Cauldron Cakes

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Monday we had our Crowned with Virtue activity at our house with the girls' friend Bailey. This month we're learning about a woman named Irina Sedlar, who smuggled Jewish children out of Nazi territory. We had never heard of her, so it was interesting to learn about her. The program suggested having the kids figure out codes or do a treasure hunt, so Alison bought an escape room from Teachers Pay Teachers, and the three girls spent over an hour happily working their way through the puzzles to save the baby doll.

Tuesday Sara wanted Broccoli Cheese Soup for dinner, and Mike made it while Alison napped. We had some bunches of parsley and he threw them in. It made the soup vibrantly green, but the kids were not a big fan of the flavor addition. It all got eaten eventually.


We had a lot of nice weather this week and Timmy became a big fan of riding his bike around the block. He fell several times, but he kept going, and he's had a lot of fun. Lots of times other people would go with him, and we had a good time.

Mike had his midterms this week, so he did a lot of homework. He's glad to be halfway through the trimester. The third trimester is a project, so he's excited for that.

Thursday Mike and the kids went to a new park. The park is called Germania Park. There wasn't anything to forage there (awful-tasting rosehips and some old firethorn berries), but the kids liked the playground.


Friday we went to nature group. Elizabeth fell asleep in the car on the way there, so Rea, Sara, and Timmy went out to wander while Gideon and Alison waited in the car for her to wake up. We did get to go play in a dry creekbed with Timmy and his friend before the end; that was fun.

Friday night the kids watched a movie while Mike and Alison played another game of Pandemic: Legacy. We lost again - this is the first time we've lost twice in a row. We're halfway through the game, so maybe that should be expected, but it's disappointing. We had quite a bit of good luck this game, but it wasn't enough.

Saturday morning we did a zoom call with the whole Poulson family. It was chaotic with all the kids, but lots of fun.

Later on Saturday Rea and Mike ripped out the shower walls in the downstairs shower, and then we prepared the walls to be replaced with the new walls that we bought. Mike cut the walls to the proper size that afternoon and in the middle of the night he fitted the first two walls in. We still forgot to take a before picture for before-and-afters (we never do), but it looks so much better to step into the bathroom and be greeted by light marble instead of lime green tiles. We hope to get it done tomorrow.

Saturday evening Papa Mike and Grandma Sheila invited the cousins over to their house for dinner and a movie so that the parents could do something Valentines-ish. Mike and Alison went and bought ingredients to make a fancy dinner of chicken cordon bleu, scalloped potatoes, asparagus, and the dessert Mike invented for Alison's birthday (brownie cupcakes with the center hollowed and filled with lazy chocolate mousse). It was delicious and really fun to cook and talk together without kids interrupting.

Sunday after church we went on a cleaning crusade and finished the team clean that got missed Saturday because of our date night. Mike started awarding the kids house cup points (like in Harry Potter). Here are the houses and scores:

House Ravenclaw (Rea & Alison): 370 points
House Hufflepuff (Gideon): 335 points
House Basilisk (Timmy): 335 points
House Gryffindor (Sara): 320 points
House Slytherin (Elizabeth): 264 points
House Elf (Mike): 100 points

All of the points that Slytherin got were awarded unfairly by Snape right at the end of the game with the exception of 14 which baby earned herself. Fortunately a troll bonked Snape over the head, and so he didn't get to award enough points to Slytherin to steal the entire house cup.

You might think that the teams were unfair, however the kids all got to pick their teams, and also change teams whenever they wanted, so if anyone had wanted to be on Ravenclaw they could have. Sara started on Hufflepuff, and then switched over to Gryffindor, and Timmy switched teams a few times too.

After the cleaning was done, Rea, Alison, and Mike made a feast of pasta with bacon, asparagus, and white sauce, and also left over scalloped potatoes, and then we had the remainder of the stuffed brownie cupcakes (now called Cauldon cakes, since that is a Harry Potter thing). It was fun.

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