Uno, Dos, Tres, CUATRO

It's finally here. Her fourth birthday. This birthday has been SO anticipated. It was planned down to which color of sprinkles would sit atop her chocolate iced Funfetti cupcakes with Care Bears on top. A big Care Bear candle on top...but Wish Bear could be at the bottom. And her guest list has been made for months. Of course it's included a few too many so I had to use the recurring guests on the list to make the final list. I still follow the "your age plus one" guest list rule. (For those of you who do not know me, I've never met a rule I didn't like.)

I cannot believe Sydney is FOUR. It seems a little too grown up. Four years seems too long. I was in high school four years, college four years, and only worked after college for four years.

Sydney is still so stinkin' cute and so much fun. I don't think we would laugh if she weren't here. (Okay, Stephen makes us laugh, too, but that's where she gets it!) And she is so tenderhearted. She loves to hug and tell you that she loves you. She loves to ride her bike...fast...and doesn't know how to use the brakes. She can outrun any of us. She climbs on top of the Corolla (when we're not looking) and tries to slide down the back window. She and Brody play hard, but she plays girly things with Abby. Sydney is so much fun to watch when she's excited. She is just one of those children who reminds you how much fun life can really be.

Here are some pictures from her special day:

Sydney with her much anticipated cupcake

Reese was so eager to sit in the Gift Giver chair

Abby and Stephen giving Sydney her camera

Mary Grace (our sweet neighbor) and her Little Pony gift

Sweet Tess and her fun coloring/painting gifts

Dayleah and the sweet card she made

Haley, waiting so patiently while Sydney figured out how to open the beautifully wrapped gift

Macy and her cuteness, and the much loved Baby Elephant

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And the much anticipated cupcakes

Ba-nected

This morning Sydney was playing with her baby elephant, Emily, (build-a-bear elephant) and was telling Abby that Emily was "ba-nected". I thought she was trying to say "connected" but couldn't figure out why she was talking about getting an ambulance, etc. I immediately began to think they were talking about a live birth and wondered where they got this information. Abby said, "Don't you remember from the Zebra video?" I got nervous. I watched that Animal Planet special on zebras with them and there wasn't anything eluding to a live birth on there.

Then Sydney continued to play like her elephant fell down and was "ba-nected" again. She needed an ambulance again. Then it dawned on me. What a relief! The elephant was "infected". Whew. So I told them how to pronounce the word and what it meant. I escaped a very difficult conversation today!

How do I know?

How do we know when our young children are ready to become Christians? Loaded question. One of our pastors wrote a really great answer to this question:

http://childrenatgrace.blogspot.com/2009/03/q-how-do-you-know-when-young-child-is.html

All About Stephen

I don't think I've ever had a post all about Stephen. Someone else beat me to it. He was "highlighted" in a bio on Grace Church's website this week:

http://www.gracechurchsc.org/stephen-fowler/

Snow Fun

I am so grateful the snow did not miss Greenville this time. Abby heard the weather lady say it was going to snow in the Upstate on Sunday. Most everyone seemed to have "snow on the brain" at the church building Sunday morning. All afternoon I would catch Abby staring out the window to see if it was snowing. Sunday about 7 pm, it started coming down. We got out in it as soon as we could. We were not in it long because we had thundersnow, which I had never experienced before.

All of us had a great time playing in the snow and with friends yesterday. Here are some pictures from the big event:

Stephen, Abby and Sydney building Mr. Snowman:


Abby, Sydney and Brody trying out a sled:


Abby, Sydney, Brody and our good friend, Ella Fuller, posing with a snowball:




Abby, Sydney, Macy, Morgan and Kyia at the Taylors' house:

Maple-Roasted Chicken with Sweet Potatoes

This is a great recipe. We had it for dinner last night. It is from Real Simple. It was really simple to make.

I'm going to make it next time with all chicken breasts because Stephen doesn't like dark meat. It is cheapest if you buy the whole chicken and cut it into pieces yourself, but cutting it does take extra time. Oh, speaking of thyme. I have it growing here if you want to save the money and not buy the fresh thyme, just stop by and cut, no need to ask!

Also, I used the meat thermometer instead of just setting the timer for 1 hour and 15 minutes and it was done in about half that time. If you cooked the chicken whole, I guess it would take that long.

So here's the recipe with my changes for next time in italics:

Recipe for Maple-Roasted Chicken with Sweet Potatoes

1 chicken (3-1/2- to 4-pounds), cut into 8 pieces TRY 4 BONE-IN BREASTS
1 yellow onion, cut into 1-inch wedges
2 small sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks TRY 2 LARGE SWEET POTATOES
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
3 tablespoons maple syrup
6 sprigs fresh thyme TRY PULLING OFF STEMS FIRST

Heat oven to 400° F. Rinse the chicken and pat it dry. Arrange the chicken, onion, and sweet potatoes in a 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Drizzle the oil over the chicken and vegetables and season with the salt and pepper. Toss to coat. Drizzle with the maple syrup and top with the sprigs of thyme.

Roast, stirring the vegetables once, until the chicken is cooked through, about 1 hour, 15 minutes. USE MEAT THERMOMETER. Let rest for 10 minutes before serving.

TRY SHREDDING CHICKEN AND SERVING WITH JUICES POURED ON TOP

Tip: The maple glaze can also be used with a whole chicken or Cornish game hens.

Yield: Serves 4

CALORIES 625.18 (49% from fat); FAT 34.5g (sat 8.64g); CHOLESTEROL 222.91mg; CALCIUM 59.39mg; CARBOHYDRATE 19g; SODIUM 457.81mg; PROTEIN 56.66mg; FIBER 1.41g; IRON 3.98mg

Adapted from recipe in Real Simple, DECEMBER 2005
http://food.realsimple.com/realsimple/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1132509

Tim Tam on the Brain

Jordan Gons is a friend of ours in our Community Group. His sister spent a significant time in Australia, where she discovered the Tim Tam cookie. Target is temporarily selling this treats in the USA and Jordan bought several packs last week, leaving one-and-a-half packs at my house.

I'm hooked. Those 95-calorie-per cookies are just TOO good. I have been craving them ever since they've been gone. I want to try a Tim Tam Slam.

Anyway, here are pictures of the new package and of someone else's Tim Tam on their plate.