Malai Kofta

 This week we had some sickness. Sunday night almost everyone threw up - we think it was too much junk food right before bed, because no one felt at all sick otherwise. Oops! Mike's homemade donuts might have to be eaten less enthusiastically in the future.

Since Wednesday, we have a tiny bit of a cold going around the family. Baby Elizabeth is the only one with significant symptoms - mostly a runny nose, but she got stuffy enough at night to not sleep for several nights. Everyone else just gets really tired (and sometimes grumpy) for a day or so. It's not the worst cold ever, but it's annoying. 

We stayed home from Nature Group and Wildflower Park on Friday so that we didn't spread the cold far and wide, but Mike and the kids built a treehouse this week, so they played in that instead! We have a huge waist-high stump at the front corner of the backyard, and Rea requested half-walls on the street and neighbor sides of it, with windows in them. The walls are up; the windows are yet to come, but it looks great already! Mike and Rea had a great time working together to build it.

Our next door neighbor has a grandson Timmy's age staying with her. After our treehouse was done, we sat down to dinner and looked out the window to find that he had hauled a card table up onto one of his stumps and braced it between the stump and the fence to make his own treehouse. It was cute. Our boys really enjoy playing with Aidan; it's nice to have a neighbor they like. The girls have made some good friends in the neighborhood too.

The weekend was very busy. First, Grandma and Grandpa invited the cousins for a sleepover Friday night. They had pizza and watched a movie while Mike and Alison got Indian food (Great India is a good Indian place fairly near Grandma's house; we especially liked the Malai Kofta). Then we picked up the baby and headed home while the kids got in their sleeping bags and watched another movie before going to sleep.

We had to pick up the kids early to make it to a Google Meet call with the Poulson grandparents and cousins! The kids got donuts for breakfast from Grandma and Grandpa, and they had a great time telling their relatives about all the fun things they'd been doing.

Saturday night we were invited back to Grandma's house for a barbecue. Unfortunately, it rained all day, but the barbecue was still fun. Mike and Alison got a cardamon- spiced sweet naan with their Indian food on Friday, and Mike decided to try to reproduce it to bring to the barbecue. Rea helped him cook, and it turned out great! They are good cooks, and Mike's reverse-engineering of the recipe was very impressive.

Caitlin and Sal and their family came to the barbecue along with Amy and Dave. It was fun to catch up with everyone.

We all slept late this morning and barely made it for online church. We are all a little tired now, but it's been a good week.