Sunshine's View: 9/30/12

When You Go to the Store, Get Onions

Make this.

I am not kidding you, it's divine! I love, love, LOVE French Onion Soup. The other day I found a recipe for French Onion Soup Casserole. I decided to bite the bullet and cut the darn onions. I hate that job. Truth be told, however, it wasn't that bad. And the results were SO worth it.

French Onion Soup Casserole

2-3 Tbs butter or margarine
3 large sweet onions or 4 medium white or yellow onions (I used a couple extra)
2 c. shredded Swiss cheese (8 oz.)
1 can cream of chicken soup
2/3 c. milk
1 tsp. soy sauce
8 or so slices of French bread (any bread will do)

Slice onions. Melt butter in a saute pan over medium heat, and add onions. Saute onions until clear, a little brown is ok. In a shallow 2 qt. casserole pan, layer onions, 2/3 of cheese and pepper to taste.

In a sauce pan, heat soup, milk, and soy sauce, stirring to blend. Pour soup mixture in a casserole and stir gently to mix. Top with bread slices. Bake at 350 uncovered for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, top of bread should be nice and toasted.

Push bread slices under the sauce and top with the remaining cheese.

Place casserole back in oven and finish baking for 15 more minutes.

Enjoy!

First Day of School

It is now almost fall break, and I realize that I never shared our first day of school pictures.

Here's Treyton on his first day of first grade.

Toothless kid.

I was NOT thinking that dropping him off this year would be harder than last year. But it was. It caught me off guard. I suppose it was due to the fact that he'd be gone ALL DAY. Oh, how sad! Still after months of school, I miss him right around lunch time. But part of parenting is letting go. I have to let him grow and learn and spread his wings.

Brielle started preschool this year!

She absolutely LOVES it. She would go every day if she could!

It helped that she knew the teacher before school began. Ms. Deb was the assistant teacher to Galina's class last year. Her kids go to Treyton's school. Her son was on Treyton's baseball team. She also saw Ms. Deb at VBS this summer.

So Brielle was very comfortable when she entered the classroom on day 1.

I finally got to let go of Galina so she could run to her class! She loves school too. And as an extrovert, it fills a significant need in her life. Which helps all who live with Galina.

She got right to work.

WITH ENTHUSIASM! But then again, most things Galina does with enthusiasm. It's one of the traits I love best about her.

Have a great school year, kids!

Nothing Much

This post may be boring, mundane. But sometimes that's how life is.

Ainsley is growing so very, very fast. She's such a joy! Her middle name fits her perfectly (Joy).

Treyton's keeping himself busy with Legos and creative play. He has such a great imagination!

See what I mean?

I just love this. Such a boy!

My girls! What a blessing from the Lord.

Galina does have a new pursuit...piano! She enjoys music so much I thought it might be fun. Class is but I'm not sure I'd say the same about practicing. We'll see how long she lasts.

But for now, I'm simply enjoying the one-on-one time I get to spend with her.

Making messes is Ainsley's daily pursuit.

The girls with their girls.

We've also had some bears around our yard recently. A bit scary if you ask me!

The kids have been in swim lessons this past month at the rec center.

It's hard to make them stop long enough for a picture!

Hugs galore around our house.

Treyton and Galina love to create little "worlds". Who knows what they were up to here, but they are often found deep in play and don't want to be disturbed.

I love how they are such good friends!

Occasionally in the mornings we will see a hot air balloon.

On this day it landed right near our mailbox! Bryce was home and took them down to see it.

By the way, our mailbox is 691 steps from our front door. That was part of a homework assignment Galina had. Her teacher had no idea what she did to me when she assigned us to count the number of steps to our mailbox, the number of trees in our front yard among other things. But as I was doing that with her, I was reminded how very, very, VERY blessed to live where we do. We absolutely love it.