Our Big Boy

Happy Fourth Birthday to our wonderful Bennett!

We love you so much, and are so very proud of you, and always entertained by you too. We're having a Thomas the Train/Lightning McQueen (Cars) family party tomorrow night. B's birthday celebration at school is tomorrow morning. We're thinking about having a friend birthday party to celebrate both Bennett's and Annalise's birthdays sometime in March.

Bittersweet

Mike and I are preparing to set off on an unprecedented adventure. We are leaving our three children, the apples of our eye, our greatest accomplishments, our pride and joys, in the care of grandparents, as we head to New Hampshire, by way of Boston, for FIVE DAYS! I am attending a medical conference, and Mike is planning on sleeping the days away. I was planning on bringing a laptop to blog on the go, but Mike shot that idea down. I also mentioned that I planned on bringing the camera (we're hoping to do a tree canopy tour and zipline in the White Mountains), and Mike was surprised- I don't know how he expects me to get some good blog posts out of this, gheesh! I am looking forward to taking pictures of something other than my little sweeties. I'll close with a few pictures of said sweeties:We love watching the Winter Olympics. Go USA! Storytime

Rarin' to go

Buck Hill tubing, 1/30/10

for Katie's work winter event

Bennett's stomach bug didn't last for long. Colin seems to be on the mend, but it's really hard to tell, since he has been pretty crabby in general lately. But he doesn't feel as feverish at least. We had a really nice time with E,K, C, and K on Friday night. As expected, I didn't take any pictures, so you'll just have to imagine.

We are gearing up for a busy week, as Mike and I leave on Saturday morning for a medical conference, after having a family birthday party for Bennett's 4th birthday on Friday night! Bennett's birthday celebration at school will be Friday morning, and when asked what he'd like to bring for his class treat, he replied, "cherry pie."

We've really been enjoying the Vancouver winter Olympics in our household. Annalise loves the figure skating, and gets really excited to see "that long-haired guy" (Shaun White, the snowboarder).

Gastrointestinal Distress

We're in the midst of another busy week. Mike and I are having Chad, Karen, Eric, and Katie over for dinner on Friday night. Mike and the boys did the grocery shopping this morning, and I hope Mike gets the house cleaning done during the day tomorrow.

Colin has had a fever for about 4 days or so, and has had some loose, AWFUL smelling diapers lately. We had to bump up his iron sulfate intake, since his hemoglobin recheck at his 15 month appointment showed he was still anemic (just like his big sister Annalise), and that has a lot to do with it too.

Bennett has vomited 4 times this afternoon, and evening, and is such a sad little guy right now. Mike woke up this morning with a weak stomach (that's about as bad as Mike gets, without liquor involved, that is), so obviously something is trying to creep into the F family household. Annalise and I plan on staying strong, and avoiding this whole GI mess.

I'll try to post some pictures of our dinner party. We always have such a good time that we forget to commemorate it. I guess that makes for better stories as we age- we will be able to remember things however we want!

Quote

"I told my penis to stay dry tonight."

- B, who has been struggling with nighttime urination lately

Mommy = Proud

Annalise brought home a list of "synamins" last week. Pretty cool.

Watch out!

These are amazing, absolutely delicious cookies. Bake them at your own risk (but I do encourage you to bake them). Warning- plan ahead! Don't go thinking you'll be able to whip up a batch and eat them right away- they need to chill. And then cool after coming out of the oven- they taste better if you can wait awhile.

Chocolate Toffee Cookies
(Adapted from Bon Appetit)

1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 pound bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped (it will be melted, so you can buy bags of chips instead)
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1 3/4 cups (packed) brown sugar
4 large eggs
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
5 1.4 ounce chocolate-covered English toffee bars (Skor or Heath), coarsely chopped (they also sell bits in a bag)
1 cup walnuts, toasted, chopped
Flaky sea salt for sprinkling (optional)- I couldn't find this, but used coarse sea salt and liked it

Combine flour, baking powder and salt in small bowl; whisk to blend. Stir chocolate and butter in top of double boiler over simmering water until melted and smooth. Remove from over water, Cool mixture to lukewarm.

Using electric mixer, beat sugar and eggs in bowl until thick, about 5 min. Beat in chocolate mixture and vanilla. Stir in flour mixture, then toffee and nuts. Chill batter until firm, about 45 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper. Drop batter by spoonfuls onto sheets, spacing 2" apart. Sprinkle with a pinch of flaky sea salt. Bake just until tops are dry and cracked but cookies are still soft to touch, about 12-15 min. Cool on sheets. (Can be made 2 days ahead, Store airtight at room temp.)

Slice and bake option: After struggling a bit to scoop these cookies, I rolled the dough into a log and chilled it. When I was ready to bake the cookies, I cut it into 1/2" slices. Cookies baked straight from the freezer may need an additional 1-2 min. [ I didn't try this yet, but just remembered that I wrapped a log of dough, and threw it in the freezer- oooh, off I go to bake the rest!! They made a wonderful breakfast with my diet Mtn Dew (I know, it sounds like I'm tipping off the side of the wagon, but I am really still hanging on).]

New Math

Bennett doesn't usually talk too much about his current work at school, but yesterday I was asking him if he had done any new work lately, and he absolutely lit up. He leaned in to my ear, and whispered in a perky little voice, "I did number work." I was thinking, oh that's nice, and asked, "did you count up to 10?" Buzz whispered, "I counted to twenty and a google."