Our First Time Snowshoeing

November 17, 2009 Tuesday

Bry took the day off from work and we went out snowshoeing. We gave each other snowshoes as our early Winter gift for each other. The kids were babysat by Kyleah at her house.

We went to Mt Rainier--Paradise (This is where we used to build our igloos and spend the night in them when I was a kid.) It was cold day, and there was a lot of fresh snow, making it a beautiful day to snowshoe. We went out on a closed snow covered road. Our goal for the day was just to get used to our new gear. We stopped at an area with a pretty waterfall and had lunch.
Then we headed back to the car and stopped off at the Sunrise lodge for some coffee, cobbler and ice cream.
It was a wonderful day!

Bry putting on his snowshoes for the first time--in snow!

I'm all ready to go!

Bryan broke the trail and I would follow--I couldn't understand why he would huff and puff!

If I had taken my snowshoes off, I would have been up to my waist.

Bryan had to dig a hole--he brought his new shovel

Here we are at our lunch stop
The valley was pretty behind us.

Bry setting up the camera--
I was quite entertained with his having to run back and sit next to me!

Our waterfall view

Enjoying the day

This bird was the only wildlife we saw until we started driving home and we saw a couple deer.

an old rocking chair

November 22, 2009 Sunday
Casper and Cea had their pictures taken in my Grandpa's old rocking chair (my mom's dad). I thought they looked very sweet!

Casper is a Fun, Active kid!

Cea is wearing her favorite dress, that she picked out NEW at the store!

(She doesn't get too many NEW outfits, so this is pretty special!)
She is quite a cheery little girl!

The Annual Plachinda Bake

November 14, 2009 Saturday

Each year the Annual Plachinda Bake Day gets more and more crowded, as more and more grandkids join in with helping Grandpa bake! Hmmmm, pretty soon we will just drop the kids off with grandpa and go do something else!?!?! hehe Yeah right!--Within 5 minutes, there would be a meltdown of tears and tantrums, and that would just be Grandpa!!! :)

Anyway, here is the scoop:
Today we are all "obligated" to have quality/quantity time with my dad baking plachinda! Plachinda is a German Pastry that is filled with pumpkin (or other things, but we prefer pumpkin). The day is busy with counting cups of flour, Dad exclaiming about how perfect the dough is (cuz he made it), and then everyone telling each other they are pinching the pastries wrong, or filling them too full, or there isn't enough sugar, etc. --As you can see, it is a fun day!
However, it has become more fun with the grandkids now involved in the process--they tend to like to roll out dough that they have dropped on the floor, licked, or otherwise abused, and then think we should use it for real!--hopefully the oven kills all the germs!! (Or that they didn't notice we kept handing them the same ball of dough!) As for my sisters' husbands, and my husband--well they grin and bear it--as they have all developed a liking for plachinda as well.
Thanks to Ginny and Samantha for helping Grandpa grind the pumpkin days earlier.
Thanks for Steve and Ginny for hosting the event (as usual) and for providing a delicious lunch.

First you have to make the dough!

Hmmm can those kids count to 16? or was it 12? or was it????
Then you mix the dough--Look at all those helpers!

Now we roll the dough into a log to divide into pieces.
Some times it came out into an even number, sometimes into an odd number, and NEVER the same number!

Casper wants to get in on the fun!

Mircea flattening her dough out

Casper starts out looking like a pro

Danny looks for tips from Casper

Roll Roll Roll
Check out the muscles!

The whole group of cousins--hard at work

Ginny rolls each lump of dough--I mean each carefully divided segment of dough (that is hopefully a FRESH/non-child touched piece) into an oval.
Then I fill with pumpkin, top with LOTS of cinnamon and sugar, and pinch it together, once a little water is brushed on the edges.

Place onto a pan and Bake

And here is the finished product!

Here I am again, working hard!

The kitchen is full of help!
This is one time where there is too many cooks, and that is just fine!

Mom helped out too!

See! I told you we had fun!
Can you imagine his smile if you could somehow combine making plachinda with bicycles?!
Uh oh, I hope he doesn't read my blog--this might give him ideas. . .

Grandma arrives with OUTFITS! The kids now have aprons AND chef hats!

From Left to Right: Danny, Casper, Joe, Samantha, Alex, Mircea

Porsche, Beth, Ginny

Troy just couldn't stand us having all the fun, so he joins in with the baking too!

Samantha is also big enough for a more active roll!
She helped with the adding of the cinnamon and sugar. She is a great help!

Grandma Gladys and Lucille were quite happy amid all the activity


Soon, the kids took some time out to play before lunch:
There was lots to do when they weren't baking as well.

Lucille even joined in with the playing!

Ahh yes, this must be the kids table for lunch! --Oh, Hi Dad! :)
It was a great meal of chilli, and cole slaw, and I forget what else--oh yes, plachinda!

Then onto celebrating a birthday!
Alex turned 2 years old!

A Plachinda Birthday Cake!?!?!?!

Wow! Your mom really went all out this year for your cake Alex! :P

Opening of the gifts! (This one was from us)

There was a lot of help with opening the presents!

Even Aunt Beth helped out! :)

The only one that didn't help open the presents was Casper, and then we all saw him over at the table finishing off the "birthday cake"! He was being very quiet--probably hoping he could finish off the cream before we found him!

Making Jerky

November 12, 2009 Thursday
Bryan made some homemade Jerky from his venison. He cut up a roast, seasoned it and put it in the oven for a long time. It was declared delicious by the whole family

Handsome is as Handsome does

November 1, 2009 Sunday
Check out the hottie!

Halloween

October 31, 2009 Saturday
Bry went with both kids to the supermall to go trick-or-treating. I stayed home to hand out candy.

At home just about to leave (Casper took off his puppy costume)

At the mall
They didn't end up going to far, Cea got tired of it, and decided they could come home.

Painting Pumpkins

October 29, 2009 Thursday
Cea and I had picked out some pumpkins, and I had bought some paint--as knives, kids and myself do not mix very well. . . We had fun painting away, and were rather proud of the result--we are both around the same level of artistic ability.

Everything is ready to paint

The end result

The proud artist--getting ready to display the art at the front door