the morning. ...the gloriously late, un-rushed morning.

I welcomed my seasoned, ripe campers back late the next
afternoon. And, what else? Started some laundry!
I missed my guys... and yet, I was glad to miss out on the freezing-my- tootsie- off -sleeping- on- the- floor-experience...
didn't miss that part a bit! Oh, and the skunks and raccoons that kept trying to get into the tent, nope, didn't regret that part either!

Our last day in town we visited a miniature horse farm.
QuickSilver miniature horse Ranch link *here*
Meg has wanted one of these for her very own for so long. We just are not zoned for it. They are miniature *horses*, not *ponies*..about the size of a large dog. Just the cutest things you have ever laid eyes on.

It was a nice trip, a little bit of something for everyone, I would say.
We are always so glad to come home, though.

lazy days

Does your cat sleep like this? I can't remember any other cat of ours doing this.

I sent Demi-Sky to wash his face the other day, he came back afterwards and announced that when he grows up, he plans to grow a beard so he won't have to wash his face anymore. It's been a while since Sky and I had such a good laugh.

The kids had the chance to watch animal planet today, we don't have our t.v. hooked up, and we don't have cable, so animal planet is a big treat. We all were emersed in MeerKat Manor, my oh my, what a concept. Basically, it seems to be a reality tv show following a colony of meerkats. Really, really creative.

isn't youtube fun?

Secret Ambition

Last night I took Amie to visit an Irish dance class, to see if she would be interested in learning. Let me re-phrase that- she was very interested in any kind of dancing, I just thought it was the responsible-mom role to visit first and make sure she would like the whole set-up.

Amie loves to dance, she is for sure our princess/ballerina girl. Lately, though, I've noticed some Elaine-ish technique creeping into her act. *click here* to see what I mean... I figure now is the time to direct her enthusiasm into artistic avenues. It was the cutest class, Irish dancing is very genteel looking, and very athletic. And the music is great. Amie ended up actually being in the class this visit.
I decided we need to work this week on "right" and "left" before we go back.
I noticed the lack of boys in the class, only one and a new 5 year old having his first class. There seems to be less boys in general in dance, like *this Irish clip*...I immediately thought of our boy, he'd be so cute in such a class and would be something special, right away, just for showing up! I don't think husband will see it that way, I think he is thinking more in the lines of roller hockey... gosh, it would be so cute though.

She is now in the class, I will post a video sometime after she gets beyond normal skipping- and the whole "right foot", "left foot" thing.

when I'm 64

Conversation at our house

The boy (age 7): "When I grow up, I'm going to get a job and have a house, make movies, be a dragon hunter, get married and have kids...and I'm going to take them to Costco, just like you do,
Daddy- and get them good snacks.."

Amie (age 5) "you'll be already dead then, Daddy."

Dad (one foot in the grave, it seems) "uh, thanks sweetie".