Brought To You By The Letter P

I can hardly believe that one week ago we put Hannah on a plane back to college.  This past week has been a blur of activity and playing catch up.  I intentionally let many things sit (and slide!) during her time at home so we could enjoy our time together as a family.  But seeing her go meant facing a vertical climb to get back on top of real life!  Her visit home was fabulous every which way.  Here are a few highlights....

P is for Pajamas

Pajama day at school was a MUCH bigger success than crazy sock day.  Thank goodness.  I learned some important lessons on the eve of crazy sock day, when WITH MY DAUGHTER'S BLESSING AND FULL PERMISSION, I stayed up very late sewing fancy bows and jingle bells all over her favorite striped knee socks.  I proudly draped them over the couch and was caught COMPLETELY off guard when she arrived down stairs the next morning in a hysterical fit of tears because I had ruined! her! favorite! socks! FOREVER!!!!  It was a confusing morning that ended in me tearing jingle bells from knee highs in a highly dramatic fashion while my wailing six year old watched from a time out stool.  A low, really.  A parenting low.  I then proceeded to RIP the entire sock drawer out of her dresser and set it at her feet, demanding that she choose a suitable pair of crazy socks to wear to kindergarten.

She chose white bobby socks.  Plain white.  I'm not even kidding.  With a total smirk on her face.

I was STEAMED.  The child went to school on crazy sock day wearing white socks, and I slammed a fistful of perfectly good jingle bells into the trash.

So, you can understand why I got a total case of the vapors when the teacher sent a note home saying we had to wear pajamas to school.  I resolved right then and there to let her pick out every single thing and to NOT embellish, change, or alter any night wear in any way.  She chose to wear cat pajama pants, a horse pajama night gown, and an owl robe.  All at once.  (With white bobby socks, don't you just know.) I was fine with it.  Completely fine.  And I only mentioned sixty seven times once or twice that Nana and Papa had just gifted her a fetching pair of MATCHING pajamas with little pink hearts on them for her birthday.  It was all good.  We made it through pajama day, smiling and everything.  Victory.

P is for Perot

We visited the new Perot Science Museum, and despite missing the parking lot entrance (twice!) and getting completely lost downtown, it was highly entertaining.

The musical staircase was a big hit.

So is this cool thing in the sports exhibit where you can race different animals on a huge screen.  Max is faster than a T-Rex, in case you were wondering.

P is for Pampered, and Pomegranate Martinis

Hannah's roommate came to spend two weeks with us.  She is fabulous and we absolutely adore her.  One night, the girls agreed to hold down the fort so that Handsome Buzzard could take me out on the town for a belated anniversary celebration.  We went out for a steak dinner (thank you, Dad!) and spent the night in a hip hotel.  P is for a PERFECT evening away.

P is for Playing Games

There's never a shortage of people in my house when Hannah is home for a visit.  That's part of what makes having her here so fun!  There were plenty of game nights with friends during this break.

P is for Parties with Tea

It is tradition for Emma and Sissy to share a tea party together the day before Sissy goes back to college.  Except technically, it's a cinnamon roll and chocolate milk party.  But they always use the purple tea set that Hannah made in ceramics class in the second grade.  This party was extra special since Lindsey was in town to join in the fun.  P is for Precious.

P is for Pumpkin Muffins

Life jolted into full speed when the girls left town, and switching gears can be hard when you are six.  (Or forty four!)  I purposed some special time with Emma this past week to help ease that transition.  We spent one whole morning making pumpkin muffins, and since I blocked out the whole morning for us, I didn't worry at all about the mess.  I let her do everything....measure the flour (and dump it on the counter), crack the eggs (and add shells to our batter)......you get the idea.  In other words, one batch of muffins really did take up an entire morning, but we had a lot of fun.  Turns out her favorite part was washing the dishes.  I filled the sink with warm soapy water, and she stood on a stool forever playing in it.  She was drenched by the end, which was just fine by me.  Took me four kids, but I finally got one who likes to do dishes!  Wonder how long that will last???

P is for Painted Ponies

I picked up a package of paper horses for a dollar at the Hobby Lobby.  We did an open ended art project the other day.  Emma kept calling out the next supply that we had to use in our masterpieces.  Here is my watercolor, crayon, marker, glitter glue, sequence, cut paper, google eyed creation! Who knew you could use so many supplies on one piece of paper!

P is for Penny

Penny, the Perfect Pet.  I have no idea how we got so lucky.  We just plain did.  She got her hair done this week, and is now particularly beautiful.  :-)  She played outside with the neighbor's four pound puppy the other day, and was so incredibly gentle.  Don't they look like a mega and mini version of the same dog??  Super cute.

Sweet Snacks

Hayden went to a game night party with the kids in his Worldview class last night, and everyone was asked to bring a snack to share.  I don't know what it is about October first, but it's the same thing EVERY year.  I just want to camp out in the kitchen and bake, bake, bake and cook, cook, cook.  I love food prep in fall!!  I've spent the better part of the last few weeks prowling around blogs and pinterest copying recipes to add to my "must try" file.

Both of these little snacks are incredibly simple to make.  The Ritz cracker one was new to me, and I was crazy about them.  The pretzel one is fun to make because you can use any color of M&M to make them extra festive.

The first treat uses one box of Ritz crackers and a package of Rolo candy.

The second treat calls for square pretzels, Hershey's hugs, and a bag of M&Ms.

Both of these require a LOT of unwrapping, so I found it handy to enlist a helper.  One who wasn't quite so enthusiastic about sampling the ingredients may have yielded a greater number of finished products though.  :-)

But what's the fun in cooking with THREE whole bags of candy if you can't sneak just a few??

Unwrapping is great fine motor skill practice, and there is something pretty adorable about watching little hands work.

I'm sure most people are familiar with the pretzel recipe.  You place one Hershey Hug on top of each pretzel, then warm them in a 200 degree oven for about four or five minutes.  You need them to be melty, but not too liquid.  When they get all shiny, they are ready.

You pull them from the oven and immediately squish an M&M into the center of each one.  I put the "M" side down because I didn't want that to show.  I also only used the harvest colors of the M&M's to make it look like a fall snack.  :-)  Emma and I practiced our sorting skills, and all those left over green and blue M&Ms were a wonderful problem to have!!  (Munch, munch, yum, YUM!)

I will say that these take hours (many, many!) to set up at room temperature.  I ended up sticking my tray in the refrigerator for a few minutes, which isn't ideal with chocolate, but I didn't have time to wait for them to completely harden.  I wouldn't leave them in the fridge for too long....you don't want them to get too cold and then sweat when you bring them back to room temperature.  Mine were in the fridge about ten or fifteen minutes, which was just right.

The second snack was my personal favorite.  Then again, I never met a salted caramel I didn't LOVE.

For this treat, you line a baking sheet with Ritz crackers, salted side down.  Then you place a Rolo candy in the center of each cracker, and again soften in a 200 degree oven until nice and soft.  When you pull them from the oven, you make a little sandwich by squishing a second cracker on top, this time salted side up.

Oh my stars were these tasty.  They were BEST when they were nearly set, but still just a teensy bit gooey.  So simple, but sooooo good!

I got a big kick out of the fact that Hayden asked if I would "fix up the snacks to look really pretty like I normally do".  Ha!  He notices???  How wonderful!  I thought that was really sweet.  I wished I had enough time at that point to run to the dollar store for a cute divided fall platter, but I had to settle for colored tissue paper in a cookie tin instead.  He was real proud of the fact that he brought home an empty tin.  He liked having popular snacks.  :-)

I also baked a new kind of pumpkin bread to send.  It was so-so.  My Mom makes the world's BEST pumpkin bread, so my family gave me a really hard time about trying a new recipe when the one we already have is so fantastic.  Well, the new recipe was super simple - started with a cake mix - and was something Emma could really help me with, which was the goal of spending the afternoon in the kitchen together.  The new bread couldn't hold a candle to Oma's tried and true.  

I hate it when my family is so RIGHT!  Grrrrr.....

In other weekend news, Papa is hard at work fully restoring a '57 Chevy truck.  He finally started on the paint, and I am super excited.  I have a bit of a hard time relating to engine and speedometer issues, but pretty paint colors I can completely relate to!  :-)

This has been an ongoing project; one that is back on the front burner lately, and I am glad.  This is a blast for his five grandsons, who marvel that their Papa knows how to build a truck, and who love to hang out in the barn and work on it with him.

Let's hear it for that paint job.  LOVE the color, Papa!!!!

Jenna

Emma's friend JENNA has been in town this week.  She is our precious friend who lives about six hours away, so when she is here, we like to grab as much time with her as we can get!

My big news is that Jeff and the boys and Hannah have all been out of town this entire week, so I've had lots of sweet GIRL time with these two lovely ladies.

My days have been spent in a rotation of the two following stations.....

ONE:  Pool time!  Swimming, floating, and eating lots of popsicles.

TWO:  Craft time!  Cutting, gluing, drawing, coloring, sculpting, making, making, making.

L-O-V-E it!

Can't think of two better stations to fill up our days with friendship and FUN.

Last night the family RETURNED!!  HOORAY for homecomings!

Everyone is sacked out this morning, and the piles and piles of suitcases and laundry bags in my entry way look a tad more daunting in the light of day than they did under the cover of darkness late last night.  Looks like I already have my assigned "station" for today.......the laundry room!  Ha!

BBQ and Buddies

Last weekend we attended a graduation BBQ for Ross, the younger brother of one of Hannah's closest friends.  It was PERFECT weather, an absolute exception for June in Texas.  I was so happy they had such a glorious day for their big outdoor bash, because honestly, outdoors in June is a risky business down here.  It was sunny, so of course.......

They are new, and they complete EVERY outfit EVERY day around here.  We spied them on sale at Gymboree, and given our recent koala bear experience at the zoo, they were a must have.  Plus, they look smashing with her pink floral cowboy hat.

Anyhoo, appropriate festive eyewear in place, we headed to the bash.

Alicia and Ross have been part of our lives since Hannah was born.

One of the things I most appreciate about them is that they have very cool parents with a very cool hobby...........FOOD.

Art and Sheila are smokers.  Not the two pack a day kind, but the "I-can-put-any-meet-on-a-grill-and-bring-my-guests-to-their-knees" kind.  Art competed for years in smoking contests, and being the supportive friends that we were, we continually urged him to practice, practice, practice so we could eat, eat, eat whatever he was learning to smoke.  Those were the good old days.

Smokers take their meat very seriously.  Texans don't mess around when it comes to BBQ.  It is all about the wood...the heat...the timing...the rub...the sauce........

Actually, I don't know if any of that is true.  I know nothing of the actual smoking of the meat. But over the years we became experts on the sampling and consuming side of smoking competitions.  It's the most fun side of the party to be on.

And hands down, if I were ever given a choice in a do-or-die smoking competition, I'd choose to be on Art and Sheila's team.  I'm sure when God invented the hog, it was intended as a gift to Art, so he could bless an entire community of friends with his ability to turn it into a southern delicacy.

I particularly loved how Art and Sheila invited some of my very favorite people to their party, so I could dine in spectacular company.  :-)

It had been many years since I'd feasted on Art's BBQ, but it all came back to me Saturday night.

Brisket.  Pulled pork.  Music.  Cold drinks.  Friends.

The best.  The very, very best.  Art and Sheila have graduated two now, but lucky for me, they still have one at home.  I can hardly wait until she graduates, and I can only start to hope that they decide to throw her a really, really big BBQ when she does.

Because I'm already craving M-O-R-E.

Thanks, Art and Sheila, for a perfect summer night.

And congratulations, Ross.  You are an accomplished and prepared young man and I can hardly wait to see what God has in store for your future.  May you continually be blessed by His Word in your life......and your Daddy's BBQ in your belly.

The Plunge

Jeff and the boys were gone last night, so Miss Emma and I went on a date.

The American Girl "Doll of the Year" is named Saige.  Saige's two favorite things are horses and art.

Sound like anyone you know??

We've read both of Saige's books out loud, and we loooooove Saige.  So, last night we ventured to the American Girl store (on a whim!) to visit Saige and see all her accessories.

Like her horse, Picasso.

We've had a whirlwind of a few days, and it was super fun to just get girl time on a whim.

We got to the store shortly before closing time, and since it was late and on a weekday, we had the entire place to ourselves.  We played in the isles, held dolls, and had a great time.

And the night ended spectacularly well.  :-)

Marci and I did a garage sale last weekend, and I decided I wanted to do something super FUN with some earnings.  I was extremely proud of Emma for weeding through some toys and passing many things along to bless some other kids.  It was one thing to gather the toys here at home, but I wasn't entirely sure she would go through with it when she actually had to watch them get sold.   But she really surprised me.  She did GREAT, and we have a streamlined toy cabinet as a benefit.

So, there was a little extra space to add Saige.  :-)

A huge, huge, super huge splurge, I know.  Are you guilty of buying things for your kids because you really want them yourself?  Maybe?  Saige might have been half for Emma....and half for me.  Confession.

I could hardly get her to sleep last night for all the excitement.  I think these two have many, many miles of memories ahead of them.  They seemed to hit it off instantly!  :-)

It was bound to happen sooner or later.

It happened sooner than I expected, but our brand new membership in the American Girl club is pretty exciting stuff.  Welcome to the fold, Saige!

Operation Bird Brain

The Kiwi Crate theme for May was birds.

It could not have been more perfect, as it arrived in the midst of our hayday with the chickens, and birds were a huge topic for conversation and research around here.

We love, love, LOVE the Kiwi Crate.  A box delivered to my door once per month with every single (high quality) supply I need to make crafts and learn about a particular project.  It's fab.

This month we added sparkles to our bird wings.  Because we are, clearly, very fancy.

Daddy helped sort sequence, and I fired up the glue gun.  It was a family affair, the blinging of the wings.  A wing bling, if you will.

We also made a bird nest out of yarn, and decorated eggs to snuggle inside of it.

Our mask has interchangeable beaks.  So we can adjust our bird mood.

Feeling woodpecker-ish?  BAM!  We've got the beak for that.

Oh, I love this girl, and her outrageous spirit for creativity.

The Zoo

Jeff's company sponsored an event that allowed him to volunteer at the ZOO on Friday, so the kids and I headed down to meet him after lunch.  Our zoo got KOALA BEARS a few years ago, and I've tried (in vain) to go see them for quite some time.  I was so excited when everyone said they were on board on Friday.

This was the first guy who greeted us, and Emma got all excited to see "Zaboomifoo".  I realized pretty quick that I was going to be expected to take looooooots of pictures at the zoo....so get ready!

I was thinking Chrissy from Three's Company when I took this one.  :-)

Those are flamingos in the background.

Hayden's favorite of the day.

I told the boys they each had to WILLINGLY pose for (at least) one picture with an animal.  After I took this, Max tried to convince me he was done.  

Wrong.  :-)

This was Max's favorite of the day.

Sooooo creepy.  It's an albino alligator, and they are very, very, very rare in the wild because they can't hide from predators.  He was really gross.  (Said the woman who was waiting for the koala bears.)

Yeeeeessssssssss.

Finally.

The reason for the day.

So stinking adorable.

This is what he was doing when we arrived.

This is what he was doing ten minutes later while I was still gawking at him.

This is what he was doing by the time the boys finally convinced me to move on.

Honestly, they are not super active.  :-)

Or super awake, even.  Ha!

There were two of them, and I didn't even bother taking pictures of the other one because he was curled up in a tight ball with his back to us.  At least this guy was nice enough to snooze face forward.

I chose the koala enclosure for my picture op of the day.  :-)

One more...........can't help myself!

After koala perfection, we headed to Lorikeet Landing to hand feed the birds.

I got these cute pictures right before one of them POOPED ON MY HEAD.

Bird poop.  On my head.  And running down the side of my face.

Hello.  Embarrassing.

This one thought it was HILARIOUS.

I knew we never should have left the koalas.  :-)

This was by far the coolest thing we saw.  The giraffe enclosure has a little platform where you can reach out and pet them!!!  You can also buy little crackers to feed them.

I've never seen a more graceful creature.

They are magnificent.  And truthfully, a tad more entertaining than the sleeping koalas.

We rode the monorail system, and it gave Emma a chance to sit and study her map.  She was an absolute NUT for this map.  She carried it around all day long trying to keep up with the various exhibits.  We brought it home with us, and it has been a continuing source of entertainment.

The chimpanzees used to always be my very favorites.  I do still love them, but I never feel like they look very happy in the zoo and it makes me super sad.  This little guy had an apple that he seemed to enjoy.  They are such fascinating little creatures.

Emma and I visited a second bird enclosure in the children's zoo.  On our way in she turned to me and asked if I could "please at least TRY not to get pooped on this time".  It was as if the bird poop running down MY head was somehow imposing on HER ability to have a great time.

This is Murphy, an African Gray that stole my heart right away.  Smart, clever, and an amazing talker.  His voice sounded absolutely human.  Loved him.

When Ems fed these koi they splashed a huge wave of water right on top of her.  They get so excited for their food they whip themselves into a frenzy!

Unanimous vote that we need one of these living in our back yard.

So cute.  They look very in love, don't you think??

All in all, a most fabulous day at the zoo.