Love-ly Countdown

Somewhere I saw a yummy February mobile made of gingerbread hearts.  Ama sent the kids heart cookie cutters for Valentine's Day, so we got started today baking (here's our fav gingerbread cookie recipe)....

Wesley heard me say, "Don't throw the cookie cutters."

We had fun rolling dough, eating dough, cutting dough, & eating cookies....

We poked holes in the cookies and strung cookies from ribbon.  

The girls hung their cookies at the foot of their beds and are going to eat a cookie a day as they countdown to Valentine's Day.  Thomas put his cookies in one of his mini storage buckets in his desk.  We hung Christina's cookies on her bulletin board...surprise, sis! 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Love, The Beantown Menzies

Fancy Pudding- a new favorite dessert

I don't have a photo, but this dessert should be easy to imagine how it aught to look.  My friend, Lee served this at our church Christmas party and I finally remembered to get the recipe from her.  We made it for FHE dessert last week & called it a success...

Fancy Pudding

Ingredients

1 box vanilla instant pudding

1 pint whipped cream- whip it in chilled bowl & add sugar to taste

crushed peppermint

peppermint flavoring (optional)

Directions

Make the pudding following the directions on the box.  Put in fridge while you make the whipped cream.  Using a spoon, combine whipped cream with pudding to whatever consistency you like.  It should be thinner than pudding, but not too thin.  I mix a little more pudding than whipped cream. (My 2nd batch was a little heavy on the whipped cream, so I added a couple drops of clear vanilla flavoring...problem solved)  Add a few drops of peppermint flavoring if you want.  Spoon into serving dishes & top with crushed peppermint.  The peppermint will soften a bit in the pudding.  This dessert would also make a great topping for brownies.

Thanks, Lee for sharing this recipe with me!  I did learn that I have dairy limitations in my old age:)  No matter, we all gave this dessert a thumbs up.

The '09 Derby Report by Thomas

Early on, I drew a design for a car.  I traced the car design onto my wood block.  Dad used the huge power saw to cut the shape of the car out of the wood block.  The back was flat and so dad and I sanded the back in so it was diagonal.  I did most of the sanding.  Then we decided where the weights were going to go.  After we put the weights in we put wood putty on it.  Then we painted it.  From the paint we had, I chose metallic blue.  Then we put weights that look like after burners on the back.  The next day we put the wheels on, and then we made sure that the wheels were aligned so that it would go straight and fast.  

At the derby we borrowed some of B. Hendrickson's graphite for the wheels.  It was fun working with dad because he let me do lots of stuff.  I liked designing the car all by myself and doing most of the work getting the car ready to race and win.  I'm thankful that dad is able to help me a lot.

It was really fun racing with my friends.  My friend, Ben's car looked like a Hummer.  It was my favorite car.  It had a machine gun, but they took it off.  You could feel the anticipation in the room.  Everyone was ready to race. 

After every race I said, "Good job" to my friends because they did really well.  Everyone's car was so fast!  

I got second in 1 race and 1st in 5.  I came in 1st place in my ward and 1st place overall.
I get to go to regionals with the other winners.  I can't wait!

Links

Grace has been working on reading "links" in school. She finds a sentence, a lesson, an action, etc. in a book and "links" or applies it to her life.
The other day she checked out Junie B. Jones is a Beauty Shop Guy at the library. Looks fun enough, right? Well, yesterday I found Grace in Wesley's high chair with one of Wesley's blankets draped over her shirt like a smock. Caroline was close by with a basket of brushes, curlers, and clippies. She also had a little cup of water to dip a brush in before brushing Grace's hair.  Nice little set up, huh!  I quickly realized Grace was acting out, you know, making literature come alive; linking!  So far this looked harmless. I asked, "What are you girls doing?" Caroline responded, "We're playing barber shop!"  with the "silly mother" tone that makes me laugh coming from a 4 yr. old.  But because I've learned from experience (like the "trim" Caroline gave herself that took a year to blend in) how quickly this sort of pretend play can go wrong, I asked the important question, "Not with scissors, right?"  Again the "silly mom" tone from C., "Of course not!..(& before I could sigh in relief)...that's tomorrow!"

So, if your kids are "linking" with literature, BEWARE...it's great fun,

but can result in childhood comb-overs.  True story.

Happy Reading,

Rebecca

Sweets

Sweet...

Waking up to this sign made by Thomas:

Sweet...

My first birthday with facebook.  I loved hearing from so many friends old and new, near and far!  The internet is esp. nice for me since I can't seem to keep track of my cell phone or keep it charged.

Sweet....

Lunch at Chipotle with my love and 2 of my lovelies.  Wes hollered the whole time, so we were done lickity split, but my "usual" (chicken salad with mild salsa) was delish.  Next time I'm going to venture to the vegetarian salad since I think I might rather have quacamole than chicken.

Sweet...

Thoughtful gifts from my loves.  The plumeria lotion is reminiscent of two wonderful trips to Hawaii.  I love that smell!  It'll be good therapy for winter blues.

Sweet...

TX sheet cake a la mode for dessert.  Thanks to my mission friends for the inspiration!   Every calorie was worth it.  This recipe comes from my friend, Ellen.  She's quite the baker.  I've always wished that I brought 2 recipes home from my Texas mission....TX sheet cake and my mission mom's brisket.  Ellen's recipe takes me back to TX, so of all of her recipes, I'm esp. thankful for this one.  Thanks for sharing, EP!  Now I just need to call my mission mom (as soon as I find and charge my cell phone)...her brisket was the first meal I had on my mission and it was melt in my mouth yummy.

Sweet....

Laughs with friends & family today.  You all made my day.  As I was cleaning up in the kitchen after dinner, Wesley helped himself to the chili toppings, mainly the shredded cheese.  I chuckled when I shot this photo and he let out a muffled, "Cheese," with a mouth full of cheese.

Even though there was plenty of laundry & cleaning to do, diarrhea to deal with (not mine!), and it was 25 degrees outside,  I felt LOVED, cherished, and oh, so blessed today.

Life is good.

President Obama

photo: Boston Globe

Our children were home from school, so we had the opportunity to watch the inauguration ceremonies (at least part of them) for President Obama together.  I want our children to be able to contribute to tomorrow's classroom discussion and future discussions that no doubt will take place regarding Obama's election & inauguration.  I wanted our children to see history made even though they know I don't agree with all of Obama's policies.

 

It's a blessing to be an American.  It's a blessing to be a part of the election process.  It's a blessing to see a peaceful, respectful change of power.

A favorite moment in the inauguration for me was John Williams' (IMO inspired composition) "Air and Simple Gifts" performed by Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Gabriela Montero, and Anthony McGill.  Enjoy...