**Continued Update Efforts**

Note to anyone who has been (patiently?) checking our blog now and then:

Well, still slogging along and adding in posts full of pictures/projects I never got around to finishing up with....

(I am forcing posting dates that match the events, rather than having everything stack up at random)

Thanks for your patience!
- Jen

List of add-ins as of 01/08:
Mike's Bday in May
Em's Bday in July
First Day of School in Sept
Trip to the Domes back in March

01/13: Easter Activities (in April)
01/14: Tea Party at Jana's (in August)

(01/18-20: everyone is sick again! sheesh!)

01/21: May in PA --- our trip to my parent's house in Pittsburgh

Christmas Preparations

Last Sunday, Dec 5th, we put up the Christmas tree after dinner, but then it was time for bed... We didn't want to decorate it without Daddy (who was in Korea for work for the week), so we waited and hung the ornaments last night....



Our friend, Claudia, was over for dinner and got a big kick out of watching the kids... (She is widowed and lives in a group home --- but she raised 5 kids, back in the day, so I'm sure this brings back some fun memories!)

(Esther, 1yr, showing Claudia the reindeer Jen's Grandma made)

Esther's First Birthday!

Hard for us to believe, but our little Esther is one year old! We tend to keep baby/toddler Birthdays fairly low-key, just getting together with family, but I do like to try for fun cakes. Feeling somewhat uninspired, I turned to her older siblings for cake/theme ideas...

I asked the kids, "What does Esther like?"

Emily giggled and said, "Peas!"

We all laughed, because it is very true --- One of Esther's favorite foods is frozen peas (and she eats them while they are still frozen). We joked around a bit about decorating the top of a cake with frozen peas and decided it would be icky when they melted. (Eeeeew!) I had been expecting the girls to say "princeses" or "fairies" (because that's what they like), so I combined some ideas and decided to make a "Princess and the Pea" cake!

I wanted to use fondant (smooth playdough-like frosting) to make blankets, but I'd only used the store-bought kind and it tastes nasty. Fortunately I found a recipe on the web for making fondant at home from melted marshmallows (and lots of powdered sugar). The project was still kind of tricky, since this is only the 3rd time I've worked with fondant, but I think it turned out ok:
On the weekend, we got together with family over at the Boschis, since Esther shares her Birthday with Uncle Dennis (as well as my sister Lisa and Matt's dad!). Katie made a really yummy chocolate cake for Dennis.

We had all had a good time. I think Esther quite enjoyed destroying (her part of) the cake and ripping into presents!

Happy Birthday, Sweetheart!

Ready for A Grand New Adventure: School!

Well, it's official: Mike and Emily are now "kindergartners", and quite delighted to be heading off to school each day. We met their teachers at the school open house last week, and I think they will both get along just fine. They are also excited to be riding the bus, and hoped right on the first day with no worries. Fortunately, the bus stops right across the street from our house, so by winter I can just watch from the door :-)

Anyway, here's a little collage of the first couple of days. (Hit "play" of course, then when the project is loaded up, you click the different pics at the bottom to see them "full size" in the frame.)

"Tea" Party is a Relative Term...

One of Emily's Birthday presents this year was a "tea" set and some other toy cooking items from Aunt Jana (Boschi). The kids had played with tea sets at Grandma Higgins's house and at friends' houses, but we only had generic cooking/serving toys at our place. Needless to say, Emily loves it, and the Mike and Natalie are right there with her! (Although I think Mike's favorite is actually the toy blender --- he makes "milkshakes" for the tea parties....)

Jana has wanted for a while to have the kids and Evie (our cousin, Jana's granddaughter) over for a little tea party at her house. Carmen (Jana's daughter) wanted to be in on the fun, too, of course. The problem is that she's getting married in just a couple of weeks; so they had to squeeze the party in amongst the wedding preparations!

Being LDS, none of us actually drink tea, but that's no reason to miss out on a chance to dress up and eat fun treats! Jana's teapot was filled with milk, and the "creamer" contained chocolate syrup, and as an added touch, the "sugar" bowl was filled with Hershey's kisses.

A good time was had by all, and, most miraculous of all (to me), I didn't end up scrubbing chocolate out of the party dresses, either!



Thanks Jana and Carmen!!!