The Kitchen News

Making whoopie (pies)

2012-02-01T11:05:00.000-05:00

If you're from Maine (or, I guess, Pennsylvania - the other state that tries to claim these little treats) you're familiar with whoopie pies. Also, if you're related to me and live west of the Mississippi you might know what they are, owing to the over 100 whoopie pies that I made and sent out for Christmas this year.

Yeah. That's a lot of whoopie pies.

Anyhoo, I've promised this recipe for some time now, so here goes.

Cake (Pies)
(Cathy Roberts' recipe, from Rockland Branch Relief Society Cookbook)

beat together:
1/2 cup Crisco (I use 1/2 butter, 1/2 Crisco)
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs

add:
1/2 cup hot water
1/2 cup soured milk (or buttermilk)

mix and add:
1/2 cup cocoa
2 3/4 cup flour
1/3 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda

Scoop even blobs onto parchment-lined lined baking sheet (or greased sheet or use a silicone baking mat). Bake at 350 degree for 12-15 minutes or until center springs back when lightly touched. Don't overbake.

Filling
Two options: the first one is more traditional, I think, but not my favorite:

Option #1
4 tablespoons flour
1 cup milk
Cook/boil until very thick, stirring constantly. Refrigerate to cool.

Beat together:
1 stick butter
4 tablespoons Crisco
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Add to cooled cooked "goop" and beat well for 1-2 minutes or more. It's done when it is fluffy and you can't feel the granulated sugar.

Option #2 (My favorite)
1 lb Fluff (marshmallow cream)
1 lb butter
2 cups powdered sugar
vanilla to taste (1-2 tsp)
Beat together until fluffy.

Unbutton your jeans and enjoy!

Way old stuff

2012-01-27T16:09:00.000-05:00

Ok. Stuff I meant to blog last summer and never did, coming right up!

We made this little gate thingy for our driveway to remind our kids not to get too close to the road. It's not actually a fence, obviously, but it works pretty well. They just need to be reminded of the limits.

It also works as a deterrent to people driving in the driveway while the kids are playing. They can park on the road and then nobody (mama) gets nervous.

The kids loooove getting the mail and our mailman, Jimbo, is their favorite guy.

And now, a few things I made...

A quilt for my Annie baby.

A Fourth of July birthday cake for Curtis (at Tommy and Laurie's annual 4th of July bash). This was three days before Annie was born and yes, I did drink that whole case of Bud. Mmmmm.

Do yourself a favor...

2012-01-27T13:08:00.000-05:00

...and make this pie.

It's basically a fresh blueberry pie with a little cooked berry yumminess to keep it all together.

2 pints blueberries
2 tablespoons cornstarch
3/4 cup sugar (can adjust if berries are too sour or sweet)
1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 baked pie crust

Boil 1 1/2 cups blueberries with water for 1-2 minutes. Combine dry ingredients and add to cooked berries. Boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat and add lemon juice. Pour over the rest of the berries in the baked pie crust. Let cool in fridge until firm enough to slice. Garnish with whipped cream.

If the berries aren't sweet enough and you need to add more sugar, add a little more cornstarch.

I thought this pie was DELISH and we enjoyed it for my birthday.

Vivian made me a little paper flower clip for my birthday.

Yep. I'm 37 now. Whatever. Sometimes I despair when I look in the mirror and see what's going on with my eyelids or my crow's feet, and sometimes I look and think "Hey. Not bad."

On the good days I come away from the mirror and go find Curtis and have him tell me I'm still cute.

On the bed days, I just blame it on the lighting. We need better lighting in that bathroom, that's all. I'm not really getting old. Nope.

Heh.

Birthday tulips from Curtis and the kids. Aww.

I made a little Valentines Day banner for the fireplace. I think it came out pretty sweet.

Morning! (and other stuff)

2012-01-24T10:24:00.001-05:00

Morning, everyone!

What happens when I don't get the recycling out for three weeks.

I made roasted butternut squash soup the other night.

I sauteed apples and onions, then cooked everything for a while in some chicken stock.

My stick/immersion blender! I LOVE my stick blender! It's the way to go. None of that transferring hot soup to a blender, pureeing in batches and making a big old mess.

Unfortunately, the resulting soup was just ok. Curtis liked it, and (most of) the kids could be convinced to eat it, but I don't think it'll be in regular rotation.

In other exciting news, Vivian, Kathryn and Curtis hit the slopes for the first time this season. It was Viv's first time ever on skis and she was excited! Curtis is not convinced, after observing her first lesson, that she is a natural, but she came home just as enthused as when she left. So that's something. Fingers crossed on that one.

Move over, Katie Couric

2012-01-19T13:54:00.001-05:00

This could be the start of something big. I can see us now, in our fine evening wear, beaming proudly as our daughter accepts her first Emmy for broadcast journalism and we think back to this day, the day it all began...

Vivian read her own version of the MLK "I Have a Dream" speech to the whole school today during morning announcements.

Here, you can see it for yourself:

(Fair warning: this will likely only be interesting for grandmas and aunties.)

Wow, was she excited. Almost as excited as her sweet teacher, Mrs. D. The whole office staff was pretty excited for her, actually. You can hear the applause at the end and then the principal came out and gave her a big hug and said she started tearing up when she heard Vivian's speech. Aww. (Viv also got an impressive round of applause from a third-grade class as she walked back to her classroom. CUTE.)

In case you couldn't hear Viv speaking (it's kind of quiet), here's the speech.

I have a dream that one day my family will have a room finished so Annie will have a room.

I have a dream that one day my school will get right down to work.

I have a dream that my world will never fight.

With the exception of dream #3, not exactly the lofty goals that Dr. King had, but still. Not too bad for a kindergartener.

Curtis kept shaking his head at the "I have a dream that one day my family will have a room finished so Annie will have a room" line.

He said "It sounds like I'm some lazy guy who's not doing anything, or like we don't have any rooms finished at all!"

I reassured him that I was pretty sure people wouldn't think that at all. Pretty sure.

We took a few minutes to visit Kathryn's classroom as well, and it turned into an impromptu show-and-tell with Annie.

Such an excellent big sister.

I'm early! (for once...)

2012-01-16T23:07:00.001-05:00

Of all my many flaws, one of the ones that I dislike most (and one I am working to overcome) is my propensity to procrastinate. I always think I have more time to get things done than I really do, and then I end up scrambling or staying up all night before a deadline/trip/holiday/party trying to get it all done.

Two things have been working for me as I try to free myself of the stress that procrastination brings:

1) DO LESS STUFF. Not everything has to be homemade or the cutest or perfectly organized or whatever. I'm trying to let go of some of my self-imposed expectations and you know what? It's really working out for me. Sleep is my friend. Stress is not.

2) The stuff I need (or choose) to do - try and do it earlier. That sounds so simple but it's been like a revelation to me. I've learned that I can't get much done in the a.m. before the girls head to school, so I have to pack lunches/snacks/backpacks etc. the night before. Same goes for getting their clothes ready. They MUST be laid out the night before. Every night. Every article of clothing. No exceptions. Otherwise, the morning just doesn't work.

So, in that spirit, I found myself with a little free(ish) time yesterday and thought we'd get a jump on making Valentines cards. I'd never made potato stamps before and was always interested in giving it a try and they were so fun and easy to make, I'm hooked! Now I'm imagining all the possibilities...We can stamp our own birthday cards! Christmas wrapping paper! Halloween decorations!

And then I have to tell myself to dial it back because I can't do it all and keep my head from popping off at the same time.

But aaaaanyway, we DID make the Valentines cards and we had so much fun!

The potato was a bit dried out by the time I got around to taking a photo, but you get the idea. You can cut your own shape or use a cookie cutter like this. It really worked well. I just pressed the cutter in, used a paring knife to trim off about a 1/4 inch slice, then pulled the cutter out. One tip - when you cut your potato in half, try to get as clean a cut as possible so your stamp will have a flat surface.

Then we just pressed them into ink pads and stamped away! I hear paint (poster paint/kids art paint) works really well too, but I haven't tried that yet.

I printed out these super-simple cards onto cardstock, four to a page and then cut with a little paper cutter.

Cheap, easy prep, easy clean up. That's what I'm talking about.

Happy Valentines Day a month early!

p.s. "That's what I'm talking about" - Viv's new favorite phrase. ????

Good and sad, all at once

2012-01-16T10:46:00.000-05:00

People die all the time, especially people who are grandparents. It just seems like they do. I'm not a fan of this trend. My grandfather died two Septembers ago and I'm still not particularly happy about it.

But the sadness is significantly lessened when the person who passes on was totally ready to go - unafraid, perhaps even a little eager for the next phase of their existence. Such was the case with the passing of Curtis's sweet/funny/fiesty/witty/sharp Grandma Helen Wells. She died two weeks ago in Salt Lake City.

It was expected by all, even by her. I had heard her cheerfully say more than once that she was "ready for Lewis to come get me!" (Her husband, Lewis, died in 2004.) So, it was with sadness tempered with okay-ness (does that make sense?) that Curtis, Annie and I traveled out to Utah for Grandma Wells' funeral.

I wish I had the wisdom to take more photos, but sometimes I get caught up in experiencing the moment and forget that I even have a camera. Even still, I did get a few family memories on (digital) film.

Annie with Grandpa Rice (Jim). He spent quite a bit of time holding her and they both seemed to like the arrangement just fine.

After the viewing on Sunday night, some of Grandma Wells' good-for-nothing grandsons came back to her house and played cards until the wee hours. Sure, they look respectable (would you believe there are two lawyers, a financial planner and a dentist in this photo?), but guess what happens when you lose at Hearts in the Wells family?

Yep, you have to stick your head in the toilet and flush (or do something equally awful). It's called a Swirley and it's a proud tradition. Note the younger generation, watching and learning how to be a Wells Man.

And everybody watches and takes pictures (it was a veritable stampede down to the basement bathroom). I used to think they took pictures to taunt the loser, to shame him, but I quickly learned that no, it's just because they think it's so funny. (Curtis has a photo album full of his cousins' similar shame.) The wives/girlfriends just shake their heads. But we can't judge each other because we all chose these men.

Oh yes. That's my fine husband, coming out of the bathroom, head wet. For the record, he washed his hair before we ever left Grandma's house. Also, for the record, Curtis was not the only loser - his cousin Bret (the other guy stripped down to his t-shirt) lost the first round. And also ALSO, for the record, Curtis wants me to point out that they cleaned the toilet first. They're not completely uncivilized.

(For those who are wondering how these guys could play cards the night before their grandma was to be buried, don't worry. Grandma Wells knew her grandsons pretty well. I'm pretty sure she would have been happy to see them all showing their love for each other in their own, twisted way.)

After the funeral on Monday, the Rice family wanted to spend a little more time together before Karen and Michaela had to fly back to LA, so we all went out for ice cream. Check out Conner and his enormous vanilla ice cream! That kid is so Norman Rockwell-esque. So cute.

Curtis and his sister Karen.

Grandma Rice, McKenna, Marc.

Tiny Kamryn ate a huuuuge strawberry shake all by herself. It was actually quite impressive.

Cousins! Annie, Kylie, Michaela.

Kylie spent every second she could with Annie. I LOVE this shot!

We don't see these people often enough!

Sisters-in-law Karen, me, Stephanie.

I even got to spend a precious few hours with Gwen and her family. What a great bunch of kids!

Even though Grandma Wells is no longer here with us, I feel certain she's in a wonderful place with people she loves. Until we see her again, we'll remember her like this:

telling it like it is. xoxo Grandma Wells. You were a great lady.

Furthermore...

2012-01-15T23:24:00.001-05:00

...we had a little holiday called Christmas, too. We usually go to my parents' house a few days before Christmas and stay through the big day. Some people have said to me that they could not imagine packing up all the presents and stockings and necessary clothes, food, etc., to spend the holiday there but I tell you, I couldn't imagine not doing it. Knowing that so much of my family was all hanging out at my parents', playing Speed Scrabble and overeating, while we were less than two hours away would be just too sad. I love my family!

So, we did what we usually do and arrived the day before the annual Christmas party, in just enough time to hang out, make some cookies with some super aunties.

Then there was the Christmas party, with its usual cast of characters:

On Christmas Eve, we did hors d'ouevres (and baked mac & cheese) for dinner. It's become a tradition and it's so fun! Lots of tasty little bites, easier to prepare than a whole meal and when you light candles, it feels fancy (even with little kids and paper plates).

Christmas morning...is there anything cuter than a two-year-old coming down the stairs with her uncle? I think not.

Stockings!!!

Assad showing off the throw that all the kids got for Christmas from Mom and Dad. (Mom also made everyone a photo calender, which is awesome!)

The Rice kids all got sleeping bags for Christmas from Grandma and Grandpa Rice, which they LOVED. Such a hit!

The rest of the day was spent doing things like this...

...and getting into snow gear...

...to go outside...

...and check out the bonfire over at Jesse and Sherry's.

(And there was a tractor. There's always a tractor these days. Those guys always find a reason.)

For the record...

2012-01-15T22:05:00.006-05:00

Oh my. Nearly four months since I last posted.

That's all I have to say about that.

So. In the spirit of documentation, here is a most perfunctory blog post about Halloween.

We came.

We costumed.

We ate candy.

The End.

Besties

2011-09-27T16:06:00.009-04:00

Yep, Viv got one too. I guess that's what happens in kindergarten - little girls get bestest friends, BFFs, besties. A real live best friend. She's pretty happy about it.

They went to Ricker Hill Orchard in Turner for the kindergarten field trip - lots of goat-feeding, cider-making, hay bale-maz-ing, slingshot-ing, apple-picking fun. Curtis got to go (again! lucky duck! I've got this baby at home I have to feed...) and took lots of fun pictures.

Viv with Mrs. D., who is "the best teacher ever!"

It's shaping up to be a pretty good year!

Here we go again

2011-08-31T08:43:00.004-04:00

I was going to start with the cliche about how the summer flew by and how I can't believe school is starting again already, but really, I barely remember what it was like to have a kiddo in school and to be on some sort of a daily schedule. To be honest, I barely remember much these days, what with the littlest one being in charge of how much sleep I get and all.

It does seem like we've packed a lot into this summer, actually. A baby, a wedding, family visits, lots of beach time (for the kids and Curtis), lots of being too hot while holding a teeny baby and being SO GLAD the bedroom had air conditioning. But, of course, the start of school eventually arrives and we get ready for a new normal.

#1 new normal thing? Breakfast early in the morning, rather than at 8:45 or 9 a.m. when we finally get downstairs and get going (seriously, Betty slept in until 8 or 8:30 almost every morning this summer).

Couple the new breakfast time with the girls' excitement and very little breakfast got eaten this morning, despite our admonitions and warnings about being hungry at school. Viv claimed first that she didn't want to eat so she could save room for her turkey and cheese I packed for lunch. Then she said her tummy was starting to hurt, so I let it go. She had a few bites of yogurt and blueberries and a mini muffin. Good enough.

Funny thing: Vivian didn't realize until YESTERDAY that she was starting school today. We'd been talking about the start of school for weeks and weeks, but she somehow thought that she wouldn't actually go to school until she had her fifth birthday, which isn't until September 21. You should have seen the look on her face when she realized that she would be going to school THE VERY NEXT DAY. Woah.

The official First Day of School shots. Cute. Thanks for the shirts, Nain.

The girls at the schoolyard. Viv looks rather trepidatious here, but when I asked Curtis about it, he said he had told her to look sad for the photo, just goofing around. Pretty convincing, huh?

I think this is a more accurate representation of how they were feeling.

Kathryn being an awesome big sister.

Curtis said she kept her arm around Viv for about five minutes as they walked through the schoolyard, even as they were joined by Kathryn's friends from last year.

Eventually a teacher came and brought Viv over to where the kindergarteners were gathering, and she was without her big sister for the first time.

I think she's in good hands...

...and she marched on in.

Venturing out

2011-08-27T18:51:00.012-04:00

So, I it turns out I can only spend so many weeks sitting on the couch "recovering" before I have to get out and do something. I did spend a lot of time sitting around after Annie was born, waiting to heal and actually feel better. This was the toughest recovery of them all. Maybe it had something to do with it being my fifth c-section in six years. Bleh.

ANYWAY, I finally did start feeling well enough to venture out, and one of the first outings was to meet my parents (Nain and Taid) and my sister-in-law Sherry and nieces and nephews Iris, Isaac, Xander and Kaylee at a park in Augusta.

It's a great park! The playground is big and fun and it's on the Kennebec River, yet not so close that I was worried about the kids accidentally falling in or anything. Fun side note - the girl Kathryn, Viv and Iris were making friends with in the above photo turned out to be my friend Dinah's niece!

Nain photographing Betty.

Kaylee was Betty's shadow all day. It was great - I didn't have to worry about her at all!

Homeless guy in the park.

Oh no, wait - that's Taid. He makes a great pillow.

This looks like an ad for a TV show, When First Graders Go Bad or Tuff Girls or something like that.

For the record, Annie was there.

The kids all had new school shirts from Nain and Taid and they all changed into them at the park for the photos.

After a good long time at the park, including a picnic lunch, we went to the Maine State Museum. It was really great!

Old trains...

old saws...

tons of taxidermy...

I mean tons. The kids LOVED it.

Dad had a great time looking at the gems. There's some really pretty stuff there!

The whole crew at the end of a tiring day. So much fun!

Mess of the Week

2011-08-19T18:06:00.002-04:00

It appears at this stage of the game that I am unable to keep my house clean AND blog AND make homemade food all in one day.

Trust me, it's worse than it looks. The 360 view isn't pretty.

So, we had a baby...

2011-08-19T11:59:00.008-04:00

...this little bundle. Ann Steele Rice, born July 7 at 12:11 p.m., weighing 6 pounds, 12 ounces.

She was our littlest baby, but as she was born about 10 days early via scheduled c-section (NOT my preferred way to have babies, but it turns out that's how I roll), it makes sense.

This is Annie at five and a half weeks, sleeping soundly, tucked in my arms.

This is us, six weeks ago at the WONDERFUL Rumford Hospital (I love their maternity unit - the doctors and NURSES are the best!).
But let's back up about 20 or so hours. The night before Annie was scheduled to be born, Owen and Marci were married in Rockport, about two hours away from Rumford. Hmm. How very convenient for us! But, the doctors were pretty insistent that July 7 was the day to have the baby, for a number of reasons I won't go into here. It did make sense, really. So, we partied down at the wedding for a few hours (I say "partied down" but let's remember I was nearly nine months pregnant and we had our other four children with us, so "partying" is used loosely here) and then headed back to my parents' house for some sleep. The wedding was so lovely and we were SO glad that it all worked out to attend!

Thursday morning, bright and early, Curtis and I drove to Rumford Hospital to finally welcome our last little baby.

One of the good things about having Annie the day after the wedding was that all the family was in town, so everyone got to see the little moppet before heading back to their various homes in New York City, Vermont, Utah or Oklahoma.

Dear Aunt Mary!

Loving this new baby HARD!

And loving mom a bit, too.

Aunt Gwennie!

Rice kids running wild in the hospital...the hospital staff was so wonderful to us, even when our kids ate every available snack and drank every orange juice they could find! (Too bad we're not going to be giving them any more business in the baby department...Annie is officially our caboose.)
I do believe I must have been on a lot of pain pills to allow Betty anywhere near my stomach at this point - !!!!!!!!!

Speaking of that Betty, oh BOY does she love her sister! Sometimes a little too much...

The three weeks following Annie's birth were a bit of a blur for me. I was having a tough time recovering but thank heaven for Curtis's mom, Lorna, and our niece, Michaela, who came out from California for three weeks to help! I have to find some pictures of them and post them next - I wasn't taking many pictures during that time (shame on me!) and don't know if there are any floating around on my computer here.

But I do know the kids had LOTS of fun with Grandma and Michaela here, and also with their cousin Kaylee, who came for a few days.

We (along with most of the rest of the country) had some HOT weather. The sprinkler was much loved.

We also had a new picnic table to enjoy. Curtis finished it so it's not splinter-y and we've had some lovely meals on it!

So, that's the update - xoxo to all!

Real men...

2011-06-29T12:57:00.002-04:00

...paint their granddaughters' toenails.

(Apparently I was too busy to paint their toenails but not too busy to whip out the camera when Taid responded to the request.)

Dad was here for his birthday so I made him birthday waffles (and sausage and strawberries) for breakfast and stuck a candle in them so we could sing happy birthday to him.

My kids love this guy.

Sixth birthday, extended version

2011-06-28T21:17:00.008-04:00

Since my last two posts were picture-free and sort of boring (who cares what I got cleaned last week? well, I do, but that's beside the point...) I'm going craaaazy with the photos today.

Kathryn turned six on Monday (!!!) but we had her birthday party a few weeks before, on the 11th. There were just too many things going on the following weekends and we wanted to make sure her party didn't get squeezed out. She wanted a mermaid theme (she specified that she did NOT want "The Little Mermaid" Disney movie, just "regular mermaids") so I made a mermaid cake. Apparently, this mermaid went spray tanning before posing for this cake. That's the only good explanation I can come up with for the orange skin.

We had big plans for outdoor water fun (sprinklers, kiddie pool) but since Mother Nature decided to have some outdoor water fun of her own in the form of rain, we kept it all inside. The kids didn't seem to care. They just ran around like crazy people. Kids are good at that.

We had a pinata, too, which was fun, although I was a bit annoyed at having to purchase a Tinkerbell one. The only other choices at our fine Wal-Mart (Wal-Mart! curse you and your convenient proximity to my home!) were Disney Princesses (barf) and Sponge Bob (double barf). Oh, and Spiderman. I phoned Kathryn from Wal-Mart and consulted with her and Tinkerbell was deemed acceptable. If I was a good mom (and it wasn't the night before the party), I would have made a homemade one. Oh well.

Opening presents. The kids had all gotten into the dress-up box, which explains the Davey Crockett hat and the lei.

Poor Dex. He got bonked on the head by falling candy and Matchbox cars when the pinata opened up.

Blowing out candles.

On Kathryn's ACTUAL birthday, Monday, June 27, she woke up at 5 a.m. and bounced into bed, declaring herself the birthday girl. I declared her insane and told her to go back to bed for a few hours. TOO EARLY.

Later that day, at a reasonable hour, we went out to lunch and then to Wal-Mart to buy her a promised bike and helmet. Pink. Barbie. Whoah.

(Just a cute photo of Viv in a dress Kathryn got for her 5th birthday.)

Monday evening we had Kathryn's best friend Paige and her mom and brother over for cupcakes. Betty surely had fun eating hers.

I let the kids pick out a bunch of sprinkles to put on their cupcakes.

They loaded them up!

My kids cannot understand how I can eat a cupcake without sprinkles. I cannot understand how they can eat so MANY sprinkles on one cupcake.

Curtis got out our new bubble machine and the kids were over-the-moon ecstatic with the sheer number of bubbles spewing out of the little machine.

Then Curtis started blowing big bubbles, too, the old fashioned way and they were in heaven.

Boring post

2011-06-21T15:11:00.004-04:00

Hey! Another boring post with no pictures of cute kids. Whatever. It's my blog, I'll be boring if I feel like it.

The Nesting Project is going well here at Casa de Rice. So far I have:

sorted/culled/organized the kids' art supplies (a bigger job than you might think)

organized puzzles

cleaned out the plastic wrap/tin foil/plastic bag drawer (and apparently I was anticipating the apocalypse when plastic bags, etc., would be hard to get because I had a LOT of stuff in there)

cleaned out the fridge

cleaned off the top of the fridge (yuuuuck)

sewed a button on a bag, a task I have been putting off for a month

sorted through bibs, washcloths and dishtowels, saving only the ones that weren't shockingly stained or frayed

deep-cleaned Betty's high chair

sorted through lots of toys

repaired a beloved children's book

cleaned out my purse

sorted through various small piles of "stuff," the kind of piles that grow because I'm not sure if this screw actually goes to something important or if this battery is still good or because I always intend to superglue that toy horsie's leg back on...

I feel like I should be getting more done, but as it turns out, my back does not feel the same way. It, apparently, is of the opinion that I should be sitting down. So I'm doing some of that, too, but not for long. I have a carpet to shampoo and a closet to clean!

Focus

2011-06-20T10:12:00.002-04:00

My mom and sisters-in-law Tami and Sherry are doing me an enormous service this week and have taken my children for THREE WHOLE DAYS while I get this house ready for Baby Annie to arrive in about two weeks. It's an unbelievable luxury - three days to clean the fridge, sort baby clothes, shampoo the rug - all without any interruption or having to think about what to make for everyone for dinner.

Day One has started without much oomph. So far I have slept until nearly 8 a.m.(!), showered, wandered around looking into rooms and thinking about what I should be doing, read a few articles in a New Yorker magazine swiped from my parents' house, ate a leisurely breakfast, checked my email and am now doing this blog post. Not exactly the crack of dawn closest cleaning frenzy I was gearing up for.

But I just got off the phone with my mother who was trying to distract two-year-old Betty who was crying that she missed her mommy while the rest of my kids and their cousins pounded on the piano downstairs, oblivious to my mom's shouted admonitions to not pound on the piano it is not a toy!!

So...I'm off to motivate so that their sacrifice isn't for naught.

Aaaaaand GO!

Teepee (or tipi?)

2011-06-16T22:29:00.004-04:00

Is there a proper way to spell that word? Is one more PC than the other? Am I supposed to be calling it something else entirely or not making one of these Native American-Inspired Tent Structures at all because of my extreme European heritage? I don't know. But anyway, I made one for the kids. And we call it a teepee (tipi?)

Curtis's Grandma Clayton (who Vivian was named after) made his family one back in the late 70s or early 80s and he loved it muchly. It still survives, all these years later, and I saw it in person a few years ago out in California when we were visiting for Christmas. Curtis's mom pulled it out of the closet for the grandkids and I thought it was pretty darned cool. So, FINALLY, I got around to making one for the kids. Curtis and I both thought the tradition needed carrying on.

We bought the fabric and PVC pipe late last summer but then I never actually made it. I think I was intimidated. I had no pattern and only a vague idea of how to put it together. But during April vacation (I think?) I brought all the stuff up to my parents' house and over a few days my sister-in-law Sherry and I worked on it and finally got it done! Sherry is a genius and I'm sure it would not have come out nearly as well if she hadn't been in on the project. She has a very "can do" attitude that is SO handy.

We traced the hands of all the available cousins (there are, obviously, quite a few missing) on fabric of each kid's choosing and then I stitched the cutouts on the tent. Here Dexter points out his blue handprint. We even put a little handprint on for Annie, though she isn't with us quite yet. (That was Curtis's idea...I know, awwww).

It provides welcome shade from the sun (Viv was in there reading books with Betty for a long time today!) and a place to have a clubhouse or eat a sandwich.

We can actually fit quite a few people in there!

I think it sort of adds to the ambiance of the yard.

Check out Curtis kicking the ball there! It's the kids' current favorite thing - seeing how high Daddy can kick the ball. Sometimes he even gets it on the roof and they all think that is amaaaaazing!

Speaking of the yard, it's coming along. We still have a lot to do and a lot to learn about gardening, but it's a start.

Pizza parlor in my kitchen

2011-06-15T18:41:00.005-04:00

My friend Lynn and I had been talking about doing a "make your own pizza" night for our kids for a long time...like, months. So, finally we waited until it was about 85 degrees out with 1000% humidity and thought "THIS! This is the time to fire up the oven to 450 degrees!!"

Well, really, we both reconsidered the wisdom of the date we chose when we saw the weather forecast, but decided to do it anyway. The kids were so excited and we had been trying to do it for.e.ver, so we just went with it.

The first order of business was to give Cranky Betty her own piece if dough to mess with. Genius. I think she ate it all raw, but didn't seem the worse for it.

We poured some olive oil onto baking sheets and let the kids (attempt) to pat out their own dough. They actually did pretty well but needed a bit of help.

Then, sauce, cheese and toppings.

Dexter even tried putting something other than pepperoni on his. I was amazed, but then he picked off the green peppers and mushrooms before we put it in the oven. Typical.

Kathryn was inspired by her pal Jack to put on toppings in the shape of a clown face. Turns out she didn't like the green peppers but loved the mushrooms.

Jack with the extremely cheesy finished product.

We had lots of fun, the kids loved the pizza and I think we'll have to do it again. Maybe in the fall...or winter, when a hot oven sounds like a better idea.

Red, white and blue

2011-06-14T22:48:00.005-04:00

I can't help myself. I theme-dress my kids whenever I get the chance (and if I'm not too tired on that particular day). So, of course, this applies to Memorial Day.

LOVE this dress! I have a great photo of Vivian wearing this dress a few years ago at the Rumford Memorial Day parade (the same parade shown here). Betty was quite happy about the parade, her dress and especially having a flag to wave.

Viv looks rather grumpy but was actually in a fine mood. She was just refusing to cooperate with the photographer at this moment.

The parade was a mix of fire trucks (and other emergency vehicles), veterans, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, one high school band, one senator (Snowe) and exactly two floats. Impressive as always.

Oh, and some candy, smashed to bits when it hit the pavement.

Still, we had fun and went out for breakfast after. We probably should have stuck around for the end of the parade when they dedicated a memorial to a local soldier, Buddy McLaine, who was killed recently in Afghanistan. But the kids were hot and hungry and I'm all pregnant, etc., so.... We did make a point of talking to the kids several times about what Memorial Day is all about.

Look at this. The kids love their dad. A lot.

From the artist still known as Viv

2011-06-07T21:06:00.003-04:00

What's going one here? Two posts in one day, you say? Well I don't know. I have had these photos for about two or three weeks now and it's just time to post them.

And I'm avoiding cleaning up the kitchen. Sitting my 8-months pregnant self down and writing a blog post (while simultaneously wishing for some fairy godmother to make me a sandwich...hmmm...where is that Curtis?) seems like more fun that kitchen duty.

The photos. Right.

Vivian is our Focused Child. When she gets it in her head to do a project (usually arts and crafts related) she can work on it for HOURS on end. Literally. A few weeks ago she discovered this foam paper stuff that had a sticky back (peel off the paper and it's sticky) and spent more than a few hours creating these masterpieces over a few days.

She decided she wanted to have a museum to display these fine works of art so I strung some yarn in front of the downstairs mantle and clipped them up for her. The pom-pom ball art was a bit of an afterthought for her. She wasn't done creating art but had run out of foam sheets, so this had to do.

And here she is, in an outfit of her own choosing (of course - always) and with her hair done by me according to her exact specifications.

Crazy for the princess stuff

2011-06-06T18:23:00.003-04:00

It used to be that when people would say things like "what little girl doesn't want to be a princess" I would sort of internally roll my eyes, because I'm sure there are LOTS of little girls who don't want to be princesses and are probably bored to tears by fluffy dresses, sparkles and crowns. I'm not saying I'm PERSONALLY princess-averse...many of you know what I was doing in the early morning hours of April 29. Oh yes, I watched the Royal Wedding with great interest and have a bit of a girl-crush on Kate Middleton and love the pretty clothes and all that. I just think that just because one is female, one is not neccessarily into the Princess Stuff.

I also thought, before I had children, that if little girls were all princessed-out it was probably pushed or at least encouraged by the parents who thought it was Just So Cute that little Chelsea or Maddy or whoever was obsessed with Disney princesses.

While that is probably true to an extent, I am here to testify, as the mother of three little girls, they are into princesses and I did not push this on them. No ma'am. Sure, they were exposed by some great hand-me-down dress-up clothes, a few coloring books and two puzzles I can think of, but they have LATCHED onto that stuff like nobody's business (even thought they have tons and tons of other toys, very non-princess-y). They looooove the princess stuff (Viv especially).

Anyway, all of that to say that they were thrilled when they got to go to a Princess Party a few weekends ago. Kathryn's best friend's family was putting it on to raise money for the American Cancer Society (via their Relay for Life team) and quite a lot of kids showed up! The girls had lots and lots of fun with all the activities.

Kathryn spent probably the first hour coloring this picture. She was very focused and was not interested in the others games or activities until she had finished the picture to perfection.

Vivi, on the hand, rushed right off to try EVERYTHING. She won this wand after (finally!) getting a beanbag in the hole. (After she did all the activities, it was her turn at the coloring table for a good 45 minutes of intense coloring.)

Nail painting - there were so many polishes to choose from!! I think she ended up with about four different colors, spread over both hands.

She made her own crown and then got her makeup done.

Finally, Kathryn got her nails and makeup done...

...and her hair done by "Princess Jasmine" (from the Disney movie "Aladdin"_.

A group shot of most of the kids who attended the party. Note the three "princes," one of whom was Kathryn's best pal Paige's little brother who apparently had a hard time choosing between coming to the party with his mom or going with his father to buy tractor parts. He seemed to be having a good time...hope he didn't miss tractor-part-buying time with his dad too much.

There was a "parade" of sorts downtown at one point. The kids got to walk around and wave at...no one at all. It was the weekend...downtown isn't exactly hopping then.

Grandma dollars...

2011-06-05T18:01:00.004-04:00

Grandma is the best. Just ask the kids. A week or two ago she sent the kids each a card just to say hello and put in stickers AND a dollar to go get a donut. Well, it was really hot a day or so later so we said hello ICE CREAM. We'll get donuts another day. :)

Thanks Grandma!

Still catching up...

2011-05-25T13:24:00.007-04:00

Eventually I'll start blogging about current stuff again! But for now, pictures from Easter...

The day before Easter. Hot tip: Don't try to dye Easter eggs when the child to adult ratio is 4:1. Especially when they are all under the age of six. Just trust me on this one.

But we made it through, the kids had fun and we even had a few unbroken eggs at the end of it all.

We had a lot of the family over for an Easter Egg Hunt and dinner.

Blue eyes! Check out the steps behind Betty. Yuck. I had the great idea to paint the steps two summers ago...and that didn't really work out so well. Curtis told me it was going to peel, but I was optomistic. :(

Bunny ears from Grandma and Grandpa Rice.

Oh the tragedy! Spilled Easter eggs!

Cousins playing.

Iris and Kathryn.

Birthdays!

2011-05-16T09:14:00.010-04:00

Soooo....birthdays. We've had a few lately and of course, they did not get blogged. Huh.

Dex turned three on March 26 and had a rocket ship party at Nain and Taid's house (his choice - he loves going to Nain and Taid's more than anyplace in the world).

Believe it or not, it's pretty hard to find rocket ship stuff. Disney-themed stuff is EVERYWHERE (if it's licensed, Wal-Mart will sell it!) but good old classic rocket ship stuff? Verrrry little. So, we played pin the astronaut on the rocket ship, all drawn by me, and had a pinata. Unfortunately, it was a car (because, again, no rocket ship stuff). Fortunately, Dexter didn't care that it was the wrong vehicle, because there was CANDY in it and he got to HIT IT. It could have been a My Little Pony pinata and he would have been cool with that.

I'm pretty lame, though, and took hardly any photos. :( I just got too busy being in charge, I guess. Anyway, we did get photos of the cake, so that's something. He loved that cake. He talked about it for weeks. Still talks about it, in fact.

For Betty's second birthday party (April 29), we seriously lucked out in the photography department. Our friend Michael Whitman (Google him - Michael Whitman Photography) was able to come with his caaaaameraaaaa. Yay! This birthday was much more respectably photographed. He does a great job!

Betty put the hat on herself and wouldn't let me adjust it.

Little Unicorn. :)

We decorated party hats with stickers and threw paper streamer thingys - what are those called? I can't remember, but they are in the photo.

These guys were super helpful.

I love this photo of Xander. He's such a great kid. Almost fifteen but not too old to decorate a hat and even wear it. He's so good with the little ones.

Serious focus.

Iris and Betty having a little fun.

Opening presents.

A shot of Betty wearing her rainbow backpack, made entirely by Sherry. She's kind of awesome.

Betty's rainbow birthday cake. I was a little weary of frosting, frosting, frosting and wasn't thrilled about all the food coloring I had used in Dex's rocket ship cake, so I did fruit instead. Jenni made a delicious whipped cream/cream cheese frosting, which was perfect.

And everyone seemed to love it.

Happy Birthday, Dex and Betty!! xoxo

House tour and new bathroom!

2011-05-15T14:49:00.012-04:00

A while back the editor of the local newspaper (where I used to work - goooooo RUMFORD FALLS TIMES!) came over to do a story on the renovation progress at our house for their annual home improvement insert. While we are not 100% done with the house yet, we figured we had enough done to allow him in with a camera. He took some great photos and we took some of our own as well. I mean, the house was really clean! Gotta document that, right?

Here are some of the photos of some of the rooms in the house.

Bruce (my old boss/editor), the kids and I in the kitchen.

The kids trying to get popsicles out of the freezer. They got to have one after all the pictures were taken and it didn't matter if they had red-stained mouths and clothes.

The hallway on the first floor with some of our random wall decor - including a weird old rubber head that Curtis found at a thrift shop (I think it was from a life-sized Nativity - he looks like one of the Wise Men). He loves it. I tolerate it.

The second floor.

Kathryn playing with an old typewriter - something all the kids love to do.

Ta-dah! The new bathroom on the second floor with our high-tank toilet. We love it.

This is the original tub. The tile is new and Curtis refinished the wood.

Original sink, cheap(ish) antique shop mirror.

We still have to put the wooden thresholds back. The guy who did the tile had to remove them to shave them down and make them fit and hasn't brought them back yet. Hmmm. We should call him.

Betty's room.

Our bedroom. Perhaps the least exciting of the whole house, decor-wise.

One of my FAVORITE rooms in the house - the third-floor bathroom. It was the first room we ever finished and I used to go in there and close the door and pretend that the rest of our house wasn't a ridiculous construction zone.

Kathryn's room, fourth floor. I love this room.

Curtis did almost all of the work in this room himself.

Ditto for Viv's room. He did a great job. I, however, made the quilt.

Even though Viv's room is the size of a closet, I do think it might be favorite room in the house. I love the blue and pink.

And, lest you think we are all done with this house, behold the other two rooms on the fourth floor. Sigh. We'll get there.

Stage debut!

2011-05-15T00:01:00.004-04:00

I'm not actually mentally back in blogging mode yet, but I am DOING IT because I love my mother/mother-in-law. I'm sure I'll get back in to the swing of it...soon... :)

Kathryn's kindergarten class put on four little plays this Friday and Kathryn got the role she wanted...Goldilocks! Oh, how thrilling to be cast as the lead!

Tasting the porridge.

Testing the littlest bear's chair...just right!

Doing a little song and dance at the end.

After the play we all went to get ice cream at Frosty Delite. Finally, weather warm enough to make getting ice cream seem like a good idea!

For Mother's Day...

2011-05-07T11:15:00.006-04:00

As a Mother's Day gift to my wonderful mother, Libby, and my wonderful mother-in-law, Lorna, I hereby promise to post AT LEAST WEEKLY on The Kitchen News so they can see their lovely grandchildren and, on occasion, their children.
Starting...NOW.

Here are some photos we took on a Saturday in February (or maybe March??) at Black Mountain. It was a family fun day or something like that, so after Kathryn had a ski lesson in the morning and we had hot dogs at the lodge for lunch, we took a sleigh ride. It was FUN! The kids were all on their best behavior - so lovely.

(Speaking of ski lessons, Kathryn was so in love with skiing this year that, one afternoon, she decided to make paper skis and snowboards and tape them them on to the little plastic animals we have. Viv helped.)

(She also made a ski mountain and a lodge, as seen here. They had a little line of animals waiting to take their turn on the ski lift and then they would slide down the book.)

After the sleigh ride we went bowling with Kathryn's best friend Paige and her family.

Kathryn and Paige.

Check out Betty's little bowling shoes. CUTE.

Dex doing a victory jump after his ball actually hit a pin.

Viv was focused, if not entirely accurate...

We had fun!

Look!

2011-03-01T11:16:00.004-05:00

Look!!

Do you see what this is?

Our friend, George the Plumber

Look!!! Dishes I didn't wash!!

Hee hee hee hee!!!

I just thought I deserved it for baby #5.

January Days

2011-01-20T09:37:00.006-05:00

We've been doing stuff...

...like hanging out in our pjs, watching Dora...

...getting to be great pals with our siblings...

...pulling on a tutu by ourselves and calling ourselves "princess" for the first time (oh dear)....

...getting sick of having the sewing stuff out for weeks on end and finally finishing the Christmas banner (after Christmas, of course)...

....getting styled...

...and looking awesome...

...cleaning off the car while listening to Cee Lo Green very loudly so I could go to my dr. appointment in a blizzard (ahh, Maine)...

...dressing up as Morgan Le Fay for the annual Dress Up As A Book Character Day at Rumford Elementary School (Morgan Le Fay was her idea, from the Magic Tree House series - and don't worry, she had all the proper winter gear on after this photo was taken)...

...looking official in our fancy-shmancy new office (who WOULDN'T want this guy defending you?)...

...still loving the deer head more than our own wife and thinking having it on our office wall makes us more manly...

...and once again resolving to be a better blogger. I swear.

Pardon my obesessive posting...

2011-01-03T23:26:00.003-05:00

...but I missed these photos before when I was offloading the camera.

You can sort of see how swollen the eyeball is here.

And here's the nurse who had never seen a swollen eyeball like Kathryn's before. I guess she was sort of impressed.

Just what was in that Indian food?

2011-01-03T22:32:00.006-05:00

Maybe I should just stick to cooking boring stuff, because apparently something in Kathryn's body didn't like something in the chicken tikka masala that I made for dinner. About a half an hour after eating, her eyes started itching, watering, puffing and turning red. Well, no big deal, she may be having a little reaction, we'll just keep her up for a bit to keep an eye on her (no pun intended).

But after taking a closer look and realizing her EYEBALLS were swelling (one in particular), I became a little more concerned. When I realized about two minutes later that it was even MORE swollen, quite noticeably so, I said that's it, take her to the ER. Maybe we were being paranoid, but the white was swelling up and starting to obscure the iris a bit, which JUST DIDN'T LOOK RIGHT.

You can't really tell how swollen the eyeball was here, but take my word for it...

So, Kathryn is thrilled because she feels fine, basically, and she gets to go somewhere, in her pjs, after her siblings have all gone to bed, with just dad. Um, FUN.

We still aren't sure what it was that made her puff up so scarily, but the Benadryl seemed to do the trick (grrr - if only we'd tried that first, I was just sort of freaked out but the BIG SWOLLEN EYEBALL).

Now I need to go through the ingredient list and see if I can narrow it down. Ginger? Nope, she's had that before, same with cumin and coriander. I'm not sure about the paprika or the turmeric. Going to have to do a little experimenting, perhaps.

Anyway. All's well that ends well.

And now, enjoy Kathryn's photo essay or her time at the ER. :)

Get well bear from the ER

It's the most un-wonderful time of the year

2010-12-31T21:08:00.003-05:00

Uggggghhhh!!!!

The dreaded time finally came. Actually, it came about a month ago, but I just kept avoiding it.

It was time to CHANGE THE CLOTHING. Time to switch the 18 month clothes for the 2Ts for Betty, the 2Ts for the 3s for Dex, the 4s for the 5s for Betty and the 5s for the 6s for Kathryn.

Oh blech. It took me two days - I had a babysitter for several hours yesterday and Curtis took care of the kids for most of the day today. There were several baskets of random assorted clothes to sort through, too. A few pairs of six-month-old pjs here, a couple of 12 month shirts there, size 3 dresses in the closet that haven't been worn in a year.

Thank heaven I'm done with that. Now I need to organize my craft room...

Unclear on the concept

2010-12-29T15:13:00.003-05:00

Getting Dex ready for bed last night, I was trying to distract him as I wrestled him into his dinosaur pajamas. The conversation went something like this:

Me: Hold still! Kid...I'm warning you...Hey! If you could be any kind of dinosaur in the world, what would you be? A stegosaurus? Pterodactyl? Tyrannosaurus Rex? Anklosaurus? Brachiosaurus? Pteranodon? Giganotosaurus? (Running out of dinosaurs I've learned about by watching Dinosaur Train...)

Dexter: (with not one second's hesitation) A ROBOT!

Alrighty then.

Christmas!!

2010-12-27T12:30:00.013-05:00

So, my last post was a week ago, but at least it wasn't a month ago!

We had a lovely Christmas this year. We went to my mom and dad's house a few days before Christmas to spend time with the family and left the day after. Since Curtis and I had gotten each other presents that were too big to easily be taken there and put under the tree, we exchanged gifts here at home. He got me this cool thing:

It's super interesting! He happened to be in an antique shop when someone brought this in - their grandmother had just died and they were cleaning out her house. We don't know anything more about it than that, but it was clearly handmade by someone for someone they loved.

The handles are carved to look like spools of thread. Awesome.

It had all those spools of thread and notions in it, too. It's a super cool thing.

Aaaand, I got Curtis a deer head for his office. He'd been wanting one for a few years now and I finally obtained one rather serendipitously. He loves it. In fact, he might just love it more than he loves me. Just a little bit.

(Another post with more pictures of Curtis's new office is forthcoming...this is just a little teaser...)

We made gingerbread houses twice this year. The first, below, was from a kit a neighbor dropped by. It was, in Vivian's words, "a big hit!"

Then, of course, we made houses with homemade gingerbread with some friends. The kids had tons of fun. Kathryn gave her house to our sweet neighbor, an elderly woman named Mrs. Sassi. The kids just love her. Dex ate a lot of his, so it finally found its way to the trash, but I finally got it together enough to remember to take a photo of Vivian's.

So, now photos of Christmas Eve/Christmas Day at mom and dad's.

Betty playing with one of the nativity scenes.

Hanging out with Taid.

Kathryn hanging her stocking. We had already spent part of the evening at Jesse, Sherry, Iris and Isaac's reading Christmas stories, singing carols and eating cookies. It was lovely. Of course I forgot the camera. (Duh.)

Dex and Katie hanging his stocking.

Mom's beloved village scene, hand painted by her and I years ago. Maybe twenty years ago?

Nain and Dex with the plate of cookies/carrots for Santa and the reindeer.

Christmas morning!

If Dex was excited about one thing this Christmas, it was "a candy cane with red stripes!" that Santa was going to bring him. I have never seen him anticipate something so intensely in his short life.

Curtis cleaning up the aftermath of the candy cane.

Viv with her chocolate marshmallow Santa. She ate it all, proclaimed herself sick, but then added "but it sure tasted delicious!"

Christmas morning candy. I made them eat toast after this, before we opened the presents. I really didn't want any bellyaches.

Katie in her Christmas "tights" that she has worn every Christmas since she was about nine, I am completely serious. They used to have red tights attached, but she had to cut the red part off years ago as she got bigger but still wanted to wear them. Now she just wears them as shorts over other tights. I can't believe she can still wear them!!

Assad with his stocking loot. (Assad, who is from Afghanistan, was an exchange student who lived with my parents two years ago for a year. He goes to school at the Putney School in Vermont now but comes home for holidays and special occassions. He's just like another Casas now.)

Mom in the morning.

My gorgeous sisters. I did NOT look this good that morning.

Betty with a beloved lollipop. Oh yes. I know she's cute.

Lollipop in front of tree. I made this little nightgown a few years ago for Vivian. So happy it fit Betty this year! (Once again, Lorna and Jim, that sewing machine was one of the best gifts you ever got me!!)

Dex and Betty sort of ignored the whole tree and presents thing for a bit in favor of playing in the toy room.

Assad opening his gift from mom - a handmade quilt/pillow in the colors of the Afghan flag.

Mom opening Assad's gift to the family - a plate he made at Putney with the words "Families are Forever" on the top and "asalaam alaikum" (peace be unto you) in Arabic on the bottom. Well, let me tell you. Mom sure got more than a little misty-eyed when she opened that gift!

Betty with her new doll from Grandma and Grandpa Rice. She loooooves that doll! She fed it, diapered it, hugged it, and laughed and called it "funny baby!" when it laughed. (It's cute, but thank heaven it has an "off" switch!)

Taid, Dex and Assad with Dex's new space shuttle from Grandpa and Grandma Rice, which ALL of the kids think is a great toy! Good job on that one, Grandma!

Opening presents. Not a stellar picture of me, but I thought I'd better document that I was present.

Trying to detach yet another toy that was unreasonably secured to its packaging.

Viv opening presents.

There was a lot more to this Christmas than Christmas Eve and Christmas morning (a lot of family time, playing Speed Scrabble, eating waaaay too much delicious food, running around with the cousins, playing in the snow, etc.) but I always seemed to be too much in the moment to remember to actually get out the camera and take photos. Wish I had, but still, we had a lovely time.

I'm back, and this time it's for real

2010-12-21T12:39:00.002-05:00

Vivian: Every eye is a good one, except for if it's blind.
Me: Uh, right. That would be a challenge, to live without eyes that worked, huh?
(Discussion follows about being grateful for what we have.)
Me: Even people who are blind have lots of things to be grateful for.
Vivian: Like a loving family.
(Awwww!)
Me: Yep. I'd choose a loving family over eyes that worked for sure.
Vivian: But you'd choose a loving family AND eyes that worked, right?
Me: Well, yes, if I could.
(Viv thinks for a moment.)
Vivian: Mom, I have to poop.

Aaaand, scene.

I'm inching my way back to blog activity. I feel as though I've been treading water with my nose barely poking up for air for a while. We've been sick forrrrrreeeeeeeverrrrrrrrr (stomach bug horribleness for 12 days, cold after cold after cold - we missed Thanksgiving ENTIRELY this year) and I'm trying to get Christmas all wrapped up in the next day before we head to Mom and Dad's for the holiday. But I do believe I will make it.

And, oh yeah, I'm pregnant for those who missed the news. The accompanying exhaustion and sickness has really slowed me down in the last two months-ish, so add that to the mix of complaints... The last little Rice will arrive sometime in July. The due date is July 19 but with this being the fifth c-section and all, it will probably be scheduled for a week or two before that.

So that's that. I'm back!

Vermont

2010-11-14T10:08:00.019-05:00

So, I'm thinking we should all pretend that I haven't been the World's Worst Blogger lately and just move on. Does that work for everybody? Yes? Ok, great.

Fair warning: this post contains a ridiculoust number of photos of the kids, like about 639,905. If you are not an auntie or grandma to these dear children, there is a very good chance you will be bored. (Unless you just love ADORABLE KIDS, in which case, you're in the right place.)

Alright. Vermont, a month+ ago. We visited Katie and Ethan to help Katie celebrate her birthday a little early (she turned 31 on October 20).

Their apartment:

Kathryn loooving the lentil soup Katie made. I think she ate three bowls.

Eating lentil soup and bread. It was cold and rainy the day we arrived, so it was the perfect welcome lunch.

Mom and Dad got some babysitters for our kids (yes, we need more than one baby sitter for our crew, so Mom got two sisters from the church out there in Burlington - they were very nice) and the grownups went out to dinner for Katie's birthday! Yay! Eating out that did not involve cleaning french fries up from the floor when were done and asking the waitress for crayons while we waited and did they have any sippy cups? It felt very luxurious. I wore lipstick.

Dad with his trusty Mini-Mag. Believe me, that man finds more ways to use a flashlight than anyone I know. As we were getting ready to leave Katie and Ethan's place to head to the restaurant, I was having a hard time locating my shoes in their mudroom - Dad whips out the Mag-Lite. We got to there and as we were waiting at the bar for our table, someone dropped a glass in the dimly-lit restaurant - Dad is immediately ON IT with the Mag-Lite, assisting the waitresses in finding the broken pieces. And then, of course, here's your menu, sir. Why thank you, let me just get a little more light on it here...

You get the idea.

Gorgeous.

The next day we were planning on going to church but we discovered that it was Stake Conference there and since it wasn't our stake and we had a truckload of kids who weren't going to be thrilled with sitting still for two hours, we bailed on that plan and went to Shelburne Farms ( www.shelburnefarms.org). It's this amazingly huge farm complex that was once owned by some super rich family that is now a non-profit education center and still a working farm. We didn't really know what a cool thing we were about to do, so we were like, "yeah, the weather's clearing up, we should go to that farm, that sounds ok." OK??? It was awesome. The weather was ideal (cool but not cold) and we were juuust past peak foliage so it wasn't super crowded. It was great.

Plus, it was apparently Tractor Day, a yearly event where they drive in a bunch of tractors and other vehicles and parked them on the lawn and kids and everyone can climb in them and pretend to drive them. It was great.

Dad was interested in this rope-making demo. The guy who was running it really gave Dad a run for his money in the Department of Absurd and Odd Comments.

Betty wearing Katie's hat. What was that? Did I just hear a chorus of "awwwww?"

More around the farm.

Waiting with Nain for their turn to milk the cow.

Kathryn the milk maid.

And Vivian the milk maid.

We took a little hike up the wooded hill behind the huge barn. Along the way they had a storybook that could be read in installments on the path (laminated pages on little signs) and some little shelters like this that the kids liked.

This is a little out of order...it's at the end of the little hike, coming out of the woods back to the farm.

The fam at the top of the hill.

Awww.

Double awww. Or puke, whichever. (I can't help it. I still really like him, even eleven years later.)

Katie and Dex, top of hill. Lake Champlain in the background.

Betty exploring.

Viv and Katie.

On the way back down we took a different trail and found this apple tree with the most delicious apples! Curtis climbed up to get some of the good ones, as the drops were a little suspect.

Careful Curtis! Our health insurance coverage isn't that great!

All in all, we had a great trip - thanks, Katie and Ethan!

Back on the horse

2010-10-31T21:09:00.023-04:00

Oh the shame. It's been nearly a month since I last posted. Somehow I just lost the blogging fever for a little while (I got distracted by other things...) and then got overwhelmed by all the catching up I had to do (because doing a post like this with so many photos takes for.ev.er -FOREVERRRR), so I kept putting it off...that's a cycle that never ends well.

On that note:

We went to Cape Cod earlier in the month to spend time with our friends Henrik and Lara and their cute boys, Ben and Eric. We had fantastic weather which made the whole weekend just that much better.

A little time on the beach...

cheering Ben on at his soccer game (go Falmouth Guppies!!)...

Viv was just sitting there watching the game when this little boy came over and was like:

"hey..how you doin'?"

pony rides at the local Pumpkin Festival...

Cute Eric

plus a bounce house and a big slide - that's some awesome fun right there.

A big highlight of the weekend was boat trip to Martha's Vineyard for Henrik and Curtis and the "big kids" (you know, the four and five year olds).

Henrik and Viv on the boat.

Captain Henrik and First Mate Ben.

Viv and Kathryn on the way over.

You know if there's a toilet on the boat it's going to get used...

Playing hopscotch on a street lined with the famous gingerbread houses.

On the carousel on Martha's Vineyard at the indoor (permanent) carnival. The carousel is from 1876!

Kathryn and Viv had fun collecting the rings as they went around and around...

and then Kathryn got the brass ring!! Woohoo! Free carousel ride!

Eating lunch outside.

Eating peanuts al fresco is super fun, especially when you can just chuck the shells on the ground!

On the way home, the winds had picked up and the seas were significantly rougher, causing major seasickness among all on board.

Poor kids!

It took quite a while for everyone to get back to normal... (I can't help it...I giggle every time I see this photo of Kathryn and Ben...Ben looks so sick!)

We even managed to have a few (mostly) kid-free dinners by feeding the kids first, putting them in their pjs and turning on a movie. They loved 101 Dalmations - their expressions were priceless.

Thanks for a super-good time, H&L!

Apple picking

2010-10-05T09:39:00.004-04:00

Last week Kathryn had a field trip to Ricker Hill apple orchard in Turner - our favorite place to go apple picking. Curtis went with her and got some fun photos.

Kathryn and her best pal, Paige

She was pretty excited about the trip. She could hardly sleep the night before and in the morning she kept saying "I can't believe the day has finally come!" She gets a little dramatic, further proclaiming that this was "the best day of my life!"

So, she had fun! She keeps telling people that she knows how apple cider is made and wanting to know if they do, too, because she is only too happy to share her vast knowledge on the subject.

Playing in the corn box.

On the bus ride home.

Funny kid.

Common Ground Fair

2010-10-01T16:01:00.009-04:00

I've been going to the Common Ground Fair here in Maine for as long as I can remember. It's been around for 30+ years and I think that's nearly how long my family has attended and been involved.

The fair is sponsored by the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association and showcases all sorts of stuff associated with natural living - solar power, hand dying and spinning wool, tons of farming and gardening stuff, handmade crafts, stone masonry (let's hear it for the Maine Stoneworkers Guild - my family and friends!) and so so much more. Then there's the Social and Political Action area (read: bleeding heart liberals :) ), all the crazy high-priced food (but yuuummmmy), all the animals (we made three trips to see the bunnies...), the sheep dog demos, ox pulling, the kids' area with their face painting, haystack-jumping and vegetable parade and just all the general whole-lifeness of it all.

Crazy hippies.

So, I love the fair. Curtis is just meh about it. He doesn't have the same emotional attachement that I do, but anyway, he goes with me nearly every year with a minimal amount of grumpiness. I do appreciate it, Love.

My dad and brothers working on a stone bench.

I think my favorite part of the fair is seeing people and hanging out. (Though "hanging out" was significantly easier pre-children. Now it's all about "when can I get my faaaaaace paaaaainted mooooom" and "let's go to the bunnies again" and "popcorn!" and "waaaah." Sigh.) Anyhoo, I got to see some old friends from high school (and I mean old - we're like 35 now - sheesh) who I haven't seen in years and years and it was really wonderful. I don't know what the heck was wrong with us - not a single photo of us together. Still, it was great to see those dears (you know who you are!).

Betty checking out the sheep and border collies demo.

I think the kids' favorite part of it all was hanging out with their cousins. It's like they all really like each other or something. Go figure.

I love this picture of Dex and Kaylee. He almost fell asleep on her back. She carried him for a long time!

Because of the Extreme Food Prices, I brought a big bag of homemade pumpkin chocolate chip raisin cookies, which we supplemented with french fries, popcorn and apples (thanks, Tami!). It was waaay cheaper than paying $17 for a plate of Indian food (not joking about that).

At the request of a few people, here is the pumpkin cookie recipe:

Pumpkin Cookies

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 cup pumpkin (if you use an average size can of pumpkin, you should double the recipe - I always do and they freeze well, too)

1 tsp vanilla

2 1/2 cups flour (Aprill and Rachael - the kind I brought to the fair were almost all whole wheat (King Arthur White Whole Wheat) but you can do 1/2 and 1/2 or all white or whatever)

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

(sometimes I throw a few shakes of ginger, clove or allspice in)

1/2 package chocolate chips (opt.)

3/4 cup raisins (opt.)

3/4 cup nuts (opt.)

Cream butter and sugar. Add egg, pumpkin and vanilla. Mix dry ingredients. Add to creamed mixture. Mix. Add chocolate chips, raisins, nuts, whatever. Bake at 350 for 15-20 min. until just starting to brown.

I love love love these cookies. My mom used to bake these and give them out at Halloween, which I think may not have made our house a super popular stop, but maybe the kids liked them. I don't know. I know I'd rather have one than a Kit Kat! (most of the time...)

At the end of our time at the fair - kids all tuckered out.

Cooking + Reading + Apology Pie

2010-09-30T15:44:00.003-04:00

So, my friend Lisa lent me these books from a series called The Hunger Games. I cracked the first one Tuesday morning and by today at about noon I had finished the second one, Catching Fire.

A leetle addictive. Just a smidge.

This is how I got cooking done over the last two days:

(Also, when I am caught up in a book like this, I don't really cook, per se. It's, you know, pasta and sandwiches. That sort of thing.)

This is me stirring the filling for a Coconut Cream Apology Pie. It's a little different from a regular coconut cream pie in that one only makes this particular pie when one has been really obnoxious to one's dear husband for no good reason at all and then that husband is gone for the day without a cell phone and the obnoxious wife feels really bad because she can't call to apologize so she makes his favorite pie instead.

And the dear husband forgives the obnoxious wife even BEFORE he sees the Coconut Cream Apology Pie. That's love.

It was good pie. Still is. It's in the fridge and calling to me, so I'm thinking the neighbors might be getting a few slices of pie. No need to make myself sick on top of it all.

(p.s. I know it looks like the book was pretty close to the burners, but I was careful. No worries.)

ANNOUNCEMENT!!!

This is my 100th post of the year! Who the heck is reading this blog? I know who some of you are, but sometimes I get 30 or 40 people visiting this site a day (I know! Eat your heart out, Perez Hilton.) and I don't know who you are. If you are so inclined, leave me a comment so I know who's reading. I'm just curious.

Dear Grandma,

2010-09-27T09:59:00.005-04:00

Remember us? Your grandchildren? Maybe not. Mom's been busy (lazy?) lately and hasn't posted any of the pictures she promised you.

So, Mom was feeling guilty enough about the bad case of Blog Neglect she came down with that she is actually posting stuff today. Go Mom.

We love you, Grandma and Grandpa, even if Mom can't get it together sometimes!

xoxo,
Kathryn Vivian, Dexter and Betty

******************************************************************************

Saturday morning German pancakes, Grandma's recipe.

First time making them. They turned out pretty well.

With the exception of the applesauce, the report was that they were just like yours, Lorna.

According to the resident German Pancake Expert, they are more properly made with Mott's applesauce, but I think mine was acceptable.

Monday morning...all four kids had doctor appointments. And SHOTS.

Everything was great in the waiting room. I mean, they have pictures to color, crayons, books and a TV.

And a WATER COOLER. Everyone knows that water that comes out of a cooler is, well, cooler.

Once we got into the exam room, the camera went away. It was all I could do to keep the littlest ones from climbing on the counters and playing with the doc's computer.

We left the doctor's office with seven bandaids covering up TWELVE shot spots. Yep, four kids and TWELVE SHOTS, and Curtis was in court so he couldn't come with me. That was...interesting. There were tears all around but the children were somewhat mollified by the promise of treats. Candy always helps. (Oh, yes, I used refined sugar as a reward.)

Viv's fourth birthday was on Tuesday. She jumped into bed with us in the a.m., cheerfully reminding us that she was the birthday girl. Grandma, she LOVES her Tinkerbell music box (or Tinkrabell, as she calls it).

For her birthday dinner I told her she could choose whatever she wanted. Pizza? Nachos? Hot dogs? MCDONALD'S????

Um, no. Her very specific birthday menu was Cheerios, broccoli, carrots, deli turkey and colby jack cheese. She would not be moved.

Well, ok. Let's celebrate.

Since we were at Nain and Taid's for the weekend (it was the weekend of the Common Ground Fair, post forthcoming), we had a family party there on Sunday afternoon.

The kids all made crowns:

and there were delicious cupcakes.

Sunday night, as we were getting ready to leave, Betty threw up all over the place. After a quick bath and a change into her brother's pjs (we had no more clean ones for Betty), she still wasn't too happy. Luckily, she slept all the way home. Unluckily, she threw up again the second we walked through the door. So, that was fun.

She actually slept well last night, and with the exception of a low fever (kept under control with Tylenol) she's doing better today. Fingers crossed.

Kind of awesome in the kitchen

2010-09-16T18:46:00.004-04:00

Some days I go into the kitchen and put a bunch of stuff together and make something totally delicious, like this soup, and I think to myself, "Self, you are kind of awesome in the kitchen."

This is a corn chowder that I kept putting more stuff in - onions, potatoes, carrots, sausage, fresh corn, a little Velveeta (again with the Velveeta!), milk, chicken broth. It was officially Yum. Curtis is eating his third bowl as I type this.

Note: This is not every day. Some days I give my kids fish sticks and I think to myself, "Self, you are kind of lame in the kitchen."

Applesauce recipe

2010-09-16T08:15:00.004-04:00

Ask and ye shall receive, Dawnelle!

Here's how to make the applesauce:

Quarter apples, removing any "icky" spots. I usually remove all of the core but I know several people who do not. Do not peel apples. Put in a big pot with an inch or so of water in the bottom. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until apples are tender and mushy, stirring occasionally so it doesn't stick/burn on bottom. Add more H2O if needed.

When apples are done (20 minutes? Half an hour? It depends on your apples and how many you have in your pot), remove from heat and let it cool a little bit. Put through a food mill - I use a Foley Food Mill like this:

(Just Google Foley Food mill - it'll run you about $25-ish.)

I sometimes add sugar, sometimes not, depending on how sweet the apples are. Brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and a pinch of salt is all nice, to taste. (You won't taste the salt, it just brings out the flavor.)

If you want to can it, ladle it into clean jars and process like you would anything you are canning. I usually just let it cool and freeze it. That is, if there is any left after your kids get to it...

Good luck!

Applesauce

2010-09-15T14:13:00.003-04:00

This year I used a combination of apples from my parents' trees and some from other local orchards.

The apples from my parents' trees required a little more work - more cutting out of spots, etc., but I think the combo of all the different types of apples made for a more interesting-flavored applesauce.

It was a little tart but some brown sugar and cinnamon made it just super.

Love it.

Random

2010-09-14T09:10:00.003-04:00

No cohesive post here, just some photos of what's been going on around here.

Betty is working on her utensil skills. It's a good, but messy thing. She really won't let me feed her anymore.

Our friends Bill and Marie brought over a whole truckload of perennial plants from their garden for our landscaping efforts. Iris, balloon flowers, wild carnations, lupin, a big peony bush and a bunch of other stuff I can't remember. (Marie is going to have to come over in the spring and help me remember what's what!)

Curtis spent several hours putting the bulbs/plants in, "assisted" by the children. Actually, true to form, Vivian got really focused and actually dug a hole big enough for a bulb. Way to go, Viv.

Here's a shot of Vivian after she had a little fun with the dress-up basket. Rachel Zoe's got nothing on you, kid.

And finally, here's what happens nearly every time Curtis thinks he'll sit down on the couch after dinner to relax a little. Ha! Good luck with that!

Why My Kids Had Cookies For Breakfast

2010-09-08T13:10:00.002-04:00

...or, What Happens Every Time I Put A Bagel In The Vintage Toaster.

You'd think I'd learn.

p.s. They were whole-wheat pumpkin cookies, so please don't report me to Child Protective Services.

What I do

2010-09-07T16:24:00.003-04:00

Here's what I feel I do a lot of:

* getting drinks of water or milk

* stepping in to avert WWIII

* picking up stuff - legos, jackets, dress up clothes

* reading...the same picture book...14 times in a row

* saying "what's wrong?" or "what happened?" or "be NICE" or "careful!"

* figuring out what to make for dinner that they will eat, will be good for them and will not require getting out the vacuum to clean up (not a lot fits into this category...)

* hugging the kiddos and being continually amazed at how darn cute they are

* wiping noses (currently - three out of four with colds)

* contemplating another go at Weight Watchers

* justifying ignoring the laundry...though this cannot go on forever (or can it...? hmmmm)

* resorting to Blues Clues or Dora or Dinosaur Train when the screeching gets to be too much

* reminding myself how lucky I am to be able to be at home with all of this insanity - no, I really do think so, just have to remember to be grateful

Still, sometimes it's enough to make me want to do this:

p.s. I am not digging the new format I've got going on here. It looks funky and I can't figure out how to get the old one back. I guess I'll say the blog is undergoing a half-hearted renovation.

Me and my boy

2010-08-30T18:26:00.003-04:00

Trapped...

2010-08-28T22:17:00.003-04:00

...in my house. By a skunk. At this moment I have a car full of groceries that I cannot get to because a skunk is making him or herself comfortable RIGHT BY THE CAR.

*not actual skunk - ours looks much more fierce and grocery hungry*

Come on, skunk. I need to get the groceries in so I can go to bed.

Please?

Without a backward glance

2010-08-27T09:03:00.003-04:00

And she's off!

The first day of school was yesterday and she was suuuper ready to go. When Curtis walked her into the school she took off for her classroom, taking the hand of the first responsible adult who offered, and didn't even give Curtis a backward glance.

Sigh.

I think that's good, actually. Confident and excited, that's how we like our kids.

I like this photo of her - I think she looks like she should be on the cover of a book: Kathryn Rice, Girl Detective.

I liked her little outfit - skirt and shirt from Grandma and Grandpa Rice, socks from Nain and Taid. Thanks for outfitting her, grandparents!

She already has a new best friend, Paige. I wish wish wish I had remembered to take the camera to the open house on Wednesday night to get a photo of those two, both in pink dresses and ponytails, arms around each other's waists, excited to get on the school bus for their test ride. It was beyond cute.

I think she's going to do just fine.

(By the way, Viv is doing fine with the adjustment so far- yesterday she said that, a) she was now the biggest girl at home, and b) Kathryn wasn't around to tell her what to do. Today she said she missed her, though, so we'll see.)

(Oh, and I'm doing fine with the adjustment as well - seriously. I still have plenty to keep me busy here.)

MOTW in words

2010-08-23T13:44:00.002-04:00

I'm not going to bother to take a photo because the photo would not do justice to the ick that I am about to commence cleaning up.

I made some lovely soup for lunch, full of lovely things - bacon, broccoli, carrots, cheese, potatoes, corn, onions - and then I fed it to my kids. Good news - they loved it. Bad news - it is now all over my floor, table, chairs, high chair, the children - well, I did clean up the kids but the rest is now cold and congealed all over the place. Super!

Off to clean up...

and...the time surrounding the wedding

2010-08-21T15:19:00.008-04:00

Evan and Jenni's wedding gave us an excuse to get the whole crew together and for several great days, it was All Family, All The Time.

Get ready: zillions of pictures ahead!

The Girls' Pack.

Owen still trying to pretend he's a bada$$ with Baby Bjorn and a pink blanket. Nice try. (At the cookout the night before the wedding.)

Jack making himself at home in Nain and Taid's fridge.

Joey, Asad and Sam at the cookout. (Sam is Mom's cousin Ann's grandson.)

Bree and Grace helping Katie cut rhubarb for a syrup for homemade soda. Yum!

A group shot of the mighty warriors who participated in the Inaugural Boffer Capture the Flag game. Xander made the weapons out of PVC pipe, pool noodles and duct tape. We had a great time!

Dad was...uhhh, super fierce. Can't you tell?

Not surprisingly, Owen made himself a special outfit for the event. As Katie put it on her FB comment, "Owen, you are a weirdo."

Asad teaching the cousins teaching the cousins a game they play in Afghanistan (it involves rolling a ball into a little hole in the dirt).

General hanging out on the porch.

S'mores.
Early morning blueberry picking at Jesse and Sherry's. It's hard to stop - they're just right there and so tasty!

Kathryn and Iris with flowers from the wedding on the porch.

Ethan and kids on the porch.

Kathryn and Bree playing with Barbies.

Wedding!!!

2010-08-17T16:48:00.017-04:00

The lovely bride

I know it's been 13 days since I last posted, but we were gone for the wedding, then recovering from the wedding, dealing with children and so forth. Anywhoo, here we are!

The wedding was fantastic! Evan and Jenni went the unconventional route with a lot of things, which suited them perfectly. Everything was so lovely and it was so great to be around all of the family. All of the siblings and their families were in town from Utah, Oklahoma, NYC and Vermont, and those of us from Maine, as well as extended family and friends from Kansas, California, Germany and other places.

Thanks to Katie, Chell and Gwen for letting me use their photos (p.s. Gwen, can I use your photos? Thanks!).

So, here it is, Evan and Jenni, 2010, in photos!

Jenni right before the wedding. Too bad about the coolers in the background, huh? Her mom made the dress - so lovely.

During the ceremony, Isaac and Iris bringing up the rings. Vivian looked at the photo and said "I think Jack wants to help, too."
Curtis performed the ceremony and did a lovely job - in Maine, attorneys can peform weddings.

Betty conked out right before the ceremony.

(This is a little out of order.)

All the little nieces (with the exception of Cora May, who is only a few weeks old!) were the flower girls.

Cute little Josie.

The arbor in the back yard at Mom and Dad's.

A close up of the fabric flower garlands Jenni made and hung in the arbor.

Evan and Jenni right after the ceremony.

Sherry hanging decorations at Beaver Lodge the morning of the wedding. I love this photo!

Some of the centerpieces. Jenni's mom did all of the flowers, mostly with flowers she grew herself. She did SUCH a nice job!!
The hall at Beaver Lodge. I love how the banners turned out! (Please excuse me patting myself on my back...)

A shot of some of the potluck spread. I (ahem) made those pretty pies.

Sandwiches, individually wrapped with twine. So cute!! There was pulled pork with coleslaw, curried chicken salad, hummus with vegetables, BLTs and an awesome pressed sandwich with fresh mozzarella and salami.

The enormo-basket of cookies that we baked (and froze) a few weeks ago. There were little bags for guests to take cookies home as favors but I think a fair amount were consumed right then and there!

The best cake topper EVER. I am not a cake topper-type person, but I love this. Jenni's friend Kristen made it and I think she should go into business. You can't really see in this photo but it is really detailed.

The awesome cake table. The cakes (chocolate, spumoni, carrot, lemon, almond berry, coconut...ummmmm) were made by the bakery where Evan and Jenni work, Scratch Baking Co. in Portland.

Why did Mary get ALL the tall genes?! Sheesh.

Kaylee and Betty.
The first dance.

Ethan and Joey playing a bean bag toss game.

Jenni and Viv.

Evan doing his awesome I Am Stoked To Be Married To Jenni dance.

Curtis and Betty on the porch.

Viv and Kathryn. I know it looks like Vivian is yelling, but really she just kept her mouth open for reasons unknown, for all the pictures I took here. Annoying at the time, but she looks sort of cute...

Betty at this point was totally soaked with watermelon juice, as was I.

Curtis making sure none of the little ones fell off the docks.

It was so lovely and peaceful down by the water that a lot of people congregated there. Vivi just squeezed right in and made some new friends.

Jenni mingling.

Dex with his classic "huh?" face on the dance floor.

Apparently the dancing continued long after those of us with small children called it a night.

(p.s. Asad, the guy in the white pants and vest, was my parent's exchange student from Afghanistan two years ago. He had on the most Awesome of All Awesome belt buckles with this outfit - a big, shiny portrait of the Obama family. He bought it at a market it Kabul when he was last there. I wish I had taken a picture of it! Asad, if you're reading this, take a picture and send it to me! Please!)

Swamped

2010-08-05T18:45:00.002-04:00

Still here, just overwhelmed with a sick baby who isn't sleeping well, four flower girl dresses to finish by Sunday and a sewing machine that hates me, 10000% humidity that is SUCKING MY WILL TO LIVE and not enough sleep.

I'll be back, and with photos.

xoxo

Dusty

2010-07-29T15:52:00.004-04:00

So, even though we have finished 11 rooms in this house, we still have more to go.

I can't believe it either. This house is the Project That Will Never End.

This is what's in the works right now:

This is on the second floor and will be another bathroom (the room on the right) and a library/office for Curtis (the room through the door to the left - even though it currently has the tub in it, it's not the bathroom).

Anyway, it's dusty here on the second floor and I really dislike the dust. Soon we'll be at the point where we can clean up. Oh wait, shoot. I just forgot Curtis has to refinish the floor in the library, too, so it will be a while. Argh.

I just have to remind myself that once upon a time our third floor bathroom looked as bad, if not worse, and now it looks like this:

*************************

Totally unrelated: Vivian has been doing a thing lately where when she talks about things that happened a long time ago, it's always "in the time of Jesus." It's funny to me.

Oh wait - I just heard her say "in the time before people, when there were only bugs and animals." I guess she's thinking both theology and science. Or something.

Lately

2010-07-28T15:14:00.005-04:00

What we've been up to:

Eating bananas.

Laying on a blanket outside, having a baby climb on me

and looking up at the trees.

Swimming at Jamie and Tom's pool.

Making tons of bubbles for kids.

Scrubbing the hand-me-down playset. After Xander and Kaylee and Isaac and Iris, we're the third set of cousins to love this playset.

And that's what's been happening here!

Going Green (and orange and red...)

2010-07-26T15:44:00.004-04:00

It's that time of year when friends hang sacks of zucchini and green beans on your doorknob, your dad sends you home from a visit with bunches of basil and bags of onions, carrots and beets and that one family at church opens the gate of their pickup truck so everyone can load themselves down with cucumbers and summer squash.

I love it!

Eating raw beans from Dave and Nghia.

Dave and Nghia's zucchini.

Dad's beets.

Dave and Nghia's beans.

We'll be eating cucumbers from the Beveridge's garden tonight and I'll be bringing our neighbors some fresh pesto made with basil from our garden and Mom and Dad's. Super yuuuum.

Brimfield, baby!

2010-07-22T12:52:00.006-04:00

We LOVE Brimfield! It's the biggest outdoor antique market in the country and it's held three times a year in Brimfield, Massachussetts. We haven't been since we started having kids five years ago, so we were so excited to get away for 24 hours (THANK YOU Michael and Lisa for watching the munchkins!!) to take it all in last week.

(It was rainy and humid so my hair just kept getting

bigger and bigger and frizzier and frizzier.)

(Fantastic vintage French ribbon.)

Since Brimfield is about a four hour drive away, we left the night before and stayed at a really swanky place (yeah...a Day's Inn...). It was nice to wake up when we felt like it, rather than when a two-year-old felt like attacking us in our bed. We spent a lovely hour or two in the morning watching the news (no Dora! no Wonder Pets!). However, Curtis has an experiment going on right now where Fox News is his only news source for a month to see if a steady diet of it changes his worldview. That means no CNN, no Daily Show, no Colbert Report (sad). I tell you, I am both fascinated and appalled by Fox News. If you are not a regular viewer, give it a look once in a while. It is really something else.

Anyway, we watched a lot of Fox News (which resulted in a lot of "Wow! I can't believe they said that with a straight face!" and "!??!!?!???!!!"), after which we hit the antique fields.

There is SO MUCH to see there, it's all so interesting and it just keeps on going, field after field. You really can't see it all.

We ended up getting three things, two of which I forgot to photograph (and were just little things) so maybe I'll put in a later post. The big purchase, however, was....

(At home)

a TABLE! Yep, we strapped that baby to the roof of the Subaru and cruised all the way back to Maine.

(Curtis inspecting the table before we bought it.)

We like it. It's not perfect, and certainly not an antique (just sort of finished to look olde) but it was sturdy, the right size and the right price, so there we go. We couldn't fit around our little old table anymore. It was time.

We still need to get a bench to go along the wall side and then we'll just have the four chairs around the rest. Overall, I'm pretty happy with it.

(Us, cruising back to Maine.)

(One of the many photos I took of myself on the ride

home because it was a long drive and I was bored.)

Wedding prep

2010-07-20T15:04:00.005-04:00

Evan and Jenni's wedding is coming up in three weeks! The time has flown by and I'm glad the pennant banners are finally done and delivered.

I think they came out pretty cool.

Jenni did a great job picking the fabrics. She has such a cool wedding theme (summer picnic) that pretty much anything goes, in terms of fabrics and colors. She has also made dozens and dozens of cloth napkins in a huge variety of colors and prints that look so cool all stacked up in baskets.

I didn't have any ribbon long enough to do an entire 30' banner (I made three 30' ones and a 20' one), so I mixed and matched from my ribbon stash.

This is just a sample. I have so much more!!

On Monday Jenni, her friend Kristen and I got together at Mom and Dad's house for a marathon cookie baking session.

Evan and Jenni are giving out cookies as favors. Guests can choose their own (fruit and nut, strawberries and cream, peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip, lemon sugar and chocolate chip) and put them in a cute little bag to take home.

Jenni really is that fast scooping and rolling cookie dough. She (and Kristen) work at Scratch Bakery in Portland and are pros. Literally.

Here's Mess Of The Week: Betty with a blueberry muffin.

Blame it on the weather

2010-07-11T14:23:00.010-04:00

This weather is officially getting the best of me. I started writing this post four or five days ago but got distracted or overwhelmed or something and since everything is so HOT and STEAMY here I can't seem to get motivated to finish this post. Every time I get to the computer lately I spend my time poking around the internet on unneccessary stuff, like how much Hello Kitty bento boxes are going for on eBay or other people's blogs (people who are evidently more dedicated their craft than I) or other stupid stuff like THAT THING that many of you know I like but that I will not mention here for fear of the mockery that would ensue. (I SWEAR, there is only one __________ website that I check out and only because it is funny and makes me laugh, which I definitely need as I deal with four little kids in this weather.)

Aaaaanyway, I know some of you (Lorna!) have missed photos and updates for the last two weeks, so I'm cramming it all into one post.

Here's a recap:

Fourth of July. We went to the Thomaston Fourth of July parade on Saturday and then had Kathryn's fifth birthday party in the afternoon (FIVE! can you believe it?).

The kids love any parade, big or small. This one fell in the "big" category and they were thrilled with the bands, floats, revolutionary war re-enactors and especially the CANDY. Candy is never as good as when it is chucked at you by a troop of Boy Scouts or from a fire truck.

Kathryn's birthday was June 27 but we waited to have the party at Nain and Taid's on the 3rd of July. Kathryn had requested a Pink Sparkle Fairy birthday, so I did my best with sparkly pink stuff. For fun the kids all decorated wands with plastic "jewels" - even the boys, though their wands were more manly. Less tulle and ribbons and more dark blue and moons.

My camera was not present for any of the actual Fourth of July festivities (I know, I get a Bad Blogger Card for that), so there are no photos of the second parade we went to or of Curtis's birthday cake (a huge trifle with cake, pudding, whipped cream, cherries and blueberries - I always do some sort of red, white and blue cake for him) that we brought to Tommy and Laurie's annual Independence Day party. I really missed some good shots, like the kids loving the fireworks. At one point Dexter, who had been open-mouth thrilled by the exploding lights in the sky, said to me "I LIKE it, Mommy!

The second parade was a hoot, too. It was, literally, about 25 people who rigged up floats pulled by tractors down a dirt road, with about 20 spectators. Fifteen were from our family. They have been doing this parade for something like 20 years now and it is one of the more awesomely hilariously weird things I have seen. It's so great and they have such a fun time doing it. I promise I'll remember the camera next year.

For me, one of the biggest highlights of this summer so far was spending time with my cousin Ann and her family, who visited Maine for about a week and a half.

I really didn't know Ann (or any of my cousins for that matter) growing up, in part because they lived in Kansas (or Colorado or Texas, for the the other cousins I barely know or don't know at all) and also because my mother was not particularly close with her half-siblings.

I so very much enjoyed getting to know my cousin and her great husband Amba and kids Cole, Hugh and Trevor. It was like opening up this whole branch of the family I knew but...didn't really know. I am just SO HAPPY that their original travel/vacation plans to the Northeast got changed around so they could spend time with all of us here in Maine and Katie in Vermont.

The kids had tons of fun playing with their second cousins once removed (we think that is the right designation for what they are...). When they visited us here in Rumford we went up to Roxbury Pond and had such a great time we didn't leave until nearly 9 p.m.

Prettying up the place

2010-07-02T13:40:00.005-04:00

A year ago (two years ago?) Curtis and I bought some fencing for our yard space. For a number of reasons it never got installed. Now we're glad we waited because we finally have a reasonable space to fence in - although it's not really fencing anything in. It's just decorative.

Before (A few years ago):

After:

ANYWAY, with the new lawn, I think the fence looks really good!

It's SO FUN to see our outside finally catching up with the inside. (I say it's "fun to see" because I'm just doing the watching - Curtis is doing all the hard work, like installing stuff and making sure the lawn is always watered.)

Before (Feb 2003, when first purchased):

(Look at us...so happy and naive. Nice broken and boarded up windows, huh?)

After:

Another before and after:

Quite the difference, huh? I know the shots are from different perspectives, but it is the same space!

A shot of Curtis instructing the kids to NOT HANG ON THE FENCE. (Hah. Good luck to us with that.)

Also, Betty is officially a toddler. In the last few weeks she's pretty much left crawling behind and is just so delighted with walking upright.

CUTE. (If I do say so myself...)

I think our lawn looks so big in this shot. It's not really quite so expansive (I wish).

We have big plans for plants in flowers in front of fence (the street side). That will take a few years to do properly, I think, but I'm sure we'll put some bulbs in this fall. I really need to do research to decide what I want to put in. I have a vision of taller plants/flowers close up to the fence, gradually decreasing in height closer to the street.

Also, we're kind of psyched about holidays with this fence. I mean is this fence custom-made for a Halloween graveyard tableaux or what? I also can't wait to drape evergreen garland at Christmas...maybe with white twinkle lights?

And, lest you all think we're getting too big for our britches with our fancied up house, we still have our really classy door here. Complete with broken/flapping in the breeze screen. We have joked for years(!) about it being our security system - with a crappy front door like this, could there really be anything of value inside?

The door's going to go. One thing at a time.

Also, we have a lovely assortment of trash cans and tarps back here. So pretty!

(I'm going to say this is our Mess Of The Week shot.)

Quilts

2010-07-01T17:22:00.007-04:00

It seems that all my favorite crafty bloggers are talking about quilts these days, which has gotten me thinking about my own quilt collection.

Most of the quilts I have made I have given away, and though I have photographed most of them, I'm not sure where those photos have ended up. Bummer.

At any rate, I decided to make a pass through the house and photograph the quilts we have in the house, whether made by me or someone else.

First up: the first quilt I ever made.

It's small, baby-sized. I made it for Vivian before she was born and I had SO MUCH fun picking out these fabrics with my sister Gwen. That was four years ago now!

I love this quilt. Mom made it for me with a bunch of my old t-shirts and scraps of fabric from dresses or others things she has sewn for me over the years, including my wedding dress. There is also some fabric in here from curtains that hung in our kitchen in the 1970s-80s.

This quilt is all sorts of nostalgic for me.

Isn't Betty gorgeous in this photo? She was so tired. I was sort of delaying her nap at this point because I wanted to take these photos and some of the quilts were in her room.

Then I put her down to sleep and she was so out I could take a picture of her sleeping with the quilt Grandma Rice made for her last Christmas when they were visiting. She sleeps with it every night unless it's too warm. It's so snuggly!!

After putting Betty to bed, I moved on to Dex's room, where he was working hard at Not Napping. Mission accomplished, kid. This is the quilt that Grandma made for him. Ditto on the sleeping with it every night unless it's too warm.

I love this quilt! I bought it at a yard sale for $1. For real. It's all hand quilted, probably 1930s era. I still can't believe I got it for $1. It was at a friend's yard sale and I tried to tell her I needed to give her more for it, but she was in major Purge Mode and just wanted to get it out of her house. Ok, score for me!

This quilt is in Viv's room but I actually made it for Kathryn.

I had had the squares cut out for quite a long time but had never motivated myself enough to finish it. Then, in early 2009 when Kathryn was diagnosed with melanoma, it suddenly became very important to me to finish this quilt. Not sure why. I remember sitting next to her bed in the hospital, waiting for her to wake up after surgery, stitching on the binding. I'm really happy with how it turned out.

This is Vivian's Grandma Quilt (what the girls call them). She sleep with it every night, I just folded it up for the picture.

Kathryn's Grandma Quilt (fabrics most decidedly picked out by Kathryn, by the way) is currently keeping Balloonie and his wife, Fiona, warm. Balloonie and Fiona are deflated mylar balloons that for some reason the girls think are super fun to take care of, tucking in at night and so forth. Whatever.

Actually, as I was working on this post, Kathryn looked over my shoulder and gave me the lowdown on Balloonie and Fiona. They are in the hospital "because they were losing air." Fiona was rescued from from behind the couch, apparently, and reunited with "her beloved husband."

So, this ends our tour of the Rice House Quilts. Hope you enjoyed!

5

2010-06-30T16:28:00.004-04:00

She's five!!

Her birthday was actually on Sunday, but I'm a little late with the post. And, we haven't actually had her party yet. It'll be this Saturday.

I love this little dress. Our friend Charlotte brought it over for her and Kathryn LOVES it. She wanted to wear it to sleep that first night she had it.

She is such a good sister!

Why the diet isn't going so well

2010-06-21T14:49:00.004-04:00

This was a whole cake yesterday. Frickin' fudge frosting.

(Not that I ate all of that...just...some.)

MOTW

2010-06-15T18:50:00.002-04:00

Mess of the Week: Betty having a tantrum.

Well, to be fair to her, I think she was teething.

There didn't seem to be ANYTHING I could do for her, so I finally settled for giving her some infant Tylenol and letting her cry it out.

And taking pictures.

It feels a little heartless to take photos when she's wailing away, but I didn't know what else to do at that point and I figured I'd get a post out of it.

Small town famous and focaccia bread

2010-06-14T21:40:00.006-04:00

The first time I had a story printed in our local paper (The Rumford Falls Times), I got quite a thrill from seeing my name in print. That whole by Abbey Casas Rice thing looked so exciting to me! After a few years as a reporter, the thrill wore off a bit but it never got old, seeing what I had written all over town, knowing that thousands of people read my words. Best job I ever had. I'm sure I would miss it if I ever had time to stop and think about it.

So, after quite an absence, the Rice family has made another appearance in the Times.

Fun, huh? Although really, as anyone who has ever read the Times can attest, it's not too darn hard to get in the paper. You can send in a picture of yourself weeding your garden and they'll put it in. It's a friendly sort of paper.

(If you can't read it, the photo is of Curtis, Kathryn, Vivian and Dex following the newly painted "hoof prints" of the Babe the Blue Ox statue downtown leading to the Paul Bunyan statue at the Info Center.)

I've been making focaccia bread lately and it has been a big HIT with the whole fam. The recipe is here http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/focaccia-bread/Detail.aspx . I added some rosemary and a little more salt and omitted the mozzarella cheese. Very tasty.

Viv loved dipping the bread in olive oil and balsamic vinegar. (The weird looking things in the oil are tomato seeds - the tomatoes were dipped as well.)

We've also been enjoying our basil quite a bit, as evidenced by this Caprese salad. I can't wait until we have our own tomatoes!

Inaugural lawn mowing

2010-06-13T15:17:00.003-04:00

Curtis mowed the lawn for the first time yesterday with our newly purchased lawn mower.

From above (from, say a third or fourth story window) you can see that it's still pretty patchy, but it's getting there.

We also bought some plants at the Rumford Historical Society's Annual Lawn and Plant sale. We bought raspberries, a rose bush, lily of the valley and some hosta. This whole garden/lawn bit is going to take a while, but I'm liking the results so far.

Speaking of the Rumford Historical Society, Curtis managed to convince someone else to take over as president for the coming year. Yay! As part of the bargain, however, Curtis promised to serve as secretary and to take over as president again the following year if no one else agrees to do it. Can you believe not many people are up for the glamour and excitement of being the president of the local historical society?

Yay me, yay America (goooo TEAM!)

2010-06-08T20:25:00.005-04:00

I'm Team America, in general.

UPDATE: Curtis thinks this is a weird post and that it looks like I'm trying to make some Tea Party-esque statement here - nope, just feeling patriotic after voting. I guess I'm Team Humankind, really (even humans in *gasp* Socialist countries).

More finished projects

2010-06-08T10:46:00.008-04:00

I just love making baby blankets. Maybe because they take less time to make than full-size quilts - faster gratification?

Well, that might be true in general, but not with THIS particular baby blanket.

This one took FOR.E.VER to make. It was so simple but tiiiiime consuuuuuming to sew a line every half inch. Who knew?? I was very happy to make it for little Sadie, but Sadie? Hang on to that blanket, because it's one of a kind. There will never be another one like that coming off of MY machine!

I think it came out pretty darn cute.

This blanket took considerably less time to make (though made with no less love).

It's for my friend Amy's baby http://www.progressivepioneer.com/progressive-pioneer/ (this is her blog - I forgot how to rename links). Amy and Clayton are naming their baby Vivian, a name I particularly like. :)

I used a vintage sheet I bought for $1.50 at a thrift store. The rick rack and ribbon were from that HUGE stash I inherited from my dear neighbor, Dot, who gave me a ton while she was still alive and then her daughter gave me a lot more after she died - we still miss Dot! She was one of a kind and I think of her every time I use some of the BAGS of ribbon and trim I now have, thanks to her.

(Don't look too closely - this blanket is very obviously homemade.)

Anyway, I'm psyched to make more sheet fabric stuff - there is a lot of fabric left! Amy also has this way of making cute little girl skirts with the corner elastic parts of bottom sheets, and when I get around to it, I'll post photos of what I come up with.

I have another sheet (white with pink roses) that I will be making into a blanket for...? I don't know who yet. If Owen and Marci's baby is a girl, she'll be the likely recipient. Can't wait to see what they have in a month and a half!!

Around these parts

2010-06-03T15:31:00.002-04:00

Thought I'd post a shot of one of the many many "set ups" (as the girls call them) we find around here. They do this with stuffed animals and other plastic animals (in their world, bunnies, tigers and dinosaurs get along just fine, intermarry and have a lovely time), but right now, Littlest Pet Shops are It.

FYI, these Littlest Pet Shops are in school, with a crayon for each pet's desk. Notice how they are all paying close attention to the teacher?

Yo-yo pillow (hey! it rhymes!)

2010-06-02T18:05:00.003-04:00

Quick post to show something I finally finished (actually, a few weeks ago, but whatevs). It's a Christmas-y throw pillow, covered with flannel yo-yos. I was on quite a yo-yo kick about 6 months ago and made 10 zillion of them.

This pillow will match a Christmas quilt (for the couch, you know, watching "It's a Wonderful Life" or "A Charlie Brown Christmas" with the kids and popcorn) that I have all the squares cut for but need to actually SEW together. I cut those out probably three years ago.... I am slowly but surely making my way through a number of unfinished projects. I have two more finished quilt/baby blankets that I will post as soon as they reach their intended recipients. I put them in the mail yesterday and I want them to be a surprise in case any of the recipients check the blog before they get them.

I hope this post makes sense. Betty is TEETHING and FUSSY and it's hard to focus on much. She is crying and clinging to my legs as I write.

Still alive

2010-05-29T21:03:00.013-04:00

More or less. I think this is the longest I've gone without posting since I started doing this back in January. We had a minor computer/camera issue (which turned out to not really be an issue, I was just too technologically zoned out to realize it), and then I felt a little overwhelmed by having all these pictures I had taken and too much to post, so I kept putting it off... I've also been really tired the last week or so, and then last night I realized I hadn't taken my thyroid pills for like, three weeks, which is really stupid. I just completely forgot. So, hopefully being dosed up on some synthroid will soon have me back in working order. Seriously, how dumb is it to forget to take a pill for three weeks when not taking it is guaranteed to make my life even harder than it is because eventually it catches up with me and I get crazy tired? Ack.

Anywho. Unneccessary ramble over.

I just decided I would post a bunch of photos from the last week (not neccessarily in chronological order) or so and call it good. Back on the horse.

Here, a few photos of Vivian in a dress I made (complete with blueberry yogurt pop drip on the front). Kathryn has one too, pictured later. They were super easy to make and I'll be making more later in the summer for the girls to wear at Evan and Jenni's wedding. All the little nieces will be flower girls - 10 of them!

The house decked out in its Memorial Day/July Fourth finery. See how the lawn is coming along?

The water level in the reflecting pool by the Info Center in Rumford is super low now, so you can walk out onto this sand bar, which the kids think is super awesome.

Kathryn in her sundress.

Last story time of the year at the library. They have a summer program that starts in a few weeks.

It was in the 90s on Tuesday so we went to Roxbury Pond. Perfect beach day!

Refugee from the Matrix.

Kathryn has discovered posing. It's darn hard to get a natural shot of her these days. I don't know what's going on here. It looks as though she might be having a religious experience of some sort.

Betty was so busy shoveling sand into that bucket! She was entertained for a long time!

Viv was the sand castle queen.

Cute little sandy toes (there were a lot of other sandy places, too...).

We took a walk when Nain came to visit on Monday. The kids were being rather uncooperative with the posed photo, but whatever. We got what we got.

Betty's first crack at corn on the cob. She did well for only having four teeth. I have no idea what Vivian is doing.

This is our bedroom, most mornings. Everybody ends up in the bed too early for mom and dad's taste, so we just turn on a kids' show and try to get a bit more sleep. Does that make us bad parents?

Kathryn is always putting her feet on Curtis's head. He doesn't always take it with such good humor, but the camera was on him...

Zoned out on T.V.

Like I said, Kathryn is into posing.

Teeeeveeee.....

Theological questions and GRASS!

2010-05-20T20:34:00.006-04:00

Kathryn: "Mom, I know Heavenly Father created Jesus Christ, but who created Heavenly Father?"

Mom: "That's a good question and I don't have the answer for that."

Kathryn: (Contemplative silence.) "Mom, what's a myth?"

Oh dear.

Mom: "It's an old story that people think is true but is not."

Kathryn: "Maybe Jesus is a myth."

Mom: "Some people think so, but I don't."

More discussion follows (including "What did it look like before Heavenly Father created everything? Was it just all white?"), but man! She is still only four years old, friends! If this is what she is coming up with now, what do we have in store for us?

For those who are wondering, Curtis swears this is not his doing. He said they discussed some Greek mythology about a month ago, but this line of thinking is all her own.

*********

On to other news...

GRASS!!

It started coming up yesterday and we are very excited. I planted some flowers today (gladiolas, freesia, irises and a peony bush) and I hope they take, too. I'm really starting to plan out the garden scheme, and though it will take years for things to really get filled out, I'm excited for the potential.

Here, Betty is literally climbing the walls to get outside where her siblings are playing. She had been outside for hours already and I took her out after dinner, but at this moment she needed to be inside with me.

Real dinner...

2010-05-19T21:51:00.003-04:00

...on paper plates.

I know, lame, huh?

MOTW photo essay

2010-05-18T09:35:00.004-04:00

Or, rather, a fancy way of saying a bunch of shots of dirty dishes.

Feeling rather unmotivated in the cleaning the kitchen department.

Skillet with last night's scrambled egg dinner remains. (Also a bit unmotivated in the food prep department...lots of meals lately of sandwiches and veggies, or crackers and cheese and grapes...they are getting good nutrition, just not very interesting nutrition.)

Broccoli water from yesterday's lunch of grilled cheese and broccoli.

From this morning's smoothies.

Bread drying out. I did put that away immediately after taking this shot. I might be lazy but I don't really want to waste all that bread.

I put the yogurt away, too.

The dishes, however are still in the sink. I chose to do an unneccessary post instead of taking care of my real life. That's just where my head is this morning.

p.s. I started washing the dishes while waiting for these photos to upload. I am well on my way to being a respectable homemaker again.