Happy Easter

my insanely awesome Easter Bunny Cake!

Easter Egg Hunt

The eggs are dyed. The carrot has been left out for the Easter Bunny. The cake, which will be turned into a big, coconut-covered bunny rabbit head tomorrow, is cooling off on the kitchen counter. The kids are in bed. I think they are very excited. I know Blue is. The Lion seems a little mystified by all of this. Last night, I was putting his jammies on him before bed and he was wriggling all over the place. I was a bit tired and cranky and told him to lay still because the Easter Bunny was watching him. He got very still and asked me, "Why? Why does he do that?"

"Why does he watch you, you mean?"

"Yeah, why does he do that?" He seemed a bit freaked out and I realized it is a little disturbing, the idea of some giant bunny watching your every move. So I explained that the Easter Bunny is like Santa, and he will reward children who behave well. Lion seemed reassured by this explanation. Santa he understands.

We took the kids to the neighborhood Easter egg hunt this morning.


There are so many kids in our neighborhood! It was amazing!  Lion was a little cranky (surprise, surprise) but I think that was because he wasn't sure what to do. I don't think he remembers last Easter. Luckily, he and I managed to grab some eggs the hordes of frantic kids missed as we plodded along behind everyone. Because all of the eggs were snatched up within minutes.


Blue made a new friend. A little girl who is her age and who lives around the corner from us. And Jonathan and I just love her parents! I had met the mom back in the winter at a little neighborhood boy's birthday party. And I really liked her then, but for some reason never called her. And she still has my number on her fridge, but hasn't called me either. I know she has my number there because we went over to their house on the way home, after hanging out with them in the park for hours after everyone else had left. I think Jonathan and I have made some new friends!!!!!

Tonight we had some pizza and dyed Easter eggs. I wondered, as we were boiling the eggs, how many other families were boiling eggs tonight. What a bizarre holiday.


As I was getting the salad ready for dinner, Blue announced: "That was not the real Easter Bunny we saw today."

I asked her what she meant and she said, "It was not the real Easter bunny. There was somebody inside of that bunny. I saw their neck when they hugged a girl."

Lion was listening with his eyes wide, so I explained that the real Easter bunny is magic and he only comes around on Easter Sunday and that the bunny we saw today was just someone dressed as a bunny for a photo op. But a big huge part of me felt terrible lying to her. Especially since we have a strict "No Lying" policy in this house. But they are only little (and they only believe in magic) for such a short time...

Later she told me she saw the Easter bunny out the window. That he looked back at her and then headed left. Left, she repeated, as if this were significant. And also that the Easter Bunny is as large as Mabel. That is one big bunny.

The Lion ran to the window, too, but he didn't see any Easter Bunny.

seven years!

Blue returns to school and ballet this week after a week of spring break. What a long week, with me sleeping and lying around blowing my nose and the kids playing and fighting indoors to avoid the falling and melting snow. I am slowly returning to the land of the living and the kids are returning to their normal routine.

Today is Jonathan and my seventh anniversary!


We are making a delicious dinner tonight to celebrate. It is a recipe from The Log Cabin, a family-owned seafood restaurant in Stafford where I used to bus tables as a teenager. Leila got the recipe while she worked there and now it is a family favorite. It is very easy but it is very decadent, so Jonny and I only make it on special occasions.

Log Cabin Velvet Shrimp
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
½ cup finely chopped green onion
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon Chef Paul Prudhomme's Seafood Magic seasoning
½ teaspoon minced garlic
1 pound peeled, deveined fresh shrimp
2 cups heavy cream
2 tablespoons water, optional
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded Muenster cheese
16 ounces hot cooked rotini pasta

Saute green onions and 1 tablespoon of the Seafood Magic in butter. Cook about 1½ minutes. Add garlic and shrimp. Cook about 2 minutes, stirring occasionally, then add 1 cup of the cream and the remaining Seafood Magic. Stir and scrape any browned bits off sides and bottom of skillet. Cook about 1 minute and add remaining cream. Cook 1 minute, or just until shrimp are plump and pink. Remove shrimp with slotted spoon and set aside.

Whisk cream mixture over high heat and bring to a boil. Continue to whisk for 2 to 3 minutes, then add a little water (if desired) and cheese. Cook 1 more minute or until cheese has melted and is incorporated.

Return shrimp to skillet. Stir to coat shrimp with sauce and remove from heat. Serve immediately over pasta.

Happy Anniversary, honey!

sniffle sniffle cough

I have been fighting a cold all week. And by "fighting" I mean lying in bed, sleeping almost all day and then all night. Jonathan has been amazing - letting me sleep all the time, taking care of the kids, making dinner and managing to get all of his work done ahead of schedule. Have I mentioned I am married to Super-Man?

He is flying back out to Virginia for a week at the end of the month. We have a tenant in Richmond who has not paid us rent in for ever. I have complained about her before and so now, unfortunately, we have to evict her. Grrr. We have tried to be patient and understanding, both of us knowing what it is like to be completely broke, but I think she is just in way over her head now and has no hope of getting caught up. And we really need her rent money to help pay all of our mortgages. So. There you have it.

So I will be very lonely and frazzled and sleep-deprived that week. I hate sleeping without Jonathan. Every little noise sends my heart racing. Even with our alarm system, I still sleep with one eye open. Plus the Lion talks in his sleep. Actually, he yells in his sleep. "Get out of here, Blue!" "Leave me alone!" He is a very angry little guy when he is sleeping. In his dreams, he kicks some serious ass.

They started swim lessons this week. Blue had been taking lessons this fall when we lived in the apartment and I finally found a place up here for her to take lessons indoors. And Lion, since he is potty training (finally) is taking lessons too! His first lesson was awful. He screamed and yelled almost the entire time. But the instructor was very patient and said he did fine, no worse than most first-timers. She warned me that his second lesson will be even worse, since he will know he is going in the water, but that by his third or fourth he will be fine. I hope so! He is very loud and did I mention this is an indoor pool? So it is very echoey in there!

March madness

Sunday:

Thursday:
I don't know if you've seen this on the news wherever you are, but Denver got hit hard yesterday. We have about 2 feet of snow in our backyard. It snowed all day long. All day. To someone from Virginia, where it will snow and then as soon as you notice it is snowing, it stops, to someone used to that kind of sporadic snowfall, yesterday was amazing. Jonathan and I are used to the weathermen predicting 1 - 2 inches of snow, and that is usually rounding up. So when the weathermen here were telling us to expect between 7 - 16 inches, I was amazed. That is a huge discrepancy. Not 7 - 10 or even 15 - 16, but 7 - 16 inches. And we got it. And every time I caught a glimpse out the window, I stopped what I was doing to just watch it fall.

Jonathan took the kids and Mabel outside to play for a little while. But it was just falling and falling and the kids got very cold. So for most of the day they were inside and we were all driving each other a little crazy! I took advantage of Jonathan working from home to get some more painting done. And the kids watched a movie and ate popcorn. And played in the basement. And colored pictures for everyone we know. And we made a batch of cupcakes to celebrate Lion finally pooping in the potty! And then we decorated them. I had no ready-made frosting so I whipped up some buttercream frosting. That frosting immediately brings to mind every birthday cake my mother ever lovingly decorated for me. Needless to say there are only 3 cupcakes left.

Thank goodness the snow is melting pretty quickly under the bright Colorado sun because I am out of things to do to keep everyone from yelling at each other! Jonathan managed to shovel the driveway and sidewalk today (it took him a few hours) so he could go out and get some work done. But for the most part, everything: preschool, bodypump class ... was canceled. Which is unfortunate considering the number of cupcakes I ate today.

6 utterly unnecessary things

I used to make up little lists of six things (because when I tell myself to name five things, there is always one more that pops into my mind to torment me) a while ago and I have decided to start up again. Maybe I'll use them on days I cannot think of anything else to blog about. I did a list once of six necessary things, so how about

6 utterly unnecessary things:
1. litter (find a freakin' trash can, people!)
2. country music
3. mosquitos and/or poison ivy
4. shoes that cost more than $100
5. diarrhea
6. Keanu Reeves

weekend update

Jonathan (and I, a bit, but not as much) worked in the yard this weekend. It is looking a lot better, a lot cleaner out there. There is so much work to be done on Glenbogle house, inside and out, that it is overwhelming. But the upside of it is that every little thing we do makes a huge difference. Blue was a big helper out there, too, even if we did have to remind her (several times) to not dig up the grass with her shovel.  Lion also helped, but spent a lot of time sitting on his potty since we are really, really trying to get this pottytraining business sorted out.

Jonathan grilled some chicken Saturday night and I made ambrosia salad and roasted potatoes and a yummy Greek salad. It was so delicious to sit down and stuff our faces after being out in the sun all day. I think Blue had four helpings of the ambrosia salad! Then we gave the kids a bath and put them to bed and Jonathan and I watched "Rachel Getting Married."


I thought it was a very good movie, very well-acted, but very difficult to watch and therefore I will probably never watch it again.

I made some smoothies this weekend that were very good and Mom asked me to post the recipe. I got it off of one of those free recipe cards they give out in the produce section of Super Target. These are supposedly pretty healthy, but I think they taste just like Orange Julius so I could care less how healthy they are! I recommend not using light yogurt, since I used that in today's batch and the smoothies were way too sweet. I also recommend drinking them out of a tall glass with a straw, out in the sunshine while admiring all of the hard work you've been doing in the yard.

Creamy Orange Smoothie
1 1/2 cups orange juice
1 (6 oz.) container vanilla yogurt
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 cup milk
2 cups ice

Blend until smooth. Makes 4 servings.