With a little luck...

 ...these rainbow cupcakes turned out for us!  My son and I spent the last few evenings baking our little hearts out all for a good cause - my company bake sale being held today.  It's been awhile since I've gotten to participate in a fundraiser, and it feels great to get one in this early in the year.  This particular one will be kicking off what I hope to be a lucrative year of giving.  Now that my son has reached an age that allows him to feel the gratification of giving (he is excellent at sharing) I hope to instill that in him for a lifetime.  When I was young, volunteering was something my heart called out for, though I wasn't particularly savvy enough to figure out how to get involved.  Already this year, some pretty amazing opportunities have presented themselves, and I'm looking forward to taking advantage of some of them.  Looks like the luck of the Irish is on our side.  Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Our Friday Night

I love gingerbread houses.  I love the whole idea of them, from baking the gingerbread, cutting out the pieces, collecting cute candies, and making stained glass windows.  I even picked up a book at the library the other day full of architect-designed gingerbread houses and the instructions to go with.  Like I said, love it.  Just... not with a three year old.  When I began contemplating taking on the enormous task of making one, thoughts of catastrophe began entering my mind.  Crumbled walls, icing gooped in places it shouldn't be, half-eaten candy.  No, that sort of thing will have to wait some years.  But the tradition still beckons... that's why when I passed this on the shelf at the market recently, I had to grab it.  And to my delight, we had a blast constructing it.

our new tradition - he's allowed to eat off one piece of candy each day till Christmas

A Simple Happy Birthday

Yesterday we celebrated my husband's birthday.  He's officially one year over the hill, and has never been much into parties that solely celebrate him... humph.  But he is very generous when it comes to Lars and I celebrating him, and we started the day off by presenting a couple of handmade birthday cards to him as soon as he woke along with lots of jumping on the bed.  We enjoyed a long relaxing morning just hanging out, then when we finally got hungry headed to a favorite eatery of his for some french dip sandwiches.  Once home, it was time for cake.  I made this one I talked about here and it's  made it's way into my permanent collection.  It turned out so delicious that I think it will be making a regular appearance on this special day for years to come.  To top the day off, I captured this iconic image below... Sixteen Candles anyone?

Happy Birthday to my honey.  Here's to another 40+ years!

Let it Snow

While I worked on my husband's birthday cake my son was more interested in making tracks with his hot wheels through piles of flour.  This, combined with his santa pj's ended up being a cute holiday photo op, especially as he pretended it was snow.  Although it created a big mess (with flour making it's way even into our front room) I was relieved he was contented to play while I constructed the three layer cake we're looking forward to giving my husband on Thursday.

Getting Festive

We took some time this weekend to put out our holiday decorations.  After my husband brought in the Christmas tote from storage, my son showed a serious interest in how things should be displayed; I basically followed his requests as to where to put the lights, garlands and tree ornaments.  Since everything we used is from last year we ended up with a sort of funky bohemian look that feels fun and offbeat in a juvenile way.  Letting my son take the lead when it comes to things like this really takes the pressure off me to make everything 'perfect'.  I also like that he finds so much more joy in anything we do when he's allowed to be creative and participate.   We still have yet to pick up our tree, and I'm looking forward to his suggestions on decorating that as well.

 - pleased with his work -

Holiday Fest

After spending nearly every day at home this week (my son was in a somewhat unusual 'hunker down' mood) our cabin fever was getting to an all-time high;  the neighborhood Holiday Fest couldn't have come at a better time.  Starting with a Live Paint (more on this incredible program in a later post) interactive story time and craft at our library, we made our way to the Santa hanging out in the local eatery.  Lars was happy to tell him what he'd like for Christmas, but had no interest posing for a photo, which is why you'll see me in it below...

From there it was a quick stop into the historic theatre for choir carolers (wonderfully festive) while we snacked on our favorite candy weakness, sour licorice.  Not quite ready to go home yet, we headed back to the library for family game night where Lars met up with his friend for a fun game of Candyland.  Finally, on our way home we marveled at the trees now completely bare of their leaves.

Baking In Anticipation

My husband's birthday is coming up, and every year we celebrate with his favorite flavor of cake, german chocolate. For the first five years or so, I ordered the cake, with one coming memorably from this bakery (amazing). Then a handful of years ago I got the brilliant idea of attempting to make the cake myself. The first year I attempted this, we ended up with cupcakes. But after some years, and time and practice, I managed to pull together this one here without completely losing my sanity. With his big day less than a few weeks away, I'm looking forward to trying yet another new recipe, this delicious looking one I found here.

Singing Thanks

Although we all woke up a little under the weather, the day went off without a hitch.  All my dishes turned out well, dinner was ready by 1pm, and afterword we had time for an adventurous bike ride in  the rain.  But the best part came when it was time to say our thanks; instead of a simple statement from each of us, my witty clever husband gave us a song right before carving the turkey.  I think a new tradition has been born...

Meal Prep

Last year on Thanksgiving I spent the entire day preparing food in the kitchen.  I'm talking from 6am until the turkey was done, which was about four in the afternoon.  Now don't get me wrong, I was more than happy to cook for my family and everything turned out delicious, but I felt a little sad when 30 minutes later we were done eating and the day was pretty much gone.  I didn't get to spend any time playing games or watching movies with my husband and son, and I was so beat by the end of it all even an after dinner walk was out of the question. 

This year, I knew one thing... I wanted it to be different.  I wanted be able to prepare the meal and hang out; to look forward to sitting down to eat without feeling like I was going to collapse; to actually enjoy the day with my family.  So I came up with a solution. 

Instead of spending all day tomorrow making dinner, I spent nearly all day today doing it.  After my son and I braved the crowds at the market, we came home and got to work.  I made everything but the turkey, including the stuffing.  Now the only thing left to do tomorrow is stuff and roast the bird and assemble some pies.  I probably should have made the desserts today as well, but I am looking forward to a little baking tomorrow; and a movie; and most of all spending time with my family.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone :)

Everyday Food Thanksgiving Menu

For the past six years, give or take a few, I have been preparing our Thanksgiving dinner using the menu from Everyday Food magazine.  The dishes are always slightly different, super easy to prepare, and absolutely yummy all-together.  The way the flavors of each one compliment each other is beyond delicious, and we have yet to be disappointed by the way dinner turns out.  My family and I look forward to it each year all month long.  If you're looking for some inspiration for your dinner this Thursday, find the menu and recipes here.

Safe and Sane Trick or Treating for Kids

 

I love the tag line for promoting the Halloween event in our neighborhood.  There's no question it's safe, with all the streets blocked off, friendly police officer presence, and store keepers handing out the treats.  Sane?  That would be another story...  it's a very popular event in an award-winning neighborhood in our city, with children in costume coming from all over.  We saw plenty of princesses, goblins and ghouls, along with a little Sherlock Holmes and his assistant father dressed as Watson; a Subway sandwich; and my personal favorite, a moving box.  Our little pirate was a little shy getting started, but soon warmed up to all that was going on.  He had his 'Dinosaur Daddy' (what he began to call him after seeing his skeleton face paint) by his side and eventually began mustering up the courage to say trick or treat.  All in all the three of us had a lot of fun, and got back just in time for the door-to-door treat-ers in our neighborhood.

 he felt comfortable with Napoleon Dynamite

 

an inspiration to all aspiring little pirates 

'dinosaur daddy'

~Happy Halloween 2011~

Labor of Love

As I mentioned before, last week was my son's birthday.  He turned 3 and I am amazed at how fast we've arrived at this age.  He is now very much a little person with his own personality, preferences, and personal interests;  one of them right now being trains.  For his first birthday I ordered the cake.  For his second we made cupcakes.  So when I asked him this year what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday and he requested a train cake, I felt I had to deliver (after all, I did watch my mom make wedding cakes all throughout my childhood - she even made mine - how hard could it be?).  After pouring over photos here and using instructions from Child Magazine's Book of Children's Parties, I set to work.  Over the course of two days I fretted and sweated and became very anxious over the outcome of this seemingly doomed cake.  I used generic food coloring and discovered I wasn't going to achieve the bright colors I had hoped for; the homemade fondant turned out too dry to roll out and I could not get it red enough; and I ran out of chocolate frosting for the engine part of the cake, therefore having to use red along the backside (where no one can see;  I made peace with this).  In the end it looks nothing like the photo, but turned into something maybe a little better that my son loved.  He understood that we would eat it, but all he really wanted to do was play with it.

 

(ta-da!  somehow I managed to pull this one off)