Satsuma Season!

Add this to the list of things we love about Louisiana--satsumas!! Satsuma mandarins are one of the beauties of living here. They are small, easy to peel, and oh so yummy! They are much like a clementine orange and I love that they are grown locally! We look forward to them more and more every year. They start appearing in stores in mid-October it seems and we get them all Winter long.

And let me tell you...the ones who really love them are these boys! (and can I say how much I adore this picture of Sam? Because I do...that's all!) They honestly became addicted to them this year and I was worried they were going to need a 12 step program once the season was over.

So the last two years, it has been a fun little Saturday activity for us to take a drive down to Plaquemines Parish, past Belle Chasse where they are grown and buy them right from the fruit stand. We have gone to Ben Becnel's Fruit Stand, to be exact! We tried finding a grove that would let us come and pick them ourselves, but didn't find any this year. This little trip was on January 15 and it was a beautiful day! The drive takes about an hour from our house and it's just a fun drive. I feel like I'm getting out of the city for a bit which is kind of nice sometimes!

The boys loaded up quickly with a 5 pound bag each.

This year we also bought a lot of Louisiana navels and they were SO good! I usually don't buy a lot of oranges at the store because it just seems like so often I buy them and they aren't very good at all...not sweet, kind of bitter and totally disappointing. You maybe have experienced the same thing?? Well, these were definitely not a disappointment! They were fabulous!

Annnnd....this year I got totally 100% hooked on the grapefruit. Just like the boys were addicted to satsumas, I could NOT get enough of the grapefruit! When we have always bought different varieties of the oranges, I don't know why I never thought to try the Louisiana grapefruit. They were awesome. I was eating more than one a day for quite a while there. I wish I had one RIGHT now, in fact!

We left with 15 pounds of satsumas, 5 pounds of navels, and 5 pounds of grapefruit. Can you just smell the vitamin C from here or what?! And I was a little doubtful that we'd be able to finish them before they went bad...

And how can you not love that you can get locally grown tomatoes in January??!! Love this!

And....as the routine goes, we get home from buying satsumas (whether it was on our trip or we've bought them at the grocery store) and the boys immediately bust into them. The procedure consists of climbing on the counter in the kitchen to get a paper towel, getting a satsuma, walking to the living room and plopping down on the floor. And the peeling/eating begins! The orange peels are placed on the paper towel so they can pick it up and throw it all in the garbage when they are finished.

PERFECT for little fingers to peel all by themselves...all the better for me, I say!

And of course, there is a big sense of satisfaction when one peels it all in one piece! Rightfully so, of course. They always say that Grandpa Andersen would be so proud of them! And he would, for sure!

Mmmmm, YUM! And those 15 pounds of satsumas we bought? Yeah, the boys (and only the boys) ate 10 pounds of them in 2 days. Yikes! You would have thought I had candy in the kitchen as I constantly found them sneaking them away. Literally! They would sit down and start eating them and before I knew it, they'd have eaten 5 or 6 a piece! Let's just say that consuming that many oranges in such a short amount of time can do a number on one's system. :) But it didn't seem to slow them down. I had to watch them like a hawk to make sure they didn't eat too many. I guess that is the slight disadvantage to having them be so easy for them to peel & eat by themselves. We love them, though, and I am already missing citrus season!

And I realize now that none of us got sick this Winter--perhaps it really was the insane amount of vitamin C we were consuming from November to February!

A Story about a Boy & A King Cake

When you live in Louisiana, you don't get much of a break once the Christmas holidays are over because you jump right in to king cake & Mardi Gras season. During Tyler's first week back in school, they celebrated Epiphany/Twelfth Night by making a king cake in class, which officially kicks off Carnival season. Carnival season begins on the day of the Epiphany which is 12 days after Christmas because tradition states that it took the three kings twelve days to travel to Bethlehem to see the Christ child. When they arrived, they honored him with gifts, as we all know.

To celebrate this day, we now make king cake! And king cake season extends all through Carnival season, ending with Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday). (I bet you didn't know all of this partying was in the name of religion, eh?!!) King cakes are traditionally decorated in Mardi Gras colors of purple, green, and gold. Purple represents justice, gold represents power, and green represents faith. In each king cake, there is a small plastic baby representing baby Jesus inside. It is tradition that whoever finds the baby hosts the next king cake party or provides everyone with the next king cake.

So, on January 6 (Epiphany or Twelfth Night), Tyler's class made their own king cake and a girl in his class found the baby and provided a king cake for the next day. So, on day #2 (January 7), I picked Tyler up from school and as I was driving up, I could tell he was about to jump out of his skin, he was so excited about something. He hopped in the car and immediately announces "Mom, I got the baby today!!!". It was hard not to be super excited for him, even though it meant I had to come up with a king cake for him to take the next day!

January 7 was a Friday, so we had the whole weekend to wait to pick up a king cake and take it to school on Monday morning.

In the mean time, Tyler was being a serious goof ball trying to get his picture taken with the baby. He thought it was downright hilarious, I guess!

So Monday morning came and we left the house extra early so we could head to Rouses before school. We ran in and picked up our king cake and were good to go. Tyler was pretty relieved to have it in hand and know that he was going to be able to follow through on his assignment!

And thankfully, they include this warning on every box. :) I love it! King cake season extends clear through Mardi Gras (which was a long season this year since Mardi Gras wasn't until March 8) and they had king cake in his class every Monday and every Friday. I'd say those kindergartners had their fill of king cake this year! And each time Tyler got in the car and told us they'd eaten king cake that day, Sam would get so sad since he didn't get any. It's hard to be the little brother sometimes!

It's times like these when we participate in a fun cultural tradition of this area, I almost have to pinch myself to see if I am living in a dream world or something since it's hard to believe that THIS is the life we are living right now and things like this are the 'norm'. It's a far cry from the way I was raised in Blackfoot, Idaho! Sometimes that makes me really sad that my kids aren't having the same experience growing up that I did. I love Idaho and I loved growing up there! But other times, like these, I am grateful for the experiences we are able to take part in that have enriched our lives and made for a lot of really fun memories along the way for our little family!

January Rain

January 5, 2011--Early January brought us lots of rain, and as we have learned in the past...that only means you have to get out and play in it every once in a while. These pictures are very similar to the rainy photos from December of 2009--Tyler is even wearing the same boots and jackets, in fact! But to me, there are lots of differences because I am seeing how much my boys have changed since then! One thing is for sure anymore, they will always ask to go out and play in puddles if there is rain in our day!

(this photo above happened to go into my 'all time favorites' folder. I don't know why exactly, but I just like it. A lot....)

When I saw Sam jumping up into the air with his mouth wide open, I sure wondered if he'd be in for a rude awakening when he landed. I wonder if he realized it was not such a great idea afterwards! I don't think it would quite compare to catching snowflakes with your tongue, but I suppose he was going for that sensory experience or something. But really, his tongue is usually hanging out when he's doing anything like this!!

And...just like the last time, the boots really weren't a whole lot of help! There were pretty much gallons of water in them boots!

Love these boys and love that they're such good buddies!

Jesus Wants Me for A...

SUNBEAM!!

It's time to dive right into pictures from 2011, I suppose! Believe it or not, folks, these pictures are actually from THIS year!! January 2, to be exact.

This boy, the one who screamed for SIX months straight when it was time to go to nursery (and I mean SCREAMED...not cried, screamed! Just ask anyone in our ward and I'm sure they can remember just what it sounded like!) could not wait to start Primary! I was quite surprised at just how easy this transition has been. He talked about it for weeks prior to the first day. And it did not disappoint. He was so proud of his new Sunbeam status! If you ask him what his favorite thing about Primary is, he'll always say it's singing the songs. He LOVES to sing! He has already given the scripture twice (we have a small Primary!!) and surprised me by how well he did it. He tends to be shy in front of a group, but with a little pep talkin', he did it. Phew!!

And let's not forget Tyler...he also moved up a class and was super excited. Our primary combines a lot of the classes so this meant Tyler moved up to a class that also has 7 year olds so he was excited to be with some of the older kids. He adores his teacher and I'm lovin' just what we're able to do with some old Mardi Gras beads around here...check out that CTR necklace! ha ha!

I sure do love these two handsome boys of mine, even if they are growing up a little faster than I gave them permission to do!

Tyler Turns 6!

December 7, 2010

SIX! Can you believe that?! That means it takes 2 hands to show his age. How crazy is that?! It's always a little surreal to see my babies get another year older. And to think of all that has happened since I became a mom six years ago--it just seems crazy! So without further adieu, here is a little recap of the BIG 6th birthday!!

We started off with some birthday pancakes before school and we let Tyler open one present (we're mean and make our kids hold out until we party in the evening to open most of them!)

And the big present was a new bike/skating helmet. Tyler roller skates every Tuesday at school and his helmet was getting too small, so this was kind of on the 'needs' list as opposed to the wants list, but it all works out, right?! So he got to open it before school and his birthday happened to be on a Tuesday, so he took it with him to skate that day. He had a great day celebrating his birthday at school and took Rice Krispies treats to his class that day.

And he came home and patiently waited for the evening's events. We let him pick his favorite meal for dinner, which was homemade mac 'n cheese (known as 'fancy macaroni & cheese' at our house!). So after dinner, we finally got to the gifts and boy, was this kid excited! The picture above is of when he opened his Nerf gun from the Kirwans--can you say thrilled?!

He received several birthday phone calls and he opened the rest of his presents which included some Magformers from Grandma & Grandpa Thalgott, a new Leapster game, a few books, and last but not least a whole $20 bill from Grandma & Grandpa Andersen. He has never had a bill that big and he was in heaven! He was so thrilled with it (he literally always asks me if he can have a '20 dollar'--I'm not thinking I even knew $20 bills existed when I was six?!). The following day I walked in the room and found him kissing it...no joke! When I laughed he shrugged his shoulders and said "what?! It's just that I've never had a 20 dollar before and I just LOVE it." So, do I even want to know what this means?! :)

And then it was cake and ice cream, which he truthfully didn't have a whole lot of interest in eating--I mean, who would with all the new toys to play with?! But he sure looked pleased with it all!

I let him pick out what kind of ice cream to make for his birthday (a little something we've been doing lately), and I realize that making birthday ice cream is probably way funner than making birthday cake anyways! And it was so fun picking out a flavor with him. At first, he was insistent that we make mint chocolate chip...I mean, it is one of his favorites and it's green so it kills two birds with one stone! But then he said, "oh but wait, I want mint ice cream, but Oreos in it." So, of course, we were totally cool with that choice. But then...then we walked down the cookie aisle and he saw the peppermint candy cane Oreos and then his creation came to life. So we had peppermint candy cane ice cream with candy cane Oreos mixed in. It.was.delicious!!! I think Tyler's got good taste!

And the rest of the evening was spent shooting Nerf arrows throughout the house (6 of which we found in the Christmas tree on New Year's Day when we took it down!)

I sure do love my SIX year old boy! I cannot imagine life without him. He is a kind spirited kid with a good heart who tries his hardest to be good all the time. He is a great big brother and plays so well with Sam. They have become great buddies. He is learning by leaps and bounds in school and amazes me by how well he can read and write. He loved playing soccer again this year, loves playing with his friends at school, and recently mastered the art of tying his own shoes. :) He can be a very deep thinker and just the other day he asked me "Mom, so does the Lord really talk to us? Because I know they say He talks to us, but I mean, I don't know if he would really ever talk to ME. I don't like hear him or anything." So, of course this led to a deep conversation that definitely seemed crazy to be having with a 6 year old. But I love that about him! I love that he thinks things through and wants to understand all about everything.

And his big 'present' this year was a birthday party at the Bounce Spectrum. We don't do parties every year and especially not like this, but he has been dying to do this, so he didn't get many presents from us, but he did get a big party and it did seem worth its weight in gold when he was grinning from ear to ear and was so happy he could have burst. He LOVED it! (and of course, I only got a couple pictures!)

Happy Birthday Tyler! We sure love you around here!

And...drumroll please...THIS concludes all blogging for 2010!! Believe it or not, I pushed through and as of March 1, the year 2010 is in the books, folks! Phew! I feel so relieved! But of course I'm already behind on 2011. But I'll get there! But I am looking forward to posting things that are a little more current. :)