Jared is 9!

One of the things that Jared loves about our home here in Virginia is our fire pit. So it was no surprise when he wanted to have a cook-out birthday party. The day began with some archery practice, burning paper in the fire, and roasting hot dogs.

After a short hike and once every one was thoroughly cold, they headed back indoors to open presents.

We finished up with a camouflage birthday cake. It was a great party!!

Subways, Rembrandts, and Tulips

A couple weekends ago (October 10th &11th), we headed up to Washington D.C. on a multipurpose road trip. Chris and I went to the temple on Saturday, but on Friday we boarded the Metro and headed into downtown D.C. for some culture. We have been studying the colonization of America and for our history group projects, decided to study the settlement on New Amsterdam and the Dutch culture. This led Jared to a project on the 16th & 17th century Dutch artists like Rembrandt and Vermeer. So we decided to make a trip to the Gallery of Art while we were in D.C.

Here's Jared in front of a Vermeer (we both agreed that we like Vermeers paintings better than Rembrandt's, but the Rembrandts were bigger and there were more of them).

This is actually a seft portrait of Rembrandt (one of many), Jared liked this one the best.

We were also very lucky to see this painting. It is the only Leonardo DaVinci in the United States at this time.

Here's Jared giving his report on the Dutch artists, (notice he's talking about the same Vermeer that he got his picture in front of).

Here's Clarissa giving her report on tulips and their economic history in Holland, very interesting. At the height of the tulip mania, a bulb actually sold for the equivalent of $10,000!

Krystal did her part by dressing in a traditional Dutch dress.

Well all ya'll, I've gone dun an' dun it!

I am pleased (I think) to announce that I have now reached the pinnacle of my culinary talents. It all began with the burnt toast I made as a teenager in California, later followed by frozen pizzas and burritos. This was honestly the extent of my cooking knowledge when I headed off to BYU to live in a "cooking" dormitory. My roomies will attest to being witness to my many experiments in that small kitchen, most of which included a can of cream of chicken soup and a sandwich maker. I am sad to say that while Chris and I were dating it was HIS homemade whole wheat brownies that wooed me, and not the other way around. After marriage I settled into the housewifely duties of cooking and really felt I'd done it all when I made my first apple pie from scratch (Chris remembers the mess it made in the oven from overflowing!). In Wisconsin, I furthered my endeavors with another type of pie - Pizza. Chris bought me a pizza stone for Christmas one year and I have been making pizzas from scratch every Friday night ever since. Maybe it was the Wisconsin cheese that encouraged that culinary delight, along with a nearly perfect cheese cake (that I have never been able to replicate in other states). In Texas, I was pleased to glean the knowledge from fellow El Pasoans for some ethnic dishes, namely beans and cheese. Even in Virginia, I can still make a mean pot of beans and some Queso that can pack on the pounds. Now that we are in "the South" (I know all my relatives from California believe that I live on the East Coast, but seeming as how I lived closer to salt water in California, Utah, and Texas - I'll stick with Virginia being the South), I have finally succumbed to a true southern delicacy. Yes, you guessed it - Fried Green Tomatoes, and their good! I'm afraid I'll have to stop there because I honestly have no desire to try Fried Possum or Squirrel soup.

Bae-toe-ven?

So, while I was at a meeting last night Chris introduced the kids to yet another "They Might be Giants" song. The one that says "Old New York was once New Amsterdam" because we've been studying America's colonization and specifically New Amsterdam. Anyway, this morning Jared was singing it and Clarissa says, "That's the best song ever!" And Jared replies, "There are other good songs Clarissa, like Jazz, Rock n'Roll, Elvis, and Beethoven." (Yeah, I know, none of those are songs but genres and artists, that partly what makes it so funny.) Clarissa responds, "What's Bae-TOE-Ven, is that about a big toe or something?" (Pause for chuckle) He then proceeds to tell her the whole story of Beethoven including clapping his hands so that she can feel the vibrations. And I say to myself, "Where did he learn about Beethoven, I haven't taught him?" When I ask him he answers, "My piano teacher." Wow! He's learning Piano and Music history, I didn't know that. Good Job Melinda, you're the best!

A lesson in economics or just a little fun?

Chris and I have never done much decorating for Halloween, something about spending money that could be used for food to make our house look creepy just didn't gel. However, this year the kids (mainly Clarissa) have been asking when we are going to decorate like everyone else. She'd been telling all my friends that we hadn't put our decorations up yet (I didn't tell her that we didn't have any). So...we dug around in the basement and came up with a few rubber bats and spiders left over from past trunk 0r treats, some string, an old pillowcase, some rubber stamps and yes, even toilet paper and voila! Our toilet paper spider web, you can't really see it, but there are little spiderlings (plastic rings) crawling on the web. How did I get the toilet paper to stay up you ask...I didn't, two days later our living room looks like a group of teenagers visited during a slumber party. On the bright side, it's kept the cat entertained for hours.

Jared is very proud of his ghost, he wanted it to be the first thing people saw when they came to our house. And everyone helped stamp, cut, color, and glue the sign. On a side note, we thought it would make the house look spookier if we stripped the paint off the door jamb and never painted it. Just kidding, just another home improvement project not yet finished.

Clarissa was so excited to make fall leaves, until I gave her the pattern of an oak leaf to cut out (lots of curves). She made her own leaf shapes and even gave them scary faces.

I made Jared pose for this pic, but he wasn't feeling well, a couple hours later he had a fever. Oh well, in the end it was a fun morning and hopefully the kids will have a happy memory. Me, I'm feeling like a good mom because I didn't give the "buying Halloween decorations would be a waste of money" lecture, thus crushing my children's hopes and dreams AND I didn't have to spend any money or leave the house.