Starbucks

46

Today is my 46th birthday!

I started the day by receiving a truly amazing gift from my family…I can’t wait to find the perfect place on the wall to hang it!

I decided that taking a “Hit the Bricks” tour on historic Main Street in St. Charles, MO, would be the perfect way to spend the day, because I would get to see something beautiful and interesting AND learn something, and I wasn’t disappointed!

I finally got to try the lavender Frappuccino using my Starbucks birthday reward…it was just as delicious as I imagined!

We had my favorite dinner, Reuben casserole, and since we also have Starbucks at home, I made a lavender matcha to go with it:

And Bunny made me an amazing tiramisu for my birthday dessert…I’ve come a long way since the years I used to make myself a tiramisu layer cake for my birthday!

It was unbelievably delicious!!!

Roald didn’t come to my birthday party this year, which was the cause of great sadness, but I set up a photo shoot so we could still get a birthday picture together…it’s tradition!

I also got to watch a few of my favorite movies today (one of them might have been a Christmas movie, and another might have starred Donald Duck), and generally feel very special…it was a great day!

Markel Family Combo Breaker 2025 Getaway–Day Two

The second day of our Combo Breaker trip was one of my favorite days of the whole year, because we took the Metra into Chicago!

Bunny’s first objective is always to find the pigeons and feed them, and it was a successful mission!

We walked close to 10 miles…down to Buckingham Fountain, up the Magnificent Mile, and everywhere in between!

It was a chilly, rainy day, but that didn’t (if you’ll pardon the pun) dampen our spirits!

It was nice to take a break indoors at Water Tower Place, though, and we stopped in a few of our favorite shops while we dried off and warmed up.

We visited the Starbucks Reserve Roastery again this year, and this time, we actually figured out the menu and ordered some drinks…I got a lavender matcha malt (shocking, I know), and it was absolutely amazing…I’m going to try to recreate it at home!

Of course we stopped by Marshall Field’s of Blessed Memory, where we admired some of the historical details of the building and bought an entirely too expensive (and small!) box of Frango mints.

But eventually we had to get back on the train to head back to the hotel…we always ride upstairs on the return trip.

Back at the hotel, we switched to Combo Breaker mode and got to work alphabetizing badges. Once that was done, it was time for another swim and more game time in the lobby.

Up next…a trip to Italy? And the real preparation for Combo Breaker begins!

Mani Monday

This week’s mani is inspired by the return of my all-time favorite drink from Starbucks, the lavender matcha! I went with a pale purple and green color scheme, featuring Holo Taco’s aptly named “Lavender Syrup” plus “Mint Mojito.”

2024-25 School Year–Week Twenty-Three

Ladybug continued reading Jane Eyre this week. She also started Murder on the Orient Express. In psychology she learned about IQ tests and the difference between general intelligence and emotional intelligence as well as the difference between fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence. In writing she practiced writing different forms of parallelism. We read about John Knox and John Wesley in religion.

Chickadee continued to work with systems of equations and also converted between celsius and fahrenheit in pre-algebra. We read about the Zulu in Africa in history. In science, she finished the chapter on the superstructures of the human body. We continued The Bronze Bow. We also began our Lenten Jesus Tree readings and Amon’s Adventure. We stopped by the library to see the baby chicks once more before they move on…they’ve gotten so big!

Speaking of birds, we’ve been on pip watch and absolutely obsessed with Jackie and Shadow’s adorable babies…the Big Bear Bald Eagle Live Nest cam has been on pretty much all day all week here!

We celebrated making it to March and the return of our very favorite Starbucks drink, too!

One more week of school, and then it’s time for spring break!

2024-25 School Year–Week Ten

First up…a glimpse of our trip to Legends and Lanterns in St. Charles, MO, last weekend. A highlight of the event was a stop in Oz where we met the Wicked Witch of the East, and admired her silver slippers…we were glad she was representing the book we’ve been reading!

Speaking of Oz, we also stopped by Starbucks so we could try their new Wicked drinks:

On to the schoolwork, including some of the stuff we worked on last week. Ladybug learned about whole-to-part and part-to-whole fallacies in logic. She started a new literature study of A Tale of Two Cities, and also continued reading Paradise Lost. We read about Ambrose and Jerome in religion. She continued reading A People’s History of the United States, including the arrival of Columbus and the beginning of slavery in the Americas. In psychology she read about sleep cycles and different theories about dreams. Tomorrow she takes the ACT!

Chickadee solved problems using ratios and proportions in pre-algebra, and also converted decimals to percents and vice-versa. She read about the Kingdom of Prussia and New France in history. We discussed the internal, external, and bibliographic tests in science. She worked on writing an analysis of a short story. We’re getting closer to the end of Tom Sawyer (thankfully). We continued to read The Wizard of Oz, and made a pair of recipes from The Wizard of Oz: The Official Cookbook…”Oh, Look! Apples and Walnut Salad with Shrub Vinaigrette” and “Apple Shrub Cocktail,” with flavors of the apple shrub we worked on all week, plus lemon juice, hibiscus syrup, and seltzer.

We have plans for a few outings we want to go on in the coming weeks…stay tuned!

45

Today is my 45th birthday! I have to admit, I’m not liking 45 too much, if only because it rounds up to 50, and that makes me feel a little old. But, old or not, I had a fantastic day with my family!

I decided that today I wanted to go to Ste. Genevieve, MO, a town I’ve been meaning to visit for years. It was founded as a village in 1735, and was the first organized European settlement in what is now Missouri. It was transferred to Spain following the French and Indian War, but eventually the Louisiana Purchase made it part of the new United States.

We saw several old buildings, such as the Louis Bolduc House, which was built in the French Creole-style in the 1780s:

Even thought it was hot, we had a nice time walking around this historic district and stopping in some of the shops. Sadly, the Christmas store wasn’t open, but the sweet shop was, and Ladybug bought me a pineapple rock candy stick! We also stopped in the tea and spice shop, which smelled absolutely amazing. While we were in town, we stopped for ice cream at Sara’s Ice Cream as well….I had a strawberry cone, and it was really delicious!

I did try to give myself a heart attack on my birthday, though, because we had to drive across the Mississippi River at Chester, IL, on a bridge I really hate!

While we were in Chester, we saw the Popeye statue:

On the way home, we stopped at Starbucks so I could get my free birthday coffee…I love that they wrote a little note on the cup!

I celebrated my birthday in Animal Crossing, too…I was very sad that Roald didn’t come to my party, though.

Bunny, Ladybug, and Chickadee teamed up to make me a chocolate malt cake, and it was outstanding (we were all a little worried the candles were going to burn the house down, though…even though there were only 39 of them)!

It was a lovely day celebrating with my family!

Markel Family Combo Breaker 2024 Getaway—-Day Two

The second day of our trip north was one I look forward to all year long, because it’s the day we visited downtown Chicago. This year, for the first time in a long time, all five children were able to go with me, which made it even more fun.

It was not an adventure without challenges, though, because the train line we usually take was shut down due to mechanical difficulties. We were able to make it to another Metra station on a different line in time to arrive downtown more or less when we wanted, so it all worked out in the end.

Taking a different train line meant arriving at Chicago’s Union Station instead of the familiar Ogilvie Transportation Center. I am not kidding when I say the two stations are across the street from each other, so it shouldn’t have been a big deal, but somehow that minor difference was slightly disorienting, as everything looked just a bit off from the other side of the street!

We walked almost 10 miles, seeing everything and nothing in particular, which sounds like a contradiction, but is how we usually do things:

Of course we stopped to feed the pigeons…we stumbled across quite a flock!

It is always a thrill for me to see the lakefront:

While walking the Magnificent Mile, we stumbled across “Flight of Butterflies,” an art exhibition presented by the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. Most were outside, but we found one inside Water Tower Place:

This was the first time Turkey got to see the Water Tower itself!

We stopped at the Starbucks Reserve Roastery, where I was immediately overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the place, so we left without ordering anything…it was a cool place to see, though!

To make up for our hasty retreat, we stopped at the Ghirardelli store and shared some of their chocolate creations:

I walked down to the Vietman War Memorial:

And then we went to Marshall Field’s…I mean Macy’s.

We tried the new summer varieties at Starbucks while we were there…they were very refreshing!

We were able to leave from our regular train station, which was nice, because we know exactly how to find where we’re going there!

As is tradition, we road on the upper floor on the way home:

It’s always hard to say goodbye to the city!

And we returned to the station we had intended to leave from in the first place!

We ordered pizza from a local place, Moretti’s, that we had never tried before…It was amazing! I especially loved the use of asiago cheese in the stuffed crust!

Up next…a little more fun, and then the beginning of our work!

Tasty Tuesday–The Perfect Flavor Combination for Spring

I always figured that if I was going to have a full-on Starbucks addiction, it was going to be because of some kind of new coffee creation. Imagine my surprise, then, when I discovered that the best drink I’ve ever had there is actually tea based!

The Iced Lavender Cream Oatmilk Matcha is my new favorite. I’ve always been kind of obsessed with lavender as a flavor (I’ve made lavender lemonade and lavender shortbread, and I’ve been considering adding it to a rub for meat), and I love matcha, so I’m kind of ashamed I never though of pairing them before. As soon as I saw this item on the menu, I knew I had to try it, and I’m embarrassed to think of how many of them I’ve had since. It’s a bright, floral, (and yes, possibly even grassy) beverage that’s absolutely perfect for spring! I love it so much, I don’t even mind the oatmilk (although I have gotten it with plain old whole milk, too), and I was inspired to recreate the flavor at home with matcha milk boba tea topped with lavender lemonade whipped cream from Target:

I know Starbucks seasonal flavors don’t stay around forever, and I’m already dreading the day this one leaves the menu, but maybe it will come back next spring!

Chickadee Thursday

Last week, Chickadee and I gathered up all the change we had lying around the house and ran it through a Coinstar machine. We then took our riches to Starbucks. It was Chickadee’s first time to order Starbucks beverage…she got a pineapple lemonade!

We also visited the Orchid Show at the Missouri Botanical Garden for the first time since 2020:

I wonder what adventures we’ll have next?