Preschool graduation

Ellie had her preschool graduation this week. They had a little ceremony and each kid got and released a balloon. Ellie's was the only balloon that flopped to the floor and then I realized that she had been trying to suck the helium out of it. She is always looking for a laugh.

She was wearing a hand me down dress of Sophie's so I thought it was so funny that one of her friends showed up in the same dress.

Here is Ellie with her friend Jacob. They both insist that they are going to get married one day...hmmm. They are such sweet friends though.

The last picture is Ellie and her cross stitch project. I got it as a summer activity and she really loves it. She also likes to wear an old pair of my reading glasses (glass fell out of them).

Matt's b-day

Matt's birthday came and left. Poor guy had to work early so I think he was at work before any of us had woken up.

I was able to get someone to watch Tito while I went to see Sophie's performance of the "Three piggy opera at school". She is such a performer at heart. She's becoming so reserved but when she gets in front of a crowd she has no reservations. It was fun to watch. Here is a picture of Sophie (right) and her friend Rachel(left).

That night I made Matt's favorite meal (Turkish Shish-kebabs and rice). For desert, I made my Mom's recipe of baked Alaska. It was fun for the presentation mostly because the brownie was slightly burned. But it was fun and different (not quite as beautiful as my Mom's used to be).

I love this action shot of us keeping Tito's hands off of it for the picture. Also, I just noticed Troy's feet made it in the bottome picture.

For Matt's present, I got a digital photo frame he's been wanting for a while. I never wanted it because I'm not crazy about how it looks but it has been fun to actually look at pictures. It's funny to see how bad our memories are...it seems like we only remember things that we have pictures of.

Eagar

Last weekend we went to Eagar. Some highlights were:
-Playing in the irrigation water
-The kids got to ride horses with grandpa
-We cracked and ate a coconut
-Enjoying beautiful scenery/weather
-Feeding cows and horses
-Grandpa Sam's expressions...here are some of our favorites from the weekend:
(to Tito) "come on weenie-arm, you're slower than the second coming"

"you couldn't pour pee out of a boot if the instructions were written on the heel"

"I haven't been this happy since the hogs ate my little brother"

(to Matt while fixing fence) "That's good enough for the girls we go with"

(to Tito--regarding his babbling) "When are you going to start talking white-man?"
"that'll make a rabbit slap a bear"

Weeks are flying by

A few weeks ago I ordered a grain grinder and mixer and have been looking forward to using them. When they arrived, I put the boxes aside for a time when I could carefully unwrap the new arrivals. I noticed the kids were being unusually quiet while I was practicing piano with Sophie and when I came out, there was a scene straight out of a Lost episode. They had stabbed the boxes with kebab sticks and forks.


Since then, we've gotten good use out of the machines. I'm trying to get my kids to like bread since they currently refuse to eat any kind of sandwich. I've been making a lot of pizza, cinnamon roles and other things that will help them ease into liking bread. I got this cool bread recipe that I love that uses lecithin instead of oil and makes 4 loaves of bread in under 1 hour. Between this and trying to use my food storage, there have been some growing pains as we transition what we eat.

Meal planning is more difficult for me than it should be. Take bread for instance. I've worked hard to take bread out of my diet because of my weight issues but then my kids stopped liking bread too. It's difficult to factor in different tastes, what's healthy, what's economical, etc. I'm still figuring it out. I'm really looking forward to this Summer and hoping the kids will participate more in the meal process.

American Express announced another set of major lay-offs. In the fall he survived a 10% of the workforce cut. He was the only person left on his row. Right now it looks like we may have dodged another round but we can never get too comfortable. I am heartbroken for all the people who lost their jobs though and will try to be prepared no matter what. The most important things, of couse, are family & health.

I took Ellie to the Elementary School office the other day and she said to the receptionist. "Excuse me, I'd like to register for Kindergarten please". What a moment. This girl feels so grown up--Hopefully her spirits are not dampened by the big kids on the playground.