When the cats away....

Shh...We have a secret. When Brian is away, the girls and I eat very differently. Before meeting Brian, I could probably have become a vegetarian with little effort. Don't get me wrong, I love a good steak, but after awhile, meat begins to bore me and I am left longing for the variety that only fruits and veges can provide. Most days I set this aside, and in the interest of family unity and my iron issues, fix well balance meals with portions of meat, grains and vegetables. The girls however, have stronger feelings than me. Most nights, my sweet girls sit down at the table asking how many pieces of meat they have to eat in order to be excused. They may not love whatever vegetable we are having, but this is not what keeps them languishing at the table or drives them to hide food under the chair cushions. This honor belongs exclusively to meat.



As a houseful of secret carb and vege loving women, we begin our Daddy free days with pancakes or french toast and fruit and not a sausage link to be found. We lunch on salads and cheese filled pastas and consume way too much chocolate. (another item Brian doesn't really like) J has been a little harder to manage. It must be a male thing, but he hits the bottom of the stairs asking for sausage and eggs, and loves hotdogs. I am sure it is only a manner of time before he insists on either going with Brian or demands to see red meat on the table at supper. By the end of our weekend or business trip, we of course go back to our balanced protein diets. We love Daddy more than our secret vegetarian life style. I would venture to guess he didn't eat a single vege while he was gone so I am sure it all evens out in the end!



Double Chocolate Brownies



3/4 cup butter

4 oz unsweetened chocolate

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 1/4 cups flour

2 tsp vanilla

1 bag milk chocolate chips



Heat butter and chocolate together until blocks of chocolate melt. Stir until smooth. Cool slightly. whisk in sugar, eggs, flour and vanilla. Stir in 1 cup chocolate chips. Pour into greased 9x13 pan. Sprinkle with remaining chocolate chips. Bake at 350 degrees for approx 35 minutes

Look What I can Do

L is still army crawling as her primary form of mobility, but she is much faster and can get from room to room with relative speed. She has also begun to pull up to tall kneeling and be able to play from that position. Last night she discovered the kitchen cabinets and had a wonderful time opening and closing doors!

J & L are 3!!!

J and L turned 3 February 26, but the party had to wait for clear spot in the schedule. Grandma and Grandpa got to come and we put them to work all day in order to be ready. Thank you!! J is a huge Mickey Mouse fan and it was a party theme that worked for both. L didn't get the hands in the cake thing on her second birthday, but she did this time. Sometimes we need to be thankful for small steps and I was thrilled to see those finger marks across Mickey's face. J just loved opening presents and being the center of attention. He is the private Ken doll to his four cousins who dressed him up in assorted dress up outfits and then he would run into the dining room yelling "Da Daw!" All in all a good evening. We just won't discuss the artichoke chicken that did not want to cook.

Just Horsin' Around

B has struggled to find an activity she enjoys and lasts longer than six weeks. This fall she began taking horse lessons once a week with the goal of riding contest. She has worked through lots of nerves and struggled to find a horse that matched her personality, but this spring we seem to have found a match. Ginger is a paint that belonged to another young lady in the community, but as she is a teenager now and moving onto other things Ginger was looking for someone new to belong to and B loves her. They have had some wild rides where Ginger did considerable bucking etc as they figured out who was in charge. ( Truth be told, I am still not sure which one of them is in charge.) B has also had to adjust to her instructor. He is really good, but a little loud and has high expectations- thus more than a few tears. Saturday morning, B rode in her first show. She ran the barrels as an exhibition only, but I couldn't be prouder. I did ask Brian how both our girls got interested in very expensive activities that have a show time of 2 1/2 minutes (cheer) and less than 30 seconds (horse). Oh well, no value can be placed on hearing B's instructor say "I'm proud of you, girl." and watching that shy smile cross her face.