Spring Break

Spring Break?! It's not spring around here! It has been snowing all morning and we must have a good 4 inches outside by now. The kids had last week off from school and we spent most of the week reading, lounging around in our pajamas, watching movies and playing Pokemon cards (Max and Sophie, not me). We did venture out of doors a couple of times - once for a quick trip to the zoo. Alas, it was spring break and the place was packed!

I do not know why Calvin looks like a grouch in this photo.

Funny things kids say

Calvin climbed up in his toddler chair with a package of peeps from his Easter basket. After licking them for a few minutes he climbed down and handed me the package. "Mommy, these chickens are yucky!" I couldn't agree more.

Your happy for the day

5 part harmony with a little Texas twang. Impressive!

REAL kids hunt easter eggs in the snow!

The Easter bunny hides the little plastic eggs with the candy in them outside - even if you live in Minnesota and there is a foot of snow on the ground. No pain, no gain.

Easter Baskets

The Easter Bunny did not come until after church this year. We can barely get to church on time as it is without the distractions of gifts and candy!! The bunny has a couple of traditions in our family - he uses the same baskets every year and he always brings the kids DVDs. The bunny knows that DVDs do not take much room to store!!

Here is Sophie in her Easter dress . . . with a fleece jacket on top! We had a least a foot of snow on the ground!


And, just for fun, a photo of our Easter dinner. We were all too tired to actually make rolls this year.

Movie Reviews

Here are two of our latest Netflicks movies which I would not recommend.

I thought I would like this film because of the cast and I admit it had some funny moments. But, I found myself constantly leaning over to Bryan and asking "what is going on"? It was . . . pointless. Here is a great review:
For all Anderson’s pleasing, refreshing auteur tendencies, the overwhelming feeling delivered by ‘The Darjeeling Limited’ is of frustration, déjà vu and little progression.

This is a foreign film that again, I thought I'd really enjoy, but instead I found it to be really slow - the little girl is adorable though. It was very predictable but I did enjoy all the discussion about cooking a great food.

Easter Colors

We decided to cram all Easter themed events onto Easter Sunday since Bryan would be home to share them with us. That included dying Easter eggs with the kids after church. We only made about 18 this year and them made them into deviled eggs for dinner. I remember as a kid, we would dye the eggs and then they would appear in our Easter baskets and THEN they would become deviled eggs! We apparently were much less concerned about salmonella back then!

Recipes from the Baby Shower

Here are the recipes we made for the baby shower. I ate myself silly and thoroughly enjoyed all the yummy new things we made! I did not take a photo, but I also made my favorite scone, the orange, chocolate, cherry scone from The Great Book of Chocolate. I would like to have these scones for my last meal, whenever that is. They really are that good. By the way, I buy a lot of my cookbooks from Amazon on the used section. I can usually find a great deal like I did on this one!


These are a white chocolate, walnut apricot scone. The Recipe is from Bread for Breakfast.
They are much denser than a traditional scone because there is egg in them. I would highly recommend the cookbook - yum!


These are Joni's cinnamon rolls. She promised to send the recipe and as soon as she does I will post it here. They were really beautiful as she made them in a spring form pan and they were so tall and fluffy! These were Calvin and Sophie's favorite.

Citrus Sugar Cookies
These are my favorite new sugar cookie recipe. We used a combination of lemon and orange zest and then glazed them with a lemon juice and powdered sugar glaze.

Spinach Feta Red Pepper Quiche
For this one Koo doubled the eggs and the cheese, left out the spinach and added mushrooms and shredded Colby and green onions. It was soooo good!

Spinach Puff Pastry Quiche
Koo made this with fresh spinach and added and extra egg and cream and 4 oz. of cream cheese instead of 3. Yum! (This was my favorite)

Bacon and Green Chili Quiche
Koo doubled the chilies in this recipe. Very tasty!

Peanut Butter and Fudge Brownies with Salted PeanutsThese are sinfully good! One suggestion. I made them the night before and then put them in the fridge overnight. Before cutting, you need to bring them to room temperature or the ganache will crack on the top. We ate a whole bunch with cracked tops because we could not wait until they came to room temperature.

Melissa's Baby Shower

Last Saturday my sister Koo and I hosted a baby shower for Melissa at our home. Melissa is a friend of Koo's from her singles ward and then she got married and moved into my ward where I was her visiting teacher for a little while. This is their first child, a little boy and they are thrilled! Melissa is one of these beautiful women who get pregnant and then grow a little basketball on the front of them while maintaining their thin figure. She is just glowing!
I'll post the recipes from the shower in the next post.

Life in the Arctic Tundra

I am sorry for the lack of posts - I have been having technical difficulties with my computer and am trying to clean up my photos files. I hope to get a lot done tomorrow . . . . .

The weather continues to ignore the fact that we have already past the official start of spring. This is what it looked like the day before Easter! The kids are back to sledding down the snow mountain in the cul-de-sac and having snowball fights with the neighbor kids. Max literally spent most of Saturday outside in the snow. Bryan went out and shoveled a path from the end of the driveway to the door as Koo and I were hosting a baby shower at our house on Saturday morning. Other that the path, we are no longer shoveling. I REFUSE to acknowledge the snow any longer. Maybe if I ignore it, spring will actually come!

Wacky Weather

Yesterday morning we awoke to THIS outside!! Wet, heavy snow - everywhere!

By the time the kids came home from school that afternoon, most of the snow was gone leaving behind rivers in the lawn and enormous puddles in the streets. The kids took advantage of the warmer weather and played outside for a couple of hours. They were muddy and completely soaked when they came back in!

Max had a big wipe-out on his scooter. He landed in the river running down to the storm drains!