Thinking Christmas???

I know, this is really pushing it, as we are a ways from Christmas, but we have a wonderful opportunity to be in on an adoption fundraiser and I wanted to post about it.  I think these ornaments are beautiful and Christine is an adoptive mother and has a heart to help adoptive families.  SO- if you like these as much as I do and want to order one or a whole set - she said to order soon - they sell quickly and they do come all the way from China!  Oh, and if you want the proceeds to help our family - just add "Bilby Family" somehwere in your email - then she gives the proceeds to us.  We are so grateful to people like this that are willing to help adoptive families!  Holiday Fundraiser

School is in Session

I know I win the bad mom award - I always forget to take 1st Day of School Pictures.  But I am remembering to post about Chloe's famous first words about school.  (With the boys I would not have dreamed about starting school at age 4, but Chloe has been begging to do her school - so I am giving in and doing a fun preschool curriculum with her.)  So today she tells me, "Mom, I am learning about lowercase "l" and the number "1" - they look the same so let's do something harder."  Can I just tell you that I love doing school with her?!?

Shocker!

I am giving you FAIR warning here - don't fall over or have a heart attack - BUT I made something edible in the kitchen!!! AND, it was SO good that I thought I'd share the recipe. I got it out of the new Spring/Summer 2008 Season's Best by Pampered Chef - and without further ado -

Summer Strawberry Shortcakes

Shortcakes:

2 T butter, divided

2 pkg. (8 oz each) refrigerated crescent dough, divided

2 T Sugar, divided

1/2 C Almonds

1 Qt. fresh Strawberries, hulled

Blueberry Sauce:

3 T Sugar

2 t Cornstarch

3/4 C Water

1 Lemon

1 C fresh Blueberries

Preheat oven to 375 F. Place butter into bowl; microwave on HGH 20-30 seconds or until melted. Unroll 1 pkg. of the crescent dough onto cutting board; pinch perforations to seal. Brush dough with 1 T of the butter; sprinkle with 1 T of the sugar. Roll dough into a log, starting at short end; set aside. Repeat with remaining package of dough, butter and sugar. (Do not roll up dough.) Place log crosswise onto second layer of dough. Roll dough up around log to form a thicker cylinder; seal seams.

Cut cylinder crosswise into 12 equal disks. Coarsely chop almonds. Dip top of each disk into almonds and place almond side up onto large bar pan. Bake 14-16 minutes or until golden brown. Immediately press centers of shortcakes with tart shaper to make 2-in-wide wells; remove to cooling rack.

For sauce, combine sugar, cornstarch and water in saute pan; stur until dissolved. Zest lemon to measure 1 t. zest. Juice lemon to measure 2 T juice. Add zest, juice and blueberries to sugar mixture. Bring to a boil over medium heat; simmer 4 minutes or until sauce develops a deep purple color, stirring occasionally.

To assemble shortcakes, cut strawberries into quarters and divide evenly among wells of shortcakes. Spoon about 2 T blueberry sauce over each shortcake and garnish with lemon slices, if desired. Serve with ice cream, if desired. (12 servings)

Oh yes - just so you appreciate ALL I did to get this photo - the family is getting ready to take a bite - salivating heavily, and I yell, "Stop!!! Everyone stop - don't eat yet." Then I proceeded to get out the camera and start snapping - they all groaned and I heard murmurs of "blog" - yep, they were right!!!

Book Notes

Some of our recent favorites - (Just a heads up - If you click on our links to purchase them, a portion goes to our adoption fund.)

Minji's Salon is a wonderful book about a little girl that wants to be like her mommy. SO, when mommy goes to the salon to get her hair colored, Minji decides to do the same to the dog!! It is such a cute story AND I love it that the little girl is Korean - I love books with that "asian" flair! Eun-hee Choung is a magnificent author AND illustrator!


Another of our favorites I posted about on my book blog - go check it out if you haven't read it. AND make sure to read the comments - the illustrator AND author commented!!


This book, Made in China, is another wonderful book for adoptive families. Read my post about it on my book blog HERE.

And lastly, IT's finally for sale - the Ni Hao Kai-Lan DVD - of course we are SO excited over here since we don't have cable and haven't been able to watch it yet!!!!
So that's it - just a few fun books on our radar.

Powerful!

I am sure many of you have seen this already but for those who haven't - it is SO worth watching.  We have always enjoyed Steven Curtis Chapman's music and his commitment to adoption.  AND we are even more grateful for this through this second adoption as they are giving us a wonderful grant to help us out.  So when the tragic accident happened to them - we almost felt it was a part of us.  Their story is powerful - I admire their strength.

Tour of our Yard

Since you all can't come out here this summer, thought I'd give you a glimpse of what a tour of our yard showed tonight....

Midnight

My poor husband must have felt REALLY bad for being gone for two weeks.  BECAUSE he planned a date night for us - ok, that's not so uncommon for him BUT look at what he planned.

First we went to see THIS!  NOT his choice at all - but I am kind of pumped about anything ABBA  (and Pierce - which goes back to THIS!!!)  so he humored me.  (and he even admitted that it would never be his pick, but he did like it!  What a guy!)

THEN - poor guy, he humbled himself, yet again and showed up at Barnes and Noble for me to be in on the midnight release of this new book!  Yes, I was one of the only adults in line at midnight to get THIS!!!  But I didn't care - I considered it "for the job" - what we don't do as librarians!!  I stood in line with teenage girls dressed in prom and wedding dresses and screamed every five minutes until midnight!   (Joe hid by the magazines - what a guy - AGAIN!!!)  And then I read all the way home!!  But don't feel too sorry for him - he listened to THIS all the way home - and I consider that torture!!!  Ahhh - marital bliss!  So that's all the post for today - must go read some more!!

Wild Water Continued

As promised - more pics......

 

This is the largest, scariest waterslide in the park and Aaron conquered it - that's the big splash coming down!!!  Way to go Aaron!