The Tooth That Would Not Go

The tooth finally came out! One big bite out of an apple last night did the trick. The tooth fairy came despite his patchy record and Freddy now has 3 more euros to add to his piggy bank.

Now a random mishmash of funny Freddy comments:  We have a cozy, warm and beloved brown queen-size blanket that everyone wants to use. That blanket has been missing for quite some time and whenever we sit down on the red sofa, someone will say "where did that brown blankie go?" It seemed to have just disappeared. 

Fast forward to Saturday morning. Pai and I were still in bed, but we could hear sleepy stirring in the next room where Zita and Freddy sleep.  All of a sudden, we heard Freddy say

" Zita! You should be ashamed of yourself!  You've had that brown blankie this whole time!"

It turns out Zita had indeed stolen the brown blankie and was using it under her covers. A little corner was exposed and Freddy was scandalized by the whole thing.

Two weeks ago, I was telling a friend about the baby news with Freddy standing right next to me. He interjected with " but there's even bigger news than the baby! He paused for a suspenseful effect and then said  "I can spin a basketball on my finger like this." He  then proceeded to mimick the movement. I love the news pecking order in the mind of a five year old boy.

First Baby Gift

Getting a present for the baby makes it seem so much more real. This blanket came from Vasco's grandmother and as soon as I know if it's a boy or a girl, or when we pick a name, I'll have the initials monogrammed in.

And Then There Were Six

Allow me to introduce our newest family member- our 4th baby!

We'll get to meet this little peanut some time in early November and we can't wait.

More news to come.

First Communion Dress

We braved El Corte Ingles in Lisbon today- a rainy national holiday. All locals know that spells crazy, but 3 hours of persistence made for one gorgeous happy girl.

Disturbing

http://m.youtube.com/index?desktop_uri=%2F&gl=US#/watch?v=tfkscHt96R0 There's a new blogger format and I'm having trouble getting the actual video up, but the above link is a video made by a father about the abuse his autistic son suffered in school. I sincerely hope this is a rare case and not the norm.

Chicken in a Pot

I had this great idea that a good old fashioned chicken soup would be just the thing to start the week off right.

So I bought a chicken and brought it home without really thinking about how the chicken would get from its full animal state to a non-animal looking soup. I got out meat scissors and tried to cut the chicken up. I heard cracks and there was a squirting of juices so I stopped right there in a reaction similar to my recent toad spotting in the Alentejo.

I threw the chicken in the pot with cilantro, onion, and salt. Now, I'm just kinda hoping I'll take the lid off in 2 hours and something magical will have happened, letters will be floating on the surface, and children will come running to declare me the best chicken soup maker ever.

Any helpful hints here?

Guess Who?

There are only so many games of Tic Tac Toe, Hang Man, and Memory that I can play. When Freddy dug out the travel size of Guess Who, I embraced that game like no other. Now when we have to kill time while watching big brother or big sister, we whip out the Guess Who? and everyone is happy.

Emla Saves The Day

I was late in discovering Emla creams and patches for vaccinations or blood draws.

It's lidocaine* that you can rub on your child's arm and they don't feel the shot. Maybe they feel it a little, but I talk up the magic power of lidocaine, which is mostly true anyway, and so my kids go into the Dr.'s office ready to brave the shot(s). It's also great for taking out splinters. You just slaps some cream on the splinter and dig that baby out.

Freddy had two booster shots today that he was supposed to get between 5 and 6 years old. A week shy of his 6th birthday, I realized I couldn't put it off any longer so I kept him home from school and got it done.

Most people think they should just suck it up and get the shot, but we are pain averse people who follow the words of Bug Bunny when he says " I don't like pain, it hurts me."

The cream worked like a charm, and he left full of pride that he was the most brave patient the nurse had ever seen. Good nurses are such a good thing.

*some people are allergic to lidocaine

Standard April in Portugal

We were on the beach in January and we're here roasting marshmallows by the fire in April. I can't explain it, but it's kind of fun getting so cozy in the Spring. I'm even planning to make pumpkin ginger bread before the week is over.

People on the streets are dressed for a Siberian snow pilgrimage, and Moojie's outside school community service project was cancelled due to weather. I've gotten swept up in this weather wimp syndrome, but sometimes I just want to shake people on the street and yell "it's 65 flippin degrees out! Suck it up!"

Not Gazpacho Season Yet

We're having a reversal of seasons here, and these drizzly days have gotten me thinking about good old chunky American stews and soups.

With two heads of broccoli in the fridge, I googled broccoli cheddar soup and made the first recipe that came up- the Almost Famous recipe on Foodnetwork.com. Of course I altered it, by using mostly milk instead of half and half, and by using only half the amount of cheddar called for, but it was still a comforting bowl of fattening, delicious, perfect-for-a-drizzly-day soup.

Here are the photos:

milk. butter, onions, nutmeg, pepper, salt, and 2 bay leaves

Lots of broccoli and 1 chopped carrot

I could have eaten it like this, but the kids prefer pureed soups to chunky soups.

The cheese was wisked in at the very end. It got thumbs down from Freddy, and thumbs up from everyone else.

Random Catch Up and School Lunch Idea

My camera has been in the car for days so I don't have any cute blog pictures to put up. Easter break is a distant memory and a weekend of homework, tennis, a birthday party, keeping the house in order, cooking, more cooking, and cleaning, certainly did a good job taking away that vacation feel. Oh, and the unusual cold and rain aren't helping either.

Freddy's tooth is still hanging on, Pai has been burried in work, Zita is busy getting ready for her first communion, and Moojie has a count down going for days left in the school year. I think there are only 45.

Now for the school lunch idea- quiche cupcakes. Not real cupcakes, but mini quiche baked in a cupcake pan.  We took a cupcake pan and lined it with dinocaur, colored, and white cupcake liners.

We rolled out pastry crust and cut small circles to line each cupcake.

Next we filled each one with a combination of ham, cheese, spinach, and roasted veggies. I kept three with just plain cheese.

We mixed 10-12 eggs with salt and pepper, and evenly filled each one. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean.

The kids don't mind eating these at room temperature and it was a great way to get away from sandwiches.

A Peaceful Spot

Freddy likes to hoist himself up on this wall and have time to himself  in what he calls his peaceful spot. Whenever we can't find him, he's almost always up there, thinking about life.

Here he is in the winter, having a little visit with this horse

Everywhere on the farm is serene, but there's something about that wall that draws Freddy.

To earn some spending money last Summer, Moojie and Zita helped clean out a room at the far end of the stables. They emptied and painted it, and it's slowly aquired furniture, puzzles, and games, making it a great room to go with the children.

It has a huge fireplace that occupies hours of our time. I've said it before, but there is something so appealing about fire building for children.  On this particular weekend they were roasting hotdogs.

This calf is turning into a huge cow. Even though he (she?) is so tame and behaves much like a dog, I still have a moment of panic when he comes running toward me. He doesn't get bottles from the kids anymore, but they still give him love and cuddles. Isn't his color spectacular?

 Zita can't resist playing with all that flappy soft skin under the neck.

 Lastly, pick up a pack of these sun print papers. We had such fun making prints using flowers and leaves.

Easter

I dropped the ball on Easter this year. It just snuck up on me, and if it weren't for a save-the-day care package from my mom, and a quick run to the grocery store on Saturday, the children would have been left with nothing but an exceptionally long mass to mark the day.

The Easter foal did not arrive, but the Easter bunny did! Each child had one chocolate egg- no basket- and then hunted for eggs after breakfast. I only had 18 eggs, so they each got 6  M&M filled eggs in the hunt.

 I hope Freddy never grows tired of posing for me

 I'm gutted that Papo d'Anjo is out of business and that Zita will soon grow out of these dresses.

This is how the men folk in the family do egg hunts

Isn't this a sweet napkin? 5 cloth napkins came in the care package and were used for Easter lunch.

Since the children have never seen an American Easter basket, this little thing was all they needed. Although Freddy did point out that it didn't seem like a lot of chocolate.

Exploring the Alentejo

When we have more than a quick weekend in the Alentejo, we try to explore the area and find new places to visit. It's not that easy considering we have been coming here as a family for almost 13 years, but Saturday we discovered the Barragem de Caia just 25 minutes away. Portugal is facing a serious drought so the water level was noticablely low and the usually bright purple and yellow spring fields were dry and golden green.

Pai and Zita found this big flat rock to read and relax in what is supposed to be the lake bed.

 Freddy is practicing his surfing. You can see Zita in the background, walking through the shallow water in her wellies.

Happy cows grazing in the dry lake bed

The view as we drove in

and just to round out this post with something cuter than grazing cows, look how big Miss Pepita got in just one week!

Getting Pampered

We're home. Two loads of laundry are washed and hung, the car is unpacked, and two cats and one dog are happy to have the family back.

Zita is the best at knowing what I need done and then doing it with flair. She arrived upstairs carrying this tray and presented it to me like a server in an upscale restaurant: "today we have strawberry, mango, and orange smoothies with just a hint of coconut, and a choice of toast with honey, or applesauce with a dash of cinnamon."

Have I mentioned how much I love this girl?

I hope Freddy was taking notes.

Lazy Alentejo Days

I can't upload photos, but we are holding true to our Alentejo rituals.

We eat, walk, eat, nap, tea time, play, dinner, movies (VHS in use here!), sleep, and repeat.

Oh, and there's that cute puppy and a new badminton set that are keeping us busy.

Packed and Ready to Go

Birthday Re-Cap

Zita had a vision for my cake, which consisted of a vanilla layer, a chocolate layer, lots of chocolate frosting, and lots of whipped cream. She came through the door from tennis and set to work on cake decorating.

I love the expression on my nephew's face here.

 The cake begins to look festive...

I love my Zita girl's take-charge-of-the-party and get organized spirit.

A few decorations made by Zita

and lastly, the only shot of the five of us (plus one)

I forgot to mention the best part of the day- breakfast in bed, and all five of us piled into our bed to shower me in gifts!

Bits and Pieces from Spring Break

Last week we had beach weather and first thing Monday morning, I had all three kids at the beach for a picnic lunch. They can never resist a swim, even when the water is absolutely feezing.

The beaches were filled with local teenagers with only a few tourists

Moojie has been getting in as many friendly tennis games as he can, but it's hard when a lot of people are away.

Everyone is counting the days until we go back to the Alentejo and reunite with the cute puppy, and there's lots of talk about this year's bunny cake.

I started Prince Caspian with Freddy and it's slow going since every sentence sparks a long story from Freddy about how it links back to The Lion the Witch and The Wardrobe.

I celebrated my birthday, but I'll cover that when I get the photos uploaded. Now I have to get Zita to tennis.

More Scenes From the Farm

Just in case anyone hasn't been converted to loving Pepita like we love her, here are a few more shots of this bundle of fluffy cuddles.

She had a hard time walking through the grass and had to sort of jump along like a frog.

 Wherever we go, Pepita goes

 The children took to calling her my 4th baby :)

Zita would much rather skip along with her rope than walk like the rest of .