Signs of Spring

Easter photos

This Easter was so early we had snow the day before it. That was hard to stomach when I thought about the joy of a good Easter egg hunt, the flowers starting to pop out of the ground...the usual sort of thing I conjure up when I think of Easters past. It was a nice day, however, and not super cold (the snow melted off by afternoon) and we had a great time. The boys were treated to a surprise indoor Easter egg hunt from the Easter Bunny when we arrived home from Grandma's house. As you can see, Declan broke into a dance from the robin-egg candy rush and then ended up floored.

Happy Easter!

Hi everybody! Sorry I've been completely absent lately but I've been organizing a "green week" at my office about the environment, making peep cupcakes for our baking contest and generally working constantly without stopping. I had a quiet moment this morning to say hello so I thought I'd reassure you that I'm still here and will be posting more soon. For now I leave you with a photo of my baking contest-winning peepcakes from earlier in the week so I can get ready for Easter at the future in-law's house!

xoxoxo

Knit bathtub

I've been trying to catch up on old Martha Stewart episodes here and there when I have a free moment so last night I started to watch a pretty old one on knitwear. Now, I don't knit, although I wish I knew how, so sometimes the complicated or overly crafted stuff just leaves me kinda clueless while the knitters all drool or talk about technical stuff.

So at the beginning Martha is chatting about the knitters in the audience and they get to this girl who's showing her knit snake eating a knit mouse, her insanely adorable knit garden with knit carrots stuck in it and a knit bunny and then this disgustingly cute knit bathtub with all these faces on the bubbles. Martha was clearly in love with those because she fawned over it more than she really would if she was faking it.

Anywho, as I was drifting to sleep on the couch while it was on I was thinking, "Remember to look up Anna and the knit bathtub...remember...re...zzzz..." So this morning I did just that. I don't think I've really done a whole lot of linking to other sites about things I like so today is a small insight into my fuzzy mind.

Here we go! She runs a blog and shop named mochimochiland and her stuff is beyond cute. Maybe someday I'll hire that knitting tutor so I can do it myself! Check out that snail vs. slug deathmatch! Check out the bathtub! I just died a little when I saw the stackable cats!

Cooking with Henry

Henry likes to cook with me. Unless he's in the middle of some huge Star Wars battle or Superman earth-saving scenario, he'll ask me if he can help with whatever I'm cooking. Sure, it can add into the mess sometimes but honestly they are some of my favorite moments.

Here we are making cupcakes. I taught him how to run the back of the spoon along the edge of the bowl so the batter wasn't just running off all over the place. I watched him carefully and gently scrape the spoon against the side nearly every time (a few times he forgot) and he'd dump that spoonful into a cupcake liner. At one point he started talking and it was clear he wasn't talking to me. At first I thought he was walking himself through the process but then I realized he was giving advice that I hadn't given him, "Now, spread it out a little bit" as he pushed the spoon back and forth in the liner to even out the batter. I think he was talking to his future television audience when he starts his novelty cooking show with him, the lead guitarist of a famous rock band.

When the cupcakes were nestled in warm the oven he scampered off to change into a Superman shirt so he could be "Superboy" and save me from whichever evil guy was after me this time.

Superboy, Superkid and Superfiancé each got sugar hearts on their cupcakes and a whole lot of love.

Lunch

Before heading out of town, we got a quick lunch with the adorable Aimee. It seemed like no time had passed since she moved to Philly.

Violet

Last week I headed out to The Violet Hour to see Aimee who was only in town for something like 20 hours. The place is unmarked from the street but upon opening the door and passing through two sets of heavy curtains you open up to a very calm, candle lit set of rooms that are host to swanky drinks and good vibes. You can't spend too much time here (even though you really want to) because of the prices but it's definitely worth a visit.

And, of course, it was worth visiting with Aimee & Neysa.

Banana Pancakes

Mmmm...banana pancakes...

One trick I'd have to tell you is this:

Don't just throw some banana in that batter. I'd slice the banana and put in the pan first - then dump batter over it. See, I did that but then I had extra banana in the batter which didn't set up by the time I went to flip the pancakes which caused the banana slices to FLY OUT and create tiny little banana pancakes (which actually wound up being pretty adorable on their own) but also left big holes in the original pancake. I fixed my error in the next batch and still had some tasty goodness on a plate.

The pancakes with my new coffee from my coffee press (thanks to Mom) were fantastic!

Wii my age

Friday morning I decided to take the Wii fitness test. I took it in November and they determined I was 54 years old. Now, that's right after we hooked the thing up so cut me a little slack at how well I could swing the "bat" for home runs and such. Anywho, I took it again and look! I'm my age! In looking back on it this morning I thought, "Hmmm...did/should that upset me to see that big THREE THREE on the screen?" My fiesty reply in this internal dialogue, "MMM...NAH!"

So, maybe that means this year...at 33...(slight sigh)...I'm feeling pretty much ok with the age thing.

Karaoke

Last weekend I encouraged a bunch of folks to venture down to American Legion, Franklin D. Roosevelt Post 923 to check out the location and the karaoke night. After chatting with Sgt. Rodriguez, I learned that the post didn't admit any vets after WWII until the 1990s, when the many posts around Chicago started to close because their numbers were dwindling. Now he is mostly in charge of the post with only a pretty small number of guys left from WWII. To raise money they have a karaoke night once a month run the infamous Rory Lake.

I didn't have the nerve to sing but Ryan got up and sang a stirring rendition of the bizarre "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show" by Neil Diamond. We had a great time.

Brasserie Jo

I haven't been to Brasserie Jo in years - probably since the incident where Fry, Wong and I went in a group with Theo paying which wound up being an evening where I actually saw Wong feel sick from eating so much (that boy could put away platefuls of food without blinking so this was a huge feat to see him suffering).

After winning two Lettuce Entertain You gift cards in the last few months, I thought it might be a great idea to go for my birthday. Ryan happily agreed.

Dinner was fantastic. I made sure we ordered dessert, he had the profiteroles and I ordered the chocolate mousse. We were so stuffed that mine went into a doggy bag for the next night and we tried to make a dent in his dessert.

We gave it two enthusiastic thumbs up.