Jenna's ballet recital was this past Sunday. She was a snowgirl in the Columbus Dance Arts three fairies and a tale recital. The recital was 3 1/2 hours long but it was a good show. Jenna did a great job dancing too!  It was fun watching the older girls dance - they are really good and maybe Jenna will be dancing like that someday.

Jenna: my little snowgirl

Jenna right before the performance!

 Sarah wanted to bake some bread (obviously - what else would a 4 year old want to do?). And she wanted to make berry bread. So I helped her make berry bread and she wrote out all the ingredients on a piece of paper to write out her "repice". The bread turned out pretty good too!  Sarah had her preschool graduation so now she is officially in pre-kindergarten. She has started reading a few words which is pretty exciting.

Sarah baked berry bread - yum!

 Last year I posted this picture of the three kids swinging on our swingset. Now look at them - in one year they've gotten so much bigger. Jenna can push herself on the swing and Sarah is actually sitting on it correctly. Good times.

Swinging in the backyard

Our Coo* book club is now reading Mistborn. Just about everyone in the book club has already read the book but we're reading it again anyway because we like it. I'm looking forward to this summer. We should have a blast!

86 points on Quiddler today!

I don't even know who my husband is anymore...

That's right. Who are you Erik?

My formerly vegetable-adverse husband wanted to plant spinach in one whole garden out of our 8 gardens.  I talked him out of it so I could plant zucchini instead. He is zucchini-adverse but has found a love of spinach. Erik = popeye!

Our 8 gardens

 This year we also planted strawberries on the side of our house. It sounds like strawberries take a few years to grow so in 3 years we will have a good crop. The waiting is the hardest part.

Strawberries on the side of the house

 Summer is almost here which means lots of swimming! All three kids have swimming lessons every week and it is going well except for Matthew. He is not a fan. These are his first swimming lessons so it is to be expected, but Jenna and Sarah are doing well.

Matthew going up the slide at swimming lessons

 In other news:

1. I finished an Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson. As I was reading this book I was struck by how many different genres he managed to put in one book. It has fantasy, western and steampunk elements to it. Yet it works. This reminds me of Iron chef when they mix banana, lobster, and goat cheese together and the judges say "I didn't know how it would go together but it works." Hmmmm... banana, lobster, and goat cheese. Maybe that will be my next iron chef dish!
2. Every Sunday evening the girls stay up and watch Cupcake Wars with me. They really love this show (obviously I do too). I have been begging Erik to get me some secret ingredients to make cupcakes out of. Stay tuned!
3. The cherry berry chiller at McDonalds is AMAZING. Just sayin.
4. Yesterday I swam (for the first time since March!) and timed myself at 42 seconds a lap.  The internet said it should take me 15 seconds. I will probably be dead last at the triathlon :(.  Searching online for "swimming faster" really didn't give me any ideas.
5. I love my new schedule at work but am really feeling like working in industry. Maybe when the kids get in school. Erik said I should just give it up - we will see what happens.  Who knows?
6. 73 points on Quiddler today.

Brownies and Lasagna

Sarah's Mothers day song

Last week Sarah's preschool had a Mother's Day program. The kids each filled out a questionnaire about their mother. Some of the answers were hilarious. Sarah said I was 76 years old (I think I look pretty good for 76) and my favorite food was mashed cauliflower (I've only made this once - yes I liked it but wouldn't call it my favorite food). Then they all sang a song about their moms. It was so sweet!

Jenna's Bridge to Brownies ceremony

Jenna went through the bridge ceremony from Daisys to Brownies. So if we keep her in girl scouts next year she will be a brownie. To celebrate I made her a pan of brownies which we devoured quickly.

Tuesday night our small group served dinner at Faith Mission - a homeless shelter in Columbus. We brought 8 pans of lasagna and 3 large pans of spaghetti and meatballs.

And we ran out.

This shelter is for only men and we were surprised at how many men were there and how much food they ate :). We also brought salad, cookies, pop, and rolls. It was a successful trip but I felt bad for the two people who didn't get any lasagna.

70 points on quiddler today

My first chopped basket!

While I have done several Iron Chef competitions (is it a competition if I'm not competing?) I have never done a Chopped basket. Erik surprised me with the following ingredients:

1. Corn bitz cereal (generic corn chex)
2. Dried beef
3. Black beans
4. Cherry craisins
5. Pizza crust

My Chopped Basket Ingredients

At first I thought there was no way these ingredients could go together to make a coherent dish. I tried the dried beef with the craisins and black beans and the combination was terrible. I didn't know how this would turn out.

I made pasta dough and then cut out little raviolis. I filled the raviolis with the dried beef, black beans, and added a little pizza sauce and mozzarella cheese. Then I crushed the chex cereal and cut the pizza up into little bite size portions. I rolled the pizza bites in the crushed chex and baked them to make croutons. Next I made a sauce out of sherry wine, heavy cream, butter, and the cherries. I poured this sauce on top.

My chopped creation

This dish may sound terrible but it wasn't. In fact, it was pretty amazing. Erik couldn't believe it! He said he never would have thought these ingredients would work so well together. I was so excited! Actually what really made it was the sauce on top. The sauce was fantastic and Erik wants me to make it again.

So this was a really successful chopped basket!
In other news:

1. I went to the IEEE spring banquet and saw my friend Jack and his wife Angie. He got his PhD which was very exciting. I'm hoping to be more involved with IEEE this year.
2. Since Matthew is developmentally delayed, he qualifies to attend this Family Music time class for free. The music is really catchy and we listen to the CD in the car. The girls love it. I have no idea if Matthew cares or not. He just walks around during the class and doesn't pay attention.
3. All three kids are taking swimming lessons now. Jenna and Sarah LOVE swimming lessons but Matthew squirms the whole time and doesn't seem to like it. I think he doesn't like listening to the teacher - he wants to do his own thing.
4. 82 points on quiddler today

Matthew knows his nose

While it may seem trivial to know where your nose is, for Matthew it is a big accomplishment. I've been working with him for quite awhile to learn his body parts but he has never shown that he actually knows where anything is except his head and belly. Yesterday he knew where his nose was! Yippee!

Tim and Jen gave us their train table (maybe I should say their kids gave us the train table - I'm not sure how much Tim and Jen played with it).  We love the train table and have been playing on it a lot. Sarah especially loves the train table. She also has been crazy about legos and fiercely guards her legos from Matthew. I see some potential conflict between Sarah and Matthew.

Matthew and his new train table

 I have written Limericks about Jenna and Sarah. So I thought I'd try my hand at writing one for Matthew.

A Limerick I wrote about Matthew:
There once was a busy little boy
Whose running feet are his favorite toy
He points and he smiles
And runs for miles
And his giggles are his family's joy


Originally the last line was "And his dimples are his family's joy". But Erik told me that he doesn't care at all about dimples and they brought him no joy.  I changed the poem to say "giggles". 

Matthew and Daddy

Our band

In other news:

1. Our coo* book club has started An Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson. I had trouble stopping at the 4th chapter. The 4th chapter!! You know if you're hooked by the 4th chapter it has to be good.
2. I'm reading Rhett Butler's People by Donald McCaig. It's a great book about Rhett Butler and his family. I'm really enjoying it.
3. I've also picked up Wings of Wrath by C.S. Friedman. Her writing is fantastic.
4. My semester started with 2 online classes and 2 onsite classes. It has been great! I love the classes I'm teaching and the material is exactly what I want to teach. This semester is so wonderful. While I thought I wouldn't like Friday nights and Saturday morning - it's actually really nice. All week long I am with my family and we don't do much on Saturday mornings anyway. Bummer we can't go camping this semester though.  We might try to go during the week.
5. One of my students emailed me and asked me to pray for her friend. She said she heard I was a prayer warrior. Wow! That is so amazing - that's what I want to be known as.
6. Erik and I have been playing some old school Starcraft lately. We are both rusty but it is fun.
7. I got -56 points on Quiddler today because there were no vowels. Seriously? No vowels!!

My cool/loser bike

After my fun trip to Chicago, the weather here has been so nice we've gone bike riding every day! Check out my fancy new bike. I bought this bike at Performance Bike for $300. I was so excited about my new bike - especially since I *thought* I spent a lot on it and it was a good bike.

Me riding my new bike

Then I went to a triathlon training camp for newbies. Everyone but me and one other woman had really expensive road bikes. They also had clip on shoes to clip their shoes to the pedals. These people were serious. I looked at my bike and felt like a loser.  Even so - I'm not going to drop a thousand dollars on a road bike now. 

How I felt about my bike

Static hair at the playground

For our anniversary we are planning on going to the Hocking Hills zip line. I also found a 38 mile bike path we might ride too. It will be scenic and a lot of fun. I'm excited for our anniversary trip.

In other news:

1. Our book club finished the Windup Girl. The book was innovative and well-written. However just like the Dispossessed (also innovative and well-written) I didn't love it.
2. The book club is now starting The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson. Yep. I read 4 chapters and I'm hooked. Love him.
3. I'm working my way through the Bible on a 365 day plan. I've done really well and managed to catch up on days I've missed. It has been a fun and good experience!
4. Now that I'm teaching only Fridays and Saturdays I have my whole week to spend with the family. I eat dinner with them every night and I'm loving it!
5. 76 points on quiddler today