Denise's little guy O is a regular at Thai Tuesday.  Usually, he sits quietly in his high chair, glued to an episode of Dora playing on Denise's iPod while the rest of us eat and gossip.  But, today he pretty much stole the show, at least in my opinion.

He was totally cracking me up with these spanky sunglasses.  He's really good at putting them on by himself, albeit a bit crooked.  You could tell he felt pretty suave, too, by the way he'd turn his head back and forth, basking in the feel of his cool shades.  Plus, he made my day as we were leaving the restaurant when he let me hold his hand as we walked out.  He doesn't usually let me touch him, so this was a big deal.

Today at McDonalds (yes, I ate McDonalds for lunch without my kids - don't judge me) I saw this poster hanging in the window:

 Is it just me, or is this about the dopiest guy you've ever seen?  If you ask me, he doesn't do much to entice anyone to check out this speed dating event.

It's times like this that I feel very lucky to be out of the dating scene.  Brad is way hotter than this guy will ever hope to be.  I mean, can you imagine Joe Speed Dater in old man slippers?  It makes me shudder.

Ever since I helped with the missionary lunch last Tuesday, I've wanted to try making Rotkohl. 

Rotkohl is a traditional German dish made from red cabbage and apples, and I tasted it for the first time on Tuesday.  I didn't love it immediately, but I've been craving it ever since.  So, I made some for Sunday dinner today.  

Pepper ate about 8 pounds of the stuff, but the other kids were kinda iffy.  I don't know that it will become a family favorite, but it was fun to try.

(If you're feeling brave, here is the recipe.  Definitely make it with the butter.)

This rather awkward picture is me doing the Happy Dance.  Why am I so giddy, you ask?

Because I just got off the phone with my mom, where she told me that

SHE AND MY SISTERS AND SIS-IN-LAWS ARE COMING TO BERLIN FOR A TOTALLY ROCKIN' AWESOME GIRLS' TRIP!!!

I'm a little excited.

Happy Chinese New Year!

My friends Jeremy and Denise met in China and lived there for a year or so, so they have very tender feelings toward China.  Tonight, we all benefited from their love-of-all-things-Chinese, as they threw a super awesome Chinese New Year Party.

Susanne made this cake.  Underneath all that scrumptious butter-cream icing were two cakes, one yellow and one chocolate.  I had two healthy pieces of the chocolate, both of which were side pieces so they had plenty of that slightly crunchy, so-sweet-it-makes-you-thirsty butter-cream icing.  My eyes are rolling back in my head just thinking of it. . .

Denise had a game for us to play to test our Chinese knowledge and skills.  This is the Lightening Round, which consisted of carrying various objects across the room with chopsticks.  James wowed us all when he managed to get the egg safely there in one piece.

I had such a good time!  I'm trying to think of what other foreign holidays are coming up, so Jeremy and Denise can throw another party.

Thursdays are my favorite day of the week, because that is the day my little friend R comes to my house and cleans it from top to bottom.  For my birthday last summer, Brad arranged for someone to come once a week and clean my house.  Best. Gift. Ever.  We used to have Annalie come, but she went home to the Philippines in December, so now her friend R comes.

 R is beyond delightful.  She's just a tiny little thing (she's not bending down - she really is as tall as Adam), and she whizzes around my house like a whirling dervish, scrubbing and vacuuming and dusting for all she's worth.  Every once in a while she will pause long enough to chit-chat for a minute and give me a hug.  By the time she leaves, I am in the best mood.  

And my house is clean, too.

Today after school, there was a dusting of snow on the ground and the boys were dying to go outside and play in it.  Since we really haven't had much snow yet this winter (yay!), their snow clothes were still packed away in a box.

I didn't pay them much attention as they rifled through the box of old snow clothes and got themselves ready for some snowy fun.  In fact, it wasn't until after they'd come in from playing outside that I even noticed what they were wearing.  Particularly Luke.

Apparently, Luke decided to wear last year's coat and an old pair of snow-pants, size 18 months.

I don't know why we even still have these old snow pants - I guess I put them into the snow-clothes box one spring and they never got taken out again.  When I pointed out to Luke that those snow-pants were from when he was a baby, he said, "But they still fit me!"

Um, yeah.

I wish I'd seen him out playing in the snow with his snow-pants-capris and inches of bare legs showing above his boots.  That would have been a awesome picture!