Katastrophe Kate

What an absolutely beautiful spring-like day we had today!  Sunshine, temps around 70.  It's tricking our plants into thinking it's time to grow.


KATASTROPHE KATE.  I didn't tell you about Kara's school musical that she's been working on since January!  It was a really cute story that her talented music teacher wrote.  He has written about 30 musicals, actually, and his shows have been performed all over the country and even in a couple of OTHER countries.  Super fun songs, clever puns and jokes--it was very entertaining.

This one was called "Katastrophe Kate," taking place in the Wild West of Texas back when there were saloons and sherrifs and outlaws.

Make-up before the show!

Synopsis from the director:

Takin' A Train to Texas

Hold on to your tumbleweeds 'cause here comes the legendary Katastrophe Kate, the most dangerous woman in the West! Whaddaya mean, you never heard of her!!? Didn't ya know that Texas has a panhandle on accounta she was such a great cook?!

This 90-minute Tex-Mex musical tall tale begins when Katherine, a mild-mannered, Eastern born and bred protegee of world-famous chef, Madame Julia Enfant, must transform herself into Katastrophe Kate in order to conquer the Wild West with her chili recipe. In a steamy cook-off at Miss Lillian's Saloon, Kate also has a little romance simmerin' on the back burner with her arch rival, Jose Habenero, who claims to have the hottest chili in the Southwest.

Finding Waltzin' Matilda: lower left!

Into the musical melting pot, throw some dancin' girls called the Fosse Posse, add a dash of international outlaws for spice, and pepper with a prying reporter named Penelope Penmore, and you have a recipe for one red-hot, toe-tappin' Texas chili party! The rip-roarin' score has just the right country-western flavor, featuring songs like "Texas Rodeo Angel," "I Think She's Got It," "Hot Stuff," "I Feel Lousy," and "Showdown."

OUTLAW FROM THE OUTBACK.  Kara was "Waltzin Matilda," an outlaw from Australia.  She refined her accent and did a really good job with it!  It was a lot of fun.

I'll include some photos.  The boots and the hat made the costume, of course.  The costume lady called me from a second-hand store on a Friday night: "Can you get Kara down here sometime this weekend, to see if these boots fit her?  They'd be perfect for Waltzin' Matilda!"  And they were.

Hope your week is sun-filled!  Kari

Happy Birthday to...

Hello and Happy Spring!

WARM (for a DAY).  It is fooling us today, with temps up to SIXTY-EIGHT!  Yes, you heard it here first!  68 degrees and sunshine in early March, in Massachusetts.  Intoxicatingly beautiful.

It's been a whirlwind, it feels like, with musical practices and dress rehearsals, and now Kara is actually performing the Middle School musical she's been working on for 2 months.  She's very excited, and Teresa (no longer in middle school) is helping with the make-up.  Photos soon on that, I hope!

SPECIAL DAY.  But we did get to celebrate Frank's birthday, yes, even the parents get special treatment here on birthdays.  It was spread out, mind you.  On his actual birthday the whole family was never in the same room at the same time all day, so we opted for a one-day-late opening of presents.

Then he went out of town for work, so we're having the requested Butterscotch Pie tonight!  6 days of celebrating because it took that long to get it all together.

WORDLE.  I did want to show you Teresa's gift to him...our family really likes to create at http://www.wordle.net/ This is the best website!!  (And it's free!)

You type in all kinds of words that seem to "fit" the person, and it makes a fun word-display out of them.  Even kids can do it.  With a variety of choices for different shapes and bright colors, it looks really nice framed.

It's a great inexpensive gift for Mother's Day, birthdays, or whatever.  Plus it's completely personalized because whoever makes it has to choose or think which words will go on it.  It's awesome.

Here is Frank's birthday "wordle."  The kids love his Saturday morning breakfasts, so that's where some of the words come from.

"STICKY."  I also need to clarify:  He makes one breakfast where you roll up the dough/cinnamon-sugar like in cinnamon rolls, only you don't cut it into individual cinnamon rolls.  You leave it in a roll, cook it, and cut it up after.  This is called "Sticky."  So when you see "sticky" on the wordle, it's not that Frank is sticky.  He makes sticky.

Frank w/his grandpa

BLAST from the PAST.  Here are some photos of our Frank!  His grandpa rolls him around in the wheelbarrow:

Surprise! w/both grandmas on couch, + sisters

Just a quick update this time.  Happy Birthday to my Sweetie!  The best friend and husband I could ever ask for.  Ok, he's a pretty good dad, too. :)

Frank w/his dad

Very cute senior in high school, posing w/his aunt!

Welcome, March!

Hola!

March has come in this week, and made a statement.  It kind of sounded like "Pleah," really sloppy, loud and messy.  We were spewed upon.

After a non-eventful entire winter, this week we got snow, sleet, slush, followed by rain, slop, and more rain.  Cold temps gave us the snow, and now it's being rained upon and icing up, etc., etc.  Still not much accumulation.  Just drippy.

EXCEPTIONAL EVENT PLANNER.  I wanted to post about our Future Party-Planner!  (Although, I am sure there is a fancy, official-sounding name for this particular profession.)  We have decided that Kara is a shoe-in for planning wedding receptions, corporate holiday parties, or quite possibly the opening for the 2020 Olympics.

We have a daughter who plans parties down to a science.  She plans:
Lists for Guests.

Possible themes.
Decorations we already have.
Decorations that can be made.
Guest assignments, where appropriate.
Invitation emails.
Invitation phone calls.
Paper invitations to send.
Food to be made.
Food to be bought.
Guest activities.
Lists for the supplies for those activities.
Which stores have those supplies.
Where the supplies are on sale.
Possible dates/times for Mom to drive her to get supplies.
Rough time table of when activities will begin and end.

You think I'm exaggerating, But.  I'm.  Not!

The beauty of the process is, that she knows every detail and pretty much does everything.  She's really good at decorating rooms and making food.

She asks her buddy from next door--what a sweetie, willing to work-- to come early to help set up with her, and also to stay late to help clean up.

Kara (11) just planned a Valentine's Day party/sleepover.  Yes, it was a little late.  And here's the best part of it: It was a little late!

She had a guest list of girls she wanted to come, and all calendars matched up on one particular Friday.  Because it was the Friday AFTER Valentine's Day, all candies and decorations and items for gifts were on huge sales!  50, 60, 70 per cent off.  It was perfect.

In the future, we will try to instruct a little on how much food is needed for a particular size of party.  There were 6 girls invited, planning for a total of 7 girls who would be eating "stuff."  Now, remember, these are middle-school-aged girls, not high school boys.

Before I could blink, she was in the process of making a fancy spice cake, platter of fudge, and dozens of little M&M pretzels.  Also from our stash she used Doritos, and crackers and cheese (hors d'oeuvres...this was in addition to the pizza we promised for dinner).  There was a lot of food.

Here are photos.  They had so much fun!

We also decided that her birthday celebration (2 weeks from now) will probably just be ... family.  :)


Next installment: Frank's birthday.

Happy Valentine's Day & Braces

Hola!

This is a Valentine's Day wish, to everybody who can remember receiving valentines in Elementary School.  Can you see it in your mind: decorating your special box, so each student in the class could put the valentine inside.  And some people even taped a candy sucker to the paper Valentine, and some maybe a piece of chocolate.

Yesterday, I received the very astoundingly most monstrous Reeses Peanut Butter Cup I have ever seen!  Frank found one of these, knowing it is my favorite candy.  I was definitely in heaven.  I think he used a wheel barrow to bring it home.  I had to take a picture of it.

Sadly, it doesn't look that big in the photo!  But it was.  Really.  Big.

Here is the inside of it.  I cut it up for the family to share.  Each of these peanut butter cups is a HALF POUND of chocolate and peanut butter.  Yes.  Combined, we have a full POUND of candy.

OK, the other, even bigger news for Heart Day, is that after a tiny bit over two years, Teresa got her braces off -- on Valentine's Day!

(And there was MUCH rejoicing.)

She has had a countdown going for a couple of weeks now.  Actually ever since David had his taken off a few months ago, she's been counting down.

Don't her teeth look nice?  (Go ahead, click on the photos for a bigger view!)  I'll include before, during and after photos.  It gives you the general idea.

She had a front snaggle-tooth going on.

And now, it's time to say 'Goodbye' to all our company...

M-I-C  ("See you real soon...")
K-E-Y ("Why?  Because we LIKE you!")
M-O-U-S-E!

Happy Week!  Kari

Even Tubing can be a Nice Getaway

Hola!

Happy February!  We took a chance a week ago, and reserved 2 nights in New Hampshire near one of their ski resorts.  It has been such a "wimpy snow" winter, we just didn't know if we could ski or not.

So it had been a week since they had had real snow, and then it was still only a couple of inches, so the answer for us was...not!  You could hear the skiers: instead of "Whhhooosh" it was "scccccccrrraapppe" down the mountain.  Ice, ice, ice!  Of course, Teresa only saw skiers whose parents bought them lift tickets.  We were the mean ones who said "Let's go tubing today instead!"

We did have a good time tubing.  Here are some photos.  They had a pull-ride to take you up the hill on one side, then you could tube down.

We also gave David a chance to drive us a couple of hours each way.  FYI: Friday evening rush hour, driving north on Interstate 95 here is actual...driving...experience.  I have said before that I lose a month off of my life every time I give him the keys...and he's not even a bad driver!  I'm just nervous.

That weekend getaway came at the end of midterms, for David and Teresa.  Nice to get those behind them!

During midterm week, Frank, Kara and I went to a place called "Cradles to Crayons," where they take donations of clothing, baby items, small furniture, toys, books, etc., sort and organize, and give them to children in the greater Boston area.  It was SO well organized.  We spent a 2-hour block with other members of our church congregation sorting kid clothes, while others put together packages of clothes sets and supplies for different ages of children.  It was really cool.

Ok, and here is our "February Birthday," since we do not actualy have a February birthday person in our house.  Max, our rabbit, turned ONE.  Kara made him a hat and we took pictures.  I couldn't believe he wore the thing, and stayed still, long enough for a camera shoot!  He's awesome.

All in all, a good couple of weeks!  Now if we can shake the runny noses and coughs.  Even with a mild winter, we did not escape those.

Frank has been in California this week--at the Disneyland Resort hotel, of all places!  He says you can't imagine how many things in a hotel they can decorate with a Mickey Mouse silhouette.

Have a great week!  Kari

Candid Camera Mailbox

Hola!

Just have to share our candid-camera-like chuckles over the mailbox this past week.

Last Thursday or so, our mailbox door "hinge" gave up the ghost.  It was only this little plastic hinge holding it on--it has actually lasted many years--but I guess even the mailbox door has numbered days.

So it was the mailman who broke it!  Kara happened to be in the front yard when he came.  He opened the mailbox and the door came off in his hand.  "Whoa," he says, "how did that happen?"  Then he's holding the mailbox door in one hand and needs his hand to give us our mail...so what to do with the door?

He places the mailbox door on the seat next to him in the mail truck.  Gathers our mail and puts it in, then puts our mailbox door into the mailbox, too.

The door attaches at the top with a magnet, so we can put the door back onto the magnet, and it looks kind of normal, only it doesn't have a lower hinge.  You pull to open it and it comes off in your hand.

So then the NEXT day is the weekend, and we have a different carrier on weekends.  So Kara watches for him this time, and makes sure she's outside again.  Same thing.  "What??!"  And he puts the mailbox door beside him in the truck, on the other seat, while he gathers our mail.  Mailbox door goes in the box with the mail.

So over the next couple of days, Kara and Teresa go back and forth, asking the neighbor kids to "help them get the mail," or somehow work in a "need" to open up the mailbox.  Each neighbor kid pulls off the door, and thinks he's broken our mailbox.

I went to Lowe's and got a new mailbox today.  It'll be kind of disappointing to replace the old one.

Kari

Fishing in Florida

Hola--

Here's another post having to do with our Christmas break.  We started and ended the cruise (see previous post) at Port Canaveral, in Florida.  Since Frank's parents live in the middle of that state, we got to spend New Year's weekend with them!

We rented a car Saturday, New Year's Eve, and drove to their house by 2 p.m. or so.

FISHING OFF THE DOCK.  We had beautiful weather, warm and lovely, and the first obvious thing to do was head out to the backyard dock and go fishing!  The kids caught fish after fish, and tossed them back into the canal.

(We tried to explain to Teresa later, that in REAL life, fishing does NOT mean catching 50 or 60 fish over the course of 3 days.  REAL life fishing means sitting.  And sitting.  And waiting some more.  And in some people's opinions, it's a little boring.  I don't think she believes us.)

TURTLE.  Somehow those turtles seem to like the bait, too...then the kids can scoop them up in the net.  Here's one just before he bolts to the edge of the dock and jumps back into the water.

CANAL VISITOR.  During the first afternoon's round of pseudo-fishing, we had a visitor come hang out with us.  It was a little alligator!  Yes, I think he was expecting to be fed.  Maybe he was used to people fishing and cleaning the fish there in the canal, and tossing the leftovers back into the water for him.

Here he is hanging back a little, while Teresa baits her hook and waits for a bite.

Here he is a little closer...the sun was getting lower in the sky and the water was so calm, you could see his reflection perfectly.

GOOD FOOD.  Grammy D rivaled the cruise chefs, with her snacks and treats and made-to-order meal plan for us!  Country ham, cheese straws, and fried chicken were among the requested favorites.  Plus, I have now been requested to make her "$300 chocolate cake" (which is so rich you can eat one tiny square, and then you'd better stop).  She also kept the Christmas tree up, so we could enjoy opening some gifts, a little late!

GARDEN VEGETABLES.  Poppa Dave has an amazing garden--he can make anything grow, in abundance!  Ha.  There was a broccoli stalk all ready to harvest, so here is David cutting off some broccoli that we then ate for part of our dinner.  (Who knows when we'll ever see David harvesting vegetables --heaven knows his parents do NOT have green thumbs -- so I had to get a picture of it!)

THREE DAVID FRANKLINS.  I got a photo of the "3 Davids" one afternoon--a nice photo opportunity, yes.  But there's also a funny part of this picture, which I didn't notice until today when we looked at them on the computer for the first time.  Look to the right side of Frank: what is that in the photo?  Looks like a fish, doesn't it?

Well, it IS!  Teresa just "happened" to throw the fish she had caught, back into the water in the instant that I snapped the photo.  Frank has a t-shirt from Seattle that says "Low-Flying Fish."  Here we have a real one.

It was a quick weekend, but a very fun one.  We need to go again, when we can stay an extra day or two for some hiking or other fun diversions the area has to offer.

Onward!  Have a wonderful week!  Kari