Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Anna, blackberries, Emily, food, picky, reminiscing
It has not smelled this good in my house for a long time. I started the apple butter yesterday evening and it cooks overnight and all day today. There is the sweet scent of apples, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg (I could not leave that out). I usually don’t like food smells in my house, but that does change at Christmas time. (more…)
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Anna, baking, ballet, Christmas, Emily, family, Holidays
The weather has gotten sufficiently cold for me to get into my winter cooking and baking frenzy. Yes, it is true, that the more I stress, the more I bake, and that might be especially true around the holidays, but it is also my cold season bug. So far, no one has complained 
This afternoon was quite dreary…. rainy, foggy with 100% humidity, and cold. Anna and Emily wanted to bake cookies. It is not quite Christmas Season for me yet, so we opted for the simple, cut out sugar cookie. The girls had a blast making and decorating them and they were, ahem, are delicious! (more…)
Well, we survived another SST meeting. There were no real surprises, just to learn that with new State Laws the process of getting Anna the help she needs is being prolonged, because we are in the middle of the process. Even, if we went and got a private evaluation done, the school would not be able to do anything until the end of the evaluation period, which is the end of January. It is sooooooooo frustrating for us, but I cannot imagine how frustrating it must be for Anna. She is the one sitting there not able to do the work, probably thinking by now that she cannot do it. Yet, she still tries her best!
Granted, after Thanksgiving, she will start in a program to support her reading and comprehension, and her teacher is truly doing everything she can to help her. That is the good part! The bad part is that it is taking so freakishly long!!!
So, what do we do? We try to make her happy. She will be an angel in a Nutcracker production of the dance school she goes to. We make sure she plays with her friends, runs, jumps, draws and plays to her hearts content. And, we make sure she knows how much we love her …..
So, Matthias sent me some Fleur De Sel (fancy sea salt) for my birthday. I opened it at the dinner table and Lilly right away chimes in with her idea, how to use it.
“Mama, we can use it with fish!”
Hm, I thought, what a smart little girl. She loves to cook and bake, by the way. So, I expand on her idea, with herbs and in the oven, until I see her face …. it had dropped …. and she corrects me that we can make sea water with the salt to have a fish tank. Oh, my gosh, we all died laughing.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Anna, birthday, breakfast, cold, Emily, Matthias, pancakes, pedicure, reading program
Today is a crazy day. Anna is on a field trip today and has Brownies this afternoon. She woke up early, got dressed and had a substantial breakfast. I tell you, she is BREAKFAST girl. She had eggs, bacon and a pancake. Emily had two pancakes. We make the crepe style pancakes. Yummy! So, they were both off to a good start on this cold morning. It is freezing now, so we got out the scarves, hats and gloves.
(more…)
It was my birthday today and it was a wonderful one. First, I got to sleep in this morning – that alone is HUGE!!! Then, Michael, Anna and Emily woke me up with kisses, hugs and singing. Downstairs, the table was set, beautiful roses waiting for me, lots of wonderful presents and the smell of fresh muffins. After a few cups of coffee, I was finally awake. Anna and Emily had drawn me the cutest cards and had picked out the flowers. Michael is taking me to see Annie at the Fox in January. I can’t wait to finally go to the Fox. And he is making a big sacrifice as he is not a huge fan of musicals! I had a package to open from my mom and a few more cards. (more…)
Anna had bitten into one of our popcorn balls two days before Halloween. It got it really loose!!!! The day after Halloween, she just wiggled it with her tongue, wanted to close her mouth and it just fell out.
Now she sounds a bit funny
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Anna, cowgirl, Emily, Grassos, Halloween, mermaid, Pumpkins
It was a fun last couple of days.
Saturday, Michael and I went to a Halloween Party, him as a milkman, me as the pregnant woman. A kids bike helmet makes a great stomach!!! It looked so real that a couple of people who have not seen me for a bit, were wondering if it was real. LOL
Anna and Emily went to a great Halloween Party on Sunday at the Grassos. We were allowed to stay with goodies in hand – Brownies and Popcorn & Candycorn Balls. Arts and crafts, games, great goodies and jumping of that sugar on the trampoline made for some really tired kids. At the end Anna and Emily were just so tired that we found them downstairs coloring peacefully. They had a ball and we enjoyed talking with our friends. (more…)
