What to do? The Approaching Birthdays of Oldest and Youngest

On Tuesday it will be Oldest's, fourth birthday! Yes, Hubster and I keep saying, "Where does the time go?" It truly flies when you're having fun, as the old saying says.

I like to make sure they have a special treat to bring to school/daycare that is homemade. Most likely this will be a traditional birthday cake. The homemade aspect is very important to me as a Mother. My parents always took the time and love into everything I was involved in as a child and I feel as a parent, I need to do this too.

Schools are really cracking down these days on bringing in homemade things to school. I understand the reasons behind this decision: allergies, home cleanliness, etc. Luckily we are still in daycare and they welcome the recognition of your child's birthday.

In June, we plan to move both of the girls to a private school. I'll miss not making the cakes for the parties. I guess it will just have to be even more special with our home celebration and weekend, birthday parties.

I've been asking both of the girls what they would like for their birthdays. Mostly this is in terms of: flavor of cake, theme, colors, and gifts. Oldest has decided on a My Little Pony theme and Youngest likes 101 Dalmatians. I promise I will post details of the creation of these cakes for everyone to see!

We have also been talking about how old they will be turning. Oldest will be 4 and Youngest will be 3. For some reason they both thought they were exactly one year older than this! (5 and 4! Please don't make time go too fast!)

While we were discussing what birthdays were and what they meant, Youngest had a, "kid saying the cutest stuff", moment:

Youngest blurts out, "And it means that people will sing!!" For a second I was caught off guard and didn't really comprehend what she was saying. Then she said again, while wiggling her body back and forth in a little, dance motion, " They will sing Happy Happy!......Happy Happy to ME!" And then I got what she was saying and said. "Yes, the people who celebrate your birthday with you, will sing 'Happy Birthday To YOU'." I couldn't get over that having, the song, 'Happy Birthday,' sung to her, was a highlighted and special part for her. I would have thought it would have been the presents!

Oldest also had a, "kid saying the cutest stuff", moment on our way home from Richmond the other night. It was dark out and the music was playing low in the car. No one was talking and then Oldest said out of the blue,"I think.... I think....I need a party."

I've really been trying to avoid the party with friends thing. I think she's still pretty young and we celebrate as a family and they celebrate at school. So I was silent when these words came out of her mouth. I didn't know what to say. Luckily, Hubster came to the rescue and said, "Why do you need a party?" We had been driving down the road in almost total silence for the last hour. We had talked about birthdays early that morning.

But she held her conversation and said,"Because it's my birthday." So Hubster replied in asking her if she had ever had a party before? Oldest was then lost in thought and we continued driving into the night without another word.

So now I'm left with with that question, "What to do??"

"Flying with Ly Air this Morning Ladies?"

" Ladies, welcome to Ly Air this morning, I am your Mommy/ Pilot/Flight attendant for today. I hope you are enjoying your homemade sourdough bread and Capri Sun Juice pack I quickly handed out while strapping you into your seats. It is currently 37 degrees, a bright and sunny, crisp morning, we will be flying from: Our Lovely Home to Daycare in just a few moment while we warm the cockpit. It is a quarter to ten o'clock and traffic should be relatively light, we will be arriving in approximately twenty minutes."

Yes, I'm wearing Hubster's Bomber Jacket again because I'm so cold here! After finishing the above speech to my 2 and 3 year olds (Youngest and Oldest), Youngest says,"What are you doing Mommy?!" and I say that I'm so happy to be on vacation finally, that I'm going CRAZY! But then I know they love it when I act like this, so I just keep acting silly.

We get to one of the eight lights we might drive through on our route and I come over the speaker as flight attendant. "Trash anyone, trash- trash..oops thank you very much,(it's one finished juice pack) Please make sure to eat your bread so we are finished when we get to our final destination!)"

I start talking about Christmas again and what we will be doing for the next week, that tonight we will go see Santa. "What are you going to tell him you would like for Christmas again?"

Oldest says, "A Pink Pony, a baby-baby Dinosaur, and Pink Dancing shoes like my white party shoes."

And Youngest shouts, "I want a Big, Big Dinosaur that says Roarrrr!"

Now, we will see if they have the courage to tell Santa all this....and if they will sit with him to have their picture taken.

I pull into Daycare, "Thank you all for traveling with Ly Air this morning. It is still 37 degrees, but you be sure to have a blast-in-a-half at school while I go send out Christmas Cards and put our second wreath on the garage that Hubster has been too busy to put up. Love you, and see you this afternoon when we will go see Santa!!! Yeahhhhh!"

Fall Is Here.... How About an Apple Pie Turned Apple Pear?

Fall is my favorite time of year. I hear lots of people exclaim this same comment. I always listen to them and wonder to myself if they really know what a change in season is. Yes, here in Virginia there is a change in season, but it's really nothing like my real home.

As my followers know, I'm originally from Vermont. There the seasons are extreme; each having great beauty! The Spring is probably the hardest season. The ground stays cold for what seems forever and then the ground warms up to make mud season! But adventually, real Spring appears with flowers peaking through the ground with life, greening up. Summer is hot, but everything stays emerald green like the mountains. Winter is just a winter wonderland. It's part of the lifestyle and you can't be in a hurry when there is a light flurry or dusting of snow covering the ground. But Fall, Fall is the sensorial season. You see the colorful leaves, the trees are loaded with pinks, reds, yellow, and orange. The apples are ready for harvest. The tourist buy the maple syrup, apples and apple cider, pumpkins, and whatever Vermont Goods they can find. It's a life of it's own there, and I miss it.

When I get homesick I always cook. I'll cook something I was either brought up on, or something that I just know my Dad would be making right about this same time. Last weekend this just happened to be an Apple and Pear Pie for me. Dad made this probably last year, but whenever it was, I remember him describing it to me on the phone and how good it sounded to me.

So I Googled the Internet in search of this pie recipe and found this one:

www.goodhousekeeping.com//recipefinder/apple-pear-pie-1696?click=recipe_sr

I used this recipe for both the crust and the filling. However I did not use the ground anise seed. I later thought about cinnamon. After all, I don't think I've ever had an apple pie without cinnamon. But I left this out and sprinkled some cinnamon and sugar on the crust instead. The crust was flaky and easy to work with. The pie was awesome and really hit the spot! I served it with a little vanilla ice cream- warm!

Oh! And I can't forget that youngest said a funny when I went to cut the pie. She looked up at the table with the cooling pie and went running away into the living room saying,"No Mom, No!"

I was like, "Youngest? What's the matter?"

She said, "No Mom! Don't cut the Turtle!!!"

So Oldest looked at the pie and said, "No, that's not a turtle, that's a pie."

So I cut in and murdered the Turtle/Apple-Pear Pie.

Everyone thought it was delicious! You now also know, that the pie had a beautiful, tall, crust like a turtle's shell.