Easter

Over the past few years, it has become a tradition to have an Easter Open House between our morning and evening church services. We eat, fellowship with family and friends, and have a big egg hunt for the kids. This year we had quite a crowd, nearly 60 of our family and friends joined us!

I love my guest book. It is so much fun to be able to remember who joined us on each occasion and read the comments they left (often they are quite humorous or remind us of some little thing that happened on the particular occasion that we might otherwise have forgotten). I have to thank my dear friend, Emily, for this great idea.

With 60 people coming over to eat, we had to set-up some additional outdoor dining space.

Good Friends!

My sweetheart and me enjoying our Mimosas.

After brunch, it was time for the much anticipated Egg Hunt. Even the youngest guests got in on the fun. Here, Grace lifts up her cousin, Jonny, to reach an egg he spotted.

Those more experienced hunters like Ian struck out to hunt on their own!

Emma showing off some of her loot. I think Megan is trying to talk her into sharing a piece.

Sorting and swaping after the hunt!

We had lovely weather and spent much of the rest of the day in the yard.

And, what's a party with out a minor fiasco to deal with. "The sky is falling!" No really a piece of our open beam ceiling decided to suddenly drop on our guests! Fortunately, no one got seriously hurt! And yes, this definitely made it into the guest book, although there is little chance we would of forgotten this one!

And, thanks to Sunny for these photos, because otherwise I would not have any!

Frog Dissection!

Ah, Homeschooling at it's best.  These are the moments you pat yourself on the back and smile at the wonder of watching your children learn!  Our end of the year Biology experiment was dissecting a frog!  The kids had been waiting all year for this!  If you get grossed out easily, consider yourself warned you might want to skip this post !

Here they are, the shrink wrapped frogs that had been waiting patiently in my closet for almost a year!

Grace showing of her frog's tongue! 

Jared considers a snack!?  Ewww!  But he did manage to remove the intestines and stomach all in one piece!  Impressive!

Once we had finished removing all the insides, and the eyes, and the skin, Justin decided he wanted to attempt to remove the muscles so, he could see the bones.  He worked quite hard to carefully cut away the leg muscles.  Hmm, do I have a young surgeon in the making?  That would be good, since he wants to drive a Ferrari when he grows up!

Hmmm, what should we dissect next!

Justin's first pet

I am pleased to introduce.... drum roll please...

DESPEREAUX,  Justin's new mouse!

Here he is in his new home!  Isn't he cute?... unfortunately he managed to escape from his cage the very first night!  Needless to say, we spent the morning hunting for him and, thankfully, found him!  We then spent the rest of the day looking for an escape proof  home for him!

Here is the new, improved, escape-proof home!  We call it the Mod Pod!  And, no, he has not escaped since!  He has also turned out to be a great little mouse.  He hasn't bitten anyone.  He tolerates being held and handled and looks super cute running around in his little ball!

Elephant Odyssey

Grace and I had the privilege of attending the preview of the new Elephant Odyssey exhibit at the San Diego Zoo!  A few years ago, Grace decided to make a donation to help with the building of the new elephant exhibit.  She has always loved elephants and wanted to be a part of making this exhibit become a reality.  She saved her money and asked other family members if they would like to contribute.  She ended up donating over a hundred dollars which earned her an invitation to the opening of the exhibit!  So, on May 23rd we headed to the Zoo at 7a.m. for the sneak peak!  It was really a neat experience for us both!  We even met the Director of Membership (by accident.  I happened to stop and ask her a question) and, when in the course of our conversation I mentioned that Grace was the one who made the donation to the exhibit, she not only commended her on  her contribution, but also, called over the Executive Director of the zoo and introduced Grace to him! 

 Here are a few pictures from our day.  Unfortunately, I don't have one with the Executive Director and Director of Membership because my camera batteries had died at that point.

Grace getting in line for the Skyfari!  We had a choice between a bus ride to the exhibit or a Skyfari ride.  We decided to ride over on the Skyfari and come back on the bus.

The exhibit coming into view from the Skyfari!

In front of the entrance.  They served us a continental breakfast as we made our way through the exhibit.

The elephant statues.

And finally, the real elephants!  They have a great, big pool and the male elephant was enjoying playing and splashing in it!

Here are two of the elephants out in front of one of the many "tree structures" that are in the exhibit.  The structures are really neat looking and provide lots of activity for the elephants.  

This cool sign helps you identify "who's who" among the elephants.  We did manage to identify them all before we left.  It helped that the Membership director explained to us that the elephants that had come from the Wild Animal Park were on the side with the pool, and the 3 females that were here at the Zoo were on the other side.  They are hoping to combine the herd eventually, but for now they are kept separate.

There is a neat play area at the other end of the exhibit.  We had fun playing around in it. 

 In addition there are several other animal exhibits around the elephants.  Some of them were still empty or covered while we were there, so we are looking forward to going back and seeing all the other animals in their new homes!

Check out this great, new exhibit!  You won't be disappointed.  And if you want to hear more about it, ask Grace, she really took quite an interest in everything we heard about the exhibit!  Yes, I am just a little bit proud! :)

A Blog About the Frog

We are now the proud owners of a baby grass frog!  We have successfully raised him (or her) from tiny tadpole to "frogpole"(as Grace calls them when they have legs and a tail) to mature frog!  It only took killing 2 "frogpoles" to finally get it right!  Sorry little guys :(  Maybe one of our other tadpoles will make it, so this one can have a friend.  

 

He still doesn't have a name, but he seems to be enjoying the tiny crickets we bought him for food.  We have yet to see him consume them, but they keep disappearing.  I would post a picture, but he likes to hide under water so I guess he is camera shy.  

The Making of Timpano!

Well, here it is...  the making of Timpano!  It has only taken me 6 months to finally post the picture diary.  I guess that is fitting since it took me just short of a year to finally make the dish after taking the cooking class!  Better late, than never, right?!...  

Step 1- Rolling out the dough

This is definitely the biggest pizza I have ever rolled out.  This was four recipes (each yielding a pound) of dough.  It was a little too much, but I didn't want to run short, so I erred on the side of caution.  You will need a wide surface for this... Your standard kitchen counter isn't going to do.  I decided to use the dining table, and it was perfect.

Step 2 - Lining the pot

I highly recommend a helper for this part... I could have done it alone, but I probably would have been cursing the dough by the end... 

We folded the dough into quarters to make it easier to lift into the pot.  The pot is greased with butter.  Make sure you stop a few inches from the top so that the dough will stay put while you are filling the pot with all your layers.

again, easier with 2 pairs of hands

You will want the dough to hang over enough that you will be able to cover the top of the dish, but also, you don't want it to slide down on you while you are trying to fill it!  

It took a bit of patience to get all the air pockets out of the dough and stretch the dough into the bottom of the pot.

All ready for the first layer!

Step 3 - The Filling!

Layer #1 - Penne with Rustico (smooth) Sauce

Layer #2 - Spinach

Layer #3 - Spinach Pasta Sheet

Layer #4 - Hard boiled eggs (halved)

Layer #5 - Mozzarella cheese (8 ounces, shredded)

Layer #6 - Meatballs (halved and cut side down)

Layer #7 - Fresco (chunky) Sauce 

Layer #8 - Sausages (halved and cut side down)

Layer # 9 - roasted red peppers

Layer #10 -  semolina pasta sheet

See, food really is the way to a mans heart!  Look at the love on his face!

Layer #11 - Penne, Mushroom sauce, and 8 ounces mozzarella cheese mixed together

Here you can really see that we had too much dough.  We just cut off and discarded the excess.

Step 4 - Closing the top!

We still had too much, so we snipped off some more.

Your dough should cover the entire top.

yeah, we made quite a mess!  And, you can see had quite a pile of dough left.

We buttered the top section before we put it in the oven.  We wanted to be sure we wouldn't have any trouble getting it out of the pot!

Step 5 - Baking

Make sure you have your oven rack in the lowest position before you attempt to put the pot in the oven, because it is quite heavy!

Bake at 375 for 1 hour and 45 minutes.

When it is done in the oven, it will need to cool completely and then be refrigerated for 24 hours before slicing and serving!  If you want to see the finished product click here.