Henry Family Olympics

Scott's parents got a mission call to Birmingham England earlier this year.  With everyone in town for their farewell during the Pioneer Day holiday weekend, we decided to do a mini family reunion, and held our first Henry Family Olympics in our backyard (inspired by Mymixofsix).  The country flags we made this year during our theme weeks came in handy. (though my yard man watered them earlier in the day!)

Everybody brought a foreign dish, which was fun to sample.  We had chinese cabbage and noodles, pierogi, bangers and mash, hotdogs, and pizza, to name a few.

I made an Olympic rings fruit pizza for dessert.  It was really yummy!  For the recipe, google Olympic rings fruit pizza.

Here are the cousins enjoying the food.  Sadly, Savannah had the flu that night and spent the night laying down or puking.  She had an old friend visiting from AZ too.

I divided everybody up by family.  We had the blue team (go Cougs!)

The red and black team,

Team pink (all girls!)

and, my favorite, Team Orange!  Everybody created their own team flags and paraded them during the running of the torch.

And don't forget our honorary Officials!  They were tough on us...

We started with the Running of the Torch.  Every team got to choose one runner.  We started at the opening to the cul-de-sac and ran it to the backyard torch.  Here we have Grace from CA as our proud runner.

I couldn't keep up to snap pictures, as they ran so dang fast!  Here's the first pass-off.

Grandma passes it to Grandpa (please disregard the grandma-high weeds in the playground!)

...who runs it to the everlasting torch to light it.

Next, Grandpa made his pre-written remarks to officially open the games.  The kids thought the end warning was funny.  Something about not being a party pooper.

We had to make sure our athletes were clean, of course.  (it's only apple juice!)

The kids couldn't understand why the adults were so wary of taking a cup.

First event was shot put, with water balloons.  Here are our officials taunting the athletes.

Steve gets ready to soak Grandma.

Next up--cycling!

Brighton makes it back and hands off to Irelynd.

Team Blue's about to find out the dangers of riding a bike 12 sizes too small...

And he loses control

and he's down!

That's when the men got smart about it.

Please notice the tongue.  It's a family trait.

Next event was equestrian races.  These fancy horses were made by my very talented SIL Sallie, who sacrificed her sleep to stay up until 4 AM to finish them in time.  4!!!  Gold medal to you, chica!  Aren't they cute??

Waiting for the go.  Please notice Irelynd's facial expression.

She must've been threatening her poor horse.

They had to go around the poles, through the "pond" and back.  Some cheated and didn't gallop.  You know who you are...

Last event was water balloon volleyball.  Here are me and Savannah trying to catch a long one.  I think we missed it, in case you couldn't tell.

And the medals.  Please ignore the constipated look on my face.  I really was happy to be there.  Just perma-scowl.  It's a family trait.

And Team Orange takes the gold!  Followed by Team Blue, Team Red/Black, and ending with Team Pink, with the Cork medal.  But our Officials surprised everyone with M&M's in a thermos as a non-whiners prize. 

That got Sallie really excited...

Afterwards the men and kids camped outside in tents and sleeping bags in our backyard.  Most moms went home to a soft bed and quiet house.  In the morning we went to the city parade and enjoyed breakfast outside.  What a fun day!

And a few weeks later...

we had to bid farewell for 18 months to Grandma and Grandpa Henry while they serve the English people in Birmingham, England.  What a great example they are to my children.  I'm so lucky to have such great in-laws and grandparents for my children!  Good luck, guys!  Bring me back some chocolate!

New tricks!

The twins have recently learned to get on and off the trampoline by themselves, and they're lovin their newfound freedom.  Scott caught them doing it one evening while I was at a Relief Society Retreat.  They giggled and jumped together.  How fun to have a constant playmate!  I hope they always enjoy each other's company.

2 buck Tuesdays at TP

My mom took us all to Thanksgiving Point to take advantage of their $2 Tuesdays.  What craziness!  We intended on hitting the Dinosaur Museum, but the line made Disneyland look like an express lane, so we did Farm Country instead.  The kids never tire of seeing and feeding the animals.  Here, Waverly feeds a baby goat.  She wasn't afraid at all.

I just liked these two pictures of Irelynd so I had to throw them in.  I was so proud of her;  she gathered up the dropped corn from all over the farm while we were looking at the goats at the beginning.  She came back to feed the goats and noticed a little girl who didn't have any corn but wanted some.  Without any prodding from me she handed her a few pieces.  I love how kind and tender she is.  I could learn a lot from her Christ-like nature.

"Hamburger comes from where?!"

A face only a mother could love...

After farm country, we grabbed some lunch at the Emporium then hit the museum.  The line had died temporarily, so we went through it.  Savannah loves the space walk at the beginning, and Irelynd took no time to find the sand and water table at the end.  Keaton wandered with his blanket in one hand, held by Grandma at the other end.  It worked better than a leash. 

Sitting on a longneck's foot.

Grandma and "her twins".

We had such a fun day, but we were all exhausted by the time we headed home that evening.  Thanks, Mom, for a fun day!

BFF's

Earlier this month Savannah was able to see her best friend Lily, who moved out of state last year.  These two are like sisters; it amazes me how well they get along and their personalities mesh.  While here, these two went swimming, played at the reservoir, saw a play, watched a rodeo, caught a movie, and had plenty of giggling time to reconnect.  We were sad to see Lily leave to go home.

Et fini, la Francaise!

Like I said, I was most excited for France, but it really got the shaft.  I didn't nearly do it justice like I had planned.  Perhaps because the kids' excitement waned, perhaps by the busyness of this time of year.  I might have to try it again next year.  I took very few photos; really of just one night.  The first night we had Croque Monseiur; the next night we went to an outdoor movie in Salem, and took our dinner with us.  We had Chicken provencal, haricots vert, and more artisan bread.  The last night we had our traditional French night.  We ate chicken cordon bleu casserole, cauliflower au gratin, grape juice (since the French love their wine--we had whine of a different sort. haha), and for dessert, crepes Suzette.  I really wanted to do them flambe, but brandy was in short supply in our house.  Next time.  I really wanted to do a French tart, but didn't have time.  The last thing I made was pain du chocolat, which is basically white roll dough that you wrap around a piece of milk chocolate, bake, then lightly frost.  Yum!  We used to eat them in French class at BYU. 

Chicken cordon bleu casserole

cauliflower au gratin

Crepes Suzette

This wrapped up our theme units. Not sure if I'll repeat it next summer. It was more intensive and required more time, effort, planning, and participation. I will probably go back to the ABC's next summer, which fit better around all our other summer activities. But I really enjoyed the foreign cuisine, and found some new family favorites. And some things we will leave to the natives!

Italy

We finally finished off our Around the World unit with Italy and France.  I should have started with these 2, because I was most excited to get to France, but by the time we got there, the kids were not excited about the idea anymore.  We all enjoyed the foreign cuisine, but I couldn't muster any excitement at all for the country and its culture.  Brighton, however, continued to be interested in the language; he still says "g-way gwoh" when he burps (from our Chinese unit back in June), and demands that I count in French every time it's warranted.

Here we celebrated Italy by making homemade pasta.  It was an all day experience.  The kids had fun making it, and really enjoyed it, but were glad that we don't have to do that every time we have spaghetti or alfredo.  I actually broke a sweat!

Mixing the dough...

Rollin out the dough and cutting.

My new arm accessories.  D'ya like?

I made sauce from scratch also.  I love the smell of it simmering on the stove.  It's the smell of fall in my Mom's house as a child.

One happy customer.

And for dessert, chocolate biscotti.  I didn't bake it as long as the recipe called for, so it wasn't too crunchy.  Mmm, it was delicioso!

Day 2, fine dining Italiano style.  I planned on dining like the Italians do, in courses, so I set a fancy table, complete with candlesticks, and Josh Groban softly crooning Italian love songs in the background.  Lose the kids, and this was a very romantic meal:)

We started out with soup and bread.  This day we made gnocchi.  I've never made it before and it was oh-so-time-consuming!  But everybody really enjoyed it, so next time we'll buy it frozen:)  This is my all-time favorite soup recipe, a knock-off Olive Garden chicken gnocchi soup.  It's muy bella! (that may be a combination of a few languages).

Here is the recipe:

Olive Garden Chicken Gnocchi Cream Soup

From beginning to end it takes about 10 min. of prep and 30 min. cook time
1/3 cup olive oil or butter
2 cloves of minced garlic
1 lb. chicken
1/3 cup flour
1/2 carrot shredded
1 stick of celery
1/2 cup fresh chopped spinach
2 1/2 cups whole milk
1 1/2 cup heavy cream
3 chicken bullion cubes
Cracked pepper to taste
Gnocchi
On medium heat:
Melt butter in a soup pot, add in the garlic and sautee, add your chicken and cook through out

Add flour and stir in flour and mix well until the flour is cooked into the chicken.  Next add your milk and heavy cream.  Then add the veggies(Carrots,Celery,Spinach).  Add three bullion cubes.  Add your Gnocchi last; it takes 3-4 min. to cook throughout.  Mix ingredients well until soup thickens and stirring occasionally. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes.

We also had artisan bread.  Easy recipe I got from a bread class at Thanksgiving Point 2 years ago:

3 c lukewarm water (can use cold, but it will double your raising time)

1 ½ Tb yeast
1 ½ Tb kosher salt
6 ½ c all purpose high quality flour (the quality of the flour makes all the difference.  I use Canadian flour)

Add yeast and salt to the water, and add flour all at once. Stir until all the flour is mixed in. Cover bowl with a non air-tight lid and let it sit on the counter for 2+ hours, til it starts to flatten out on top. DO NOT KNEAD. Use a generous amount of flour when shaping dough.  Heat oven to 450.  Place a baking stone in oven to heat.  Shape dough into a ball and let rise on a cornmeal-coated pizza peal for 40 mins.  Before baking, cut a few criss-cross slits in top of bread, and slide onto hot pizza stone.  Add a cup of water to broiler pan in bottom of stove (or put a pan of water in with stone), and bake for 40 mins.  Let cool and slice.

Second course was chicken parmesan.

Next was sauteed spinach.  I actually liked this, which surprised me since I grew up on cooked spinach and swore I'd go hungry before I ever ate it again.

Last was pears, followed by homemade vanilla gelato.  Mmmmm..

Finishing up the week was Chicken Italiano, which is one of my favorite recipes (thanks Sallie for sharing!), and homemade spinach and tomato pizza.  Loved Italian week!

I made some salt dough one day and showed the girls the pictures of The Leaning Tower.  I had them try to sculpt it with their dough.  Savannah didn't do too bad, did she?

We finished up the week by making gondolas.  Man, I hate glitter!  It's a staticky, cleaning nightmare!  I was still finding it in odd things 2 weeks after the gondolas were trashed and long gone.

Cheerio, mates!

We are still traveling--this past week we studied Australia and England.  Not close geographically, but close in cuisine, which is what our Around the World weeks have devolved into.  Let's face it, I get excited most about the foreign grub.  That's reason #16 why I will never be thin again.  I have had so much fun planning and preparing foreign meals, and trying new things, and getting my kids to try new things.  I'll have to repeat this year after year as my boys grow up, to prepare them for missions in foreign lands.  On the other hand,  can one really be prepared for such delicacies as monkey brain soup {my hubby had it on his mission...in Arizona!}, or "dog and rice" {my cousin's hubby had it in the Phillipines.} 

Anyway, back to the subject, for Australia we had shepherd's pie, chocolate pavlova, and lamingtons.  My mother is Australian, so I grew up eating lamingtons at family events, but my children have never had them.  I learned that I am the only one that likes coconut, other than the twins, but they'll eat anything they think is a cupcake.  Here's the only photo I took of our Australia week:

Somewhere I have a boomerang or two from a long ago trip to Australia.  My plan was to teach my kids how to throw one {and, yes, there is a technique to it that works when you know how to do it...which I'm hoping is like riding a bicycle.}

Since my in-laws are leaving on an LDS mission to England within the month, I added England to the itinerary.  For dinner one night I made Cornish Pasties {made me think of Harry Potter}, and Yorkshire Pudding {which I was surprised to discover isn't pudding at all, but a popover filled with gravy.}  We didn't have the gravy or drippings on hand, so we just ate them with honey and jam.  The kids loved them, and they were so easy to make, and didn't require anything odd.  For the recipe, go here.  There's even a tutorial with it.  The second night, English food just didn't excite me, so we just had English trifle {just fruit though, no meat:)  Remember Friends?  "It takes like feet!" ---Ross Gellar}  I also made some English Christmas crackers for the kids to do after dinner.  They didn't pop like real English crackers (a specialty part is needed for that), but it was a fun activity anyway.  I filled them with candy and English cracker jokes (found them on the internet).  For directions go here.  Evidently I wrapped them with too much tissue paper as evidenced by the following photos:

We ended up having to tear the ends a little first in order to get them to "pop" in any way.  If anyone decides to make these, 1 layer of tissue is all that's needed!  We had fun anyway reading the English jokes to each other.  (How does Santa like his pizza?  Deep pan, crisp and even.)  I had intended on playing tiddlywinks, but I can't find my buttons. 
This week we'll finish our World tour in France and Italy.  I'm most excited about these two, as the food is delish!  Plus I'm a Francophile.  Plus I get to make, and eat, gelato, and call it for educational purposes!  We're going to have crepes Suzette, ratatouille, grape juice, baguettes, and pain du chocolat.  For Italy we're going to make gnocchi, fresh pasta, gelato, and pizza.  We're going to make gondolas and the Leaning Tower of Pisa.  At least that's the plan...

Rememberies by Brighton

One night after dinner, Savannah was making Brighton laugh so hard that he had a throw-up burp.  He says, in a scolding voice, "Savannah, you made my corn come back up!"

One night at bedtime, Scott had put Brighton to bed, and went back in a little bit later to check on him.  Brighton was still laying in bed, but he had his Sunday shoes lying next to him, and had such a tragic look on his face.  Scott immediately asked him what was wrong.  In such a serious tone he says, "I'm sad 'cuz I don't have any flying shoes."  {I guess he really like the "Pussy" Jackson movie}