Hard to Believe!

I bought gas for $1.65 per gallon this afternoon! What are you paying at the pump?

Highlights from the Girls' Birthday

We had a little family party for the girls on Tuesday night. Lily wanted a purple Dora party, and Gracie wanted a pink Hello Kitty party. Here's our compromise!

We took lots of pictures,

...played a party game,

...opened presents,

...ate pizza, drank root beer, blew out candles, ate yummy pink and purple cupcakes,

...and then played with birthday gifts until bedtime.

Birthday Outing: Build A Bear!

Auntie Emy treated the kids to Build A Bear this morning! They didn't know why we headed to the mall until we walked up to the store. They were very excited to go inside and make bears of their very own.

The girls received special Happy Birthday stickers to wear.

Lily chose a brown bear, Gracie chose a pink bear.

All done! Caleb chose a black bear and named it Bearmy, Jared chose an orange cat and named it Love, Lily named her brown bear Monkey and Gracie named her pink bear Hello Kitty.

Birthday Eve

The girls will be 3 tomorrow! A standing tradition for third birthdays in our home is saying goodbye to pacifiers. Jared called his pacifier ninga. We're not sure why, but the name caught on. Soon Caleb's pacifier was a ninga, and then the girls joined in. In preparation for birthday number 3, Gracie and Lily are painting boxes for their ningas. We like to say that we put them away and not take them away.

It was no surprise to us that Gracie chose to paint her box pink, and that Lily chose purple.

After the paint dried, the girls put fun puffy glitter stickers on their boxes. It makes me sad to think that this will be the very last night for ningas in our home. Sigh.

Beauty Salon

Auntie Emy, Gracie and Lily played beauty salon before bedtime tonight. Lily was on her cell phone, which is really a purple calculator.

Pretty Girls!

Brothers by the Fire

Every Saturday night, Jared and Caleb have what they call, "Special Time," when they each eat one of the warm blueberry muffins I have set aside for Sunday morning's breakfast.

Silly Boys!

Cozy Saturday Evening

The boys are playing some kind of game up on their beds while Gracie and Phil work on starting a fire for the evening.


Lily has been working on these two Dora puzzles all day! She'll do them, take them apart and then start all over again. She started after breakfast, worked until lunch, after lunch until nap time, after nap time until dinner, and now she's out there again doing the same two puzzles.

As Promised...

Here's a picture of the kids at the theater waiting for the play to start. It was so dark inside that Brooke wasn't able to take many pictures. We had a wonderful time! Jared was a bit apprehensive when Captain Hook made his appearance on stage. He's very analytical, so I spent most of the play whispering in his little ear, answering all of his questions. Some of his concerns were: the dog, the crocodile, Captain Hook's big hair, his hook, the pixie dust, and the "flying" actors.

Peter Pan

On Saturday, I took the boys to see the play Peter Pan at the Big Crosby theater in downtown Spokane. We went with our friends Brooke and Addie.

We stopped by Starbucks before the show for a special treat, and my camera battery died right there in Starbucks! I'll try to post more pictures later after Brooke emails me a few off of her camera.

More on Homemade Marshmallows

:: photo from Marthastewart.com ::

The homemade marshmallows were a big hit with my kids! Some of you asked how we made them. My mom sent a kit, so all of the ingredients were included in a pouch. Click Here to check it out.

But here's a recipe for homemade marshmallows if you're not inclined to purchase a kit:

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 tablespoons unflavored gelatin
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 cup light corn syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
• Confectioners' sugar (for dusting)

Combine gelatin and 1/2 cup cold water in the bowl of an electric mixer with whisk attachment. Let it stand 30 minutes.

Combine granulated sugar, corn syrup, salt and 1/2 cup of water in a small heavy saucepan; place over low heat and stir until sugar has dissolved. Wash down sides of pan with a wet pastry brush to dissolve sugar crystals.

Clip on a candy thermometer; raise heat to high. Cook syrup without stirring until it reaches 244 degrees (firm-ball stage). Immediately remove pan from heat.

With mixer on low speed, slowly and carefully pour syrup into the softened gelatin. Increase speed to high; beat until mixture is very thick and white and has almost tripled in volume, about 15 minutes. Add vanilla; beat to incorporate.

Generously dust an 8 x 12-inch glass baking pan with confectioners' sugar. Pour marshmallow mixture into pan. Dust with confectioners' sugar; let stand overnight, uncovered, to dry out.

Homemade Marshmallows

We received a fun package in the mail from Nana with kits to make our own marshmallows.

So Yummy! We had hot chocolate and homemade marshmallows tonight for dessert!

The Results Are In...

Thanks to those of you who voted. Every vote counts! Here are the final results:

Bear: 5 votes
Beaver: 5 votes
Fox: 2 votes

We decided that Bear and Beaver should share the duties as President, and Fox should be Vice President. Yes, I know it's really bad politics, but it keeps everybody happy.

Cast Your Vote!

In anticipation of the upcoming election we read a little story called, Election in the Forest. The kids have been busy this morning "campaigning" for three friendly forest animals, Bear, Beaver and Fox. Meet the four qualified and adorable campaign managers of this election:

Lily and Grace are working with Bear, who promises to listen to the concerns of the forest friends and help them solve their problems.

Bear's campaign slogan: Talk it over with Bear

Caleb is working with Beaver, because she promises to build a good, strong dam to prevent flooding in the forest.

Beaver's slogan: Beaver Works Hard

Jared is working with Fox, because he promises to make all inhabitants of the forest safe and happy.

Fox's slogan: Keep Safe with Fox

We'll place our votes in a ballot box tonight after dinner. If any of you would like to vote, please do so here, and we'll place your votes in our ballot box, too.

Our Sugar Plum Fairy

"Oh, the tenderness of God is twirling around in our living room tonight." --Watermark

It was so sweet to watch Grace and Lily twirl around the living room like ballerinas as we watched The Nutcracker this afternoon. Gracie watched carefully and must have figured out the concept of toe shoes, because she twirled into the kitchen wearing a pair of snack bowls on her toes.

Halloween Night

Last night the kids and I went to McDonald's for dinner and then to our church for its annual In Search of The Greatest Treasure night. We received our maps at the door, and then we were off on an exciting treasure hunt!

I had to carry Gracie's candy bag, because she was really intent on following her map.

As we pulled into the driveway, Phil was lighting our jack-o-lanterns--he had just gotten home from school. The kids were so excited to tell him all about their treasure hunt.

We took the kids trick-or-treating on our street...

...and came home with a little too much candy!