Dance in France

Anyone who knows us, or reads my blog occasionally knows that my girls LOVE ballet.  They've been dancing since they were two or three years old.  Next summer, Jena and Ashni have the opportunity to go to France with their ballet school to take classes and tour Paris.  This is an amazing opportunity for them.  It is also a very costly opportunity for us.  So we have set up a fundraising website for anyone who would be interested in donating to their trip.  I am also available to sell off some artwork (check out my website www.adriennebrown-david.com or email me).  I take commissions (email me!).  The girls can bake you homemade gingerbread cookies or cross stitch some lovliness for you!  We are keeping our fingers crossed that we can make this happen for them.

 Send Jena and Ashni to Dance in France

Bijou's use for Cuisenaire rods

A lovely friend let a borrow a really beautiful set of Cuisenaire rods.  They were a huge hit right away.  Zion has already mastered some simple addition with them all on her own.  Bijou has used them to do some math, but this is really what she prefers to do with them.

Here's a little known fact about Bijou.  I know that I have mentioned in the past that she is quite the cantankerous little girl.  Well, if you REALLY want to send her into fist and hysterics, let her build something (with blocks or dominoes or, in this case, Cuisenaire rods) and it fall down.  It will completely ruin her day.  So this is pretty impressive for her.  These rods are NOT easy to build with (without them falling).  She was very proud of herself.

Budding artist

I know that I have mentioned in the past that Zion colors very well for her age, but I don't think that I have mentioned the fact that she also draws very well for her age.  Actually, I didn't realize how well she drew until spending time with other three year olds.  She doesn't draw all of the time (she prefers to color), but when she does I am always impressed.  Here is a drawing from a few months ago.

She was driving me batty that afternoon, so I let her loose with a dry erase marker and a white board.  She got quiet, I finished what I was doing and when I looked up again, this is what she's drawn.

This is a drawing that she did today.  She said that is her in her wedding dress and the figure to the right is going to be her husband.  Unfortunately, her husband will have to wait until tomorrow because it was time for her to go to bed (she was not happy that I wouldn't let her finish it).

There really was no explanation for this drawing, but I thought it was pretty darn cute.  It's on the back of her wedding drawing.  Maybe it's the flower girl, but I think it looks very super hero-like.

All in all, not too shabby for a three year old, right?

Another one gets glasses...

That makes three of the four.

I give Zion another year before she completes the circle.

The big one turned 11!

Okay, so I've gotten very bad at maintaining my life and my blog.  Eh, well.  Maybe I'll get it together again eventually.

Anywho... Jena turned 11 on the 20th.  My first baby is clearly NOT a baby anymore.  We only do big birthday parties between the 4th and 10th birthday (because I think I would go insane trying to pull a party off for all of them indefinitely).  So, Jena got her first preteen birthday.  We hung streamers from and piled balloons in front of her bedroom door while she was sleeping (she said she was really surprised by that).  Then, we had homemade blueberry pancakes for breakfast.  Her sisters put the tablecloth on the table, which in our house equals fancy meal!  We took her for her annual free scoop at our local ice cream shop.  Then headed to Tupelo to the mall to spend the birthday money that Daddy and I had given her (there were lots of dangly earrings bought).  Finally, she got to pick anything she wanted me to make for dinner.  She chose brown sugar and soy glazed salmon, roasted Brussels sprouts, mashed potatoes and a vanilla cake with lemon frosting.  She said it was one of the best birthdays she's ever had.

 Somehow this tiny, chubby, pink baby turned into this tall, thin, nerdy (and I love her for it) kid.  How does that happen??

I convinced Jena to buy a few Cry Babies (remember those?) to share with her sisters.  None of them had ever had one before.  Zion's face was the best...

...but Jena immediately spitting it back into her hand beat Zion's face, hands down!

She had a GIANT piece of cake.  It took her two days to eat her one piece of cake.  That's my Jena.

Better late than never...

The Brown-David clan has been away for a couple of weeks.  The girls got to spend a couple of weeks in St. Louis with my mother and the hubs and I finally got a honeymoon (sort of).  We spent 10 days (child free, mind you) on the East Coast visiting friends and family.  We divided our time between Washington DC, New Jersey and New York.  We had a great time and ate more delicious food than I thought humanly possible!

There was a great video game exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery in DC.  Couldn't pass up a chance to play giant PacMan.

I have been hearing about Ethiopian food for the last two visits to DC.  We finally got to go for Ethiopian.  Look how happy he looks.

The "Little Old Lady" suite at the B&B where we stayed in New Jersey.  It was close to the beach AND provided bikes for the guests.

Apparently in Bradley Beach, you need badges to actually get onto the beach.  These came with the room, of course.

Don't I look like I'm enjoying the bike ride?  I really did!  The weather was pleasant, the ride was easy and there was not a hill in sight.

My only good picture of the Verrazano Bridge.  It's difficult to take pictures from a moving vehicle.

This is his excited face.  We spent the afternoon at the Dekalb Market in Brooklyn.  There was great food and music.

Notice the beer and donuts (in the box) in the background.  It was that kind of day!

Awesome street art!  Notice the box of donuts still being carted around.  Those donuts saw all of Brooklyn that day.

Our first trip on a NYC subway. There's a much better picture than this somewhere...

I got the COLDEST popsicle known to man in Central Park.  The vendor had them in dry ice and the condensation was refreezing on the popsicle.  It was literally getting BIGGER as I ate it (and my lips kept sticking to it)

Cooling off (or trying to cool off, anyway) in a little pavilion in Central Park.

A trip to Chinatown always means ducks (and chickens and a variety of other animals) hanging in the windows.

It also means really tasty, cheap food.  We had giant, steamy bowls of noodles and balls of various origins.  These particular ones were fish.  I had shrimp balls in mine (which looked almost exactly like this, only pinkish).

I saw this sign while were in Manhattan and I thought it was humorous.  Hopefully my Keen sneakers were acceptable.

 I love Urban Outfitters and that's really all the I can say about this picture...

The kids also had great time in St. Louis, but because I had the camera, there are no pictures to share.  I'm sure my mom will have to sleep for the next two weeks to recuperate from spending two weeks with my four little girls.  They can be handful.  Now, to get back into our regularly scheduled routine.

Farmer's Market Dinners

I love the fact that we have a couple of good farmer's markets and local grocery stores in this town.  I am enjoying meals made with fresh, locally grown ingredients.  Saturday's dinner was made almost exclusively from food bought that day at the market (the pizza dough excluded).

We made flat bread pizzas with yellow tomato, fresh mozzarella and a little mint (we didn't have basil) from the girls' garden.

 I made the dough and cooked one side on our flat cast iron skillet.  Then I put it under the broiler to melt the cheese and brown the top of the crust.

We had the pizza with roasted cabbage and yellow summer squash.  Bijou LOVED the summer squash.  It was met with a lukewarm reception from the other girls.  I think they enjoyed the flavor, but the texture left much to be desired.  I personally, thought it was tasty.  And the roasted cabbage, they could eat several heads of cabbage if I roast them!