It's a "Chicken" Miracle

I know this is weird but this meal was so momentous that I had to record it. Tonight at dinner Addison willingly ate homemade plain chicken strips on her own free will. Now this is a totally big deal because the only meat she willing eats is fish sticks and the breaded chicken strips I sneak in on her and tell her that they are fish sticks. But today she actually asked if she could have one and we were all over it and encouraged her the whole way. Way to go sweetie...by the time you are 30 you may like hamburger!!!!

Pretty Pots

At playgroup this week the kids' craft project was decorating little seed pots with a face and then planting water cress . Addison's is on the right with the BIG eyes and Harry's is on the left.

They simply inserted wet cotton wool (cotton balls) and sprinkled the seeds on top. I've been watering them every day but eventually they should get big enough that they could pick the seedlings and put them on a sandwich or salad. Not sure that my kids will opt to eat the plants but they have had fun watching them grow.

So proud are they of their little pots!!!! And yes, I caught Harrison after one of Addison's dress up sessions with him (hence the necklace).

Celebrating Chinese New Year

It's the Year of the Tiger and Chinese New Year has come to an end, but with one last night we came together as friends to share in a new family tradition. For our first Chinese New Year without Danny and Min, the Beales' family and Gorman/Clayton family and the Dea's all worked to re-create the amazing meal and fellowship we had celebrated with the Wong's in year's past.

To start the evening out right, Kevin, Simon and Rhian did a salute to Danny Wong with fine shot of sake...needless to say I think it was the only shot any of them did as Kevin referred to it as tasting like rubbing alcohol.

Each family brought a few dishes to share. We started out the night with some homemade spring rolls (Min's recipe and they were an absolute hit) and crab rangoons (our Americanized Chinese favorite that we introduced to the group). Here I am preparing the Crispy Duck that we'll have for our 2nd course!!!

Everyone thought that this was an amazing sight to see Kevin actually cooking...I think this is the first time he's used my wok. I was a little worried at first but he did a great job. He is mixing up our pineapple chicken dish as pineapple is a very important during Chinese New Year.

The kids were pretty excited about getting together as well since it had been since Thanksgiving that we all got together last. Addison loves our neighbor girl Gemma and she repetitively tells me that Gemma is her bestest friend ever.

Here we are at the table ready to eat our feast. We had pineapple chicken, chicken and black beans, chicken kung po, stir fry veggies, chow mein noodles, crispy duck, spring rolls, crab rangoons, and rice. Sarah made up an apple crumble and treacle sponge pudding for our puddings with loads of custard on top...yummy!!!! (Not very Chinese but we live in England and you have to throw your own bit in there some times).

Well this year after dinner we didn't break into the traditional karaoke as we would at the Wong's so we pulled out the game of Cranium. We waged the Battle of the Sexes with men vs women and of course the women won...(but only by two questions!)

Normally Kevin seems to dominate this game with all of the factoid questions but tonight we was all about drawing with his eyes closed and making turtles out of clay. Some things were a bit challenging for our British friends as this was the American version and when they have to act out famous American icons its a bit hard when they don't know who they are.

Let's Wrestle

My kids really love to wrestle around on the floor with each other and with mom and dad. They have a complete hoot at times and this morning they showed off their brotherly and sisterly love by going at it in the middle of the kitchen floor.

Chinese New Year Cooking Day and Luncheon

Today I hosted a Chinese New Year cooking day and luncheon in honor of wonderful tradition my friend Min started for us ISEs while she was here in England. Eight dear friends and fellow ISE wives came over to my house in the morning and we prepared ourselves a Chinese New Year feast. We made Braised Pork, Pineapple Chicken, Pineapple Rice, Peking Duck, Chicken Satay, and home made spring rolls!!!! My role was simply to help out the other ladies with questions and fill them in on some techniques and knowledge I learned from Min, but I let them tackle all the cooking.

We all had a great time and I hope they learned a little bit and gained some confidence in making some great Chinese food from scratch. Most of all I hope they enjoyed an amazing holiday that I have grown to appreciate very much!!!!

Here is Paula preparing our Peking Duck...rubbing on a gooey glaze of honey, Chinese five spice and soy sauce!!!!

Paula was very proud of her Peking duck as she prepped it all from the sides of spring onion and cucumbers all they way to carving up the bird for us.

Holli jumped in to help out with the Pineapple chicken and filled us all in about her adventures in Ethiopia to meet her twin baby girls just a few days earlier. She is truly an amazing women and we are so excited for her and Andy as they have gone through a long process to add on to their family.

Laurie was my seasoned veteran as Min had a special Chinese cooking training for us before she headed back to Singapore. I put her in charge of the spring rolls as they were pretty time intensive and she had helped with them before.

Sarah was in charge of the Pineapple Chicken and Pineapple Rice dishes. She is quite a natural with the wok and did me proud.

Chris got to my house shortly before lunch time so we got her included by assembling our Pineapple chicken.

With a full kitchen it's hard to give everyone a cooking and prepping job, but Kim jumped right in to help with the cleaning up. It is an important job and one that I don't like to do much myself so I was very gracious to everyone who helped with the cleaning up efforts.

I put Tina in charge of our final dish of the Braised Pork and she did fabulous. She had taken some Chinese cooking classes several years ago and she was excited to get refreshed. She had just gotten back from a trip in the States and brought us some Hershey kisses and Starburst flavored jelly beans...how yummy!!!

As always it is great to get together with the ISE ladies as we have been quite a support system for each other over the years and as our group changes we like to keep in touch some how.

Fun with Thomas at the Nene Valley Railway

Today we made the short trek to Wansford where the world famous Thomas the Tank Engine lives. This week he was making special runs from Wansford to Yarwell Junction (which is only about 3 miles or so).

Addison was so excited to get her Thomas train set for her birthday and super excited to meet him in person. We got to pose with Thomas as he got ready to take us on our trip.

Since Thomas is a smaller "steamie" engine so he pulls a few of the old fashion passenger cars. I think we were sitting in one of the old First Class private cars which must have been the lap of luxury in it's hay days.

It was fun walking down the little hallways past all the private cars and imagine what it would have been like to travel many, many years ago.

The kids really loved getting to ride on the short trip through tunnels and through the beautiful country side. When we got back, Thomas needed a little looking after before his next run for the day so we watched as the engineers fixed under his tummy by the station house.

We sat and waited a bit while the other big steam engine came into the station to pick up the passenger cars to bring them into Peterborough. It cost about 6 GBP for adults on the Thomas ride and to ride into Peterborough would have been about 12 GBP. We'll have to do the longer trip some other day, but this was enough adventure for our little ones on such a cool morning.

The big steam engine that we saw last week in Ferry Meadows is the same one that picked up the cars and took them away to Peterborough. It was amazing to watch them shovel the coal into the fire the heated the boiler to make the immense amount of steam needed to power the engine. At one point a really long blast of steam came out the top of the train and it was followed by the loudest of noises that it really hurt my ears so I don't know what it did for the kids.

Overall a great experience and great day visiting Thomas and his friends and hopefully not our last!!!

Valentine's Prezzie's from Gma Sue and Gpa Jeff

Today we received a nice package from Grandma Sue and Grandpa Jeff for Valentine's Day. The kids each got really nice lunch boxes filled with "healthy" treats - breadsticks with cheese, animal crackers and of course the V-Day Little Debbie treats!!! They also got brand new shirts with their goodies! I've been taking so many pictures of them now that Harrison is now "posing" pretty well with his sister.

Both kids wanted to eat up all the snacks but I got them to ration things out. Harrison jumped right into the breadsticks with cheese.

MORE Snow!!!!

This has been an absolutely crazy year for weather in this country. Today it looked ominous as always but then a little snow started coming down around 2:30. I assumed wouldn't amount to anything like the past few flurries have been but then after an hour and a half it really started to accumulate.

We ran up to the post office really quick but then after we got back we loaded on our snow clothes and had fun in the snow.

We had a snow ball fight and made a snow bunny.

The sad thing is that 30 minutes after we came inside the snow bunny fell over because the snow was so heavy. I tried to distract the kids after I gasp from seeing the poor thing laying flat on it's face, but Addison was totally distraught. But the most amazing thing happened when Kevin (aka super dad) got home. He said he honked his car horn and "woke up" the snowman and he popped right back up...well enough to be only a little slumped over. Everyone was happy again in the Dea household especially the snowman!!!

Teaching Our Dolls How to Brush

Our kids are both very into their oral hygiene and are obsessed with brushing their teeth. Well, Addison hasn't been taking her afternoon naps as well as in the past so I now just ask her to stay up in her bed. I heard a bunch of noises coming from her room and walking around upstairs so I popped up to her room to check what was going on. She was quite startled when I walked in, but I soon figured out why. She had about 10 of her stuffed animals all over the ground, on her bed and dresser laying down with books laid on top of them as if they were reading. But I also noticed this overwhelming minty smell. I bent down and saw some blue pastey stuff on her teddy bear's mouth, then the koala, and then her brand new Cinderella doll. I asked what she was doing. She said she was brushing their teeth.

I immediately start cleaning some of the toys up, but then I had to run down stairs to get my camera. I explained that we don't brush our animals teeth and I moved their baby toothpaste to the top of our medicine cabinet which she wasn't too happy about. After I got most of the toys picked up and cleaned up I noticed that the leg on her big teddy bear was wet and sticky. I smelt it and it had lavender scent to it. Addison told me that the bear was dirty so she was cleaning it with her lavender bath soap...in her bedroom!!!! Silly girl that Addison Marie. I had to about soak the teddy bear to get the soap out and let hang to dry in the bathroom. It's hard to believe that leaving her upstairs to "rest" made way more work for me...we'll have to figure something else out for quiet time.

Going Private...

Hello Family and Friends!!!

After a lot of thinking I have decided to make our family blog site private which means I will need to invite you to be able to view it. We haven't had any problems or anything that I know of but I do share a lot of private information that I would like to keep amongst friends and family.

Please let me know if you would like to have access to your site and the email address you would like me to send the invitation to by sending me an email at corrina_dea@yahoo.com

I will be making the site private on Friday, February 19th!

Thanks and lots of love!

Corrina

Lauren's Birthday Lunch

Today Addison's friend Lauren turned 3 years old and we went to her house for a really nice birthday lunch. Lauren's mom, Molly, and I have been getting together more as the girls really enjoy getting to play with each other and I enjoy Molly's company as well. A funny thing happened just a few days ago on Friday though, because as we were in Toys R Us looking for Lauren's birthday presents that Molly and Lauren pop up behind us in the store. The girls had a blast running around the store together for about 20 minutes. It will be nice that these two could continue to be little buddies even when we move back to the States some day.

Lauren is really into Dora right now so the kids enjoyed a nice lunch and Dora cupcakes. Molly spoiled the mom's as well with an amazing soup and sandwich. We had a really nice day of play and party!!!

A Day of Love - Valentine's 2010

Our Valentine's Day started out so red HOT that we had to call in the fire department. Addison Marie helped me whip up some pancake batter for a very special breakfast.

Harrison had to help out as well. This was most definitely a treat since mommy and daddy have been dieting for the past 7 weeks so the kids have been eating cereal and fruit for most breakfasts.

Heart shaped pancakes for the kiddos - we tried coloring them pink but it didn't work out so well.

Kevin and I had heart shaped eggs!!!! Mine was scrambled with some cheese and Kevin's was over medium and I can tell you it's hard to flip that egg properly when it's stuck in the heart mould thingy. Sorry I broke your yolk sweetie...still LUV U!!!

Kevin had dinner about ready when Addison and I got home from church which was lovely. He did such a good job that I think he could do a little more cooking in the future. After lunch we headed over to Ferry Meadows Park eventhough it was cold and gloomy outside. We've really been anxious to get out and about. Funny thing is that last year on V-Day we went to Ferry Meadows after lunch as well...must be a family tradition!!! On our way into the park we saw one of the steam engines passing through. It wasn't Thomas, but it was one of his friends. We've been meaning to ride Thomas the Tank engine as he lives in the Peterborough area if you didn't know. Maybe next weekend...

We brought along some bread cubes and crackers to feed the birds and this was really the first time that Harrison has really joined in the fun. He hopped out and just loved being surrounded by the big old birds. Addison on the other hand was still a little freaked out after that last time we came to feed the birds as one of them nipped at her finger. I guess it would be pretty intimidating to have this goose looking you eye to eye.

When our bread was gone we went for a walk around the lake. Now this is brotherly love for you. Harrison got out of the pushchair so Addison could ride and he even pushed her from time to time.

We found another little playground that we hadn't seen before so the kids had a fun time running around and playing on all the equipment. With all of Harry's camo it was hard to find him amongst the leaves and grass (hee hee).

Of course, the swings are most popular with our kids and Addison loves her "super doggies." Still don't know how she came up with that term as I think they are really called "under doggies."

After the kid's dinner we let them enjoy some of their Valentine's goodies that Grandma and Grandpa Dea sent and Uncle Ryan, Aunt Lindsay and Cousin Emma! They had the choice between jelly beans, candied hearts, or huge Reece's Peanut Butter Cups and they picked jelly beans...guess they really haven't had too many peanut butter cups to truly enjoy their yumminess. Maybe they will forget about them and later on I can sneak a few bites. We put the kids to bed and Kevin and I enjoyed a late dinner together. We cooked up some steaks and shrimp on the grill (it was freezing cold outside but totally worth it), along with sweet potato fries, shrimp cocktail, sauteed mushrooms, a bottle of white wine and for dessert some strawberries and cream...yummy!!!

Kevin and I didn't exchange any gifts and for the first time on V-Day I really didn't want anything at all because I had everything I could ever want throughout the day and everyday!!!