Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Fat Tuesday!

We had a great Fat Tuesday today. Eva started the day by running into our room at 6:30 or so announcing that it was Fat Tuesday and that we should eat King Cake!

On the menu was Boudin Blanc - an excellent Cajun sausage stuffed with pork, rice, spices and pepper. It is considered a fast food in LA because it has everything stuffed in one sausage. It originated in frugality since rice is cheaper than meat, it was meant to help fill the casing. Yum!

Red beans and rice - a little spicy, but everyone seemed to enjoy it!

Stella had 2 platefuls of our Fat Tuesday dinner, and both Eva and Mickey finished it all without complaining too. I'll have to see if Whole Foods carries Boudin Blanc year round or not because it was a fast, tasty meal!

Lastly, of course, we had our King Cake, which takes it's name for the biblical 3 kings. It is a ring of twisted brioche like bread topped with icing and purple, green and gold sugar. Ours was filled with cream cheese! Now, King Cakes usually have a baby either inside or on top of the cake...ours was on top, so I cut the pieces and we drew numbers to see who got the baby. Eva won! She should have good luck now and somehow has to provide us with next years King Cake, but I think next year I am going to try to bake it myself! I guess she can help me!

Everyone in our house knows that on holidays, I am going to bring some trivia to the table. I think it's good so the kids have a clue why we celebrate holidays and events! Some questions from this years trivia:

What does Mardi Gras mean?
Literally, fat Tuesday

Why is fat Tuesday celebrated?
It is the day before Ash Wednesday, where traditionally Catholics would fast for the next 40 days, so fat Tuesday was a day of overindulgence before the fast.

What are the colors of Mardi Gras and what do they mean?
Purple represents justice; green - faith, and gold - power

What is Mardi Gras known as in the Christian calendar?
Shrove Tuesday (pancake day)

Happy Fat Tuesday!

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Eva's fancy Valentine's tea party

We had a lot of fun at our fancy Valentine's tea party. Hannah, Lula, Grace, Elizabeth, Georgia and of course Eva and Stella were there.


We decorated our old candle tree stand with fancy boas, beautiful red and pink jewels and red necklaces for Eva's friends.


On the left: heart shaped open faced sandwiches made with wheat bread, strawberry cream cheese, and sliced strawberries.
In the middle: our fancy table.
On the right: Sun dried tomato rollups with corned beef, cream cheese, and lettuce.


Eva is working hard here in the kitchen making red clay for her friends Valentines. Once we made the clay, we rolled it out and used a heart shaped cookie cutter to shape them!


These fancy glitter hearts were the tags Eva made to put on her Valentine's goodie bags for her friends (which contained the clay hearts) - Very sparkly!


On the left: Gerber daisy centerpiece
In the middle: Heart shaped tea bags - a must for a Valentine's day tea party!
On the right: Pipe cleaners for our craft, but also a wonderful table decoration!


My happy girls at the party...and in the middle, it should have been a photo of Mickey, but he disappeared as soon as all of the little fancy girls showed up! Instead, the hearts are the wonderful clay Valentine's made by Eva!


Stelly...she's so cute!


Eva thought it would be a good idea to line up her high heels just in case her friends forgot theirs! Again, very important for a fancy tea party!


The party scene...


Ring shot - this made me laugh...I guess I just love doing these at weddings, so it seemed like a good thing to do here too!

An Interpretation: by Eva

This morning, Todd called Mickey downstairs and told him to get started on his math homework and that he needs to get all caught up by the end of the weekend. Eva looked up at Todd and told him that he is mean sometimes. So, Todd asked her why she thought that? He explained that sometimes Daddy needs to encourage Mickey so he can reach his full potential. I overheard this from the kitchen and was thinking, I wonder what Eva took out from that sentence - 'encouraging Mickey to reach his full potential.' So I poked my head out and asked her what she thought Daddy meant by it. She said, 'it means God loves Mickey.' Hehe.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Watch out for that Vixen!

Mickey asked us if he could ask a girl out on a date this week. We had a big discussion and Mickey revealed that this girl has been out on dates before. So Todd says something about how she already has experience and may be a vixen. So vixen catches Mickey's attention and he immediately asks what it means. We usually tell him to look things up, which is what Todd ended up saying. Mickey got quiet and about a minute later said, wait, you mean a reindeer? My poor, sweet, innocent boy :)

Sunday, February 01, 2009

That was...

We went out for lunch the other day and when we were driving home, Todd took a corner just a little faster than usual. From the back seat, we heard Eva's little voice exclaim "Oh, Daddy, that was..." She paused for a few seconds and finally came up with - "Special!"