Mehaber Fun!

Last night we let the kids play outside so they were good and tired when it was time for bed. They went to bed early so they could get up to party with their Ethiopian friends. Prior to the Mehaber we meet at a park with some friends. The kids got a chance to play together.

Below is Hana, she is Abinet's sister. Last year on this day I was on a flight back from Ethiopia with her mother bringing her home!
Here are some of the kids we met with at the park...

Mulanesh was a little uncertain of all the boys...

My sister Megan made these cute shirts for Abinet and Hana.
The kids had fun on all the inflatables...

The boys were pretty pooped out from all the playing and dancing.

We hope to be back again next year!

Mehaber Bound

We are heading over to MN for the weekend. While we are there we will be stay with my sister and her family...

That means I get to spend a little time with this cutie!

We hope these two...

are ready for a little cousin action.

Hope to see some of you at the Mehaber!

Supervision Required

Geremu kept himself busy this morning "fixing" his jeep. Take note of the safety glasses on top of his head- looks like a play he stole right out of Granny's playbook:)

It was a nice afternoon so the boys set up their slip and slide...

The boys were out in front of the house practicing their "show" today. Nick was out there vacuuming the cars out so I thought they were supervised. My first time watching the show was to video the performance (upon their request). I won't make you watch the entire show but I'll show you the opening act which prompted the show to pause for a "this show will not go on without a helmet break"...

Injera or BUST!?!

My boys are up north for the 4th of July, pictures to come once I'm home. I've heard they are having a wonderful time... As am I. After refinishing a wood floor in our house I headed to my parents for a few days- kidless.
This gave me the opportunity to spend a little time with my Aunt Kathy. For those of you that are not lucky enough to have an Aunt Kathy to know this woman is to LOVE her. In a lot of ways she is like a second mother- LOVE her! Not too long ago she was listening to public radio and learned about the Injera cookbook. She sent me an e-mail letting me know that she ordered a cookbook and teff flour so we could learn to make it together.

She prepared the starter for the injera with the necessary ingredient before I arrived since it had to ferment ...

I prepped my new pan with salt.

Kathy was recently at a Denver Ethiopian restaurant and bought the pan at the adjoining store. The woman who sold her that pan also took her into the kitchen to show her the injera making process. This was something I had learned/seen in Ethiopia when I was there. Since everything was being translated by someone who didn't cook let's just say the translation of the ingredients and the amounts didn't make sense.

When the pan was prepped it looked a little like a salted Wisconsin roads in the winter. It lost it shine...

We were SO excited to experience success once we were prepped!

The process was timed since we couldn't see what it looked like with a top on...

JACKPOT...

Only we couldn't get it off the pan-

so the end result looked like this...

The first eight times we tried we got similar results, it was stuck to the pan. Between each try we re-salted the pan...

We also tried waiting different amounts of time to see if perhaps the time was part of our sticking issue. Once we were able to get it off the pan the injera seemed to stick to the board we tried to slide it onto. We gave up using the plastic cutting board and instead used cardboard, fixing that issue.
When we got our first good piece we could not have been more excited!

We learned that we needed to keep the top on the pan until steam was coming from all of the sides- not just the side with the hole. When the injera lifts off an edge is when it is easiest to get off the pan.

We used the cookbook to make two dishes to serve with the injera, they were not difficult to make and delicious!

The food then became part of our 4th of July picnic- YUMMO!

I'm looking forward to making this for Geremu often- he is just going to LOVE it!

We are Expecting!!!!

A little girl from Uganda!!!!!!!!!!

I've never been more nauseous in my life....

It could be from the celebratory wine;)

WOOOOOOO-HOOOOOOOOOOO

Hello Lady Gaga, it's me Geremu....

This morning Geremu came into my bedroom holding the phone. I wasn't really paying much attention to him until he asked he asked, "What's Lady Gaga's phone number?" I told him we were not calling her today and that I didn't know her phone number. Cullen was killing himself laughing at Geremu. Geremu really wanted to call her to find out her favorite color.

Maybe he can just write her a letter...

Fun Filled Days

We are in full summer mode, filling our days with fun activities to keep us entertained and busy. The boys have done a lot of biking this summer... We again went to the local swimming hole. Cullen hit the jackpot in tadpole and small frog catching FUN! Here he is first figuring out that the little creatures are hanging out in clouds...

He enjoyed an afternoon of catch and release... I didn't even bring a bucket for him to "store them in" for fear that the water in the bucket would overheat and they wouldn't survive an afternoon of fun with Cullen.

Nick did a fine job of entertaining us with his diving board moves.

In true Geremu fashion he was constantly on the go. He spent a little time flippering around in the pond...

Before playing a little teeter-toter with himself....
Then finished the afternoon with a little Baywatch Reenactment... Tomorrow is suppose to be another hot one!