Emergency Christmas Cake

[droool....Emergency Christmas Cake. Black Magic Chocolate Cake with whipped cream and mocha buttercream center and topped with mocha buttercream. Made the morning before the Christmas party after the first cake failed.]

I was in charge of dessert for one of my parents' Christmas parties. I finally decided the day before the party on maybe a festive yule log cake and an optional lighter dessert. Isaac and I made the sponge cake and put it in the oven. The twins and I talked about the Christmas party, who would be there, what we would do, and that we were making the cake to celebrate Jesus's birthday.

I carefully prepared a clean towel with powdered sugar to roll the cake when it came out of the oven, and started researching my second citrus-based dessert. The buzzer rang, and I flipped the cake out on the waiting towel and began to gingerly roll it up. Crunch, crack, crunch. Uh-oh. Sponge cakes aren't known for their light crunchiness. I took a good look at the cake and picked up a corner. Half the cake came up in a solid, lightweight sheet. Not gonna roll this cake. Instead, I passed out sample cake-blocks to the twins, who appreciated them more than I did.

Sam came down from his nap ten minutes later and came to the kitchen to see who was snacking on what. Patrick ran over to him, leaned over, and carefully explained the situation to him: "Sam, Mommy tried to make God's cake, but it got crunchy, so now, we can eat it."

The proud aftermath

...of the great Cherrio disaster of '09. I caught Sam, to the absolute delight of Patrick and Isaac, standing in the middle of the kitchen table and chucking giant handfulls of Cheerios in all directions. Aaaaa!

Patrick did an excellent job cleaning up.

Butter Boy

I really only went upstairs to sit in my big chair for five minutes, and plan my week. I ran downstairs again when I heard an unusual complaint, "Mommy, Sam's all buttery!" Yes, he was finger painting. On the dining room floor. With a full stick of nicely softened butter. Judging from his face, he ate quite a bit too.

I couldn't get mad at him at all for some reason, it was just too funny. I put him in the bathroom, put soap on his hands, and told him to wash. Washing his hands is his favorite daily activity, so I thought he'd go to it. I cleaned up the floor and came back to check on him, only to realize he decided to wash his face too. And hair. His hair was an oil slick. Because there is no bathtub (only a shower!) in the awesome 'New Minnesota House' so we packed up for an emergency trip to grandma's bathtub. Sam's certainly making an effort to get more calories.

Book Worm

By mid-summer, Sam had finally stopped squirming enough for longer books. Now he finds a book, finds me, grabs my finger, pulls me to the step, and sternly requests that a read it :)

The previous occupants

Liked a very clean house. They kindly left us enough giant dusters for everyone in the family. Yes, that's right, everyone, 3 multicolored kid dusters, 2 mom and dad lambswool dusters, a funny shapped duster for raven and a giagantic extendable feather duster for biscuit the cat. We'll see if it helps us keep the house clean.

Thanksgiving Joy

Next year I want to see more pies...someone didn't bring their two-pie entry fee.

Found in the closet. And yes, they appear to be all the same size. Who's hiding the quintuplets?

My little pilgrim. So much to be thankful for!

Tired Boy

The twins were asleep, and Sam wouldn't have any part of it. Then I found him on the coffee table. It appears he had a different idea for napping venues...

Sam's new look

Not very visible in this dashing shot...

But here we see the full effect. Yes, that's his brother's underwear. He decided a couple of weeks ago to start wearing underwear, and will put it on himself. He can't walk then, of course, but he can still waddle and that's good enough for him. He's also decided he can't wait until 2 years old to start potty training, so has initiated using the big potty himself, so he can prove to us he's actually 3 and a half, just like his brothers.

Birthday No-no

Evening: very nice
Dark Mocha Chocolate Cake with chocolate filling: excellent
Feeding the kids sugar + coffee (in the cake, oops) at 8pm: not so great

 And yes, that's a Minnesota version of 'not so great', which translates to 'really bad'.

October Snow at the New House

Grrrrr...Happy Halloween!

Chilly October Boat Ride

paddy watching the wheels

the river and isaac watching it go by

The cousins came along :)

The price of the new dishwasher installation

Sam walked right past the both of us, pulled a chair over, pulled the ziplock off the counter, opened it, grabbed the cheese, walked past us again and sat down for a snack. Tasty!

New and Improved!

One beautiful dishwasher that actually cleans dishes!

Eating the toast boy

the left leg was especially tasty...

And More Strawberries by Isaac

[The play-doh strawberries were very prolific this year]

For a bake sale, we made apple pies and all three boys took their turns with the apple peeler/corer. They were facinated with the process and proud to turn the crank themselves, especially Sam. After we dropped off two wonderful smelling pies we decided that someday we should make one to eat ourselves...mmmm :)

On our next trip to the grocery, the twins reminded me we should buy apples for another pie. Isaac then became really excited, "Mommy, I have a idea! We should make a pie with strawberries! Wouldn't that be good! Have you never had a strawberry pie before?! Is that a good idea?!" I didn't have the heart to tell him someone already invented the strawberry pie because he was so earnest. He continues to remind me every time we see strawberries that we should try to make a pie out of them, so I get the feeling we're making a strawberry pie this winter.

We Bought It

The obvious lack of posts was brought to you by the 'New Minnesota House'.  This lovely home sports a huge yard, gold, red, and green shag carpets, and a deluxe laundry chute.  All of our junk is now in one place!

When all Three are Smiling

It makes for a good day!

Early Fall at the Cabin

Impressive Work with a Cheese Grater

Sam managed to swipe a perfect hole in the side of this with the rotary cheese grater. It made the coolest tinkling noise and left large very fragile pieces all over the carpet. Even biscuit was intrigued. Very talented. [Yes I had my back turned. Cool World Market Wine Glasses: 3 down one to go!]

Samuel 21 Months

Isaac's Strawberries

Foldable Parking Garage

Voila! It folds! Isaac's expression when I unfolded this in front of him for the first time was incredible. Wonder and joy. The folding option keeps it out of the way so he can carry it around and, more importantly, put it on the high shelf when Sam gets too curious.

Wet Dog, Happy Dog

The J W Hershey

Biking past Saint Paul the other week we found an awesome tug idling by the shore.

Sam-pulling at Great Aunt Margie's

Beautiful Arboretum