February | 2013 | Smith Family Weblog

I know it’s hip to hate on Valentine’s Day, but it’s easily one of my favorite holidays. It’s hard not to appreciate a day (or, in our case, a few weeks) that allows for pink crafts, sweet treats and unabashed expressions of love. Here are a few of the projects we’ve completed this month in celebration. Happy Valentine’s Day!

12 Feb

Owen the Omnivore

Posted by Rebecca in Owen. 4 comments

Owen’s branched out from fruits and vegetables recently, but roasted broccoli remains a favorite.

11 Feb

Streak!

Posted by Rebecca in Ava, Family. 2 comments

Grandma and Grandpa Smith (or Grandma and Grandpa Lucky, as the girls have taken to calling them) and their brand new puppy, Streak, visited us this weekend.

Streak, a Blue Heeler/Australian Shepherd, is eight weeks old and just as cute and tiny and fluffy as you’d imagine. She’s named for the split of color on her face, but given the difficulty I had shooting a photo of her that wasn’t blurry, I’m going to assume the moniker has something to do with her speed as well. (Although, none of my photos of Doug and Karyl were particularly in focus either, so perhaps it’s the photographer more than the subject…)

8 Feb

Oven pancake

Posted by Rebecca in In the kitchen. 3 comments

On Saturdays and Sundays, the girls clamor for waffles or pancakes—something out of the ordinary that signifies the importance of a weekend day. While neither option is particularly difficult to make from scratch, I always look longingly at the incredibly simple oven pancake recipe on the cookbook’s facing page. This weekend, I charged ahead, mixing up just a half cup of flour, three eggs, a bit of sugar and a dash of vanilla, then pouring the ingredients into a skillet primed with melted butter.

After a few moments in the oven, a gorgeously puffed pancake emerged. As it deflated, we topped it with a berry compote and a swirl of whipped cream. I don’t think it will replace silver dollar chocolate chip pancakes as a new favorite, but it was definitely a simple alternative.

6 Feb

Science on Tap

Posted by Rebecca in Bryan. 7 comments

Remember a few months ago, when I cajoled Bryan into presenting on the biochemical effects of methamphetamines for the local Nerd Nite? And, then again when Nerd Nite viewers liked him so much they elected to bring him back for the alumni event in December? Both of those events were just fantastic, and apparently caught the eye of the coordinators for another local science event: Science on Tap.

This event, which is coordinated by the Natural History Museum on campus, is held a few times each semester at the local brew pub. The team called him in January, and he had about a month to prepare his talk on next generation cancer therapies. This venue gave him a chance to be even more technical in his approach, though he did a remarkable job of making a pretty complicated topic accessible for the more than 70 participants.

To see him in a role like this—especially one in which he’s explaining his actual work—just makes my heart burst with pride. He was brilliant yet affable, and the crowd was notably engaged. After a 30 minute presentation, he answered group and individual questions for nearly an hour more. He’s humble enough to wonder if he did an acceptable job this morning, but trust me when I tell you he absolutely knocked it out of the park.