Belated post on Lunar New Year

oops! time has flown by and i meant to post these pics from our new year celebration earlier. but, better late than never!

doesn't the food look delicious? we ate SO much!


the girls put on their hanbok, the korean traditional dress

Fighting winter blues

what a busy weekend we are having! but there's nothing like going to gatherings with friends to beat the winter blues that tend to overcome all of us around this time of the year.

to start off our weekend, the girls and i went to a valentine's treat exchange, hosted by my friend, Shannon, who writes the blog, Cooking with Friends. do check out her blog! the goal of the exchange was to partner up with another person attending and make the treats together. Kristin and i got together with the kids that morning to make rice crispy treats covered with butterscotch and chocolate (Kristin's recipe). the kids had a great time and it was so fun to be in someone else's kitchen to cook. thanks, Kristin, and thanks, Shannon, for hosting such a fun party!

then on saturday, we hosted a brunch party with some friends. on the menu was blueberry bread pudding and cheese grits (a shout out to my days in North Carolina), and friends brought delicious quiche, fruit salad, tabouleh, and breakfast pastries. i baked a cake in honour of valentine's day (this time, i tried a chocolate cake with chocolate ganache - i had a great time experimenting with the ganache which worked so differently from frosting) and shared the treats i got from the treat exchange the day before. the kids put on a dance for us after the meal and we had a great time catching up with friends.

i have learned that this is the only way to see people during the cold winter months because we are all hibernating inside and even when we are outside, we're all bundled up we can't recognize anyone! the girls loved spending some time with their friends and i think it was early enough in the day that no one really had a melt down!! :)

in the afternoon, Phil took Skye to her school carnival while Claire napped (a rare occurrence, but the party tuckered her out). and then i took the girls to a chinese restaurant to meet some friends to watch their lion dance. the girls were terrified of the fire crackers and the masks, but couldn't take their eyes off.

today, we will celebrate lunar new year with a group of korean americans. the girls want to put of their hanbok (korean traditional dress) and do jul (bowing to elders who give you money). i'll try to take pictures if the girls manage to keep their hanbok on. :)

happy valentine's and happy new year, everyone!!

treats from the exchange and my chocolate cake

Winter knitting

whenever winter rolls around, it always feels good to pull out my knitting needles and yarn. i started knitting when we moved to Madison and while i'm not a fast knitter, there is something satisfying about knitting warm winter wear. i haven't ventured into knitting ambitious projects like sweaters and such, but i do enjoy knitting mittens and scarves and leg warmers. mittens are a necessity every winter - someone is always either losing them, or shrinking them, or growing out of them. right now, i'm in the middle of knitting a new pair of pink mittens for Skye who seems to be growing long every which way (Lamb's Pride worsted wool) and i finished a scarf for myself - i stitched the ends together so that i don't have to tie the scarf around my neck, i just loop it around twice, saving me a few precious moments when bundling everyone up (malabrigo yarn in holly hock).

Meat update

many of you have been asking me about our beef, so i thought i should give you an update. firstly, the cost. we ended up spending under $3/lb for 189 lbs of beef. now, keep in mind, we now have cuts of meat we could never afford before (chateau briand recipe anyone?). we do have quite a bit of ground beef, but that was expected. i don't know how long it will take us to get through it since we don't eat meat every day, but i'll let you know. the amount isn't as much as i first expected. i thought it would be so overwhelming, but it's not. a whole cow, i think, would feel like it is too much, but a quarter seems manageable. we bought the smallest size freezer - 5 cubic feet.

oh, and the farmer threw in the heart, liver and tongue for us!

The gift (actually, another diy)

soon after we discovered i was pregnant with our third baby, Phil offered to send me away on a trip, a gift before i'd be tied down again. after some thinking, i declined (i know! can you believe it?) and instead requested he build me a play structure for the girls in our basement. my reasoning? it will keep me sane when i have to put the baby down for a nap or when i need some minutes to "escape" - i'll send the girls down there and they can make as much noise as they want.

my vision for the play structure began last summer, when i started dreaming of a tree house for the girls to play in. unfortunately, our backyard doesn't have an appropriate sized tree. and then, the girls complain so much about the mosquitoes, i wondered if building them a tree house in the backyard would be worthwhile. i still envision a tree house and perhaps we will still build it one day, but for now, i am happy to have our play structure in the basement. with such long winters here, we'll be sure to use it.

building the structure was a major test of my communication skills. Phil is SO not a visual person! i drew a sketch and he could not visualize it!! in the end, i ended up having to draw out where every plank and screw went. and in the end, Phil did a great job of putting the structure together, don't you think? :)

my sketch of the structure:


the structure starts to go up!




this is what it looks like now

Finding ways to connect

as my children get older, i'm finding that i need to think more about ways to connect with them. eversince Skye started kindergarten, i've been trying my best to come up with times we can spend together. she spends most of her days at school and i often wonder what is going through her mind during all those hours. so, Claire and i packed a lunch and decided to meet Skye for lunch at her school. Claire was excited to be going to the "big kids" school and it's always a treat for her to pack a lunch and eat it out. Skye was thrilled to see us waiting for her when she arrived at the lunch room.

many parents had warned me about lunch time - that it is absolute craziness. the kids only have 20 mins to scarf down their food. the noise level is just too much. etc. you get the picture. yes, it did seem sort of crazy as i watched all the kids around me barely chewing their food before swallowing, watching a girl eat just the chocolate cake from her hot lunch and nothing else. but the noise level wasn't as bad as i anticipated which was good. both Claire and Skye ate a decent meal and i got to enjoy a few minutes with Skye in her world, getting to know some of her friends who haven't come over to our house for a playdate. lunch recess was quite a different story, with Claire getting almost run over several times by the big kids.

but all in all, it was a good way to connect with Skye and i hope to do it a few more times before this next baby arrives.