Thursday, March 03, 2011

Good Fortunes

One of the perks of having a Parade of Homes here in St. George is that it can also bring a Parade of ...

Family!

This past weekend we were blessed to have Grandma Susie and Grandpa Charles drive down for a visit, along with Uncle Lance who flew in all the way from DC. They got straight to business enjoying the parade, visiting 26 homes in just a few short days. One of the homes was so spectacular that they brought me back to enjoy it.

Pretty spectacular! (If you have an extra 3.5 million lying around, that is...)

Most of the time, however, the kids and I bunked inside where we could stay warm and dry. While St. George generally has beautiful weather, the sun always seems to run and hide when we have company.

To console ourselves for being stuck at home, we decided to continue our culinary alphabet tour around the world. So far we've visited Austria (kasnocken and wiener schnitzel), Brazil (chicken stroganoff and avocado shakes), and China. What better way to celebrate China then by making...

Fortune cookies!

We had a lot of fun with our impromptu fortune cookie party.

After a bit of deliberation, Uncle Lance decided they were quite tasty.

We had to convince Grandma Susie to eat the cookies instead of the baby.

Eli thought that they were perfect fodder for a tired toddler.

Just a few more left! If you can judge a culinary creation by the rate of its consumption, then these cookies were definitely successful.

To make the cookies, we followed a recipe found on youtube, the source of all truth. Instead of baking them in the oven, though, we cooked them on the griddle like a pancake, saving tons of time (and the kids' attention).

The very best part was writing the fortunes. I acted as scribe for the girls' creative inspiration. Their "predictions" are hilarious because they so accurately capture little kid humor. "You're a Fruit Loop."--immediately followed by raucous laughter. Here are their fortunes, in no particular order.
You're a Fruit Loop.
You get younger every day.
You're gonna have a million babies.
Everybody is a farmer.
I'm being eaten by a shark.
You are a toy (fun to play with.)
Tornadoes are coming.
You're an animal.
Scissors taste like candy.
You are infinity old.
You wear diapers.
You have a thousand trampolines.
Dinosaurs live now.
Kings and queens live, but they don't have princesses.
Trampolines are inside.
You're Toothless, the dragon.
If you're a girl, tomorrow you'll be a boy.
You don't have a house, but you'll get one.
Candy is food.
Volcanoes exist.
You're a baby, and always will be.
Everybody is a rock(star). (Brooklyn amended Talia's initial fortune to be a bit more glamorous.)
We eat mud.

In transcribing these fortunes, I occasionally had to filter predictions of impending death. The girls seem to share a morbid fascination with both natural disasters and dying. Sometimes the two get combined, such as in the response I got yesterday when I asked what they were coloring:
"We're drawing Pompeii."

While driving in the car, I overheard this conversation:
Talia: "Let's pretend that I died."
Brooklyn: "I don't wanna."
Talia: "Okay, let's pretend that you died."

Whaddayasay, let's not. :)

7 comments:

Julie L said...

Oh, thanks again Kara for helping me start my day with a laugh!!! Those fortunes are absolutely hilarious! I love the idea of doing the alphabet around the world. It's great to see Susie and Charles and Lance, too. What a fun weekend. Wish I could have joined you all.

Erin said...

Those fortunes are classic.

Megan Ficek said...

Love those fortunes! I am definitely going to have to try that with Evie and Kara and see what they come up with.

I think it's so funny - Evie is also a little obsessed with death. I can tell that she can't make sense of it and it scares her. I had been thinking it's probably a normal phase - but I think it's also personality. Yesterday Evie says, "Mommy, who will die first? I think I know. First Daddy, then you, then me, then Kara." and Kara looks up and says smiling and matter-of-fact, "we're not going to die", and goes back to eating her cereal.

Susie said...

Those were tasty fortune cookies and the fortunes were quite delightful to read. Thanks for the fun weekend!

Crys said...

c-sections to death :) Those girls crack me up!!! We miss you guys!!!! Also I love the St. George parade of homes...amazing!!!!

candice said...

So cute! What a great culinary adventure! Love the fortunes. Your girls are adorable.

Brianna said...

So fun. I love the fortunes.