American Football

We are so fortunate that the base has an active sports program for the kids. Although it doesn't seem to be the right time of year, the current season is football.... AMERICAN football.

Tim just loves it. He can't wait to get out on that field running drills, thinking through the plays. I just wish the weather had been more cooperative for him this season... too many practices were canceled due to mushy fields.

Anyway, I got to watch part of a scrimmage a couple of weekends ago. Tim did great! For the first play that I saw, the other team had a pass completed (a big feat!), but Tim got the runner's flag at about the 1 yard line. Then, when Tim's team had possession, he scored a touchdown.

And then a few minutes later, he had an interception!

It was an exciting scrimmage, to say the least!

Easter 2010

I know I should have blogged sooner about our Easter, but I've been busy getting ready for our family trip to Italy. But now that our flight has been canceled due to the volcanic ash coming from Iceland, I have a little time on my hands.

Anyway, Easter is always a fun time of year at the children's school. Every year, the school has some kind of contest; two years ago, it was egg decorating, last year was Easter bonnets. This year, the children had to make Easter gardens. I had never heard of this before, so I had to look up examples on-line. Basically, the kids get some kind of tin, fill it with soil, and put in all sorts of rocks, moss, sticks, shells, flowers... anything really, and make it look like a garden. Most children include an Easter theme with it, and include Jesus' tomb and the cross. Anyway, here are Tim and Maddie's Easter gardens (a little windblown, unfortunately).The school always has an Easter service as well, which I just love. The children do some readings and sing songs at the local church. Here are a few clips of them performing some Easter songs:





Every year on base, the youth services organization holds a base-wide Easter egg hunt for the children. There were easily 300 kids there this year, all crammed into the gym. The egg hunt is organized by age: each child is given a card with two stickers on it, and in their designated section, they have to find the plastic egg with those same two stickers. Tim and Maddie found theirs after a few minutes of looking and each received a goody-bag. Collin, on the other hand, had the most fun out of everyone. To him, the gym looked like a wide-open space covered with balls (the eggs) which he was delighted to throw and kick! He had a ball!The kids got to meet the Easter Bunny too. Collin was fascinated, Maddie was still afraid of him, and Tim was glad to indulge in the basket of free candy.Of course, no Easter would be complete without dying some eggs and making our traditional bunny cake! The kids opted for no coconut this year on the bunny cake, so instead, we decided to make him a funky blue color.We had a nice Easter morning. The kids were up before dawn of course, but waited to wake us up at 7am (as instructed!). How surprised I was to find them both already dressed for church at 7am. (I guess they had a lot of time to kill!) The kids all had fun looking for their eggs, and of course, eating them! At first, Collin was more motivated to play with his cars, but he quickly discovered that there were yummy things to eat inside those plastic eggs!After looking for the candy-filled eggs, the kids searched for Resurrection Eggs. I was so pleased with how much of the Easter story they knew this year. If you've never heard of Resurrection Eggs before, I highly recommend that you get some. It's a really great way to teach kids or reinforce the real Easter story.

We had a nice Easter breakfast that morning, followed by a lovely church service. Later that afternoon, we had Easter dinner at our friends Kelly and Dan's house. It was a very nice Easter for all of us!

Hot Cross Buns

"One a penny... two a penny..."

The kids had the week before and the week after Easter off from school this year. While making plans for these two weeks, Maddie asked if we could try making Hot Cross Buns.

I didn't know much about Hot Cross Buns before moving to England, except for the song of course. It turns out that Hot Cross Buns have been made for centuries in England to mark Good Friday. They are a type of bun seasoned with cinnamon and currants and always marked with a cross on top.

So, on Good Friday, we made our own Hot Cross Buns. I found the following recipe on allrecipes.com, which starts the dough off in a bread machine.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 3 tablespoons melted butter
• 1 tablespoon instant powdered milk
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 3/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 1 egg white
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
• 3/4 cup dried currants (we used chopped-up raisins instead)
  
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons milk

Directions

1. Put warm water, butter, skim milk powder, 1/4 cup sugar, salt, egg, egg white, flour, and yeast in bread maker and start on dough program.
2. When 5 minutes of kneading are left, add currants and cinnamon. Leave in machine till double.
3. Punch down on floured surface, cover, and let rest 10 minutes.
4. Shape into 12 balls and place in a greased 9 x 12 inch pan. Cover and let rise in a warm place till double, about 35-40 minutes.
5. Mix egg yolk and 2 tablespoons water. Brush on balls.
6. Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 20 minutes. Remove from pan immediately and cool on wire rack.
7. To make crosses: mix together confectioners' sugar, vanilla, and milk. Brush an X on each cooled bun.

How magical it was to pull those beautiful buns out of the oven! The kids were mesmerized by the whole process, and were so delighted to see (and eat) the fruits of their labor.Truthfully, they weren't the most delicious things I've ever eaten. They were basically a cinnamon raisin bread in bun form. But, it was so much fun making them with the kids. It might just have to be a new Good Friday tradition.

The Auction

I wanted to tell you all about my new favorite Friday morning hobby: going to the auction!

About 10 minutes from my house is an Auction-house called Thompson's. Every Friday afternoon, they hold an auction. They mostly auction-off furniture, but there are plenty of other knick-knacks, decorative items, jewelry, china, etc. And there are lots of antiques!

On Wednesday afternoons, Thompson's puts pictures and descriptions of all of their "lots" for the week, along with approximate prices on-line: http://www.thompsonsauctioneers.com/
There are typically somewhere around 600-700 items! Customers are welcome to go to the warehouse on Thursday evenings or Friday mornings to see all of the lots. If you see something that you're interested in, you can put in bids three ways: 1) You can email in a bid. 2) You can go to the warehouse and submit a paper bid. Or 3) You can stay for the actual auction, and put in a bid when your item is up! I've never been present for the actual auction since it takes place during Collin's nap time, but I do put in a bid on paper just about every week.

So, my routine is: I typically go through their list sometime before Friday, and I take note of items I may be interested in. Then on Friday mornings, Collin and I head to the auction house. We squeeze our way through the tight rows lined with furniture, which believe me, isn't very easy with his stroller! I look at the items I made note of, check the quality, and typically find a few more items that I hadn't noticed before! :) I then decide what I want to bid for each item and I submit my bid. Then, if I've won something, I get an email that afternoon, and I have to go pick it up the next day.

I always bid low, unless there's something I really want. Because of that, I only win a small fraction of what I bid on. But, then it's always a delight when I actually win something, because I know I got it for a good price. So far, I've won Maddie's dollhouse (see the previous post about her birthday), a mahogany bookshelf, a coffee table, an oval mirror, some enamel pans (that I'll use as planters someday), and a pine desk that I will probably use as a kitchen work station for myself someday.And just yesterday, I won two desks for the kids' rooms! (The pine desk came with a bedside table which I've been looking for too!)So there you have it! I may not have a Target around here and it may take me 20 minutes to get to the closest supermarket, but at least I have the auction house!

Working Woman

Sorry for the lack of posts everyone, but this time I really do have a good excuse. I am a working woman!

I have a good friend here named Cindy who started her own alterations business on the base. She works out of her home, and people bring her clothes that need to be altered, hemmed, etc. And of course, she stays very busy with the military uniforms. The uniforms often need new patches put on, and if a soldier gets a promotion, he/she will need new "stripes" put on each sleeve.

I have always wanted to learn to sew. I received a sewing machine as a gift (from the Fitzpatricks) for my wedding, and after a few lessons from a friend (yes, you, Krista!), I tried to teach myself to quilt with it. I even bought myself Quilting for Dummies a few years ago to get started. But, I've always wanted to take a class or learn from a pro. There's only so much I can teach myself from reading books, you know?

Well, sometime before Christmas, my friend Cindy was telling me how busy she was with her business, and how she would love to have someone help work for her. I jumped at the chance to offer my services, grateful for the chance to learn from a pro, and hoping that I could actually be helpful to her.

I started working for her in January, and the arrangement is just wonderful. I go to her house 2-4 afternoons a week after lunch. I lay Collin down for a nap there, and get to work. When he wakes up, or when it's time to go get the kids from school, I stop. I know... it's perfect.

I have learned so much in just the few months that I've been working for her. I can now change the stripes on a uniform all by myself. It's taken a lot of practice, and I still get nervous when I have to change out the stripes on the formal "blues" uniform. But, I've learned that pinning is everything. If I take my time to pin the patch on well, it will stay straight during the sewing process. I'm also learning how to put the other patches on the uniforms like their name tags, occupation patches, etc. And, I've had a lot of practice sewing on girl scout patches for our scouts on base. (The key is to use clear thread, so you don't have to change the thread for every different color patch!) Cindy is also starting to teach me some of the alterations that she typically does like hemming and changing out a zipper.

I am so grateful for this job. It's like I'm getting paid to take that sewing class that I always hoped for. Cindy is the best boss I could ever hope for, too. The two of us enjoy chatting as we work, and I'm so grateful for adult conversation in the middle of my day! I've learned a lot from working with her, but mostly I've gained a new confidence over my sewing machine. I feel more equipped to try new things and take risks. Who knows how I will use these skills later on in life, but I'm just so glad to have the opportunity to put my energies towards something I enjoy learning.

Maddie's 6th Birthday!

My Maddie Jane turned 6 years old last week. Happy Birthday to my big girl, who of course, is growing too fast.

On her birthday, we went to the Wacky Warehouse for some ball-pit fun, followed by dinner at the adjoining pub. We then went home for cake and presents. Our present to her this year was a doll house. I won this dollhouse at the local auction house a month or two ago. (I promise to blog about the auction house soon, because now I am hooked!) I won it for only 20 pounds which is less than $40! I was so excited! It looks like it was hand-made with love. I hope that Maddie and I can have some good mommy-daughter bonding time as we play with it, fill it, and maybe even give it a make-over!

Anyway, last Saturday we had her birthday party here at the house. We invited 6 of her friends, and we kept it to only girls this year. Maddie wanted to have a pony party, so we thought we would keep it girlie.

Can I just tell you... inviting only the girls was the best idea we have had in a long time! No offense to the boys at Maddie's school, BUT this party was so calm and enjoyable. We started off with a fun-foam craft. The girls sat and worked on their crafts for about a half-hour! (When I tried doing a craft with boys at previous parties, they only had the patience to last about 5 minutes!) After the craft, the girls had fun playing dress-up and then we ate lunch. Again, the girls sat and talked and talked and ate.... it took them a half-hour just to eat their lunch! (With the boys here, they would have eaten in about 10 minutes so they could then run around the house some more!) We played some fun games like Pass the Parcel, Pin the Tail on the Pony (Tim and Maddie decorated the game themselves), and Horse, Horse, Pony (like Duck, Duck, Goose). We then had cake and ice-cream. Here is the pony cake that I made for the party. It took me way too long, but I like the challenge!

We wrapped the party up with the girls watching Barbie & the Three Musketeers, as requested by the birthday girl.

Previous parties that we've had here at the house seemed to last forever, but this party felt like a breeze! Maddie said it was her best birthday party ever (which is exactly what she said last year, and will probably say again next year). I'm just glad she had fun.

I had to include this picture of Collin. He was able to grab the Cheetos off the counter and was helping himself after the party was over. I guess it was a fun day for us all.

Stonehenge and Avebury

We finished up our trip down south by driving to see Stonehenge. Friends of our from here had warned us that it wasn't quite as impressive as they had hoped because it just sits there on the side of the highway. But, we didn't feel that way at all. As we approached and spotted Stonehenge, we both became very excited. Now passing that enthusiasm onto the kids wasn't quite as easy.....

When we arrived, we were all supplied with headphones to listen to some background information about Stonehenge. Unfortunately, the cold, rainy weather was quite a distraction. We certainly didn't feel like lingering. But we did learn and observe a few new things like: Did you know that there were three construction periods to build the stone portion of Stonehenge? We were also able to observe the "tongue & groove" method that was used to hold the top stones in place (you can see an example in this picture on top of the tallest stone). I had previously learned that these stones were brought here from hundreds of miles away, but it was quite another thing to see the stones and consider that fact. We also learned that the circle serves as a calendar of sorts.We were also able to observe other stones outside the circle that had significance (like the slaughter stone), and the mounds that were scattered throughout the surrounding area (they looked like man-made hills). Driving away, we spotted a house that had a mound in the front yard and one in the back! I wish I had taken a picture.... ah, the mystery!

After our time at Stonehenge, we drove about 45 minutes north to another stone circle that predates Stonehenge by 500 years, called Avebury. (When we got there and told the kids what we were doing, Tim whined, "Another stone circle??!!" What a very terrible life he has!)

Here the stones are not roped off, so the kids could get an up close look. This stone circle is much larger than Stonehenge, and actually surrounds the whole village. In fact, it is the only stone circle in the world that has a pub within it! Here are a few up-close pictures, and I found this picture on-line. The aerial perspective shows how large this circle really is. We had a great trip. There was a lot of driving and a lot of whining and a lot of money spent, but it's always worth it. My kids have seen Stonehenge. I really have to pinch myself sometimes!