Smak av Sommer

["Taste of Summer"]

Suzanna spent a good part of the day at the house of one of her friends, and Hillary attended the birthday party of one of her friends, which worked out fine for Abigail since it was her turn to be my helper for this week's Scandinavian Saturday supper.  We chose a summer-y kind of menu that turned out to be very tasty.  Click on the pic below (and/or any that follow) for a detailed look and then read on for all the delicious details.

Christmas Road Trip: Day 11

Road Report
Today's route: Tioga, ND to Dickinson, ND via Hwy 2, Cty Rd 21, Hwy 1804, Hwy 23, and Hwy 22 (148 miles).  Minimal drifting on the way to New Town; some compacted snow and ice between New Town and Mandaree; lots of wind and drifting while driving through the Killdeer Mountains and on into the town of Killdeer--otherwise, nothing too bad and an uneventful drive overall.

Notable Events
Beverly had extra pasta left over from our spaghetti supper the other night, so I volunteered to make dinner for us today at noon and made use of those noodles.  Suzanna helped by browning some Italian sausage while I diced an onion and a green pepper, which Suzanna then sautéed with the sausage.  We added the leftover spaghetti sauce from Thursday and added cans of garlic- and cheese-flavored tomato sauces, into which we added the leftover spaghetti noodles until they had warmed and separated and become coated with the sauce.  We stirred in shredded parmesan, asiago, mozarella, and white cheddar cheeses and served the bowl of pasta with grated parmesan to shake atop individual servings.  Susan made garlic toast in the oven to complete the meal.  Pretty danged good.

Lutefisk and Lefse

After baking lefse and Scandinavian desserts yesterday, we were ready and eager for our Sons of Norway lodge's annual lutefisk supper this afternoon and evening!  During my morning reading (of on-line newspapers and blogs), I encountered these related tidbits:

• The editor of the Dickinson Press wrote an editorial for today's paper in which he promoted our lodge's lutefisk supper even while making fun of lutefisk itself.
• A columnist (whose writing appears in several ND newspapers) proclaimed this the start of "Norwegian Week" in the state due to some important Norske-themed events in Bismarck and Minot.
• A blogger for the Sons of Norway wrote about an unusual event held in MN this weekend: a lutefisk toss!

That put me in the right frame of mind for the day.  I chose to wear the Norwegian flag tie and Norwegian silver tie clip that I received for my last birthday; and whenever someone at church this morning would remark on my tie, I took the opportunity to promote the lutefisk supper and invite them to attend.

Scandinavian Overload

Do you recognize what these children are doing?

Another School Year

What's going on here, you may wonder?  Well . . .

Hillary's Second Ninth Birthday

Faithful Reader, you may recall that, for Hillary's ninth birthday, we were in Missoula for a Sons of Norway convention.  She did a lot of fun, available-only-in-Missoula kinds of things that day, but she didn't get a birthday like what our kids are used to.  Usually we let the birthday girl make a lot of decisions on how we spend the special day: what to make for breakfast, what restaurant to go to for dinner, what kind of birthday party to have and where to have it, whom to invite for a sleepover--that kind of thing.  Since Hillary didn't get to do that on her actual birthday, we let her do it today and made this a "do-over" or substitute birthday for her!

Outdoor Concert

Each summer, Arts on the Prairie sponsors free outdoor concerts at the Phil Patterson Memorial Bandshell in a hillside park just a few minutes' walk from our house.  We often forget each week that those concerts are happening, but we have attended several of them over the past few summers.  Last summer we tried to attend one featuring the male a capella group aka'Fellas, but it was canceled after just one or two songs on account of rain!  Not so this year, though, so we were at the bandshell tonight to hear them sing.

Potluck, Patriotism, and Piano

Yes, Faithful Reader, I know what you're thinking: Yet another weekend without a Scandinavian Saturday supper! But, like last week, we opted for a Scandinavian Sunday instead. Today we traveled to Richardton, ND for our monthly Sons of Norway lodge meeting, which was followed by a potluck supper at which we knew we'd be getting plenty of Scandinavian food. Yesterday Susan and I prepared the dishes that we brought today to the potluck, so technically we did do some Scandinavian Saturday cooking . . . but we left the actual ethnic culinary experience for today.

Yesterday Susan made a roaster full of scalloped potatoes with ham, and I made a batch of Scandinavian meatballs in gravy that we brought in a crock pot to the American Legion hall in Richardton. There were three tables full of food: cold salads (including a tasty German potato salad), hot dishes, and desserts (including delicious homemade riskrem [rice in whipped cream served today with lingonberries] and vaffel kaker [thick cookies made in a heart-shaped waffle iron]). Before we ate, our family sang a capella the table prayer that we learned at Norwegian camp last summer.

Although for me the highlight of the afternoon was the meal (ha!), it was in fact preceded and followed by other events. First was the business meeting, at the end of which Suzanna sang a solo for the group: "Gjæter-livet" ["Herd Life"], a song about herding the cows, goats, and sheep "when May days are calling" once again. Suzanna has never herded these animals, nor does she get the urge to do so once May rolls around; but we felt it an appropriate song for a lodge meeting held in May.

Then lodge member Paul read aloud some information on the history of Syttende Mai ["May 17th"], Norwegian Constitution Day--the Norwegian national holiday analogous to Independence Day on July 4 in the United States. (Today's potluck was to celebrate Syttende Mai.)

After the meal, we all planned to drive out to the Schnell Recreation Area (just three miles outside of Richardton) to meander the hiking trails, view the wildlife, and enjoy the beautiful weather. Our lodge president had arranged for a gentleman who works at Schnell to join us at the Legion hall beforehand, and he gave a presentation on the types of birds and other wildlife likely to be seen and on some of the history of the area.

However, as everyone else was getting into their vehicles to drive out to Schnell, the Mobergs packed up to head back to Dickinson so that the girls could perform in a piano recital. At the end of each school year, Mrs. Vold (the girls' piano teacher) has all her students perform in a "musicale" (remember last year's?) at which she also presents any awards that they have earned at various piano contests. Although Suzanna and Abigail earned trophies at this spring's piano festival (remember?), Mrs. Vold kept those trophies until now so that she could present them tonight. And she had had the plate on each trophy engraved! So nice.

It was an emotional evening because it was also a goodbye for Mrs. Vold. She and her husband will be moving away, so this was her last recital with her students in Dickinson. She has been an excellent teacher for the girls, and we will miss her and will have a difficult time finding another teacher to replace her. Mrs. Vold focused on proper technique and had the girls learn theory and vocabulary and read about composers and so much more than just having them play a new song each week (well, this is further evidence of her high standards for, and confidence in, the girls). She was trained by excellent professors of music herself, and she took pride in passing along to her own students what she had learned from her esteemed teachers. Thank you for everything, Mrs. Vold; we wish you well.

Here is Hillary with Madeline, her best friend (and our neighbor), who just started taking piano lessons from Mrs. Vold this year.

A goodbye hug from Mrs. Vold for Abigail, Hillary, and Suzanna.

Lutefisk, I'm Calling It Quits!

The Sons of Norway lodge of which we are members (Hardanger Lodge) held a membership luncheon today that we attended. It's an annual event, and the idea is for current members to invite prospective members to attend the luncheon, learn more about the organization, eat some free food, meet some fun people, and sign up to become members themselves. We invited our friends/neighbors Chuck and Reba to attend; Reba and their daughter had an errand to run, but Chuck and their son Jack came. We had a good time and enjoyed some homemade rosettes and krumkake for dessert (and even got to bring home some leftover rosettes--awesome!).

(The luncheon was held at the Dickinson Public Library in a large community room that is the result of a recent remodeling/expansion project. I haven't been in the building much, but Susan and the girls are regular visitors and gave me a full tour today before we left. There are some terrific architectural features, including original tin ceilings uncovered and restored during the remodeling project. There's a Frank Lloyd Wright "feel" to the furniture, woodwork, and other details throughout the building. It's really a lovely space.)

It was Susan's turn to help with the weekly Scandinavian Saturday supper, and I took advantage of her culinary expertise by selecting a dessert that seemed kinda difficult to make . . . and then assigning it to her. It turned out great; sadly, that's much, much more than I can say about the fish that I selected for the centerpiece of the meal. Read on:

Colorful plate, huh? The beverages are milk and Rosa Regale. That's lefse rolled up at the top of the plate and a dish of melted butter beside it for the lutefisk at the bottom of the plate. To the left is a portion of gulrot salat med persille og pinjekjerner, and to the right is bakt asparges salat.

Here's the platterful of the fish that made us all sad during supper. You may recall my rants and stories about lutefisk ["lye fish"] or my failed experiment last summer during which I tried to cook it on the grill to make it less disgusting than it is when baked or boiled (the traditional means of preparation). I decided to give it another try tonight, this time baking it in the oven as the instructions on the package recommended. I then sprinkled it with allspice, salt, and ground black pepper as recommended by a recipe that I found online.

Well, the baking in the oven allowed the chemically treated fish to stew in its own juices and boil away into a puddle of dissolved fish substance--i.e., the same gelatinous goo that I've encountered at pretty much every lutefisk supper I've ever attended. (Seriously, reread this.) The color and texture on the plate and the texture and flavor in the mouth were unappetizing, to say the least, and the allspice and melted butter didn't do enough to elevate the gustatory experience to an acceptable level. We soldiered on until we had eaten about half of our portions, and then we called it quits, finishing everything else and throwing the remaining lutefisk (and, later, making a large bowl of popcorn to share--a much better use of melted butter).


We love asparagus, so we were likely to enjoy the bakt asparges salat ["baked asparagus salad"] no matter what. We coated the spears in a mixture of olive oil, lemon zest, fresh lemon juice, salt, and pepper and baked them until just tender (and still slightly crunchy). It was an interesting variation from the usual steaming, roasting, and grilling recipes that we use for fresh asparagus.


This was a tasty twist on serving carrots, too. The gulrot salat med persille og pinjekjerner ["carrot salad with parsley and pine nuts"] required us to use a vegetable peeler to cut carrots into long, thin ribbons; toast pine nuts on the stove top; and toss them with chopped parsley, olive oil, the juice from a lemon, and salt and pepper. The lemon juice and the crunchiness made this carrot salad a good match for the asparagus salad. (By the way, both vegetable recipes came from a cookbook by Trina Hahnemann.)


Last Saturday Susan and the girls bought homemade lefse [a soft flatbread made from potatoes] at a bake sale sponsored by Hardanger Lodge, so we ate some with supper tonight. It was perfectly made and so delicious spread with butter and sprinkled with sugar (brown or white, according to one's mood). Those fingers are Susan's as she prepares some lefse for a daughter. Notice that the lefse has been rolled out expertly and is so thin that the pattern on our place mat can be seen through it! Lefse aficionados will note, too, the perfect semicircular shape and the color: just enough brown spots from the griddle to prove that it has been cooked without being burnt.


For dessert we enjoyed ingefær kake med kremfløte ["ginger cake with whipped cream"]. I whipped the cream into a sweet, vanilla-y cloud of goodness, and Susan made the rather time- and work-intensive cake recipe. She pulsed flour and crystallized ginger in a food processor until finely chopped. In a separate bowl, she beat together butter and salt and then gradually added dark brown sugar, egg yolks, corn syrup, and the ginger/flour mixture. In yet another bowl, she beat egg whites with salt and then folded them into the batter a little at a time, alternating the whites with more flour.

The cake was cooled enough to remove from the pan by the time we were ready for dessert but still slightly warm. Each slice was soft and melt-in-your-mouth on the inside but crunchy on the outside with a crust that was sugary and chewy, as though ribbons of toffee ran throughout it. The crystallized ginger gave the cake a distinctive flavor that was offset nicely by the whipped cream. And what a pleasant way to end a meal that started so nastily.

Valentines and Vegetables

Now that we are officially officers of our local Sons of Norway lodge (remember?), it's time to start fulfilling our duties at the monthly meetings, of which we had one this afternoon. As newsletter editor, Susan prepared her first one and had it mailed out in time for people to read it and know all the details in advance about today's meeting and the social program to follow. As youth director, she planned some Valentine-themed craft projects for the children to do during the business meeting to keep them entertained and occupied.

Jack, Hillary, and Madeline, with their backs to the camera, work on crafts. Suzanna is visible between them, and Abigail is mostly obscured by Hillary.

As vice president, I . . . let the president run the meeting and the other officers do their duties. I did help Suzanna with her job, though. As musician, she was called upon to play the Canadian, Norwegian, and American national anthems at the start of the meeting. However, the songs in the Sons of Norway songbook are a little beyond her skill set, so I played the keyboard alongside her--I played both hands, and she played just the treble line with her right hand.

Here are some of the officers visible at the far end of the table: our president Cathy in the center, our secretary Lynette to Cathy's right, and our marshal Paul to Cathy's left. Other officers and members are to the right and left, out of camera range.

We had invited our neighbors Chuck and Reba (those are their kids, Madeline and Jack, in the photo above with the girls) to the meeting as potential new members, and they sat patiently through the business meeting and then joined us for the food and program to follow. The program director had arranged for one lodge member to make Valentine-themed table decorations, and there were Valentine candies sprinkled in the middle of each table, too. She asked everybody to come up with a Valentine sentiment containing a fruit- or vegetable-related pun (e.g., "We make the perfect pear" or "If you carrot all, you will be my Valentine," etc.). Two lodge members were appointed to judge who had the best puns, and Hillary won one of the prizes! Abigail and I had our names drawn to win door prizes, so our family left with a small collection of Valentine's candy at the end of the day.

Next month's meeting will precede a memorial service for lodge members who died in the past year, and that happens to be Susan's grandpa E. J. (remember?). Then we'll eat a special supper in celebration of the lodge's anniversary, which will be followed by the program: a play written by one of the lodge members. There's lots going on in our little lodge!

Fruit for Every Course

This morning the girls had a piano performance at the home of their piano teacher, Mrs. Vold. Susan had helped to organize a scrapbooking weekend event at our church and had to be there today. So I took the girls to Mrs. Vold's house, in the basement of which she had set up rows of folding chairs facing her grand piano. Parents and grandparents were a friendly audience for the students, who took turns playing their songs and practicing the performance techniques that Mrs. Vold wants them to "have down" before they play for an actual recital or piano festival: how to approach the piano, adjust the bench, find the correct distance to sit from the keyboard, prepare mentally before touching the keys, and so on.

All the children--our girls included--did well. One of the students is Madeline, our neighbor and Hillary's best friend. Madeline's little brother Jack sat with me while his parents, our friends Chuck and Reba, sat behind us. At one point, Jack looked over at the table of punch and cookies that awaited us for the end of the performance, and he whispered, "What do you suppose that is for?" A little later, he tugged on my ear and whispered, "I'm getting a little bit bored now." All in all, he sat pretty well for a little guy not that interested in a piano recital and tempted by the presence of red fruit punch and store-bought cookies just a few feet away.

Before we left, we made plans for Madeline and Jack to come over to our house in the afternoon to play. Abigail was supposed to be my helper for Scandinavian Saturday supper tonight, but it seemed cruel to expect her to be upstairs in the kitchen while all the other children played together downstairs . . . so I cooked alone and told her to help me next weekend instead. I consulted a cookbook by Beatrice Ojakangas and planned a menu featuring fruit in every course! Here's what I prepared for my family's dining pleasure:

Danish æblesuppe ["apple soup"]

Ojakangas writes, "In Denmark, apples are sometimes used as vegetables in soups and salads." This soup looks like it should be savory with its cheesy-looking color and thick, smooth, velvety consistency--but it's actually a mostly-sweet soup with spicy undertones. I peeled apples (two varieties) and simmered the peels for 30 minutes in water with whole cloves in it. I cored and sliced the apples and sprinkled them with lemon juice. I strained out the peels and cloves and added to the broth some white wine and the sliced apples, letting them simmer for a half-hour. Then I puréed the apples in a blender, adding cornstarch and curry powder during processing. I poured the mixture back into the pan and stirred in heavy cream, sugar, butter, and salt, stirring it as it thickened while boiling gently.

Danish sommer koteletter ["summer house pork chops"]

I served the pork with crudités and a dill sauce for dipping.

I browned pork loin chops in butter and set them aside. Then I added to that pan some tart apple slices, diced onion, salt, black pepper, sugar, and curry powder. I put the apple/onion mixture into a baking pan, arranged the browned chops on top, and baked them for 30 minutes. Then I stirred melted butter into dry breadcrumbs, sprinkled the mixture over the pork, and baked it for about 10 more minutes. The apples and curry made this dish a good match for the soup, and the pork was tender and flavorful with the unusual combination of apple and onion.

Norwegian krem ["grape pudding"]

It's not a perfect photo, but you can sense the bright scarlet color of the translucent pudding. Ojakangas writes that this dish is a "favorite of young and old" and is "light, refreshing, and simple to prepare." I'll have to take her word for it on the first part, but I can confirm the second part. I combined tapioca, grape juice, sugar, and salt and let it stand for 15 minutes. Afterwards I brought it to a boil and then reduced the heat to low, stirring the entire time until it became thick. I poured it into individual bowls and chilled it in the refrigerator until ready to serve dessert. (The white circle on top of the pudding is homemade whipped cream with plenty of sugar and vanilla extract.)

40 Shrimp and 40 Winks 'til Christmas

We enjoyed a coupla Christmas events last night, although we didn't enjoy that they were scheduled to happen on the same evening. Last night was the annual Christmas party for faculty and staff hosted by the university president and his wife (remember last year's event?). So many people accepted the president's invitation to attend that the Elks Lodge (where the party was held) had to remove a divider that usually sets off our party room from the main dining room for their restaurant, and we took over the whole facility! There were four food stations in various parts of the room, and the highlight for me was the one that featured piles of gigantic shrimp with cocktail sauce. Delicious!

We pretty much had to wolf down our food, though, because we had to get to the next event on time: Hillary's music program at school. We ended up sitting at the party with two other faculty members with children in the program, so we all left early. (And I found out today that, after we had left, my name was drawn to win a door prize: one of the poinsettia plants that decorated the tables. Just my luck.) Susan's dad had eaten supper with the girls at our house (while we were at the party) and then delivered them to the school, Hillary to get ready to perform and the other two to help him save seats for when we arrived.

The music program was called . . .

(Notice any spelling errors? By the way, the title was spelled correctly in the program, so I can't explain this very public mistake.)

. . . and featured Hillary in the role of . . .

(That's Mrs. Claus, by the way, not ol' St. Nick himself . . . although Hillary's Mrs. Claus had a large belly just like her husband's!)

She was very expressive in the delivery of her lines--so much so that people who had seen the show earlier yesterday afternoon (the students performed it at 2:00 and 7:00 P.M.) approached Susan and me before we went to the evening performance to tell us how impressed they had been and what an impression she had made on them. We were pretty proud, and it was a joy to see how "into" performing Hillary was.

Abigail commandeered the camera and put herself in charge of taking photos last night, resulting in a collection of images such as this . . .

. . . and this . . .


So just take my word for it: It was cute, and Hillary did a fine job, and we all enjoyed it.

Here's Hillary after the show posing on stage. Inside that fake fireplace is an actual television on which ran a real video of an authentic fireplace fire, making for a faux fire in the imitation fireplace throughout the performance. Very post-modern, don't you think?

Food + Friends = Fun

Last Night
Our friends/neighbors Chuck and Reba and their kids Madeline and Jack came over for supper last night. We had Madeline and Jack over to play and eat supper with us a while ago to free their parents to attend parent/teacher conferences at school; and when Chuck and Reba came by to pick them up again afterwards, we decided that it had been too long since we'd all had a get-together, so we scheduled Friday's supper.

Susan and Abigail prepared a layout of crudités: radishes, cucumbers, celery, carrots, red peppers, yellow peppers, and orange peppers with ranch dip; and sliced pears and apples with caramel dip. Susan also made three huge pizzas, and the kids drank fruity beverages while the adults drank beer and wine. Susan made brownies for dessert and served them heaped with Schwan's vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup.

The food was terrific; the kids had a great time playing together, as always; and the adults enjoyed visiting and joking (Chuck and Reba are hilarious). However, I had been under-the-weather all week as well as under-rested due to my staying up extremely late each night in an effort to get all my work done for school. My body must have decided that "enough was enough" by the time last night rolled around--at one point in the evening, I could barely keep my eyes open any more! When the host disappears for a span of time and his daughter reports that he's sleeping on his bed, the keen guest takes that as a clue that it's time to gather the kids and head home. I don't think I exhibited great hosting right there--how embarrassing. Thank goodness they're such close friends!

Tonight
Susan and I had supper with another set of friends, Deana and Jim. They invited us and several others over for their second annual pre-Thanksgiving deep-fried turkey potluck supper (remember last year's event?). Susan and I were the first to arrive, so we got to sample some homemade blueberry wine that Deana opened to share with us. After everyone got there with their dishes for the spread, we ate: turkey, ham, tossed salad, vegetable salad, coleslaw, cranberry fruit salad, fresh grapes, li'l' smokies in barbecue sauce, cheese cake, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, and blueberry coffee cake (you just never know what all will show up on the table at a potluck).

A lot of the other attendees are our friends by virtue of their being my coworkers, and several of them were involved in the recent community theatre production that Susan and I attended (remember?)--so we had plenty to visit about throughout the evening. They're an educated and humorous crowd; the topics that we covered in our conversation ranged from which English translation of Homer's Greek epic The Odyssey is the best to which male movie stars qualify as "hot" to which comes first in a relationship: friendship or love. An evening spent with those friends is always an interesting one.

Spooky in Southwest ND

Whew! I'm exhausted. Our Halloween was chock-full of activity. This morning I got some work done for school, and Susan got some work done for church (as Sunday school director, she was in charge of setting up for one of this afternoon's events at church; more on that in a bit). Then we joined the university president and his wife for a brunch at the Student Center on campus: an indoor tailgating event before the football game in the afternoon. Mrs. McCallum has been arranging these events throughout the fall and inviting various groups of people to each one to mingle with one another, visit with her and her husband, and enjoy the goodwill, school spirit, and delicious food. Early in the week before each pre-football brunch, she invites various people to taste-test all the menu items that she's considering for that weekend, and I was invited to one of those brunches to sample and recommend (remember?). Now, a few weeks later, I got invited to the weekend event itself!

Some other university faculty and staff were there, too, as were selected members of the community. We enjoyed visiting, of course, and Susan found the president and his wife to be very hospitable; but mostly we were all about the food. We started with appetizers: smoked salmon on garlic toast rounds with all the fixin's for lox (cream cheese, capers, red onions); quesadillas and salsa; sweet-'n'-sour meatballs; and deep-fried chicken nuggets and ranch dressing. Then the buffet line: pasta salad; potato salad; a variety of cheeses with a variety of crackers; bread bowls to fill with our choice of beef stew, cream of broccoli soup, or hearty chicken noodle soup; two egg bakes, one with meat and one vegetarian; and sour-dough buns, mustard, and mayo to make sandwiches out of the garlic-crusted roast beef and roast pork that was being sliced at the end of the buffet line. Then dessert: frosted sugar cookies decorated like pumpkins; slices of dessert breads (banana bread, cranberry bread, etc.); a huge slices of cheese cake. It was just delicious.

Then we headed home so that Susan could help the girls with their costumes. Our church has a "fall festival" each Halloween to which children come in their costumes and eat snacks and play games that are more Bible-themed and less monster-themed. Arranging that is one of Susan's duties as Sunday school director, so in addition to getting games and supplies and food ready over the past few days and this morning, she also had to be at church before the festival began to set up and had to stay late to clean up. So I took the girls to church when it was time and snapped some pics of them in their costumes there:

Suzanna dressed up as a grandma. She borrowed the walker from a friend, donned sensible hose and an '80s dress (complete with shoulder pads), packed her purse with facial tissue and cough drops (I suggested that she toss in some Bengay and a plastic rain bonnet, too), attached an eyeglasses chain to her spectacles, and wore curlers to bed last night and sprayed her hair gray today. She shuffled around a lot and used a pinched voice to give the other children grandmotherly lectures about not eating so much candy, being careful with their costumes pieces (e.g., "You could put an eye out with that sword"), and so on. Yep, she was truly "in character."

Abigail dressed up as a professional dancer from Dancing with the Stars, which we enjoy watching as a family and on which Abigail enjoys daydreaming about appearing someday. The pink jazz dress is from a past dance recital; it has glittery beads all over it. She matched it with glittery silver shoes that she bought for a quarter at a rummage sale last summer. (The white tights and long white sleeves aren't realistic considering all the skin shown by the professional dancers on the TV show, but they're more sensible for trick-or-treating in ND.) She wore curlers to bed, too, last night and had Mommy fix her hair in a super-fancy 'do. Her glamorous makeup includes glitter on her face and in her hair. I suppose that she was "in character," too, striking a pose at the drop of a hat, spinning around in impromptu dance routines, etc.--but that's really just Abigail, Halloween costume or not.

Hillary dressed up as a queen bee. She, too, made use of an old dance recital dress, pairing it with outdoor-trick-or-treat-friendly black tights and a long-sleeved shirt for the black-and-yellow bumblebee look. The fairy wings suggest bee wings, and the tiara (pink feathers and all) suggests her royalty. Thus, people who guessed that she was a fairy were first corrected that she was a queen bee; and then when they nodded and said something like, "Oh, yes, I see it now: a bumblebee!" they were again corrected: not just "a bee" but "the queen bee." Yep, Hillary, too, was both "in character" and perfectly herself.

Susan got in the spirit, too, donning kitty-cat ears and a tail (which she's holding in her left hand) for her afternoon with the children at the fall festival.

At the end of the fall festival, I took the girls and one of their friends around town to trick-or-treat. We hit the houses of their school teachers. Then we went to "Malloween" at the Prairie Hills Mall. Almost every store had employees in Halloween costumes sitting out front with buckets of candy so that children in their own costumes could go from store to store trick-or-treating indoors. It's ideal if you have little kids whom it's a hassle to haul around town; if the weather is cold; or if you like seeing other kids' costumes because they're all on parade as the kids tromp from store to store throughout the mall.

Then we went to "Treat Street" held at Days Hotel Grand Dakota Lodge and Convention Center. Various businesses rent suites there and decorate them according to various themes, stocking them with in-costume people to hand out candy and hide in the dark corners of the rooms and leap out screaming to scare the trick-or-treaters! The line just to get in snaked out the lobby doors, down the parking lot, and around two sides of the building! Thanks goodness the weather was just beautiful--no coats necessary. Inside there were lots of awesomely spooky lights and lit-up monsters and eerie music, and there were cobwebs and black lights and scratchy streamers and mummies and all sorts of creepy stuff in the hallways and each room. Hillary held onto my hand pretty tightly; and people in some of the rooms, seeing a young child entering, called out to their cohorts not to scare our group. When one monster leaped out of the darkness to scare Suzanna, she turned to him and, in character, held out a finger and said, "Stop that!" And he did! Hilarious.

Then we dropped off the girls' friend at her home and went trick-or-treating at our relatives' homes. Susan's uncle Terry and aunt Audrey were at their son Robbie's high school football game, but their daughter Christy happened to be at the house with her kids to let us in and give the girls some candy. We stopped at Susan's other in-town cousins' homes, too, but they must have been out and about with their own kids. We found Susan's aunt Mary and uncle Dale at home and made that our last stop before parking at home and hitting the streets to canvas our own neighborhood. One neighbor across the street always has special treat packages ready for the girls, and we made sure to stop at the homes of all the other neighbors whose lights were still on--including Chuck and Reba's house with its fog machine on the front step going off intermittently and creating an eerie haze on the block!

We didn't get home and sit down to eat supper until about 8:00 P.M.! We were very hungry for the mummies (hot dogs wrapped in crescent rolls and baked), the bones in gore (French fries covered in chili and cheese), and the buttered bug eyes (green peas) that Susan had prepared. She had also roasted the pumpkin seeds from Thursday night's jack-o'-lantern carving spree. Once the traffic at our front door had stopped, we went for a walk around the neighborhood to enjoy the beautiful weather and work off some of the calories from all the Halloween candy. Tonight: the girls and I are having a slumber party in the family room. (I have been spooking them with stories about all the goblins that are out tonight, so none of them wants to spend the night in her own room, wondering what this or that noise outdoors actually is.) After about six hours of trick-or-treating, they're ready to sleep . . . and so am I.

Susan's cousin Todd and his wife Trista stopped by with their son Trae in his cowboy gear, and Susan just had to snap a picture for us to see once we returned. Howdy, pardner!

Remember the girls' pumpkin carving the other night? Here's what the jack-o'-lanterns looked like tonight on our front step. Spooky, no?

Hillary's 8th Birthday!

That's our baby, Hillary. Does she look eight years old to you? Because that's what she is as of today! (Compare.) For breakfast she requested doughnuts from The Donut Hole, so she went with Susan this morning to pick up a half-dozen (and frou-frou coffees for Mommy and Daddy). She opened a birthday gift, too--an outfit, complete with sunglasses, from her SC aunt, uncle, and cousin--and ended up wearing it today. Then she was ready to begin her busy day.

A few weeks ago when I phoned for a haircut, I learned that today at noon was the only available opening, so I took it. When I hung up the phone and Hillary learned that my haircut would be on her birthday, she started to cry! June 19 was supposed to be all about her, I guess. However, she handled it just fine once today--and the haircut appointment--finally rolled around. The whole family accompanied me to the salon, from which we headed afterward to Sanford's (Hillary's request) for birthday dinner.

Suzanna, Hillary, and Abigail pose with Daddy!

Hillary had planned to share a Buffalo chicken salad with me, but after a few bites, she decided that it was too spicy for her tongue--and ended up swapping her share of the salad for Susan's bowl of chicken noodle soup. However, the real reason for being at Sanford's, of course, was the complimentary birthday cookie sundae (the server led us in singing "Happy Birthday to You" when she delivered the sundae to Hillary): a plate-sized chocolate chip cookie covered with three scoops of vanilla ice cream, one covered in strawberry sauce, one in butterscotch, and one in chocolate, sprinkled in butterscotch chips and chocolate chips and decorated with dollops of canned "whipped cream" product and a maraschino cherry. Behold:

She shared, and we all gorged ourselves and left in time for the girls to stop at home and change into swimming suits (and for Hillary to open another gift: matching outfits from her NE aunt for Hillary and her Build-a-Bear Workshop teddy bear) before the next event in Hillary's day: a swimming party at the West River Community Center. I went grocery shopping while Susan supervised the swimmers (our three girls plus a handful of Hillary's friends), after which Susan brought them back to our house for the birthday party. They played games, they opened gifts, they ate tacos-in-a-bag for supper, they played more games, they ate birthday cake, and they got into pajamas and nestled into their sleeping bags for a movie before the sleepover.

One of the girls sleeping over is Madeline, Hillary's best friend and our neighbor. Madeline's younger brother was part of the swimming/playing troupe, but he's not spending the night, so his parents, Chuck and Reba, stopped over after supper to pick him up. Of course, they were here for quite a while visiting before hauling him away for the night. Hillary's aunts Cassie, Sandy, and Cathy all phoned today, too, although Hillary was too distracted by the presence of friends in the house to concentrate on lengthy telephone conversations with any of them today.

Love that expression on Hillary's face! She looks so much like her aunt Cassie. Anyhoo, Hillary is holding up a necklace with the letter "H" on it from her friend Madeline. Not coincidentally, Hillary gave Madeline an "M" necklace for her birthday a couple weeks ago. Reba told us that Madeline wanted to give a matching necklace to Hillary as a token of their friendship. Ahhhhh!

The flip-flops on Hillary's ice cream cake are appropriate considering her wardrobe and today's swimming activity. She also gave flip-flops to her guests as party favors today.

I spent a good portion of the afternoon and evening in the kitchen. We have a lot of venison in our freezer (from Susan's dad and brother, both of whom are hunters), and I was on a mission to use some more of it. I created a robust marinade (dark beer, red onions, fresh rosemary, and various seasonings) for some venison chops and set them in the fridge to soak up the flavor overnight. I will grill them tomorrow for dinner.

Then I assembled the meat grinder attachment for our mixer and made some hamburger out of equal parts of sirloin tip roast, various venison cuts, and smoked bacon. I stopped grinding when Chuck and Reba arrived, but now that they're gone and the girls are quieting down, I'm going to turn that into Swedish meatballs, fry them up, make some gravy for them, and refrigerate them for our enjoyment in the next couple days. Cooking at midnight! Woo-hoo!!

While I was in the kitchen earlier this afternoon, one of the party guests, Lita, came upstairs, sent on an errand from Hillary, and found me before anyone else. She started her question with, "Hillary's Dad, can you . . . ?" I thought that was cute. I went downstairs with her and helped Hillary with her request. As I left the room to go back upstairs, I heard one of the girls say, "Your dad is so nice." Awwww.

Also nice is little Hillary. We can hardly believe that our youngest child is already so old! We have eight years of great memories and are looking forward to decades more!!

And the Winner Is . . .

One of the end-of-the-school-year events at the girls' elementary school is an awards program, attended by the faculty, the entire school body, and any members of the public who wish to come. Several evenings ago, the teacher of one of our daughters phoned our home to let us know that our child would be receiving an award, in case we might want to attend--but we were to keep it hush-hush since none of the students would be told of their awards in advance. A couple days later, another daughter's teacher phoned us for the same purpose, and this morning the third child's teacher phoned.

With all three girls receiving awards, Susan and I knew we had to attend (she got her principal's permission to leave school for part of the afternoon). But how could we do it without raising the girls' suspicions and alerting them to the fact that they'd be winning awards? Well, as it turns out, the school ends the awards program with a "graduation ceremony" for the fifth-graders (who will attend sixth grade in a different school building next year), so there was our excuse: we had to attend for Suzanna's fifth-grade graduation!

It was awfully fun to be able to watch the girlies receive their awards. And it was fortunate that we got front-row seats for optimal recording of the event. Enjoy these highlights:

Here is Abigail winning an award for perfect attendance. Her sisters had no hope of winning this award due to their surgeries (remember this and this?). [The award announcer/distributor is Mrs. Meduna, the girls' principal.]

Here is Abigail winning the President's Award for Educational Excellence, which came with a copy of a congratulatory letter from President Obama.

Second-graders were not eligible to receive the President's Award (too young), so their teachers came up with an equivalent award (Outstanding Student) so that they could recognize deserving children in their classrooms, too. Here is Hillary winning that award. (Our neighbor and Hillary's best friend Madeline is seen receiving the award, too, in this clip.)

Here is Suzanna winning the President's Award for Educational Excellence.

Here is Suzanna (and Madeline again) winning the Golden Rule award. In the video clip, Mrs. Meduna explains what this particular award is all about.

Here is Mrs. Meduna announcing the fifth-graders' "graduation."

And here is Suzanna "graduating"!

Springtime Blizzard

Ridiculous. This past weekend, the weather was so pleasant that the girls played outdoors without coats, and most of the snow was completely melted away from the lawn and the streets. Monday night a blizzard hit our state with such ferocity that the sheriff announced "no travel" in the county, and the police issued the same edict for the city. The city snow plows couldn't get out because the snow plow drivers couldn't get to the plows! The public schools were closed both yesterday and today . . . and so was the university!! You know it's bad weather when a ND university closes; that just doesn't happen!

Last night, once the snowfall had let up, we went outdoors to start cleaning up the snow. We could not get out our front door due to the four-foot-high snow drift running all along the south side of our house/north edge of our driveway! I ran the snowblower and made paths for both vehicles before running out of gas, but kind neighbor Chuck brought me some more so that I could resume working this morning.

After two hours last night and another three this morning, I finished snowblowing (and that includes cleaning out the end of the driveway after the city plows pushed snow from the street into our driveway). Susan assisted both last night and today, shoveling the tops off the drifts for me to pick up with the machine. The girls helped a bit, too, but Suzanna was also in charge of photography (that's why there are no pics of her below), and all three wanted to play in the snow drifts . . . and how could I say "no"? So they've got some tunnels dug in the drifts all around the house, and the neighborhood kids have been joining them, and we've got wet snowsuits and boots and gloves lying against the heaters in our mud room. It's like prime wintertime fun . . . at the beginning of spring! Welcome to ND.

Hm, can't get out the front door.

Yeah, looking out from the garage, it's clear why we couldn't get out the front door!

Happy New Year!

We rang in the new year by inviting three couples and their kids over to our house for a family-friendly night of games and food last night. One couple had to decline when the husband's out-of-state parent was hospitalized, so it was Leslie (one of Susan's colleagues), her husband Dave, and their two boys, and our neighbors Chuck and Reba and their two kids. Dave is a police officer who was on duty last night, so actually he stopped by for only a few minutes between calls. When he arrived at our front door in full uniform, Chuck and Reba's little four-year-old boy stood with wide eyes and dropped mouth, wondering who knows what! All he said to Dave was, "Those handcuffs are real!" I wonder what our neighbors thought when they saw the police car on the street and a cop entering our home!

Susan made gallons and gallons of homemade soup: one cheesy potato and bacon soup and one Southwestern chicken soup (both inspired by our recent trip to Harwood--thank you, Janelle!). Leslie made sub sandwiches to slice and share: one roast beef and horseradish and one turkey and bacon, both on loaves of delicious bread. Reba made a fantastic spinach dip that we gobbled up on wheat crackers. The rest of the spread, courtesy of Susan, included chips, veggies and dip, Christmas baking and candy, and a variety of adult beverages and bottles of soda for the kids.

While the kids played downstairs (hide and seek, board games, little-boy-friendly toys from my own childhood collection, and karaoke on the machine that the girls got from Uncle Jerrett for Christmas--a hu-u-u-uge hit in our household!), the adults visited and ate. Leslie and her boys had to make an earlyish exit to get her littlun into bed, but Chuck and Reba stayed until about 2:00 A.M.! We hustled the kids upstairs just before midnight to join us in a toast (champagne for the adults, sparkling cider for the kids) after a countdown to the new year. Everybody got a New Year's kiss, too, although all kissing was contained to one's own family members. We adults played many rounds of Catch Phrase, the electronic music edition, and laughed ourselves silly. It was a terrific time.

The girls and I reheated soup for breakfast this morning! It was a leisurely day. Jordanne, the little girl who lives next door, spent most of today at our house, and she and our daughters made several craft projects that the girls had gotten for Christmas (thank you, Dennis and Julie!) while Susan worked at scrapbooking and sorted through photographs. She made us a special New Year's supper: broiled filet mignon, twice-baked potatoes, steamed asparagus with hollandaise sauce, crab chunks with melted butter, shrimp cocktail, and Suzanna's birthday cake for dessert. We finished watching A Christmas Story (started the night of Suzanna's birthday) and started watching A Christmas Memory. A very relaxing start to the new year. Here's hoping for another terrific year . . . which will be documented, no doubt, for your edification on this very blog!

Suzanna's 11th Birthday!

Today's guest blogger is Suzanna, our new 11-year-old:

After I woke up, I went upstairs, and Mommy and Daddy gave me lots and lots of hugs and kisses. I helped Mom make a breakfast of ice cream caramel rolls (my request). While those were baking, Abigail and Hillary had just gotten up, so they were hugging me and wishing me a happy birthday, too. We ate our breakfast, and I asked if I could open presents. Mom and Dad said "yes."

I opened a present from my aunt Cheryl, and I got the movie Camp Rock and a savings bond. Then I opened a present from my aunt Sandy. I got a calendar, clothes for my Build-a-Bear, a sweater and shirt for me, and a homemade card. I had already opened some birthday presents from others over the holiday: from Mom and Dad, I got snowpants and a coat; from my aunt Cathy, I got a lettering book, a bouncy ball, magnetic bookmarks, and an iTunes gift card; and from my Grandma and Grampa, I got a pink quilted vest.

She looks as though she's getting as much joy out of trying to pop the packing bubbles as seeing what's inside the package from Sandy! Yes, her T-shirt does say, "I am going to be a Grandma." My mom had it made and wore it around after we told her that we were pregnant with our first child. After Mom died, we gave her T-shirt to that first child, Suzanna, who wears it often in memory of Grandma.

[Added January 2: Today from my aunt and uncle Cassie and Nick, I got cute red pajamas and a book: The Girls' Book: How to Be the Best at Everything.]

After breakfast I took a shower and got dressed. The night before, we had just gotten home from Harwood, so I helped unpack in the morning while Mom and Abigail went grocery shopping. Hillary went over to her friend Madeline's house. Our friend Jordanne came over to play just as Abigail and Mom were getting home. The night before, Mom had asked us what our favorite foods were. One of mine was nachos, so Mommy went to Taco John's and got tacos and nachos for dinner. While I was in the shower, Abigail and Hillary had been brainstorming about presents they'd like to give me (that they bthen ought while out grocery shopping). They came up with a couple things: a playpen for my baby doll Sophie and a couple baby outfits for her, too. I also got the movie WALL-E from them.

Suzanna was very happy with all her gifts. Here's she registering her excitement over having received WALL-E from her sisters.

After dinner we went downstairs and played with Jordanne some more. Then we had swimming practice. When we came home from that, we had a delicious supper of chili (my request) and cornbread muffins. Then we watched some of the movie A Christmas Story. We didn't get to all of it because some of us were falling asleep (I won't mention any names, Dad). 11 years old doesn't feel much different from 10, except now I don't get to eat off the children's menu at Olive Garden. Boo!

Susan made a wonderful birthday cake: chocolate with dulce de leche buttercream frosting (remember?). Does Suzanna look a year older to you? The last pic is of our three beauties, aged 7 (Hillary), 9 (Abigail), and 11 (Suzanna).