"Dawk Forwest"

Ethne was sitting on the floor watching Ezra drawing with markers. He was telling her about his pictures and she said "Evra, can you stop saying Dawk Dawk Dawk Forwest?" (she was getting a little creeped out by his dramatic voice saying he was drawing a DARK DARK DARK forest.
Ezra: "Oh yeah, sure"
Ethne: "Thanks Evra, I just don't like that. But I like monstas(monsters)"

"Shakesbeard"

Ethne was standing on a chair helping me make zucchini pancakes for breakfast this morning. We were listening and dancing to "The Music Man" CD (I ended up buying the original Broadway cast for those of you who care ;) and she heard a name that caught her attention "...even if you can quote Shakespeare and..." She screamed "mom, they just said Shakesbeard!"  She was so excited to hear a name she recognized in the song and I thought it was so funny that she called him Shakesbeard. I noticed later that she always says his name that way and it's quite funny.  Almost as funny as when she yells "Oh me Gosh!".
 A minute later I started dancing with her and she was laughing. Then she got serious and said "mom, can you stop and make dinna(dinner which was really breakfast).

Around Adelaide-Such a Clean City (in places)

Some parts of Adelaide were really clean and beautiful.

There were some really cool buildings but there were lots of areas that seemed  to have dirty streets and just looked very ordinary. I guess that is like most places.

Some of my favorite shops were there though and it was smaller than Sydney so you could actually get free parking ;) Gotta LOVE that.

This was Glenelg beach. It was a man made beach and actually quite nice. Not like Coogee ;) but nice. Very touristy but we like that sometimes.

Adelaide At Night

Here are some shots of Adelaide at night when we lived there. Garrett was working on a matte painting of buildings at night for "The Hunger Games" and these are some of the photos he took.

If you saw the Hunger Games then you probably saw elements of these buildings somewhere in the movie. Kinda fun to think about.

I wasn't totally wild about Adelaide. There were some great beaches and some great weather but the CBD that we lived in was not that great. I thought it was kind of yucky. There wasn't much to do unless you have lots of money to shop.

But once you get out of the CBD there were some really lovely parts. There was a great duck park I didn't discover until we were about to move :)

We also really loved the Zoo, and all the wildlife parks there. Lots of fun wildlife. If you ever go there then just make sure to get out of the city and take a trip to Kangaroo Island.

Would You Want to be A Cyclops? And More Important Things Than Boys?

Enoch to Ezra: "Would you want to be a Cyclops??"
Ezra: "No, Cyclops's don't take baths"
Enoch: "Howduya know?"
Ezra: "Because they are big. They don't have baths cause they're HUGE"

 Meet Me in St. Louis: "My dear when you get to be my age you will find there are more important things than boys." Ezra: "She's wrong. There are lots of important things for boys."
Enoch: "no she said there are more important things THAN boys."
Me: What do you guys think, are there more important things than boys?
Ezra: "no"
Enoch: "yeah, there's even more important things than girls"
Me: what are they?
Enoch: "I don't know"

Ezra's take on Doctrine and Covenants 42:29

"If thou lovest me thou shalt serve me and keep all my commandments" D&C 42:29
I read that at the start of our family scripture study tonight and before I had time to say anything else Ezra said "Mom, I think I learned something from that. I think I learned that you can't just BELIEVE in Jesus and expect him to know that you love Him. You have to do ALL His commandments to show him how much you love Him and then he will REALLY know you love Him."

And this from the child who just got kicked out of primary (until further notice) today. There's hope ;)

Violins and Dragon Slaying Knights

Our current slogan: If you can slay a dragon you can certainly play a violin. How did this come about?
Ezra: whines and cries about how hard it is to remember "up" bows while simultaneously remembering all the notes to "O' Come Little Children".
Me: Ezra, you are a dragon slaying knight. If you can slay a dragon you can certainly play a violin.
Ezra: *silence...violin up on shoulder, bow on violin, concentrates, plays beautifully.
Once again practice disaster put off for another day!

 Aren't they so cute and hard working. We practice violin 6 days a week 30min a day and we strive for 7 but it rarely happens. Suzuki says that you only have to practice on the days you eat :) It has been really fun since Enoch got his violin and they can play things together. They are going to be playing together in the Ward Primary Program this year. I am really excited and nervous about it. They are getting in lots of practice playing in front of other people. Anytime someone comes over they play the violin for them.

 Enoch has started the song "Perpetual Motion" in the first Suzuki book. He is sounding better all the time although he is having to get used to the bigger violin. We just recently bought him a new one since he was grown out of the old one. But this one is a 1/4 size and he has to get used to everything being bigger, farther finger reaches and the heaviness of a bigger violin. He is a hard worker and practices 20-25min a day with me and 5-10 min on his own after that while I start with Ezra.

 He is starting to pick up on if the violin is in tune and if he is playing the notes just right. The song he is learning for the church program is called "Stand For the Right". It is in a key he has never played before, but he loves learning new pieces and was so excited to learn it he did a double practice the day he started it. He practiced 30min at home had a 30 min. lesson then came home and practiced the new song for another 20-30 min.

 Ethne loves her cracker box "Pink Biolin". She wants to have lessons with "brodders" and asks when it will be her turn. She practices with them a lot of the time and when she isn't practicing she is dancing to the music.

 Ezra is a natural at holding the violin and posture according to his teacher. He learns fast when he wants to and he is doing really well. Last night the boys played for my cooking club. There were 14 adults watching them and they were very brave and played beautifully. Ezra however is VERY DIFFICULT to get to practice. Every time I say OK get out your violin, he flops on the floor and says "oh no! not again".

 Last week we worked SO hard every single day(well 6 days) on his new piece "O' Come Little Children". It is the first piece that starts with an up bow and the bowing is quite tricky. My philosophy though is to hit it hard in the beginning and work until you get it right. If it takes too many weeks to learn a new piece they get the idea that it is too hard and they "CAN'T" learn it. So we worked so hard we both felt like we had run a marathon at the end of our 30 min. each day. His teacher commended out hard work and said "Well Done to you both" it takes most kids weeks to get that. She asked me what my method had been for teaching it to him. Because of my own music lessons as a kid I know the drills-one bar at a time until you get that then the next one then put them together. With violin I have found it works best to do one line or phrase at a time and then do the next one.

Way to go boys! I am very proud of you.

Mom please tell us about your funny dream

Mom please tell us about your funny dream
Me: it wasn't funny
Boys: Please tell us about your silly dream
Me: it wasn't silly
Boys: was it scary?
Me: I don't really remember it well
Boys: PLEASE tell us???
Mom: there was this giant robot guy and I needed to get Ethne to a safe place and so there was this other young skinny AA guy with an afro who was supposed to distract the scary guy so I could get Ethne safe. I was useless to defend either of us with her. So I was talking to the YSAAGWTA (Young, skinny, African-American, guy with the afro :) and he wasn't having any of the proper emotions for a situation like this. He wasn't scared or nervous or excited he was bugged and whiny. He kept telling me he couldn't be expected to do this job without a little food. I was getting seriously annoyed that he couldn't take the situation seriously and be a man. The whole time he was sulky about not having any food to give him energy. I was thinking SERIOUSLY?? At a time like this you are complaining about food? I don't HAVE any food. If I did I would give you some if for no other reason than to hush you up. So then we see big scary robot/transformer bad guy character enter scene.
Let me set the stage for you here: Big, dark, warehouse, typical movie scene where the industrial shelving goes on for ever like the library of congress(I don't actually know what the library of congress looks like inside-I just made that up because it sounded good). As the big scary robot guy was coming down one side of shelving towards the YSAAGWTA I slipped on the other side of the shelving with Ethne in my arms and was heading up the other side trying to stay under the radar. Ethne wouldn't stop talking though. It was exactly like being in sacrament meeting with her. I say SHHHHH!!! and she chatters away in her loudest voice. I say SHHH again and tell her she needs to NOT TALK. She would be quiet for about 5 sec. and then resume asking questions. Suddenly and quite unexpectedly G was at my side. We made our way down to the other end of the shelving and as we walked down the end of the isles we peaked into each empty dark isle trying to pick the right one that would somehow be empty of villains and allow us to pass safely to the other end. One isle had the big scary robot guy (no idea what happened to the YSAAGWTA) and several other isles had Aliens passing back and forth. Then I was woken up and that was the end-
Boys: WHAT?? what happened?
Me: I don't know
Ezra: Mom, I think I am going to make a story with that in it.
Me: OK

Garrett's interpretation of the dream: (in case you didn't know G always interprets my dreams for me)
The YSAAGWTA was representative of Enoch and Ezra.
The End :)

Hot Sauce is NOT for Kids

Enoch and Ezra went to the fridge and got our Garrett's Habanero hot sauce. It has amazing flavor and isn't SUPER hot so they love it. They were enjoying a little on their lunch when I caught Enoch running with the bottle and looking quite guilty. Seeing as how all mothers have a bit of Sherlock Holmes in them I said "Enoch, did you just put hot sauce in Ethne's food?" Enoch looking VERY GUILTY shrugs and smiles really big and says in a tiny really sorry voice "um, yes."

Naughty! Good thing she didn't eat any of that or he would have been in trouble. Since no harm was done and he told the truth he got off with a warning.
about 15 min. later I look over and Ezra has his cup of water tipped up to his eye and he is blinking and trying to pour water in his eye.
Me "Ezra what are you doing?" (guessing he got hot sauce on his hands and touched his eye)
Ezra: "um um um, I touch the hot sauce and then my eye and now my eye is burning"
Hot sauce is NOT for kids- *sigh**

Princesses Don't Pick Noses

We were riding the bus the other day and Ethne sees a little Indian kid picking his nose. She proclaims loudly "mom, udda (other) kids know how to pick day(they) noses too."
Oh joy!

She almost never picks her nose. She runs to get a tissue and she cleans out her nose with it and then says "mom, which one is the cycling(recycling)?" and throws it away in the rubbish bin. Good on ya Mate! Mum's proud of you!

Then the next day:

Ethne: "Mom can you get this off me?" (holding up finger)
Me: Is that a booger?
Ethne: "Yes-um I accidentally picked my nose"
Me: Lets get a tissue
Ethne: "OK"
While walking to get a tissue she says "mom, I can't wait until kids don't know how to pick day(they) noses"
Me: Me too-what a happy day that will be :)

Just a Little Bit Funny

Ezra is singing in a very hard core rock voice "I can feast on that Kangaroo and EAT it for DINNER for DINNER cause it's the GINJI HOUSE the GINJI HOUSE...." I just about lost it. This kid is such a crack up.

 Ethne came up to me and just said "Hi ask me what my names is?" I did and she said " I am Jacquie (Mattos) and I'n from Santa Cisco(San Francisco). Like YOU guys. My family."

Ethne doesn't doesn't like to eat cow meat anymore, so now she calls her beef chicken :)

Cooking Club #1 Very Fancy Cupcakes by Jacquie M.

Jacquie did a fantastic job and went to SO much work for this class. We had about 14-16 people there and everyone had a great time and learned a lot. I think I might actually be able to make a meringue now thanks to Jacquie. She taught us how to make "Toffee Crunch Chocolate Cupcakes".

These are not fast simple cupcakes, but they are amazingly delicious and worth the effort to impress. They have 5 recipes just for the one cupcake. They are: Toffee Devil's Food Cake, Chocolate Ganache Icing, Tofee Bits, Caramel swiss Meringue Buttercream Icing, and Vanilla Bean Caramel Sauce.

 This is the Toffee Devil's Food Cake-Beautiful Crystal S. working the mixer

 Can't you just see how engrossed they all are? :) Kallyla, Her sister (someone help me again with her name), Ti, Jessica and Meira

 Natasha, Natalie, Erin and Kallyla

 Jacquie showing us her toffee. She is amazing. She couldn't find a toffee recipe so she just made up her own.

 Chopping it up into bits for the toffee bits

 Toffee bits

 Batter finished

Using an ice cream scoop to fill the cupcake wrappers.

 Tunis, Tash and Natalie.

 Kallyla and her sister-Beautiful Brazillian women who are going to teach our Sept. Cooking club on...you guessed it-Brazillian Food.

 Natalie checking out the Meringue icing. We all had to check it out at different stages to make sure we could reproduce it properly.

 Meringue Icing finished.

 Decorating the cupcakes.

 Learning how to pipe the icing on

 Natalie putting on the Ganache

 Meira waiting for her turn

 Erin says-yummy!

 Look at her hands-she is the pro!

 This is what one of mine looked like in the end. Chocolate Devil's Food Cake with Ganache piped around the edges of the top, a dab of Caramel Swiss Meringue Buttercream Icing in the middle and toffee bits stuck into the ganache.

 It doesn't look like Jacquie's but it sure did taste good. Thank you so much Jacquie for teaching us. You did a fantastic job and we all went home with new skills and a taste for really great cupcakes ;)

Riding in the Stwolla (Stroller)

Last night Ethne watched a little Bugs Bunny with her dad and brothers. Today this is what I hear while pushing her in the stroller to the park:
Ethne: The Rabbit kicked the bucket, the Rabbit kicked the bucket, the Rabbit kicked the bucket......
Me: Ethne what did you say?
Ethne: The Rabbit kicked the bucket-dats like dying
Me: oh!! (hmmm, so that's what dad is teaching them these days...)

 A bit later: Ethne: "mom is I a good tippa(tipper)? Is I a good tippa when you tip da stwolla (stroller)?
Me: Yes you are! Very good.
She was referring to when I tip up the stroller to go up the curb or down the curb. She is so funny in the "stwolla" she races her brothers and even whey then are way ahead of her she yells out "I'n beating you". She also has this funny way of looking like she is wheeling a wheelchair instead of being pushed in a stroller. It's really quite funny.

 Love this look

 I think this is a beautiful picture of her. She looks lovely don't you think?

And on the way home she asks this-
Ethne: Mom do I look cute?
Me: Yes you do but do you know what is even more important that looking cute? Acting cute.
Ethne: Like being good?
Me: Yes, and being nice and kind
Ethne: Yeah!

"I Want Da Butta On It"

Ethne wakes up and I am taking her to the toilet. Enoch gives her a love and says "good morning princess" and asks if he can heat up her blueberry muffin and put butter on it.
I say yes and take her to the bathroom
In the bathroom Ethne says "put butta on it doesn't sound hellsy(healthy)"
Mom: do you want me to tell him not to put butter on it?
Ethne: "no, I want da butta on it"
Mom: OK