Ceci's Baptism

No pictures of Ceci's actual birthday, although the house was decked out with fun signs from her sisters, streamers and balloons, and we went to gelato.  The real fun began a few days later in Salt Lake on Saturday, September 22nd when we gathered with family for her baptism.  Here are a few pictures of her dressed in white.

Ceci with Geoff's mom 

Ceci with my mom

 With Geoff's parents

With my dad and Babs

With Geoff who baptized her 

The cousins sang beautifully

Geoff's dad, Davey and Trent sang while Ceci changed after her baptism

It was a beautiful event.  Afterwards we all headed to a nearby park for a big birthday party.

Kitchen Help

This was my Sunday dinner dishes help...two punks (with their bobbi pin pierces).

A Bit of Tennie

Tennie sent this email out last week and it was so full of her personality I had to share it:

Ok, friends, acquaintances, and people in general, heres the idea:
you send this email to everyone in your contacts (yeah, i'm gonna get this a ZILLION times). deal? deal. Ok, here's what your dealing about:)
i want to start a movement, a trend, a habit, to say ''oh my Zeus'' in staid of oh my gosh or oh my g*d.
i would like that! actually, once you start saying it, it becomes a habit. lets try and get this around the globe! (well, not EVERYWHERE because some tribes in Africa don't have computers...:) Ok? this is going to be fun! don't just say ''oh Tennie is so funny and put this in your trash. i want ACTION or else i wouldn't have sent it to you.
the fate of the 'oh my Zeus' movement may rest in your hands...
Ok, lets do this!

ps, dont send this to creepers who will track my email... ok?

~Tennie loves you~

Adele's Caesar Salad

Adele had her first cooking class this past week and made Caesar Salad, one of her favorite dishes.  It was delicious!  Homemade croutons, homemade dressing, BBQ chicken...she worked hard.

These cooking classes are just one on one with me in the kitchen.  Unless I set out with purpose like this I get to overwhelmed with the girl's help in the kitchen, and I prefer to cook alone.  But the skill is too important and this was a way I could teach them some basic skills.  I admire my friends whose kids sit on the counter and have their hands in the batter.  I wish that my personality could do that, but it can't, so this is my solution.

The girls pick a recipe (right now their cookbook of choice is a cookbook called Teens Cook), write the ingredients on my grocery list, and then make it on their own with me in the kitchen giving them tips as they go.  They cook enough to feed the whole family lunch.

Fashion Design Workshop

Both Adele and Tennie are very interested in Fashion Design.  I found an art studio that was having a 3-hour workshop and signed them up.  This little art studio had a great energy about it, and due to the success of this workshop there will be more in the future.

The teacher is an art instructor with a personal love of fashion design.  She worked for Liz Claiborne to pay her way through college.  She is passionate and great with kids.  A great find.

We've Caught Soccer Fever

We've jumped on board to what so many parents have done before us...soccer.  All the girls wanted to play this year and at the last minute we signed them up.  Adele's age group was full until this past Thursday.  That makes six practices during the week and three games on Saturdays.  Geoff is one of the coaches for each of their teams.

We had our first round of games yesterday and the girls have most definitely caught the fever.

Adele's game was first.  Her teams name is The Neon Bananas (the girls get to choose their own team name).  Adele is playing defense and can easily outrun any girl on the field.  Man that girl is fast.  Now we just need to work on what happens when she gets to the ball...  It will come in time.  Her team won 4-1.

Tennie played next.  Her team is called The Dominoes.  Tennie also plays defense and that kid plays with all her heart.  She is hustling around and giving a good fight, and is constantly yelling encouragement to her teammates.  Her team has a lot of first time players, and the team they played against has played together for years.  The lost 6-0. 

Ceci's team, the Pink Bulldogs, won 6-2, and Ceci, who plays forward, scored four of those goals!  She would take it all the way down the field and kick it in over and over again!  She was so proud of herself, and Geoff and I were so happy that she saw the greatness within herself that has always been there.

Here is to a great season!

Dinner Schedule

For the record I am posting what we are setting out to do this year.  Sorry if this bores you to tears.

Dinners are a magical hour when everyone in the family is together.  I would like to make it more ceremonial, but by the time I get a nutritious meal on the table I'm ready to sit.  However, we are recommitting to have a little theme each night in an effort to take advantage of the learning opportunity.  Here is what the week looks like:

SUNDAY

Polite Cafe (We practice good table manners and read a section from A Smart Girl's Guide to Manners by American Girl - awesome books.)

MONDAY

Critical Thinking (using Critical Thinking Activities and Red Herring Mysteries)

TUESDAY

Moral Choices (using the weekly discussion at www.thefamilydinnerproject.org)

WEDNESDAY

Poetry (Lots of good poetry books out there, but a few we have are Dover Thrift Classics: 101 Great American Poems, Favorite Poems of Childhood and A Child's Garden of Verses.)

THURSDAY

Dinner Cards (Using Family Table Topics to encourage better conversational skills each person at the table asks the person who responded to the question a question or two about their answer.)

FRIDAY

Game Night (There are fun game ideas online, and several in the book The Family Dinner.)

SATURDAY

Doodles (The place-mats at the table are pages from Doodles at Dinner or Doodles at Lunch.  We draw and tell.  Kid's favorite night by far.)

It is easy to get knocked off track (we dropped the dinner schedule completely this last year) but I'm committing to try again!