Cookie Creations

I decided I need to feature some of my cookie creations here. I generally post photos to FB, but there is no reason to not do some entries on them as well. :) Plus this way, I can share their "back stories."

To say that I have become obsessed with royal icing would be an understatement. :) I used to hate decorating cut out cookies. I hated mixing all the separate colors and then slathering the icing across the cookie. It always seemed to me that the cookie would lose most of it's shape and if there were more than one color on the cookie it became a mess. I just didn't have the patience to do a half-decent job of it.

Well, then something magical happened. I was surfing a blog I linked to from one of the couponing blogs I followed. I started reading some of her earlier entries and stumbled across a link off of her blog to yet another blog - Annie's Eats. She has a fantastic tutorial on how to decorate with royal icing. I had ALWAYS wondered how in the world people make their decorated sugar cookies look so amazing! I figured it was complicated and quite beyond my reach. Imagine my surprise when I discovered just how easy it really was! It was like unlocking a mystery in the baking world for me.

I decided my first attempt would be making cookies for Ezra's birthday party. I actually did a trial run a week or so before just to see how it would go. I'm glad I had some practice to work out some kinks and get some experience learning how to work with the icing. When it came time to make the "real" batch, it went really well! I was excited to debut them, and everyone really enjoyed them! Especially the birthday boy. :)

Of course, I had to share this technique with my baking partner in crime Summer. A few weeks after Ezra's birthday, I made a trip up to MN to meet her new daughter. We decided it would also be fun to do some baking together and what better thing to try but cookies with royal icing! Summer had already reviewed the tutorial, and I shared with her what I had learned. We had a blast decorating fall themed leaves and acorns!

I was super excited for Halloween! What a fun series of cookies to decorate! Among the pumpkins, scary cats and ghosts, I threw in a couple fun ones. A Charlie Brown ghost and a cookie made to resemble Crisco. :)

I took an unintentional break from decorating cookies until two December events: Caiden's Christmas program and a Christmas cookie exchange in December. The parents were asked to bring a plate of cookies for the social gathering in the classrooms after the program. I've been dying to try out the snowflakes, since I'd seen so many photos of beautifully decorated ones. I was shocked at how quickly these cookies were gobbled up by the kiddos! :)

For the Christmas cookie exchange, I knew immediately that I'd make some sugar cookies with the royal icing. I had to get creative with the process this time around because I was working on a limited schedule. I had to make 6 dozen cookies, but I was in rehearsal for my play several evenings a week. So I started early and worked on them a little bit each day.

First I did all the baking.

Then I piped and flooded.

  

Next I added the garland.

Then the stars.

Finally the ornaments went on.

I am pleased to say they were a hit! :)

Next up were cookies for an impromptu Super Bowl party. Believe it or not, I actually had a football cookie cutter laying around. I bought it around Caiden's birthday last year intending to use it to make cookies of the Toy Story aliens for his party. I never did get around to that, but it sure came in handy for this party!

My next project will be this weekend. I am making cookies for Caiden's class for their Valentine's Day party. I will be making heart shaped cookies with the kids' names on them which were inspired by this blogger. Summer found her, and we are both pretty hooked on her site! Oh if only I had the time and inspiration to bake like she does!

I really enjoy making and decorating these cookies. I wonder if this could ever actually be a paying gig. Karla keeps bringing up the idea of opening a bakery together. :) I actually told B when I was in the midst of the Christmas cookies that I found the decorating process relaxing! This has really turned into a fun hobby for me, and I look forward to many more baking and decorating opportunities!

TV Obsession

After years and years of putting it off, we finally broke down and started watching AMC's Mad Men. WHY OH WHY did we wait so long?! I swear I cannot stop talking about this show. And I totally understand why it's earned so many awards. After watching a series like this, we're totally wrecked for watching sub par network TV. (Don't get me wrong, there are some very well written shows on network. Some that come immediately to mind are: Fringe, Modern Family, Suburgatory.) But Mad Men has me completely captivated.

One thing I absolutely love is the fashion. I am by no means a fashionista, but I do love drooling over the gorgeous dresses and imagining what it would be like to dress like Betty does day in and day out. I am fascinated by the idea of accessorizing not just your purse and shoes, but your hat and gloves as well. I also think the men look so incredibly dashing in their fedoras.

The show does an amazing job setting you smack dab in the sixties. The attention to detail for the decor, props, language, current events, style, culture and the near constant drinking and smoking (OMG - that took some getting used to!)...all of it...is simply mind-blowing. Obviously I don't really know what life was like in the early to mid 60s, but I honestly feel like I am living right there with the characters in the show. It's also been fun figuring out what cost of living was back then compared to now. What? Purchasing a 2 bedroom apartment in NYC cost $3,500? A decent weekly salary was $75? You could buy a fancy car for $6,500? And if you were particularly well paid, you could just walk in and plop down the cash for it? What do you mean people weren't taking out loans and mortgages for everything?

And then there is the writing. The story lines are tight and draw you right in. There is intrigue, romance, humor, drama...the whole shebang. And this is one of those shows where the main character is what they call an anti-hero. You want to hate him, but as time goes on, you find yourself cheering for him. In fact, most, if not all of the characters are flawed in some significant way. But that is what makes them believable. Relateable. Although, there is ONE particular character played by an actor whose character in another show was positively detestable. (Rob & Kristi, all I have to say is ARGH - FREAKING CONNER!) Anywho, I've nearly come to the point where I no longer hold that against him. Barely. ;)

If you have not yet watched this show, I urge you to give it a shot. All four previous seasons are available streaming on Netflix and season five starts at the end of March. You won't regret it. :)

Vintage Post - Ezra Walks!

Wanna talk about behind on updates?! This one is, oh, 3 or 4 months old? His official first steps were on November 14th which was a few days before this video, but we didn't have the camera on hand. He spent a couple weeks tentatively walking between mom and dad, and by Dec 3, he was walking all over with lots more confidence. :)

 

Video of Some of Ezra's First Steps

One of my very favorite things are new walkers. I love all the bow-legged and stiff kneed cuteness of it! I also love the adorableness of watching him from behind.

Video of Ezra walking a couple weeks later

Video of the "Behind the Scenes" View

The Menu Board

Spend any amount of time with me and it will eventually come out that I despise menu planning for dinners. I don't know exactly why, but it is true. For the longest time, I would just wing each night's dinner and come up with something that afternoon. Often that would result in a trip to the store. Well, then I went from one kid to two kids, and that whole "plan" went square out the window. :P I realized I had to get a heck of a lot more organized, so I got myself a magnetic whiteboard and markers, slapped it up on the fridge and started the weekly meal planning. Sometimes I'll have several weeks in a row of doing a decent job of it, and then I'll have a number of weeks where it is a real struggle. Sometimes I actually get overwhelmed by my cookbooks and become incapable of picking anything out! But I do truly love having plenty of cookbooks to eventually pick from.

Anywho, this overwhelmed feeling lead me to make a cheat sheet of our favorite recipes so that I had a quick go to when it came to picking out the meals for the week. I really like having that available to me. What I try to do now is pick out 2 or 3 new recipes to try each month and then rely on the old standards to get us thru the rest of the days. My cheatsheet wasn't very pretty tho, and it was starting to get ragged. Plus, it never contained any side dishes - another area of difficulty for me. So, imagine my delight when I stumbled across this brilliant and beautiful menu planning system on a blog I frequent - IHeart Organizing.

I was instantly captivated! It turns out it was an idea from Better Homes & Gardens. They have the templates available on their site. All you do is open the file, type in your menu items, print it on magnetic paper (yes, I was surprised to learn of the stuff too!) and voila! You have your new awesome menu system. :)

Instead of going out and buying new whiteboards and a fancy calendar, I just re-purposed my existing whiteboard and made some room on the side of the fridge for the menu labels. So my only investment was buying the magnetic paper.

Mine isn't quite complete yet. Turns out I have a lot more in the "meat" or main dish category than I realized, and I need to create a few extra labels (like "leftovers" and some duplicates of side dishes we commonly consume more than once a week). But I "launched" it last night and so far I LOVE how it looks! All of my main meat dishes, veggie sides, bread/grains/pasta and salads that we commonly eat are all listed in front of my face in a very eye pleasing manner. I hope this will make my weekly meal planning more fun and less of a chore! Here, you can have a look too. :)

Oy

Hmmm...a little cobwebby 'round these parts. This is longest I've gone in quite some time between posts. I didn't realize how busy I've been until I sit down, open this blog and realize just how very long it has been since it has seen any love! I know I also haven't been very motivated to write. Since we've moved back home, I haven't had quite as large an audience seeking updates on what is going on with our little family, or more realistically, seeking photos and videos of the boys. But I do have an upcoming Ezra post to complete highlighting his 18mo milestones. I also had aspirations of keeping a running log for each of the boys so it would be easier to make those entries. Whoops. :P But to be honest, after going these many months without an update, it has me thinking about what direction I should take this blog, if any at all. I like to have a digital record of what we've been up to and keeping track of how the boys are growing up. I don't want to wish 10 or 20 years from now that I did a better job of capturing the little stuff. But that is a lot of pressure to myself under too. Up to this point, this blog has largely been little more than a series of updates about the boys. And I'm glad I have those records, but I feel like I want it to be a little something more. I just don't know what that is yet...

In the meantime, I'm not going to promise a backlog of catch up posts. I would like to post about a handful of things the boys achieved these last few months, but I'm not sure what that is going to look like just yet. So please, do stay tuned. This blog will likely start seeing some activity again soon.

Moving Up

Notice anything different? If you realized that Ezra is sitting at the table and not in the blasted piece of crap annoying haaaaaaated high chair, then you win! :) He transitioned into Caiden's old booster chair this past weekend. I am SO happy to finally be rid of that most annoying item! I cursed it pretty much every day. :P

Ezra seems pretty happy in his new place at our table, too. Awww...now we're really a family of four as we sit around the table for dinner. :)

My First 5K

It's official. I ran my first 5K, and I can hardly believe it! :) I've never been a runner. I've always hated the idea of running. But something crazy clicked in my head about 2.5 months ago after hearing some of my neighbors talk about getting into running and reading an article in one of my magazines talking about fitness buddies. So I told B I would do the Couch to 5K training program with him if we was interested. I bought the app for my phone and within a day or two we were pounding the pavement!

It didn't take me long to realize that I needed some proper workout clothes, and that we would benefit from a double jogging stroller for the boys. I dropped some cash at Kohl's, and B scoured Craigslist where he found a decent deal for a stroller. Our general run schedule was Sunday, Tuesday, and Friday mornings. We lucked out with a beautiful fall which enabled us to run outside up until the end of October. Then it finally got cold enough in the mornings where we felt it was better for us (and the boys) to utilize the local gym.

A family friend of B's clued us in to the Hot Chocolate 5K/15K that was happening in Chicago on Nov 5. My sister, Cathy, ran that last year, and I remembered her telling me about the gobs and gobs of chocolate they got! When I checked the date against our 9 week training schedule, I found that the timing could not have been better!! The date of the race landed right at the end of our final training week! Talk about serendipity! So we signed up that very night and now had a serious goal to keep us honest. :)

I had a lot of ups and downs throughout the training process; especially in the first few weeks. The program helps you gradually build up to running for a full 30 min by breaking your workout into walk/run increments. The running portions steadily lengthen as the walking portions shrink. I really struggled with the running part in the beginning. I was OK running for 60-90 seconds, but for some reason, the 3-5 min runs were so difficult! I was seriously worried about the upcoming weeks and the longer runs. But then I started using music to help me on the runs, and that made ALL the difference for me. Suddenly I had something different to focus on and a beat to help me with pace. Once I made music a regular part of the routine, it became much more bearable.

The day I ran for 20 min straight (week 5, day 3) was a HUGE milestone for me. I never thought I'd be able to do that. A lot of people say that running is a mental thing. If you can get past the mental stumbling blocks, it's amazing what you can really do. Getting to 25, then 28, and finally 30 min weren't nearly as hard as those first few weeks. Don't get me wrong, I often hit points throughout my run where all I want to do is walk or quit, but I find ways to push through those moments and muster up new strength to continue on.

The nine weeks pretty much flew by, and before I knew it, it was race weekend. Caiden and I took the train down into Chicago (his first proper train ride!) to pick up our race packets at the expo, and I decided that since this was my first ever 5K, I'd treat myself to a shirt and mug to commemorate the occasion. :) We went to bed early-ish that night, and 5:30am rolled around pretty darn quickly. Cathy was super awesome and showed up at 6am (on a Saturday, mind you, again - SUPER awesome) to take care of the boys for us so that we didn't have to wake them up and take them downtown in the cold with us.

We got on the road a little later than planned, but still made it downtown in pretty good time. We were stymied by some traffic and construction, but finally found our way to the parking garage and coughed up the $25 for the convenience of close parking. Lucky for us, the start was delayed by 15 min due to a semi-truck getting stuck thus causing a race route modification. We huffed it over to gear check, stripped down some layers, ditched our bags, and finally into our corral. On our way, I got a text message from my sister Karla who was also super awesome to get up ridiculously early on a Saturday morning to come down and cheer us on! That really made my day to have someone we knew down there to cheer for us!!! :D We found her on our way to the start line where she high-fived us and snapped our picture. :)

Moments later, we crossed the start line and started our run!!! Now, up to this point, I had never actually run the full 5K. I didn't realize this until the final week running on a treadmill. I wasn't entirely sure I could run the whole distance, but I really wanted to try, so that was my goal and what I kept using to motivate myself to stay strong! It was neat running with such a HUGE group and listening to all the chatter going on around me. I also could feel the excitement of everyone which was a neat experience and also good for motivation. :) The course was pretty neat. We started in Grant Park on Columbus and Monroe and ran through downtown. We turned onto Randolph and ran thru the theatre district. We passed the block where my old office was, then turned to continued down Franklin. We took Franklin down past the Sears (Willis, bah, whatever) Tower and turned again down Van Buren. That lead us to Michigan and then to Roosevelt and finally back to Colombus to the finish line.

At the midway point I grabbed a Gatorade from the volunteers, and felt cool and all runner-like as I crushed the cup and tossed it on the pavement when I was done. :P By the time we got close to mile 3, I was starting to get tired and decided it was time to bring on the tunes. That helped to distract me and keep me going. We also spotted some people with signs cheering us ALL on towards the end. They had signs that said things like "Keep running, total stranger, you can do it!" and "You inspire me" and the like. It was both funny and motivating. Then we had an evil hill to conquer, and BOY did that ever test my mettle! I survived that, and when we rounded the bend, the finish line was in sight, and I was still running!!! At that point, I knew I could make it to the end without stopping! I had yet another serendipitous moment where the one song I needed to keep me going kicked in and carried me to the finish line and ended just as I crossed. I couldn't believe it, but I DID IT! I ran my first 5K! WOO!!!! My result was 39 min and 25 sec which works out to a 12:42 mile. I'm pretty proud of that for my first time out!

B and I stayed together through the whole run and crossed the finish line together. :) He called me his "pace girl," and he was a huge part of my motivation to keep moving! I am so glad we could do this together. :)

Afterward, we picked up our gear, connected with Karla, and headed into Grant Park for the after party. We enjoyed chocolate fondue with marshmallows, rice krispie treats, apples, pretzels and bananas, some hot chocolate, and lots of chocolate!!! We hung around a bit to listen to the live music (Maggie Speaks), and just overall enjoy the beautiful day we had to be in the city for this race.

I am so proud of myself for this accomplishment. I'm not eager to do another 5K anytime soon, but I want to keep up the running for cardio, and maybe I'll be ready to do another 5K this summer at a more local spot. Overall, this has been an amazing experience and absolutely eye opening to know that this is something I can do (and did!).

Halloween Happenings

B pointed out to me that this has been the best Halloween we've had in many years! Most of our Halloweens in Seattle had been lame at best. Highlights had been work related except the one year (2006) when we threw a party with some friends. But outside of that, none of our friends threw any parties, and we didn't feel like we knew enough people to throw one of our own - especially after C& E came along. I could also count on both hands the number of trick or treaters we had over SIX years. How pathetic is that?! Since each year became progressively lamer, my zeal and excitement over Halloween dwindled along with it. Gone were the days of spending months planning our costumes, eschewing the Halloween superstore drek, and eagerly counting down the days to Halloween. Why bother when we had no parties to go to?

Well, this year that has all changed! We went to our neighbors' awesome party dressed as the Yip Yip aliens from Sesame Street. We had everyone guessing who we were and getting quite the good laugh! It was also beyond awesome to be able to just walk down the block to get to their house! Katie came over to babysit for us, and that made one less major thing to worry about. Then on Sunday, we had a wonderful afternoon hanging out with Rusti & Amanda and enjoyed some yummy chocolate caramel apples.

Yip yip yip!

"Why are you doing this to me?!"

Then Monday was the big day! I dressed Caiden in his Buzz costume and dressed myself in some variation of a witch's costume (couldn't find my darn hat!), and we went grocery shopping. He got lots of smiles and salutes from various shoppers. Later that afternoon, Cathy came over to see the boys in their costumes. :) Around 4pm, we piled the boys in the wagon and went over to our neighbors' house to meet up with the rest of the kids to have a little pre-party (with some healthy snacks!) before hitting up the neighborhood.

There was an Easter bunny, butterfly, Rainbow Brite, baseball player, some superheros, Cleopatra, and I'm forgetting many of the others, but lots of cute costumes!

z

The whole crew

We left en masse and did our trick or treating together at all the houses. I loved watching Caiden go up to the door with all the kids and then run after them as we all moved on to the next house. He would thank the person at the door and then in a sing song voice call out over his shoulder "To infinity and beyond!" It was the cutest thing ever!

Hey! Guys! Wait for me!

Converging on the neighbors

Everyone found a gravestone to lie in front of

We covered several blocks and were out for about 90 minutes. I was actually surprised to hear Caiden call it quits and tell us he was ready to go home. But hey, no arguments that way! :)

We left a bowl of candy outside our door (but forgot to turn on the porch light - whoops!), and we could tell we missed some visitors. We had a few more trickle in after we got home, but the festivities ended at 7pm. It really was one of the best Halloweens we've had in quite a long time! I look forward to having fun again next year (and planning our costumes out sometime next spring!) :D You can see all the rest of the photos I posted here.

Caiden's First Day of School

We've created a new motto, posted on our masthead here at the Batavia Duchette. It's your news, delivered better late than never. :) So then, on with last month's highlight. :)

Caiden started preschool on September 8th! He is in the 3 year old morning class at Batavia Nursery School at the Congregational Church. He goes each week on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9-11am. We often walk to and from school on the nice days which I LOVE! He is in one of the smaller classes with 9 other kids. His teacher's name is Mrs. Stuttle. After the first week or so, he seemed to really settle in to the routine, and I think he likes going to school. They are learning about letters and numbers, learning how to recognize their first and last names, about the seasons, how to use scissors (which I think he learned how to use those at The Nest) and cut on lines, singing songs and rhymes. They have snacks each day, and I signed up to bring in Easter treats next year. (I was too late to sign up for Christmas or Halloween!)

Caiden talks most often about playing with the (construction) site trucks and snack time. Sometimes he tells me about playing with the other boys and/or girls. I don't think he's made a "best friend" yet, but there is still plenty of time for that. Our neighbor is also in his school, but enrolled in a different class. Maybe they'll be in the same class next year!

So far, I really like his teacher. I got to meet her during the orientation, and she seems great! Her classroom is decorated very cute, and I loved getting the chance to spend a little time in it during the orientation. I had a few emotional moments looking around his classroom and thinking back on the few memories I have of my own days in preschool. I wasn't at all sad, just amazed that now my own child is going to school.

Each morning I walk Caiden close to the front door and then turn him loose to head down the stairs and into the classroom on his own. After school the policy is for the teacher to release the child physically to whomever is picking him or her up. So the kids are all lined up behind the teacher, and they call out the child's name for pick up. It's such a wonderful feeling to see Caiden's eyes light up when he sees me and have him run up to me and give me a huge hug!! It's my favorite part of the day. :)

I look forward to seeing him continue to learn and enjoy school. So many families send their kids to this school, so we know it is a good one! :)

First Day of School on Our Front Steps

Mrs. Stuttle's Classroom

 

Wordless Wednesday