Highlights from the week (that we got on film).

Clarence smiled for Santa for the first time ever!

 Charlie was too shy, so he sat on Mrs. Claus's lap. Next year he might be too big!

 Making doughnuts... they don't last very long.

 Getting into trouble per usual.

 Grandma got smart and bought two new snow shovels.

 She'll never have to shovel off the porch again.

 Good Night!

New Year... New Blog Posts

 Grandma and Grandpa's little chair by the fire, fits three.

 Clarence visited us in Winona, so we went to the park and scooped snow, for no particular reason.

 Homemade play dough! We made a fresh batch with two different colors- teal and purple.

Charlie is full of questions!

~Becky

Little boys.

Say Cheese!

I think Charlie was rubbing Clarence's back in this one. It reminded me of when Liz used to brush my hair. I should have liked it, but it ticked me off. Now I would let her brush my hair or rub my back.

Charlie the builder- they put an "engine" together. Later, while Trav was at work, Charlie took it back apart. I guarantee he'll be begging for help to put it back together again tomorrow, and Trav will sit there explaining how to change the direction on his cordless drill.

I love little boys, and little boy's bibs!

~Becky

A day in which we received a visit from Clare Bear.

Before Liz and Clarence arrived, Charlie and I made Gnocchi di Semola (Semolina Flour Gnocchi) to go along with our Italian inspired spring beet greens (previously blanched and frozen from the garden when we thinned out our beets last year; I was saving them for a special occasion) with garlic, lemon juice, olive oil and chopped walnuts. We are using Katie's cookbook Cooking with Italian Grandmothers by Jessica Theroux. We were in northwest Italy (Bra, Piemonte) with Grandmother Irene. They were pretty good (I was the only one that thought they were a little bland), and as they are baked with only 1 tbs. of butter in the whole batch, pretty low-fat I would think. We used the Semolina flour, which we purchased at our co-op. The sprinkles on top are good Parmesan and breadcrumbs made from homemade hearth bread. (And then I completely forgot to take After pictures of our meal.)

And then we played, and the boys had fun. Most of my pictures were turning out so blurry I decided to stop trying and just enjoy their beautiful relationship; but here are a few of the better ones. ~Becky