Other guests

Forgot to mention we had another guest at our house.

Michael found him on the lane in front of our house. He's an Eastern box turtle (and by he I mean the turtle). The red eyes let us know that he is a he (again, talking about the turtle here). We (this time referring to Michael and me and maybe even T though she somehow missed the entire Mr. Turtle episode) were hoping we could add him to our pond but it turns out that box turtles can't live in ponds so we (see previous note) have put that plan on hold.

Busy busy

My folks drove out to share the week with us. It has been great timing because Michael and I have a lot going on and T is pretty happy to play with them. This was meant as a subtle sort of hint about me being really busy this week....
...which is why there is not more to this post.

I will try to placate you with these pictures of Tovina as she decided to eat only the crust and not the inside of a peanut butter sandwich. This was unusual.

Flowers

There were many outdoor activities scheduled for this past weekend by the city. Unfortuantely it was cold and rainy so some were canceled, but we had fun with what we were able to do. Our first stop of the day was at Granny's Garden School Open House. We strolled around some great flowers and vegetables that were planted as part of the primary school. Even better? We were encouraged to pick things to take home.


Have I mentioned before how tough it is to get a picture with more than 1 child smiling at the same time let alone looking in the camera?

Shabbat Shalom

We made our own challahs this week. Michael mixed and kneaded these as his first loaves ever! I braided one loaf and Michael did the other (we won't tell you who did which though the discerning among you may be able to figure it out from the fact that one of us spent 20+ years braiding her own hair and one of us apparently let his curly hair be free.) They turned out quite tasty and we made ate most of the way through one of them tonight. There may be some braiding lessons in the future though.

Books - English, Chinese, whatever

T is really into books. She likes to take them off the shelf and read them. The best kinds of books for this activity are Michael's old Chinese text books and his little red Chinese to English dictionary. For those who have never had the pleasure, such a dictionary is similar to looking at any other 8pt font crammed dictionary except this one is in a 2 and a half inches thick with only 3x5 inch pages, no pictures, and isn't in English.
My daughter has some strange tastes.
She can 'read' these books for 30 minutes or more. Its nice to see all those Chinese texts put to good use.

Here is an unrelated photo of T in a bike helmet from the Reiss's residence. Ready to take on anything!

SpiderFrogs! (Or more about the boom boom hat)

Remember I told you about T's hat that protects her from thunder storms? Well here it is!

But since it is hard to get a sense of it just sitting there, here is the hat *on* Tovina's head.
(Tovina is being tickled by Benson. The hat does not seem to protect her from that.)
. >

Here is T describing the powers of the hat in her own words (with Mommy providing translations)


And here is more of the B vs T tickle battle

Positively Natalie

Remember when I mentioned that Natalie had visited us? Well she wrote and pictured about it on her blog.

Who's got your honey

Some people bring kegs...

...but T's knows that this New Year's party is all about the honey!

Of course, the problem with being all hopped up on the bee juice is that is may effect one's judgment.

To be clear, Tovina very clearly chose these shoes this morning.

When the coppers bust this par-tay in your crib it is essential that one adopts a clueless facade while attemping to conceal the contraband as well as the T-shirt that clearly identifies you as the host.

Shana Tova!

Shana Tova to our friends and family and the world in general. May everyone have a sweet and happy year!

We started our year by inviting some folks over for dinner for the second night of Rosh Hashana. As is often the case, this gave us an excuse to experiment with some new foods.

Big successes:
We finally made a challah we like! Very exciting. I had been finding it comical how I had recipes from other people whose challahs are lovely but when I make them they were… okay. Finally bucked this trend.
I roasted red bell peppers for the first time and it worked!
The beef was amazing!

Lesser successes but not exactly failures:
The fish. Maybe because we let it get cold.

The full menu:
Harissa-Crusted Tri-Tip Roast - AMAZING SAUCE
Pan-fried fish fillet with rouille - mhew
Round Challah for the New Year (Plain, with raisins, with dried cranberries) - "better than Panera's"
Middle Easter Squash and Couscous Soup - an old favorite
Asparagus with Honey Garlic Sauce - nice
(My Baba's) Koogle - num num
Fresh Corn Salad with Basil - good
Honey Cookies - a little hard and crispy though they taste fine
Pudding: Indian Rice: Kheer - pareve - we added a cup of black rice
Honey and HoneyCrisp apples from a local orchard - the apples are GREAT though pricey

The meal was assisted by some wine from our guests, honey in the comb and yummy apples, not to mention fantastic company.
A sweet way to start the year indeed!

Never made it out of the stable

Last month while my folks were visiting they taught Tovina many important things.

This was not one of them