Ok, I'm starting this entry with an amusing story that happened last week. It was Thursday morning, and I had a feeling something was up. (Mother's intuition? Perhaps. Deja vu? More likely) Savannah woke up earlier than usual this particular morning, came downstairs, and let Fillmore (pommerat, alpha male) out of his cage. We keep him locked in his cage in the hallway now because of the constant peeing (his territory must be marked, and if he keeps it up for much longer, the owner of his territory is going to kick him out) which seems to be helping. So, Savannah went into the bathroom after letting Fillmore loose, then went back upstairs. What is she doing? I wondered. I thought she must be sleep walking because she knows not to let Fillmore out of his cage like that, and she is known to sleep walk. So, I went upstairs to investigate and when I hit the top of the stairs an overwhelming stench of fingernail polish remover stung my nose. I seriously started coughing. It was horrendous. I walked into her room as she hurriedly shoved something under her bed. "What'cha doing?" I asked. "Nothing," was her innocent reply. I had to explain to her that she cannot sneak fingernail polish remover because the stench of it is not hide-able. (Same goes for smoking in her room, but hopefully we won't have to have that conversation for a few years). So, she was busted. She did follow directions after the busting, though, and threw away the fingernail polish remover soaked cotton balls, unfortunately, I wasn't specific on which trash to throw it away in. That night at bedtime, I was dismayed to learn that the stench had not subsided. "Where is the fingernail polish remover?" I asked. "Downstairs," she replied. After looking around her room like a suspicious mother searching for some sort of illegal paraphernalia hidden somewhere, I sniffed out the problem. The small trash bag hanging on her door contained several soaked cotton balls. (What a great drug sniffing dog I could have been). I removed the bag and put her to bed, hoping that the brain damage that she was sure to suffer after spending the day breathing in those fumes would not be too severe.
On Saturday, Savannah decided to try to knock our alpha male dog, Fillmore, down a few pegs. This is the result...
I'm not sure if her methods are working, but I think I may have seen Boris (our cowardly Great Dane) chuckle a few times. Today Fillmore is sporting an adorable orange sweater with a jack-o-lantern face on the front. :)
And the last of our weekend adventures was completed today. We purchased a make at home pretzel kit from Auntie Anne's. Now, I must confess that I have been making homemade pretzels from scratch since I was 10. They are a giant pain in the butt -- a lot of labor for very little reward. (Mostly because the pretzels are only the best when fresh out of the oven, but after 2 of them you will explode. And day old pretzels only make you long for the fresh out of the oven variety). But, I have long been crowned the queen of pretzels among my family. However, my pretzels are small-ish and somewhat crunchy on the outside. And, Myles and Savannah have long ago informed me that the Auntie Anne's pretzels far outshine mine. (Break my heart and stomp on the pieces!) So, when I had heard of the Auntie Anne's pretzel kit, I thought we could give it a try. I was envisioning a sack of ready made dough that I could take home and twist into pretzels and bake and eat. What I got was a $12 box containing a sack of flour, a package of yeast, some pretzel salt, and 1/4 baking soda along with lengthy instructions on how to make pretzels that varied from my labor intensive methods only very slightly. So, we slaved away in the kitchen this morning and I now have a large pile of dishes to do. During the 45 rising time that the pretzel dough spent in a draft free place, Savannah and couple of Barbies found a fun way to pass the time.
This is a couple of Barbies making snow angels. 
And, here they are having a snowball fight. When Myles was younger, he would bring out his hot wheels snowplows to plow through the left over flour. Such fun.
Anyway, this is how the pretzels looked before baking.
The kids shaped them so well. We'll put Auntie Anne's out of business before long. And, this is the finished product. 
What did the kids tell me after their first bite? "These do taste just like Auntie Anne's pretzels!! They are SO MUCH better than yours!" Thanks kids!
No comments:
Post a Comment