Touch-a-Truck

Before Sharon left I took Ira to the 'Touch-a-truck' event held by the town we live in. They had every kind of big truck you can think of on display for the kids to get into and explore. We were a little late so we had to be judicious in picking our favorites that were worth waiting in line for before they all drove off.

I liked this fire truck, Ira was a little freaked out by the giant dalmatian siting in the front seat.

Ira liked the school buses for some reason...

Couches, Quiet time, and sooo many Cupcakes

Happy Sunday all!

The past week has been eventful.

We've continued working on the house and will have a new (non-smelly non-disintegrating) garbage disposal and dishwasher installed on Friday!  Woohoo!  I'm in the process of hemming all of the curtains, and finally got around to covering some mini-couches a friend gave us. 

Before

After

Couch covers are tricky and these have turned out a little baggy and saggy, but the pillows I covered help distract a little.  Meh, maybe after hemming curtains I'll work on tightening them up a bit.

This illustrates Ira's recent "If it's in my hand, I want to throw it at someone" attitude.  sigh...  Last night we went to a fundraising event for the preschool coop that we'll be apart of in the Fall, and Ira was chasing bigger kids around, hitting them with a "balloon sword" and growling.  They were all significantly older and taller, so I'd like to think they were just pretending to be scared.  Hopefully they won't kick us out. On a more positive note, we went to the Library this week where Ira approached some kids and instead of snarling or roaring, he said, "Hi!  Would you like to have a tea party with me?" My eyeballs almost fell out of my head! ..and they continued to play PEACEFULLY together for at least 10 minutes before an argument broke out.  Not too shabby for our little man. 

We got our first lawn mower.

It's a motor-less reel mower, and works great!

Can't quite fit that head through...

Eliot has hit a couple of fun milestones.  He took his first couple of steps on the 22nd.  He cut his 5th tooth, and has been signing "more" for a few weeks, and has just started pointing.  I love it when these little people can start communicating their feelings! 

He has been really into books lately.  Mostly pulling them off the shelf, but also occasionally sitting and reading them to himself.

It's so rare to have both boys sitting quietly, that I had to take a picture to prove it was real. 

Anthony is doing really well.  We celebrated our 6th Anniversary by going to the temple to do sealings which was very happy!  What a man.  I'm so glad he decided to marry me. 

He also got recognized for some extra effort he put into a work project, and he was given a bunch of gift cards (all of which we put towards our dishwasher and garbage disposal.)  

So, that's pretty much life.  Happy.  

Below are some cupcake experiment results.   I had a free naptime, and lots of (frozen fondant/ frosting/candy melt) odds and ends to use up.  So, unless you are really curious about tiny cakes, you'll probably just want to stop here.  Peace out!

I wanted to try dipping cupcakes in icing (just powdered sugar and water.)  The cupcake on the left, had icing too thin.  In the back it was too thick (it rips off the surface of the cupcake).  On the right, it was just right.  

Icing on icing.  Easy and looked blobby, but o.k.  By the next day they bleed all over the place.  It's not like on a sugar cookie when the icing stays hard.

Icing and fondant.  Easy Peasy.  I used a flag and train cookie cutters to make the continents.  They held up a little better than the icing on icing, but didn't look quite as nice the second day.

Failures.  

Upper left: icing too thin.  Bottom Right, the circle was too small.  The purple ones I used Candy Melts.  I don't know, the candy melts might look smoother if I worked with them faster.  They definitely hold up better over the next few days than any other combo I tried. 

Fondant Cupcakes

                                    

The cupcake on the left, just had a button size blob of frosting spread out.  The middle one was generously covered, and the one on the right had a fluffy, soft-serve icecream dose of frosting.  The one in the middle was by far the best portion.  The one on the right was more spherical, but the frosting was oozing out all over. 

This size cookie cuter works great for fondant full coverage.

Mmmm.  Earth Day cupcakes.

In my opinion, the fondant on fondant looked and tasted the best.  They also held up well enough to make again.  They look the best the day of, and almost as good the day after.  If you wait much longer than that, the cake starts to get a little soggy.  Alright, let's all go recycle and shrink our carbon footprints now.  Peace.  

Eliot and Easter

This is Eliot's cute friend that was born two days after him. 

 Hopefully these failed attempts of ring gifting to cute girls isn't foreshadowing.

Failed attempts to swap some saliva.  Sorry!  I couldn't resist.  These captions are almost as bad as those horrid posters of toddlers dressed up like adults giving each other red roses and such.  

Working on our garden to be

Ira pausing to play with his shadow

The big news here was that Eliot turned 1!  Time flies when your working as a body guard to protect an infant from a playfully aggressive, older brother. :) 

The tubes and circus tent were his main presents.  He loves the tubes especially.

Neither of the boys wanted to take a nap after playing at the Hand's On Museum, so I didn't have time to decorate as planned.  But here was my makeshift, quick job. 

Eliot's first taste of dessert!  

He nursed this thing for about a minute straight before moving on to the actual chewing.

 

Ira constructing some words....with a little help from mom of course. 

Eliot enjoying conference.  We loved the parts we were able to pay attention to.  We'll have to read up on the parts we missed.

Both boys had their checkups this week and are looking good.  Eliot is finally over a stomach bug he got which is a huge relief.  We really love our pediatrician who was extremely patient with a flailing, screaming, scared Ira.  She kind of laughed at the fact that usually kids Eliot's age begin their stranger anxiety, and by the time they're 3, they're getting over it.  Eliot was as pleasant as can be, despite the fact that he had thrown up that morning, had diarrhea and an ear infection, and got four shots.  It's just another example of how different our two boys are.  

Ira has been walking around the house pointed out how tall he is in different locations.  "Look how tall I am next to the table!  Look how tall I am on the chair!  Look how tall I am on my bed!"  We finally bought him new pants since his were starting to look like capris.  

  Eliot's new favorite game is pat-a-cake.  The "roll it" part is pretty stinkin' cute with such short arms. 

We've been visiting preschools in preparation for the Fall.  I've also just finished a really time consuming, but fun wedding present for a childhood friend, and am moving on to making couch covers and pillow cases.   Pictures pending.  We were also sad to see some of our good friends move across the country.  But since they're not too far from Kristen, we're hoping too see them again soon. 

Anthony is hoping for clear skies so he can start biking to work more often, and is enjoying a little bit of a more normal pace after a surge of business.  

We failed to take any good Easter pictures, but it's really fun exploring possible holiday traditions.  The focus on Christ and the Resurrection was really clear until Ira realized there was candy associated with Easter too!  Oh well.  

We're keeping lots of you in our prayers as many of you have been facing difficult trials.  Love you lots! 

Parties, Plants, and Poetry

Hey Everyone!

We've been busy.  

First of all, St. Patrick's Day was a blast.  We kicked off the weekend with eating green.

Green marshmallow pancakes....they look a little moon cratered.

Gooseberry Jam

Green Apple

Asparagus

Ira pretending his asparagus in a dragon tongue

Green Smoothie

We had a mini St. Patrick's Day Party with our preschool coop friends at our place with a clover hunt and counting activity, a pin punch G for Green, and a Rainbow assembly/letter clue activity.  Oh! And of course Irish dancing!  I've decided that with the origin of the holiday, we'll celebrate St. Patrick's day, not only as Irish pride day, but also as International Missionary Appreciation Day.  So, we had the Elders over for dinner with a recent member friend for Corned Beef, Cabbage, and (none-Key) Lime Pie.  Yum!

We are overly ready for Spring.  It's still pretty cold here, and today we got a little snow and hail.  Pleeeaaaaase Spring! Cooooooome!  

In order to somehow summon the season, we've started growing things inside.

Anthony and Ira planted some flowers and vegetables together. 

 Day 1

Notice the snow on the bushes outside.

Day 3

Beginning to show already! Ira wanted to check on them about 4 times a day.

Oh...these boys make me smile.

Day 7!

I don't know what it is.  I've been wanting to throw a Beatnik Party for months!  It probably has to do with my conformist behavior lately.  You know...I'm pushing 30, have a mini-van and house with vinyl siding.  I was just craving a little dose of counter-culture I guess.  

Here's a copy of the e-vite.  

Hey Cool Cats, 

  If you dig poetry reading and black turtlenecks, you are in luck.  Come hang with us for some pre-hippie counter culture.  Here are some tips to enjoy the evening to the max.

 

1. Bring a poem to read.  Serious or humorous, short or long, self composed or well known.

2. Wear some black, maybe a beret or sunglasses.  Make it comfortable, something you can play "interpretive dance charades" in, and participate in finger painting some abstract expressionism. 

3. Be ready to sit on the floor...not only because it seems beatniky, but also because we still don't really have furniture.

4. Bringing your kids is a-o.k.  We'll put on a movie, or let them run wild, or let them participate reading an excerpt from Dr. Seuss. 

5. We'll sip hot chocolate, and have a couple of finger foods ready.  If you feel like bringing something, go for it. 

Also, does anyone have bongo drums, a string bass, or can play jazzy improv trumpet?  Eh, I know.  I thought I'd ask anyway.   

  O.k.  by now this party is probably either sounding really fun, or extremely weird.  If it's the latter, we won't take it personally if you have to "wash your hair" that night.  We'll think of another excuse to hang out soon.  But otherwise we'll see you soon Dady-O!  

  -sharon

p.s.  I only ended up sending this to one rep of your family. Spouses are obviously invited. :) 

Not surprisingly, not everyone was interested in "Interpretive Dance Charades."  But some people were, and it was a blast! Here are some of the poets.

This is one of my good friends who is hard core.  She had her wisdom teeth taken out two days before this, and still came. 

A reading of Billy Collins, one of my favorite poets.

A self composed piece, and commentary on the irony of the situation.

We also had some Calvin and Hobbes, Dr. Seuss, and "Popcorn Popping" recitations.

A poem by Jack Kerouac...actually I think she's "interpretive dancing" the word "think."

 Anthony reading another Collins piece.

 To eat, we had some modern art inspired desserts. 

Peanut Butter Jackson Pollack Brownies.

Piet Mondrian Pound Cake.

 A few people have asked me about the making of the Mondrian cake, so here's a few more images.

Here's the link I used as a guide, only I made 1 1/2 times a Joy of Cooking pound cake recipe.

http://ronnas.blogspot.com/2012/03/step-by-step-mondrian-cake.html

 In other news we've gotten a few things done on the house including finally replacing our ugly chandelier.

Before

After

Ira is a Dragon.  That's right.  Beyond dragon-like and in the actual realm of dragon.  He prowls, scowls, and growls at good friends and complete strangers alike.  But in more pleasant news, he's started eating vegetables!  Two weeks ago, he wouldn't touch anything in the category, and then over night he was suddenly eating broccoli, asparagus, carrots, tomatoes, sugar peas!

 

You get the idea.  It's very happy. 

He's started to dress himself, and likes to wear his pants like this when he gets the chance.  

Don't ask me why.

Eliot is cute as ever.  He has figured out how to go down stairs, which is good, because he can now make his way up the stairs in no time at all.  He really likes to use his bib to play peak-a-boo, loves to play with Ira, and is almost sleeping through the night.  Hallelujah! 

Anthony is making yogurt again!  This time with whole milk and a yogurt maker, which is about a million times better than our old powdered milk and crock pot method.  The kids will eat it without even adding honey or jam, just plain, delicious creaminess.  Ant's been pretty busy with work, but enjoying it.  

I've finally gotten my vaccines and sent in my visa application for my trip to Africa, and am chipping away at my huge long list of fun house and kid projects.  

Peace out and have a good week everyone!