End of August

This week was so busy, but fun. At school we learned to make Bavarian Cream, my now favorite dessert, YUMMY!!! It was really fun to make. We practiced our plating techniques as well. This is a picture of one of my Bavarian Creams with strawberry sauce.

The Chef told me that I pipe really nice lines. I like it when he compliments me because I feel like I have actually done something right. This is, after all, what I want to do and when he compliments me I feel like I actually might have a chance.

My mom and I were invited to a double baby shower on Saturday. Spencer's cousin, Rachel, is expecting a baby boy the end of September and there is another girl in her ward that is expecting a boy around the same time, so they had a double baby shower. It was so much fun. I was asked to make the cake for the shower and I chose to do individual cheesecakes. I made 4 regular size cheesecakes and I cut 23 individual cheesecakes out of those. I then made 5 different "mousses" to go with them. I made a mango mousse, raspberry mousse topped with ganache, pistachio mousse topped with ganache, lime curd mixed with a little whipped cream to tone down the sweetness of the curd, and whipped chocolate ganache. They kept saying that they thought I had gotten them at Whole Foods, but I thought I could've done them better. They sure tasted good, but they didn't look as "smooth" as I hoped they would be. Naturally, I see all the flaws.


Later Saturday afternoon, Anthony, Rachel's hubby, called and invited us to go miniature golfing. This was the first time the girls had ever miniature golfed. They had so much fun. We lost Avary for a little bit, but found her, thank heavens. I felt my whole world crumble around me. After she got lost she took a little more to the game. She was kind of playing in and out of the game.


After we found her, and I finally started to breathe, the first thing she said to me was, "I want Gee-Wah". What a poop! Here I am, out of breath from running everywhere trying to find her and yelling her name panicking, and she wants her gee-wah. What am I, chopped liver???!!! I forgive her though. She's too cute to be mad at. I was so grateful that we found her though. I don't know what I would've done if I lost my Bellie.

CJ did really well. She had so much fun. On one hole, she got the ball in by three strokes all by herself. Spencer and I were really impressed. She knew right away how to play and how to hold the club, but she called it a "swatter". We might have a professional in the making.

She kept telling Spencer and I to keep our eyes on the ball, like she was the coach. It was really sweet. She put her two cents in after we found Avary, she started mocking me by running in place and calling Avary. Then she would turn around and smile at me and do it again. I feel the love.

We had a lot of fun golfing together with the whole family and with Rachel and her family. We all got to bed a little too late and were REALLY tired for church this morning, but I think it was worth it.

After church, CJ, on her own, lined up all her toy dinosaurs. I took a picture because it was really impressive. She lined them up big to small. She is so smart and so is Avary. They shock me everyday with what they know. Like tonight, they were finding words that rhymed with other words, and both of them found rhymes that I wouldn't think they knew. I am so blessed to have such smart children. They DEFINITELY take after their daddy.

PS- Just an update on our "Garden Visitor". On Thursday it came back and scared my mom half out of her pants. She was picking our tomatoes and it hissed at her and she just about died. It was there the whole day. When Spencer got home he went outside to take a gander and he saw that it had wrapped itself around our netting and was caught really bad. It was NOT happy. He cut it loose and it finally slithered away. Yesterday when he was mowing, he saw a baby snake in our yard. It slithered away into our neighbors yard, but when he came in and told my mom, my mom just about died, again. I guess she doesn't like snakes. I don't think she wants to go outside anymore.

Garden Visitor

So, I was trying to get the girls in their chairs for lunch this afternoon and, as always, it is a chore. When I finally went into the kitchen to tell them one last time to get into their chairs, they were both catatonic. Trying to get their attention, I told them that if they were not going to get into their chairs then they will go in time out, as we always threaten with. They both turned around and told me "SHHHHH!! Look!! A snake.". I thought, "whatever" and I went over and low-and-behold, there was a snake. Right smack dab between two of our grow boxes. I thought I was going to pee my pants!! My mom came down and I told her and she said to throw rocks at it to make it go away, nope, didn't work. I called Spencer at work and he told me to leave it alone so that he could see it and to take pictures and video (he was really excited, as for me I was thinking "SNAKE!!! RUN!!!). After we threw rocks at it, it squirmed more into our yard and I realized it wasn't a rattler, PHEW!!! I did, however, find out it is a Great Plains Rat Snake, I was thinking Boa and, in a way, I was right. It is a constrictor not venomous which made me feel a whole lot more at ease. It still is freaky though. I'm just happy it isn't a rattler, I don't think my children would ever have a life outside this house if it were.

First Day of Ballet

Today was CJ's first day of Ballet. She was so excited to go. On Saturday we bought her leotard and she wanted to stay to learn ballet. I look at her and her physique screams "ballet". I think she is really going to enjoy it. She already knows and REMEMBERS her first position. Her teacher is a cutie too. She said that CJ did really well and she could tell that she really enjoys dancing. I can't wait for her recital!!! Avary wanted to stay and learn ballet too, but she still isn't potty trained and we told her that if she wanted to learn to dance, then she needed to learn to use the potty. We'll see if that works.


Doesn't she look CUTE!!!???!!!

FINALLY

We FINALLY started to decorate in pastry class. I felt completely at home with that bag in my hand. These two cakes are made with REAL buttercream, meaning they are chalked full of butter and sugar, so delicious!!! After tasting this stuff, I don't know if I ever want to go back to the other stuff. Anyway, it being the end of the week and thus the end of decorating this week, we are have Spencer's cousin and her family over for a little......sweet treat!!

Kids Say the Darndest Things

So, CJ had a little difficulty listening to her teacher on Tuesday and we had talked to her about listening to her teacher and how important it was that she do so. Well, yesterday after school I called to see how her day went and she told me that she listened to her teacher and got a good job sticker on her hand. I was so proud of her and so excited that I was screaming over the phone and telling her how proud I was of her. When I finally stopped she told me, in her words, "Calm down, Mommy.". I was completely taken back.

My mom takes CJ to school when I can't and they walk. It is about a 15-20 minute walk, with kids, and the kids get pretty tired. Anyway, after mom and Avary got back from dropping CJ off at school, Avart was getting ready for her nap and she looked up at my mom and said, in her words, "These shoes are killing me.". Where did she get that!!??!!

Kids are so funny, they say the darndest things.

First Day of Kindergarten

Well, today we sent our little girl off to Kindergarten. She was so anxious to go. She has afternoon Kindergarten and about 11:00 am this morning, she came in to me telling me that she needed to go to school now. I told her that we are going to leave for school at 12:30 pm and she looked at me and grabbed my mom's watch and said it was already "thirty". I told her that we were going to leave after lunch and she responded by saying that she had already had lunch. I explained to her that it was breakfast and then proceeded to demand lunch "NOW". She had a come back for every excuse I gave her as to why we weren't leaving for school yet!!! She is so smart.

Yesterday, was her screening and she did really well. The teacher said that she scored high and that she was really impressed with some of the things that she did, like: grouping colored blocks together without being asked and then counting them, pointing out a question mark (I didn't even know about that one) when she hadn't been asked, asking for an eraser when she made a mistake on the paper, etc. etc. It was really neat to see how much she really knew.

She picked out her own backpack. It is ridiculously HUGE on her, but she insisted. She absolutely loves it.


When she got home she said she needed quiet time and immediately went upstairs and put herself in quiet time. I was OK with that.

This evening has been a rough one on her though. She is so tired and if this is a preview of things to come for the rest of the school year, this is definitely something I am not anticipating!! She has been so touchy and grumpy, it is hard to reason with her. I hope she will get used to the schedule and things will get better, I can only hope and pray......REALLY hard!!!

All in all she really had a great day at school. She really loves it and is excited to go back. The teacher calls her Cynthia and I think that might be an issue with CJ listening to her. Apparently there was a little issue with that today, but that is what I hear from CJ. We asked CJ tonight if she wanted her teacher to call her Cynthia or CJ and she said CJ. We will need to remind her teacher of that, I think she might get a better response from her. CJ knows her name is Cynthia and will respond to it, but she is so used to CJ.

I can't believe that she is already old enough to go to school. Spencer and I thought about when Avary will be going to school and came to the conclusion that she will be in school in about two years. Where has the time gone!?!?!?!?!?!

Before and Now

So, I was out watering our garden today and Spencer mentioned how we should take pictures of the tomatoes and send them to my in-laws. Instead, I decided to post before and now pictures of our garden. Looking back on our "before" pictures, I have to laugh because they are so incredibly different. Enjoy!!

Herb box before:




Herb box now:



Tomato and Cucumber before: (we had peppers and beans, but none of them did good so we yanked them. Now it is just tomatoes and cucs which is REALLY for the best considering our now picture.)



Tomatoes and Cucumbers now: (The tomatoes are like an Amazon, no joke!!! I got in there today and got the Pear Tomatoes with the Pear tomatoes and the rest of the tomatoes with their own kind. Also, I think we have a cross breed of Pear tomatoes and Cherry tomatoes because on the Cherry plant, it looks like a Pear is growing.)




Squash box before: (In this picture you can see our sad little eggplant plant, it didn't make it either, along with the row of beans in front of it.)


Squash box now: (I don't know if you can see in this picture well or not, but the plants are actually pushing against the fence Spencer built and stretching it out. TONS of crookneck, LOTS of zucchini. The butternut is in the middle, you can't see it well because of the crookneck plants, but we do have some butternut starting to form. Mom accidentally stepped on the largest one today and broke it off, but we still have one other.)



Lettuce and Root Veggies before:



Lettuce and Root Veggies now: (Our radishes didn't make it and we yanked our Arugula because it was infested with bugs. We are talking swiss cheese Arugula. We also have cut our Chard, the furthest away, about 3 times already and we have already mowed our spinach once. The rest of the lettuce needs to be harvested still, especially the mesclun, we have already harvested that about 5 times.)



I'm really happy with the way our garden is turning out. I didn't think we were going to have a good garden because we planted so late and our plants were REALLY sad, but it is doing well. We are already making plans for next years garden.