sweet thing(s)

happy birthday Asa Blue!!

this baby boy is 7! 

from this ital baby

to this big kid

(he's in costume here- 'strict teacher' for his school concert!)

sweet mischievous creative and loving.  plus so heartbreakingly handsome. and smart.  he amazes me!

we celebrated today with some family presents in the morning, a special date with one set of grandparents, the annual tuba birthday song serenade from his godfather

and cake with a good buddy (practically a second big brother!) who also shares his birthday.

happy happy birthday my darling boy!!!

my boy can bake!

 
the other day Lee kept asking me if we could make a cake.  as i was lounging on the porch at the moment, i put him off.  he kept bugging me so I suggested he make one by himself.  he has baked some with me and made waffle batter by himself a few times so I was confident he could handle it.  I set him up with an excellent vegan chocolate cake recipe, showed him where the ingredients were, reminded him how to measure properly, and went back outside.  

Lee did very well- the cake was excellent.  and he was very pleased!

here's the recipe.  It's from the Joy of Cooking.  it's an excellent beginning baker recipe as it is only measure and mix:  there is no butter to cream with sugar and eggs.  it's also a delicious cake even if you are not vegan. 

Vegan Chocolate Cake

oven: 350 degrees pan: 8 x 8 inch, greased and floured

sift together:

1 1/2 c flour

1 cup plus 2 T sugar

6 T cocoa

1 t baking soda

1/8 t salt

combine in another bowl:

1 cup cold water

1/4 cup veg oil

1 T vinegar

2 t vanilla

mix together wet and dry ingerdients till smooth.  bake approx. 25-30 minutes until a tester comes out clean.  Enjoy!

Asa's birthday party

for a monkey who loves Star Wars!

a monkey-with-a-lightsaber themed beach party!

the invite:  i am finally learning Photoshop (with this book Teach Yourself VISUALLY Adobe Photoshop) instead of begging my man for help all the time

the t-shirts: we printed a whack of Asa's monkey shirts, with a lightsaber instead of a porkpie hat

the cake:  super duper massive amounts of marshmallow fondant to create this.  here's a shot of just the cake.  it was 4 layers of basic white cake with swiss meringue buttercream frosting under the fondant and between the layers. here's an easy and clear recipe and it turned out really well, but honestly i think it's a bit gross! way too rich for me.  it's too bad because cakes look so beautiful with all that fluffy goodness.

Next up: Maxine's party is in 2 weeks.  i'm dreaming of a really beautiful girly cake...

{this moment}

inspired by Soulemama's 'blog-along' Friday ritual:

from Soulemama:  {this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savour and remember

dirty feet, or sticky bud season

this is what we have been dealing with on a daily basis from our barefoot-loving Island children:

on the Island we are surrounded by poplar trees (also called cottonwoods)  

Poplars are prolific in their output of organic matter.  every spring, first come the purple worms (seed pods) staining the sidewalks:

(image via)

and then the sticky buds (what we call them- resinous seed pod cases) and then the fluff (i'll post pictures in a few weeks- just wait!!)  they are beautiful trees and interesting in their output- but hell if you are trying to keep your house or clothes or feet sticky bud free.  (here's a cool post with lots of botanical info about the tree)

if you look at the photo above, all that black goo on Asa's feet is poplar resin that has to be removed with rubbing alcohol!!  they stain your clothes if you come into contact with them (many Islanders have yellow spots on the bum of their pants from the sticky buds)  Asa and Maxine insist on going barefoot whenever they're outside, but i don't want them in the house with their feet like this so it is a constant battle of washing the STICKY BUD FEET!!  

but, thankfully, it lasts for only a few weeks.  and also thanks to my man for discovering that rubbing alcohol will remove the goo!  

a fancy red dress

Maxine was given this (adult-sized) vintage dress for dress-up purposes:

she kept asking to wear it so i cut it up and sewed a pint sized version for her.  she wears it frequently- even for playing in the garden (although i had to bribe her to let me take some photos of her in it)

why have a fancy dress if you never get to wear it?

{this moment}

inspired by Soulemama's 'blog-along' Friday ritual:

from Soulemama:  {this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savour and remember

 

schoolyard naturalization project

well, it's not actually Asa's schoolyard but the parkland adjacent to it.  his school is in the middle of a giant park and the kids use the land all around to play on (how great is that?)

some parents had organized the City Parks department to come out and help the kids plant native trees and bushes in the area.  Maxine and i helped too.

the highlights for Maxine were the stylish gardening gloves she got to use and a cute Parks employee she was shoveling mulch with.  (i'm not joking!)

mini-vacation: Niagara Falls

my man had a bit of time off between school and work, so we decided to go to Niagara Falls overnight.  we had such a great time!! 

we stayed at a hotel with an amazing falls view

and a giant indoor waterpark with a wave pool and crazy waterslides

we went on the Maid of the Mist boat ride- it goes right to the bottom of the falls

and the butterfly conservatory

i think it was the maximum fun possible that one family could pack into a 32-hour period!

truly amazing cakes (not made by me!)

i discovered Sweetapolita's cakes and blog the other day.  they are absolutely inspiring!  I may have to take some cake decorating classes.

her fondant asparagus 8 layer chocolate cake:

(Sweetapolita's post about her asparagus cake here)

lemon blueberry cake (here's the link)

Rosie's daughter's Rainbow Doodle birthday cake.  white fondant icing- decorated by the birthday girl with edible ink markers - original post here

Wow!  Maxine and Asa's birthdays are coming up so I can really go for it after all this inspiration.

happy mother's day!

i hope yours was lovely-

"happy Moma!"

monkey cards and flowers from the garden

the first trip of the season to Centreville

look at the grip I have on my girl on the Skyride as we glide over the trees with their spring leaves bursting out

i made some soaps a la this Martha Stewart article for my mothers/mothers-in-law.

Martha's:

Ours:

i had visions of these gorgeous bars and the kids helping me 'flavour' them with all-natural ingredients.  i had a lot of trouble and the end product wasn't nearly as beautiful looking as we had hoped- and the kids couldn't really help me as it was more difficult than i thought.  But the soaps smell nice and hopefully they are nice to use.  they look better in the wrappers than they do out though- haha.

even though Mother's Day as it is today is sort of a 'made up' Hallmark-y Day it is still nice to be recognized and to recognize those that we love so much!  (here's an interesting article about the history of Mother's Day)

happy (belated!) day to you! (we were away the last few days!!  more on that later...)

{this moment}

inspired by Soulemama's 'blog-along' Friday ritual:

from Soulemama:  {this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savour and remember

the great cat rescue!

my friend Mitch spotted this cat in trouble as we rode down the boardwalk this morning:

it was meowing like crazy, on an outcrop of rocks about 15 feet from the boardwalk

(the cat was very far from dry land at the lake level.  unless the cat swam a long way from the beach, it must have gone over the wall.  from the boardwalk wall down to the water is about 10 feet. )

Mitch went (somewhere) and got a ladder.  It didn't quite reach but the cat was more than happy to leap to the bottom of the ladder.

a happy ending!

another felted friend

I made this little lamb for a young friend's 3rd birthday. 

she can take her lamb with her wherever she goes-

i love these small projects.  it is satisfying to finish a project in one sitting (in this case, on the floor of the living room, the morning of the birthday party!)