Soup!

Tonight we played with veggies and soup. See the store had this deal if you got 5 different kinds of veggies (tomatoes, asparagus, cauliflower, mushrooms, and corn) and we decided to build a meal around that. We also had some surprisingly terrible tomato basil aged white cheddar that we were trying to figure out how to get rid of not to mention those beet greens from last night. To finish out what was sure to be an extremely random soup, we had picked up some Japanese mushroom stock at an Asian market and realized it was in fact the only stock left in the house.
What to do with this mishmash?

First we start with our favorite soup cookbook and look for anything that might let us use this stuff. We found a recipe that called for dropping the corn and adding some onions. It didn't exactly call for incomprehensible packaged mushroom stock, or the asparagus, or the a few other things actually - but it was still pretty close.

At the end it came together in a delicious, satisfying , and hopefully repeatable soup perfectly complimented by challah.
num num
Shabbat Shalom

Preferred foods

Tonight we tried a new food, beet greens. They were not particularly tasty, but I wanted T to try them. She was not so inclined.. so I bribed her.
But what could I possibly use as a bribe?
Well, the deal we worked out was that if she tried the greens then she could have some more raw white onion.
You should have seen her stuff those greens in her mouth!
I had to cut up another onion half to satisfy her.
But who could resist her, "Mommy! More onion please!"

She is actually enjoying some fruit in this picture but it definitely conveys her bargaining prowess!

Job update

For those of you following my 'let's get Cara a job' saga, I did hear back from my June interview.
The bad: I did not get it
The good: no one else did either
More good: and they had good things to say about me

This is good on many levels as I have now met many people at a company I really like and am no longer wondering what happened. I even applied to another job with them this morning with a head's up to my new contacts.

Great day

This afternoon we had some quality family time.
The 3 of us walked to the park, stopping to pick wild blackberries in what turned out to be a MASSIVE blackberry patch.* Tovina discovered that she liked the berries we gave to her ('Only take ONE at a time T!') and we are now trying to figure out how to transplant a couple stray bushes, or pieces thereof, to our yard.
Once at the park there was extensive swinging with entreatments of 'higher mommy!' Does my heart good to hear that she is training up right for roller coasters.
There was also some sliding and exploring and a quiet dinner where we finally figured out how to prepare Tovina's home-rolled burritos in such a manner that she doesn't drop all the filling into her lap, happily eat the tortilla, and then ask for 'morr bueeto?'

This capped of a day of 2 humming birds and a bunny joining the regular crowd of birds and deer outside my window.

*For those of you who have never gone to summer camp or Cape Cod with me, I have a slight blackberry picking addiction in which I rarely have a chance to indulge.

Golden children in Florida

One of my goals for a while now has been to try to get Tovina to enjoy pools. We have been make slow but steady progress. While in Florida huge steps were taken in the backyard of some friends.
Here are 3 munchkins sliding, splashing, swimming (yes, apparently that was possible in 6" of water), and generally enjoying themselves.
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Tovina was queen of the slide!

Getting ready for some quiet time after an exhausting day of carousing. On the couch are Tovina (wearing Austin's pajamas), Austin (of said pajamas) and Abby.

And here are the 3 wee ones all tucked in - they were preparing for some snugly TV watching.

Aunt Sheila

I've been showing pics of how much T enjoys visitng with people out of town, but I also wanted to let you know how much she enjoys her family right here in the house.
Here is Tovina preventing Aunt Sheila from going around the corner and out of T's direct line of sight.

Shabbat at home

It is great to welcome Shabbat from home. Its been about 4 weeks since we were last all together at home for Shabbat. Tovina had a chance to see some of her local cousins today, so that may make up for how much she misses the Canadian ones.

Who wouldn't miss that kind of attention?

Going to the zoo zoo zoo

Before getting on the plane to come home, Tovina and I stopped by the zoo with Maddie and Emily. (Jason and Susie were supposedly in attendance also, but as I have no pictures to prove it, this may have just been hear-say.)
The zoo has lots of things to see, but since T and I had a plane to catch we limited ourselves mostly to the birds - but oh! what birds! Maddie was suitably impressed with the peacocks.
Tovina was not quite so sure about the flamingos (even though they were both dressed in the same outfit. My how embarrassing. Maybe the fact that the birds forgot to wear their hats made up for it.)
Here is Maddie pushing the 2 littler ones along. No help from the accompanying giants was welcome - only people under 4 foot tall were allowed to push this stroller. I'm not sure how Emily avoided being in more photos. Going to have to make up for that the next time we see her.
And here is Tovina trying to get in on the act when she saw Maddie rubbing her eyes. Tired little munchkins one and all.

Hanging with cousins

What exactly does one do while visiting family in Canada? A lot of the time is spent catching up with family. Here you can see Tovina and Daniel sharing their opinions on the correct method for Lego construction. It was an enlightening conversation.

Daniel was actually keeping 4 of the mini-cousins all entertained at the same time. You can see them all arrayed around him and the Lego box here.

Off the plane

T and I have made it home. It took a little longer than expected when our plane from Chicago to Cincinnati was delayed... then delayed again... and then cancelled at 9pm. They booked us on a flight for the next morning and then put us up in a hotel.
Having a place to stay was nice
Having a baby girl who had not napped during the day, was running around an airport from 9-10 as we waited in line (THANK YOU to all the wonderful strangers who held my place in line while I played tag, knock-knock, peek-a-boo, catch, and swing!) and finally got to the hotel around 11 was slightly less fun. Though she was a great sport about it, she was also a little tired. Tovina actually laid down on the carpet in front of check in and tried to go to sleep. I suggested she move to the side carpet so she wouldn't get stepped on but when she saw the chairs she had a much better idea. Poor thing!
This was not 3 minutes after she laid down. She woke a little when I picked her up to take her to our room, but when I set her down outside the door she laid down again and went back to sleep.
Such a good traveler!