Back to School

Matthew started school at the Spanish Schoolhouse this year. He just started on Tuesday, the day after Labor Day. It's a Spanish Immersion preschool program. It's just like other preschools, but everything is in Spanish. We loved the preschool that the girls went to, but decided to try this one out for a number of reasons. Unfortunately, his new teacher decided to take a job with the public school at the last minute, so he has a substitute right now. But I think she's great. I love how everybody speaks in Spanish there, to the parents and siblings too. Max now knows to say "Hola" and "Adios" to people there when we go to pick Matthew up.

"C'mon Mom let's GO!" (It's hard to take a picture while holding a wiggling toddler)

Matthew is enjoying school a lot and tries to speak in Spanish at home too. Today he told me, "I think Dora speaks Spanish too." Most of the children in the class are not native Spanish speakers, although some of them are, as is the teacher, so the kids are learning together.

And since I never got around to it, here are the girls on their first day of school two weeks ago:

Katrina runs straight into her classroom without so much as a goodbye to her family.

Felicity outside Mrs. Watson's classroom door. She was pretty nervous to start 3rd grade.

You have to take a picture of these girls when they're getting along so nicely (okay, we're working on it...)

Chocolate, Strawberries, and Chocolate Strawberries

As many of you know, we like desserts around here. I thought I'd share some of our results.

One Friday when Mark was going to be working late and the children were bored, we decided to make a Fudge Covered Oreo Cake. It was even more amazing than it sounds, although not as pretty as it potentially could have been. (The perfectionist part of me has yet to emerge) Each child helped to contribute and they actually made most of it by themselves, although I was in charge of assembly.


To celebrate Napoleon's birthday in August, we made strawberry Napoleon pastries with phyllo dough, which was on a major sale at the grocery store. They were fun and different, but pretty messy and took a lot more work than I anticipated.

We have been having some sweet (as opposed to tart) strawberries lately and so we dipped some of them in chocolate, since everything's better in chocolate. This is by far the easiest dessert of the three, since it consists of microwaving chocolate chips and whipping cream, stirring 'til smooth, and dipping the strawberries. We put them on wax paper in the fridge and they disappeared rather quickly.

Can you do the can can, if you can than I can

The grocery store had a great sale on pears that were getting overripe. They were putting them in brown bags and selling the whole bag for $1.50. Each bag was about 4 lbs and I I bought 4 of them. (Is this starting to sound like a 3rd grade story problem?) So yes, I spent 6 bucks and this is what I did with my approximately 16 lbs of pears:

Not the pickles. My cousin made those from her overabundant cucumber crop and brought them when she came to dinner a couple weeks ago. I was very impressed and inspired, as with another cousin, who canned pears and pearsauce the week before. (Wow, that's a long caption)

Canning fruits and vegetables each fall was something I grew up doing, coming home from school in early autumn to find a sink full of cold water, bobbing with ripened, blanched fruit to peel. Sometimes I'd help with the coring or slipping the produce inside the jars. I'd bail out of the project after a half hour or so, leaving my mother to deal with the mess and another sibling to step in. This time I got to assume my mother's role, which always fills me with respect for her dedication to such projects. Matthew helped me out with the peeling, although we turned into a very sticky mess. I do not recommend mopping the kitchen floor the day before you embark on such a project, like I did.

It turned out to be a lot more work than I remembered. Besides standing on the hard tile for hours upon end, filling the August kitchen with steam, and getting mushy sticky pear substance over every last inch of my body, I didn't realize that I also nearly poisoned myself and the boys in the process. I don't have a canner, just a tall stockpot. I put a bunch of butter knives on the bottom to serve as a rack and put the jars inside, filling it with water up to the neck. However, that was about a millimeter from the top of the pot, so when it came to a boil, of course water spilled over and it extinguished the gas fire on the stove. At this point, I was collapsed on the couch reading stories whilst waiting for the sealing process, so it wasn't until I developed an acute headache and noticed the strong smell of natural gas that I realized this. It took awhile to get it all done, but it sure gave me a feeling of accomplishment. We made some delicious pearsauce and sploosh (spiced peach/pear mush) with the leftovers.

And as for the math... I try not to think about it. An 8 oz can of pears is about $1. I would have spent about $14 for this amount of canned pears. Subtracting my $6 of produce cost, I made about $4 an hour- not counting cleanup. But these will be much yummier.

Sports Shorts

With Mark's great sports background, you would think that our children would be much more athletic. However, he's not around all that much during the week and so they have to learn from me- not exactly recruit material. I'm somewhat aversive to playing sports, being uncoordinated and injury prone. Could it have anything to do with getting not one but TWO black eyes from two brothers' thrown bat and pop fly in the early 80s? We don't play a lot of ball around here. The girls are participating in city league soccer, and there is the occasional basketball game in the neighborhood. Their best opportunities are with relatives.

Felicity with her game face on. She's left handed, but we discovered she's better at batting right.

Whenever we stay at Bruchelle's, we end up playing baseball. They have a great backyard for it, and the evenings are really nice in Utah in the summertime. It's a terrific chance for my children to get more sports exposure. Bruce always pitches, and his boys are really good at hitting and jumping the fence to get the balls batted over.

Bruce pitches to Buggle while Thys and Matthew wait on deck and in the hole.

Katrina really improved her RBI this game, even in a skirt.

Max and Clyn fielding without gloves. I think Max has plenty of padding, but what about Clyn's piano future?

Bruce shoos Max from the mound. For never reading my blog, Bruce sure gets lots of exposure on it. What a waste!

Even Michelle and Mika are fielding, which is pretty amazing since Michelle is 8 months pregnant.

We came home and Matthew wanted to play baseball with Mark for alone time. Unfortunately, it was 105 degrees outside, but they still had a great time. Maybe there's hope yet for the M kids.

Happy Birthday, Kurt!

Major Wastage

Mark gave me a new shower head for Mother's Day this year. It may seem like an odd gift, but I really enjoy a good shower. After all, hot water is therapeutic. The bright brass one we had before had some great power, but I still wanted one with a removable head. The new one has 2 heads, which is nice, but even with all of the water coming out of one nozzle, there's still not the terrific power we had with the old one. I'm not sure why this is, although I have suspicions that this might be due to new mandates about low-flow water fixtures, to save water. This seems odd to me, since the showers at the gym are very powerful, and since I'm not paying the water bill there, seems like people are not motivated to turn it off. Is the city the one who should be making these decisions?

Before I complain further, I should note here that I am a terrific advocate of saving time, money, space, and resources. (When you have lived in a 2 bedroom apartment with 3 kids, you are forever thinking about saving space). Our garbage can, for our family of 6, is only half full (or is it half empty?) when we drag it out to the curb each week, along with the 2 recycling bins as well. We turn off the a/c or heat when we go on vacation in our gas-efficient vehicles, and throw produce that's gone rotten into our garden. I love the energy saving lightbulbs, especially when I discover that the light was left on in the garage all night long. Not that I should have to defend myself, or if anyone doesn't do these things, that there's anything wrong with it.

But I am so sick of the preaching about "going green." Absolutely do we reap what we sow, and that means there are natural results from dumping toxic waste or being wasteful in general. -I don't think we want a toxic planet. However, can I please make my own decisions about how long my shower is? Is it okay with you, celebrity who has no credentials other than fame, if I keep my washer & dryer until they break? Do you have to talk about it on kids' shows constantly so my children are preaching to me too? Because we're happy to pick up litter and to be responsible, but it's a little hypocritical for you, celebrity with your multiple luxury homes and private jets, to talk about saving resources for the future generations. You're taking all of the fun of it, government agencies, to mandate it all and fining people who don't (the horror!) recycle. I am happy to learn of new ways to save energy, and I would love it if I could opt out of all this paper coming from school, credit card companies, and marketing gimmicks. I just wish we didn't have to talk about it All. The. Time.

Not to mention, I love my shower to be strong and powerful. When it's not, it just requires me to be in there longer just to rinse off. So I end up spending extra time as well as water. Which doesn't end up being green or fun.

And the green grass grew all around

While we were away, our yard was not idle- it grew. Although we had spent the last 21 & 1/2 hours in a crowded van, sucking the salt out of sunflower seeds in hopes of not falling asleep at the wheel, Mark decided it was time to mow. Matthew wanted to help. He tries to do whatever his daddy does whenever possible.

One of the characteristics of living things is that they grow. (According to Sesame Street, anyway.) This is a good thing, since the labor & delivery process is already difficult enough with small babies. I love watching how things grow and change over time. Some of our grass was actually knee-length; good thing the HOA gestapo didn't see!

However, with all growth, comes some drawbacks: maintenance work. Eating, sleeping, cutting your hair, trimming your nails, and making sure you aren't growing in the wrong way -out- are all part of being an adult. In addition to those needs, children grow out of shoes, clothes, and beds. They need to learn new skills and appropriate behaviors as they get older. The M's are currently exploring the skill of identifying negative things and keeping it to oneself, as hard as that is at times.

Even as we grow, some things are hard to give up. Katrina's blanky is still the thing she wants when she's sad or sleepy, even though she has (thankfully) mostly dropped the habit of sucking on the corner. Favorite clothes, even to the point where they are unwearable... like the cutoff jeans that Katrina is wearing below-
I must admit, I have a hard time relinquishing things as I outgrow them or they outgrow me, by wearing out. They represent good memories or being comfortable. It seems the best solution is to replace them, but it never seems quite as good as the original. Like my blue and white striped cotton shirt that I wore in high school and college- I have forever been on a quest for a shirt like it since. Trouble is, I no longer like the way I look in horizontal stripes. Have I outgrown them?

Food, Folks & Fun (and a whole lotta pictures)

Hi Liesl!

We made our yearly exodus to Utah to visit friends and family. This year the Hansen family had a family reunion in the mountains behind Heber. We all (mostly) stayed in a giant cabin and had a great time talking, cooking, eating, cleaning, taking care of babies, playing games, swimming, doing crafts, yoga, singing, and even sleeping a little bit. (Well, some of us...)

Mom kicked off the event by hosting a pizza party at the Hansen Homestead in honor of Craig's birthday. He (and several others) didn't actually arrive until the next day, but we played kickball in the street and slurped up every last drop of homeade strawberry ice cream anyway.

Uncow Bwian, bossing as usual from his position pitching. You think this guy's meek and quiet, well just watch him play sports. Look at Kurt, so meekly giving tips to Katrina on 3rd base...

We all met up at the cabin the next day for 3 days of festivities.

Here's Craig on the deck, contemplating being 35..

Scott led us on an orienteering hike. The Boy, Mother, and The Other Boy, looking for the flag...

Talmage and Clyn

Someone's hand in front of Paula's nose. Kristie is appalled, and Martha knows not what to think.

The talent show- always very popular are the sports sketches with the invisible ball. This was the slow-mo part, which is why I was able to photograph 4 of my brothers fighting over a nonexistent ball.

Kurt, Brian, Craig, Kent

Charlie Choo makes his debut as Kurt & Alice (and Charlie) bang out the Peanuts theme.

The little girls, also known as "The Rockin' Cousins," put on a play. Hey, who needs a costumer when you have towels and duct tape? They even made a flag and have a song and a cheer.
Michelle & Bruce always sponsor a morning of various games. Here's Jan, catching some air at the Undokai, Japanese for "The Doughnut Olympics". (Except it was Twinkies this year)

Holly's great at the shot put!

Dad celebrates his victory...over 3 women... in the badminton competition. What me, bitter?

Emma blowing bubbles

Max feeling sheepish

Preparing for the "flag raising ceremony" (The flag was on Jan's sleeve). Note Mindy sticking out her tongue.

Everett taught Max how to "rock it". Soon all the babies were doing it, complete with sound effects.

And a good time was had by all.