in case you were wondering...

Maggie's happy 10th birthday was today. I'm happy to report it went much better than last year!

She insisted that she didn't know what she wanted for her gift - seriously! Have you ever met a 10 year old that has no wish list? So we went to the craft store this morning where she showed me all the things she couldn't live without. Then Gracy and Maggie wandered around the store while I decided which items would be stashed into the trunk until present time.

Of course one of her favorite gifts came from Ben & Cherie - a box full of puzzles. She immediately put one of them together in about 10 minutes (100 pc). and started another. I'm sure it will lay around on the coffee table all weekend (while she's at her dad's) getting bumped and shoved, but she'll be thrilled to see it's still waiting for her when she gets home. Maggie is awesome at puzzles. She loves them. She could spend hours putting them together, and she's quick. Gracy and I don't seem to have that talent. We stare a the pieces for about 10 minutes, slide them around, possibly put together 3 or 4 and then we're done. We're bored. We are amazed at Maggie's mad puzzle skills. Gracy keeps saying Maggie is going to win a gold medal for putting puzzles together!

She was also pretty thrilled with the pair of earrings Mimi & Pop Pop sent her. They are the first pair of earrings she's gotten to wear besides her starters...and they are gorgeous!

Maggie's other wish was to have shish-kabobs for supper....problem being we don't have a grill... So I cut up and marinated some pork, peppers, onions and potatoes and basically stir fried them in small batches, letting them stick to the pan and get that fun brown color. I stuck a bunch of skewers in the bowl of the cooked ingredients and let everyone stick their all ready cooked kabobs. This seemed to satisfy the birthday girl. Who proclaimed it was the best birthday dinner ever! I made a two layer 8" cake topped with chocolate frosting. We split it into 6 pieces (one for each of us and the neighbor that ate over). Maggie was pretty excited that we got to eat the whole cake at once. You'd think she won a prize! And to think I spent a small fortune buying store bought pretty cakes in the past!

I try to make an effort to include the girls with the preparation of supper. It's not always easy and usually takes more time. But the time we get to spend together makes it worth it. This year school has been a bigger deal than either of the girls were ready for, requiring extra time spent on homework and less time in the kitchen with Mom. But today I decided to give them a mini break from homework to help out with dinner. Here's what we concocted today:

1/4 c butter
1/3 c chopped onion
1/3 c flour
couple dashes of salt
couple grinds on the pepper grinder
1 box (16 oz) fat free chicken broth
3/4 c milk
2-3 cups (a small Ziploc freezer bag full) of leftover turkey
1 cup carrots (we cut ours like coins)
1 cup frozen peas

Saute onion in butter, salt & pepper. Stir in flour. Add 1 c broth & milk until bubbly and starts to thicken. Stir in turkey, carrots, peas & remaining broth. Heat through (I think it took 15 minutes or so because our turkey was still a bit frozen).

We enjoyed our "Turkey Stuff" (yes, that's actually what we named it) with Gracy's cornbread muffins. I was wishing I would've stopped to pick up salad ingredients, that would've made it perfect!