What's Cookin'?

For those of you who don't know, the missionaries in the United States are usually fed dinner by members in the area they serve in. A calendar is sent around during our Sunday meetings and we have an opportunity to sign up to have the missionaries in our home. We feed them dinner and they share a message with us afterward. It's a great opportunity to get to know the missionaries serving in our ward and to support them in their efforts.

Tonight we fed the missionaries dinner. I always try to cook a good amount of food because they can usually pack it away. Tonight I had a pot roast in the crock pot and was going to make mashed potatoes and gravy to go with it. This afternoon, we were done with homework early and I had some extra time. I decided to quickly make up some rolls as well. As I looked at the meal: pot roast, (real) mashed potatoes, (homemade) rolls, (homemade) gravy, and carrots, I realized what I had forgotten....my pearls and heels!

Luckily, my hard work and effort was well rewarded as the elders cleaned their plates multiple times. One of the elders complained that he usually didn't have second (or third) helpings, but he couldn't resist pot roast, mashed potatoes and gravy. My family doesn't eat a whole lot at dinner time. My kids are still young and Jim just isn't a big eater. I know that moms of boys complain that they get eaten out of house and home, but I have to say, it was nice to see my meal truly appreciated.

After dinner, they shared a message about the Holy Ghost with an object lesson. They showed the girls a bowl filled halfway with water. Then they sprinkled some pepper in it. They explained that it represented the world we lived in. Because there are so many not good things in it (the pepper), it can be hard to avoid them. When Lizzie stuck her finger in the bowl and pulled it out, there was pepper on her finger. Then they said the Holy Ghost can protect us by helping us choose the right. The elder put some soap on his finger to represent the Holy Ghost. When he dipped it in the bowl, the pepper moved quickly to the edges. Well, you should have seen Lizzie's face! I could see the wheels in her head start spinning as she tried to figure out why that happened. We ended with Jim and I bearing testimony of how the Holy Ghost has helped us in our lives and why He's so important. It was a nice lesson and evening together.

Parent-Teacher Conference

Yesterday, I went to my first (of many) parent-teacher conferences! Lizzie's teacher is Mr. Shields. He has been teaching for about 15 years and was in law enforcement before that. He is pretty laid back, but runs a structured classroom with a focus on respect and learning. He had only good things to say about Lizzie. She's right on track with her academics and has started reading already. She understands how to sound out words and enjoys reading books with me and Jim. She is doing really well in the math program as well.

We talked about how she is doing socially. He said that she fits in well with the other children. She tends to observe the situation first before joining in and when she does join in, she works herself into the group well. She is assertive enough to speak up within the group, but not bossy. He said she does really well following directions, even anticipating the directions sometimes.

The teacher has also talked about what an amazing group of kids this is as well. I think she has an adorable class. The kids all get along (for the most part) and are very well behaved in class. He keeps raving that he hasn't seen a class like this for a long time. Hollywood Beach is tiny little school and Lizzie will be with this same group of kids for most of her years there. It makes me really happy to hear that she is with such great kids.

More Rachel Fun

This little Rachel-girl of ours is just too cute. It's easy to put up with her whines and fussing because she is just adorable! Here are a couple videos we took this weekend. In the first one, I caught her playing in the dirty clothes (nice) and Jim's sock drawer. She was trying to put on his socks. Sorry that it's so dark.

In this one, we were eating dinner last night and she loved her whole dinner. Green beans are one of her favorites. She does the same open mouth thing for any food she likes (oatmeal, lasagna, dessert, etc.)

This picture was taken this morning. Lizzie had me come running to take a picture of Rachel being so cute. So I humored her. She does enjoy her big sisters' beds.

Happy Veteran's Day!

Last week, Jim realized that he had Veteran's Day off work and then it was his "off-Friday". He was thinking about taking Thursday off too. I said that was fine as long as he took me out to lunch that day. ;) Guess who's going to lunch tomorrow?!?!

Today we started off our holiday by heading up to JCPenney to take some pictures. It was time for Miriam's 4yr pictures and we were overdue for some family shots. Everyone was good and smiled their sweet smiles. Then we headed up to the food court for lunch and the play area. We ended a super fun morning at the Disney store where the girls picked out new princess shirts.
In the afternoon, I had a primary presidency meeting and then I made some rolls to go with the soup I made yesterday. (I can only do so much cooking in one day.) Even Rachel enjoyed the potato soup and my rolls turned out well with a little whole wheat flour substitution. After dinner, we cleaned up and put on our comfy jammies and watched "UP". The theater experience has been put on hold until Rachel gets a little bigger, so we hadn't seen this great movie yet. Everyone LOVED it. Rachel loved the balloons and the dogs. I was teary eyed the whole time. We enjoyed our candy and popcorn too! We'll have to do movie night more often.

What can you get for a dollar?

Hours and hours of fun! I bought Mimi some "birthday balloons" for her party. Mostly they were to help our new guests find our house. (For some reason, it's amazingly hard.) I forgot they were outside and the girls reminded me. They certainly cheered up a cranky baby fast. I have to say the dollar store is the ONLY place to buy balloons. However, I try to reserve them for special occasions so that the fun doesn't become commonplace.

Miriam was also "riding" her pillow pet. This was her favorite present of the day. She had seen them on TV and I told her she could ask for one for her birthday. Lizzie has a ladybug one on her Christmas list. It is super soft and comfy. She carries it all over the house with her.

Miriam's 4th Birthday Party

Today we celebrated Miriam's birthday with a Scooby Doo themed party. She's been asking for a Scooby Doo party since last year's "Sleeping Beauty" party. Of course, by now, they don't really carry Scooby Doo party stuff in the stores. I had to buy the Scooby stuff online. She got to have a pinata this year (since Lizzie had one at her 4th birthday), so that was a big treat. I found the cake image on Ebay. They personalized it for me and it's printed on edible paper. I thought it turned out pretty well!
We had the two girls in her primary class, Cam and Brie, we also had Gem, our neighbor, and Chuck and Riley from school. Chuck is in Lizzie's class and Riley goes to Miriam's preschool. We carpool together to pick up the preschool kids, so we hang out a lot.

The kids colored some Scooby Doo pages when the guests arrived. Then we played "Scooby, Scooby, Where's Your Bone?" which is very similar to "Button, Button, Who's Got the Button?" After everyone had a turn, we went outside and played "Red Light, Green Light" and ran the way the gang runs in the cartoons (fast). Then we had a little relay where they carried a dog bone on a spoon.

Finally, it was time for the pinata. We had a pull-string pinata again. This time, we did it on the front porch. The kids took turns pulling the strings and when there were about four left, Mimi pulled it open!!! They had fun filling their loot bags with Goldfish, Skittles and Starburst. Then we came inside for paw print and bone shaped sandwiches, chips, fruit and veggies. We found a couple more fans of the chocolate sandwich too!

After lunch, Miriam got to open her presents. She had so many beautiful gifts from her friends. She got walkie-talkies from the Ross's.
And a Tinkerbelle doll (similar to Lizzie's Rosetta doll) and fun coloring kit from the Langs.
She also got a pretty princess charm bracelet from her Auntie Jules.
Both girls were thrilled to get another Barbie movie. (Chuck was trying to hold onto his manhood in the background.)
Rachel kept getting in front of the camera and posing for me, so I had to take her picture.
Mimi was excited for her pillow pet from Grandma and Grandpa, but a little overwhelmed by the party at the time.

After presents we had cake and ice cream. Then the kids just played for a little bit. It was fun to visit with the Langs and Ross' and my folks. I think Miriam and the rest of the kids had a good time. I'm mostly just glad it's over. I love doing parties for my girls, but I get very stressed out by all of my real and imagined insecurities. It went well though and I don't have to do another one for 8 months. :)

Veteran's Day Ceremony

This morning, we went to the Veteran's Day Ceremony at Lizzie's school. It was really nice and very sweet. There was a color guard from the naval base, we said the pledge and then sang the national anthem. At the end of the anthem, they released a flock of white doves. It was pretty cool. They had a few guests such as the chief of police, the chief (?) of the county sheriff's department, and Captain Scott Heller USN.
Captain Heller was the guest speaker. He is an engineer on base and has two children attending the school. He talked about how important it is to do well in school. He also urged the kids to be honest and do the right thing. He explained that was integrity and it was very important, especially in serving our county. He explained that not all who serve our country are in the military, there are over 2,000 engineers on base and most of them are civilians. At one point, he asked the kids to raise their hands if they had a parent in the military and about a fifth of the kids raised their hands. I'm sure there are quite a few more who have civilian parents that work on base too.
After the speaker, they had a bag piper play "Amazing Grace". Then they sang "This Is My Country" as they filed out to the beach. The kids each got a red carnation to throw in the ocean. The bag piper was playing on the beach and the Harbor Patrol Fire Boats were in the water too.
It was a great ceremony and I'm so glad we went down there. Mimi got to throw in a flower too and was such a good girl during the ceremony part. Rachel really enjoyed clapping for everything and screamed every time she saw a bird (which was often). The kids loved standing on the beach and watching the waves wash away their flowers. Then it was time to head back to class.