Thanksgiving Weekend Fun

Here are photos from Thanksgiving weekend...

Pa Harry giving Madelyn a bottle...


Daddy and Madelyn the night before Thanksgiving...


Madelyn starting eating some rice cereal one week ago. It's messy, but fun!

Gamma Linda used to make these cinnamon and sugar rolls with leftover pie crust. Here was my attempt at making them. They weren't quite as good as hers, but they still disappeared.
Homemade pumpkin pie - crust and all. Some drama in the preparation of this pie, but all turned out well.
Daddy putting the turkey in the oven...or taking it out...

A large carved turkey...

Our feast...
Daddy, Kaitlyn, Pa Harry and (Madelyn and Mommy - not visible)...
Happy Thanksgiving!!



Now that turkey day is over, our house moved into X-mas decorating mode. We bought the tree, hung the lights and the holiday season is in full swing!


This is Kaitlyn with her and Madelyn's tree. She can play with it as much as she wants - just not the big tree!!

PKK: Gingerbread House

Princess Kaitlyn opted for something a little different this week. Instead of our usual kitchen activity, Princess Kaitlyn and her Pa decorated a gingerbread house. Granted, mommy and Pa and had ice the house back together as it had some significant structural damage when we opened the box. Kaitlyn taste tested the decor as we fixed it.







Mommy has limited photos because our camera battery is dying and the camera charger disappeared with mommy's purse. Oh well!

More Madelyn Talking...

Here is some more video of Madelyn talking and playing. She's so funny!!

PKK: Fruit Fencing

Once upon a time there was a little girl named Princess Kaitlyn. She lived in a beautiful castle by an enchanted forest, a magical lake, and a fantastically fun playground. One day as she wondered around the enchanted forest, she came upon a fox. "Coah, my friendly fox, what are you doing?" Princess Kaitlyn asked. Coah explained that she wanted to have a fruit fencing match, but didn't have anyone to fence with.

Princess Kaitlyn was intrigued by this game and offered to play with Coah. They used wood sticks as 'swords' and filled them with fruit. Each time Princess Kaitlyn or Coah landed a 'hit' with their fruit filled sword, the striker got to eat her opponent's piece of fruit. Whoever finished with fruit left on her sword, won the game.

Princess Kaitlyn and Coah giggled as they fenced and gleefully ate each other's delicious strawberries, bananas, kiwis, blueberries and pears. They did not actually keep score as to who won the most fencing matches and just enjoy the fun contest.


Fruit Sword Ingredients

• Bananas
• Strawberries
• Blueberries
• Kiwi (tried it, but not a big hit)
• Pears (a bigger hit with mommy)
• Pineapple chunks
• Wood skewers
  

Instructions

Have an adult cut up the fruit in most cases. Princess Kaitlyn used her special, safe knife to cut up the banana since it is soft enough to slice with 'her' knife.

Arrange fruit on plate for Princess Kaitlyn (or your kids) to put on skewers.

Show Princess Kaitlyn (or your kiddos) how to put fruit on the skewers and let them have at it. Taste testing in between is allowable. :-)


Princess Kaitlyn's blueberry sword - this was her favorite!All of Princess Kaitlyn and Coah's fruit swords.



Princess Kaitlyn happily ate her fruit swords for lunch. Believe it or not, she really did eat all of those blueberries and strawberries in this photo!


Side note: we made a dipping sauce for the fruit skewers with maple syrup, butter, cinnamon and allspice, but Princess Kaitlyn didn't want it. I love that she just wanted to eat the fruit!

PKK: Cheerio Necklaces

Once upon a time there was a little girl named Princess Kaitlyn. She lived in a beautiful castle by an enchanted forest, a magical lake, and a fantastically fun playground. It was a horribly rainy day at Princess Kaitlyn's castle and she was getting bored. She whistled at the window a sad song because she so desperately wanted to play outside and visit her friends in the enchanted forest.

Luckily for Princess Kaitlyn, the boisterous butterflies heard her whistling and fluttered up to the castle - getting soaked in the process. They burst through the castle window and sang a sweet song to Princess Kaitlyn. As they sang, they flew to the pantry and found some licorice strings and cheerios. The butterflies explained to Princess Kaitlyn that on rainy days, she'll just have to make her own fun out using things inside the castle.

So, for the next several hours, Princess Kaitlyn and the boisterous butterflies made necklaces, bracelets, webs, ropes, and braids out of cheerios and licorice pieces. A boring, rainy afternoon, turned into a fun and silly day for Princess Kaitlyn.



While Princess Kaitlyn had fun with the butterflies, in reality, mommy admits that this PKK flopped a bit. The cheerio holes were a little too small to fit over the pull-n-peel licorice rope. I couldn't find the old school licorice strings. Next time I need to use a cereal with bigger holes or smaller edible string.

Wine Country Get Away

We had a great excuse to sneak away to Napa Valley for two days this fall. A friend got married in Livermore, CA. Here are some highlights of the trip:

• Met Thomas Keller (funny story to go with it too!)

Side profile of the French Laundry (one day we hope to eat there!)

The garden where Thomas Keller grows the herbs, fruits and vegetables used at his Yountville restaurants.
Thomas Keller's bakery that bakes all the bread/pastries for the French Laundry, Bouchon and Ad Hoc (or so we've been told). FYI...the pastries are awesome!!

A bouchon - supposed to look like a large cork. Tasted wonderful and had chocolate chunks inside of it. Recipe is in the Bouchon cookbook.

• Ate amazing food and drank great wine - we both tried foie gras and I actually ate a few oysters as photographed below...
  

Bistro Jeanty has a happy hour oyster bar - $1 oysters from 3 pm to 6 pm weekdays. This is a great restaurant and the locals told us that the oysters were pretty good too.
I'm taking a sip of bubbly to get the courage to try an oyster.
The oyster is in my mouth...
The oyster is being swallowed...
and I survived the whole experience. It wasn't so bad after adding a little hot sauce. I also had our foodie friends walking me through it so I didn't have any mishaps.

• Enjoyed the views and smelling the wine grapes in the air as we arrived in Napa Valley

View at Auberge du Soleil where we stopped for lunch

• Spent a fun day with friends Jon and Amy visiting wineries and eating dinner at Bouchon.

Tasting at Robert Biale - primarily Zinfandel with a Syrah and Petit Syrah
The winemaker at Biale. He's from Wales and comes to Napa for three months to make wine - rough life!Tasting Zinfandel from the barrel at Casa Nuestra. It was very good!

Your eyes do not deceive you...it is a wiffle ball bat holding the container open. Tasting at Failla winery. A very relaxing and rustic atmosphere. Unfortunately, Dave did not care for the wines. It's all about personal preference!

Tasting at Pina winery - very small production place.

After oysters, we headed to Bouchon for our dinner reservation. It was fantastic!

Dave holding the crostini for the foie gras we shared. We had a great syrah with dinner called Relic.

My bibb lettuce salad. We've made this at home, but it doesn't look as pretty.

Dave's scallop and lobster dish with a potato ? (Florentine??). The item that looks like a flower is several thin potato slices crisped to add some crunch to the dish. Very cool!

Relaxing after a great meal!

Winery tour and tasting at Quintessa Vineyards off of Silverado Trail.

Winemaking in process...

• Decided we are DEFINITELY retiring in wine country ;-)

• And last, but not least, had a great time at the wedding with friends.
  

Rory waiting for his bride.

Diane walking to her prince.

Friends of the couple at the reception

The newlyweds with Todd, Dave and Carter (malfunction on the flash).

Congrats Rory and Diane!

Until next time Napa Valley! We will see you again soon!!