Rosie's Special Day -- Happy Birthday little one

Rosie's Birthday was such a wonderful and special day. I have WAY too many pictures of it, but she is just so cute it's so hard to post just a few.

She is also very very loved and had gifts coming from all over the world. Literally. she got gifts from friends in China, Venezuela and several states in the US.

We started our day with tea and pancakes and of course a present or two. Rosie was very excited when she saw her big pile of gifts, but I was so proud of her that she just wanted to open one at a time and play with it for a few hours before moving on to the next one.

Since it was Rosie's Special Day she got to pick all the things we did that day. Of course that meant a dance party. So we put on our dancing shoes and all danced in the living room to Christmas music.

Also, Rosie loves Rainbows and colors so we tried to incorporate as much color into our day as we could. That is the reason for Rosie's extra special rainbow outfit and her sparkly red dancing shoes.

After dancing for a good long time Rosie wanted to go out for a walk. Going for walks is Rosie's favorite thing.  She loves being outside, especially now that the weather isn't so hot.

We also decided to show her how to play in the Autumn leaves. She thought jumping in the pile of leaves that William made was great fun.

I know it's a lot of pictures... but doesn't she just have the greatest smile?!

Rosie's favorite place to walk is out in the back pasture, far away from the house. She likes to follow the goats and dogs out there and check on every one.

Rosie giving her little Andy a kiss. He got too tired on our long walk and William had to carry him home. William is so nice.

Of course our new baby goats need kisses and cuddles too.
Rosie loves playing outside with her goats. She likes to talk to them and pet them and make sure they are all doing well. She's such a good goat girl.

Here are a few pictures of Rosie opening her gifts. As I mentioned before, it took us ALL DAY to open her gifts. She really enjoyed taking time with each one. Each one was very special to her.

We had to read each book she got a couple times before she could move on to any thing else. Here she got Corduroy from her Grandma in Truckee.

oh yeah. and we had cupcakes for lunch.

another gift....

 

It's a hat! Rosie loves hats.

Opening more gifts...

And another stylish hat!

Hanging out with our rainbow socks...

And reading the book about Home Birth that our friend Diana sent us. Rosie really likes this book. Here she's pointing out the mama's belly and telling us how it's going to "open" and then an "egg" will come, then the baby is born. Rosie is so smart. She calls this her "boobie book."

Our friend Fanny, in China, sent Rosie some pretty princess things...

 And William made us a very special dinner of Rainbow Clam Spaghetti.

 Rosie loves pasta, and she likes clams, and since we were doing a rainbow themed day we thought this would be fun. I got the idea from Rosie's Godmother, Julie.  It turned out really really well. It was super tasty and the colors looked great. They didn't turn out very well in the picture, but in person they were great.

As you can see Rosie loved them very much. She especially loved the pink noodles and giggled every time she took a bite.

Since it was a special day we had Sparkling Apple Cider and Rosie got to use an extra special glass for it.

Then it was cake time!

We sang Happy Birthday twice because Rosie thought it was so much fun to all sing together ....

Then she blew out both of her candles all by her self. 

I made a Rainbow cake of course. Rosie had fun telling us what color each layer was.

I was very happy with how well it turned out and that it didn't fall apart or fall over or anything.

Then it was time for some pre-bed time silliness with dancing, chasing through the house, wearing of hats and of course a few cartoons.

 It was the most wonderful Birthday celebration I think I've ever participated in. We all had fun all day long. It helped that we had an almost endless flow of presents and cake.  Rosie was such a good girl all day long and smiled all day.

 

We had so much fun opening her gifts all day long that we even ran out of time and had to wait till the next day to open the last one.

Rosie didn't mind at all though. She got a little dolly wagon house with two little dolls and a horse. She played with it all day long and still carries the dollies around the house with her. Some times she even nurses them, takes them to the potty and wraps them up in her blankie for a nap. She's such a good little mama.

I love that she can be both girly and rough and tumble dirty at the same time.

So that was our super wonderful Birthday Celebration with our little Angel. Thank you everyone for making it so wonderful and for all your love and gifts and cards you sent. Rosie LOVES cards and keeps some of them in her bed where looks at them in the evenings. Others she keeps on the kitchen table where she can tell us what colors they are while we eat breakfast. 

Every day she is more and more fun to be around.

Also, thank you William for all these wonderful pictures you took of Rosie's special day. (check out his iPhone pics on the right for more awesome photos)

Happy Halloween!

 Happy Halloween every one!

I made these Rice Krispie treat Pumpkins last night to help us celebrate.

I found them on the Whisk Kid blog. She always has such fun dessert ideas.

Hope you all have a Happy and Fun Halloween!

Fish Fry

Last weekend we went to our very first Fish Fry. Fish Fries are a very special local past time here. Politicians must host them if they want to get elected, Churches host them to draw people in. To me a fish fry is the mark of Summer around here.

A fish fry is just what is sounds like. A bunch of people getting together and eating fried fish. In these parts that means Catfish.

I think I could eat fried catfish every day. It's amazing. I'm so glad we live in the South. I can't believe I've gone all my life without fried catfish.

This particular fish fry was hosted my Aunt Mae's church and was a pot luck. Every one brought their specialties. There were hush puppies and french fries and 3 tables of desserts and of course Coleslaw. Or as people around here call it "Slaw."

 Coleslaw is historically a dutch dish called "koolsalade", which means cabbage salad. It's main ingredient is shredded cabbage and often has shredded carrots in it too.

 I thought there were only two kinds of "slaw," vinegar slaw and mayonnaise slaw. But last weekend I learned I was very wrong.  There was vinegar slaw, and slaw it milk sauce, and slaw with grapes in it, and slaw with green peppers. I have seen so many different kinds of "slaw" in my life!
We sampled most of them and William came home with many ideas to try.

Bonnie Rose enjoyed the fish fry very much. She loves hush puppies and Aunt Mae made sure there were special Gluten Free hush puppies and fish batter just for us! She's so good to us and we all over ate.

Another special treat was Uncle Joe's presents there.  At first Bonnie Rose played a little shy with him. But he managed to make her laugh and win her over, as he always does.   I'm so happy she has some one as kind and fun and musical as Joe to grow up with.

After eating way too much and visiting and Joe taking Rosie in the bouncy house and playing endless rounds of hide and seek with her, we all rolled our selves home and sat lazily in front of the TV and watched Doctor Who.  We didn't even have any room for ice cream. 

I can tell we are going to have a very wonderful, if not fattening, summer.

Paulina's Famous Stuffed Peppers : A Food Post

Since William works all day outside and my mom works all day on her computer it's only fair that I cook dinner for every one.  I'm really enjoying having an American sized kitchen with counter space and an oven and a stove with more than two burners. Even though I enjoy baking more, I'm enjoying planning and figuring out new dinners to make.

Me, Paulina and Lukas, Classmates in Shanghai

In the Summer heat I like to make food that isn't hot and doesn't take much cooking. So this summer I've been making Paulina's Famous Stuffed Chili Peppers.
Paulina was a dear friend of mine in Shanghai. We took Chinese together and she was such a great cook. She would bring sandwiches to class and our classmates would buy them from her. I think of her and how much she taught me every time I make this meal.

First I start with these ingredients:

Anaheim Chili Peppers (2 or 3 per person)
Lime Juice (or real limes)
Tuna (one can per person)
Boiled Eggs (one per person)
Red or Yellow Onion
Mayonnaise
Salt and Pepper
I  like to put a green apple in it, but I didn't have one today.

You'll also need a pair of tongs or long wooden chopsticks.

First I chop the Onion and put lime juice on it... to taste. I usually put enough on the just barely cover the onion.

I let the Lime and Onion sit while I do the Chili Peppers. The lime will soak into the onion and make it taste amazing.

Then I cook the Chili Peppers on an open flame to blacken the skin

Paulina used to use her fingers to turn them over, but that was too much for me. In China I used a pair of wooden chopsticks so if they got burned it didn't matter. In the States I use metal tongs.

Get the skin nice and back... all over

Once they are completely back take them off the fire and put them in a container with a lid. I use a Glad Wear box.

Put the lid on right away. I cover the peppers and leave them in there while I cook the rest. The key is to leave them covered in the container to let the sweat so the skin gets nice a loose.

After I cook up all my peppers I set the covered container aside and mix up my tuna salad. That gives them extra time to sweat.

I do everything "to taste".  So just kind of "eyeball" how much of everything you think you like. We don't like a lot of Mayonnaise so I don't use more than a spoonful or two. 

  Put whatever else you think will be good in tuna salad. I usually dig around in the pantry to see what I can find. I like to put apples in it when I have them and Paulina says she likes to chop up almonds.  

After the Tuna salad is mixed it's time to peal peppers. I do this at the sink so I can have a small stream of cool water to rinse my fingers off since the skins tend to stick to them.

Just take one pepper at a time and pinch the skin lightly between your fingers and it comes right off.

I hold the pepper with one hand and pinch the skin off with the other (but I had to take the picture with one hand.)

You can rinse the peppers after all the skin is off to get it clean of all the black specks. Cool water will cool off the pepper right away if it's too hot to handle. Warm water will keep the pepper slightly warm.

I use just cool water.

Once all the peppers are pealed slice them open on one side. Sometimes a pepper with tear while it's cooking or being pealed. That's ok, just use the tear to start the slice.

I also pinch the seed cluster out at the top of the pepper.

Then with a spoon scoop the tuna salad into the pepper. I usually pile it high to make sure everyone gets enough to eat.

And it's ready to eat!

These Chili Peppers are not spicy, though sometimes one will be. 

That or I accidentally bought a jalapeno last time. 

We usually serve it with my mom's Homemade Ginger Ale and either chips and salsa or Carrot Soup.

This is the perfect Summer dinner and one of our favorites. Even Baby Girl likes it. I enjoy making so much that chances are if you come to visit us this summer I'll probably make it for you.