Happy Birthday JS!

I have become a connoisseur of fine chocolate cakes as of late. My parents gave us this little number for our last anniversary. Isn't it a beauty? I am with JS on the yellow cake from a box, but as for chocolate cake, I am a bit more demanding. :) I like flour less cake with ganache. My favorite is called Chocolate Rhapsody and is served at a little French cafe that T. and I visit with my brother Jason and his wife every time we go home to see family. It's become a fun little tradition. My friend, Kathy, taught me how to make a delectable chocolate cake with strawberry mousse, and I'm going to try it solo for Valentine's Day. Here's the recipe.

Meeting O

Here's a little tribute to my first meeting with O. "My! What big eyes you have!" So beautiful. Do you remember our chocolate adventure? Fun times.

First Meeting

Just remembering my first meeting with J. How are the birthday plans coming? I never answered your question about food at O's bday party. My favorite kid pleaser is a ham and cheese crescent roll. I use roll dough and wrap it around ham and muenster in a crescent shape before baking. (You can save time by using store bought crescent rolls). I also do a variety of mini-muffins. The kids love popping them one by one in their mouths. I also cut lots of fresh fruit and always add yummy salad or spinach-artichoke dip for the adults. 

Mare's Meals

Mary Ann is always trying out new recipes. On her blog she lists her most recent favorites. I thought you might want to check it out. I am linking to the page where she talks about her latest invention for menu planning.  I am planning to make the pan seared tilipia and the grapefruit mousse tonight for JS's birthday dinner. I was planning a fancy cake but he said that he only wants a Betty Crocker double layer yellow cake with store bought frosting. For some reason he thinks that is better than homemade??? 

Wonder

P.'s curiosity captured on film.

Beautiful Blue Eyes

My nicer camera is film, so I am going to scan a few pictures I got back recently. The color isn't as true after the scan, but I thought E.'s eyes were so soft and lovely. I am really trying to work on using natural light.

Photography Course

Here is one of my favorite photos from my last 'photo shoot'.

A friend tipped me off to a series of 12 photography classes posted weekly on the web. They look pretty good. I am planning to start 4 weeks late and print the lessons and put them into a binder for future reference. Here are the first four lessons.

Lesson One: Aperture

Lesson Two: ISO, Shutter Speed and Aperture

Lesson Three: The Color of Light

Lesson Four: The Flash

Book List

This list is a little long but here it goes.

Books I've read recently:

Imperial Woman - Pearl S. Buck 

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich - Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn

Warriors Don't Cry - Melba Patillo Beals

Night -  Elie Wiesel

A Mighty Heart - Mariane Pearl

Still on my reading list:

The Namesake - Jhumpa Lahiri

Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudia Arabia

A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini

Three Cups of Tea - Greg Mortenson

Fast Food Nation - Eric Schlosser

His Excellency: George Washtington - Joseph J. Ellis

Water for Elephants: A Novel - Sara Gruen

Suite Francaise - Irene Nemirovsky

A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: A Novel - Lisa See

The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio - Terry Ryan and Suze Orman

Two Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage - Madeline L'Engle

Object of Virtue: A Novel - Nicholas Nicholson

The Ultimate Gift - Jim Stovall

History of Love - Nicole Krauss

Bookworm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_of_Pi
I am determined to get back in the reading saddle again. My list of New Year's resolutions totals 14 this year. Too many? I hope not. I really do want to achieve them all. My dear friend, Alisa, highly recommended that I read "The Life of Pi" by Yann Martel, so I'm going to give Pi a try. To entertain myself on the long trek back to visit family this Christmas, I read a very short (84 pages) but great story - "The Mourning Dove" by Larry Barkdull. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I would love to get a copy of your book club's reading list. I'll send you the books we read as well. I think it would be fun to swap great literature.

All Wrapped Up

I am all wrapped up in trying to decide what I should do for my boy's 6th birthday party. He is still in love with trains (and this is 3 years after the first train party!). He is determined to have a GeoTrax/Buzz Lightyear party. Any suggestions on how to successfully combine those two themes? :) J. and I went to the best Halloween party ever past year. I have never seen so many fun activities in one place, and all 20 of J.'s classmates were invited! The kids had their pictures taken and decorated frames, made green slime and spiders out of ding dongs and licorice, played eat the donut off the string, find the worms in the cool whip, change goblins, and mummy your mommy (see photo) - a contest to see which team can wrap their mommy up in toilet paper the fastest. It was hilarious. Any game ideas? What food did you serve for O.'s last party? It looked scrumptious from the photos.

Reflections

I have always been fascinated by water's ability to reflect an image with such mirrored perfection. Isn't it breathtaking?

Indoor Games

One fun game we tried out during preschool this week was dress-ups. We dressed up as astronauts: can't you tell? Everyone had to sit on an imaginary line while the person who was 'it' put on the hat, coat, and big boots. After dressing, each child posed for photos. It was amazing how much entertainment the five boys got out of this game. It was good for practicing those self-dressing skills too. After it was over my baby had to play too. He thought he was the most adorable baby on the block after putting on the 'astronaut suit' like the big boys.

Handwriting

Doesn't Jana have the most amazing handwriting? I have loved her handwriting from the day I first met her. I tried to copy it for a while but finally gave up! (Much to my sweet husband's chagrin; he had always dreamed of having a wife with perfect penmanship.) I think that Jana should sell some of her handwriting as a font. I especially love the one she did for the title of our blog. It is always a happy day to get a package from Jana in the mail. The handwriting on it alone makes my day.

Cold, cold, cold

Today, in my 26 degree weather, I'm longing for days like this! We took a trip to St. John USVI two springs ago and I am still living off the memories! I am adjusting pretty well to my first winter in cold weather after four years of living in Florida and California. My goal is to use more of my indoor time working on photography skills. I love the photography on darling art and hope to achieve the same photo journalistic style with my own boys. I have great winter light coming in through my big front window, so if I can just get my two little ones to hold still for a few moments, it'll be a great way to spend the inside hours! On second thought, the chances of them holding still is definitely slim. I may need to focus on capturing action shots.