Gabes frame lab

No pictures today, I'm charging my battery so I can take lots and lots of pictures on my trip with Kate. Today finishing up loose ends and running errands before we leave tomorrow. A big thing checked off my todo list was getting Eric's glasses fixed, Sara broke the arm a few weeks ago, twisted it right around and Costco (where we got them from) couldn't fix them but told us a place called Gabe's Frame Lab may be able to, and yippee they did and a fine job they did to. It was a bit of a relief as if they couldn't fix them Eric would have had to get a new prescription and new frames, an expense I wasn't too excited about right now, anyway Gabe's came through. We then ran to Old Navy to make a return, as we were leaving Old Navy I was moving Kate's booster seat around in the car and smushed the glasses, they bent right across the bridge and I was soooooooooo, very, very angry at myself but we were still in the vicinity of Gabe's and so we went back and they were fixed in about 2 seconds and the guy didn't charge us, I was soooooooooo relieved!! Anyway, if you ever need glasses fixing go to Gabe's Frame Lab, they are super nice.

A blessed recovery

Today Eric had a little surgery to fix a bone spur that was causing him some terrible pain on one of his toes. A few days ago my mind wandered, I'm not sure why but I went into the "what would happen if he didn't come out of surgery" it was a gray day as I contemplated what would happen if I lost by best friend, the girls lost their father, if I had to try and raise them on my own, I know they do surgery all the time but there's always a chance. Is this a woman thing or just a crazy me thing? Whilst he was in surgery a thought crossed my mind, Eric's patriarchal blessing (for non mormons if you are confused about what a patriarchal blessing is visit http://www.mormon.org/) talks of serving a mission with his wife and so it brought me comfort to know that as long as we do live faithfully the Lord has grander plans for Eric, also I do know I can trust Heavenly Father completely and if anything did ever happen to Eric I will be able to trust in him to help me through, and, I have a deep rooted conviction of the plan of salvation, to be sealed together as a family (again mormon or lds.org) and that is what ultimately brings me comfort, that if anything were to happen to any member of my family I truly do believe that we will be together again. Anyway, Eric is fine, he was able to come home around 1pm and is just resting his achy foot, Kate especially loved hanging out on the bed with him. I have to say a huge thank-you to Julie for being so willing to watch Kate and for picking her up and taking her to Keatons little pre-school co-op and for Christie who welcomed Kate in as it was her turn to host.

And... to Eric's dad who arrived last night to watch Sara for me today. Sara is a little clingy to her mama & dada but she does love her grandpa and was a little angel for him. Kate & I are leaving for England on Saturday and I've been feeling like it is all just bad timing to be leaving Eric with Sara, also my dad's kitchen is undergoing the ceiling being repaired but Eric's wonderful parents are coming to help him out with Sara and hopefully despite the kitchen possibly having no ceiling and the ensuing dust etc Kate and I can still have a fun time together.

Ever wondered....

What my girls would look like with long purple hair?

Well here they are, Kate is rocking away to one of my favourite Christmas carols, Little Donkey, its British. Kate was going to be a rock star for Halloween but at the last minute she decided to be a superhero and ended up just wearing a tea towel as a cape. Anyway, at least we are getting some use out of the wig!!

Happy Thanksgiving

All ready for dinner, Eric proudly exclaimed that he had done Sara's hair! Kate so cute as always.

The ever beautiful Amber and sweet Grace who is just 2 months older than Sara. Haylee and her leftovers.

Kate and Sara enjoying their dinner, we ordered them fish to share but they ended up eating my pasta!! Kate as always was so well behaved, we can take her anywhere and Sara surprised us both by being a little angel herself and sat through the entire meal.

Jon & Gina, always a fun time with them around. Chris, Ethan and Haylee, Kate's beloved cousins, she loves them lots and lots.

Great company. Sara relaxing after her meal.

The kids loved the birds that hang around outside afterwards but we did narrowly miss getting pooped on a few times!!

Game on - Setters!! Eric loves playing with Chris and Amber and its always a little more fun if you can add some extras so it was a bonus to have Jon and Gina play too. I had to come home and put Sara to bed, and blog.

I am pretty easy going about what we do and where we go for thanksgiving, after all is really isn't my holiday, I spent the first 21 years of my life entirely unaware of it existence but I have to say now I am in on the little celebration that all of you this side of the pond enjoy and call thanksgiving I like it. If I am honest I would say that to me its no more than Christmas dinner in November except the added bonus to thanksgiving is that no gifts are required, no one expects to receive one or give one and that takes the pressure off entirely, it is just family and/or friends getting together to enjoy one another's company. This year we stayed close to home and went to Gladstone's with Chris, Amber, Haylee, Ethan, Grace, Jon & Gina, I have been to Gladstones before and this time unfortunately was the same as last, the food was O.K. and I'm sure that I am just not ordering the right thing but left once again unimpressed. All that said, whatever was lacking in the tasty dinner department was made up for in the great company department it was so fun to hang out with family and friends.

my little grinder

So it is official, Sara now has 4 teeth, yup that's right, 16months old and her 2 top teeth have finally broken through. With the new addition of these teeth she has discovered the art of grinding and grinds her teeth together, when I pull my ugh! face she laughs and does it again for some more of the delightful reaction of her mum.

Ah, that sweet sound of grinding teeth.

Oh! I am just so funny!!

Just couldn't resist the pictures of her in her new dress from grandma, she just looks so grown up to me, she's not my little baby anymore.

Let there be pie!!

I'm not sure if I've mentioned it on my blog or not but I just took a basic cooking/canning class with Brooke. It was 6 classes that were held every other week, I really enjoyed them, enjoyed getting away for the evening and enjoyed learning a few new things. I learned how to can, we canned bread and butter pickles, sweet and hot peppers and some absurdly delicious stuff called tomato jam. We also learnt how to make the perfect biscuits, a Thai chicken curry, a delicious chopped salad, salad dressing, cranberry sauce, clafouti, how to poach the perfect egg and finally how to make a pie crust. It was a great class and the teacher Paul is a great cook, seriously we kicked off on the first night and one of our discussions was about salt, the different types etc etc anyway we conclude with this dessert that was just from heaven, it was this butterscotch stuff that was delectable and it went with the salt as there was a sprinkling of salt on top. O.K. so pretty much we would always have something delightful to eat at the class, usually something we had learned to make, one night Paul (who had previously taught us how to poach an egg and sent us home to practice poaching for the week) had us poach eggs in class, then he showed us how to make the perfect biscuit, then he served us our poached eggs on top of his perfect biscuits and well, it was truly delicious. I can still taste the clafouti and red Thai chicken curry, uummm! So hopefully you get the gist, we watch, we help make, we help eat. Our final class - we are covering dessert, we begin by talking about cheese and a cheese plate as a dessert course and as usual we sample, they we go onto making a pie crust, we watch, one of us helps make and then as its going into the oven we are told that the delicious berry pie filled with raspberries, blueberries and strawberries that we would have to endure the fragrance of as it slowly cooks for the next hour we would not be getting to taste, it was not for us. We wailed, we cried, we moaned about our terrible fate and Paul brought out one of his favourite desserts to quiet us with, he placed a bowl of frozen berries in front of us and then brought around a large jug filled with hot melted white chocolate and heavy cream and poured it directly over the berries. I have to say, it was good but it wasn't pie!!

Class of 2007! Brooke, Paul, Cheryl, Gabrielle, Tara (check out her blog and version of the events here) and Rick. So fun to get to know, I will miss those fun evenings we have spent together.

This is Paul, amazing cook, this is the type of stuff he makes - Short Ribs braised in red wine sauce, with homemade gnocchi, Parmesan and a chiffonade of red shiso, I don't think you'd find that on allrecipes!! Also a picture of the cheese plate, everything was fancy and beautifully finished, and tasted oh! so good at Paul's house.

DENIED! Can you guess which pie we were denied and which pie I made? Maybe Kate's little pastry creations will give my pie away!! I have to say in Paul's defense he must have known that I would rather have the pie as we made 2 pie crusts that evening, one he made by hand, the other he showed us how to make in a food processor. The latter he so kindly gave to me to take home, and the next day I used that pie crust and made myself an apple, pear and cranberry pie, it was quite tasty, I made my pie and I ate it too!!

Portraits

I got the pictures back from Target, Kate was quite the gem, Sara had different ideas, which I guess is a true representation of Sara at her age. Regardless I think they are cute but I may be biased!

The Skirball

Today I had reserved for Kate, Sara and I to go to the free day at the Skirball to check out Noah's Ark, I did really want to do it with my dad but this was the first available day. I am really beginning to appreciate LA with all of the amazing things there are to do, especially the freebies, most places have a free day at least once a month, The Huntington, The Natural History Museum, The Skirball, LaBrea Tar Pits and I'm sure I've missed a few. Anyway, back to our day, Kate had her final class at the Rec center in Burbank this morning and then this afternoon we checked out the Skirball, it was really fun and I love the way they have you go for just a 2hr time slot, it really wasn't crowded at all and I really enjoyed that as my kids really got to check things out. Enjoy the pics.

Sara was so excited when I let her out of the stroller and she could go right up to stuff and touch and run around, that is a cool thing about the exhibit, the kids can touch and play with everything.

Sara loved this, you pull down the lever and it creates wind, you have to pull pretty hard but she figured out a way to do it using all of her weight!

This was Kate's favourite thing, she loaded on her giraffe's, turned the wheel to send them up into the ark, they came down the shoot and she began again.

Sara found this little tea kettle and fell in love with it, I had to quickly distract her from it when it was time to leave it behind. She also loved this swing.