Marian's Birthday

 Marian's birthday kind of snuck up on me.  I did have all her loot, and the last gift arrived in the mail the day of her birthday, so I had pre-planned enough there.  But the day before her birthday I had gone to the commissary and gotten groceries. I felt like I was covered for any request she had.  I asked what she wanted for dinner and for cake and she said she wanted Chicken Enchiladas and an Ice Cream Cake.  Oops.  I was not prepared for that!  So I headed back to the commissary to get the required ingredients.

The Our Best Bites "Mint Chip Ice Cream Brownie Squares".  Brownie for the bottom, then ice cream, with an oreo and chocolate ganache layer, topped with whip cream.  Delicious!

My happy birthday girl!  Okay, not the best photo.  She was enjoying her cake and she has a good size loot pile next to her and on the bench there.  

The kids all asked for giant pieces of cake.  And since the darn thing takes up so much room in the freezer, I obliged.  

The cake was fabulous, but most of the kids ran out of tummy space before finishing.  Heh heh heh.

Now we are ready for presents!! Marian was the last to finish and made everyone wait on her as she ate every last bite of her cake. 

Josh may be too cool, but he wasn't too cool to hang out with us and enjoy the birthday festivities.

Enjoying the presents and feeling pretty special. Super cute and soft shirts from Grandma and Grandpa.

Slightly confused and fully delighted about the Miraculous Ladybug action figure she just opened. 

But trying to pretend she's too grown up for such things. (She totally isn't!) 

 Callie is already plotting and planning how to most enjoy her sisters stuff.

Levi's Haircut

 The weather has been warming up.  Once it starts hitting the 70's, it is time for Levi to get a haircut.  Callie had been begging to get to shave him and we agreed that she could, once he had a grooming appointment to finish him up.  She was ecstatic and could not wait.

He is magnificent and shaggy and glorious in all his lovely fur. 

Is't he handsome? Such a good dog, and a sweet dog. 

Ah, now you can see his marvelous hairy hide.  It is quite long and thick.  And it is EVERYWHERE!  This dog sheds like crazy and his hair is all over the house.

 Yep, One house vacuuming fills the entire canister of the bagless vacuum.  And it is 90% Levi hair in there.  We love him shaved just to get rid of the hairballs that wander around the house, even after we just swept or vacuumed it. But I do miss his gorgeous long hair when it is gone.

He was not thrilled about getting shaved.  He is a good boy though and merely protested by sitting down so his long haired bottom was inaccessible. 

It did take her a while to cut through that incredibly thick undercoat.  Levi was very patient. 

Mostly.  He was a good sport.  It took a good two hours to get him mostly trimmed in a mostly even manner.   

Callie would have kept working, but a rain storm blew in and we had to call it good enough.

This was after Callie was forced to quit.  She did a pretty good job!  I do like this length, but he needs it shorter for summer.  Next time Callie will do even better.

One nekkid dog after the groomer finished with him!  He's so bare!! 

It always cracks me up after he's been shaved- he looks like a totally different dog! 

And now instead of looking like a dog-rug, he just looks awkward when he lies like this.  

But he is still my handsome little dog and he is still a great dog.  And we do love having smaller hairballs to clean up.

My favorite kid today!

I got an email from Marian's ELA teacher today and it made me happy.  So I had to share:



I wanted to share one of Marian's journal responses with you.  We are
reading Romeo & Juliet right now, in which they go against their parents'
wishes and get married.  The journal prompt was, "Describe a time you
disobeyed your parents.  How'd that work out for you?"

This is Marian's response:
"I cannot think of a time that I have disobeyed my parents.  I cannot think
of a time where it worked out.  I have nothing to say in this journal entry
today.  My parents are fair and they don't really have very strict rules.
My parents are the best parents ever."

I just thought you'd like to see that.  She's not quite so sure about her
sister, but you guys rock!  :)

ありがと ございます
Thank you!

Pi Day 2018!!

 We did have our annual Pi Day celebration this year.  Due to the scheduling of Callie's Band Concert that evening at 6, we had to have our Open House from 3-5pm.  We had a great turn out and much pie was consumed.  I'll link the pie recipes for anyone who needs to try them!  We had 22 pies made by me, and 3 pies brought in by friends.  I made 11 different varieties and everything was delicious.  I only made 1 banana cream (fine, I made 2 but we ate the other one before Pi Day!) and one Pecan, but had 4 Toll House Pies.  2 of the Toll House Pies were made the traditional way with walnuts in them.  Rylee and Delaney hate nuts in their pie, so I made 2 with Reeses Pieces and chocolate chips, but no nuts.  Friends brought a delicious Chicken Pot Pie, a yummy peanut butter pie and a surprisingly tasty vegan chocolate pie.

Here is a list of my pies and links to the recipes:
1. Nestle Toll House Pie (Also called "Cookie Pie" by my kids.)
2. S'mores Pie
3. Lemon Chess Pie
4. Chocolate Chess Pie
5. Oreo Caramel Pie
6. Chocolate Truffle Pie
7. Samoas Girl Scout Cookie Pie
8. Banana Cream Pie
9. Pecan Pie (From my Fannie Farmer Cookbook)
10. Irish Beef Pie (I put it in a pie crust and put a crust on top and bake at 400 for 45 minutes)
11. Chicken Pot Pie  (No link, it is handwritten into my cookbook.)

Lovely Chocolate Chess Pies!  This is my favorite pie.  There seem to be several different recipes, but I like mine.  It is more complicated, but it makes perfection!

The Oreo Caramel Pe.  It is always a favorite.  I cut it very small- 12 slices in the pan, and it is always one of the first ti disappear.  It is not my favorite because it is SO rich and has so much going on in it. But it is quite delicious.

I only made 1 Pecan Pie.  It was runny in the middle, which is why I don't like to make Pecan pie!  I almost never get a perfect middle.  It was still very tasty though! 

The Samoas Girl Scout Cookie Pies.  I should have used a bigger pie pan.  These oozed over the side and made a bit of a mess in the oven.  They don't look as appealing as the other pies, so I was worried there would be a lot leftover. Nope.  Not a single slice was left!  And if you do try this recipe, the top stripes are suppose to be straight melted chocolate chips.  I found that to be too thick and hard, so this time I melted the chocolate chips with a little cream to make it softer.  It worked beautifully.

My S'mores Pies!  Oops.  I should have used a larger pan for these as well.  Alas, I only have 2 larger pie pans and I used them for the Oreo Pies.  The marshmallow cream poofed up a little too high here and made the oven smell really good... and then it smelled really bad and smoked up the kitchen.  Oops!  But I salvaged the pies and tucked things back where they belonged and all of it was devoured.

We had half the pies on the kitchen counter and half on the table.  Rylee made cute name cards for the pies.  That's the Irish Beef Pie on the left, then the Pecan and Toll House, Samoas and then you can see half the banana cream.   It was a great day and a nice event.

Hong Kong Pix Thursday, Friday and Saturday

Thursday was a gross and rainy day.  But we still went to the Temple.  It meant not very many pictures, because I didn't want to get wet.

But I was there and it was wonderful.

This is my feeling-very-pleased-with-myself face.  We figured out how to take the city bus out to Stanley Market and here I am, riding an actual city bus, all by myself!  Okay not entirely by myself.  intent and April were there too. 

No photos of the Conference at all, but here is the crowded MTR train on the way home! 

Friday morning we walked to the MTR behind this guy in this awesome coat. 

After Conference we ran off to the 10,000 Buddhas Monastery.  We felt pleased with ourselves again that we were able to successfully negotiate our way there without anyone really knowing how to get there. We were greeted with this sign. 

Oh my!  Fake Monks?!!  We were quite disappointed to not see any fake monks.  Or real ones, for that matter.  

I don't know if there were 10,000 statues, but there were a LOT!

 And it was at least a half lime walk to get to the halfway point.  And the entire hill was lined with these guys.

What made it so fun and awesome was that each statue was different.  Different bodies, faces, poses.

Some were very interesting and some were what you would expect a monk to look like.  And some you thought might be passing out scriptures.

April and I thought life should imitate art! 

Did I mention how impressive it was?  And how these things went on and on and on forever?!

And did I mention how fun some of the poses were?!  I really wish there were plaques that told the story of whatever monk it was. I really want to know about them!

Oops.  April and I are pointing to the rules we broke before we knew they were rules. 

We only made it halfway up.  It closed at 5pm and we got this far at 4:45. We had just 15 minutes to check out this area before trekking back down. It was gorgeous. This was the temple. No photos allowed inside though. 

So pretty! 

I have no idea what any of this was, but it was lovely and interesting. And closing.  They kept announcing that it was closing time.

So I got my selfie in and then we ran a2way just before they kicked us out.

Check it out. I finally made it to Ikea and I only had to go to Hong Kong to do it!  We did spend some time meandering through the Ikea just because we could.  And we had lunch there. 

And I made a friend there! I was sad I didn't have enough room to bring back some of the delightful things I found there. 

And Saturday morning I went to Conference and then had to run away at 11 to catch my 2pm flight.  This is a picture of the second suitcase I bought.  I needed room to bring home more loot!  And I wanted to make sure I would recognize it when I got off the plane. 

Chillin' at the Hong Kong Airport waiting for my flight to leave.

Layover in Taipai.  I was not thrilled that I had to walk a long way to go through security again and then make a U turn to walk back the way I just came to get to my gate.  And then my flight was delayed 30 minutes.  But all went well and I got home safely and It was a wonderful trip!