Amazing Powers of Destruction

So perhaps one of the kids is a closet telekinetic, because how do you break the head off of a doll inside a snow globe?  I was pretty impressed with this one.

Cupcake Wars Round 2

What do you do on a rainy President's Day?  Go to Benihana of course and then make some more fancy cupcakes.  It was a toss up between a lemon meringue cupcake and a S'more cupcake.  The S'more won!  The bottom was a yummy graham cracker crust with chocolate melted on top of it.  Then we topped the chocolate cupcake with more graham cracker crumbs and chocolate.  The frosting was a delicious, ooey, gooey, sticky, messy marshmallow tasting concoction.  We don't have a torch, so we had to stick them in the oven under broil, so they turned a little black.  Oh well...they were still delicious.  Overall they were so yummy, but didn't taste too much like a S'more.   We decided that it maybe needed a graham cracker based cake instead of a chocolate base.  And the frosting was so sticky it made it impossible to eat without making a giant mess.  You totally needed a fork to eat it.  But it did taste just like marshmallow, so that worked.  I think I'd make these again, with a few adjustments. 

Cupcake Wars

 

 Today, after I picked Joshua up from kindergarten, he and Larkin asked if we could watch an episode of Cupcake Wars.  What 5 year old and 3 year old ask that?  How awesome are my kids?

Aaron requested us to make some cupcakes...war style.  I'm pretty sure I've made a million cupcakes in my day...all from a box.  I will make homemade frosting...on occasion if asked for it.  But today, we did it all from scratch.

My cupcake is a vanilla bean, coconut reduction cake with coconut infused buttercream frosting.   The candy pearls and toasted coconut capture the feeling of a tropical island.  It's finished with a delectable flourish of milk chocolate on top.

I had a panel of distinguished judges...complete with a crazy little guy with a hard to understand accent.  Noah does the best accents ever!  Arwen said my frosting was too sour...what??  I think it was the only thing she could make up as a critique.  There was nothing remotely sour in them :)  That and she said they were not moist.  I'm pretty sure she doesn't even know what that word means.  Joshua loved them, but then again he always votes for the prettiest girl to win on the actual show.  Larkin loved them!   Aaron loved them!  Yea :) 

Since the other contestants failed to show up, I won the war!!  In lieu  of the $10,000 I told Aaron he can just take me to Hawaii.  When are we going, Aaron??

Black Bean Breakfast

LuLu

Noah was our oatmeal boy.  Larkin is our bean girl.

Here she is enjoying her delicious breakfast of black beans and a pickle.  

"Oh yeh!  You're jealous", she implies with a wink.

Day at the Park

Day at the Park

Some time ago we were just having a nice day in the park.  

Swinging on swings.

Sliding down slides.

When Noah wandered down a dark and narrow path into the woods stumbling on a den of demented stick creatures.

 

 He screamed the scream that he often screams then tamed the wild stick beast and named him Lenny.

Christmas Tree

Sarah and each of the kids chose their favorite tree.  The problem was that none of them were the same tree. I listened to all the pleas to "Cut this one Dad, Cut this one".  Tree cutting day was either going to be a great beginning to Christmas or a crying fest.  With some negotiating I suggested this and that and we wandered around enough that no one knew where their favorite tree was now.  We picked a new one together.  I think this years tree was the best we've ever had.

Walk In The Woods

It was cold, and muddy, and fun.  Hot chocolate waiting back at the car helped.

Best buddies.

Larkin ended up in the mud once and surprisingly didn't demand new clothes.   

Nice pose Noah.

Poor Sarah was home resting from a back injury.  We missed you Sarah.

Hanging Out In The City

After our muddy hike we wandered into Portland.  Got some "lunch" at Cost Plus.  I let the kids pick out strange fool like things to try.  It, along with a bunch of caramel corn kept us alive.

Then we headed over to Washington Square to watch the ice skaters.

Then we hopped on the Max and road into Portland to play around Pioneer Square.

 

Noah's quite the doeboy.  Giddy-up.

 

This picture caught Larkin thinking she was going to fall off...Joshua saved her.

Lulu's Cital

Larkin's First Dance Recital:  Christmas in Hawaii

Larkin had lot's of different outfits...hmmm just like every day at home.

She had a hard time because she didn't like the bracelet on her hand.  She said it was too big.  So what did she do?  She moped the rest of the recital.  (actually, these are pics from rehearsal.  We filmed the recital.  She did awesome at the recital...hardly any moping and lots of paused dancing to run and give mom and dad high 5's!  The best was when she glared at at little boy in the audience who was being distracting.) 

There was a whole dance with just twirls.  But my favorite was when she did the hula and shook her little hips like a mad woman.  So stinking cute!  

At the end of the recital, Miss Heidi, Larkin's teacher gave a card a candy cane to each girl.  She then spent a couple of minutes explaining why each girl was special.  Some girls had great dance moves and learned a ton.  Then there was Larkin.  She said, "Larkin is spunky."  For all you moms out there with "spunky" children...you know what this means really.  Yes...NAUGHTY.  I loved it!  The week before the recital, Larkin got put on a timeout for squeezing someone's arm and then putting her hands around her neck.  When asked what she was doing, she said she was giving a hug.  Let's hope that was true and that Miss Heidi mistook the alleged "hug" for strangling!  I'm not sure Larkin will ever be a prima ballerina, but she sure loves it.

Sock Bunny Underpant Hat

Noah's an inventor.  Sadly most of his ideas never get built.  We don't have a welder, a lathe, (I busted my soldering iron), or many other tools it'd take.  But this one we had the materials in hand and the tools necessarily to build it.

Materials:

Underpants

Socks

Thread

Tools:

Needle

Invention:

Sock Bunny Underpant Hat

This requires a crazy little boy to pull it off.

Just a disclaimer here.  The spittle is my fault.   It's hard to keep the juices in when spinning at the g-forces I was asking for.  "Spin a little faster Noah...faster...faster...click,click,click".