Penn's field trip to the zoo

Penn's school has taken two field trips to this year. The first was to the Children's Theater to watch, "How I Became a Pirate." The second was to the zoo. Kindergarten is more fun but also harder than I remember it being.

The above photos were shot by a chaperoning parent.

Now I have to go make sure his pants are dry for tomorrow and pack a lunch for his late Earth Day celebration picnic where the school will also be starting a compost pile. I have to go sign his report card (which is all perfect marks!) and write a letter to his teacher about us missing school next week to go to Tennessee. Also, it's one o'clock in the morning. You wouldn't believe the list that needs to get done.

*yawn*

MARGOT THE CUTE

Margot is 9 months now and so cute I can't stand it. She's desperate to crawl but still can't master the forward direction. She's wearing size 18 month clothes. She's sprouted two teeth and her hair is getting thicker. And lighter! Her eyes are still stuck in a bit of mystery hazely color. She shuns jarred babyfood and prefers the texture of fork mashed tablefood. At every meal there must be at least one thing she can feed herself or she'll turn on the grunts and let me tell you, the last thing you want to deal with is the grunts.

"Ungh ungh ungh UNNNNGGGHHHH."

She has a special grunt for Penn. She babbles mostly along the "a" sound. "Bababa, mamama, dadada, gagaga, yayayaya...."

She likes long walks through the neighborhood and long soaks in the tub.

Holy cute.

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Cheese Bread

I had some leftover grated cheese from our burritos so I whipped up some cheese bread after doing dishes and baked it the next morning. I could eat the whole loaf by myself. Soft and flaked with cheese in the middle and a slightly crisp and chewy crust. Toasted with butter it is ohmygodgood. Recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes Per Day.

Love Letters

Penn's picture, originally uploaded by carissabyers.

Penn XXOX
I love everybody in my famly.
I especially Margot.
We are a family.
love Margot.
love Mom.
love dad.
love Mr. daniel.

Megan and Matt

At Chasity and Kelly's Wedding of Amazing, I met Megan and Matt. I had the pleasure of shooting their Wedding of Fabulous on Saturday. Holy Wedding of Fabulous! We had a short time to get some portraits of the couple and the bridal party.

I LOVE these portraits. Can't get enough of them. Megan and Matt are the cutest pair. More photos and details coming!

Avocado Pound Cake

So good! Recipe from Joy the Baker.

I Win

Making a list of my favorite foods is easy; bread, cheese, olives, avocados, tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, garlic, spinach, cream cheese .... It's not so much a list as it is a stream of consciousness. I could keep going. But the list usually starts like this and sounds more like a list of ingredients than it does a meal. It always starts with bread.

I love bread. All bread. Fresh homemade bread. I love the smell of wet dough and rising yeast. I love the bread my mom made and the bread her mom made in big coffee cans.

And when I got older and started cooking, I ended up being pretty good. Except for the bread part. My bread has always been a little below average. Edible, but not spectacular. It didn't stop me from trying and hoping that I'd figure it out. Baking is different from "cooking." You can actually mess up baking in a way that can't be saved. I needed to win. I needed to be a winner at baking things with yeast. Damnit.

When we moved into the new house I bought an oven thermometer. I made a loaf of bread. And pardon my language, but HOLY SHIT IT CAME OUT PERFECT! Totally perfect. So I made more things. I've made about six artisan boules, one brioche, one batch of naan, two loaves of banana bread and two avocado pound cakes and every blessed crumb has been scrumptious. I can't stop. I'm obsessed. Such a tasty obsession, though.

Margot helps.

And she's going to help with the dishes. As soon as she can stand up.

Beignets

I recently made my first batch ever of Beignet's. They were great! But made some significant improvements the second go around keeping them smaller, keeping the dough less sticky, having them ready to go into the oil a bit better and keeping the oil temperature a little lower. (Our guest got the "gooey one" from the first batch that cooked too fast on the outside and notsomuch on the inside.) I predict really good things on the third batch.

Margot said they were all good. Penn said he'd like them better if I glazed them and called it a doughnut.

The weekend and Lakewood Elementary Spring Carnival 2010

On Saturday our kiddo neighbors set up a lemonade stand in the front yard and yelled at passersby, "LEMONADE!" It being the cutest thing Daniel and I had ever seen we rushed into our shoes and grabbed dollars and scurried across the street to buy a cup. Penn stayed inside, peeking at us through the blinds. Dying to go play, but paralyzed with shyness.

Our neighbor-kinder-girl-friend is adorable and not shy. She soon after marched across the street to see if Penn wanted to come over. She'll never know I had to drag him out from under the kitchen table to answer the door. But fun was had.

Then we moseyed over to the Spring Carnival where Penn rode mechanical swings and had silly string and threw pies in kids faces and spun wheels for candy. He raced boats and rode Pirate Ships and slid down the Fun Slide 50 (ish) times. He played with some of his best friends and made a few new ones.

Today we slept in. Neighbors brought over cupcakes and nachos. There was a bike ride to the park. There is bread rising in the kitchen. And have I mentioned we live in some kind of story book now?

Signed,

Happily Ever After.

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Easter 2010

Penn and I went to Tietze Park to enjoy their "4000 hidden eggs!" on Easter weekend. We left the baby at home and had some mommy and son time.

That girl in purple (above) marched up to me after I took this photo and said, "So, what's your technique?" I thought she was talking about photography. And she said, "For getting eggs. What's your technique for getting the most eggs?" I "ummmed" my way through something and then we both understood that she had mistaken me for a kid who was going to gather eggs.

Her strategy was to move as fast as possible, she said.

Penn was a little disappointed. The eggs weren't hidden very well, they were gone quickly and the boy next to him found the golden egg.

The petting zoo was a hit. This nosy pony kept trying to nibble Penn's eggs.

As far as I know, you're supposed to dye the eggs. Not the chickens. Also, coloring baby chicks feels a bit cruel to me.

But the bunnies. Omigod, the bunnies. There were many and they were hopping everywhere amongst the other barnyard creatures you had to watch your step over. Children chased and scrambled for them while parents pretended their kid wasn't the one holding the baby bunny with the bulging eyes. I felt very fortunate to be responsible for one of the more gentle handed souls.

Sure, you've seen him chase our dogs and try to goad them into a sword fight here and there, but somehow that doesn't count. (Surely, I yell obscenities at our dogs on a daily basis.) The smaller and softer the creature is, the more reverence he has for it. So, bunnies. He loves them. (Me too.)

After cake eating and face painting and bounce housing and TWO trips through the petting zoo, this orange chicken flew up to my shoulder. We all said, "Awwwwww, how cute." And then it pooped on me. And not just on me, but on my neck and running down my back on me. The owner of the zoo kept apologizing and fetched a tissue commenting, "You're gonna want to change your shirt."

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We hid eggs at the house and made an Easter basket show of what Papa sent for Easter because I never found time to get to a store. There's not a lot of time for anything these days!

I'm currently wrapped up in children, work and the new house, so bear with me until we get it all regular again.