Anniversary Dinner

Among the quotes on my sidebar is this one, perhaps my favourite.

Emma Goldman -No one has yet realized the wealth of sympathy, the kindness and generosity hidden in the soul of a child. The effort of every true education should be to unlock that treasure.

Whilst it is always wonderful to see my girls achieve something academic, for me it is the development of their hearts that warm me more. Today the eldest girls surprised us by planning a dinner for Rog and I, in celebration of our twelfth wedding anniversary. They realised that lack of babysitters mean we are unable to go out for a meal, and they wanted us to have some way of marking the day as special (not that a trip to the doctors to syringe his waxy ears, or a weekly load up at the grocery store wasn't laden with romance :p ).

So they presented us with a menu.

Entree

 Pancakes

Main

Gentleman : Sausages, beans, eggs and toast

Lady: Potato Wedges (Maddie had seen a recipe for these in one of her magazines)

Dessert

Gentleman : Sundae (which later morphed into a banana split)

 Lady : Ice cream soda

Drinks

Water

Coke Zero

Milk

Lemonade

After some discussion it was decided that an entree probably wasn't necessary, if we were to fit in a main and dessert. The girls tidied up the table, which is in the garage right now, (due to no space in our teeny house), laid a cloth, utensils wrapped carefully in napkins, fancy wine glasses and salt and pepper. All this by 3:30pm!

At around 5:30pm they hit the kitchen.

Roger and I sat in the garage (he named it Le Garage), and reminisced whilst listening to music. The girls were very attentive to our needs, filling our glasses and trying to keep the little ones out of our hair.

They worked pretty well, though Maddie went into Gordon Ramsey mode a few times. But eventually, with a bare minimum of help, they plated up a couple of remarkably tasty mains.

Followed by our amazing desserts.

A wonderful, amazing evening. Better than going out to any restaurant. Thank you girls, we love you both!

Maddie

I like to think of myself as a writer, even though it's very rare for me to actually write anything these days. There is a true writer in my house. The girl who cannot be within a metre of a pencil and paper without scrawling something across it. The girl whose room is piled high with used exercise books, and crumpled paper. The girl who has changed her name recently from Madi to Maddie (possibly only to annoy me). She is such an inspiration to me already, at only eleven years old. I wish I had her drive and persistence. I don't know if she will choose to be a writer when she is grown, but I know writing has already chosen her. Here are two things I found this week that she wrote for her sisters, and has let me share. All her own thoughts and words, unchanged by me.

(Written while watching Sienna draw)
When she draws worlds come alive. Slowly she goes over every detail in true artist fashion. She is a young one, this artist, but the concentration coming from her could rival even the oldest and wisest of humans.
And with each of her drawings comes an explaination, and with that explaination comes a new light to her art. Your eyes adjust to the drawing and you see the shapes in a different way. Two curved lines and four straight lines become a dog within seconds. That is how powerful her art is.
Throughout all of this she never once stops drawing, for she can no longer contain her creative outlet. She has waited long enough.
If I had my way, she would never have to block out her creativeness and drawings for as long as she lived.

(Written one night when she was feeling unusually affectionate towards Kyla)
The 10 things I love about you

1. How super sweet and caring you are.

2 Your originality, mohawk and the term 'emo' included.

3. Your creativeness. Your drawings are amazing, and you proved to me you don't need words to write a story.

4. Your ability to bounce back from critism. Unlike moi, you don't give those words much thought. I admire that feat.

5. How you are willing to play on the nintendos with me even when you're extremely tired at night.

6. Your wiseness. I know it sounds daft considering you're only ten years old, but compared to you I'm like a two year old, (which as you know is not the wisest person on Earth.)

7. The way you love animals even when they are gross, disgusting and scary, (which is practically all the time, but, well, that's not the point, is it?)

8. The fact that you are very optimistic and always make me look on the bright side. Except when your sunny side has a day off and your stormy side takes over, then it's just bad stuff.

9. What goes around doesn't come around with you. I can be selfish, mean, violent even, and you still don't give me back my own medicine. Instead you share with me, say nice things, and only ever pitch [a fit] when it's your sunny sides day off (see eight).

And of course

10. The fact that you are forever and always, my sister.

Crayon Crazy

These days it's impossible to tear Denver away from the Nintendo or PlayStation for very long, as she has finally mastered the art of them. Madison too, is usually off reading or writing. But luckily I can still rely upon Kyla and Sienna to get excited about doing art activites.
Yesterday I showed them a few crayon art activities that I remember spending ages doing as a kid. This was a quick easy way for my mum to keep me occupied and out of her hair for ages. Of course my kiddos want me to do it with them, so no rest for this wicked one.




After that we decided to do some wax art. I grated some crayons and they sprinkled them between some sheets of greaseproof paper, then we ironed them.