It was time for us to have another one of our Komac Dinner Party nights! What we like best about these nights are that we all cook, we try new recipes, and we have fun!

We decided that we would try the stew recipe from the Unofficial Hunger Games Cookbook. For those who have read the series, it is Katniss’ favorite – a lamb stew with dried plums. I changed it to pork, since I had a small hunk of pork shoulder in the freezer.  The result was fairly sweet (lots of prunes and ginger ale in the broth). Next time, I would put much more pork and about half of the prunes. It had a chop suey taste to it.

To complement the meal, Kevin used the bread machine all by himself and made rolls from scratch!

Kayla made us some corn fritters.

Ashley made us an ice cream layer cake. She smashed up Mint Oreos….(like the action shot????)

She spread vanilla ice cream in a loaf pan, covered it with oreos, then spread chocolate ice cream on top of that. To get chocolate ice cream, we just took some of the vanilla and added cocoa powder and chocolate syrup. Beat with a hand mixer and…..we got something that tasted just like a Frosty! She froze her cake, then we topped it with chocolate ganache and fresh whipped cream.

Ashley had karate class yesterday, which was really fun to watch. Her Saturday class is focused more on drilling basic moves and stances, while the Wednesday class is focused on kata. This Saturday, they were sparring. It looked like a smaller kid version of the end tournament of Karate Kid! The sensai put 8 kids in a group, ranging from white (beginner) belts to orange (the order goes white-red-orange in terms of level). Ashley was first in line, so she stepped forward and faced the line. The next kid would come up and they would spar. First kid to make a legit contact was declared the victor and faced the next kid in line. Other kid would go to the back of the line. The sensai refereed the whole thing like a real tournament. On Ashley’s first try, she faced down 4 kids before being sent to the end. On her second try, she ran the entire line! She faced down all 7 kids and won. She has a fairly fast front punch and has been working on good stances, so she could retain her balance but sneak under the other kid’s arm and tag them with that punch. She was excited! She has another belt test coming up in a few months.

Kayla has an exciting day on Tuesday this week. She has her shadow day at Woodlands Academy. It is a Sacred Heart, all girls school near where I work. We have been concerned about the high school that our neighborhood feeds into. So we have been saving money for the last 4 years in the hopes of sending our girls to somewhere that will give them a really good education. Kayla will spend 3 hours at Woodlands this Tuesday, visiting classes and getting to see what it is all about. I am taking a half day so that she and I can spend the afternoon together. We also visit her doctor for a meds check on the ADHD in the later afternoon (no sense wasting the time off of work!). Kayla is really looking forward to this! Next up –  placement testing and the application.

Today was the first time in 17 years that I wrote a mortgage check to someone other than Grandma. It was weird and really kind of hard. We also had some weirdness with Kevin’s younger sister. She is one day younger than me, but went into the hospital on Friday due to a suspected stroke. Latest word is that she is having an MRI tomorrow and will be at Condell until at least tomorrow or Tuesday.

It has been a month since the last post. So much has happened in that month that just seemed to encompass all that we did. I barely took pictures in all that time. But I wanted to post today. Especially today.  Going back….

I have some pix from the CousinPalooza week. It turns out that Ashley’s back walking skills are appreciated by more than Daddy. Uncle Bill took a turn under her skilled feet (I would say “little feet”, but since she wears the same size shoe as Kayla I would be lying).

After such treatment, Uncle Bill needed to kick back and relax. I think he needs a bigger chair…

All of that stomping and reclining makes the men hungry. Hmmm……pulled pork…aaahhhh….

During this last month, we also discovered a new visitor to our yard. We have a large drain tile attached to a downspout to divert the water away from the house. Since we had a fairly long dry spell, it seemed the tile served another purpose.

Every morning for a couple of weeks I saw this bunny sitting at the end of the tile. Later in the day, we would find brown grass and piles of raisins. I looked into the end one day and saw a bunny butt inside. The girls named it CinnaBunny.

One morning, we woke up to find the tile knocked off and disturbed. We didn’t see CinnaBunny for a while. But then I walked out this morning in the pre-dawn hours and saw a larger CinnaBunny dart away from the tile into the neighbor’s yard. Not sure how long he will try to fit inside of that thing. We are also going to get some serious heavy rain tonight, so I hope CinnaBunny has good flood insurance on the place…

Last week Wednesday, Kayla endured one of the many teen rights of passage.

Before….

After…..

So begins about 12-14 months of metal fun for Kayla. She has been a trooper about the whole thing, even when her teeth are still a little sore today.

And so we come to today, the day we said our goodbyes to Great-Grandma. The girls did such a nice job with all that was asked of them. Ashley practiced her “Over the Rainbow” song so many times, running through it at least 7 times just this morning, so that she could play it well for the service. She did and it was lovely. Kayla read Psalm 23 for all of us. She did it with poise and grace, although she did stand in her “flamingo pose” – her right foot up on her left knee. Kevin read aloud their letter to Great-Grandma. The girls composed this together. I typed it up for them, but I didn’t help them or change their words in any way. This came from the two of them together. I will copy it here for those who would like to see it:

Dear Great-Grandma,

You were sweet, loving, and every time we saw you, you would do something nice for us like sneak us some Raisinets or Mint Oreos. We will remember playing the marble game. All of us have played, except for Rhys. It was nice going over to your house, because every time we went over you asked if we had been on any trips, how school was going, did we like our last concerts, were we feeling ok. You were one of the nicest people because you always were willing to listen. We are very lucky that we got to know you unlike other kids who did not get to meet their great-grandmas. The 5 little boys may not remember you, but they at least got to meet you and will get to see pictures and hear stories. We wish your 3 great-grandchildren in Florida who never knew you would have gotten to know you, because you were such a nice and loving great-grandma.

We’re glad every one of your great-grandchildren got to meet you because you loved us all dearly. We’re sad that you’re gone and we will miss you.

Love,

Kayla & Ashley

The weather was beautiful, the service was lovely, and seeing all of the family and friends who came out was very uplifting. I realized how lucky we are, having all of this family and the people who helped us just because we asked (THANK YOU Kim and Patricia!). I echo the girls in saying that we will miss you Great-Grandma, so much. Thanks to Shannon, here is a picture that I had to re-post.

Great-Grandma and her two “things”:

Finally, even in a day filled with sadness, there can be bright spots. Apparently, Ashley was really hungry by the time we got to the luncheon. While she waited for her food, she was doodling on the table paper.

It worked!