Happy Birthday, Dan!

Happy Birthday, Dan. I love you.

Happy Birthday, Grant!!!

Happy Birthday!

Grant is 12 years old today, only one year away from being a teenager!

As you all know, Grant has some amazing qualities that we all love, but most of all we just love Grant for being Grant.

Love you, kiddo.

(I'd give you lots of hugs and kisses, but I won't torture you like that.)

Just hanging around the house

Even though this was a long weekend, we didn't really do much other than hang out around the house, but I wanted to blog something, what was there to talk about?

I pulled the memory card our of the camera and found exactly three pics that were taken this weekend.

This one is of Grant and Julia testing out our new LR chair. It was a very generous hand-me-down from Dan's friend, Pat. Thank you! The chair has an identical twin that is currently residing in my bedroom. Both chairs were needed and will get lots of use.

And this... is Jimmy.

Julia came into the kitchen and said "Hi, Mom." in her lowest voice.

I guess when all we are doing is hanging out at home, the kids find things to keep themselves busy.

She may be wearing Grant's clothing, but she looks so much like Kevin did at that age.

Another Art Project... Picasso inspired

We found this project on the blog "Art Projects for Kids" this morning and since it was fairly easy to do and we had all the supplies, I thought we'd give it a try.

I got out my art books and learned a little about cubism and Picasso, then we followed the very simple instructions. Out came some fun art to hang on the wall.

Cool!

Henri Matisse inspired Art

I took Julia to the National Gallery of Art yesterday to take part in an art class about Henri Matisse and his cut outs.

They took the kids into the gallery to see some of his art, then brought them back to the classroom to create their own collages.

Julia was inspired by her trip to Crater Lake.

MKMW: Azerbaijan

In my search for an Azeri recipe to make for this week's My Kitchen My World, I learned that the people of Azerbaijan are big tea drinkers. So instead of making a full on Azeri meal, I decided to have an Azeri tea party. I found this wonderful website full of recipes and cultural information. Farida's Azerbaijani Cookbook

I made two desserts, one from Farida's blog, the Cheese and Yogurt Cake with Lemon Zest or Piroq, and Baklava. I had never made baklava before, never even considered it, but it was fairly easy and tasted amazing.

Happy Groundhog's Day!

February 2nd sticks out in my mind for two things... Groundhog's Day and the day that Dan and I met at a Petra concert!
Eighteen years ago!
So this video's for you, Dan.
(Those are some ugly dudes!)