Annacdotes 22

1. One day during spring break, we had a game marathon. What was the game at the top of Anna's list all day? House. I was très confused and kept suggesting others. Finally I said, "Isn't this just like real life? I'm the mom and you're the kid?" But then she told me she wanted to pretend to be a dog and I would be the owner. We played a lot of fetch while I read the newspaper, and she loved it.

2. One Friday, Anna was getting ready to go to her weekly playgroup, and she said, "Boy, I feel like it was just yesterday that I went to playgroup." What a little adult, chatting about how fast time flies. I said, "I know. This week went by fast." Then she said, "And I'll feel that way tomorrow, too!" It honestly took me a few seconds to even process what she meant, it was that brilliant. In case you're as slow as I was, she meant that, tomorrow, it will seem like playgroup was just yesterday — because it was.

3. This is what I found one day in the notes app on my phone.

(Don't be distracted by the personal information I had to blur out, but the spider bit? Amahzing.)

4. Anna caught on to people gesturing their own quote marks to things when they speak, so she started to do it too. But of course she added her own flourish. When she does it, she does both hands together over to one side. I don't know why she does it like this, but it is extra cute this way.

5. Anna came out of the pantry with a paper bowl and a bag of fruit snacks, mere minutes after we had just discussed having lunch soon. Slightly astonished, I said, "Are you going to eat those?" Like it should be obvious, she said, "No, I'm going to glue these onto the bowl so I can have a lickable hat."


6. In a recent prayer: "I hope I can strengthen my family by adding more people to it so that we can create more love." So cute, but it was also nice knowing that words said in Primary actually made it into her brain. Sometimes you wonder about kids these days.

7. One night after getting Anna all ready for bed, she said, "Ha! Guess what you forgot but I remembered?" Turns out, I had forgotten to take her hair out of whatever creation it had been that day. Really playing it up, she teased and acted like it was the worst thing in the world. But what the worst thing actually was caught me off guard. She said, with much pretend contempt, "Ugh. I hate it when I know forgetters."

Anna's first lunch at school, to get ready for first grade. Cue freak out.

A bite of spring

Anna and I made these Strawberry Lemon Bars the other day and they were delicious. It was like spring in your mouth. It was also a pretty kid-friendly recipe: not too many ingredients, lots of different techniques to keep things interesting (patting, stirring, juicing, grating), etc. The only hard part was waiting for the bars to chill for an hour before eating.

Strawberry Lemon Bars

ingredients

• 1
  cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4
  cup powdered sugar
• 1/2
  cup butter
• 2
  eggs
• 3/4
  cup granulated sugar
• 2
  teaspoons finely shredded lemon peel (set aside)
• 3
  tablespoons lemon juice
• 2
  tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/4
  teaspoon baking soda
• 1/3
  cup strawberry jelly
• 1
  teaspoon lemon juice
• 5
  whole fresh strawberries, hulled and quartered (or sliced) *

directions

1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a medium bowl stir together the 1 cup flour and the powdered sugar. Using a pastry blender, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs (mixture will be dry). Press mixture into the bottom of an ungreased 8x8x2-inch baking pan. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes or just until golden.

2.Meanwhile, for filling, in a large bowl beat eggs, granulated sugar, the 3 tablespoons lemon juice, the 2 tablespoons flour, and the baking soda with an electric mixer on medium speed about 2 minutes or until combined, scraping side of bowl occasionally. Stir in lemon peel. Pour filling over hot crust. Bake about 20 minutes more or until light brown around the edges and center is set. Transfer to wire rack; cool.

3.In a small saucepan heat jelly and the 1 teaspoon lemon juice just until jelly is melted; spoon over bars in pan, spreading evenly. Arrange berry quarters on top of bars so that each cut bar will have a berry on top. Cover; chill for 1 to 2 hours. Cut into bars.

* The fresh strawberries on top looked nice, but they were hard to hold and eat around. A thin slice might work better than a whole quarter. And they got kind of mushy by the next day, so if you're not planning on eating all of the bars all at once like Tubby Tubberson, I would maybe hold off on those.

A winter secret

Before this spring weather really takes off, I feel like I need to get something off my chest.

I really like the snow.

I know,  I know. Some people hate it. Many people complain about it. It's a pain to drive in. It's bothersome to clean off your car before you have to drive in it. I understand all of this, but I still love it. It's just so magical. When else does beautiful, fluffy and sometimes sparkling stuff fall from the sky and stay for a while? What else can you go outside and roll around in, pack into balls, build into people (not just snowmen—Anna insists on making only snow girls), slide down, and eat (if it's clean)?

Nothing besides deliciously beautiful snow.

I've been thinking about how much I love snow ever since Anna and I checked out this book by Cynthia Rylant from the library a while ago. It was delightful. It covered the many different kinds of snow, the kind that "comes softly in the night like a quiet friend" or the kind that falls so "heavy [it buries] cars up to their noses." It talks about how nice it is to come inside after being out in the snow. The book celebrates how snow helps us notice the delicate limbs of trees and the special kind of snow that makes the whole world glowing pink, even when it's nighttime. See? Magical.

Because the snow melted so quickly down in the valley a month or so ago, we went up into the canyon to see if we could do some real sledding. I swear it was 1-2 feet deep in places, and they were not kidding when they came up with the song "Winter Wonderland." It was marshmallowy and gorgeous everywhere you looked.

Other things I love about the snow:

• The wearing of snow clothes makes it possible to go places you normally couldn't. As kids, my sister and I used to climb up and sit in/on the bushes by my house when we were playing in the snow, just because we could.
• It's a giant canvas. You can play fox and geese, and Anna and I also like to play giant games of Tic Tac Toe with our feet and sticks to draw with.
• We also experimented with different ways to paint on it a couple weeks ago. We used water and food coloring in a spray bottle and with paint brushes. (We had to hurry before it melted, as you can see in the pictures.)

Snow has many magical qualities and I don't care how much others hate on it, I love it. And judging by this last snowy attempt to thwart spring, today was a great day to post this. I know it's April when the snow should be done, but I wasn't over it yet.