Lemon Bars, Anyone?

Cat has been at it again, wanting to bake up recipes from her Magical Bakery Novel Which Contains Recipes (cookbook).  She made the same Chocolate Meltaways she made earlier in the year, this time adding a handful of mint chips which were yummy.  Then on Sunday she wanted to be more ambitious and make the Lemon Bars, which take a lot longer and are much more involved.  They have a pastry crust, and I'm still not even 100% confident in my pastry baking skills, but together we made it and it all worked great.  Eliza excitedly helped, as well, but of course "Cat made them."  No problem.

The Lemon Bars were DELICIOUS.  So so good.  We (Cat?) will definitely be making them again.

We had a lot leftover, though, and I was eager to get them out of the house so that I wouldn't be tempted to eat all of them.  Cat thought it would be great to go door-to-door selling them.  After all, she did it when she was a Girl Scout.  Why not now?  I couldn't articulate why it was different, but I told her it was different, and she may not sell the Lemon Bars.  Then on Monday afternoon she asked if she could walk around the neighborhood, giving the Lemon Bars away.  Yes!  Yes you may!

So she made up little plates containing 4 Lemon Bars each, sifted powdered sugar on top, and piled the plates and some matching napkins in a basket to carry around the neighborhood.  Eliza accompanied her, and they both had a great time.  They weren't gone long - apparently it doesn't take long to give baked goods away.  And they were eager to tell me about their interactions with the neighbors.

My favorite conversation was with an elderly man who lives directly behind us.  This man is so happy; jolly even.  He and his wife have done amazing things for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, they are very friendly and kind, and they've always made time for us when we've requested it of them.

Cat reported that the stop went something like this:

Neighbor: Wow!  Lemon Bars!  Can I buy some from you?
Cat:  No, they're for free.  I made them and we're giving them away.

Neighbor: Even better!  Thank you!  My wife and I will have them for dinner.

Cat:  Here you go.  Enjoy!

She really was thrilled that someone offered to buy her baked goods.  How sweet!  But to make it even better, this neighbor stopped by the house this morning, bringing us tomatoes and a big cucumber from his garden as thanks for the Lemon Bars.  He admitted that his wife didn't get as many Lemon Bars as he did, because he "was really hungry" which made us laugh.  We had a nice little visit, and what a great lesson it was in the worth of service.  I suppose she could have sold the Lemon Bars and might have even had some positive experiences, but it's not the same as the joy you feel when you do something kind just because.  And certainly nobody's ever brought us fresh produce from their garden because we sold them something.

Gone Bananas

At bedtime tonight, Jack wasn't feeling well.

Jack: I think I have a headache.
Me: What does your head feel like?
Jack: Bananas.
Me: Then you probably have a headache.

(This picture isn't from tonight, but I still thought it appropriate.)

Oh yeah, and Cat had a birthday.

Last night I was looking back through the blog and realized that I still haven't blogged about Cat's birthday.  Oops.  Yeah, that happened.  It was right after our Day of Festivation on July 4th and before our Week of Crazy with Cat and me in DC, then me heading straight to Girls' Camp.

Anyway, Cat really wanted a birthday party and she hasn't had one in a couple of years, so we obliged.  But we kept it small and simple (a necessity, due largely to the ill-timed events of the following week and all of the preparations still underway for said events).  We sent evites.  We had the party at a park, requiring minimal investment and few decorations.  Cat had no requirement for cake, bless her soul, so the candles she blew out were protruding from a pan of rice krispy treats.

Cat really wanted a sports-type party, so we thought of a few active activities.  Cat demonstrated an obstacle course through the playground (which, thankfully, was deserted) and we timed the girls as they made their way through the playground.  Then they had a water balloon fight in the grass, and after lunch they had to break little figurines out of small blocks of ice.  They all had a great time.  Most importantly, Cat had a blast.  She really loved her party, and I was so glad.

For dinner that night, Cat requested French Toast.  (How awesome is this girl??)  She enjoyed opening a few presents and talking to family members on the phone.  It was a great day!

Llama Fest

We finally made it to Llama Fest!  We've heard about this event for a few years now so it was fun to go see what it was like.  We had a really good time seeing llamas walking around, taking pictures, enjoying the live music, watching the llamas go through the obstacle course and racing, and of course feeding and petting the llamas.

The festival was held at the Sri Sri Radha Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork, so it was also fun to enjoy the architecture of the building and see some of the cool animals on the grounds, such as koi, macaws, peacocks, and zebu.

Feeding a llama a combination of granola and cut up carrots.
Jack said this was his favorite part of Llama Fest.

Lots of people were sporting llama t-shirts,
but only one person donned a llama head.

One of the requirements of the obstacle course was that the llama walk into and out of a big van.
Supposedly they were trying to see how good the llamas would be at packing, which requires
that the animals get in and out of vehicles as they are transported to and from their packing destinations.

Apparently zebu like the same food llamas like.
Cat had this one eating out of the palm of her hand.

Llama race.

Here I am with my buddy, Cloud.

Eliza bought herself a fan and has been enamored with it ever since.
When I kissed her goodnight last night, she was sleeping in one of Ben's
t-shirts and she had her arms pulled inside the shirt.  I asked her what her
favorite part of the day was and she said getting her fan was her favorite part.
"It's so big!" she added, as she pulled the fan out of her shirt.

After almost three hours of Llama Fun, it was time to leave.
Namaste, Krishna Temple.

Arts Camp

Cat and Jack were able to attend an Arts Camp this year at a local theater.  Their school doesn't have a strong arts component because it is small, and focused on classical education (for example, the school doesn't employ an art teacher) so I thought a camp that taught them about a variety of artistic disciplines would be really good for them.  The camp lasted for three hours a day, every day last week, and they really enjoyed it.  Jack said his favorite part was singing and dancing; Cat's favorite part was acting in the play.  They both also enjoyed the art projects they did.

Eliza was pretty sad that she didn't get to go to the camp as well, so we took some time to work on our own art projects Monday morning.  She really loves painting, and since Luke was napping and the other two were gone to camp, I had a good time painting with her, doing a bit of coaching and teaching.

Drawing a self-portrait.

Trying to replicate one of Bridget's paintings from the book Bridget's Beret.

Me: "Do you know what my favorite thing about this painting is?  That we worked on it together."
Eliza: "What about the puff balls?"
Me: "And the puff balls."

On Friday morning, the kids had a performance at camp where they showed off the song/dance they'd been working on, "Oh The Thinks You Can Think" from Seussical the Musical.  (If the video doesn't show up for you, you may see it HERE.)

Then, they performed the 3-page play they'd worked on, "The Pied Piper of Hamelin." Cat played one of the adults of the village and Jack played two parts: a rat and an adult.

"We need the piper to get rid of the rats."

The rats are following the pied piper out of town.

"Where are the children?"

One of the cool things about this camp is that Cat's best friend was there too, as was her younger brother, who was in Jack's Kindergarten class.  Cat and Jack loved having friends there.

This picture was supposed to be the "normal" picture.

This one is the "drama" picture.

Notice there's not much of a difference for Jack.

Have I shown you our backyard pool?

This afternoon the kids and I hung out at the pool.

As you can see, there's plenty of room for all four kids.  I don't know why anyone would ever have anything bigger.

Of course, after swimming, one must take some time to dry off in the sun.  Except for Luke.

He was busy stealing the castle from the fairies.  Twice.  That's probably bad luck, but he didn't seem to care.  He would toddle over to the little Fairy Garden, pick up the castle and struggle to toddle back to the pool with it.  Maybe he knows that the castle was originally intended to go in an aquarium?

I kept thinking, "I'm the king of the castle, you're the dirty rascal..."  and whoever names the song those lyrics came from wins a prize.

Where did May go?

I've been wanting to blog on a regular basis for a while now but never could seem to get caught up to make it happen.  Finally, at the beginning of June I decided I'd just start blogging daily or almost daily, and catch up on the stuff I missed later on.  So if you were paying attention and you noticed that on the old bloggity blog, May never actually happened, you can feel better knowing that I'm going to start fixing that today.  Maybe I'll do a TBT every week or something.  We'll see how it goes.  I intend to get completely caught up at some point - and then keep it that way.

Anyway, here are some highlights from May to get us started.

We got to hang out with some good friends from the MBA program who moved
about 10 hours away for their job.  We were so glad that we could steal them for a few
hours while they were visiting family in Utah.  Thank you for making the time to hang out!

Eliza learned a few new skills: crossing her eyes, tying her shoes (at least getting
the fundamentals down), and blowing bubbles with bubble gum.

Ben did a lot of this, helping Cat prepare for softball.

 

Eliza gave her first talk in Primary and did a great job!

She and Ben worked on the talk together and her delivery was great.

Mother's Day breakfast in bed.  Love it.

  

We enjoyed going to the Provo Children's Book Festival for the 3rd year in a row.
This year Kevin Henkes was the featured author, so we got to meet Lily
(as in Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse).  Henkes also wrote Chrysanthemum
and Sheila Rae, the Brave, among other books.

While we were at the festival, Eliza stumbled upon an unguarded

mic, which was turned on.  Jackpot!

Cat then got a sanctioned chance to use the mic,
reading Sheila Rae, the Brave to us.

 

I took Eliza on a date to see Peter Pan and had such a great time!

The steam punk themed production was wonderful, and having

Eliza as my companion was a real treat.

And in the coming weeks you can expect posts about Jack's birthday & learning to ride a bike; the end of the school year festivities (including Cat's stint as Florence Nightingale and Jack's Kindergarten graduation); Memorial Day; and Operation: Protect The Office (a losing battle to keep Luke out of the office/craft room).  It'll be great!