Saturday Fun!

Scott had fun yesterday cleaning up the driveway with his new toy! We got about 6 " of snow on Friday. Scott was able to clean our driveway, and not just our sidewalks but up and down the block, all in 1/2 hour! Definitely an improvement over shoveling!!!

Action shot!

Clearing the driveway - obviously, this was taken from inside the house...see the screen?
Ah - the best part of the day - after a nice visit with Hannah, Scott's lounging on the couch with two of his best friends, and talking to Emily on the phone. Life is good!

Small Plates Birthday Dinner

My family created a most beautiful and delicious dinner for my birthday - how lucky am I!

Here you see: thai chicken pizza (Rachael Ray recipe); potato crostini, salmon with herb sabayon, and praline pecan, beet, and mozzarella cheese salad. The potato, salmon, and beet recipes were from "Small Plates for Sharing" , from the Practical Gourmet. We also had Dukkah Beef Skewers (not pictured).

Here is the Thai Chicken Pizza in all its glory. This is a WONDERFUL recipe - you must try it!

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/thai-chicken-pizza-recipe/index.html
And isn't the beet salad a work of art? I LOVE beets!

And of course we finished the meal with birthday cake, made by Emily, the cake lady. I requested a German Chocolate Cake, and Emily, true to form, found a fabulous recipe and made it from scratch. Delish!

As you can see, my birthday with came true, even before I made it - I have the best family ever!

Birthday Beauties

I celebrated my birthday recently - New Year's Day, actually, and and I must say it was just a wonderful day. The whole family was here, we cooked a great meal together, and we just had a fun day together. What's better than that?

Beautiful Emily!

Beautiful Hannah!

Emily's bf, Matt - he's beautiful too!

My beautiful daughters!

Our Christmas Miracle

Our Christmas miracle came on December 20th, 2011. Scott was on his was home from the office, on the I-55, going about 60 mph, when all of a sudden, he saw the car in front of him was stopped in traffic. He crashed into the car, and the next thing he remembers, he found himself in the center ditch. He landed "on all fours", his air bag had gone off, and he was FINE!!!

The man driving the other car was FINE, and the cop DIDN'T give him a ticket. Miracle, miracle, miracle! We are all SO GRATEFUL! Many hugs and kisses for Scott!

Having lots of laughs together!
And yesterday, we purchased a replacement car - a lovely 2008 Prius! We are now a two-Prius family. But most of all, we are a complete, happy family. Our theme for 2012 is Gratitude!

Piano Party 2011

Those of you who know me through quilting may be unaware of another part of my life - the music part! I am a piano teacher, and have around 20 students! I also work full-time in an office, but that's not as fun as teaching!

Every December, I host a small piano "party" for the kids, here at home. It is a mini-recital, where they each perform a Christmas piece that we have been working on. It is just for each other, no parents invited! After they all perform, we have some juice and cookies, and they are picked up. The whole thing takes only 45 minutes, but they really look forward to it. As do I!

Aren't they a good-looking group? As you can see, not everyone was able to attend this year - I have it on the last day of school, and some have already left town for the holidays - but we still had fun! Seen above, left to right, front row: Katie, Becky, and Madi. Middle row, left to right: Lucas, Kyeon, Miles, and Jill. Back row, left to right: Tyler, myself, Ian, Emery, Ella, and Will.

It is so fun to see these kids grow up. They are all delightful kids and it is my pleasure to teach them. Yay Christmas piano party 2011!

NEW'BEE Block for January

This is the January block for my online bee at 15 Minute Play, called NEW'BEE. This block was designed/requested by Katherine. We were to create made fabric in whites, black with white prints, and two contrasting bright colors. Her instructions were very clear and easy - you can see them here.

I'm enjoying a wonderful, three-day weekend of sewing sewing sewing!

Happy New Year to all!

Home for Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!

We were lucky to have the whole clan here for most of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, so happy!

What a huge gift pile - we are blessed indeed! This pile includes gifts from relatives from out of town, besides our family. And we always get each other more than one gift - we love Christmas, and we open gifts leisurely, over a couple of hours.

Hannah posing with a gift!
Gen loved this package!

Emily and Matt relaxing after the gift-opening extravaganza. What a great day!

Dora has decided that she is a lap dog - at 67 pounds! Emily just took the GMAT this week, and aced it! She got a great score - 750! - and now is applying to business schools, as well as law schools - in the Boston area. Her BF, Matt, has been accepted to Harvard Business School (as well as U of Chicago Business School) for the coming fall, and they will be heading east for the next two years. Congrats, Emily!