So back to this blog I sort of forgot about...

Well, it's been a little while. :-)

I think I left off around the end of October and Halloween.  And we had a little change-up at that time that is part of the reason I've been blogging less.  Our babysitter, Leah, moved to Boston.  And it's a wonderful move for her and we were happy for her to take that next step, but it greatly changed the routine around here.

This was one of those times when I really wish I had a job that I could easily break from for a short period of time, but medicine doesn't typically work that way.  I ended up switching my work schedule so that I could be off earlier on Thursdays, and added another half day during the week.  And it has been much, much better for us, so I'm thrilled with that part of the change.  The downside is that we have no coverage for sick days or teacher duty days, so I've been taking those days off as needed.  And I'm crossing my fingers that our new hospital employer will let me keep doing so. 

So, back to the pictures!  Leah's last day was Halloween, so we took some pictures when I got home from work.

My ninja and "Red Red Riding Hood" (as Anna called herself):

Anna's costume is McCall's 6187, with some significant bodice-lengthening to make it way less babydollish:

That toy in Anna's basket is a Big Bad Wolf from Ikea that came complete with a little grandmother stuck inside his mouth--which meant I had to introduce the kids to the more violent version of the story (instead of the watered-down version where Grandma gets locked in a closet).  They loved it.

Will wanted to wear his ninja costume from last year, and we were both thrilled that it still fit:

Goodbye hugs:

Not too horribly sad, though, cause she's got a few trips back to Florida planned for some wedding shoots.

Since John and I both worked pretty late, we decided to do a quick trick-or-treat stroll around the neighborhood and skip the school festival.  When we arrived back home, we parents were delighted to discover the kids were perfectly capable of handing out the candy...and we left them to it:

Next up....November in one post, I think.  Or maybe we will skip to Anna's ear piercing saga.  Stay tuned...

Celebrating Epiphany

I thought it would be fun to do an Epiphany celebration this year with the kids, just to bookend the Christmas season and bring the focus back around to Christ once Santa was long gone.  I found the house blessing tradition via Google, and loved the idea.  (At the time, based on the mutiny of our appliances in the week after Christmas, I thought an exorcism might be more in order.  All is fixed now, though!)

We started by chalking the door; I couldn't reach above the door, so I just chalked the top of the door and the kids did the stoop.  (John was working nights that week, so we didn't have our tallest family member!)

2014 for the year, with the wise men's initials in between.

Then Will read Matthew 2:1-12 and we prayed using the following prayer that I borrowed from one church's website:

May all who come to our home this year rejoice to find Christ living among us.

May we be blessed with health, goodness of heart, gentleness, and faithfulness to your will.

And may we seek and serve that same Jesus who is your incarnate Word, now and forever.

I was going to buy a King's Cake from Publix, but conveniently the cooking school we attended in Paris emailed me a recipe for Galette des Rois, the French version of a king cake.  So I made that instead, and Will made a crown to top it.  We didn't have a baby for the "feve" so we substituted one of Anna's Hello Kitty minifigurines.  And Will found her!

Here's the recipe--the measurements are weight based, so you'll need a kitchen scale.  Speaking of which, I finally got one!  So fun.  It was only $20 at Walmart and I'm all excited to use it to weigh my leftover yarn skeins, too.  If you don't have a scale, David Lebovitz has a recipe with volume measurements (it's a different recipe, but the resulting cake looks similar to mine, just prettier!).

Galette des Rois

1 package puff pastry sheets (or grab 2 packages--this recipe makes enough filling for two cakes)

Almond Cream ingredients:

110 g sugar

110 g butter

2 eggs

110 g ground almonds

20 g flour

Rum (amount not specified--I used about 2 tsp)

Pastry Cream ingredients:

250 g milk

1 egg

25 g cornstarch

60 g sugar

Vanilla bean, seeds scraped (I used vanilla bean paste; you could substitue 2-3 tsp vanilla extract)

1. Start with the Pastry Cream:  Bring the milk and vanilla to a boil.  In a separate bowl, beat the egg with the sugar until the mixture is pale and thick, then stir in the cornstarch.  Pour a third of the hot milk mixture into the egg mixture, whisk, then pour that mixture back into the saucepan.  Stir continuously over the heat until the mixture thickens and boils for one minute (mine thickened considerably, so I pulled it off the heat before it boiled--you should have a thick pudding).  Pour into a large bowl to cool.

2. Then prepare the Almond Cream:  Cream butter and sugar, then add eggs one at a time until combined.  Add ground almond and flour, mix well, then add rum.

3. Mix the pastry cream and almond cream together.  Transfer the mixture to a pastry bag for easier piping (optional).

4.  Roll out both puff pastry sheets.  Cut a circle slightly larger in diameter than a 9 inch pie plate from one sheet of puff pastry (to be the bottom), and another circle equal to 9 inches in diameter for the top.

5.  Pipe half of the frangipane mixture into the center of the bottom pastry circle.  (Use the other half for a second cake, or you can bake it up with figs or plums.)

6. Top with the other circle of puff pastry and crimp the edges to close.  Using a knife, make a decorative design on the top without poking through to the filling, then brush with beaten egg.

7.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes, or until puffed and golden.

It's easier than it sounds, and make a sweet and delicious pastry.  It was yummy the next morning with coffee, too.

So that's how we celebrated Epiphany!

Palm Sunday, Easter Sunday, and a Big Anniversary

Palm Sunday was a hectic day for us this year.  John was working and I was on call, but I did manage to get the kids to church early so they could carry in the palms.

Anna-bug:

Will, taking his responsibility seriously:

After church, we hurried to the hospital.  I left the kids in the reading room with John, then ran upstairs to do hospital rounds on my patients.  Then I retrieved the kids from John, and we hurried back to church for the Easter egg hunts.  We missed the hunt for Anna's age group, so she had to hop in with Will's group:

The kids were told to grab no more than 20 eggs, so that there would be enough for everyone.  Anna took that to mean that she needed to get 20 eggs...

...but she only found about eight...

...which resulted in a few tears.  Luckily, big brother came to the rescue and offered to share.

A few craft projects cheered her up, too:

Then we went home--the kids napped and I just laid on the couch for awhile.  John and I only have call weekends that coincide a few times a year, but they really exhaust me!

We spend Easter weekend in Blountstown with Nana and Papa.  After checking out their goodies from the Easter Bunny, Will and Anna hunted for eggs in the backyard.

Those eggs were well-hidden!

After that, we went to church.  The kids had a fun time in children's church, and looooved playing on the playground after church.  I have so many memories of playing on this playground, and it was fun watching them enjoy that same merry-go-round and slide:

Faster, Papa!

Family photos on the porch--and yes, we totally wore the same outfits on Palm Sunday and Easter.  I thought no one would notice since we celebrated in two different cities, but I forgot I would blog both weekends!

We left Will and Anna with Nana and Papa for the week (it was Will's spring break), and John and I headed east for a few days to celebrate a milestone.

Ten years ago, we were doing this:

Wow, I think that Instagram filter makes it look like we got married about 20 years ago!  But it's only 10 so far. :-)

To celebrate, John surprised me with two nights at the Ritz-Carlton on Amelia Island.  It was fabulous!!

We spent most of our time hanging out by the pool and beach, and ate dinner both nights at the hotel.  I'm usually skeptical of hotel restaurants, but the meal we had at Salt was one of the most fantastic meals I've ever eaten.  They also treated us royally, and brought a little decorated "Happy Anniversary" plate with dessert.  We loved the resort and they have a nice kids' splash pool and playground area (and seemed very family-friendly in general), so I think we'll keep an eye out for special deals and bring the kids back sometime.

On our last day, we left the resort to explore Fort Clinch State Park, and then went to Fernandina Beach for a delicious lunch at 29 South.

Then we headed back home (somebody--me!--had to work).  It was a wonderful trip, though, and a perfect way to celebrate ten years of (mostly!) blissful marriage. :-)

The rest of October, all in one post!

 October began with my 35th birthday and a really yummy Whoppers cheesecake:

I was really dreading this birthday, mostly because, burned into my brain, is the lecture in medical school where they told us that the risk for birth defects starts increasing more significantly after 35.  I can remember trading glances with all the girls in my row--I know we were all feeling like we were still going to be stuck in that lecture hall at age 35, and really didn't need any more reminders about our biological clocks!!  Anyway, I sort of had that deadline in my head--despite the fact that I take care of plenty of healthy babies born to mothers over 35--and I'd been struggling with the idea that our family is complete and thought I'd spend the birthday in tears.  But I didn't!! And 35 hasn't been bad so far at all. :-)

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The following weekend, John and I headed to Gainesville to watch the UF-LSU game:

Heeeeere come the Gators!!

Our offense really struggled during the first half.  But I spied this rainbow and decided to take it as a sign that we might still have a chance (mostly because it was behind the LSU fans so they couldn't see it!)...

...and we won!

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The next weekend, we went to the fair at Port Orange Family Days:

Anna won a trumpet.  Luckily, it didn't work very well:

And, after much begging, Will and I rode the ferris wheel.  Those fair rides look so rickety, so I was pretty much scared to death during the entire ride, but got so tickled when Anna kept calling it a "steering wheel."

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The next weekend, we went back to Gainesville for John's ten-year medical school class reunion.

The kids (and Alexiya) enjoyed all the food:

The barbecue was so nice this year, with snow cones, popcorn, face painting, and caricatures.  John and Will posed for a picture:

And Anna got her face painted:

Fierce girl!

John went to the game with his buddies, while the kids and I headed to Blountstown to visit my family. We stopped by Grandmama and Granddaddy's house to give them a preview of Halloween:

Grandmama, Granddaddy, a great white shark, and a little hammerhead:

I love stopping for lunch in Gainesville on our trips to and from B-town.  This time, I took the kids to Maui Teriyaki.  Rachel and I used to walk there often for dinner (especially while we were living in Mallory Hall), but it's been years and years since I had a chicken bowl.  I thought it was time to remedy that.

The old one was knocked down, so we went to the new location on SW 34th St.  Anna was ho-hum on her meal, but Will loved it.  He's pretty decent with the chopsticks, too:

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For the last weekend in October, I flew up to DC to stay with Missy.  We had some plans:

Yep, we took on the Marine Corps Marathon, the first marathon for both of us.

Before the race:

We were tired at the end, so I forgot to take pictures.  It was a really, really fun race and, despite the Frankenstorm (Hurricane Sandy) bearing down on us, we had pretty decent weather.

The weather turned much fouler overnight, so Missy and I spent most of the rest of my visit holed up in her apartment knitting, which was perfectly fine by me. :-)

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I arrived home in time for Halloween.  We dressed the kids up and took them to the Fall Festival at their school.

This picture cracks me up--that evening sun was brutal:

They played lots of games and won a few prizes:

And, of course, there were lots of bounce houses.

My flying sharks:

Then we did some trick-or-treating until Anna announced, "I so tired!"

And that wraps up October!