"Look Mom!! We Made A Duplo Zoo."

This morning I was busy in my sewing room working on a few things for Miss Abigail and there was a distinct absence of noise..."Oh, oh....that can only mean trouble!" I braced myself and went upstairs to see what my little munchkins were into. I heard them all in Abby's closet and feared for what I might discover, but much to my surprise I found them all huddled around their latest Lego creation. Elliott had decided to sit down with Abby and Henry and build a zoo with them. I was so proud of him. He hasn't even looked at Duplo in ages and is deeply into "real Lego". He said "I just wanted to do something special with Abby and Henry." That was one of those moments when I had a huge smiled and realized "I am doing something right." In a house with 4 young children sometimes it seems more like a zoo. There are days when I feel like I am not doing anything right as a mom and they are not paying attention to any thing I am trying to teach them. This was one of the moments when I had an "ah-ha moment" and knew I am getting through to them. Teamwork, sharing, being a good role model, and more than anything being nice to each other. High-Five Mama!!! It's working!!!

Oh, here are a few pics of their zoo. They specifically asked me to take pictures to show all of my bloggy friends.

Easter Cookies!

I thought it would be great fun for the kids and I to bake Easter cookies this afternoon. The weather is kinda gloomy so it was the perfect activity to keep little imaginations and hands busy before the big day tomorrow. The kids are so excited. Wondering where the Easter Bunny is going to hide the eggs? What will be in their Easter baskets? and what special dinner mommy is cooking for all of us?

btw...I finally decided on roasted chicken with lemon and herbs, garlic mashed potatoes, french green beans and carrot cake for dessert. Plus I bought a lovely bottle of Chardonnay for Ole and I to share.

Back to the cookie baking story. We had so much fun and made quite a mess but it was all worth it. The kids all took turns decorating and I supervised...and helped with the tricky parts. Afterward we all had to give the cookies a taste test and they passed with flying colors. Yum!!!

What The Heck is Oobleck???

We all love Dr. Seuss at our house. We have read many of his books and loved each and every one. This morning I gathered up all my little ones and read "Bartholomew and the Oobleck". It's one I haven't read in a very long time and as soon as started reading it I remembered the wonderful message it gives at the end. Of course afterward we had to make our own Oobleck. The kids were completely mesmerized by it and had so much fun feeling it run through their fingers. This stuff is amazing. The kids (okay and me too) were totally taken with this goo. Oobleck defies Newton’s third law of motion–for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. If you quickly smack oobleck with your hand it immediately turns into a solid, instead of splashing or moving. If you slowly move oobleck it reacts like a liquid. Needless to say our oobleck took a lot of fist smacking! Our kitchen was filled with lots of “Wow,” “Cool,” wide eyes of amazement and much laughter!” You really must try it!

To make your own mix 2 cups of cornstarch and 1 cup water in a bowl. If you want to color your oobleck like we did, add a few drops of food coloring to the water before adding to the cornstarch. It took some effort to mix the water and cornstarch. Try it out (hit it with your fist and pour it off a spoon to see if it works) before you give into the urge to add more water to make it easier to mix. When the kids weren’t playing with it I covered it with plastic wrap. Have fun!!!

Sunday Morning Sillies!

Last night Ole took the 3 "big" kids to go see "Monsters vs. Aliens" in 3D. After the movie they all came rushing in sporting their cool 3D glasses and insisted on wearing them. This morning Abby came downstairs wearing her new favorite accessory. I couldn't resist snapping a few pictures for her scrapbook. These are truly the moments that need to be captured. Oh, and please excuse the morning bed head crazy hair.

3 at Three

                                                                   Oliver @ Three
                                                                       Elliott @ Three
                                                                    Henry @ Three

I took a little walk down memory lane this morning when I put Henry in an outfit that I bought for Oliver many years ago. Yes, it's a classic Hanna Andersson stripey shirt, navy shorts and the bucket hat. I hate to sound like a ad for Hanna but I have to say her clothes really do last! This little outfit has been worn and worn countless times and in all honesty it really does still look like new. Sadly, this will be the last summer this outfit will be worn by my boys as there will be NO MORE little boys in line to pass on the tradition. But I couldn't help being a little melancholy as I saw Henry playing so happily in the same outfit his two big brothers had worn too.

Let Them Eat Cake...

This morning when I went upstairs to wish Henry a good morning the first thing out of his mouth was "Mommy Henny make cake!" How could I refuse such a sweet request? All of my kids love to cook, and even at three Henry is quite a little helper. First we got out my new cookbook which is filled with recipes for making all kinds of yummy baked goods. After checking out several options we finally decided on Hummingbird Cake. Now, I have never made it before , but from what I understand it is a true Southern treat. I had actually never heard of it before a few weeks ago when my dear friend Tiffeni told me about it. Thankfully my baking pantry is filled with all kinds of stuff and we had everything we needed to make it. Henry helped me gather all the ingredients and we got to work. He helped with every step along the way. Measuring, mixing and even putting all the cupcake liners in the pan. Once our cupcakes were in the oven he sat by the oven door watching them bake...waiting anxiously for them to finish. I opted to omit the decadent cream cheese frosting mainly because they were so yummy plain. As much as we all love frosting I thought it would be a bit healthier to leave them alone and they are a huge hit even naked. Here is the recipe we used if anyone wants to give it a try.

Hummingbird Cake

Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3 eggs, beaten

1 1/4 cups vegetable oil

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 can (8oz) crushed pineapple, well drained

1 cup chopped pecans

2 cups chopped firm ripe banana

Cream Cheese Frosting:

16 ounces cream cheese, softened

1 cup butter, room temperature

2 pounds confectioners' sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 to 1 cup chopped pecans

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350°. Sift flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and cinnamon together into mixing bowl several times. Add eggs and salad oil to the dry ingredients. Stir with a wooden spoon until ingredients are moistened. Stir in vanilla, pineapple and 1 cup pecans. Stir in the bananas. Spoon the batter into 3 well-greased and floured 9-inch round cake pans. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes,or until a wooden pick or cake tester inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn onto cooling rack. Cool completely before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting:
Combine cream cheese and butter; cream until smooth. Add powdered sugar, beating with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Stir in vanilla.

Frost the tops of all 3 layers, stack and then frost sides. Sprinkle top evenly with the 1/2 to 1 cup chopped pecans.

Abby's Birthday Celebration

Today was Abby's Day. Even though her actual Birthday was a few days ago we decided to celebrate today so that we could do it up big for her. Here are just a few pictures from her special day.

The Playstand

This year as a part of Abby's birthday present we asked our friends at Kinderhaus Toys to custom make Abby a play stand. It's something I have wanted to have for the kids for a very long time and now at last we have one. I cannot tell you what a beautiful job KC did creating this and the kids love it. Currently it is a grocery store, but I love that it can be anything they imagine it to be. A Post Office, bank, flower shop, Ice cream stand, etc. etc. the possibilities are endless. I plan to make up Thematic boxes which contain all kinds of goodies that go along with the various ideas that we come up with. For instance, in the Post Office box I plan to put in envelopes, pretend stamps, mailing boxes, stickers, etc. I'm going to go to the USPS to gather some free Priority stuff for them to play with...gotta love the free stuff. Otherwise I am sure I will find tons of goodies at the dollar store. I am not going to keep these boxes out all the time, instead I am going to save them for rainy days or for times when they need something "new" to get their imagination going.

The Playstand is the perfect addition to our new playroom. Over the past few weeks we have slowly transformed our loft from our home office into a playspace for the kids. It's a very long, and ugly story, but we have managed to turn it around and now this space is being used in a much more suitable way. The kids love it and so do Ole and I.

Abby's Birthday Cake

Today we are having Abby's Birthday celebration! We only do family parties at our house because with the 6 of us we are a party in ourself. This year we decided on a cupcake & Butterfly theme so I decided to have a little fun with her cake and get creative. The butterflies were super simple. The wings are made from white chocolate covered pretzels. I dipped them in royal icing and then sprinkled them with colored super fine sugar to make them sparkle!!! You gently angle them in the frosting to make them appear like wings leaving a small space in between for the body. I used a pastel peanut M&M for the head, thin black licorice for the antenne, and I piped frosting down the center for the body. For a little more fun I found some really cute over-sized polka-dot sprinkles from Wilton to add for a bit more color and whimsy! Whaa Laa Butterfly cupcakes!!!

Valentines Day I-Pod

I saw this idea a while back and thought they were the cutest things. Perfect for Valentine's Day party favors or treats to hand out at school. I made up 25 of these this morning for Oliver to hand out to his friends tomorrow at their V-Day party. Perfect for 3rd graders!!! I still have to put all the name tags on them but I wanted to share. I also made you all a tut in case you wanted to make them too!

Here is the Tut!

Imaginary Friends

Abby has the best imagination! She is always telling us the most amazing stories and she is so expressive. Several months ago Abby told us that we had a ghost living with us and the ghost
was the one causing all the mischief in the house...not her. Abby was very specific when she told us about this ghost and gave the greatest detail about what our ghost looked like. The thing that tickled us most was the fact that our ghost has Big Blue Boobs! Where she came up with that idea still remains a mystery. Thankfully our Ghost is friendly and likes to play tricks on us, and isn't scary at all. This afternoon I heard Abby in her room chatting away and when I peeked in and asked her who she was talking with she simply replied..."Mama, I'm chatting with the ghost with the Big Blue Boobs!" It was all so matter-of-fact, I just told them to stay out of trouble and have fun and she said "okay". Oh, to be 4 again!

7th Heaven

Happy Birthday Sweetheart!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Our house has been a flurry of activity today as you can see. The kids and I had so much fun creating lots of beautiful paper lanterns and Chinese dragons. Our kitchen looks so festive and we are now just waiting for Papi to get home with our dinner. The table is set and we are ready for our celebration to begin. The kids are so excited and asked if we could do this every year. I think my idea was a hit!

Chinese New Year Celebration Sneek Preview

Nope, it's not a dress for Abby! but rather these adorable little fabric fortune cookies I made for my family for our Chinese New Year Celebration. This year I really wanted to add a lot more fun and interesting celebrations for the kids beyond the tradition ones, although we will be celebrating those too! So tomorrow we are doing it up BIG for Chinese New year. The kids and I are going to make paper lanterns to hang and also a big paper dragon. We are also going to make Chinese Almond Cookies. I have made lots of fun little extras too. Everyone is getting a really cute placemat with their Chinese astrological sign and Chinese take-out boxes filled with treats. Plus dh is is bring home Chinese food from our favorite place. Yummy!!
Anyway, I found this adorable tut for fabric fortune cookies on brassy Apple's Blog and I made them for everyone. I used some really sweet fabric I got from Mary(flourishes) when I won one of her great bloggy give-aways. It's PERFECT!!!! because it has sweet little pandas on it. See Mary, I found the perfect use for one of your scraps!!!

"Cookies" part deux

We just finished up the cut-outs and now I am taking a little break. To be honest....I am cookied out!
It seems like I have been in the kitchen for the past three days straight and I need a time-out from it. We have enough cookies to feed a small army so we are good for a while. Plus, I will be back in the kitchen all day tomorrow fixing our Christmas dinner. Anyway, the cut-outs turned out really sweet so I thought I would share.

Early Morning Gingerbread Cookie Making

This morning we were up early to continue working on our Christmas cookie making. This morning we started out with making Gingerbread boys and girls. The kids and I had so much fun rolling, cutting, and baking them but of course the best part of all is the decorating. I decided to try something a little different this year I put the Royal Icing in a squeeze bottle to make it easier for the kids to handle and it works like a charm. Wilton makes them and you can pick them up any place they sell cake making supplies. Next we are going to do traditional sugar cookie cut-outs and get those frosted up. So far this is what we have completed.

Kris Kringles
White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies
Macaroons
Lemon Coconut Cookies
Linzer Cookies
Rum Balls
Jam Thumprints
Gingerbread boys and girls
Cut-Outs

We have a few more kinds to make and then I am going to attempt to make traditional German Stollen. It's one of Ole's Christmas favorites so I think it will be the perfect treat to have with our Christmas dinner tomorrow.

A Little Mommy & Abby Spa Time

We have been on our feet all morning in the kitchen baking tons and tons of cookies. A short while ago Abby looked up at me and said "Mommy, my feet are killing me!" and I have to admit mine were too. So, we decided to take a break from all of our Christmas cookie baking to have a little mini spa time. After soaking in a warm bubble bath we treated our selves to some aromatherapy. Including a foot soak, and then a relaxing foot massage and then some yummy foot cream. Then, of course while we were at it she wanted me to do her hair, complete with moose. Afterward she was looking at both of us in the mirror and she said...."Mommy, you look just like me and I look just like you." It absolutely melted my heart and I thought to myself..."I am so glad I have a little girl to do all these fun and girly things with" and Abby is the perfect companion.