4th of July 2017

I, the notorious holiday-skipper, actually did something for Independence Day this year! We did skip the fireworks and party at church, but we made red, white, and blue cupcakes and sang "Happy Birthday" to America before eating them. We also dressed in appropriately patriotic colors and I took the day off work. For a family that doesn't do holidays well, we're celebrating this one like mad.

Bakers selfie

Jerod doing some last-minute decoration touches

Success!

Grandparents Visit

My parents came to visit! We had a jolly good time together. My dad painted my office, my mom (and dad) played, played, played with their grandchildren, we all went to the pool, my parents read every single children's book on our shelf aloud about three times, and we ate three great meals every day, after which I hardly touched a single dirty dish. It felt like a week off for all of us!

We also had some pictures taken! Allshouse Photography did a little photo shoot with the grandparents and children, some results of which you can see below (the really nice ones are for printing and aren't posted here; these were a few extra bonus pictures because Jerod wanted/demanded more pictures. I guess it's a good when a two year old doesn't want to stop smiling for the camera, right?).

Spring pictures

Happy spring from the Sandeens! Here's some spring/Easter cuteness for you to enjoy:

He is sooooo close to being able to finally reach the pedals on his tricycle. This little guy just cannot wait until he can ride around on his bike.

Happy Easter from Zarya! She was very happy about Easter, but was going for a more thoughtful pose on this one, I think. Easter can be a serious holiday.

This one makes me laugh every time I see it. She looks so happy, hugging her brother. He looks so squished and strangled, yet didn't even think to move or protest. Getting squashed in love is everyday life when you are a younger sibling!

Valentine's Day

I have a history of holiday-skipping. With the exception of Christmas, I have skipped every other holiday out there some year or other. I don't recall doing anything for Valentine's Day any other year. (Side note: when we were engaged and living on different continents, Andrew did something very sweet for me that year, but I didn't do anything for him, so for my part I count that as skipping.) In fact, Andrew told me this morning, "You know, this is a really stressful day for a lot of men. It's nice to know that I wasn't expected to come up with something amazing, and that you're okay with that."

To which I replied, "But this is the year I was actually going to do something!" And indeed I did! Since this is a first-ever in life, I thought I'd better take pictures to prove it really happened.

We started off with heart-shaped oatmeal pancakes:

Actually, while I was making pancakes, they were having a sibling Valentine love morning on the couch. Zarya asked Jerod if he wanted her to read his train book to him. He loves, LOVES his Thomas the Tank Engine book and demands that I read it to him every single day. Zarya read him the entire book (it has three stories in it), which meant I was off the hook. She loves her little brother and books, and I definitely love that she gave me the day off from reading the beloved/infernal train book.

Since I'd gone to all the holiday bother of dressing them in Valentine's Day appropriate clothing, I thought I should commemorate the moment. They didn't think so highly of that idea for the first 20 or so attempts:

Nobody moved, both were looking at the camera, and I count it as a success

And then, as if this weren't already over the top with Valentine-ness, we actually even MADE Valentines. Like, the world's most unartsy mother actually cut out hearts and dug a glue stick out from the recesses of a cupboard. We go to a Bible study on Tuesday mornings, and four lovely ladies volunteer to take care of the children. Zarya and Jerod had great fun making their caregivers Valentines.

Later in the day, Andrew brought me chocolate, and we had a nice dinner, so happiness and love abounded all around. We are thankful to Jesus who loves us and gave us one another to love!

Bee-bim Bop!

We have a fun children's book called "Bee-bim Bop!" which Zarya picked out herself online, her choice of how to spend Christmas money from her cousins. It was her first online purchase, and thanks to Amazon having the "Look Inside" option where you can actually see what the pictures look like and how many words are on each page, she made an educated decision, as opposed to a random one based on the color of the cover or something else that happened to strike her fancy at the moment.

After reading this book many times and enjoying the fun rhymes of a little girl cooking with her mother, I decided to try the recipe in the back. We made our first dinner of Bee-bim Bop last month and quite enjoyed it. There is a nice bed of rice on the bottom, topped with cooked carrots and spinach, shredded scrambled eggs, and meat cooked in a sweet, spicy soy-based sauce. Then you mix it all up. According to what I read in the book, in Korean, "bee-bim" means "mix it up" and "bop" means "rice."

We had it again last night and this time remembered to get a picture. I'm not claiming this is authentic - we didn't have kim-chee or bean sprouts, and I used lamb instead of beef. When I'm next in a Korean restaurant that offers this dish, I plan to give their version of the real deal a try. In the meantime, we like to chant the catchy rhymes from the book and eat our pseudo-Bee-bim Bop.