Happy 3rd!

The trampoline was a HUGE hit and the reveal went very well.  Jenni brought Anna home just before lunch, equipped with spa-quality pink toenails, ready to party.  Lots of family came in for lunch, cake, and presents.  Thanks SO much for all of you who donated to the "jump fund."  It will be hours, days, and years of fun for Anna AND Grey.

By 10:30 this morning my husband and I still had not completely attached the enclosure to the trampoline.  The steps included weaving a long cord in and out of every hole in the net and tying the cord onto every spring on the trampoline, and then figuring out how to make the overlapping enclosure, well, overlap...and look like the picture.  And by 10:30 a.m. there were other things that needed to be happening as well.  Anna was scheduled to arrive at 11-ish and others would soon follow.  We still needed to go to the grocery store and get bbq fixin's and pick up the cakes from the bakery.  No, I didn't make the cakes.  I didn't have time.  I probably COULD have, but whatever...  So I sked my husband to go to the store and get the stuff while I tried to finish the enclosure.  I called Jenni at about 10:45 and they were about to leave their house.  That gave me about 15 minutes to get everything closed up, things started in the oven, get Grey settled (which wasn't hard since Nana had him), among other random things.  I didn't finish the enclosure completely, but well enough that kids could jump and not fall out.  So I left it as it was and went on with the party.  

We ate some great bbq, had some awesome cakes, and opened some presents that some "over-achievers" brought.  HA!  She LOVED ALL the gifts.  She got two Fancy Nancy puzzles, a Leap Frog computer/video game, a rain coat, a Sleeping Beauty Umbrella, some princess house shoes (HOUSE SHOES! for those of you who saw them...they will stay in the house!), a Fancy Nancy tule skirt with flowers inside, and best of all, two cards that played music when you opened them.  Notice the look on her face...she was fascinated.  She made everyone laugh.

After presents, I snuck to the backyard with my camera and got into position to get the "reaction" shots.  We opened the door and....

(GASP) "MY TRAMPOLINE!"

She began to float...

and then soar...

Then jump...

and jump...

and jump...

It was a great day.  I feel like the other kids in the family won't be so bored at our house anymore.  :)  

I will be sore...

T-Minus 18 hours and 30-ish minutes until the big birthday reveal.  Anna is having a slumber party at Jenni's house, which is was VERY excited about and Grey went with Nana for his own little party.  He wasn't excited, but not unhappy.  I don't think he minded either way.  I'm sure he'll be very spoiled when he gets home tomorrow morning.  ;)  We needed the kids out of the house so we can clean and put the trampoline together.  Anna doesn't know that she's getting it so it will be a big surprise.

Sweet Erin came over this afternoon and helped me put the trampoline together.  We got most of it done when we decided to take a break and get Grey's things together.  It looks great and is the perfect size.  Once everyone left, I decided to pull the remaining springs into place.  Man, will I be sore tomorrow!  There were 72 springs on that baby, not all of which were hard to pull, just the last ones.  And since I do no working out what so ever, my muscles  didn't know what hit them.  So now that lactic acid has flowed and now that it will slowly settle into my muscle fibers, I'll soon start to feel it.  It will be totally be worth every bit of sore muscle to see the look on Anna's face when we open the back door tomorrow.

My husband and I will still have to put the enclosure on tonight, so pray that we don't kill each other...since both of our witnesses are gone.  Ha!   We don't work well together...most of the time.  But I think it will be fine.  :)  

And yes, I've already jumped on it.

Early Birthday Present.

We were at Sam's today when I saw the movie isle.  I turned and started looking for the "Sleeping Beauty" DVD that just came out.  I thought I'd be able to find it before Anna saw it and stick it in my purse, then pay for it without her seeing it.  It has worked before!  As I turned down the isle Anna immediately yelled "LOOK! SLEEPING BEAUTY!"  It was about 10 feet down the row and there were only a few left.  It took me about a minute to find it and I had to ask her to point it out to me a couple of times because I still couldn't see it.  She spotted it from 10 feet away in a sea of other kid/Disney movies.  She gasped with excitement as I picked it up.  I was trying to figure out a way to let her see and hold it (since she MUST hold it the entire time we're in the store), then snatch it away and wrap it for her birthday...and somehow make her forget that she saw it and I paid for it.  No chance of that happening.  She held on to it, told the entire story of Sleeping Beauty to anyone who would listen while we were in Sam's, told others as we stopped to get other things as they passed us about the fairies and the witch, told the woman at the check out counter about how she was going straight home to watch it, and so on...  So now, after holding it while we drove home, after being crazy impatient while I took it out of the packaging, and after jumping up and down while I put it in the DVD player and hurried through the previews to the menu, she's in heaven watching in her room.  I don't think she'll forget about it so I can wrap it for her.  Happy Birthday Anna!  :)

WARNING! Bloody pictures!

Anna: The obstetrician in training.

It's the weirdest thing...sort of.  Anna LOVES to watch the Discovery Health channel.  Especially the "hospital with tha babies" shows.  She loves to "watch the babies coming out" and c-sections.  Sometimes there are random "eeewwwwwww"s and gasps of excitement.  I'm not too sure that this channel is very appropriate for a 3 year old, but she really loves it.  Right now she's watching "Maternity Ward."  She narrates each picture she sees.  She just said, "Mommy, what's wrong with dat baby?  Is he sick?  He gonna get better when the doctors fix him.  He has a band-aid on his beh-wee.", etc.  I think I may know where she gets the fascination with watching medical stuff...and it's definitely not from Daddy.

Grey:  I've seen that look before.

Anna: With her curved legs.

Anna: The Flower Girl.

It looks like Anna will be in TWO weddings at the first of next year.  We are very excited!  She doesn't actually know what it means to be a flower girl, or the responsibilities that come along with the job, but she does know that she will be wearing a "princess" dress, and that's all that matters.  Her favorite pass-time these days is twirling, so she'll be an expert by then.  She is in her cousin, Brooke's, wedding in January and an (old) teammate and good friend's (bad grammar?) of mine in April.  She will LOVE all the attention!  :) 

We butchered the paper!

If any of you have been to our house, you know the butcher paper covered walls in the entry way.  Some people say they really like it, some don't say anything.  For those of you who like it or who like butcher paper walls, sorry...because I really didn't like ours.  It's NOT my style at all.  I knew it had to come down sometime and Nana decided that this weekend had to be the time.  Daddy and the kids went to Grammy's for the weekend while we stayed home and peeled, sometimes almost microscopic, pieces of paper off the walls.  Some came off very easily, some needed a little more time and patience.  The walls were in pretty good shape once we got all the paper off and we didn't need to retexture, thank goodness!  So we painted a super cool color, got rid of the 1995 GOLD, beveled glass "chandelier" (GAG!), put up a sweet track lighting system (sort of), and rehung pictures and put back the modern shelves.  MUCH better.  Daddy was even impressed...also a difficult job to pull off.  I have several big frames waiting for family photos to be placed in them.  Finding the time to do that may be the hardest part of all.  

Apple Butter Festival

A couple of weeks ago, we went to an apple orchard to have some fun and pick some apples. Of course Erin and Chas came along to save the day...it was actually their idea to go.  We had fun with other friends too and Anna picked way too many apples.  :)  We walked up and down the rows of apple trees and almost got carried off by the mosquitoes the size of horses.  But we had a blast!

Grey was having SO much fun.

Feeding the animals.

We had a few to choose from.

Johnny Apple Seed HIMSELF was there.

Now Grey is having some real fun.

Hayride while we enjoyed our apples we picked straight off the tree.

Here's the recipe!

Want a new roast recipe for fall?  Then fix this for dinner!  I fixed it tonight and it was VERY good.  Different.  Too bad for Russ and Elisabeth...you two missed out!

Pork Lion with Apples and Pears

ingredients:

2 tsp. black pepper

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. garlic powder

1 3lb boneless pork top lion roast (single lion)

1/3 cup molasses

2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar (I used basamic vinegar with a splash of "just about to turn" red wine that we had sitting around...don't think you need it tho)

1 Tbsp. reduced-sodium soy sauce (omit the salt if you don't have reduced sodium, I guess)

3 apples, cut in halves or large slices or wedges

2 pears, cut the same as apples

2 Tbsp. sugar

directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Line shallow roasting pan with heavy foil; lightly spray the foil with Pam or whatever. Place meat rack in pan (I don't have a meat rack, so I didn't use one), set aside.

2. In bowl combine pepper, salt, and garlic.  Brush pork with 1 Tbsp olive oil (I just sprayed it with Pam); rub with pepper mixture. Place pork on rack (or in pan).  Roast 35 minutes.

3. For glaze, in small skillet (with a lid..for later) combine molasses, vinegar, and soy sauce.  Bring to boiling.  Reduce heat; simmer 1 minute.  Remove to separate small bowl.  Set glaze and skillet aside.

4. Brush pork with some glaze (reserve 2 Tbsp. for glazing fruit).  Continue roasting 20 minutes, brushing more glaze halfway thru.

5. Roast pork 10 more minutes or until thermometer inserted in center reads 150 degrees...or until little pop-out thermometer pops up.  Remove from oven and cover with foil, let it sit 10 minutes before slicing.

6.  Meanwhile, in skillet used for glaze heat 1 Tbsp. olive oil (or spray it well).  Toss fruit in a little sugar, Add fruit to skillet, cover and cook 2 minutes, uncover and cook 3 minutes or until tender-crisp.  Add reserved glaze; heat thru.  Serve pork with fruit and drizzle with pan juices.  Serves 8.

3 going on 16.

Folks, we have a horrible back seat driver on our hands.  We drove to eat lunch with Daddy today and while making a left turn at a light, this is what I hear:

Anna: GASP! Mommy, you forgot to stop!

Me: No, it was my turn to go.

Anna: No it wasn't!  You see that red light?  You forgot to stop!

Me: No Anna, the light in front of me was green so it was my turn to go.

Anna: No Mommy, didn't you see that red light?

She's talking about the one we turned underneath...the one pointing to the people at our right.  This went back and forth for a while, or as long as I could take the pointless argument, which was probably only a couple of minutes.  I finally had to just tell her to turn her voice off is she was just going to argue for the sake of arguing.  So I heard her head drop dramatically as she began to pout.  When we got to Daddy's office and parked the car, Anna said, "Look o'er dair Mommy.  See, dose guys stopped at the red light, so you need to too."

Dirty English.

(this morning)

Me: Anna, you smell like Daddy.

Anna: (in an argumentative voice) But I DIDN'T toot!  ...  I just tee-teed.  ...  I didn't POOP when I went to da potty!

Me: I know, I just meant that you smelled like daddy's cologne (which is Juicy Coutour Dirty English) since he gave you a "daddy blanket" before he left for work.  :)

Anna: Oh.