Freezer Jam

Yummy! Paige and I made strawberry freezer jam two weeks ago and it has been a big hit. In fact, at the rate the girls are eating it, we are definitely going to have to make some more soon. For making the jam, I followed the suggestion on http://sisterscafe.blogspot.com/ and used Ball Simple Creations: No Cook Freezer Jam. It's no cook and low sugar---so easy.

Our Friendly Neighbor

We have a pretty friendly neighbor who lives right next door to us. His name is Jacob and he likes to come over and visit us all the time. When he comes over, he always climbs the fence and comes into our backyard. It also seems like he plans his visits for when we are eating dinner outside, entertaining friends or playing games. I think he really likes to be around people. The girls really like him and always go outside to play with him when he comes over. A couple of times he has asked to come inside our house, but we have limited our playtime with him to outside, because he does have some boundary issues. For example, besides coming over anytime uninvited, he also does like to rub against your legs and frequently requests that you scratch behind his ears, or give him a belly rub. I know that his mom and dad are worried about him and are concerned about his intrusions into our backyard activities, but we really do like Jacob so we are very patient. In fact, I am beginning to think that Jacob is a dog that looks like a cat!

How many cats do you know that would come over and play with 12 preschoolers during a party? Usually loud, rowdy crowds are when cats disappear, but not Jacob. He just comes on over and joins in the fun, totally loving all the attention and petting he receives.

A big sign of Jacob's congeniality is that he is starting to win Dave over. Yep, I have a picture of Dave playing with a cat! Since Dave basically has a life threatening allergy to cats, this is a pretty big moment.

It's a little difficult to tell, but here is Jacob playing catch with Ashley and Dave. He watched the softball go back and forth between them like a dog would.


Here the clever cat is getting a free belly rub...



and a back scratch.

The best part about Jacob is that after we have had our fill of him, he goes back home where someone else feeds and cleans up after him. He has also provided us with some pretty serious laughs, like the time the bird in our tree started dive-bombing him. The bird chased Jacob all the way back to his own yard, where the cat had to hide under a deck chair to keep the bird at bay.

Starved Rock and Harley-Davidson

This weekend we decided to visit Starved Rock. It is a beautiful state park about an hour from our house. It is pretty popular around here and it was kind of embarassing that we had not been to visit in the the six years we have lived here. The park is in a lush and green wooded area that runs along the Illinois River. It is filled with trees, streams, waterfalls, poison ivy, hiking trails and small canyons cut by glaciers thousands of years ago.

This is the Legend of Starved Rock, which I thought was really interesting:

Starved Rock State Park derives its name from a Native American legend of injustice and retribution. In the 1760s, Pontiac, chief of the Ottawa tribe upriver from here, was slain by an Illiniwek while attending a tribal council in southern Illinois. According to the legend, during one of the battles that subsequently occurred to avenge his killing, a band of Illiniwek, under attack by a band of Potawatomi (allies of the Ottawa), sought refuge atop a 125-foot sandstone butte. The Ottawa and Potawatomi surrounded the bluff and held their ground until the hapless Illiniwek died of starvation- giving rise to the name “Starved Rock.”

Anyway, our time at Starved Rock did not include starving. We had trail mix for our hike and enjoyed a nice picnic lunch afterwards. (SIDE NOTE: We discoverd some yummy new candy at Trader Joes: mini chocolate peanut butter cups and Australia's Darrell Lea Strawberry Licorice. You should try these because they are sooooo good, but you shouldn't try these because if you do, you will become addicted---your choice.) Our family went on a 5 mile hike, up to the top of Starved Rock and then up and down a couple of small canyons and up to the top of some bluffs to lookout and enjoy the view. Our favorite was Wildcat Canyon which ended with us standing on top of a canyon looking at a waterfall cut into the sandstone. We also enjoyed the peacefulness of walking along the trail listening to the birds and the wind rustle the leaves. Fortunately, the park is filled with trees so most of the trails were shaded and cool. The toughest part was probably navigating some of the rustic wooden staircases up and down the bluffs, etc., but everyone survived and was happy.

The other new sight that we experienced was the largest group of Harley-Davidson motorcycles that we had ever seen. As we drove to Starved Rock, we noticed that there were a lot of bikers on the road. In fact, there were a lot of bikers and Harleys at Starved Rock, so many that I even commented to Dave that "I didn't know that Harley-Davidson owners were such nature lovers." Anyways, the crowning moment was as we were leaving the park and driving through the nearby town of Utica. Utica is a small town, with a main street (no stop lights) lined with brick-front stores. Parked up and down the street in front of the stores was row after row of motorcycles, there were so many. Not sure what the big event was or if there even was an event but it was pretty cool to see all those "road hogs" with fancy paint and shiny chrome. In fact, there were so many motorcycles on the road that day that we even learned the hand signal that bikers give each other as they pass one another on the highway.

I am generally not a motorcycle fan. I am of the "motorcycles are too dangerous" opinion, but I will admit for just a moment, I was thinking it would be fun to go fo a little ride! In fact, just last week a friend (Meredith) told me that she preferred bullet bikes because they were more sexy. I didn't really have much of an opinion then but the more I think about it, I am definitely a Harley girl--maybe it has something to do with big guys and facial hair?!

We Look Pretty

We had a nice visit with Aunt Debby. It was especially fun for the girls who got make-overs courtesy of their stylish Aunt.

First up was....actually it was me, but I didn't take any pictures of the final result. Love ya Deb, but that make-up was never to see the light of day, although my hair was great! I agreed to let Debby do my make-up for me one day. I was not in front of a mirror but I could tell by the heavy and repeated strokes of the eye brow and eye liner pen that it was going to be way too much. Plus, the girls were a big hint to how things were progressing. They would walk up look at me with a shocked face, then quickly shake it off, smile, and tell me, "you look interesting, mom," then run out off the room giggling---a pretty good indication of how things were going. The finished product included some serious dark and thick eyebrows---ya, I know like I don't already have the world's bushiest eyebrows! Anyways, once I wiped 3/4 of it off it wasn't too bad, and at least I know what I would look like as a 70s drag queen or Real Housewife!

Paige and Ashley didn't want to be left out and so the next day, Debby did both of them up. It was very cute and fun for the girls to have someone make them look pretty. Now if only Debby would come and do that for me every day!

and after you do the girls hair for me each day, could you make breakfast too???

Movie Time

We have been on a movie kick recently. I have seen a bunch of movies and am going to try for another this weekend. Of course, our family loves movies but we have seen a little more than usual recently.

1- Star Trek- I wasn't expecting much from this movie, so was pleasantly surprised by how good it was. Loved it! Very exciting. I also fell in love with Captain Kirk's father--what a hottie!

2- Night at the Museum 2- good family movie. It was a lot like the 1st movie, entertaining and funny, but I think I liked the 1st better.

3- Drag Me To Hell- okay Dave "dragged" me to this one. If you love Army of Darkness (one of Dave's all-time favorites) then you will love this, because it is way better. Funny and scary. Part of the experience was watching a horror movie with a crowd. It was pretty fun to sit with a bunch of people screaming their heads off.

4- UP- stop what you are doing and go see this movie immediately! I loved UP. It was so sweet, funny and endearing. Going to be one of my all-time favorites. The whole family had a great time at this movie and we laughed and talked about it long after.

Chinatown - Chicago

Okay, here I am again posting about food...but I what can I do? I love good food. Since my sister Debby, from California, was visiting us this week, what a perfect reason to visit Chinatown or in my mind a CHINESE BAKERY.



I happen to love Chinese bakeries and the ones in Chicago's Chinatown do not disappoint. My sister who happens to love bread, was very impressed with just the plain white bread/rolls. They are the sweet, soft and bready type, yummo.

As you can see from the picture, the bakery cases are filled with treats and so is our table. I really love the ethnic baked goods too. My favorite are the sesame balls filled with red bean paste-delicious! We also had some yummy coconut and sweet buns, mooncakes, and peanut filled snowballs.

Of course, we didn't limit ourselves to just bakeries, we ate some good food at the Cafe Hoang. It was featured on the tv show Check, Please on PBS and all the reviewers liked it, so we decided to try it out. It is a combination Vietnamese, Thai, and Chinese restaurant and it was pretty good. We ordered spring rolls, egg rolls, Pho, fried rice, lo mein, and a seafood stir-fry. Very tasty and we did manage to eat it all, even though we were down a man because Ashley was at school.

We also walked around and checked out a few shops. This time we skipped the funky grocery stores but did stop to get some BBQ pork, next time I'll get duck which I also happen to love. Did you notice next time, I think Chinatown food runs are going to be on my quarterly to-do list...happy to have anyone come along!

These are some pictures of Paige goofing around the main shopping area.

Paige in front of her symbol the "Ram" on the Chinese Zodiac.


Muscle Girl on a little platform outside the BBQ shop.

Breakfast With Books

Ashley's school held a Breakfast With Books for the children and their families. Every grade was assigned an author. Fourth grade was given Roald Dahl. This meant that our family had to select a book written by Roald Dahl to read. Then on the morning of the event we could discuss it while eating breakfast at the school. The only challenge for us was finding a Roald Dahl book that Ashley hadn't already read. After searching the library catalog we came up with Danny, The Champion of the World.

It was a cute little story about a father and son that ends with this advice for parents: kids like sparky not stodgy parents! Since then, I have been faithfully trying to be more sparky.


After our donuts, Ashley read Paige a story, The Gym Teacher from the Black Lagoon, ooh, spooky.