Bon Appetit!

It doesn’t get much better than this week! First of all, we had a visitor, Uncle Alan. Secondly, we saw Philadelphia at its best. Thirdly, I learned things that will change my life, and fourthly, we ate incredible food.

About six months ago I was having lunch with my friend when she asked me, “If you could take a cooking class for any type of cuisine what would you choose?” Without even having to think I responded, “I would have my brother teach me French Cuisine.” Then the lightbulb went off. Why hadn’t I ever done that?! I have the chef of all chefs in my family and, besides greatly enjoying his feasts, I had never taken advantage of the opportunity to learn from him. To quote my girls, “What in the wirld?” The wheels in my head began to turn and I started making this idea materialize. This week, with four friends we had our French Cooking and Eating Class with Chef de Cuisine Alan Staker. It was a huge success.

Alan arrived in town on Tuesday. He came walking off the plane carrying an 11 pound bar of chocolate. That was the first sign that this visit was going to be a little different. The second sign was that we headed straight for Costco where we purchased 15 dozen eggs, 12 pounds of butter, and four quarts of cream among many other delicious things.

The girls were thrilled to see Uncle Alan. Jane kept saying, “Alan, I love you!” with her head cocked sideways and her shoulders shrugged in her shy but sincere way and Kate kept writing out plans for Alan’s visit such as this, “or plan go to the art msyom next go to plys toch come back hoom et lonsh go to the stor by a dog go bak hoom broch tyth go to bed.” (translation: Our Plan = go to the art museum, next go to the Please Touch, come back home, eat lunch, go to the store, buy a dog, go back home, brush teeth, go to bed.” She obviously wanted to plan the very best days possible while Alan was in town.

Wednesday morning Alan and I loaded the girls in the chariot and walked down the Benjamin Franklin Parkway to Reading Terminal Market. It was fun to walk through the city and seeing Alan interact with the merchants at the market was one of the highlights of the week. He had called ahead and ordered a knuckle bone. You should have seen the looks when the butcher brought out a huge bone that looked just like a cartoon dog bone. A complete stranger even stopped to ask Alan what he was planning on doing with the bone. We went to a cheese shop, a fish counter, a spice vendor, several meat counters, and a vegetable shop. Each merchant was thrilled to have someone really interested in their product and consequently more than willing to share their expertise. I think Alan has a least a dozen new best friends.

Josh met us at Reading and we had lunch together, pastrami sandwiches which made quite an impression on Alan. I wish we had had time to go back for another one. Then Josh and Alan headed to Wharton to see the school and print out recipes. The boys arrived back home almost at the same moment that my four friends walked in carrying boxes and laundry baskets full of pans, cookie sheets, aprons, stock pots, pie tins, etc. for our first session of French Cooking.

Session 1: Butchering a Duck, Starting a Dark Stock, Flavoring Meat with Fresh Herbs

From the moment we arrived home from Reading Terminal Market, my stove and oven were in constant use for the next 4 days. The smells permeating from 2502 caught the attention of the whole neighborhood. Even strangers walking by would, after a double take, say something like, “Wow. That smells wonderful.”

Wednesday evening was low key and relaxing. Alan read stories to the girls before bed. The adults played games and ate treats while the bones in the oven roasted away and we all made it to bed at a somewhat reasonable hour.

Thursday morning Jane woke up early and Alan took her out on a run. Just about the time I was trying to decide whether I should head out to look for them, they showed up at the doorstep. Alan enjoyed the path along the Schuylkill river so much that he just kept going and going and going. They ran at least 8 miles that morning. After they returned we headed out for a few Philly adventures. We went to the Franklin Institute, the big science museum. They have a special exhibit right now about Leonardo Da Vinci. The girls were spooked by the minor key music in the introductory video and the rest of the exhibit was a wash for them, but Alan and I were captivated. What a mind! A team from Italy has reexamined Da Vinci’s diaries and tried to construct models of some of his inventions. We saw his flying machines, his city plans, a life size lion made out of wood that could walk on its own, and some of his works of art. The girls were both begging to leave after an hour, but I was able to distract them by helping them construct a model of Da Vinci’s self supporting bridge. That was honestly one of my favorite parts. Alan then humored the girls by going with them to see some of their favorite parts of the museum, especially the giant heart and the machine that shows you how much blood you have in your body as determined by your weight.

Our next stop was the Barnes Foundation. This is a private collection of art, mostly impressionist and post-impressionist, located a few minutes outside the city. They are moving this collection into the city next year, but it is worth seeing in its original location. We dropped Alan off there (it’s not a kid friendly place) and let him spend the afternoon while the girls and I did preschool. Directly from the Barnes we headed home to raise the blood sugar of the kiddos and prepare for our second cooking class.

Session 2: Second Stage of a Beef Stock, Butchering a Chicken, Chicken Stock, Starting a Yeast Dough, Soaking Beans, Roasting Beets, Prosciutto Shrimp, and Cooking a Fish Filet

As my cooking friends were walking out the door, another friend who graciously offered to watch my girls for the evening was walking in. I hurried to get the girls in their pajamas, change my clothes, eat a few prosciutto shrimp, brush my hair, call Josh to see if he was going to make it home and get us all out the door. We didn’t have time to deal with parking so we started walking toward Center City and caught a cab to the Kimmel Center as soon as we found one. My parents treated Alan, Josh and me to an evening at the symphony! I haven’t been to a symphony since we left our income in Utah. I hardly realized how much I have missed it until I heard the first few notes of Tchaikovsky’s Second Piano Concerto fill the hall and felt my heart soar. The Philadelphia Orchestra is stunning! They played with amazing precision and passion, you almost felt like you should hide your eyes at times. All I can say is, Alan jumped to his feet to give a standing ovation! If you know Alan, you know that is an amazing compliment. After the symphony we decided to walk home through the city and conveniently ended up walking by a gelato shop on our way home.

Our picture perfect evening concluded with an account of the less than ideal behavior of our girls for the babysitter and a dish washing party extending into the wee hours of the morning, which became our nightly ritual from then on. I guess a reality check is always a good thing.

Friday was our first all day cooking class.

Session 3: French Cuisine

Beef Stock, Stroganoff, Beef Bourguingnon, French Onion Soup, Chicken Stock, Potato Soup, Split Pea Soup, Baked Potatoes, Pot au Feu, Lima Beans, Sautéed Duck Breast, Duck Sauce, Mayonnaise, Hard Root Vegetables, Whole Wheat Rolls, Almond Milk & Dates, Duck Confit, Beet and Watercress Salad, Tenderloin in a Salt Crust

The Five Julias, as we like to refer to ourselves, arrived at 10 o’clock in the morning and we went strong all day. The idea behind our class, which was pure genius on the part of Alan, was that instead of focusing on producing a specific meal we would work on techniques. The dishes we learned built on each other. Whether it was butchering, seasoning, or cooking we would repeat techniques as we went along. By doing so our confidence built and the reasoning behind what we were doing became clear.

Remember the saying about giving a man to fish and feeding him for a day versus teaching a man to fish and feeding him for a lifetime? I felt like Alan not only taught us how to fish, but by teaching us why each part of fishing was important made it so not only can we eat fish but duck, chicken, shrimp, beef, or whatever vegetable or herb we happen across! I tell you, this was a life changing event.

Like all good adventures there were some tense moments, but nothing to compare with the breakdown of the disposal near mid-day on Friday. We had two dishes finished, potato soup and pea soup, and seven more in process and suddenly the sink started filling with brown water. I’m sure my eyes bugged out, my heart momentarily stopped, and the future of our cooking class flashed before my eyes. Alan calmly told everyone to take a lunch break and try the soups while he and I figured things out. Then he proceeded to take apart the entire disposal! He said he just thought of Grandpa Alden and how he used to say, “Just look at it and you can figure out how it works.” Guardian Angel Grandpa must have been there because somehow we got the disposal taken apart, found the tiny bone which was stopping it, and, most surprisingly, got it back together again!

Once the disposal was functioning again we were unstoppable. We sat down at about 10:30 p.m. to eat all the food we had made. Every bite of every dish was amazing. The ea soup and the lima bean were perhaps the most surprising; because no one expected much, we were stunned by the result. The stroganoff was out of this world. I can still feel the strips of meat practically dissolving between my teeth. The pot au feu was light and fresh. The duck with the duck sauce was inspiring to the taste buds. The onion soup, well, Lori put it best when she said, “I think this onion soup changed my life.” For dessert we had tenderloin, which came out of the oven at 11:30 p.m--the grand finale of the evening, which certainly did not disappoint.

Saturday morning at 10 o’clock we began again.

Session 4: French Pastries

Pecan & Chocolate Cookies, Short Crust, Short Crust with Sugar, Short Crust with Sugar and Almonds, Lemon Tarts, Puff Pastry, Baked Brie, Croissant, Almond Milk, Egg Nog, Creme Anglaise, Cinnamon Ice Cream, Cheese Cake, Ganache, Pastry Cream, Molten Cakes

The only thing that could possibly follow all that amazing food would be french pastries. We learned all about shortened doughs and thickening milk and cream. The climax was puff pastry and croissant. Again, we worked all day long. We stopped around dinner time and ate some of the cuisine from the night before that had been perking overnight, Beef Bourguignon and Beet and Watercress Salad with Duck Confit and a Tangerine Vinaigrette. Josh, who had been watching my girls for the last two days, and Lori’s husband, Todd, were able to stop by and eat dinner with us. Sitting down after all that work to a delightful meal with an appreciative audience was a great moment. We paused for a few minutes to enjoy the fruits of our labor, have some could conversation, and let our feet rest. The Cinnamon Ice Cream finished churning just as we finished eating so we had a lovely dessert as well.

Again, the techniques used in each of the pastry recipes built on one another. By the end of the day we were tempering eggs, layering dough, and dipping tarts with confidence. After dinner we had dessert after dessert after dessert including lemon tarts , chocolate pastry cream, creme anglaise, and egg nog. The last things we pulled out of the oven were the ham & cheese croissant and an amazing baked brie. It was around midnight before the Julias packed up their boxes and laundry baskets and headed out the door in a well fed, masterfully instructed, and completely exhausted haze.

We had a great group of Julias. Five ladies, all young mothers and wives of graduate students, who love cooking but were eager to learn to take their cooking up a notch. We were all ready and willing to go until we dropped each day, while trying to absorb all the information we could. We really had a lot of fun together. Tiffany had her camera going. Lori had her camcorder going. The rest of us were taking notes. This may end up being the most well documented cooking class in the history of the world.

Amazingly, we made it to church on time Sunday morning. Alan woke up two minutes before we had to leave and managed to be ready before we had the girls packed in the car. After church we went on a motorcycle tour, or rather a RAV4 tour, of Old City Philadelphia. We did a drive by siting of the liberty bell and Independence Hall. We took a brief walk down Elfreth’s Alley and then went inside Christ’s Church for a few minutes and enjoyed the amazing smell of lilies.

Alan and I went to the Cappucci exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I left Alan there to look around and went home on the pretense of taking care of my children and really hoping to take a nap. When I woke up two hours later, I heard noises in the kitchen! I went downstairs to see Alan giving Kate and Jane their own cooking class, which was the highlight of the weekend for Kate. They were making apple turnovers.

Session 5: A Private Wrap Up Session

Apple Turnovers, Short Dough Taste Test, Apple Pie, Lemon Tart Filling, Pastry Cream, Chocolate Banana Creme Pie, Italian Strawberry Tart, Egg Nog

When you have the chef ready and willing to instruct, it is hard to stop. I couldn’t believe Alan was back in the kitchen Sunday, but we managed to again cook the night away. We had apple turnovers for dinner, apple pie for second dinner, and banana cream pie, Italian strawberry tart, and egg nog for an after midnight snack.

When I was in Ohio with Greg and Shannon, Alan drove down from Michigan one night with a duck in his car. He started cooking the duck when he arrived. Sometime in the middle of the night Greg and Shannon had to call it quits thanks to residency induced exhaustion. The duck finished cooking and Alan and I sat across the table and ate the entire duck with our chopsticks while we talked the night away. That is one of my favorite memories with Alan. I kept thinking of that night this week. Undoubtedly, this cooking class will be another equally pleasant memory.

Monday morning we headed to the Please Touch Museum. Kate had been dying to take Alan there from the moment he landed in Philly. We spent a few hours following the girls around to their favorite exhibits. Alan acted like shopping in a miniature grocery store, making pigs out of floam, and shooting foam rockets were the only things in the world he could possibly want to do at that moment. From the Please Touch we headed to Longwood Gardens. After all the work we had made Alan do, we felt like he deserved a trip to Longwood. It is still the Orchid Extravaganza and it was truly lovely. I had to literally drag Alan out of the conservatory in order to catch a late lunch at the “resternaut“ before we took him to the airport.

We had quite the week! Thanks to Alan for coming. Thanks to Mom and Dad for helping make it happen. Thanks to Lori for the inspiration. Thanks to Josh for watching the girls. And, thanks to the French for showing the world how to cook!

Growing

Someone stole an hour from my night last night and I certainly noticed the difference! I’m hoping to sneak in a nap this afternoon, but we will see how that works out.

Spring break started out for me with a long day of jury duty. Although part of me was hoping to be chosen just to have the experience of serving on a jury, I was not too sad to be dismissed at the end of the day. After hours of waiting and being shuffled from one waiting pen to the next, I was finally in the jury selection process for a civil case. A young, good looking black man was suing a local hospital for not plowing their parking garage well enough....pain, emotional damages, etc, etc. etc. I imagine my level of sympathy must have been apparent on my face. Couple that with the fact that I come from a family of doctors, and it was pretty easy to predict that the attorneys were not dying to have me on the case. I was not dying to stay either, so it ended well.

The rest of our Spring Break was spent in whittling away at our list of items that needed to be done but haven’t received much of our attention. We accomplished a lot, but it was not the most exciting Spring Break in the history of man. It was nice to get the balling rolling on a few things like the fact that we have to move half way across the country in two months. Woodford Planning is back in all its glory.

I received complimentary tickets to the Philadelphia International Flower Show this week. I was so excited! When I brought it up to Josh, however, he was less than enthusiastic. As reward for such a response, he got to watch the girls and their two friends while I went to the flower show with my friend. We had a fun evening wandering through the flower show and wishing we knew more about flowers and then going to Reading Terminal Market for dinner.

As compensation, my friend then watched our girls the next night and Josh and I went out on a date. It had been a while. I hardly know how to act on a date anymore. We went out for hamburgers and then went to the art museum for Art after 5, where they have live music and open the galleries in the evening. It was a fun, laid back evening.

My heart has been a little sad this week because of the earthquake in Japan. It has been over ten years since I was there, but I still love that country and its people. I was reading an article in the New York Times yesterday about the earthquake and found this quote that stuck out to me, "people were not panicking — typical of a nation accustomed to order and schooled to stay calm and constructive. The few shops open have people queuing nicely with no pushing or fighting or anything.” Calm, constructive, respectful; a great culture even in the face of tragedy. I pray that God will bless them in this difficult time.

The highlight of the week was yesterday afternoon. After a slow, calm morning, a trip to the park with a friend, and a family run along the river we went over to the Azalea Garden by the Art Museum to ride bikes. When we pulled out the bikes a few weeks ago, Kate’s beloved skuut was looking rather small. Her helmet didn’t fit on her head and her legs looked much too long for the skuut. So, we lowered the seat on the skuut and passed it to Jane, who now wants to be called “big Little Jane,” and bought a two-wheeler for Kate. Yesterday was the first day the sun was shining since we bought the bike so off to the park we went. I helped Jane on the skuut and Josh helped Kate on the bike. They both did great. Jane’s favorite part was getting on and off the skuut, but she made a little forward progress in between. She would sit on the seat and then say, “Giddy-up!” and start moving forward. After an hour she became more interested in the sticks and rocks by the edge of the path than riding on the path, so I let her play in Jane world while Kate finished up. Josh did a great job with Kate. By the time we were ready to head home, Kate was riding on her own the length of the entire sidewalk! It was so fun to see the look of determination on her face and the smile when she realized she was riding on her own. We had to drag her away as the temperature started to drop, but it was a great beginning. Jane summed up the afternoon’s experience best as we were coming in the house. She said, “I finked I could do it and I did did it!”

The girls have a new game to add to regular itinerary of imaginary games. They play Spirit now almost as often as Mulan, cowgirls, Nutsy & Trigger, and Pocahontas. Jane is Spirit. The up side is she gets to be the main character for once instead of being the side kick. The down side is she gets tied to the bunk bed, the closest thing we have to a real train, and has to try to “pull it up the mountain.” The crazy thing is she loves it! As I left the house one evening my parting instruction to Josh was, “make sure Jane isn’t tied to the bed all evening.” I didn’t realize that could be misunderstood until my friends started laughing.

Prayer time is always an adventure with little ones. Kate is coming out of a rote prayer/ get-this-over-as-quickly-as-possible phase and into a thoughtful prayer phase. This week in the middle of one prayer she said, “I’m frustrated about leaving Philadelphia because I don’t want to leave the Please Touch.” We had a good talk afterward about how it is good to tell Heavenly Father things you are frustrated or sad about as well as things you are happy about and grateful for.

Next week my brother, Alan, is coming to visit. We have all sorts of fun cultural things planned, but he also kindly agreed to teach a two day French Cooking (and eating) Class for me and a few friends. I am so excited! This has given me something just for myself to look forward to for weeks (I love having something to look forward to), and now it is practically here.

Have a great week. If you smell incredible cooking smells they are coming from Meredith Street!

Maple Sugaring

For some reason my letter was not happening today until after dinner.

New England. In so many ways New England is the America we learn about as children: four distinct seasons of equal length, red brick houses, narrow streets, big cities surrounded by beautiful, lush countryside, a melting pot of culture and racial diversity, and history all around you.

We had a storybook New England experience this week when we attended a Maple Sugar Festival at the John James Audubon Center. On the drive out to the festival we re-read the “Sugar Snow” chapter of Little House in the Big Woods. The girls were as excited as Mary and Laura when we arrived. We saw and tasted the sap being drained out of a towering maple tree. We saw big black kettles of sap simmering over a fire just like we had read about in Little House. Kate carried a yoke with sap buckets hanging from each side. We also learned about the Native American method of extracting and reducing the sap, which Kate the Indian loved, of course. We tasted maple sugar cakes, made crafts, learned how to make maple candy in the snow, and even saw some owls, or “hoo-hoos” as Jane calls them.

This has been a week of adventures and creativity. We made a trip to the aquarium, enjoyed a Little Explorers program at Bartram’s Garden about rain, mud, and worms, and made our first Springtime trip to the park. When it’s rainy and cold we stay inside. When the sun comes out, we come out too.

We went to a Native American craft program at the library. The girls met an beautiful Native American girl from the same tribe as Pocahontas. They were pretty much in heaven. They each made a dream catcher. Jane was hilarious at this craft. She wanted to do it all by herself. She wouldn’t let me help her with the stencils. She wouldn’t let me help her peel the backs off the stickers. She wouldn’t even let me help her sew the web. She watched what everyone else was doing and figured it out herself! She did a great job, too. Her finished product was much more abstract than what I would have done, but it actually looked really cool. Never underestimate Little Jane. The peak of Kate’s creativity this week was when she made an Indian outfit out of construction paper. Josh helped her with a few of the final adjustments but she did most of it on her own. Our construction paper and tape supply took a substantial hit, but I figure that is what it is for after all!

Kate’s preschool is going really well. She simply loves to learn. She and Makenna have a lot of fun together, but they manage to learn a little at the same time. They have learned to count by 2s and 10s, add and subtract, make things equal or more or less. They are writing their little letters, not Kate’s favorite, but I guess she has to have something to work on in Kindergarten. We are learning about the seven continents. She can point out the continents on the map and tell you that the cool animals are from Africa, the Andes, where Llamas live, are in South America, Texas is in North America, and Asia reminds her of Asialene, Makenna’s Mom who is her other teacher. She announced to her Dad at dinner one evening that she was “dying to go to Europe!” She learned that Europe is where they make chocolate and pizza and pretty pictures and cool buildings and she decided she NEEDS to go there. She reads every street sign, billboard, and truck as we drive now and is always begging to read Cowboy Sam or work on numbers with Dad when we are home. I hope she always has this much enthusiasm for learning.

Josh has been home a lot more in the evenings lately. The girls love to play with him. He’ll ride around on stick horses, play cowboys and indians, fight bad guys, and wrestle way past bed time. The girls can’t get enough Dad time and I love to listen to them play while having a chance to get something done on my own. Josh works on math with Kate and is teaching Jane letters. Jane can tell you that you that J-A-N-E spells Jane and M-O-M spells Mom.

I had a fun Girls Night Out this week. Three of my dear friends here (Asialene Smith, Lori Mortensen, and Emily Brady) recently had birthdays so we went out on the town. We went to a restaurant called Max Brenner. It’s all about chocolate, which means I’m all about it! We had a nice evening out together--took a cab and the whole city bit.

Josh was helping me make some adjustments to my settings in Facebook this week. I was talking about how I was “friends” with so-and-so or needed to be “friends” with x___. Jane was sitting on Josh’s lap and piped in with, “Savanna is my friend. And so is Sarah. And so is Jilly. [Big Smile]” I’m glad she knows what it means to be a friend!

This week is Spring Break. We are looking forward to some time with Josh. For better or for worse, I have jury duty starting tomorrow. That throws a bit of a twist into our Spring Break plans, but we’ll see how it plays out.

Social Beautifulflies

I’m home from church again, this time with a sick little Kate. I’m actually not completely sure whether she is sick or just utterly exhausted (I would fall in the latter category). She is breathing like a Darth Vader and I heard the beginnings of a barking cough last night. Either way my mom instincts were telling me to let her be this morning. She, of course, would insist that she is “not sick and NOT TIRED!,” that is if she were not completely comatosed in her bed. I think we may have overdone it a little this week.

I began the week off by hosting a luncheon for my “Asian and Asian-looking friends.” Last year I became friends with a few Wharton spouses from Japan. For some reason our schedules haven’t been in line this year and I haven’t seen as much of them, but I really wanted to have them over again before we all go our separate ways in May. I also invited my dear friends Jinhee, from South Korea, and Asialene, who is as American as can be but she looks Asian. They are both from the Wharton LDSSA group. Aya, a first year spouse from LDSSA who is from Japan, also joined us. Thao, a young mom from Germany whose husband is doing a pediatric spinal surgery fellowship in Philadelphia, completed the group. Thao lives in Edgewater and became acquainted with Aya and some of the other LDS moms. She joined us at playgroup one week and was so excited to find other mothers getting together during the day. She is German, but looks Asian, so I figured she would fit right in as well. ☺ I made Nicoise Salad, spicy herbed breadsticks, and a citrus pound cake for dessert. We had a nice time. Chaos reigned upstairs with all the kids playing, but below them the mothers had a relaxing, fun time together. Sometimes it is nice to have an opportunity to associate as adults.

Tuesday was preschool in the morning and a trip to the dentist in the afternoon. I discovered since I broke my tooth a few weeks ago that pausing to get my tooth fixed does not fit into my schedule. We finally managed to find a dentist that would accept our insurance and I went. This place was the Great Clips of dentistry. Clean. No frills. Acceptable, but not luxury. That is just what I needed however, because I just wanted a dentist to glue my tooth back in as a temporary fix until we are in Dallas. As the dentist told me, “this is not a normal procedure.” He also added, “so I don’t know exactly how it will turn out.” Always comforting to hear before you lay back and open wide. It looks good enough that it won’t draw attention to itself. Now let’s just hope it lasts.

Wednesday was our long anticipated Snow Party. Most of Kate’s friends have already turned 5 and consequently had birthday parties. Kate’s little heart wanted to have a party too! She kept inviting her friends over, “Come to my house tomorrow for a party.” After overhearing this at least six times I decided we needed to have a little talk. I told her that we could have a party, but it needed to be something we planned together. Thus was born our “Snow Party.” On Wednesday we had seven little friends over. We had a snowball fight with white foam balls, we made snow globes with beautiful flies inside them, and drank hot chocolate and ate snowballs (vanilla ice cream rolled in coconut). The party was fun, but the best part by far was seeing the girls’ anticipation and excitement. Although it has been showing signs of Spring around here lately, we got four inches of snow the day before our party and Kate was delighted. We cut out snow flakes and hung them from our ceiling. Jane walked around with her arms outstretched saying, “It’s snowing inside. It’s so beautiful!” Kate climbed up on the counter and sat there looking out into the living room most of the morning because it was “a good view.” Both girls were giddy with excitement as they waited for their friends to arrive. Fun times.

We have recovered now from all of our social events, well somewhat. At least the house has been scrubbed. We are back to hanging out with friends rather than entertaining. There is a time and season for both, but low key is always nice.

We got Cowboy Sam and the Indians in the mail this week. Kate the Indian nearly went wild. She ran to the couch hugging the book and started turning the pages. “Oh boy! Oh boy! Oh boy!” she kept saying. It was one of the cutest Kate moments of all time.

Kate gave me a couple great compliments this week. One was Tuesday night as we were making an example snow globe for our party. As we were watching the glitter fall like snow she said, “Mom, you are so awesome!” Then yesterday she said, “Mom, I love you more than (pause) my soft green!”

Jane is in a really cute phase. I can’t believe how much she is growing. She’ll be lost in her pretend world for a chunk of time and then check in and ask you to read her a story. One moment she wants to be independent and run down the sidewalk without holding your hand or ride her scooter without any help and the next moment she wants you to “hold me”. I’m about to get out the clothes Kate was wearing when we moved here for Jane to use as the warm weather arrives. Craziness.

Cute kiddos. If it wasn’t so exhausting to take care of them they would be practically perfect. ☺

While we have been playing and entertaining Josh has been working hard. He has midterms approaching and has also been spending a lot of time working on his business idea. They made it to the semi-final round in the business plan competition at Wharton, have been making all sorts of presentations, are working with a PhD Stats class to develop the algorithm for their site, etc. He is looking forward to graduating and starting with BCG, but this is a fun experience in the meantime (i.e. Don’t worry, Mom and Dad, he is not going to give up BCG. His partner may give up on recruiting, but we are going to Dallas!).

What a Day This Has Been

A Day of Love

We are typically not known for our grand Valentine’s Day celebrations, but this year we made up for it. We had a Wharton Kids’ Club party in the morning where the girls ate way too much chocolate and made Valentine’s crafts to their hearts’ content. Then we took valentines around to our friends and neighbors. Josh came home in the evening with a bouquet of flowers for the girls. Jane was already in bed, but Kate was giddy with delight as she arranged the flowers in a vase. Once both girls were asleep, Josh and I snuck out of the house. We have a great little restaurant across the street from us and Josh had made a reservation. I checked on the girls between courses, but mostly we just had a really nice night out together. I ordered Seafood Risotto. Josh had Filet Mignon. And, we even had dessert!

A Day of Work

Tuesday was back to reality. I taught preschool. We cleaned the house. Josh went to school and we had a “To Do List Diminishing Party” in the evening.

A Day of Running Here and There

Wednesday was exhausting. We had a make-up gymnastics class in the morning, went to the grocery store and ran other errands, and then helped out some friends in the afternoon. We drove all around town in the evening picking up YM and YW, taking them to our activity and then returning them home. By the time we parked our car and started walking toward home both girls were in tears begging to go to bed. We may have done well on the productivity side of things, but were somewhat lacking in the parenting department.

A Day of Spring

We had one day of gorgeous Spring weather this week. Thursday was so pretty we didn’t even have to wear jackets. Fortunately, we planned an outing with our friends to the zoo. We couldn’t have asked for a prettier day. I think the animals were loving the break in the weather as much as we were. They were so active. The black panther and the jaguar were happily prowling around. The snakes were moving. The otters were playing. We saw a joey in the pouch of a mother Kangaroo. The gorillas were running around their outdoor play area. The orangoutangs were swinging. Even the tortoises were strolling around.

A Day of Recovery

Kate was the star of gymnastics on Friday. She was smiling from ear to ear and did a great job in her class. Jane still had a hangover from Wednesday, so after gymnastics we cam home and took it easy. Jane napped, Kate the Indian played, and Mom worked on taxes. Not too exciting, but nice to have some down time.

A Day to Remember

Saturday was nearly perfection. Josh and the girls let me sleep in. We had German Pancakes for breakfast. We went for a family run in the wind. Well, Josh ran. I was defeated by the fact that I had to turn backward to breathe and felt like I was on a treadmill because the wind was blowing so powerfully in my face that I was making dreadfully limited forward progress. We made up for the misery, however, by heading to Longwood Gardens after lunch. I have been wanting to go see the orchid festival and Josh was able to make time to join us. It was beautiful! I took picture after picture, filled my lungs with the sweet fragrance of the flowers, and enjoyed every moment of being in one of my favorite places on earth.

As if a taste of paradise wasn’t enough, we drove back into the city and went to a local cafe that specializes in chocolate! We ordered hot chocolate. This was not your ordinary hot chocolate, more like melted chocolate bars in a mug. It was too rich for Kate, but Jane was in heaven. She relished every bite with a look of complete satisfaction on her face. As we were driving home she said, “THAT was a good dinner!” A girl after my own heart.

Josh is still very busy at school this semester, but he usually makes it home before the girls go to bed. They are loving having some one-on-one play time with Dad in the evening. Kate and Josh ride around on stick horses and play elaborate Cowboy or Indian games. Then they practice numbers or play ball together. Jane gets her Dad to play Mulan or Winnie-the-Pooh or polly pockets. Then they usually end with some story time. I love watching the girls delight in time with their Dad. I don’t think they love anything more than having his undivided attention.

I’ll close with a couple good quotes from the girls. I had to pull Jane away from coloring one day so we could get out the door. As I buckled her into the car she said, “Next time we should buy a red car.” I, somewhat absentmindedly said, “Oh, yea, why is that Jane?” She matter-of-factly responded, “because white doesn’t show up!”

One evening during dinner the girls were planning a game of Mulan they wanted to play with Dad as soon as they were excused from the table. They were discussing who Josh should be. Jane wanted him to be Chen Po, the friendly fat soldier. Josh wasn’t so keen on that when I told him he was the fat one. So, Kate helpfully offered an alternative. She said, “Okay, you can be Ling. He’s REALLY skinny like you.” Josh convinced them both he should be Shang.

Change

The high point and low point of this week came seconds apart from each other on Friday night. We had a re-celebration of Josh’s birthday with some friends. Last week we weren’t feeling great and had a really busy day so I opted for a low key celebrations and a quick and easy cake. This week we had some of our best friends over for a simple, but tasty dinner and a german chocolate cake. Everything was going perfectly until I took my first bite of dinner and...my front tooth broke. There is nothing that can so quickly make you look ridiculous as loosing your front tooth. Lucky Josh gets to celebrate Valentine’s Day tomorrow with a toothless wonder wife.

We have been talking about some basic geography concepts in Kate’s preschool like how the world is round, learning to name the continents, and looking at maps. Kate drew a map of the world on her own this week. She even labeled it: Texas, Brazil (where Makenna will be moving), Roosevelt, and Philadelphia. As far as her world goes, those are all the places of importance.

Jane has discovered coloring this week. If she isn’t playing with polly pockets you will find her hunched over a coloring book intently coloring. She is surprisingly close to staying in the lines, but she hasn’t figured out that you can use more than one color on a page. You can see her concentration as she works on her pictures and there is no distracting her while she is at work (I wonder where she got that?). As soon as she finishes a picture she brings it over and asks me to rip it out so we can hang it on the wall.

We are doing all we can to encourage the arrival of Spring. We even dashed out for a couple of runs this week. The first day of running we were loving the sunshine and bubbling over with energy. The next day, although the temperature was higher, we just about froze to death with the wind gusting along the river. I couldn’t tell whether my legs weren’t working because they were sore or just because they were frozen. Oh well, at least we got out. I also made a brilliant discovery. They say that chocolate milk is the perfect recovery drink, well I came up with a better formula--a slice of german chocolate cake and a glass of milk! Doesn’t get much better than that.

We are just about over all the bugs that have been plaguing us. Kate typed a note to Grandpa Larry one day in the midst of the battle:

GRAMPA MA YOU TAK MI COF A OWA FOR ME LOVE KATE

Translation: Grandpa, May you take my cough away for me? Love, Kate.

I finished reading another book about the American Revolution. It has also been interesting to hear about the events in Egypt unfolding over the last couple of weeks. I can’t help but think that if there had been live, moment by moment news coverage of the American Revolution we never would have won. For starters, the British would have known how weak the Continental Army was and destroyed us after the battle of New York, at Valley Forge, or any of the other opportunities they had to do so. But even things like replacing the Articles of Confederation with the Constitution. That process began in a rather backhanded manner. What if “the people” had know exactly what was going on in Philadelphia at the time? Kind of interesting to think about at least. For better AND for worse the world is a changin’.

I Believe Phil

The “seer of seers, prognosticator of prognosticators” has predicted an early Spring. Much to my dismay we had to scrap our plans to drive to Punxsutawney to see our famous neighbor because of ice storms and snow. Nonetheless, we are firm believers in his prediction, if for no other reason than we are ready to see the sun. Jane resorted to riding her scooter around in our dungeon of all places, and I find that we all crowd together into the little patch of sunshine anytime it comes through the kitchen window just to feel a little warmth. We still haven’t braved the elements to start running, but the urge is getting stronger every day.

Josh finally caught up to me in wisdom and maturity this week, oh....wait a second, I guess it was just AGE. We celebrated his birthday this Friday by going about our usual routine with him in tow. He got to see Kate at gymnastics, run some errands in the suburbs, and hang out with the girls. We had big plans but the girls have been sick and we ended up having to downsize our adventures for a pretty low key afternoon. We topped off the day with a game night with some friends and a citrus pound cake. Maybe not the most exciting birthday ever, but we love our Daddy just the same.

Last night we invited the Wharton LDSSA crowd over for an appetizer extravaganza. Our house was bursting at the seams. No one was in a hurry to leave and we had a great time talking the night away. While the adults were downstairs socializing, the gaggle of girls was upstairs deep in an imaginary game. They were up there for more than four hours but when I went to clean up I was amazed at how few toys were out. Three cheers for active imaginations!

Jane is still loving her polly pockets. She plays with them right when she wakes up in the morning, right after breakfast, right before lunch, right after lunch, right after her nap, right before dinner, right after dinner, and right before bed. She will occasionally take a break to play an “amazing game” with Kate, dress up as a princess, read a story, watch Spirit, or help cook and then it is back to polly pockets again. She got an ear infection this week. It was pretty nice to have a two-year-old that can tell you why she is crying, which ear is hurting, and what it feels like as you try to soothe her in the middle of the night. The pediatrician was pretty amazed by her speech when we went in the next day.

Kate is as eager to learn as ever. She reads books every day, loves to practice numbers with her Dad, and is trying to master writing the little letters. She learned about authors and illustrators this week in our preschool and then wrote and illustrated her own book about...Indians, of course. She is “Kate the Indian” about 90% of the time and prefers to be addressed as such. She says, “Mom, this is how Indians ___.” You name it: run, swim, sing, wash hands, dance, eat, color, etc. She does it all like an Indian and teaches me the proper technique. Until a week ago, every time she was “Kate the Indian” she used to put on a gold cape from the dress-ups backward with nothing but her unders in the back and play her games for hours on end. Since it looked a little drafty to me, I made her an Indian dress. She wears it every day. I remember wanting to be an Indian when I was little, so I love to see her playing her “amazing Indian game.”

There are certain words we have adopted into our family lexicon that I want to record before Kate learns to read them and write them and pronounce them the correct way. It’s funny how there are certain things you are loathe to correct in your children.

closh woth - wash cloth

wirld - world, as in “what in the wirld?”

gwabage - garbage

blessed - sneezed, as in “I just blessed three times!”

E - Kate writes her E with as many horizontal lines as she can fit.