Off the Cuff

Do you ever spend way too much time trying to think of an appropriate title for your blog post, or think of creative ways to combine all the happenings as of late into one neat tidy flowing blog post? I spend way too much of my brain energy on this sort of thing. I need to be more 'off the cuff' about it all sometimes. Maybe that way I would actually record more of the adorable and hilarious things my children say and do that make motherhood oh so worth it.

Tonight we happened to go out to dinner with some friends. (Which is very rare for us) Before we went I got down on the kids' level and tried to prep them. I tried to remind them what we should and should not do in a restaurant. I must say they did quite well. I was pleasantly surprised. When I was talking to Grant about it I asked him what he would like to eat at the restaurant. He replied, "Something good for my belly." (Can you tell we talk about what kinds of foods are good for our bodies?) I asked him what kind of food. He got the cutest little smile on his face and said, "corn." What a funny little guy. At the restaurant when we were asking the kids what they wanted to eat from the menu he did it again- whipped out that cute little smile and just said, "corn." He ended up having the largest pancake I have ever seen with scrambled eggs and 2 strips of bacon. . . and he was in heaven.

Arianna chowed down her fish sticks (not sure what possessed her to order those. We don't eat them at our house and maybe she has had them once or twice at Grandma's.) But she gobbled them up like crazy, then ate some french fries. Then we reminded her to listen to her belly and stop when she was full. She stopped for a while and colored and worked on the activities on the blessed children's paper they give out (I was so thankful for that paper tonight- the girls were completely occupied and happy for an hour!) Then she took a break from her coloring, picked up the large leaf of romaine lettuce that was on her plate as a garnish and proceeded to gobble the entire thing up- with no dip or dressing. I must admit I was bursting with pride that my barely 4 year old would do such a thing!!!!

So, there you have it. My off the cuff musings for the evening. As for some real news, Kenneth is having a PET scan on Wednesday. He finally met with his Oncologist on Tuesday and he feels he should have one done to be safe. Kenneth has been feeling great lately, so we hope and pray that it is clean and that this is simply a precautionary measure and will not disclose more cancer. We know that the Lord is looking out for us. I don't believe it to be merely coincidental that Kenneth was asked to speak in church on Sunday on the topic of 'Facing the Future with Faith'.

Don't Carpe Diem

I wanted to share an article I read recently. It made me laugh. It made me cry. It made me laugh at motherhood and cry with joy that these beautiful children are mine. Read it! You'll love it! Here it is.
The article talks about 2 different types of time. Chronos time- the hard, slow-passing time- regular time. And then there is Kairos time. This is God's time. It's those moments when time seems to stop for a moment and you feel such joy. 'My cup runneth o'er' moments. I love those moments. Like when Emma, on her own accord, takes the 2 little ones to the couch and reads to them. Like when Grant gives me a big slobbery kiss and looks me right in the eyes to say he loves me.
Then there's Chronos time. It has taken a month to recover from Christmas vacation. The time just seemed to drag. I couldn't seem to be able to get anything done. I just barely took the Christmas decorations down last week. I finally posted about Christmas (find the post here.) And really, the only reason I was able to accomplish all that is because I had sick children and so we weren't able to attend pre-school and kindergarten co-op last week and I allowed the kids to watch movies all day!
One of the highlights of January was going to see the Peking Acrobats at UC Berkeley. We attended a special school performance during the day. The kids loved it! (Notice Arianna wanting to be an acrobat in her Birthday interview) They were amazing!!
If you are interested, look at these images of the acrobats. Simply amazing!
I also managed to post about the rest of Arianna's Birthday celebration. Go here to see that- just one post ago. You've got to check out her cake!

Well it's final- I think I am finally caught up!! Now if only I could keep up with everything else in my life!!!!

Here are some pictures of our last few weeks:



Kiddos helping to wash teh van after our long car trip.

Grant and Daddy. Those outfits weren't planned. I promise. (Aren't they adorable!)


Here are the girls practicing acrobatics.

Emma tumbling- just like the acrobats.

Arianna's Birthday, Part Two

Arianna may have decided not to have a party, but really, she essentially ended up with 3 parties! We celebrated here at home (breakfast and lunch). Then, in the afternoon, Kenneth and I abandoned the Birthday girl (and the other 2 as well) and went to see the U.S. National Ladies Ice Skating Championships. They were watched by good friends of ours who have 5 children. We brought over cupcakes and a gift and she had a little party with them! Then, on Monday, we went to visit Miss Anita (our adopted Grandma out here) and she threw a little party for Arianna. Good times all around!
Here are the pictures:
We had caterpillars for breakfast, what else for lunch than a crab?!?! Arianna and the other two were delighted. Arianna requested peanut butter and jelly and frozen peas for lunch (she sure does makes it easy on me) so I figured I could at least make that somewhat exciting. I saw this idea in Family Fun magazine. They made them with croissants, but I didn't have them and, of course, thought to do this last minute, so this is what I came up with!
Here they are with their crabs.

Then came the main event, the cake. Kenneth came up with this set up. Pretty cheesy, but pretty darn cool for a 4 year old! It was kind of selfish of me, too. I wanted to make a particular chocolate cake recipe, which Kenneth tells me is really a brownie (no wonder I like it so well!) You bake it in a loaf pan and then it sinks as it cools, so it does not have a shape condusive to frosting. Plus, I didn't want frosting anyway. So I had to come up with a way to serve it with the whipped cream and raspberries. So, I just cut it in chunks and made a volcano. Voila!

And boy was it delicious!

Arianna loved it! The first thing she did was remove the dinosaurs from the habitat and share with her siblings. One for each of them. So sweet. (No, it is not always so blissful.)

Opening gifts at home after lunch.

In the afternoon/evening, Kenenth and I enjoyed being at the U.S. National Ladies Ice Skating Championships. Kenneth got tickets from work. It was such fun! And nice to be on a date together! One of the highlights of the evening, was Michelle Kwan being inducted into the National Ice Skating Hall of Fame. Pretty cool. Kristi Yamaguchi and Brian Boitano were also there.Here is Michelle Kwan on the big screen.

There is Ashley Wagner taking her victory lap before being awarded as Champion.

Kenneth and me with the Four Champions in the background.

And finally, some pictures of Monday's celebration with Miss Anita: Arianna delighted with Miss Anita's dinosaur brownies powdered with 'snow'.

Yum!

The party

Arianna having fun with her gifts from Miss Anita. Thanks, Anita!

It's all dinosaurs all the time around here nowadays. They even separate the little ones into piles: babies and food! They get that some of them are carnivorous. However, I also saw them setting up the babies to nurse from the mommy. I tried to explain that dinosaurs were not mammals, but they didn't want to hear it. Oh well.