The Olsons Take to the Ice

Today, we decided to fulfill one of Annika's lifelong desires.... we went ice skating. Before heading out, we bundled up the kids and grabbed their helmets, but didn't tell the munchkins anything beyond the fact we were going on an adventure.

Fortunately for us, there's an ice rink within a couple miles of our house, which made the "getting there" portion of our adventure quite easy. As we pulled into the parking lot, Annika was quickly trying to determine where we were. She guessed an arcade (wishful thinking) or a store. Once we got inside the building and she saw the ice, she knew exactly what was going on and could hardly contain herself. I'm pretty sure that kid had sparks of excitement shooting out of her. Conor was really enthusiastic, too, until it came time to actually skate; that's when his nerves kicked in a bit.

Annika was fearless and faced the ice with verve. She's quite capable on roller skates and roller blades, and seemed to transition those skills to ice skating quite seamlessly. I doubt anyone who saw her on the ice would have guessed this was her first time. Sure, she wiped out, but she also popped right back up, announced that she was fine, and continued on her merry way.

During our time at the rink, Conor gained confidence and really started to figure out how to do some basic skating. He was more comfortable holding on to the wall and either Eric or me, but did a great job facing his fears about falling on his bum, and continued to make the rounds around the ice. He even smiled and called out greetings to Annika as they passed each other on the ice by the time we wrapped things up.

Annika is now completely sure she needs to return to the ice and start skating lessons. Conor has decided he's less jazzed about lessons, but Eric and I have told him that he did a great job today and might be more enthusiastic about skating when he's a bit older. :)

Conor and Eric making the rounds

Off she goes!

Prepping for the Olympics

Mama and Annika on the ice

Annika doing her "I'm an ice skater" pose

Eric and Conor catching their breath

Conor and Mama on the ice

Christmas 2014 Recap

How Christmas 2014 is a thing of the past is beyond me. The last portion of this year seems to have picked up enough speed to exit the earth's atmosphere. Talk about flying by!

We spent the weeks leading up to Christmas with lots of fun holiday activities, including the kids' school Advent concert, decorating the house, going to the zoo lights display at Woodland Park Zoo, sending our Christmas cards, visiting with Santa, and more.

On Christmas Eve, Eric's parents arrived for their annual Christmas Eve sleep over at our house. We love having them, here as part of our Christmas Eve traditions... and I'm pretty sure they can recite much of "Twas the Night Before Christmas" thanks to our annual reading of the classic. The kids and I (mostly I) thought we were really smart by planning on attending 4 o'clock mass at St. John's on Christmas Eve ... not so much. There was standing room only... standing room in the vestibule. As I explained to Annika and Conor, Mary and Joseph didn't expect to spend the night in a stable (let alone give birth to Jesus there) and we didn't expect to spend mass in the vestibule. Adaptation is the name of the game. We roll with it. Fr. Crispin at St. John's is marvelous and kept a steady pace to mass while maintaining reverence for the significance of the day.

After mass, we returned home to prepare our traditional Christmas Eve dinner .... breakfast. This year, we opted for Conor's favorite meal: Eggs Benedict. OK, it is my favorite, too. It must run in the genes! Following dinner, we read "Twas the Night Before Christmas" and tucked the kids into bed. It is the only day of the year that they look forward to bedtime and neither kiddo stalls. It's a lovely thing!

Conor was up at 6 on Christmas morning. Most people would groan thinking about waking up at 6, but that's par for the course for Conor, so we're used to it. Eric tried to wake up Annika at 6:30 (Conor kept asking about opening presents), but she very tiredly asked for more time to sleep. We let her go until 7:15... it was either wake her up or watch Conor spontaneously combust. Once Annika had a chance to wipe the sleep out of her eyes, the chaos ensued. We were under an avalanche of wrapping paper and bows within seconds. Everyone ooh' and ahh'd at the generous gifts we received and marveled at the energy that the kids had at such an early hour.

After we opened the stocking and tree presents, we devoured the traditional Olson family Christmas breakfast casserole ... aptly called "Christmas Breakfast" and caught our breath before the Nelson/Baker side of the family arrived.

My brother and his family very generously offered to bring prime rib over for Christmas dinner... seriously, who says no to that??? They arrived a bit before noon and immediately began cooking dinner. (Again, who can complain about being the host and only needing to prep a couple of side dishes?)

After a few hours of merriment, which included loud stories, selfies, present opening, and a Skype call with our brother in Bahrain, we sat down to an incredible Christmas dinner as a family... a loud, rippled, loved family.

As I looked around the table that night, I was reminded how blessed we truly are. We have a wonderful family who loves us. We laugh together ... cry together ... support each other ... work together ... and celebrate together. What more could anyone ask for than that??

A belated Merry Christmas to everyone ... and wishes for a blessed, joyous, and laughter-filled 2015.
 

Before the chaos

Conor sporting his new Seahawks hat

Conor inspecting his new remote control helicopter

Annika showing off her new ballet shoes/outfit

Happy Christmas girl

Annika modeling her new hat

Who's this fancy girl?

Conor making his new Lightning McQueen car fly

Cousins

December 2014 Daring Bakers' Challenge: Dutch Sweet Bread

This month, we Daring Bakers were challenged to make Dutch sweet bread. We could choose from three recipes that were provided by the challenge's host. I opted to make kruidkoek,which is a quick bread that is seasoned with cinnamon and nutmeg.

I was grateful that this month's challenge wasn't going to be overly time consuming, considering how crazy December gets. I was also grateful, after my first attempt at the challenge, for golf's creation of the Mulligan. I made the kruidkoek early in the month and really should have measured my bread pan prior to putting the batter in it. My pan was about 2 inches shorter than the recipe called for, but I decided to go for it anyway ... big mistake. The bread was still raw in the middle and the outside looked like someone put dynamite just under the surface. We chose to call it "interesting" and "unique" instead of the more fitting "ugly as all get out." On an up note, the taste was quite lovely ... very Christmas-y.

Today (nothing like working right up to a deadline, eh?), I tried the recipe again, but put the batter into two bread pans in hopes that would accommodate the quantity of batter better and allow the middle to bake all the way though. Well, I found success in terms of the batter not over-taking the pan, but still ran into the problem of the middle not being done and the outside being over done. Again, the flavor was nice, but it was tough to get past the raw middle texture and crouton exterior.

For the month of December, Andrea from 4pure took us on a trip to the Netherlands. She challenged us to take our taste buds on a joyride through the land of sugar and spice by baking three different types of Dutch sweet bread

Thanksgiving 2014 Recap

I figured that I should write our Thanksgiving recap before posting about our zoo lights outing (which was tonight). Gotta keep these things in some sort of order, or else what do we have? Blog chaos? I shutter at the thought. :)

This year, we did as we've done the past few Thanksgivings. We hopped in the car, boarded a ferry, and spent a lovely holiday on Whidbey with Eric's parents. Just like last year, they also invited my mom and Troy/Staci's crew. I love a lot about Eric's folks ... really, they are some of my favorite people, but one of their shining traits is their broad definition of family, which I share wholeheartedly. They see family as a ripple effect ... I married Eric over 13 years ago, making me family. With me came my side of the family, and they are seen as family (the loud, Irish side that they may not have bargained for, but here we are!)

We arrived early morning (gotta beat those ferry lines, you know) and quickly got to work prepping for the day's big meal. I began making pies (pumpkin, pecan, and apple/cranberry) as soon as my coat was off. Jack had smoked a turkey for us to snack on during the day  (world's best father-in-law!) which all of us gladly did and then Karen roasted a turkey for dinner (seriously, she makes a turkey that puts most turkeys to shame and don't even get me started on her gravy!). Once my pies were in the oven, I was able to be a bit more social and help wrangle the kids.

Annika, Conor, and Ian spent a good chunk of the day playing outside and building up their appetites for dinner. They rode on scooters, explored the property, and honed their sidewalk chalk skills. All the while, the dogs kept an eye on them in hopes the kids would throw a ball that the dogs could happily fetch.

We timed our dinner around that evening's Seahawks game. Dinner was set at 4, so we'd have plenty of time to eat before kick-off at 5:30. Dessert was scheduled for halftime. Oh, what a meal we had!! I think we could have fed the third battalion with the amount of food we had! My mom made the dinner rolls; Troy made Brussel sprouts with cranberries; Jack/Karen provided the turkey, creamed onions, mashed potatoes, and stuffing; and we provided the cranberry sauce and yams/apples (or as Eric calls them "Yucks and apples") and pies.

As planned, we finished dinner and cleaning up in time to watch the Seahawks tromp on the San Francisco Santa Clara 49ers. (Go Hawks!) We all cheered until we were practically oxygen deprived. Our team played well, and I'm sure part of their success was based on us yelling for them from afar.

After the game wrapped up, we all hit the hay... our tummies full of Thanksgiving dinner, our hearts full of love for our family, and our minds full of wonderful images of our Hawks playing a great game. The next morning, we ate breakfast as a family, packed up our gear, and headed to our respective homes. (And I'm sure Jack and Karen sat for quite some time enjoying the peace and quite that returned to their home once my loud side of the family departed.) ;)

Thank you to our gracious hosts. We had yet another amazing holiday and feel so blessed to have shared it together.

My apologies in advance ... I hardly took any photos this year. MANY people (ok, most people) weren't subjected to my normal paparazzi photo style)

Troy being ... well, Troy 

Cousins!

White Stuff

We Seattle residents tend to be very skeptical when the weather forecasters predict snow for our area. We've been burned too many times to have much faith in the fluffy white stuff actually visiting our neck of the woods.

When we were at Eric's parents' house for Thanksgiving (that blog post is still pending... sorry for the delay), we heard that we might get snow. Naturally, Annika and Conor were thrilled about the news. Eric and I tried as much as we could to let the kids down easy and explain that it is very hard to predict the weather for our area because of so many factors... two mountain ranges, nearby saltwater, wind from Canada and the Pacific, convergence zones galore, etc. Of course, we didn't want to crush their childhood optimism (we'll let the weatherman do that), but wanted to warn them as kindly as possible that the reality was snow probably wouldn't happen.

OF COURSE, Mother Nature had to prove to our children that their parents have no clue what they're talking about.

Saturday morning, we awoke to a lovely blanket of the predicted snow, and the kiddos could hardly wait to get out into it. Understanding the pattern of quick snow, quick melt that we often have, we understood their excitement and didn't do much of "not quite now" dissuading. We did, however, (being the cruel parents that we are) require them to get out of their PJs and put on proper snow attire before going out to play. (I know, we are jerks through and through.) ;)

The snow was really dry... not at all good for snowballs, but that didn't stop the kids from having a marvelous time throwing it at each other, making snow angels, eating it (much to their mother's chagrin), and running around like the crazy people they are known to be. Shockingly, our cold snap lasted a few days and we still have a few spots of snow on roofs and in shadowy patches of yards around the neighborhood. Not enough to play in, but enough to make things look pretty.

How does the snow taste, Conor?

Why do we bother buying groceries? Our kids obviously prefer eating snow!

Conor making it snow

Snow angels

Annika making it snow

Gotcha!

Mr. Peek-a-boo

Annika throwing a snowball at me

November 2014 Daring Bakers' Challenge: Paris-Brest

I'm writing this post as the rest of the family are off doing various Thanksgiving activities: playing cards, watching TV (currently, a dog show), rough housing, and chatting. Thus, I'll make this brief because I don't want to miss out on the fun. :)

This month, we were challenged to make a Paris-Brest, which was pretty darned exciting to me because I actually knew what it was thanks to a past season of The Great British Bakeoff (Thank you Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood!). I even knew it was a reference to a bicycle race in France. (How worldly am I??)

I chose to do a Paris-Brest recipe by Jacques Pepin (click for recipe); the final product was filled with a chocolate mousse/cream instead of the traditional crème patisserie. The whipped cream was extra yummy because the recipe called for adding dark rum to the mixture. Hello! YUM!

The Paris-Brest was a bit over baked, which was a bit of a disappointment, but the rum whipped cream made up for that little issue. :)

 

The November Daring Baker’s challenge took us for a ride! Luisa from Rise of the Sourdough Preacher challenged us to make Paris-Brest, a beautiful pastry celebrating the Paris-Brest bicycle race.

Pumpkin Carving & Halloween Festivities

My last post was all about our trip to the pumpkin patch... naturally, this post has to include what we did with our pumpkin plunder after we were home. OK, technically, we waited a few days between our trip to the pumpkin patch and the actual carving (much to our kids' chagrin), but moldy pumpkins on our porch wasn't exactly the aesthetic Eric and I were aiming for.

The Sunday before Halloween, we whipped out a ton of old newspaper, covered the kitchen table, and went to work readying our pumpkins for their big night. Everyone got to design their own pumpkins, but once the kids realized the pumpkin carving tools came with templates, they opted to ditch their original ideas and go for some of the more complex designs we could pull off with the templates. For the most part, Eric and Annika teamed up to work on hers while Conor and I worked on his (please read as: I worked on the pumpkin while Conor stood behind me saying 'Are you done yet?')

Naturally, the kids favorite parts of the experience were gutting the pumpkins... but really, who doesn't get a kick out of that experience. How often do you get gross gunk all the way up to your elbows and not only is it allowed, it is encouraged??

This year, I purchased a new pumpkin carving tool: a carving drill. While (not surprisingly) it was a pathetic drill, it did work well as a precision knife. We just didn't use its motor and it was great for small cuts, such as corners of mouths and eye holes.

There's something about the smell of pumpkins (moreover, pumpkin guts) that really gets me in the holiday mindset. There are a few trigger events that tell me "NOW this holiday is truly under way" and the smell of pumpkins being carved is one of those triggers for me. It smells of fall, excitement, and ... well ... pumpkins!

About an hour after we began, our four pumpkins were proudly on display on our front porch, just waiting for Halloween night.

Conor sketching his pumpkin's face

Annika figuring out her original pumpkin design

Eric making the first cuts

Eric and Annika working on her pumpkin's face

Conor having fun with pumpkin guts

Our final results
(L-R: Conor's, Meredith's, Annika's, and Eric's jack-o-lanterns)

There's no point in carving pumpkins if there isn't a Halloween, right? The kids' excitement for Halloween really started bubbling out of control about 2-3 days before Halloween's actual arrival. The ideas of costumes, trick-or-treating, and Annika's class party were just about more than they could stand. The night before Halloween, Annika even wrote a note that said "Big day tomorrow" and stuck it to the bathroom mirror ... lest we forget.

Once Halloween finally arrived, Annika and Conor were practically buzzing with enthusiasm.

Weeks ago, Annika decided she wanted to be a ninja for Halloween. NO problem... well, sort of problem. Because of the school's costume guidelines of no weapons and nothing covering the students' faces, she's be in a black sweatsuit and explaining that she's a ninja. So, we convinced her to go to school as a cheerleader (she got to pick between her UW and Seahawks cheerleader outfits) and then could dress as a ninja that night. It took some convincing, but the promise of pom poms did the trick. (WHEW!)

After dinner, the kids donned their costumes and, we must say, looked freaking adorable!!! Conor in his pirate costume absolutely melted my heart. He was too cute for words. (Conor didn't have school that day, so no school costume issue for him.) Annika's ninja costume worked out beautifully. We put her in a black sweatsuit (applicable and warm) and her basic ninja hood. They looked marvelous and it really took very little effort on our part, which we were grateful for. :)

Once it was time to head out for trick-or-treating, it started to rain (naturally). Fortunately, the rain wasn't too heavy and not a constant. As we wandered down our street, we came across a couple of other families, one of which included one of Annika's classmates. We combined forces and wandered the neighborhood together. The kids had a marvelous time, and the parents enjoyed chatting and getting to know each other a bit more.

One great perk of where we live is a lot of our school families live in the area. When I was  kid, I was the only neighborhood kid in private school. That is anything but the case for our kids. Quite a few CKS families live within a stones throw of our house. We crossed paths with at least 6-7 CKS families while out trick-or-treating and a few more came by our house to get candy from us. I really do appreciate and value that school's sense of community.

After scouring the neighborhood for candy galore, we called it a night. The kids dumped out their plunder to evaluate their booty, choose a few treats to nibble on, and then they were off to bed. We were all pretty darned tired and grateful for our heads to hit our pillows.

Go Huskies!

Ninja Annika

Conor the Pirate and Annika the Ninja

Yo ho ho!!

Annual Pumpkin Patch Adventure

Each year (even before the kids were born), we make the trek to a local-ish pumpkin farm in Edmonds. This year, Eric and I greatly took the weather forecast into account when picking the day (and time) to go, and are so grateful that we did. It didn't rain until we were loaded into the car, with our farm animal fix taken care of and our pumpkins rolling around in the back of the car.

Fairbank Farm is a wonderful family-run farm that is only open to the public during October and we love going there. It has escaped the commercial feel many other pumpkin patches seems to have adopted, which I highly appreciate. It isn't  a "now that you've paid your entry fee, now pay to ride our train, pay to give feed to our animals, pay to have a picture taken here" place. It is a "pay your $4, here's a cup of food for the birds, have a lovely time" farm.

We got to see baby pigs (not quite as young as the ones we saw last year, but that's ok; they were still mighty cute!), a pony, pygmy goats, geese, ducks, peacocks, and turkeys. Inside the barn, the kids got to pet ducklings, baby bunnies, and chicks. We also observed a snoozing calf and were memorized by the hatching chicks in the  incubator.

After wandering around the animal area and daydreaming about having farm animals of our own (ok, that is more of my daydream than Eric's, but in my daydreams he dreams about having some of them, too! Oh, and I don't daydream about having the farm birds... only the mammals), we found a wheelbarrow and made our way to the pumpkin patches. After careful consideration and evaluation, each of us found a perfect pumpkin to take home. Conor found "THE" pumpkin about five or six times, but was able to (eventually) find "THE THE" pumpkin for him. Meanwhile, Eric and Annika seemed to hone in on their ideal squash quite easily.

While Eric paid for the pumpkins, the kids and I spent some time in the farm's play area. There's a full-size tee-pee, as well as a old-fashioned wagon, cutouts for photo ops, and a few bales of hay to climb. A few raindrops started to fall, which was our signal to exit stage left, and I'm so glad we did. Getting home without being sopping wet and covered in mud is a wonderful bonus.

As we walked back to the car, we saw the farmer who had just used his tractor to pull a car out of the mud. I stopped to tell him how much we enjoy visiting the farm each year and mentioned that Eric and I started visiting long before we had kids. The farmer seemed genuinely touched by this and just as I finished talking, he scooped up Conor and plopped him in the tractor's driver's seat. That boy was in hog heaven! He gripped the steering wheel with gusto and made happy tractor driving noises like never before. Of course, as soon as Annika saw him, she asked why she didn't get to sit up there. (Ahh... sibling rivalry!). We explained that there is only one seat and she'd get her chance. (Whew, crisis averted.) After her turn in the tractor's seat, we thanked the farmer again and made our way home. Within just a couple of minutes, the sky opened up and began dumping rain. Talk about timing! :)

Oink

Annika doing her pig impersonation

I've decided her name is "Big Mama"

Strike a pose!

Hatchlings

Fluffy chicks

Headin to the pumpkin patch

Picking out pumpkins

Too small for carving, but I bet they'd make lovely pies!

The hunt continues

Mama and Conor... he didn't actually want
this pumpkin, but we needed a photo prop :)

Pretty sure that at this point, he was much more
excited about his dandelion pumpkins

Annika with our plethora of pumpkins

Ready to roll

My sweetie, two babies, our four pumpkins ... and a dandelion for good measure

In the wagon

Annika the scarecrow and Conor the pumpkin

Conor "driving" the tractor

Farmer Annika

I plan on doing a blog post about our pumpkin carving soon.
Until then, here's a picture of our final results :)