Our week of parties

On Tuesday, the Young Women had a mother/daughter dinner.

I thought it'd work out great because Jacob didn't have a scout activity so he could deliver the papers with Dode that I generally do on Tuesdays.  Unfortunately, the papers weren't ready until Wednesday at 3:30 am so I ended up getting up at 4:00 in the morning to go get the papers so we could stuff like crazy before seminary.  My delivering was all broken up by state testing that Isaac and Elizabeth were involved with at school.  I'd do some delivering, drive to the school to drop them off, deliver some more, pick them up, deliver some more, bring them back to school, deliver some more, then try to clean the house before a party that evening.

On Wednesday we celebrated Cinco de Mayo with over 70 of our closest friends.  I'd decided we needed to have a party since the kids at church keep accosting me in the hall wanting to know when they can come over and Cinco de Mayo seemed like a good excuse for a get together.  I didn't know how many people would come since it was a school night but we had quite a turn out.  Miriam spent the party crying because of several skinned knees and toes and with hurt feelings because her friends didn't want to do what she wanted to do.  It was a very easy party to prepare for and an absolute joy to have so many people over enjoying our fun home. 

We had a Mexican potluck.  My contribution was "Mexican Potatoes" (smashed boiled reds with garlic, topped with refried beans, topped with salsa, topped with monterey jack cheese, sprinkled with tomatoes and cilantro and baked until bubbly).  It was a good way to get rid of a bag of potatoes I'd gotten from the co-op since we aren't big potato eaters.  I also did ice cream cones (you can see Janice, in pink,  in the back scooping them up) and a caramel fountain with fresh fruits. 

kids waiting to do the "big kid" zip line

kids at the "little kid" zip line and "maypole spinner"

our very full driveway

Isaac and Dode got the Trail 90 running on Thursday while I was at a day camp meeting.  Isaac is absolutely thrilled and I'm sure he will soon wear a trail around the property. I'd thought it was going to be a months long project where he'd have quality time with dad.  Instead, it took two evenings.

He wears a helmet when he rides, I promise!

We have two Trail 90's in the garage so their next project is to get the 2nd one running.  It will take a lot more work, (I hope) because it used to be someone's parts bike.  Isaac loves working on things as much as his dad so it will be a labor of love.

Miriam enjoying her Friday in a tree

Friday was teacher in service and since my kids are public school students according to the state of Washington (although we consider them home schoolers) , we take the same holidays as the rest of the district.  It was a beautiful day so when I got back from my free friday morning Zumba class at the church, the children had friends come over to play.  Anastaya and Elizabeth each had a friend over and Isaac ended up going to a friend's so we had Seth come over to play too.  A great time was had by all.

Pink lemonade in the treehouse gazebo

For the 2nd week in a row, the co-op wasn't as smooth as it could be.  The truck didn't get here until 9:30 so we weren't done distributing before people started arriving.  The driveway became a real life example of one of those games where you have to move one square to move another.  We got:  bananas, apples, oranges, pears, cantaloupe, lettuce, potatoes, brocoflower, corn, chard, celery.

Miriam went to my mom's for the weekend so we were down one child.  Once we were done with the co-op craziness, Dode, Elizabeth, Anastaya, and I rode our bikes into town to run some errands while William was napping and Jacob was holding down the fort.  With only two children along, it was rather relaxing! 

Sunday we had 21 for dinner.  My mom, her husband Greg, my brother Matthew, Dode's grandparents, his Aunt Viv and Uncle Dave, his sister Sheri and her husband Joel along with their 4 kids.  We had a nice dinner of lasagna, pork tenderloin, chinese chicken salad, rolls, brocoflower, and two desserts.  Poor Dode had agreed to make me dessert for mother's day.  He wanted to really spoil me so he made homemade chocolate ice cream too.  He spent hours Saturday making the two items, with lots of requests for help with techniques and where to find ingredients.  Last night, after waiting all day, we tasted his ice cream.  It was a recipe I'd made several times, made using the same ingredients I use but the results were just not the same.  It tasted very strange, but after all that work, I ate it.  The texture was wonderful, very smooth and creamy, but the flavor was off.  I felt bad that after all his hard work his ice cream was "not worth the calories" and as I lay in bed, I tried to brainstorm what had gone wrong.  Dode figured it out this morning when he went to make french toast for the kids.  As he poured in the vanilla for the french toast, he noticed that it didn't smell like vanilla.  He was using maple extract.  He realized he'd used the same bottle for the desserts he'd made on Saturday.  Maybe a little maple with chocolate would be ok, but the amount he used didn't taste like maple at all, it just tasted wrong!  Both desserts he'd spent the day making ended up in the trash.  I felt so badly for him. 

 I was also pretty dissapointed.  Dode says there was steam coming out of my ears when I learned the dessert was terrible.  When he'd started making ice cream on Saturday, I'd made sure he knew that what I really wanted was triple layer chocolate mousse cake.  He assured me that he was going to make it as well as the ice cream, and he did make one, it just didn't quite turn out.  There was just enough time before church for me to whip up another one and as I hurried through the steps, I suppose I wasn't the sweetest most patient person in  the room as family members kept asking me questions and making demands on my time for things they could very much do on their own.   I also whipped up a cheesecake I decided we needed since we found out Saturday night that we were having Dode's family over for dinner too.  I was literally pulling the cheesecake out of the oven as I went out the door for church.   Dode says I was so mad at him I wouldn't sit by him at church.  The whole story was that the bishop's wife was out of town and his four kids were on the bench behind us doing what siblings will do when no parent is around, pinching, pushing, fighting so I sent Dode back to sit with them.  We had quite a treat in Relief Society as the 16-17 year old boys (mine included) came in to sing to us.  I sure feel sorry for those other mothers who have sons without smiles as wonderful as my son's smile.

same size bottle,

same color liquid,

very different flavors!