Bad Parents

I like to think that Sam and I are involved parents. Above and beyond the basic necessities for our children we try to see that our kids have happy childhoods, which brings me to the "bad" part...

Friday, Owen's preschool was hosting a pot luck costume party. Now, I don't know abut you, but just the idea of 32 runny nosed children and their siblings breathing all over my food sends me running for the Zicam. Nonetheless, I prepared my "main dish" - a new favorite butternut squash recipe I found at Smitten Kitchen.

As an aside, this is really delicious - this is already the third time I've made this savory galette. I changed it up a bit by substituting Chevre for the Fontina and I used only half of a Vidalia onion rather than a whole onion. Oh yeah, and for the dough, I just put all of the dry ingredients (room temperature) into the food processor and pulsed in the chunks of cold butter and the sour cream and then added the ice cold water; it worked just fine.

Okay, back to how we are horrible parents. Sam left work early because the party started at 6. By the time he got home it was already 6; the kids were dressed and ready to walk out the door. We loaded up and drove 15 minutes across town. We walked in at 6:15, at 6:23 Laney began to peel off her pink poodle costume and by 6:30 we were back in the car and headed to Wendy's dive thru.

Sam and I are different in many ways, but this is not one of them. All it took was the "lets get out of here" look and we grabbed our plates, which, by the way, were already empty, grabbed the kids and left. The room was crowded, children were squealing and screaming, toddlers stripping down to their onesies (ahem), balloons were flying and after the October birthday bonanza, we had had ENOUGH.

We did feel slightly validated when, upon getting in the car, Owen said, "that place was way too loud". Having been plagued with guilt (and hunger), after strapping the dinosaur, giraffe and pink poodle into the car we headed to Wendy's. So there you have it - bad, bad parents depriving our preschooler of a Halloween costume party and clogging his arteries with fast food. Bad I tell you B-A-D.

2 Twice

Next in the birthday line-up was Laney. We had intended to have a family party for her birthday, but she was not feeling well. The party was postponed one night and we had a small celebration with a last minute ice cream cake from Baskin Robins. Forget the Motrin, in Laney's book ice cream was the perfect fever reducer.

After one night of medication, Laney was feeling much better, so it was time to celebrate her 2nd birthday with my mom, John and my grandparents (Guagua and Popie) and the cake. At the moment, Laney loves flowers (flaw), yellow (yell-low) Elmo (melmo) and frog (fras). Let me tell you it was a bit of a challenge to incorporate all of these things into a cake, but here is what I came up with (you can click on any of the pictures to see them bigger in Flickr):

It was a chocolate cake with meringue buttercream frosting. I decided to try meringue buttercream and loved it. It was more work to make, but worth it - I will be using this recipe from now on. The decorations were made from fondant with the exception of Elmo; I bought him and covered the fish tank he was holding with a "Laney is 2" sticker. The fondant was shiny because I had to refrigerate the cake when Laney got sick - I don't think she minded though:

Happy Birthday To Our Little Professor

Hope 6 treats you right- happy happy birthday!

All Better Now, Well, Sort Of

Thank you all for your well wishes! We are finally rid of all illnesses with the exception of the mental illness that occurred from the October birthdays. October really takes it out of me. You can't imagine the number of celebrations we have had. How many you ask? Here is the list to date - we still have Spencer's actual birthday/school celebration tomorrow:

• Owen's actual birthday
• Owen's school celebration
• Owen's monster truck birthday party
• Laney's birthday
• Laney's Elmo make up party because she was sick on her birthday
• My grandfather's birthday (Poor guy had to go to a bowling alley with 12 crazy kids on his birthday)
• Spencer's crazy bowling birthday party

I know it is hard to imagine, but we are actually sick of cake around here. Here is a glimpse of Owen's party:

We went with a monster truck theme and Owen invited 5 friends to celebrate:

We needed a little extra something for the table, so I put some of Owen's monster trucks on a cookie sheet with some brown sugar to look like sand. The kids loved it.

One of the activities we had planned was for the children to paint wooden monster truck magnets. Can you imagine, I had trouble finding monster trucks to paint? I did find some trucks, some wooden disks and magnets though. 10 minutes later, we had monster truck magnets to paint. I like to use egg cartons split in half as paint trays - they work really well.

Here are the trucks Spencer and Owen painted:

The other planned activity was a pin the license plate on the monster truck game. Sam drew the truck for me, didn't he do a great job? Truth be told, it drives me nuts because I want to be able to draw. Laney helped with a bit of color on the tires every time Sam looked away. Clearly she gets her artistic talent from me and not Sam.

I got the license plate picture from the Secretary of State's web site and added the names in Word.

What is a party without cupcakes? So, here they are - mini cupcakes using sour cream chocolate cake with vanilla butter cream and, of course, orange sugar:

More parties to come...

I'm Back, But Just For A Minute...

I couldn't let the day of symmetry pass without wishing my little girl a very happy birthday. It truly is a wish this year because she is sick, sick, sick. Last night she had a temperature of 104.8. She is doing a bit better today, but was diagnosed with croup. She is taking it easy and I will have lots to share when everyone is well again (Owen has had laryngitis since Sunday). In the meantime, HAPPY BIRTHDAY LANEY!

Sick little Laney watching the same Little Einsteins episode for the 11th time.

Pink Poodle on Parade

Drawing + Frosting = Disaster

For my birthday, Sam bought me some new baking supplies. While he was shopping, he found a cake pan for our Car Movie enthusiast. It was very thoughtful, but I just have to say - I hate these pans. HATE them! The end result never looks like it is supposed to - his face is all wonky and the tires look flat. I am not an artist with a pen and paper, so drawing + frosting = disaster. Owen was happy though - he loved his Lightnin'-queen cake, which was nice, but he is also 4. I could have smeared red frosting on a graham cracker and he would have thought he won the Piston Cup.

Laney's Room Revisited

Well, I figured since Kari & Kijsa were kind enough to send people over here to look at pictures of Laney's room, I figured I had better put some decent ones up. This tiny little room was designated "the baby's room" when I found out I was pregnant with Owen; Laney has since inherited it. Out of all the places to sit in our house, the rocking chair in this room (it isn't pictured, but it is white with a yellow cushion) is one of my favorites.

The quilt, dust skirt and valances are from Pottery Barn Kids and were the beginning of the room. I was originally going to paint vertical green stripes in two shades of green on the walls, but once the valances were up, the room begged for hills and a parade of animals. I made rough stencils from the animals on the valances and penciled them on the walls. Sam and I then painted in the animals and added the detail with paint pens (which are awesome by the way). The yellow dresser was painted by my mom for my nursery 37 (ahem) years ago. My sister in law, Anna (Owen's birthday buddy), made all of the origami cranes for Laney and my mother in law and I made them into a mobile. This room truly is a creative collaboration.

Happy Birthday O

Even at 4, he is a man of many tastes:

Owen Loves:

Happy Birthday Owen!

One More Birthday

The Birthday's Are Coming...

Laney's (the marshmallow freak) cake from last year

Yes, she said sheepishly, all three. No, no misunderstanding - all. three. Owen's birthday is the 9th, Laney's the 17th (the girl of symmetry) and then comes Spencer's on the 25th. Her only hope is to retain the little bit of the sanity she has left, but it's not looking good.

Punkin Hats

The one on the right is for the Preemie Project and I have one more preemie version on my needles now. The other is for Laney because she kept trying to stretch the preemie hat over her, shall we say, ample noggin. Given that it is 85 degrees here today and it is supposed to be even hotter tomorrow, I don't think she will be wearing it any time soon. I'm not complaining though - that crisp air will return soon enough.

The pattern for the pumpkin hats comes from Itty-Bitty Hats by Susan B. Anderson. I did modify the pattern just a bit for the preemie version. If you are a knitter, you may be interested in her book - it is filled with the cutest hats you have ever seen: cupcake hats, turtle hats, flower hats, striped hats, basic hats, bonnets, you get the idea. Susan Anderson also has a very cute on-line shop, Shop ABC Soup, where you can find her book, individual knit patterns, kits and some ready made baby items, including some of her darling hats.

Shhh - He's Listening

Yesterday while waking to school, Owen said, "ya know Mom, sometimes my brain talks to me, but I can't hear what it is sayin." Ditto Owen.

Butternut Squash; The Series - Part II

The air has a crispness to it here and I think I am finally ready for autumn - plus, it is October. One of my favorite fall soups to make is an apple butternut squash soup from the Barefoot Contessa. It is very easy to make and it really is delicious - with butternut squash, apple cider, apples, onions and just a touch of curry powder how could you go wrong? As per usual, I have a few modifications; I add a bullion cube and a splash of white wine to mine. If you like butternut squash, give it a try.

Eva Sikorski

Yesterday, my mom posted on Eva Sikorski, an artist and family friend - she had asked me to take some pictures of the paintings I have, but by the time I remembered, got my act together and actually took the pictures, she gave up and posted without them. I thought I would still show you mine and then you can go take a look at her paintings. So, these are three of my favorites (I have one more, but it is not hanging right now) that I bought from her son after she passed away. Just in case you are in the market for some art, some of her remaining paintings came be found here and you know how I love E-bay...you can get one there too.

This one fit perfectly in a frame I inherited from my great grandmother:

I fell in love with the colors in this one:

This is actually a watercolor that was given to me by my grandmother. Eva used to do these quick paintings and give them as gifts and I was lucky enough to have one of them passed along to me.

I love the style of this one - it reminds me a lot of the beautiful paintings Patricia at PVE Design is creating. Don't forget to check those out too.

Girls' Weekend

This weekend, Sam and the boys were invited to a dad's weekend at a lake cottage (Laney would have been included too, but she was too young). So, it was just my girl and me. We did some shopping, ate some frozen yogurt, went on walks and smelled the flowers.

Spencer and Owen had a fantastic time. In total, there were 6 children between the ages of 3 and 6. They rode on a boat, ate smores (or "snores" if you are talking to Owen), slept in sleeping bags, took nature walks and did some hard core playing. I was glad they had a nice time, but, truth be told, I missed the little rascals. Hope you had a nice weekend too.