David the Artist

Here you see some of David's artistic endeavors of the last week or so. The first is a submarine drawn in crayon, with secret images that appear when you fill in the white spaces with watercolor paint.

Next, we have Balloon Art, which is a simple drawing that flies through the air when held to a balloon with Scotch tape. We go through a lot of Scotch tape.
Here is David in his Phantom Costume. The word "phantom" was in Paul Revere's Ride, and has become a favorite at our house.

Amazing children

We just saw some internet stories about a 4 year old singing the national anthem in Texas and a 17 month old reading on the Today show, and couldn't resist posting our own little wonders.
David and Sarah are playing "The E String Concerto" together in the living room. Sure, it only has one note, but it's a good one! :)

Michael is "reading" a birthday card to Grandma at his 2nd birthday party. Yes, he's definitely holding it right side up, saying something like "two." He does recognize letters, though, especially if they are related to Cookie Monster ("Cookie Man, C!") or Elmo ("E, E, Ehmo!").

Sarah did point to the place on the page where I had left off reading in "The Straw Ox" last night, and she found the word "Murdoch" on the page in our Thomas poetry book. "M is for Murdoch." That's not something you hear everyday! She likes the sounds that letters make.

David's musical accomplishment for the night was playing the Transformers theme song in octaves with both hands on the piano. He likes to go up and down the keyboard, playing it in every possible octave, but tonight he put two of them together so it was EXTRA LOUD. He called it "playing in chords" (pronounced like it looks). I think I remember Auntie Emmy doing something like that with the "C is for Cookie" song..... :)

Sarah's Second Dance Recital

Sarah had her second dance recital Friday night at the Family Wellness Center. For those less familiar with her, she's the shortest one with two braids. :) She did very well and is really excited about her dance classes. Afterward, we went to Sonic for onion rings and fruit slushies. All in all, a great night. Note: You might have to click on the video picture to activate it, then click again to play the movie.

Music time

We've had a lot of music in the house lately. David figured out how to play the Transformers theme song on the piano, and enjoys playing it in every possible octave, with and without the damper pedal "so it sounds like an organ." Michael, of course, enjoys dancing to the song.

Sarah has started playing the violin and really likes it! She learned quickly how to hold the box and has graduated to a real violin and bow now! Here she is, having a violin parade with big brother down the length of the living room. We enjoy playing "The E String Concerto" as a trio now!

The Birthday Party

Here are some more pictures of the party. Grandma and Grandpa Redhage brought along a beanbag toss board that Grandma had made for a church party. Everybody had fun trying to get the beanbags through the flower for 20 points. It was much easier than the mouth! The girls did win the beanbag contest by 10 points this year, thanks to Grandma Redhage's suspiciously high skill... We think she may have been practicing before the party. :)

David and Michael are enjoying the Thomas hats that Auntie Emmy made. Now all three kids can wear train hats, since David already had one. They do like hats!

Happy Birthday!

Michael is now two! We had a good time at his birthday party, with both sets of grandparents attending as well as our friends from Sioux Falls. We were thinking of having a Bob the Builder theme, but then we found some cute Thomas and Friends things, so we decided to go with that. Michael approved, as he really likes playing trains.

Here is the cake, made by David and Amy, with artistic advice from Dan. Sarah helped decorate it with the "Chipboard Medley" of Thomas cutouts. It was an Eggless Crazy Cake with white Crazy Cake filling on top and buttercream frosting decorations. We ended up using two batches of the white filling to hold it all together because the cake fell apart as we took it out of the pan. Some pieces were especially delicious with all that extra filling!

Here is the recipe for the cake, courtesy of the Dining on a Dime cookbook:

Eggless Crazy Cake

3 c. flour

2 c. sugar

2 t. baking soda

1/4 c. cocoa, packed

1 t. salt

1 t. vanilla

1 T. vinegar

3/4 c. vegetable oil

2 c. water

DO NOT GREASE PAN. (Maybe that's why we had trouble getting it out!) Sift dry ingredients into a 9 x 13 inch pan. Make 3 holes in the mixture. Put vanilla in one hole, vinegar in another, and vegetable oil in the last hole. Pour water over all the mixture and blend gently with a fork. Do not beat. Bake 25-30 min. at 350. Cool and top with filling and then frosting. Serves 18.

Filling for Crazy Cake

2 1/2 T. flour

1/2 c. milk

1/2 c. margarine or butter

1/2 c. sugar

1/2 t. vanilla

Mix milk and flour in a saucepan and cook over medium heat to a thick paste, stirring constantly. Let cool. Cream together butter and sugar. Add lukewarm flour mixture and beat until fluffy. This may take a little while. Fold in vanilla. Spread on top of cake.

Original Crazy Cake frosting (chocolate drizzle)

2 T cocoa

1/4 c. margarine or butter

1/4 c. milk

1 c. sugar

2 T. light corn syrup

1/2 t. vanilla

Bring all the ingredients except vanilla to a boil and boil for 1 minute. Add vanilla and beat until thick. Drizzle over cake.

We used this for our Valentine's cake hearts. It's really good!

Here we have Michael and Sarah eyeing the cake:

Here they are, blowing out the candles:

Our Favorite Books

We sure love books!
Our town has a good library, especially for such a small place, and the much bigger Vermillion library is not too far away, so we go to each about once a week. The hardest part about using the library (besides remembering the due dates) is having to return books we really like.
In light of that, I thought I'd make a list of the books that we particularly enjoy and would like to add to our personal collection, if we could find them at garage sales, ebay, etc.

Here's the beginning of the list:
Tomie DePaola's Favorite Nursery Tales--Tomie DePaola
The Wild Horses of Sweetbriar--Natalie Kinsey-Warnock
The Fiddler of the Northern Lights--Natalie Kinsey-Warnock
The Bee Tree--Patricia Polacco
Babushka's Doll--Patricia Polacco
Thunder Cake--Patricia Polacco
Paul Revere's Ride--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, illustrated by Ted Rand (our favorite)
On My Way to Buy Eggs--Chih Y. Chen
Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening--Robert Frost, illustrated by Susan Jeffers
Railway Rhymes--a Thomas and Friends board book of poetry

I'm sure we will add more later!