The Pretzel Story

Recently, Emma and I went with some friends to "America's Oldest Pretzel Bakery" to see how pretzels were made in Colonial times. We were able to take a tour of the pretzel bakery and try out making our own pretzels.

The tour guide took us to the room where the pretzels were twisted and baked to perfection. He taught us exactly how to roll and twist the pretzel into the original shape. Emma needed a little help at first, but she quickly got the hang of it and took her job seriously.

The tour guide told us the history of the traditional shape of the pretzel. Many hundreds of years ago (way before Colonial times), Monks gave pretzels to children as a reward for learning their Bible verses and saying their prayers. The pretzels were made out of leftover dough for bread. They rolled out the dough into a long and skinny rope shape. Then they would shape the dough into a "U" that symbolizes our arms reaching out to God in prayer. They would then cross the top of the "U" shape and fold down the dough, like the children would cross their arms during prayer in those days. This would leave the dough shape with three open sections, representing the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Emma was so very proud of herself for learning to twist pretzels and for receiving her Official Pretzel Twister certificate!

Memorial Day

Aaahhhhh, the beginning of summer!!! Sunshine! Cook-outs! Playing outside all day! Memorial Day marks the beginning of the summer season and all that I love about it!

Tim and I try to incorporate traditions into our holidays, even if they're little ones. Memorial Day we pull out the red, white and blue clothes and head out to the local small town parade.

Its fun to teach the girls about Memorial Day and how we honor the veterans and those who have lost their lives in service to our country for our freedom. I always get a little choked up as the soldiers march by.

The girls placed the flags from the parade out in front of our home.

Later in the day, we enjoyed some time with the extended family with a big cook-out. The spread of food was like Thanksgiving - only with picnic foods!! There's just nothing like an outdoor feast! The girls went wading in the creek and we played lawn games with family.

What a perfect start to summer!

First Grade Art

Lindsay came home from school and proudly showed me her latest work of art from Art Class. It was so cute and colorful I had to hang it in the kitchen to admire for awhile. Later, Tim came home from work and Lindsay pointed it out to him.

Lindsay: "Daddy, do you like what I made in art?"
Daddy: "Yes, wow, you made that? Is that a crab? He's really cute! Did you name him?"
Lindsay: "Daddy! That's NOT a HIM, its a HER!!"
Pause, while Tim gives me a look that asks if he should ask the next obvious question.
Daddy: "Um, how do you know the difference between boy crabs and girl crabs?"
Lindsay: "Daddy! Don't you know?! Girl crabs have long eyelashes!"

D.C.

Last week Lindsay had a few days off school, so we planned a mini-vacation to Washington D.C. It's a favorite get-away with us because of all the history, museums, and free activities available. Spring is especially a beautiful time to visit, while they have ga-zillions of flowers blooming. But there is also ga-zillions of people there as well, visiting the free museums and doing the exact same things as us.

Our first stop was the National Zoo. We always enjoy taking the girls to see animals of any kind, and this zoo is free, so it was a must-see. Unfortunately, there was no parking available anywhere near the zoo, so Tim dropped Lindsay and I off while he continued to search for a parking spot. I caught some pictures of our favorite animals.

The Panda Bears were so much fun to watch while they played in the yard. We decided to take two home with us (the little stuffed kind).

Tim and Emma finally caught up with us an hour later and we continued to enjoy the zoo and the beautiful weather.

We had a wonderful time at the zoo, until we returned to the car. There we found a $100 parking ticket for parking on the street past 4 pm. I guess it was in the small print on the parking signs. Well, at least the zoo was "free!" From there, we thought we'd get to our hotel in 20-30 minutes. Guess we don't know DC as well as we thought... it took us 2 hours to make our way across the city to our hotel. The lesson to learn is take the Metro whenever possible in DC!

The next day we continued to enjoy the gorgeous weather and beautiful sights. Our first stop was the White House.

A view of the South Lawn. The girls thought they saw President Obama,

but I'm sure it was just a security guard!

Beautiful tulips were everywhere.

Lindsay took this picture, she's pretty good with the camera!

From there, we visited a museum and did some other sight-seeing. It's fun to see our girls start to learn and appreciate so much about our amazing country. Lindsay really took it all in and really enjoyed the museums and sights.

We truly enjoyed all we did and hope to go back soon!

Emma turns 3!

We celebrated a big day in the life of our little girl on January 10. She couldn't wait for her birthday to come, and would talk about how it's right after God's birthday (Christmas)! I can't say that I'm too sad to kiss the "2's" good-bye....but we've really enjoyed watching her grow and develop and learn so many new things!

Tim said he wanted to take her out for breakfast, just the Daddy and the birthday girl. Lindsay had a basketball game that morning, so breakfast was only a quick stop at the donut shop.

Emma REALLY enjoyed her donut!

After the basketball game we met up with Pappy and Grandma at Friendly's (Emma's favorite restaurant) for lunch. We returned home for a small party of cake and presents.

Note to Grammie from Emma: Thank you for the sunglasses and play-doh. I like the sunglasses because I can't break them no matter how hard I try. And the play-doh is really pretty when I mix all the colors together. Love, Emma

Family Time

The day after Christmas, we packed up the car and headed out for Michigan. We were in the car for about 2 days with 2 kids, but that's nothing compared to my brother's family who traveled about 4 days with 6 kids. We all met up in Grand Rapids to spend some time with the grandparents and family members.

Our girls love to visit Pop Pop and Grammie, who always have a continuous supply of ice cream. We had a lot of good family time, playing games, going out to eat, and just hanging out.

We took the girls to the local Children's Museum to hang out with their cousins. We all had so much fun!

The cousins squished together in the VW bug.

Emma and Gustie playing bank.

The cousins lined up: (left to right) Emma, Piper, Lindsay, Gustie, Stormie, Aurora, Sammy, and baby Cherokee.

After the museum we got some hot dogs in a downtown restaurant. Stormie and Lindsay look cute together with the same missing tooth!

We really enjoyed all the time we could spend together with family we rarely get to see. According to Grammie, we're all getting together here in PA in March. Did you catch that Angela and Anne??

December

Here it is, the middle of January, and I'm trying to catch up on some highlights of last month. I think I blinked, and December came and went. Here are some pictures to help me remember what happened:

Tim makes Christmas cut-out cookies with the girls every year. They have lots of fun and get really messy. I had the stomach flu that day, so I stayed out of the kitchen... until the next day to clean-up. I also helped the girls do some extra decorating for their cookies the day after.


Emma enjoyed decorating, undecorating, licking the decorations, and then re-decorating the cookies. Don't worry, I didn't have her share them with anyone.

The highlight of the Christmas season comes down to Christmas morning. Our usual routine is getting up early, reading the Christmas story and opening stockings. We have cinnamon rolls for breakfast and then tear into the gifts. I think that as parents we love it more than the kids!

We give the girls new Christmas jammies to wear Christmas Eve. They usually wear them most of Christmas day, too!

One of their favorite gifts was the Cherry Blossom Market playtent. They've spent lots of time pretending to shop and sell things in their little play store.

We had a very blessed Christmas! After some time at our place in the morning, we go over to Pappy and Grandma's house for Christmas dinner and presents. Does it get any better than that?