By Sara Felice

Step 1: Get a Godfather, a floatie ring, and some goggles.

Step 2: Become reasonably airborne.

Step 3: Learn to go underwater.  Repeat for a week, and you will be able to swim.

Insert Note From Mom: Do these steps after you’ve paid for a winter of YMCA Swimming Lessons and spent a summer bobbing around in the pool.

Grandma Graining’s Sugar Cookies

This recipe hails from Greg’s Great Grandmother.  It looks simple, but it can be tricky.  When done correctly, these are by far the best sugar cookies I’ve ever eaten.

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 eggs

2 Tbsp warm water

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla

~ 3 cups flour to thicken

Mix the ingredients all together (I like to do eggs, slightly beaten, sugar, then water, vanilla, then baking soda, then butter, and finally flour). I pull it out of the mixing bowl and very lightly roll it in flour.  Then I store it in 2 portions, wrapped in saran wrap.  It must go in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, but more like 2 hours if you want to get it good and chilled.

Take it out and work with it cold.  If it gets warm, rewrap and put it back in the fridge, covered in saran wrap.  Roll it out on a lightly floured surface to 1/4″ and cut with cookie cutters.  The thickness is tricky.  To thick and it won’t cook properly.  Too thin and it comes out as a dry cracker.

Cut with cookie cutters.  Bake at 400 for 8-10 minutes.  My oven bakes hot, so I make these at 375, but it takes the full 10 minutes if not a few more.

Cool, frost and decorate.  They can also be frozen after baking!

The picture above are the batch I made at Christmas.  To get a finished edge, I used Colorflow, which is a Wilton Product.  Quite time consuming, but fun if you have a day to kill and want professional looking cookies.  Tonight I got brave and tried to do yellow suns.  They look more like amoebas, but you gotta try, right?  Any buttercream icing tastes wonderful on these cookies, but Greg’s Mom makes them the best.  Nothing on earth compares to her cookies and icing.  I’m not a big dessert person, but I’ve been known to throw back a half a dozen at a time.

Click on picture to enlarge

The girls learned to fly their first kite, from Kitty Hawk Kites, which is the way to do it.  We’re finding that Indiana wind isn’t the same as Outer Banks wind, unfortunately.  But we have a beautiful kite covered in horses should the Hoosier breezes pick up speed!

I realized this morning that while the girls have several games they play, every game has the exact same construct.  For example, they often tell me they are playing, “Little Red Riding Hood” or “Berry Picking” or “Go to School”; each game involves a menagerie of costumes and props, slightly different with each game, so it wasn’t until this morning that I realized they are ALL THE SAME GAME. Here is the outline:

(1) They are going somewhere, a journey, if you will.

(2) They are late, and there will be much running involved, always from their playroom into our closet.

(3) Headgear is required: a play scarf (Little Red Riding Hood), a Raccoon Skin Hat (Berry Picking), etc. Tiaras are usually employed at some point in every game, as no matter WHAT game they are playing, everyone always ends up as a princess, living in a castle.

(4) There will be an emergency that will involve more running (usually a monster or dragon attack), lots of yelling, and invariably will occur while they are wearing my high heels.  I have little need these days for red suede slingbacks, but if I do need them, they are probably under the girls’ beds.

(5) The emergency will require them to drop whatever they are holding, spreading random props from one end of the house to the other.

So there you have it, the Unigame: put something on your head, grab a basket, run around in high heels while screaming.  Oh my gosh…I just realized the name of the game…they are playing SORORITY.  Don’t take offense if you are a sister.  There is a reason I know this game, and the propensity to play it is apparently genetic.

I feel like I’m always asking this question, but what are your favorite computer games?  We are a big Reader Rabbit family.  We also love Starfall (free!) and the Electronic Company (also free!), and we’ve started “Little Bill Thinks Big”.  Any suggestions? Kelly is Reader Rabbit’s biggest fan.  Her learning how to use the mouse was a big deal for me.  Free hands!  For the first time in 3 years…FREE HANDS!!

We’ve nearly survived 1 full week of both girls in school.  Was that 1 week?  Because really, it has felt like a month.  We were warned by everyone: the first month is a tough transition.  Exhaustion.  Oddly short tempers.  Adding in Sara going from half day to full day and Kelly starting preschool…we should be prepared for some difficult afternoons and evenings.  What they didn’t say was “difficult” would be defined as my 3 year slapping me in the face (WHAT?!), and my 5 year old swinging so wildly between moods that I’m thinking of slipping Xanax into the drinking water.  Mine of course.  I’m very thirsty. For water…right, WATER.

There has been a whole lot of this.  But not dozing off, no.  Just children going from 100 mph to dead asleep, almost in the middle of sentences.

Even though I wouldn’t let Sara wear the famous candy corn socks with her pastel dress (apparently they go with EVERYTHING, can’t you tell?), I let Kelly.  Kelly went from boldly confident to a sudden, “I’m not going to school and I’m going to cry at the door and hang on Mommy with my entire life force.” I thought maybe her favorite socks would bring her comfort.  Sadly, no.  We sacrificed fashion and realized zero benefit.

Kelly’s doing a lot of this as well, but much like Sara, not in her usual pattern.  She screams all the way to naptime, and then falls asleep before I can reach the door most days.  Our sleep schedules are so wacky right now, I really have no words.  Nothing, and I mean NOTHING is getting done around here.

As if drop offs weren’t tough enough, my usual peaceful coexistence with Kelly in the house has turned a bit, um, sour.  Lots of hanging on me.  Lots of mischief.  Lots and lots of mayhem.  Finally Kelly admitted to her teacher, in so many words, that she feared she wasn’t my baby anymore.  OH!  Just because she’s been attached to my hip her entire life?  She’s such a confident child, I never anticipated she’d feel this way.  She left school today with her usual bright smile and yelling at the top of her lungs, “I LOVE IT!  I did everything and everything was my favorite!” And I answered it lots of hugs and cuddles and I told her she was my girl, and would always be my baby.  She smiled and said, “It’s OK Mommy.  I’m a big girl.  I love you my dear.”  And so I think, we may be on the road to remedy with Baby Kelly Belly.

We’re taking it a day at a time.  “Won’t wear pants” Sara is now scrounging around for shorts so she can hang upside down on the monkey bars with her cadre of girlfriends.  Kelly is reliving Sara’s early days of “extreme clothing choices”.  Every night we seem to be crawling into bed earlier and earlier.  Soon we’ll be wearing our pjs to afternoon pick up so we can go to bed the second we get home.  But we’re having smooth mornings and we’re getting to school early, and for me?  Getting anywhere on time consistently?  I’m not going to ask for more than that.  Well, that, and maybe for someone to pack the lunch boxes.  IDEAS?  Week 1, and I’m out of ideas already!  Not good considering I have 13 years to go.  Labor Day weekend might be coming at the right time for this house.  Happy September Friends!

‘Tis the season TO EAT.  It’s end of summer, so this Labor Day Weekend, get thee to a Farmer’s Market!  I went yesterday and could barely carry my haul home.  YUMMY, this bowl of tomatoes is almost empty not even 24 hours later.  I remember the first time I walked through Indy’s downtown Farmer’s Market at the City Market. I am a slave to recipes and I didn’t know what to buy.  I just browsed through, thinking, geez, I wish I were a chef with ideas popping into my head.

After 3 summers of browsing, things now come to mind, and well, let’s be honest, maybe a few too many things.  So, just to get your taste buds started, here is what you see:

Turkey breast medallions with tomato jam (cooking on my stove right now and smelling like HEAVEN)

Arnold’s Fried Green Tomatoes

A turkey and bacon club sandwich that I ate for lunch

Cherry tomato, cheese, and melon kabobs in Sara’s lunch box

A fresh spinach salad topped with cherry tomatoes, Fontina cheese, drizzled with fig balsamic vinegar and Hojiblanca extra virgin olive oil (Which Greg and I inhaled last night; I think we licked the plates.)

Calling fellow whole foods enthusiasts, tell me what you’re cooking this holiday weekend!  Oh heck, the more the merrier: calling ALL FOOD ENTHUSIASTS!  Tell me what you are eating this holiday weekend!

We love corn in Indiana so much that we turn it into sprinklers.  Mulberry Park in Zionsville is my favorite sprinkler park.  I’ll be so sad when the girls outgrow them.

Sara wearing my hat on her 1st birthday during our beach vacation

Whenever I say something my Grandfather particularly likes (and especially when I give him presents!), he says, “You’re OK Kid.  You’re alright.”  Those words will forever ring in my ears, followed by the warm feeling of joy that only a grandparent can give you.  Sara earned that phrase from me in a surprising turn of events Sunday evening.  It started when, in a fit of exhaustion and frustration, Sara threw her favorite headband out of the minivan and onto Avery’s front lawn.

Mommy: That was not a good choice.  You know what happens to things you throw.

Sara: They go to charity.  But it’s my FAVORITE headband!

Mommy: And I’m sure a little girl who doesn’t have any headbands will appreciate yours and will never throw it on the ground.

Sara: OH NO! (Followed by gnashing of teeth and much grieving).

Mommy: I’ll make you a deal.  Yours is pretty old.  If you give me a dollar from your piggy bank, I’ll let you buy your headband back from me, and I’ll buy a brand new headband to give to some little girl without any headbands.  Or maybe some food for a little girl without any food.

Sara: Well, if you’re going to buy food for a girl who is hungry, you had better take $2. Wait, no.  You had better take it all.  Just empty out my piggy bank and feed that girl.

Mommy: You’re alright kid.  $2 will suffice.  Here is your headband.

Sara wearing my hat on the morning of her 5th birthday during our beach vacation

Kelly started preschool at Sara’s school…FINALLY.  Her first “official” day was Friday, and she is in Sara’s original class with the 3 original teachers.  It was quite a celebration.  Kelly first viewed her classroom when she was 4 months old, so needless to say, she’s been looking forward to going to Sara’s school for quite some time.  I wish I could have videotaped her squealing conversation when I picked her up.  There was ART CLASS!  And there was a SNAACCKK!! Did I know that she LOVES snacks?!  AND, AND, AND…MOMMY, I saw SARAAAA on the playground and she pushed me on the SWINGS!   I nearly teared up at the thought of them running into each other at recess, hugging, out of Mommy’s sight, being all big-girly and independent.  Awesome. Let’s enjoy it now, because someday, they’ll bump into each other in the high school hallway, realize they each stealthily looked into the others closet that morning and stole a sweater, rip those sweaters off in silence protest, throw them on the floor at each others feet…not that this story in ANY way ever happened to me or Aunt Jenny or involved a prized Bennetton sweater I might have “borrowed without asking” from her closet, or my favorite Limited icy pink sweater….you get the idea….