Overheard

This happened after she measured him so I'm sure he was feeling very loving as he was excited at how much he has grown.

Levi: Elyse, when you're a mom I'm gonna marry you.

Elyse: You can't marry your sister!!

Levi: Then who will I marry?

Elyse: I don't know....somebody else!

Pre K!

Levi got into full day public Pre K! We are extremely excited and hope that this picture depicts how it really is for him :) Elyse LOVES school. So much so that at the end of every school year she gets sad and grumpy that its ending. She is such a social creature and just loves being with her friends and reading and learning, we are hoping he follows in her footsteps.

I have a few concerns with him being gone all day, but what I'm most worried about (besides who will wipe him if he goes during the day) is him having to carry a backpack with a lunch and papers for 20 blocks. (for you non NY'ers that is 1 mile.... uphill both ways mind you) He's been practicing with an empty backpack and after 1 block he complains that he can't carry it. I think I've got my work cut out for me.

I'm pregnant NOT disabled!!

I found this on a website for pregnant Indian women, it says no lifting heavy weights. To me, she looks very sad at this news.

I should wear a sign, I swear!

Today while at Whole Foods, I was in the vitamin aisle. There was a stepladder that a woman was using to reach a high shelf so when she got down I asked her if she was done with it. In retrospect I shouldn't have said anything, but c'mon we're in NYC, if I had taken it and she wasn't done she could've been all "yo biznatch I was usin that stool" So really I did it to avoid a conflict but instead....oy.

I seriously thought maybe she misunderstood me, cuz she was all "uhhhh oh I don't know, you're not allowed to do that" Of course I knew exactly what she meant, but in trying to be polite (note to self, just stop trying to be polite to NY'ers.) I said "oh you mean like its against store policy?" So then she's all "Yeah, well you know, let me get that for you or I'll find someone to help you" Now what I should have said was "no thanks, I'm perfectly capable of climbing one step that is approximately 6 inches from the ground and grabbing something that is just barely out of my reach. You know I do run a household and from time to time, on occasion but not too many times a week don't worry, climb on a stool or balance on a counter to get stuff. Oh and I also lift things that are over 1lb. But don't worry only once a week so as not to strain myself. Typically my man servant Reggie reaches the high stuff and lifts everything over 12oz"

Ahh it was so maddening to me that the only thing I could think of in the moment was to say "Great I'll find someone" and then I climbed the ladder anyway with an eye roll for good measure.

Seriously people! I have somehow managed to live my life while pregnant 2 other times without bodily harm so leave me alone when I want to do crazy dangerous things like walk fast on the street or climb dangerously high step stools. Amen.

Mardi Gras

So I am usually behind about a month but this time its 3 months. Oh well. This year Can decided that we should celebrate Mardi Gras, so we looked up some restaurants but decided that we didn't love the occasion enough to spend $60+ bucks on dinner so we scrapped it and ate King Cake instead. He ordered it from some famous place in Nawlens and it came just in the nick of time and man it was yumm!

Goldfish Crackers

Goldfish Crackers from Smitten Kitchen

I made these awesome little cheese crackers that only resemble goldfish if you have a nifty mini cookie cutter. So I cut mine in triangle shapes and poked an eye in it. But when that proved to be waay too time consuming for this lazy chef I switched to the big cutter. I'm so glad that I spent so much time on these because both my kids refused to eat them after the first bite. But I swear they are good and SOO easy to make, just use the big cutter and roll them out really thin.

6 ounces (1 1/2 cups coarsely grated) sharp cheddar, orange if you can find one you like

4 tablespoons (2 ounces or 57 grams) butter

1/2 cup (2 1/2 ounces or 62 grams) whole wheat flour

1/4 cup (1 1/8 ounces or 31 grams) all-purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon onion powder

1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon table salt

Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine all ingredients in a food processor, running the machine until the dough forms a ball, about two minutes.

If the dough feels warm or worrisome-ly soft, wrap it in waxed paper or plastic wrap and chill it in the fridge for 30 to 45 minutes. This also makes it easier to transfer shapes once they are rolled out.

On a lightly floured surface, using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll the dough out 1/8-inch thick. Form shapes with a cookie cutter, dipping it in flour from time to time to ensure a clean cut. Gently transfer crackers to an ungreased (though mine were parchment-lined, because they are in despicable shape) cookie sheet with a 1/2 inch between them. Bake the crackers on the middle rack for 12 to 15 minutes, or until they are barely browned at the edges. Remove from the oven and set the cookie sheet on a rack to cool.

California

I usually call California, Cali. I was told by someone who is not a Cali native that natives do not call it Cali and that I should get with the times. Pishaw. I think Cali sounds so much cooler.

Ashley and Elyse were inseparable the whole time.

Sick.

Sea World. Click on the picture to get the full effect, it was priceless.

Levi just decided that he wanted to roll down the slight incline, yeah that didn't work out too well for him.

Levi and Naidya are a year apart. They sort of got along.

The kids worked so hard to build this little fort. And that shovel was almost the end of a few of the cousins so we had to put it away.

The weather was nice but definitely not warm enough to go in the water. Thankfully they had a lovely hot tub where I spent a lot of my time.

Can's sister Jenny and Ashley.

Can's parents Debbie and Gordon.

Yes we actually saw someone walking a duck.

We couldn't resist renting this thing, I told everyone to look cool and Elyse was the only one who complied. As per usual....Cannon was too cool.

I am so proud of my little Harry Potter fanatic. She is finally on book 7! She started the books around Christmas time and in the past 5 days has read over 300 pages of the last book, so I imagine she will be done soon. Hallelujah, sing praises. The name Harry Potter, Ron, Hermione and the like shall be banned from the house henceforth and forever. Amen.

Happy BIrthday to...

Me! It was my 24th birthday this year! Whew I am getting old. Because we had activity days (which we get home from around 6, gotta love NYC) and a sitter coming at 630 we decided that we would just grab some cake from a bakery so we could celebrate with the kids and run off on our date. We tried Amy's Bread and I gotta say even if it wasn't it sure as heck tasted like boxed cake.

And because my family is always so so good about taking photos of the (main) creator of it, this is as good as it got for that night. (please note the green crotched bracelet Elyse gave me)

We had been talking for 4 weeks about the place we would go. It was called Ceviche and I had sampled their food at an international night that was held at Elyse's school. It was divine! Well we got there and it was closed with the grate down and everything with a sketchy note saying to call Antonio with any problems. Hey I got a problem, where's my freaking birthday ceviche??!! So because it was my birthday but mostly because I'm pregnant we went all the way from Harlem to the village and found another ceviche restaurant that we have actually tried and liked before. Oh my it was SOO good! I can still taste it. MMmm......

Cake

I know everyone already has a cake recipe that they love, but I made this cake for a friend a while back and it was the BOMB! And so easy. Sadly my cell phone took this picture so its not great quality but it tasted soo good. Below is the recipe our family always used from an old school Hershey's cookbook.

Ingredients

• 2 cups sugar
• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup boiling water

Directions

1. 1 Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.
   
   
2. 2 Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.
   
   
3. 3 Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost with "PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING. 10 to 12 servings.
   
   
   VARIATIONS:
   ONE-PAN CAKE: Grease and flour 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Heat oven to 350° F. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely. Frost.
   
   
   THREE LAYER CAKE: Grease and flour three 8-inch round baking pans. Heat oven to 350°F. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake 30 to 35 minutes. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost.
   
   
   BUNDT CAKE: Grease and flour 12-cup Bundt pan. Heat oven to 350°F. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 50 to 55 minutes. Cool 15 minutes; remove from pan to wire rack. Cool completely. Frost.
   
   
   CUPCAKES: Line muffin cups (2-1/2 inches in diameter) with paper bake cups. Heat oven to 350°F. Fill cups 2/3 full with batter. Bake 22 to 25 minutes. Cool completely. Frost. About 30 cupcakes.

For the Glaze: I think I got this from Smitten kitchen or Simply recipes and I thinned it a lot so it would drizzle nicely.

3 tablespoons butter, softened

3 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup milk, approximately

Make the glaze: Beat the butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla together in a bowl with an electric mixture until fluffy. From here, you can either spread this frosting on your lukewarm buns, or thin it with milk until it is more of a drizzling consistency. Eat one at once.

Hershey's says that you should make the following frosting which I have also made but I only used like less than a cup of powdered sugar so it was super chocolaty.

"PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
2/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency.
Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. About 2 cups frosting.

Nice little plug for Homebirth :)

From the Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-i-chose-a-home-birth/2011/05/30/AGsFyPIH_story.html

My little Diva.....

had a little photo session with herself :)