February Happenings

February flew by this year.  It always does because it's always a busy month full of birthdays.  But it's always a fun one.

Trek & I love the little diner in our village.  They make the best burgers & the yummiest chocolate lava cake in the world.  I LIVE for that cake.  It's SO good.  It was nice to get out on a date with Trek this month.

As always, I enjoy painting here & there when I have a minute to myself.  I painted a few things this month.

Chinese New Year was in February.  We had fun teaching the kids how to eat with chopsticks while we enjoyed rice, sweet & sour chicken, stir fry, & moon pies.

I've been teaching the kids in Primary (ages 3-11) all the books of the Old Testament in order this year for church.  I'm amazed at how well these children learn these difficult names.  I made a fun jenga style game to help them learn it & they LOVE it.  Some of my youngest kids were able to built the tower 39 book names tall all by themselves.  I was impressed.

Mardi Gras also hit in the middle of February & you all know I love a good holiday.  Creole green beans, red beans & rice with spicy sausage, & of course king cake for dessert.  It's one of my favorite holidays.

Canyon was SO excited to get the baby in his piece of cake this year.  He gets to make the cake next year.

Cadence sent me some pictures from college this month too.  She attended a formal dance there & was able to buy a new dress.  She looked beautiful & had a great time with her roomates.

And Taya had a fun project for her science class where she had to build an iron atom.  She spent hours bending the wire & glueing the pieces onto it.  She did a great job.

 It was a great month.  February is always one big party at our house.

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day from the Potter house.  Valentine's is pretty low key here, but we still enjoy spending some quality time together, baking together, & eating a lot of pink & red things.

The kids each decorated their own cupcakes & shared them with each other.

I painted some valentine cards & gave each of the kids (including that sweet husband of mine) some sweets because I love them so much.

My favorite part of Valentine's is my charcuterie boards.  Pink & red are just the perfect combination for a beautiful treat.  These were SO yummy.  I made one sweet one & one savory one.

 Happy Valentines Day.  We love you all!!

French Adventures

The first week of February, a group of girl friends & I took an impromptu trip across the border to France for some antique shopping & French desserts.  We all piled into a van & drove about 40 minutes to 3 different antique shops.  I didn't buy anything, but my friends got some bookshelves, a huge shelf (that had to sit in the center of the entire van), tea sets, & more.  It was great.

Then we ended our trip hitting all the French bakeries & Cora (a huge French grocery store) where I bought my favorite French cheese, yogurt, drinks, & pastries. 

I have no idea what this dessert was, but it was divine.  It was a chocolate tulip shell with strawberry mouse (?) inside, with whipped cream, strawberries, & a macaron.  It was SO yummy.

Girls trips are the best.

 

January Happenings

January was kind of a crazy month.

After we got home from Phantasialand, we got a phone call from the base saying that Lorien had 2 close contacts with COVID positive people (2 of her best friends).  We immediately took the whole family to get COVID tested.  Sure enough, poor Lorien tested positive. The rest of us were negative, but we had just spent 2 days together in an amusement park & 6 hours together in one car.  For sure, we had all been exposed.

We spent the next week completely isolated at home.  Lorien stayed in her room & her bathroom on the 3rd floor alone.  We would take food up to her, but we really didn't hang out with her at all for a full week.  I kept all the kids home from school for 4 days just in case.  On day 5, we tested everyone again & we were all still negative so the kids went to school.  Lorien had to stay home another 4 days.

For the rest of the month, I swear we've had a bazillion COVID tests.  I liked this meme because I feel it in my soul.  If I have to shove one more q-tip up my nose, I might die.  ha ha ha.

We did a lot of geneology this month.  Canyon loved helping me match documents to family members on Family Search.  Canyon also LOVES to brush my hair.  Every time we watch a family movie, he likes me to sit on the floor while he brushes my hair.  He thinks it's fun (silly boy), but I LOVE it.

I also learned a few new concepts in my watercolor class this month.  I learn how to paint water droplets.  It is extremely difficult, but really really cool too.

The last day of the month, the kids got to go to the Frankfurt temple to do baptisms.  This was Bladen's first time going to the temple.  Usually Trek is the one that is needed to help supervise, but this time I got to go which was SUPER fun for me.  I love going to the temple with my kids.

We've got such a great group of youth in our ward here.  In fact, we had to divide our group into 2 separate times because there were so many of them.  We happened to catch the 1st group when we arrived so we took a picture with them, & then took another picture with our group after we were done.

I also painted this crazy cheetah.  It was HARD & 100% was NOT my best work, but I learned a few new things & I enjoy the process, even if I don't like the outcome.  I'm learning a lot in my watercolor class.

January FLEW by & I'm SO ready to tackle February. . . aka BIRTHDAY CENTRAL in our house.

 

Trek's 43rd Birthday

Happy 43rd Birthday to my sweetheart!

Trek & I have been married for almost 21 years.  Every year I hear him say, "Man, I wish I had one of the marzipan cakes they made me on my mission."  I've never been able to find one, though I look & look & look.  Now that we are in Germany again, I decided that I was going to hunt this cake down for him.  

I found a bakery in Northern Germany who made this marzipan cake that he loved so much on his mission.  They even used Lubeck Niederegger marzipan which is Trek's favorite brand of marzipan.  I had to figure out how to get that cake to me in Western Germany.  The bakery referred me to amazon & I was able to order it off their shop on Amazon.  Within 24 hours, they had handmade this cake, packaged it up, & shipped it to me overnight in a refrigerated box.  (And it didn't cost any more than a Cold Stone Ice Cream Cake!)

IT WAS GORGEOUS!

I swear I bought a "4" candle, but of course it completely disappeared so we had a ghetto 4 candles plus the "3" candle.

We ate his cake a day early because we were told to eat it within 24 hours.

Oh my goodness, it was delicious.  There was marzipan between the layers of sponge cake with some buttercream.  And then the whole cake was covered in marzipan fondant.

The next day we had Trek's birthday breakfast.  I made breakfast burritos with eggs, hashbrowns, bacon, sausage, veggies, cheese, & more.  He also wanted bacon, raspberries, & cupcakes.  It was yummy.

Trek got some fun new socks & clothes from my friend Nancy for his birthday.

He got a watchband & some saw blades from Mimi & Baba & then some money from his Grandma K.

We got him our new favorite game: Finca (if you haven't played Finca, go buy it.  It's fabulous!).

We also got him a chromecast, some wireless headphone adapters, & a bike shirt with a quote from his favorite book.

For his birthday dinner I made him some tortellini soup & homemade brotchen.

Happiest of birthdays my sweetheart.  I love you.