Birthday Tie Dye Cupcakes

Who wants a plain old vanilla birthday cake when you can have tie dye cupcakes instead? At least, that's what I imagined Edith thinking as her fourth birthday approached last week.

I came across the concept of tie dye cupcakes when I made Paul a rainbow cake for his birthday last year. This seemed similar but less time consuming. (Correct on both counts.)

I started with the same basic cake recipe that I used for Paul's -- the most delicious vanilla cake I've tasted. It made 24 cupcakes, although really I shouldn't have filled some of them so full and made a few mini cupcakes instead.

Then I separated the batter into six bowls, coloring each.

I riffed on the instructions I had seen, plopping blobs of batter into cupcake liners instead of making layers, mostly because my batter was thick and wouldn't easily spread. I think they turned out better like that anyway.

Next time, I might do five colors of batter, saving the sixth color for the frosting. Either way, delicious!

Photo Friday: Wise Old Owl

Nov. 1, 2016. Inniswood Metro Gardens.

Edith Turns 4

As of yesterday, I have a 4 year old. That means it is high time she starts pulling her weight around here, like writing a blog post for me once in a while. So this one's on her.

Four-year old Edith's favorite ...
In her own words / [what Mommy would say]

• Food: pizza and macaroni / [pizza and macaroni and cheese]

• Toy: the kitchen / [crayons]

• Book: A Cake to Bake (NOTE: starring Disney princesses. Pretty sure this is not her favorite, but just a book we recently got from the library!) / [anything Amelia Bedelia]

• TV Show: Daniel Tiger/ [Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood]

• Movie: Tiana (NOTE: The Princess and the Frog, recently watched.) / [Frozen and Cinderella]

• Playground activity: swings / [swings]

• Color: purple and pink / [purple and pink]

• Animal: a bird / [cat]

• Nursery Rhyme: Hot Dog (NOTE: from a kid's CD) / [Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star]

• Song: Hamilton / [My Shot from Hamilton]

• Game: Daniel Tiger / [Candy Land]

• Fruit: apple / [blueberries]

• Vegetable: corn / [pepper sticks]

• Breakfast: Life cereal / [Life cereal]

For the record, I wrote my predictions before asking her. Not too bad!

Photo Friday: Inniswood Metro Gardens

We took advantage of a fine fall day by exploring Inniswood Metro Gardens -- a lovely place to play!

Nov. 1, 2016

Another Election Over

Nov. 8, 2016

I woke up on Election Day, excited to vote and excited to watch the results come in that night. I went to bed considerably more despondent.

Paul, voting Libertarian, was confident he would be disappointed in the outcome of the election. By contrast, I was feeling optimistic with my vote for Clinton. But the polls were wrong.

I'm still coming to terms with the idea of a President Trump. I've voted for losing presidential candidates before, but it's never taken me so long to get over it. Differences of opinion, I said then. I can't get over the thought that this runs deeper.

In any case, I wish our country the best. Please prove my predictions wrong.

Photo Friday: Atticus in the Autumn

Oct. 28, 2016 - Day before haircut!

Atticus's First Haircut

I barely recognized my own son for a short time after Atticus got his first haircut a couple of weekends ago. Those fine curls, all gone!

But a haircut was inevitable, and I like the result. He seemed to age a year overnight! And I'm even happier that it appears his curls haven't completely disappeared -- I think they are growing back. :)

BEFORE:

Oct. 29, 2016

DURING:

 AFTER:

Where's all of my hair?

Photo Friday: Holding Hands

Oct. 24, 2016

Halloween 2016: Peg + Cat

Edith was consistently adamant for weeks prior to Halloween -- she wanted to be Peg from the PBS show "Peg + Cat." And since Atticus didn't have an opinion on his costume, who better to be Cat?

The math-based show (click on the link to find a good image of who they were dressed as!) first aired in 2013, so I knew that only a handful of young families would even recognize the characters when they trick-or-treated. Nevertheless, they came home with a bag of loot and had a blast. As Peg says often: Problem solved!