Toast and jam, anyone?

I made a batch of plum jam this afternoon.  This evening, I discovered this label on one of my jars:

For those of you who are Franco-challenged, this reads (with some misspellings appropriate to a 6-year-old) "Toad drool jam.  Use before ......"

Zucchini

I took a big step recently.  After nearly 11 years of living in France, I finally bought an electric mixer.  I'd love to tell you about the meringue pies I've made, or the macaroons.  That'll have to wait until my oven gets fixed.  Instead, this evening, I mixed up some batter to fry some (ahem) zucchini.  Boy, it sure makes beating egg whites easy.  The eating of said fried zucchini sparked this conversation:

SYBILLE:  (Indicating her loadad fork)  What's that?

MAMA:  (Honestly unsure whether she was indicating the zucchini or the breading)  That's some yumminess.

SYBILLE:  (Whiny, with mouth full)  I don't like yumminess.

Tassia's Trumpet Tryout

Have been way too busy to blog for awhile.  I'll try and play catch-up a bit in the near future.  Several weeks ago, our church had the privilege of hosting a portion of the All Soul's Orchestra of London.  They graced us with their musical presence for a Sunday morning service, we spent the afternoon with them, and then they played a concert in Melle the following Tuesday.  Tassia has been talking about wanting to play the trumpet for some time now, and she was able to try one.  She loved it!  (And, yes, Alina's reaction in the picture IS indicative of the kind of sounds she produced!)

Little gem

While sifting through some old pictures, I found this little gem.  Hope everyone's having a great summer!

mix

Alina hypothesized the other day that the gold in the suitcase that Ephraim Longstocking gave to his daugher Pippi was the same gold that Smaug stole from the dwarves.  I'm just waiting to know where a black stallion comes into it.

Black

ALINA: (to me while getting off of her new bike)  Henry, I'm going to go put the Black in the stable for the night.
 
I love her imagination.

Hair-B-Gone

I finally gave in to Tassia's request for shorter hair.  Or was it too many time of trying to comb out toothpaste, soup, and ice cream from little girls' hair?  Either way, this is the result:

And Alina?  She wants to grow her hair down to her bottom.