Two recipes

I have made a couple of things lately that need to be shared. (And it's been way too long since I have posted about food. I've still been baking and cooking, but I guess I've just been too busy eating . . . )

The first recipe is Honey Strawberry freezer jam that I got from this site. I was on the lookout for a freezer jam recipe that used honey instead of sugar, and this one was easy and delicious. Big fan.

And in opposite news, I have already made these sugar-full Peanut Butter Cup Brownie Cookies from this site two times in the past couple months, and they're a new favorite. They truly are a perfect soft and chewy blend of brownies and cookies, and I will support nearly anything that combines two of my favorite ingredients (PB and chocolate). The only change I made was adding WAY more peanut butter cups because I like more peanut butter to my chocolate. I added more PB chunks to the batter, and then I saved some to add once I got the dough on the cookie sheet.

The birthday shirt

And let us not forget a favorite birthday tradition, the birthday shirt. Anna picked a winner this year. I was impressed with her stylish choice of shirt and ribbon — and how well it turned out (largely due to the fact, I'm sure, that it was a year for straight lines, finally).

Anna's Golden Birthday

Monkeying around in the party-supply aisle

The day of Anna's golden birthday finally arrived. She has been waiting for SOOOO long to turn 7 on the 7th. We had a lot of fun things planned, and everything came off without a hitch. I'm pretty proud of all we accomplished in a few short days.

Anna has always been a very gracious gift receiver, so giving her gifts is a delight. It's a win-win. (Plus, her presents are really fun to play with.) She was genuinely excited by each one, even though she got quite a few. So many people love her. After she opened one present, she said, "I'm so jealous of myself!" The present in question? A Hello Kitty book light. Birthday present success. 

riding straight into the flowers

The first thing she wanted to do with this new camera was pose for a picture with it. She tried to aim my phone by herself, but I ended up helping her out. I admired her innovation. 

The next night was her party, which we themed a Late Night Dance Party. ("Late night," meaning it ended at 8:30. Riotous, I know.) We hung white Christmas lights on the patio and colorful balloons from the ceiling that had lights inside, paper lanterns, and we had a rotating disco ball (all of which would have been cooler if it had been dark, but whatev, it was still cool). Anna picked doritos and marshmallows and grapes as the snacks—and cupcakes in golden liners, of course. 

Before we could dance, the girls had to glam up a little. They made sparkly bracelets with cute little gemstones, put on disco ball necklaces, and clipped on a brightly colored hair extension. The music Anna picked was awesome. The songs were some of my favorites, since most of the music she hears comes from my library, but I loved what she picked. (We Are Young by Fun, which she announced is her favorite band, Katy Perry's Firework, some Adele, some U2, The Promise by When In Rome (yep, from the 80s), and some other classics.) I also played Dynamite by Taio Cruz (?), which is the song the first graders at her school danced to at the dance festival, and the instant it came on, all the girls got into position and did the whole thing like they were delightfully brainwashed. Amazing.

Anyhow, it was a very fun night and such a fun way to celebrate this little lady's golden birthday.

twirling with the leftover balloons

Annacdotes 27 — birthday edition

We're in the middle of Anna's Golden Birthday week around here. Actually, not much is happening until her birthday (she turns 7 on the 7th!) and her amazingly awesome party the next day, but we sure talk about it a whole lot. So to celebrate, here is an extra large dose of Annacdotes.

1. In a prayer during Primary: "Please help us to follow directions. And please help the directions to be good and worthwhile. And please help us to have a good time playing too. But please help there to be more following directions than playing." I think it's safe to say she's got her priorities in order.

2. As I was leaving her room one night, Anna said very sincerely, "Mom, aren't you sad for people who write their letters backward?" I admit I laughed, out of surprise, and then she said soberly and very sincerely, "'Cause I am."

3. After we watched a movie together, I told Anna we needed to take a few minutes to clean up the toy-ridden family room. She groaned and complained and then finally muttered to herself, "Goodbye awesome world, hello boring world."

4. Lately, whenever I thank Anna for something, she will say, "Don't thank me, thank yourself because you had me. Or, really, thank Adam and Eve." She's the epitome of modesty.

5. Anna was having a wild and spastic moment as soon as we got in the car. Jokingly, I said, "Calm the heck down and put on your seat belt." She laughed and said, "Well, YOU wild the heck up!"

6. My dad was feigning disappointment at losing one of Anna's guessing games (which this time happened to be to guess the number she was thinking of between 1 and 100–shocking that he didn't get it right), and my mom said, "Well, are you going to be a grump about it?" Anna said, "Yeah, don't be a grump, be a gramp!"

7. Anna thinks you load guns with batteries.

8. Saying goodnight one night, Anna was upset that she couldn't read or do anything but try to fall asleep. She said, "Can I do anything besides roll around and use my brain?" On my way out the door, I said, "Nope, that's it. Just make it interesting. Use your imagination." She groaned loudly and then said, "You'll pay for this!"

9. One night, Anna's prayer basically consisted of one sentence: "I am SO thankful for my family and for occasions that are special." When she was finished, I asked her what kinds of "occasions" were special for her. She thought for a minute and then blurted out, "Like having your very own calendar!"

After I told her to go get dressed one morning, my eyes widened when I saw this getup and I laughed out loud. Delighted, she said, "Think I look a little weird?" as though that's exactly what she was going for. I said, "Maybe a little bit." I was thinking mostly of her amazing pattern choices, but she said, "That's because I have two pairs of leggings on!"

10. Anna's class was learning about different countries, and I volunteered to go in and talk about our year in Poland when she was 2. Near the end of my presentation, Anna said loudly, "And thank YOU for teaching me about my past!"

11. We were discussing Leonardo Da Vinci one day, and I told Anna that he was a famous painter but he was also really smart and he made lots of cool inventions. She asked, "Like rocket boots?"

12. Anna made me a paper trophy for being "so loving" to let her watch cartoons while she was sick. When she presented it to me, she thanked me and then added, "And plus, you worked so hard to get me out of your stomach." That I did. I will take that trophy, thank you very much.

Anna in front of a nativity painting by Brian Kershisnik, reenacting the part of the angel above who could be her twin

13. After someone said booyah, Anna said, "Well, triple thousand booyah for me since I lost another tooth today!"

14. I was helping out at one of Anna's class parties, and the kids were coloring pictures of butterflies. The boy sitting next to Anna covered his with a mass of red and black and told Anna that his butterfly was dangerous and poisonous. Looking sincerely aghast, Anna said, "That is a waste of beauty!"

15. "Oh, for crying out pete."

16. Anna was eating a small box of nerds, and after a few minutes, I asked if she was done with her nerds. Then I asked her if she was a nerd. She said, "Yes, yes I am." I laughed and then asked her what makes a nerd, knowing that she probably has no idea of the real meaning. She said, "Deliciousness."

17. She was having a hard time consuming her smoothie one morning, as it had a few extremely healthy ingredients in it, and after a while she hid in the pantry. A couple minutes later, she poked her head out and said, "I'd come over there, but then I'd want to cut off my arm so I couldn't grab the cup and cut off my lips so I couldn't taste it." So dramatic.

18. On another occasion, Anna was pretty sick and communicated this by saying she was "sick as a weasel."

casually waiting in line for a waffle at the waffle truck, though it looks like we're in the middle of nowhere . . . and almost like she's missing a leg 

19. While the subject has changed, Anna has had a perpetual crush on someone for the last three years—and it is a consistent topic of conversation, usually involving how embarrassed she was because the boy in question looked at her, or something. She's at the point where she can't even say his name out loud; she has to spell it. I once told her that I too had a crush on a boy in kindergarten, but then one day, out of the blue, she said, "Mom did you ever have a love life in primary?"I loved that she wondered about that part of my life too. And "love life"? Are kidding me? Later, when talking about the boy in question and how she avoids him at recess, she said vehemently, "You have to run away from your love life if you're shy, AND I'M SHY!"

20. On a recent bike/scooter ride around the neighborhood (I was on a bike and Anna was on a scooter, since she is mortally afraid of riding a bike), she said very sincerely as we started that she wanted to go on new roads "because I want to explore the world as much as possible."

Later, she put her face to the wind and told me she was imagining winning a race and that the feeling of the wind was her crashing through the ribbon at the finish. "Want to try it?" she asked when we had stopped for a minute. I smiled and told her I knew exactly what she was talking about. As she got back on her scooter, she said with a shake of her head, "Ah, the imagination of youth."