Jazzie and Tahlia

Fun weekend

What a great weekend! On Saturday, Matt and I attended Ohio Valley Voices' annual gala. It's always fun to dress up and go to a fancy party, without kids. In fact, we were without kids for most of the weekend, thanks to Cera. I love my kids, but I thoroughly enjoyed a weekend with just my husband.

Here we are ready to go:

Pictures taken with my phone, so not the best quality...

We even won one of the raffle prizes: Chinese pearls!

It was a great evening with dinner, cocktails and dancing. There were a few speeches including one by the mother of a current student and one by a 13 year old boy who graduated from the school several years ago. I had to wipe away a few tears during both speeches, because their stories are our stories. The mom talked about how the school has changed their family's life (just like it has ours) and the boy talked about what it is like to be deaf and have a cochlear implant. His words could have been Jazzie's. I think the entire room was inspired by this very confident and funny young man. I have said it many times and I will say it again: Ohio Valley Voices is AMAZING.

On Sunday we celebrated Matt's grandmother's 97th birthday. What a spunky woman she still is!

Jazzie and Lily

Smart is beautiful

Behold my smart 4th grader:

There are so many messages out there telling girls what beautiful is. I disagree with a lot of them, but not this one! When I saw this jacket at Justice, I knew I had to get it for Jazzie.

I want to share a list that Jazzie made in speech therapy the other day. It made me laugh out loud:

A few notes:

• I love that "Not getting what she wants" is at the top of her things-that-make-me-mad list. I would agree with that statement 100% :-)
• Not quite sure why Alex made the same list and why Tahlia didn't. Tahlia makes Jazzie mad WAY more often than Alex does.
• Is she her mother's daughter or what? Being hot makes me mad as well :-)
• Frankie is Cera's cat and since she is allergic to cats, "being around cats" made the mad list.
• However, I was confused as to why cats was also on her things-that-make-me-happy list. Her explanation was that she hates being around cats, but she loves pictures of cats. This was news to me ;-)
• W.W.P. = Wizards of Waverly Place
• The best part to me was that she mentions that Tahlia talks during movies the entire time. Uhm, that's like calling the kettle black. Lol!

This list is a keeper for sure. I love my smart (and beautiful) girl!

Homework with Twizzlers

Jazzie's all time favorite candy? Twizzlers!

Another tooth gone

Tahlia lost yet another tooth today. The school nurse pulled it out :-)

When Tahlia got off the bus, she came running towards me because she was so excited that she had lost her tooth, but then started to cry because her tooth had fallen out of the little box the nurse had given her. She was afraid that without her actual tooth, the tooth fairy wouldn't come.

I told her to go ahead and just write a note to the tooth fairy and leave it under her pillow.

And sure enough, Tahlia found a dollar under her pillow this morning ;-)

Cranberry-almond oat bars

So I saw this oat bars recipe on the Cooking Light website and knew I had to make them. However, I didn't have all the ingredients, so I modified the recipe slightly. They turned out SO good. I'll definitely make them again. 

Crust:

• 4 1/2 ounces all-purpose flour (about 1 cup)
• 1 cup quick-cooking oats 
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt 
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 6 tablespoons butter, melted 
• 3 tablespoons orange juice 
• Cooking spray 

Filling:

• 1 1/3 cups dried cranberries (about 6 ounces) 
• 1/4 cup fat free sour cream 
• 1/2 cup fat free ricotta cheese
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/2 teaspoon grated orange rind 
• 1 large egg white, lightly beaten 

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 325°.
2. To prepare crust, weigh or lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 5 ingredients (through cinnamon) in a medium bowl, stirring well with a whisk. Drizzle butter and juice over flour mixture, stirring until moistened (mixture will be crumbly). Reserve 1/2 cup oat mixture. Press remaining oat mixture into the bottom of an 11 x 7-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray.
3. To prepare filling, combine cranberries, sour cream, ricotta, granulated sugar, and remaining ingredients in a medium bowl, stirring well. Spread cranberry mixture over prepared crust; sprinkle reserved oat mixture evenly over filling. Bake at 325° for 40-50 minutes or until edges are golden. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack.

Cut in 15 squares. 5 points+ per serving, sprinkled with some slivered almonds.

Dress shopping

Those who follow me on Facebook know that I have been shopping for a dress for the annual OVV Gala. Matt and I have attended this fundraiser for Jazzie's old school for the past 5 years now and it is always a lot of fun. Let me tell you just how much fun I've been having shopping for a dress. It is so nice to be able to try on dresses and actually like the way I look in them instead of feeling disgusted when I look in the mirror. What is even more fun is realizing that the size I pulled of the rack is too big ;-)

A few years ago I did not enjoy the whole dress experience. In fact, I covered up as much as I could:

Last year was a lot more fun. By then I had lost 80 pounds and I loved my little purple dress:

Fast forward another year and I have lost 115 pounds. This year the gala has a Roaring 20's theme and I have two dresses that I like. One has a flapper kind of feel to it (perfect for the 20's theme) and the other one makes me feel fabulous and super sexy. I love them both and don't know which one to choose. I keep going back and forth between the two.

The good news is that I still have two weeks to decide, unless of course I keep shopping and trying on more dresses...

Biography school project

Jazzie's latest school assignment was to read a biography (any biography) and do a project on it. After looking at manyl biographies at the book store, Jazzie decided on Anne Frank. This brought up many questions from Jazzie that were hard to answer at times. But being from Holland, having read the book and having visited the house several times, I really enjoyed helping Jazzie with this project.