Balloons, tomorrow?

The Forest Park Balloon Race was Saturday.  We usually make an effort to go to the park and enjoy the festivities.  We weren't able this year and were a little disappointed.  Until we had a deluge of balloons right over our house.  The girls along with lots of neighbors were so excited.  Many of the balloons were low and we were able to wave to the pilots.  Tonight while we were in the yard Lucy kept saying, "No balloons.  Tomorrow?".

9!

                                                           Happy Birthday Emma!

An interview with Emma- Age 9

What is your favorite color? Purple, light purple
What is your favorite food? corn casserole, no hold on, hamburger hash
What would you do all day long if you were allowed? I think I would dance and read and write.
What do you want to be when you grow up? A teacher
What is something that makes you happy? My friends and sisters, and mom and dad!
What are your favorite subjects? Reading and writing
What is your favorite book?  Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin

Emma is thoughtful, helpful, inquisitive, smart, and has incredible integrity.   This morning when she woke up she seemed older, I'm not kidding.  She's been so thankful today and has had such a lovely spirit of gratitude.   It's times like this that I'm reminded that we're raising an adult, that each day she's developing into the person that will someday leave our little home and venture out on her own amazing adventures.  I can say that today I feel powerfully aware that good things await this girl, that she will be a determined, kind, curious and strong, whatever the heck it is she wants to be!    I love you Emma Jospehine!

Nearly Nine.

Recently someone said to me that the transition to motherhood must have been easy for me, being an elementary school teacher.  Goodness, no.  I knew nine year olds not newborns.  I was so totally and completely unprepared.  But from the very first moment Emma was the perfect teacher.   Oh, the mistakes I've made ( make!).  The hopeless attempts, the derailed ideas, the misguided thoughts.  The strive to have all the answers, the futile attempts at perfection.  And there's my Emma loving me through it all.  And there's my God- through all the mess ups I've always believed that God knew what he was doing, even when I didn't.   I'm so thankful that 9 years ago He trusted Kevin and me to take care of and raise this beautiful child!  

Missing Borders

Yesterday we went to Michael's.  It is in the building that used to house Borders bookstore.   I'll admit, as happy as I am to have a craft store close I'd choose Borders over Michael's any day of the week.  As we parked Emma said "This is sad Eleanor, our kids will NEVER know this place as Borders, they'll never even know about Borders".  Michael's felt disorganized and a little too messy for us and we all left missing our Borders just a bit more.  Good thing we have access to great libraries and Amazon Prime :)!

Borders or not, the weekend was a lot of fun, the highlight being visiting with Uncle Blake and Jon.    The girls had a great time spending time with them.  We love you guys!

Rainy Friday

When you have a day off of school and it's pouring down rain, don't you just want to RUN to Grant's Farm?  

Well we did just that this morning and had such a fun time!  Aunt Meredith scheduled a private tour for Mike's parents visiting from Australia.  Clearly scheduled before the rain!  Here Meredith and Chris are modeling their oh so stylish rain ponchos, direct from the shelves of the gift shop!

 We toured this log captain which was built by Grant and has been moved 3 times.  I was only slightly terrified that Lucy would break something inside.  

Here's our jolly group and our awesome truck/bus.  The big girls were super excited that they served soda on board but then when they were offered one, they declined.  Always a mystery, those girls. 

We stopped along the way to feed all of the animals.  Here Eleanor is feeding a buffalo!

                                    Lucy enjoyed all of the animals, except the buffalos.

Lulu loved feeding the goats.  We stayed outside the fence.

Yay, for a fun, adventurous, and rainy morning!    We'd never had planned this if we'd known the weather forecast for today ....I'm so glad we didn't know! 

Transition is hard but pizza is good!

I like to try to forget how tough transition is for this family.   They keep reminding me though so I can't forget!  We've had our share of tears, tantrums and other grumpies the last week and a half.  This morning, with tears in her eyes, Em said "Mom, I really like school, I just don't want to leave you and home and I'm kinda bored and I could probably do more stuff here.".  It totally gave me a big lump in my throat because I can remember feeling the EXACT same way.  I still vividly remember laying in my bed the night before kindergarten started and wishing like crazy I never had to go to school and leave my mom.  I guess it's genetic.  I know in another few weeks things will be fantastic but oh, these first few weeks are long.  

These Snoopy pajamas are tough to get off our sweet girl!

I'm waaaay behind on my recipe organization, now that the girls are back in school I'm going to start working on that again.  Yesterday's lunch was a big hit as evidenced by Lucy's two thumbs up and pizza sauce face!

Pizza Dippers (original recipe calls them stuffed pizza rolls,renamed by my kids) Recipe here

The only change I made was to make our own pizza dough.  Right now we're really liking Mark Bittman's Pizza Dough Recipe

I stuffed a third with just mozzarella, a third with mozzarella and olives, and a third with mozzarella, olives and tomatoes.

I also made our own sauce.  Here is the one we use.  I decrease the water to between 3/4 - 1 cup.  I use garlic powder rather than garlic and I add a little salt.  I make it early in the day and let it sit in the fridge until we're ready to use it.

Kids are already asking me to make them again, a very, very good sign!