Gifts

Papa brought us lots of surprises in his luggage. I got a couple of things for my 40th birthday ( a cute, new outfit; a beautiful bowl made by an artist; and some $$$!) from our families. The kids also got some Easter candy (shhhh!). It's always a challenge to fill Easter baskets here with candy that doesn't really look Easter-ish. In addition to that, our sweet Singaporean friends sent us a Kindle (hurray!!!) and the girls some batik dresses and purses from the East.

These friends from Singapore were our landlords when this daughter was born. Amazing how God brings people in your path, isn't it?

Mimi sent the girls t-shirts, which they've enjoyed layering this week. (Still snow!)

Big Ben quickly found his intended gifts, a front loader and a new Nerf gun. In fact, there were 2 Nerf guns...Papa got himself one too.

What We've Been Doing/ Leap Day

It was a long 2 1/2 weeks without our Papa! Finally, February 29, Leap Day, came! As predicted, it snowed for about 48 hours straight. It was the kind of snow that you can sink into, like a throne.

 My sweet friend T invited us over, as it was a snow day and school was closed. Here we are making our way down our street.

 I felt like I did really well all the time CC was gone, until that last day. Coffee with a friend who loves me and loves God, friends for the kids to play with...it was just what I needed.

 We had cupcakes with little frogs jumping out, for Leap Day!

And in spite of our nearly 2 ft. of snow, CC's plane made it all the way, and he was able to get a taxi driver to bring him home.

Belle of the Ball Candids

 My friend who attended the ball took these for me.

 I've been seeing this look on her face since she was about 2 years old.

 And I simply could not resist posting these. So so cute in every way.

 Give them some time, honey, they'll catch up.

I love it!

The Belle of the Ball

Well, it's finally happened. A Campbellkid grew up enough to attend the Winter Ball. Back when her dad started to see the time was drawing near, he started hinting around that maybe it was time to separate the middle school from the high school for the annual dance. No, no, don't do that, I told him. I think having the younger kids there keeps it refreshingly innocent. Yes, you're right, he quickly agreed in a panic! And so the time came. I was all alone to send her off, to think my thoughts of how she could possibly have already reached this age. The big day was a flurry. She washed her hair in the morning, and I put in sponge curlers. Her hair is long, and thick. Hours later the curls still weren't dry. We used the blow dryer off and on all day. I took her across the street to the kuafor to get her hair pinned up. It seemed every old lady in our neighborhood was getting her hair 'set' that day. After we waited an hour, I got the bright idea to call Miss N. Miss N is so good at so many things. She was happy to help. She got the curl to stay (loads of hairspray) and pinned her right up. We're going to miss Miss N so much next year. I was glad we had this one more memory with her. We came home, got her make up done, she had a snack. It was time to put on her dress. She put it on and the lump in my throat came. Big Ben saw her and said, "You are a Pincess, I can dance with you!" Her sisters also told her how pretty she was. I kept thinking, "Her dad would fall over if he could see her." I always knew she'd be beautiful, but it's hard to picture exactly how that is going to look. She was stunning.

 Her dress was one that we had already. We took it to a seamstress and had it cut to tea length. She also added the little capped sleeves (it had been strapless). All for US$10! We went with a classic dress...not a short modern one. I told her she'd never go wrong with classic. (And I could hardly walk through the school to drop her off without an adult telling me how beautiful she was. We adults like classic!) I found the little clutch purse on a 70% off winter clearance. I gave it to her with a "Happy First Winter Ball" note. And of course, you see the flip flops. What can I say? Snow on the ground. But this is what they wear...glitzy flip flops, which promptly come off when it is time to dance.

The theme this year was a Venetian Masquerade Ball. Oh, these kids are amazing. They pull off amazing decorations, all on a shoestring budget. They transformed the atrium, it was amazing. The music is clean. The math teacher gave them all swing dance lessons, and told the boys to ask all the girls, and told the girls to accept all offers to dance. It's just the kind of dance that it used to be, back in the old days when dances were better.

She came home, she'd had a wonderful time. I was on email chat with CC late that night. I told him she'd danced with all the 7th grade boys and a few older ones. I hardly had the chat line sent before he typed back, "With whom?" The day is coming when she'll leave with her one chosen young man forever, just like CC took me away! But for now, we'll enjoy each year, each day, each minute.

Go Bananas!

Hi readers,

No pictures today. I have stashed my extra camera battery and the charger in some "special place," and I don't quite remember that place right now. I will find it before Saturday night when my little darling who can't be about to turn 13 attends her first Winter Ball.  But until then,  I wanted to pass along something.

It's rare that we have fruit go bad at our house. No matter how much I buy at my weekly grocery run, it usually disappears. However, this week, I had 2 bananas that had turned brown. Many times we throw them in the blender and make banana milk, but this morning I decided to make banana bread.

Unfortunately, all my recipes called for 3 bananas, and I only had 2. So, for the 3rd banana I substituted 2 large dollops of Turkish yogurt and hoped for the best.

Heaven, I tell you!! It's my new banana bread recipe.

Banana Bread with Yogurt:
1 stick butter
1 c sugar
2 c flour
2 eggs
2 ripe bananas
2 dollops of Turkish yogurt
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 c chopped nuts
1/2 tsp salt

I baked it around an hour. What have you substituted in a recipe that turned out better than the original?

Survival

It is never easy when Papa makes his annual February journey to the US. But I will say that it is MUCH easier now, with 5 children ages 3-12 than it was with 3 children ages 0-3! This year he is gone for 2 1/2 weeks. To make things a little easier, I have greatly simplified our dinners. This is what we had Sunday night: popcorn, chips and salsa (made by a Mexican school mom and sold to benefit a service trip to Kenya by our teens...I HAD to buy some, it was for a good cause, afterall), cut fruit and chocolate dip, and cheese and crackers. Mmmm, I'm sure I hit all the major food groups. The chocolate covered dairy, didn't it? I did start to feel guilty yesterday that the meals have been so thrown together. To counteract my guilt, I make them salmon, salad, and mashed potatoes last night.

We mostly have good days. There are moments when I wonder how in the world a single parent does this day in and day out. Most years the biggest struggle for me is just managing everyone alone. That is getting easier. The Singapore girls manage themselves mostly now. What I have noticed this year is just that it's hard to be the only parent to get them where they need to be.

Sunday was a particularly good day. We came home from church and lunch. We worked on upcoming tests and piano practices. Then the older girls all wanted to bake. I made dough in the bread maker, then let Miss Middler make monkey bread out of it.

And these girls made an apple galette (here's a link for a recipe: Apple Galette). It was delicious. It said you can serve it with ice cream, but hey, in keeping with our meal themes this week, we served it for breakfast!

And these two did nothing to help except think how good it was all going to taste.

Here is their final product.

Snow Day, Take 2, Part II

One of the things the kids did on their snow day was to get out the play-doh. Before I knew it, all four younger kids were sitting at the table, with an assembly line formed, pretending to "bake." Everyone had a job, they pushed the cinnamon roll/cupcake/pizza down the line, and the next Campbell did his/her job. It was so cute. I was painting our entry way and enjoying quietly listening to their game. And then Big Ben discovered the brown play-doh could be rolled into a long snake. And then he put it on his face, turned to Sweet Cheeks, and said, "Hey baby (pronounced be-beh, in his best smooth-talking accent), you like my moustache?" And I had to take a picture so I won't ever forget how he said that to her.