Ally's One Year Older

[It's been a while since her birthday, but due to an "after-school-starts-party" wish, I'm just getting to it.]

Ally is growing into a beautiful young woman.  (I think I'm getting to the point in life where the ages of my kids are starting to effect me.) Ally has been blessed with many talents, like her giving nature and ability to make others feel loved.  She enjoys her accelerated learning class in school, because it challenges her just enough.  She doesn't consider herself smart, but a veracious reader/learner.    She tackles every project with determination to do her very best and loves to add a twist of creativity.  We are lucky to have her around.  

Happy Birthday, Ally!  

We celebrated her real birthday at a community water party.  But, we couldn't forgo the treat, so we cut her birthday pie at 10:30 p.m.  Her eyes were barely open.  ;)

Here's her wish come true (to have a party after school had started)!
All of her classmate friends came for the grand affair.

I'm a lucky mom in that my kids put up with whatever creative juices hit me at the moment, 

like this fruit leather creation.

A is for adorable,

L is for lovely

and (L) likable,

Y is for alwaYs true!

KSL.com

LDS group celebrates special anniversary for Czech mission

Czech Anniversary

(Here is just a minute portion of missionaries who served under President Winder.)

The Czech Republic found a place in my heart 17 years ago, when I served there as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Last weekend we celebrated 20 years since the country has been opened to missionary work. It's history goes back even farther before communism and has some amazing history to go with it.

I arrived in the Czech Republic in April of 1993. I served for a few months under the direction of President Richard Winder. He and his wife, Barbara Winder, were true examples of faith and good works. Still today, you can sense their own deep affection for the people of the Czech and Slovak people.

It wasn't difficult to love the people and I had some wonderful experiences working among them. I also grew to love the Czech food. I am fortunate to have a close Czech friend who helps satisfy my addiction of their food. (She even helped me make this cake. Okay, so I helped her make this poppyseed cake for the reunion.)

Here's a Czech recipe (in case you were begging to try something Czech after reading my blog) I tried this recipe this summer. It came out successfully (*note: Czech desserts are not sweet) and can be used with just about any fruit:

Fruit Kolache

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 cup milk

2 teaspoons cocoa powder (for color)

2 1/2 cups white flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

pinch of salt

Mix all ingredients together to form a dough and spread into a greased 9X13 pan. Randomly place choice of fruit on top and sprinkle (optional) with cinnamon sugar.

Bake at 350 for 35 to 45 minutes.