Every year we rent a house and spend New Years with friends -- lots of eating, some drinking, talking, and tons of board games. This year the board game that dominated was SO GOOD that I have to share it. My friend A. bought it as a gift to give to a preteen relative but we broke it out and now I don't think that it's going to make it to the recipient.

Suspend! is a balancing game and the point of it is to be the first one to place all of your metal rods on a precarious hanger, if you knock any off they become yours and you have to start all over again. It's addictive -- we played over and over -- and good for both kids and adults, everyone in the house could play. It's also one of those games that you can play without thinking too hard or breaking the conversation (or explaining rules for hours and hours -- I'm looking at you Carcasonne). Which makes it perfect for big group gatherings.

Who knew that Melissa and Doug would be the latest all-family favorite?

What's your family playing nowadays?

May is my favorite month of all, so this was a fun day to capture. Head over to No Monsters in My Bed and Not-So-SAHM to see what their days were like!




8:00 AM: Morning play dough and coffee.




8:30 AM: "Take a picture of my outfit, Mom. It's an ENSEMBLE." (Thanks Fancy Nancy.)



9:30 AM: Part of my mother's day present from Anouk: a wind chime made at school and watermelon plants for our garden (how apropos)



11:00 AM: Playdate at friend M.'s house! The moms work on various sewing projects and the kids practice yoga?




1:30 PM: A. and I spend so much of our time fighting over our new hammock. Today she won.




2:00 PM: After lunch snack.



3:30 PM: My mom watches Anouk while I take Hank cat to the vet. He does NOT like shots.



5:00 PM: The best part about doing laundry: finding the random things Anouk has stashed in the pockets.



7:00 PM: family walk/bike ride before bed. Don't you wish you had someone to carry you across the street?



7:15 PM: 97% of the dandelions in the neighborhood are directly the result of Anouk. Sorry, neighbors.

FAVORITE BOOK: The Book with No Pictures & Is There a Dog in This Book?

FAVORITE TV SHOW: "Kiwi's" (PeeWee's) Playhouse

FAVORITE FOOD: Quesadillas

FAVORITE COLOR: Pink

FAVORITE MOVIE: Frozen Fever

FAVORITE SONG: Let it Go

BEST FRIEND: Adalae!

WHEN I GROW UP: I will have a lot of jobs. A doctor job, for people and animals. A cowgirl job. And a mommy job.

FAVORITE THING TO PLAY: Elsa and Anna

FAVORITE THING TO DO AT SCHOOL: Be the weather person

FAVORITE TOY: Pet animals (Beanie babies)

FAVORITE THING TO DO WITH MOMMY: Go places

FAVORITE THING TO DO WITH DADDY: Look at cat videos

NOW THAT I AM FOUR, I WANT TO: Reach high things on the shelf, go on the big slide at Chuck-E-Cheese.

Some more Anouk at four facts: she definitely prefers "Anouk" to "Anne;" has jumped on the horse-crazy train about eight years early; is fascinated by baby animals; spends her mornings creating "inventions" out of ribbon and paper clips; says to me at least a dozen times a day, "Can I keep you forever?"; knows six words in French and makes up dozens more; takes regular breaks to shake her sillies out; loves to sing the Amen song from chapel; loves her friends so, so much; is the worlds biggest extrovert, much to the surprise of her introverted mother; is generous to a fault (we have to stop her giving away everything she owns); made me and James promise to go with her when she goes away to college (we readily agreed but won't hold her to it). Basically, she is a ball of equal parts silliness and sweetness and we love her to pieces.

We're continuing our tradition this year of donating to March of Dimes on Anne's birthday. And we hope you will consider doing the same if you can! Just in the four years since A. was born the treatments and prognoses for prematurity have changed so much and it feels awesome to think that we have helped in some small, with our tiny bit of support, to make it that fewer babies and families have to worry about being born too soon. I can't think of a better way to celebrate our girl and to celebrate her life so far.

Lately Anouk has been really interested in family relationships, how we are connected to all of the people in our family. "What is a cousin?" she'll say, or else, "Tell me again how I'm related to Aunt Bonne/Aunt Judy/Uncle Mike?" And so we set off untangling the thread of our family in a way that an almost-four-year-old can understand.

We got My Family Tree and Me at just the right time because it does a lot of this explaining in a really simple way. I love the author's whimsical drawings of both sides of his family (one European, one Japanese) and showing how they came together in him. One side of the book shows the members of his father's family -- and then, when you start from the back and move toward the middle, the book shows the story of his mother's family. The middle is a family portrait, with every member clearly labeled.
 

Anouk loves this book so much that it makes me wish I had the drawing skills to put together one for our own German/Dutch/English/Irish/Lebanese clan! Although honestly, I'm not sure that the page would be big enough to fit so many people...

Note: I was sent a review copy of this book by the publisher. The opinions in this post are all mine. 

On the 12th of this month, we left to go down to Kitty Hawk to spend a few days in the Outer Banks to spend time with some great friends. It was extremely fun and sorely needed, so thank you, thank you, thank you, M. and A., for having us!

The drive down to OBX is one of my favorite parts so I was glad to have the chance to capture it. How come I never, ever get tired of this drive no matter how many times we do it, but other ones I make regularly make me want to scream?

Click on over to No Monsters in My Bed and Not-So-SAHM to see how they spent their days.



11:00 PM: Our bags are packed and we're ready to go. This is kind of a record for us.



12:30 PM: I always forget how big Chesapeake is until we are driving through it.  This out the window for a looooong time.


1:30 PM: We stop at Powell's Roadside Market, which is a regular thing for us when we go to Nags Head. We pick up some baked goods and Anne lucks into a pint of blackberries. Anouk has carseat hair, which always makes me smile.



1:45 PM: Berry face.

2:00 PM: Crossing the sound. Almost there!



2:30 PM: We head down to the pool first thing when we arrive.


 5:00 PM: Baby T. shows off one of her signature headbands while the dads prep dinner.

7:00 PM: After dinner games. Anouk finds a sandbox and plays until it's too dark to see.

For a lot of people, Easter means roast lamb and mint jelly, but in my mom's Lebanese family, holidays mean a Mediterranean feast is in store. Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter always open the floodgates for me, and in the weeks after, I find myself cooking all of my old favorite family recipes because I'm suddenly in the mood for them. Right now, in our fridge, we have homemade hummus, some leftover kusa (meat-stuffed squash) and these pretty lifts (pronounced liff-its) -- turnips pickled in vinegar and colored pink with beet juice.

I learned most of these recipes at my grandmother's side, and it's very important to me to pass them down to Anouk. This recipe is so easy to make that I thought it would be a good one to start with. Plus, everyone the in the house loves them -- they go fast. It's almost not worth making them unless you make a huge batch. Spicy, tangy, and earthy with a snap. There's nothing else in the world like lifts.








Ingredients:

1 lb. turnips
1.5 cups water
1.5 cups distilled white vinegar
5 tsps salt
5-6 garlic cloves, smashed
crushed red pepper flakes (optional)

Directions:

Peel the turnips and cut into bite sized chunks. Mix up a bowl of brine by stirring together the water, vinegar, and salt (if you need more for the amount of turnips you've got, mix another batch). Place the turnips into Tupperware or mason jars with the garlic (about 2-3 cloves per container). Add red pepper if you'd like -- about 1 tsp per 8 ounces.

Pour the brine over the turnips. Place 2 slices of beet at the top and replace the lid. Let sit in the fridge for 1-2 days. Every 12 hours or so, open the jar and taste a lift, and adjust the flavorings (more salt or pepper if you'd like). You'll know they're ready when the brine turns a deep red and that the flavor is just right when you can't eat just one.

Serve the lifts as a side with hummus, pita and olives. We like them on spinach dressed with some of the brine mixed with olive oil, or just by themselves, eaten like popcorn while watching a movie. Yum!

What favorite family recipes have you shared with your kids?

Are you and your little ones going stir-crazy yet? We are -- at least, we were yesterday. Today it's thankfully warmer, which means we can spend more time outside but when the temps were hovering in the low 20s? Forget about it.

It made for a long day but we did end up having a lot of fun in it. Here are a few of the crafts and activities we've been doing, to beat the homebound feeling.

1. Paint tie-dyed marshmallows.


A tablespoon of milk and 1-2 drops of food coloring made the paint that we used to decorate our marshmallows. Anouk and I had fun coloring them with (clean) paintbrushes and then set them on a paper towel until they dried. They looked lovely floating in our hot chocolate after we came in from the snow.

2. Make colorful ice balls.



A Pinterest idea that worked! We dropped 4-5 drops of food coloring in each balloon, then stretched it over the faucet and began to fill it veeeeeeeery slowly. Tied them off and stuck them in a bowl outside to freeze overnight. In the morning, we snipped the balloons off and had fun rolling our new treasures through the snow. (They took a long time to freeze, so putting them in the freezer might be a good idea to help them along).

3. Bake "snow" cookies.



I found this recipe ages ago by searching for dairy-free cookie recipes. It's actually from Weight Watchers' site (the cookies are 1 point, if you are interested). Anouk calls them "snow" cookies because of the sprinkling of coconut in the dough. I call them delicious. We were mixing up a big batch right as it started snowing on Tuesday, perfect timing. Find the recipe here.

What have you other snow bunnies been up to? Stay warm out there!

We've been enjoying all of our Christmas presents over the past few weeks but one of the big hits for us as a family has been a little unassuming board game -- a coloring game called The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse, based on a book of the same name by Eric Carle. Anouk got it from her Aunt Bonne, who has a knack for picking out some of the best presents. Thank you, Auntie B.!

The concept is simple: each player gets a handful of small drawings and has to take turns coloring them in. The one who finishes the first is the winner. There are very clearly defined rules (you can only use the color you are given at any certain point) but there's also a lot of room for creativity, too (you can color your drawing in any way you want). Which makes it pretty much the perfect game for the wiggly, I-do-it-myself toddler stage (though I think older kids, and even adults, would enjoy this game just as much. James and I can get pretty cutthroat over it, it brings out our competitive streaks.)






This is the first board game we've ever played with A, and it's gotten me really excited about doing it again in the future. What board games do you play with your family? And am I the only one who thinks there's something incredibly soothing about coloring?

Happy Monday!

I am so looking forward to Thanksgiving this year! For the first time in a long while, nearly all of my father's family -- who live spread out all over the US -- will be gathering in one place to celebrate together. So much has happened since the last time we were all together and I can't wait to hug each one of them in person again.

Because we had so much fun with our grateful chain at our Thanksgiving playgroup, I thought I'd make a more grownup version to share with our family. I whipped up these cards last night. I haven't decided exactly what to do with them yet -- printed out on cardstock, they make cute placecards, or else it might be fun to have everybody fill them out and try to guess which card belongs to which person. (James, Anne, and I did a test round -- can you guess whose is whose?)

You can click here to download some of these cards for your own table. Have a wonderful holiday (if you're in the US -- if not, have a wonderful regular old Thursday). We'll be back online next week.

You might have noticed that last month's 12 in 12 didn't happen -- I was busy being a bridesmaid in my friend K.'s wedding and felt like I had enough to concentrate on without adding a blog project into it. This month we're glad to be back! Last Tuesday the 12th was a pretty ordinary day for us meaning: lots of painting, potty training, and more unpacking but some bright spots (in a very cold day) in between. Be sure to pop over to Darcy and Rebecca's blogs to see what they did on 11-12-13.



8:30 AM: Dutch babies for breakfast. We have these all the time because they are so quick to make and so delicious. Today's was topped with blueberry, lemon juice, and a drizzle of honey.



9:15 AM: Our house is still covered in boxes but of course I spent Anouk's TV time trying out different ways of styling my mantel instead of dealing with them, because priorities.





10:00 AM: A quick walk around the neighborhood takes twice as long now that there are all of these fallen leaves to play in.



11:00 AM: Ordering our Thanksgiving ham and treating ourselves to fresh ham rolls for Elevensies.





12:15 PM: Our daily trip to Lowes. We've been here so often in the past few months that Anouk knows where everything is and the names to half the colors of the carpet samples.



3:00 PM: Books from Grandma arrived today! After a nap, Anouk reads them while I prep dinner (turkey burgers and red beans and rice).







5:45 PM: Helping Daddy put together our kitchen table. This table has now officially been with us through five moves and has survived without a scratch. I'm glad to have a functioning dining room but I'll be a little sad to no longer have excuses for eating dinner on the couch, in front of the laptop. Bad mommy, but I have to admit I enjoyed them.



8:00 PM: Testing out a new cookie recipe for the blog. It was delicious flavor-wise, but a bit of a bust when it came to texture. Back to the drawing board.



9:15 PM: Ending the day with a little trim painting and listening to Ali Brosh's Fresh Air interview. Tired, paint-covered, but happy. :)