The Pampered Pooch

Once a week I give Sam a bath, and then I make her stay in the basement while she dries.  We noticed one day that she was shivering (because our basement is always pretty cool), so I let the kids put a towel over her to warm her up.  She liked it quite well and slept that way for a long time.  Now the kids think she needs a towel every time she has a bath and they make sure she stays nice and toasty while she dries.  She loves it too.

Birthday Girl

Annie turned three on Sunday!  She's still a little girl, though, as she so often reminds us.  Along with her third birthday, she has officially potty trained, little girl or not.  I procrastinated potty training with her for a long time because I had a myriad of excuses, but I finally decided it was time.  She was a champ.  It seriously took just a few days and was pretty painless.

Anyway, we celebrated with a party on Saturday.  She asked for a pink pony cake which I produced thanks to Family Fun, and I had leftover batter so I decided to experiment a little bit since I'm always so frustrated with my cake making ability.

For the first part of my experiment, I swirled jam into the batter.   

Then I frosted it without fear since my goal for this cake was to practice decorating.  Next, I made frosting dough by adding extra powdered sugar to the original frosting.  I rolled it out, colored some yellow, and used a cookie cutter to make the middle of the flower.  The white dots are also made with frosting dough.  It turned out okay I think, and the jam inside the batter enhanced the taste.

Here's the pink pony cake.  Her hair is made with fruit by the foot.

I saw some other fun ideas on the Family Fun website that I wanted an excuse to try so I also had some snacks for her party.

This one is apple pie dip with flower chips.  EASY!  I put a little bit of lemon juice, a spoonful of brown sugar, and some cinnamon in the apples, stirred, and chilled.  The chips are just tortillas that I cut out with a cookie cutter, brushed with butter, sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, and baked for 10 min.  They were excellent!  It tasted a lot like apple pie, but better. 

After the kids played and we all snacked, we sang to Annie and cut the cake.  In the picture are: Hallie (sp?), Annie, Ariana, and Logan. 

Once the kids were wired on sugar, Annie opened her presents.  I let the kids take turns handing her the presents which was VERY exciting for some of them.

Jayson is handing her a present, and I caught Hallie's face in a picture.

After we were done with cake, this is how much was left.  We had to laugh because it looked like a girl pacman!

On Sunday we weren't planning anything for Annie's birthday even though it was the actual day, so we were pleased to be invited to dinner with a family in our ward.  It worked out nice, too, because I hadn't figured out what to do with the flower cake I'd made.  We took it with us, and Annie got to blow out candles a second time.  We had a really nice visit and made some new friends that night.

Today, all the kids enjoyed a little more birthday because a package arrived from Jim's grandma.  She went all out.  She sent Annie a really fun doll house, Logan a hex bug toy that is very cool, and Alex a pillow pet.

They all enjoyed the doll house first...it was a big hit with Alex even.  It's taller than he is and he likes to pull himself up to stand with it.

Here's Logan's hex bug toy.  These things are really funny.  We all had a good time playing with it.

Happy Birthday Annie girl!  We love having you in our family.

Just a Boy and His Dog

Belated Birthday

Last week, we received a lot of packages in the mail for the kids' birthdays.  So Alex had a few more presents after we celebrated.

The first package was very large and very exciting for these guys because it was for all of them.  Jim's parents sent a wagon!

Ready to assemble.

Alex helped the whole way.

It's ready, hooray!  I gave the kids a ride around inside before we put it out in the garage.  They've been dying to take it for a walk to the park, but we haven't had warm enough weather yet.

Then we discovered a last present for Alex in one of Annie's packages...also from Jim's parents.

Nap Time

New Blog

Today I started a new blog in an effort to record our journey with homeschool.  So, I invite you to check it out:

http://www.1-2-3-school.blogspot.com/

Bleeny Recipe

So bleeny are really just the Russian version of pancakes.  They differ from American pancakes in that they are so thin, and from crepes because they require a lot of milk versus a lot of eggs.  Russians like to roll them up and dip them in whatever suits (chocolate, jam, fruit, sugar, sweetened condensed milk, cottage cheese, etc...), then fill the leftovers with meats and vegetables and fry them.  One of us even had a host family that put ice cream in it and then fried it.  It's sort of like their tortilla because they use it with everything.  Here's the recipe that I use:

2 1/2 cups flour
3 eggs
4 TB sugar
1 pinch baking soda
4 1/4 cups milk
1 TB oil
1/2 tsp salt

Mix all ingredients well; the batter should be thin.  Pour small amount into a lightly oiled frying pan, flip when the top side is no longer sticky.  One side will be brown, the other will look like a tortilla.  (If you burn the bottom of it, turn down your heat.)  Bleeny will be very thin.  (A note: Whenever I make these, my first one comes out rather oily, but the rest come out fine...so don't use any more oil/ cooking spray after the beginning.)

I actually think these are easier to make than pancakes because they aren't messy to flip and each one cooks rather fast.

A Russian Moment

This post is dedicated to those lovely ladies who know that when I say Perm I'm not referring to hair: Trudy, Maria, Melissa, Lara, Pierco, Lorianne, and Christine.

We went to Russia together nine years ago to teach English and while there consumed many of these:

They are called bleeny and in addition to being fed them in our host families' homes, we made them on our own, and bought them from street vendors.  We used to joke about opening our own bleeny stands when we came home.  Anyway, it had been a while since I'd made them, so we had them for dinner recently.

Here is Alex eagerly waiting at my feet while they cooked.

A yummy stack.

Annie was a fan...

Logan was a fan...

Jim was a fan...

And Alex was a fan...

I guess I'll have to make them again soon!

Birthday Baby

Alex turned one on Saturday.  I can't believe how fast this year was!  Alex has been the sweetest and easiest going baby the whole year, with the exception of the last month.  He went from zero to seven teeth during that time and had at least two colds, though, so I think he had an excuse to be grumpy.  (It looks like he's got a couple more teeth coming in again too...sheesh!)  Anyway, we had a little party for him on Saturday night.  This was our first celebration without family, so we invited a family from our new ward over.  

Here are the cakes.  Thank you Family Fun!  I'm terrible at decorating cakes, so I can't complain too much about how they turned out.  They would have been even better if I'd realized I had the ears too high before I was finished decorating!  Almost everyone knew they were sheep.  Otherwise, I had one guess they were bears, and Annie told me they were piglets.  (?!) 

I didn't get pictures of anyone besides Alex, but since it was his day I guess that's okay.  Cake time!  We gave him the little cake and he decided he didn't like marshmallows.  He sucked on a few, and then started throwing them to the dog.

Demolished and full of sugar!

We did presents after our guests left, and it was really strange to have such a quiet time opening presents!  The first present...

...a swimsuit from grandma!  He examined it very seriously. 

What's in this bag?

A dump truck!

This really was a present believe it or not.  I saw this on a friend's blog when her baby turned one (thanks Arit!) and thought it was a fun idea.  He had a blast unloading that box of tissues. 

Happy Birthday buddy!  We are so happy you joined us a year ago!

My Loves

I think these kids are the best ever...it must be love!

This picture needs an explanation just in case it isn't obvious what Logan created.  Logan is the conductor who is pulling a chemical (he couldn't think of the word for engine right then) which is pulling two hot-tub freight cars in which Annie, the passenger, is soaking.  They played this game for three days and had a lot of fun.  I'm thinking that I'd like to ride in a hot-tub freight car!

Alex was wiped out after church yesterday and didn't wake up when we came in.  Jim said at that moment that "this is the best feeling in the world".