What's Your Beading Style?

A semi-rainy day today, so we dug out the old tub 

of beads left over from Emily's birthday party last year.

Emily's beading style is Less Is More 

i.e. few beads and a lot of bare string.

Like so

She even got the letters of her name right 

but isn't quite ready to tackle sequence.

Jenna's beading style is More is More 

i.e. lots of beads and no string.

(I did remember that beads are choking hazards 

so I kept an eye on Jenna while she was decorating the carpet).

Cream of Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

One of my favorite soups, and one that seldom goes wrong, thanks to Betty Crocker, whose recipe this is, with minor adaptation. The original recipe is from the 10th edition of the Betty Crocker Cookbook and relatively easy to make, apart from the laborious chopping of ingredients. This is (I think) my first made-from-scratch (with the exception of the canned broth- disinclined to boil chicken bones to make homemade stock till the children are in college) dish since Kate was born. Yes, I've made desserts and breads and cake and whatnot, but baking doesn't really count.

Ingredients:

4 stalks celery, finely chopped

1 medium onion, finely diced

3 medium carrots, coarsely shredded

About 2 tbsp butter

2 large chicken breasts, diced (half-inch) and pre-cooked 

3 cups cooked wild rice, from 1 cup uncooked rice

3 cups half-and-half

About a quarter cup flour

1 tsp salt

Half tsp pepper

2 cups water

2 cans chicken broth/stock

Parsley (optional)

Method:

1 In a large pot (e.g. dutch oven), fry the vegetables in the butter till crisp-tender.

2 Add the flour, salt and pepper and mix well.

3 Add in the stock, water, then rice and chicken.

4 Bring to a boil and then simmer for about 20 minutes.

5 Add more water or thickening agent (flour, cornstarch etc) to achieve desired consistency.

6 Stir in the half-and-half and keep warm till ready to serve. Do not boil to prevent curdling.

7 Sprinkle parsley (I used dried flakes- about half a tsp).

This makes about 11-12 cups of soup. When the soup is cooled, I usually pour batches into a quart-size freezer ziptop bag, suck out excess air with a thin straw and freeze the bags horizontally. They freeze flat and are easy to stack (like books!) in the freezer and take up less space than in containers.

Lemon Bars

This is my mother-in-law Karen's recipe for a dessert 

that is oddly difficult to get right. After several attempts in the past 

to bake it, I gave up until we got our new oven last winter. 

Today I felt ambitious and optimistic, so I gave it another shot. 

Not bad, not bad. Not quite like Karen makes it, but better 

than what we'd had in the past from our old oven(s). 

Bottom layer (crust):

1 Preheat oven to 350F.

2 Mix at medium speed 1 cup (2 sticks) softened butter and half a cup of powdered sugar.

3 Mix in at low speed, 2 cups of flour.

4 Press into the bottom of an ungreased 13"x9" baking dish (I used pyrex but metal is fine too)

5 Bake about 20-25 mins or till golden brown.

Middle layer (curd):

1 While crust is baking, mix at medium speed 2 eggs and 1 cup granulated sugar till fluffy.

2 Add in a third cup of flour and half a tsp baking powder.

3 Quickly mix in an eighth of a cup of lemon juice.

4 Pour over warm crust and bake for another 25 mins or till golden.

5 Cool completely.

Top layer (glaze):

1 Mix 1 cup powdered sugar with enough lemon juice (3 tbsp, approx) to obtain a spreadable consistency.

2 Spread on the cooled curd layer.

More Acrobatic Feats

Well, our little Kate is growing up!

Thanks, Gretchen, for the Bumbo seat!

And here she is doing The Cashewnut - precursor to The Rollover.

It's hard to believe that just 3 months ago she came into our family and changed our lives for the better forever. Whom did Emily and Jenna kiss and fawn over before Kate? Dolls, perhaps. Nothing like the real thing, though.

Garage Sale Treasures

The girls and I LOVE garage sales but we don't get 

to go to as many now as before Kate was born. 

Kate is a good baby - she's probably the most well-behaved 

of the three girls when we are at a rummage sale - 

but it is often not worth the effort to drive to these places, 

have everyone disembark, open the giant double stroller, 

install the two smallest children in it, and then enforce 

a reasonable budget on Emily's spending, only to march up 

the driveway and discover that the colourful and exciting items 

we'd spied from our car window turned out to be 

floral bedding, power tools, out-of-season ornaments 

and some battered stuffed toys. 

So imagine our joy when we discovered 2 neighbors 

having garage sales today! Within walking distance! 

Even if we found nothing worth buying, it was still 

a good excuse for a walk around the block in the morning. 

And so we loaded up the giant stroller with small children, 

put $1 in Emily's little purse, and off we went.

Look how successful (if you could consider 

parting with money "successful") we were! 

All this for under $10:

I found this gem of a dollhouse - 

as a rule, I don't buy toys for myself but 

I had to make an exception this morning. 

Front

Back

Inside - a charming little bunny family of four, 

with sofa, armchair and bed (complete with bed linen). 

Kind Jenna has put the Mother Bunny to bed - 

something to vicariously enjoy, seeing that 

it's a place I don't spend enough time in myself.

Someday, like when the girls are teenagers, it would 

be fun to try and sew a reasonable facsimile of this 

(with maybe a Pig family instead) as gifts for friends. 

Hey wait, their kids will be teenagers by then too. 

Oh well.

What The Kids Did Today

Two days ago, actually.

Emily didn't feel like eating indoors so the girls 

had their lunch out on the deck. Jenna is still 

getting the hang of taking food from a communal 

serving dish - when I came out to check on them later, 

she had nibbled on several carrots and celery sticks, 

smeared them with dip and carefully replaced them 

in the serving dish.

Emily has been practising riding her tricycle 

around the block while we are on our evening walks. 

She is getting quite adept at it and, unless sidetracked 

by an invitation to play at one of our neighbor's houses, 

will make it all the way around the block and 

say she can't wait to ride again the next day.

Summer Dresses

Finished two summer dresses for Emily and Jenna today.

Emily has recently entered an "I like dresses more than pants"

phase, but I am disinclined to sew dresses for her

unless they can be completed within a day or two (or four).

I decided to make one for Jenna also because

she loves being "twins" with Emily whenever

they wear matching outfits. Also, younger sisters inherit

an abundance of hand-me-downs from elder sisters

so I try to give Jenna new clothes whenever I can.

Do not be fooled by how fancy these dresses appear,

and, therefore, how complicated the sewing process

must have been. Remember: I am, at best, very busy

and at worst, very lazy. The fabric came already

shirred - all I did was sew up the sides, add straps,

embellish with ric-rac and they were done.

The hardest part was getting the girls to stand still

long enough to measure them!

What The Kids Did Today

Kate lifted her head - bravo, Kate!

Emily watered the plants

and Jenna borrowed the watering can 

to do likewise when Emily's back was turned.

The Annual Eagan Art Festival

This weekend we went to the Eagan Art Festival. 

On Saturday Emily and I went in the morning to look 

for a little wooden bench for the entryway of our house. 

We didn't find a bench but we did stop by 

the children's art tent to make a book

inside which Emily drew herself eating cotton candy 

(which we bought) and wrote her own name using 

the four letters she is familiar with, 

albeit in an unusual arrangement

and left with a little wooden rocking cradle for Pink Baby.

The entire family returned again today 

and ended up buying not art, but fair food 

- mini donuts and popcorn!

The Latest Addition to Our Backyard

Behold our new swingset!

which Dave, Arne and James set up this weekend. 

Two legs stand in part of what used to be our vegetable garden. 

The vegetables and Good Flora (i.e. not weeds) 

have all been transplanted in the other end 

of the original patch of dirt. We are optimistic that 

the size reduction of the garden will also greatly decrease 

the amount of Bad Flora (i.e. weeds) this summer, 

and, hopefully, for years to come.  

Oh the combinations!

2-on-1

1-on-1 times two

One pushing 1-on-1

We can hardly wait to do the Math when Kate is ready to join in!

Thanks, Dad and Mum!

Kate Meets Uncle James

An important day for Kate -

she met Uncle James for the first time

an event we celebrated by going here

for some amazing gelato and ice-cream - 

(my current favorite is the blood orange gelato). 

The Start of Summer

Today officially marks the beginning of summer.

We set up a water slide on our lawn for the girls - 

connected the garden hose and watched Emily 

entertain herself running up and down the orange slide 

through the little arcs of water. Although it's designed 

for one to slide on one's stomach from one end 

to the little pool at the other, Emily decided to save that 

particular acrobatic stunt for another day - 

perhaps when the temperature hits 100? 

Jenna, fresh (or not) from her afternoon nap, 

was a little more reserved with this new toy

and preferred to stand still and collect water 

in her little bucket before getting out, all within 5 minutes.

And then we took a refreshment break on the deck for ice creams

Our other project for the day was assembling 

the new swingset in our backyard, ready to be stabilized 

in its post holes in the ground with cement tomorrow. 

Pictures soon!

Fingers

Kate is beginning to suck on her fingers this past fortnight 

and it is fascinating to observe her choose the same fingers 

(but different hand) that her elder sisters did, 

and still do, suck on. 

Jenna at 3 months

Emily did not start this till she was much older. 

Or maybe we simply did not document this in photos till later. 

In keeping with the theme of hand-me-downs, all three children 

love their colorful playmat with its hanging toys- 

thank you Auntie Laura and Uncle Kum Kit!