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  • eli’s birthday party

    We had the kids in Eli’s class to his yearly Pump It Up birthday celebration.  See a few more photos by clicking through the picture below.

     

    Eli had a great time and got lots of fun presents. The kids were sweet and adorable – what a nice class. Eli is so lucky to be in such a nice group.

    Happy Day!  Tomorrow is his real 7th birthday.  I will be in parent-teacher conferences starting at 9am, ending maybe around 6pm? Whee!

  • nablow-ing it.

    My parents are here! Let the wild Thanksgiving-Eli’s Birthday Rumpus begin!

    That’s all the enthusiasm I can muster for this blog entry. I am completely exhausted.

    I will keep trying! NaBloWriMo is kicking my butt! NaBuKiMo! Ow!

  • miscellany.

    Thanks for your support and responses on my post yesterday about Sam. I went ahead and protected it. If you are on my “protected” list you should be able to see it – if not, you can message me and I’ll add you to my protected list. You might have to register for xanga to do this. 

    My delightful husband went out in the dark, cold, rain to get me a delicious homemade brownie from my best friend. Isn’t that nice? Aren’t I lucky?

    In completely unrelated news, do you use a slow cooker?  Can you share some recipes? Vegetarian and not vegetarian?

    I think my brownie might be home…

  • strawberry cream supreme

    Here is today’s recipe,  invented at dinner to assuage my poor hysterical son who desperately wanted a “special drink” with dinner…

    Strawberrry Cream Supreme: Dairy- and Gluten-Free Frozen Drink Treat

    By Mommy and Sam

     

    (Beware: All quantities are approximate guesses. Requires straws, blender and whipped cream dispenser. Substitute generously to your family’s taste.)

     

    Ingredients:

    1/2  bag frozen strawberries

    1 – 2 Tb sugar

    1 cup cream-substitute – We used Mimic Crème

    ½ – ¾ cup “So Delicious” coconut vanilla milk

     

    Instructions:

    1.      In your blender, puree strawberries and coconut vanilla milk. (Save one or two frozen strawberries for garnish.) Thick consistency desired. Add liquid to achieve frozen thick pureed fruit base.

    2.      Put your cream-substitute in the whipped cream dispenser, add your nitrous oxide and shake that stuff up as best you can. It gets a bit fluffy – not truly like whipped cream, but enough to fluff up the strawberry base.

    3.      Fill up your drinking glass about 1/3 full with the strawberry base. Add a layer of whipped faux cream. Serve layered with a frozen strawberry on top and a straw. Mix together layers before drinking. The cold strawberries and the fluffy cream should blend together delightfully.

     

    Enjoy!

     

     

  • drive-by blogging

    I drank wine tonight!! Husband’s birthday in 2 minutes!! Going to be his best birthday ever!!

     

    Gotta GO!

  • overheard at school…

    The laugh-out-loud moment of my day…  Students in a classroom about to say a blessing before a meal…

    Students: (in a disorganized fashion) Baruch ata blam fmms fslkd …

    Teacher: You know, if I was God, I don’t think I’d be too impressed with what’s happening here!

    I dunno, maybe you had to be there.  But it was pretty funny.

    Tonight Scott and I went out to dinner with our buddies Sarah and Tim. Afterwards we all went to the roller rink to skate with Krista.  Unbeknownst to us, it was black-light night and also double-teen-birthday-party night. We skated a bit and then we came home and played some new Mario Bros. game that is Eli’s early birthday present.

    Birthday weekend continues!

     

  • birthday +1

    Tonight was knitting night at the hippie coffee shop with some mama friends, Karen, Christy and Melissa. Sarah came along because she no longer hates knitting! It’s a new group, and aside from the hippie kids playing bongos a bit too loud, it was great fun. But even the bongo guys were entertaining when they sang me the birthday song. My sweet friend Karen got me a stack of four cookies with a “0″ candle on top because she says I am ageless. Awww!  

    coffee shop 008

    A jewlery-making coffee shop friend spontanously made me this cool ring in honor of my birthday.  Neat!

     coffee shop 011

    It was a fun night and I feel so lucky to have such lovely and entertaining friends. And also a new black sweater which I am wearing in the photo. Peruvian alpaca! Happy birthday to me, again. Tomorrow night: roller skating! Saturday night: wine tasting! Sunday: date with husband and Husband’s Birthday!  Whee – we’re in the birthday zone, people!

  • actual 40th birthday

    I had a very nice birthday! Lots of love! Thanks for all the good wishes and phone calls. Kindergartners made me adorable cards and one even gave me a little bag of candy. They were so proud – I felt such a strong sense of community in our classroom today. I think my birthday should be an official part of the curriculum. My teacher friends bought me dinner at a Mexican restaurant where they put a sombrero on my head and serenaded me with what I assume are Mexican birthday songs. I also got some more sweet treats including fair-trade chocolate, I played my uke and got a beautiful gianduja cake hand-made with love that I ate while watching Glee with my BFF. What more could a person wish for? Off to bed!

  • in NY I am 40 already

     Good news, I went to the doctor today who feels certain I don’t have any neurological issues and am simply suffering from tension headaches. Therefore, I must relax my neck! Get massages! I’ll work on that. My vision actually seems to be pretty stable and the headaches have become less frequent. So, let’s hope that keeps going in the right direction.

    Tomorrow I plan to have a very nice day being celebrated as the birthday girl. I’ve spent so much time thinking, “My fortieth is coming up” that it just doesn’t seem real.  It seems like a story someone’s telling. Scott took us out to dinner tonight and I let the kids eat whatever they wanted. It was very refreshing.  I think I’ll lighten up some of the food restrictions and see what the consequences are. Maybe none, in which case it isn’t worth killing ourselves and Sam being miserable over his dietary choices. We’ll keep our eyes open for stomachaches and weird behavioral stuff.

    xxoo

  • brief.

    • Sam is going back to school tomorrow! Think healthy thoughts.
    • Kindergartners were very impressed with my magical 6-string uke today.
    • Had a great meeting with some colleagues tonight to talk about educational philosophy and practice. Very important and inspiring.
    • I hope I have something to put in the kids’ lunchboxes tomorrow.