Today was Dalli’s 8th birthday. We invited some friends over for a small birthday party, and ranch style scavenger hunt. I started by hiding clues one by one that would eventually lead to the actual scavenger hunt list. Putting this together took immense concentration (you laugh but I had to draw from my higher education for this!). However, once I got started I was on fire! It did help tremendously when my favorite husband took the children to check the red tank. This gave me some time to hide everything, and make the actual scavenger list. The scavenger list was fairly easy, mostly I just drove around the yard and found things that were out of place. It was like using child labor to pick up the yard. Come to think of it, maybe I should have another scavenger hunt in the Spring (think how clean my yard will be)

The clues were as follows:

You will find the first clue in the black case of an instrument that the birthday girl knows how to play well. (Violin case)

Look for this clue in a red machine that is used when the Cain family watches movies. (Popcorn maker)

Look in the mud room high and low, then open the door located on the left side of a big machine. (Washing machine)

The next clue you will find under a chair that the littlest Cain sits in, especially when she is hungry! (Booster chair)

Moving on, your dad uses this to change the channel. (Remote control)

You will find me inside an egg. A big egg that is colored. A big green egg. Don’t crack it, just gently lift the lid and look inside! (In the big green egg BBQ)

For the next clue, look where the horse treats are kept.

Now look for the list, you will have to lift the lid and look in. You will see it located where oval breakable things that you eat come from. (chicken coop)

Then came the actual list:

A purple rope
An antler
2 pieces of PVC pipe
A wooden spool
A blade of green grass
A piece of a dead garden vegetable
A branding iron
A snow shovel
Something red
A piece of trash
2 horse treats
A snow ball
2 clothes pins
A picture of a wheel barrow

And on it went.

We didn’t count on the high of 31 degrees that we were dealt, but it really didn’t slow down these ranch kids. After the scavenger hunt Dalli opened presents all kinds of loot including a package of Glitzi Globes!! (Oh yea, from aisle four) We ate some chocolate cake then we bundled back up and shuffled outside to destroy a piñata. A regular fiesta. We did have to improvise when the first swing decapitated Dora!

A great day.

Happy New Years Everyone!

We welcomed in the New Year with a hodge podge of home maintenance. How does the hood over the stove get soo greasy anyway? The grill to the refrigerator, when is the last time you took that off? Why did we do this on New Years Day? Who knows, we were home and had the energy.

After all the cleaning we made a batch of hot coco mix. I will share the recipe with you, but beware it makes a ton! Great to share with neighbors, friends, and teachers.

1 21oz nestle quick drink mix
4 packets Dream dry whip cream
2 cups powdered sugar
16 cups powdered milk

We also like to add instant coffee, but are still working on the ratio so I’ll have to get back to you on that. Mix 1/3 cup of mix with some steaming hot water and enjoy.

In the afternoon, we sedated Sienna (Macklee’s new horse) to examine her teeth, she has been loosing weight through the winter. What I found turned into a project. The triticale hay that we have been feeding was causing sores in her mouth. There were triticale seeds embedded everywhere. It was like removing cactus from the sides of a wet, slimy, dark rabbit hole. The only sounds that could be heard was David gripping about how heavy her head was to hold up! When I finally finished, we decided to float her teeth and deworm all the horses. It is not unusual for us to do horse maintenance on major holidays, this helps us remember when we did it! Bottom line, I don’t think feeding triticale hay to horses is a good idea. My professional opinion of course. I hope, that I don’t receive hate mail from all the triticale farmers!

Then, it was off to pick up dog and cat poop from the yard. Really? All this land and they have to defecate in our little yard. Aargh!

Next, some advice to all women dating ranchers. When your cowboy invites you to go with them, they really only want a gate opener. I have figured this out after 13 years of marriage. I am sure most ranch wives figure this out sooner, but what can I say. My husband is sneaky, he says things like do you want to go on a safari? This sounds great, like we are going to drive around the ranch and see wild animals (because looking at my two banshee children all day isn’t wild enough)! “Safari” is David’s code for can you come and open gates for me while I check waters?! Can you see why it took me so long to catch on? This time, it worked out, we saw a beautiful buck.

Chili rellenos for dinner. Yummy for the tummy. We use egg roll wrappers a trick I learned from my sister in law.

Use one freshly roasted and peeled hatch chili. Set it in the egg roll wrapper, insert medium cheddar cheese and roll up. Use water to seal edges. Sprinkle stuffed wrapper with water and then roll in corn meal. Fry them up! Serve with homemade pinto beans. They are even good to snack on the next day.

Made menu plans for the next week and went to bed.

Did I mention that I have wild children?  Doesn’t she look wild?