Throwback to December

You couldn't tell by our 2011 blog, but we really did cram a lot of stuff into the month of December besides celebrating Cora's birthday. So, let us rewind a bit. . .


Chris went to a Carolina Panthers game with his Dad and his brother-in-law Kenny. I have nothing else to say on the matter since I wasn't there.

This is where they wished they could sit.

This is where their tickets dictated they sit.

About 10 days before Christmas, two-thirds of our apartment got flooded out. Thankfully I was home at the time and have some experience when it comes to unwanted water. (Funny story, we had some minor flooding into Ally's room last week from a broken pipe upstairs. After 3 floods in 12 months' time, I think we've paid our dues.) I immediately started placing boxes onto the beds and flinging as much as I could toward the back of the apartment while Cora and Ally crawled along the spreading waterline saying "Oh, no. Not again. Not again". And the culprit workers? They immediately grabbed a small squeegee instead of trying to turn off the water supply to the sprinkler system pipe they had broken.

When I called the complex office, the entire maintenance staff came running to our rescue. They turned off the river source, helped carry my children to dry ground at a friend's (thank you Williamsons!), and then started clearing the 2 inches of water out of our apartment. We spent 2 nights in a hotel and lived in a drying-out, mini-construction project for a few weeks, but amazingly only lost a bunch of packing material and 2 boxes of Chris' books.

The only dry spot where I could salvage some pictures was the bathtub. Some of Chris' flooded-out books.

We drove out to Raleigh and celebrated Jessie's birthday with her family at her parents' house. Counting up the number of candles on her lavender cake with silver stars, she must have been turning 10. Thank you for letting my girls share your spotlight that day.

One of Chris' coworkers, Zoltan, invited us to a Christmas concert at the historic Moravian church in Old Salem. We got there early so we could walk around the town a bit before the performance. (We'll have to go back sometime for an official tour and to explore the buildings.) We enjoyed the concert.  We spent our time listening to good music and watching the 95-year-oldish percussionist diligently but slowly walk from instrument to instrument to play his parts.

The Salem Band officially started in 1766 with the founding of the town; it seems the percussionist may have been an original member.

Ally, Cora, and I visited with Santa Claus at the mall. I didn't get a picture of them sitting on his lap because I would've either had to pay $30 or stand outside the fence to use my own camera. Ally preferred that I skip the picture-taking and stay with them "so Cora wouldn't be scared". I snapped a pic of Good Saint Nick after we were done visiting and safely on the no-pay, public side of the holiday enclosure.

Santa sighting at the mall.

We celebrated Christmas Eve with dinner and games at the Wall's home. Ally and Cora had fun playing with their new friends-- although it wasn't until mid-February that she finally started calling her friends "friends" instead of saying she was just "trying them out and still getting to know them better before deciding whether or not they could be friends." I didn't get a good picture of the kids, but here's one of our contribution to dinner--

One of Chris' cheesecakes-- Yummy!

We celebrated Christmas morning at our house-- starting with pictures in front of our glowing fireplace and a balanced, nutritious breakfast of PopTarts. Then we got all dressed up for 9am church.

When we got home, we changed back into our jammies and opened up some presents.

Later in the afternoon we drove out to Selma and had Christmas dinner with Daddy's family. Nothing says Christmas like climbing all over Grampy with your cousins.

We spent the night at Grammy and Grampy's, and we were blessed with more presents in the morning.

Cora disappeared after lunch. She was found a few minutes later with a full box of crayons. Although Grampy loved the masterpiece she had just made in the guest bedroom, he said it had to go. At least he told her she could still stay.

Thank you once again, Mr Clean!

We made a trip to the Children's Museum at the end of the month-- nothing exciting there except Curious George happened to be visiting. Ally really wanted to meet him and get her picture taken; Cora was petrified and barely tolerated standing in line with her sister. (Since Chris was not with us, she had no choice.) Cora hid her face in my jacket and loudly whined, whimpering more and more with every step we took closer to that big red chair.

Ally happily hugging Cora's nightmare.

Cora prefers the plastic George.

We decided to visit the Natural Science Center of Greensboro on the very last day of the year (partially because we didn't have any plans, but mainly because it was the last day to purchase a discounted family pass). We had fun exploring the museum and visiting all the animals out back. It was warm enough that we didn't need to bundle up and one of the tigers was cooling off in the water. Have I mentioned before how much I love NC?

Last family outing of 2011

A New Top 40 Hit?

Although we stopped watching the show awhile ago, Ally still enjoys "trying out" for American Idol and being judged, always hoping to be handed a ticket to Hollywood. Tonight I present to you Ally's newest song choice and audition:

This is the second recording since she was so quite and timid on the first attempt; you may still need to turn up the volume. I guess she's going for the introspective singer-songwriter vibe now. I've included the lyrics-- in her own writing-- so you may follow along. We hope it becomes a smashing success!

MegaPost on February

When you live in North Carolina, you can celebrate the first day of February by running around outside and visiting a bunch of animals. Ally, Cora, and I packed up our lunch and headed down to Asheboro. I love being only 45 minutes away from the zoo again, and I love the fact that we only had to wear our sweaters for part of the day.

Cora rode like a princess in the stroller.

Ally tried to blend in with all the zebras.

We ate lunch in a safari tent overlooking the elephants.

We did our best to avoid the giant bee at the honey exhibit.

We made faces at the gorillas.

We pretended to be dinosaurs hatching out of our eggs.

We made some more pressed pennies.

We had a fashion shoot in front of an elk.

 

We walked the entire length of the zoo (downhill both ways thanks to the zebra-striped ZooTram!) and saw almost everything in North America and Africa. I was sad that the polar bears are vacationing elsewhere while their enclosure is being renovated a la "Extreme Makeover: Zoo Addition", but I guess it'll be worth the wait since they promise to return with lots of friends in a year or two.

We finished our day at the garden playground, where the girls crawled and climbed like little spiders.

As if visiting in the zoo wasn't a summery-enough activity, we also decided to take a trip down to Myrtle Beach. One of the perks of moving back to NC is that warm, sandy beaches are again within driving distance. This was our first family vacation since our cross-country adventure back in November.  We originally were planning on celebrating our house being under contract, but ended up celebrating the contract's demise instead. (Anyone reading this want to buy a home in Tri-Cities, WA?) So, we couldn't go haywire with the spending, but we still managed to have some fun.

Since it is off-season, we stayed at an oceanfront hotel along the boardwalk on the main drag of Myrtle Beach. The hotel, The Diplomat, was older but clean and met our needs-- especially since it wasn't technically open for the season but they let us stay anyway. There was questionable shouting in the parking lot the first night that ended with a car peeling out, and an ambulance arrived with a stretcher another night, but I'm assuming all was kosher there. You can't beat paying a night $40 for the waves and sand right outside your window in a virtually-empty hotel on a gorgeous weekend.

We played in the sand, collected seashells, took a walk down to the pier, watched the seagulls, and encountered a jellyfish. Ally even chased some waves, although the rest of us preferred to stay dry.

We strolled along the boardwalk one afternoon to get some NY style pizza for lunch and to see the SkyWheel up close (We promise to return someday with the money to ride you).

We played in the arcade and wandered around in the Mirror Maze. Public Service Announcement: You really should follow that rule about NO RUNNING. While playing hide-and-seek, Ally thought she saw Daddy and Cora at the end of a hallway. In an effort to hide from me, she ran toward him and right into a mirror. I was standing around the corner and heard a bang; then I found a reflection of her sprawled out on the floor stunned and crying. Hilarious! (of course, only because she was not seriously hurt). We had her up and laughing again in no time.

Our one splurge for this vacation was eating at the Sea Captain's House Restaurant our first night. The food tasted great and was quite filling and the girls behaved themselves, which always makes for a pleasurable dining experience.

Our last day we went to church and then visited Broadway at the Beach. Ally got some more pressed pennies for her collection, and we all got to see people zip-lining past the up-side-down building.

A fun time was had by all. We know we'll be back this summer, if not before, 'cause it'll be time for another family portrait to grace the top of this awe-inspiring blog.

Jess came out to visit for Valentine's Day, which was a perfect treat since we LOVE when she spends time with us. Jess and I took the girls shopping at the mall and playing at the Children's Museum. Valentine's evening we made Chris a lovely dinner from a recipe she'd found. (If it includes shrimp and cream, it's mighty tasty.)

A few days later, Chris and I went on our official Valentine's date to a restaurant in Winston-Salem called Sweet Potatoes. It was well worth the four-day wait. You know the food is going to be delicious when the house salad comes with mixed greens, home-made-chunky-blue-cheese-and-dill dressing, and croutons made from sweet potato bread. And the sweet potatoes? Divine. I had Chris order a side to go, shared a scoop with our babysitter-friend, and then spent the next 3 days making myself ration the remaining spoonfuls so they'd last longer.

Ally and Cora went to a Valentine's party that week as well. Ally was excited to get cards; Cora was excited at the prospect of receiving candy. They prepared by getting dressed in their best pink outfits, decorating their "mailboxes", and assembling their valentines.

With great care, Ally picked out a Tinkerbell card for each friend, attached the sticker sheet, and labeled their names. One particular boy at church seems to have caught her eye. She said, "Since ----- and I like each other so much, I picked out an extra-special valentine for him." Then she had me draw a heart, under which she wrote "L-O-V-E".

I also attended my first (and probably last) book club. I hadn't read the book, but Chris finished it a few days prior and filled me in on the highlights. I have nothing against book clubs. I enjoyed myself and the people that were there. I just don't read things anymore that aren't on par with the Berenstain Bears or Fancy Nancy. (What do you expect? I have two children and a short attention span.) Ironically, I ended up reading the entire book, BossyPants, the following week while I was sick and couldn't sleep at night.

Although I have no pictures to prove it, we also ate an authentic Hungarian goulash one night cooked by our friend Zoltan. Unrelated to that, Ally and Cora had to Spanish Splash lessons where they learned body parts and songs in spanish. And that, my friends, was our February. (Or at least what I can remember of it.)

Ally's Animal Observations

Food for Thought

Last week I had a sudden urge to do a little "pleasure reading". (This very rarely happens.) I pulled our spiral-bound Joy of Cooking book off the shelf and turned to page 385. Under the heading of POACHED OR "BOILED" LOBSTER, I found this little gem:

The uninitiated are sometimes balked by the intractable appearance of a lobster at table. They may take comfort from the little cannibal who, threading his way through the jungle one day at his mother's side, saw a strange object flying overhead. "Ma, what's that?" he quavered. "Don't worry, sonny," said Ma. "It's an airplane. Airplanes are pretty much like lobsters. There's an awful lot you have to throw away, but the insides are delicious."

I'm not sure how this little snippet would help ease anyone's reservations about a dead crustacean at the dinner table. The Rombauer /Becker clan did a wonderful job writing a comprehensive cooking manual, but they should've left the joke-telling to the professionals. Although, to be truthful, this story's inclusion did make me chuckle.

*** I am quite aware that I am running behind on my blog. I was talking with a friend last night about that very fact. So, sorry I tricked you with this post into thinking I'd finally sat down to write an update. I am still in procrastination/overwhelmed mode, but hope to be more productive/creative/clear-headed enough to write soon. Thanks for stopping by, and remember: Don't ever let your dinner intimidate you!

Princess Cora Turns Two

Cora was blessed with a three-day celebration in honor of her birthday this year (meaning in 2011). That Friday night we went to the tree lighting in Downtown Greensboro. Because of traffic and a nearly full-to-capacity parking garage (I'm impressed with Chris' car-maneuvering skills), we walked into the park just as the big fake tree was lit. We spent an hour or two wandering Elm Street-- listening to musicians, watching the people, sipping hot chocolate, meeting a Victorian Santa, and reading random tourist markers. Did you know that Greensboro was the site of the "sit-in" at Woolworth's on Feb 1, 1960 and that the store is now an International Civil Rights Museum? Did you know that William Sydney Porter (O'Henry) the short story guy worked at a pharmacy across the street and a few blocks down? Did you know that the Vicks Vapo-Rub formula was also first concocted on Elm Street? We need to go back --in the daylight and when the streets are less crowded-- and do some more exploring.

The next morning Jess met us at the Coliseum for the real highlight of Cora's big weekend-- Disney On Ice. As we found our seats, the skaters were performing the story of The Frog Princess. Ally immediately hid when the music turned dark and the skeleton/ghosts started to skate.  (She loves VooDoo doughnuts, but not VooDoo.) In the end, Tiana got here prince, they turned back into humans, and we moved on to the classic and non-terrifying fairytale of Cinderella. And after Cinderella came Rapunzel-- complete with a skating horse, floating lanterns, and a princess flying Cirque-du-Soleil-style over the ice on aerial silks. It was very beautiful, but it also made me quite nervous. We got to see all the Disney princesses (and Minnie Mouse and Daisy) dance with their princes in the grand finale. As with everything else with the Disney name on it, the show was very well done. My one criticism is that a a snack or souvenir should not cost as much as your ticket to see the performance. Since we're cheap and rational, Ally and Cora walked away with only smiles and some great memories. Poor deprived children!

After the show, we stopped at Cook Out for some lunch and then headed home to rest up for the next adventure of the day. We drove out to Winston-Salem to see their Christmas parade. We listened to a ton of marching bands. We saw church floats, boy scouts, cub scouts, girl scouts, dance teams, hula-hoopers, politicians, civic leaders, and unicyclists. We saw school buses, fire trucks, ambulances, and police cars. We also saw a Chick-Fil-A float with dancing cows, a Krispy Kreme car, and a gigantic fiberglass bull that advertised a local restaurant. After Santa's float appeared to mark the end of the parade, we drove to a Mexican restaurant for Cora's Birthday dinner, and then topped ourselves off with some hot Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnuts. Yummy!

Sunday was Cora's actual birthday. We celebrated by going to church and then eating this fabulous cake. Chris made it from an idea Jess saw somewhere. I thought it'd be too hard to do and not worth the effort, but Chris thought otherwise and tackled the challenge 'cause he loves Cora and wanted to try something new. (Secret is, it really wasn't that hard.) The colors were so vivid, and the butter cream icing was delicious. Good job, Daddy!

After Cora blew out the "fireworks" and we finished eating cake, we finally let Cora open her presents. 

I still can't believe she's two, although she constantly reminds me. "Mommy, I not a baby anymore. I'm a todd-el-er 'cause I'm two." That's right, my sweet, you are getting so big. Now, could you please stop putting your doll's pacifier in your mouth and pretending you're a baby? You never took one when you were tiny, you really shouldn't start doing it now.

Thanksgiving I and II

We celebrated Thanksgiving over at Colleen and Kenny's house. Paul and Myra drove down from DC with Nick and Michael. Ally at first didn't believe that Chris actually has a brother, but she adjusted to the idea and had fun getting to know her cousins. The last time they'd seen each other, Ally was about 10 months old.
Grammy, Grampy, Sarah, and Jordan also made the long drive out to the Lungers and provided some of the yummy food.

Nate, Ally, and Cora

Nick and Michael

The Men (with Myra's leg, Sarah subbing in for Jordan, and Maddie)

Confused but very Grateful / The Grub

Siblings minus Terri

Grampy and Grammy with the Lunger/Hoffman/Hoffman grandkids

A few days after Thanksgiving, we were invited to another turkey feast.  We drove out to the Albrecht's in Raleigh and to try some of Grandpa Pete's turkey gumbo.  Since it was a little on the spicey side, the girls opted for canned spaghetti noodles. I braved the spice by avoiding the sausages and quite enjoyed my bowl. Then we ate some of Jess' Thanksgiving desserts, including a fabulous cranberry crumble.

Zach, Cora, Ally, and Jess