Mmmm, Plums

Birthday Smash Cake

It's birthday time!


And what's a birthday without a little cake?


I had emailed a local bakery last week to order a beach-themed birthday cake for the boys. Well, mostly for us but we were finally going to relax our rules and let the boys get their first taste of cake!


Greg was going to let them dive right in, but I explained no, no! I want to eat some of this deliciousness too! They get a slice. One slice with a birthday candle.

So we sang them the song, blew out the candles and let them go to town.


Or not.


They didn't seem to have any idea what to do with cake. They mostly just stared.


Luke finally braved a taste.


But Joseph needed a little more coaxing.



He wasn't too impressed.


In fact, he seemed to enjoy the plate more than he enjoyed the cake.


Luke, on the other hand, fully embraced the spirit of the smash cake and destroyed his slice in style...


...making sure to squeeeeze it between his fingers and smear it across his tray.


Oh, the joy!


I gotta be honest. I never thought Joseph would be the tidy one. :)

Now, how are we gonna hose this mess down?


The boys are 1 year and 3 days old.

Joseph's First Whole Food

For quite some time the guys have been eyeing our food and, more recently, lunging for it. As in throwing their whole bodies toward whatever's in our hands as if their very lives depended on getting hold of it. It makes for an interesting time when I'm starving and have to fight to keep my grip on a squirmy child or two.

In this case, I decided to satisfy Joseph's curiosity. I wish Greg had been there to capture the first few bites because it was hilarious. I broke off a piece of pear and offered it up. Joseph took that little bite into his mouth and wrinkled up his little nose. I'm sure the texture took him by surprise. Then he started gumming it. Finally he swallowed and looked up at me with the biggest grin. He was so proud of himself. It was precious.

Greg caught the rest here:




He didn't choke. Don't worry.


The guys are 7 months and 5 days old.

Strange Stuff Happens When You're On Bedrest

For instance, your husband may get a wild hare to bake a cake. Carrot cake, to be exact.


This is him mixing what I thought was the batter. Turned out to be the cream cheese icing.

With his hands.

I asked him if he'd ever heard of a mixer. His response: Well, your recipe didn't say to use a mixer! Ha ha! I had to use a fork to help him get all the ooey-gooeyiness off his fingers.



But it turned out to be a pretty tasty cake in the end.


Thanks, babe!

32?! Seriously?!

Doo doo doo doo doo, today is my birthday!
Doo doo doo doo doo, happy birthday to me!
And all that Beatles stuff...

Ok, so I have to admit something. At first when I realized that last year was probably my last totally drunken birthday in a good long while, I was a little sad. I know. I know. Good things are in my not-too-distant future, but I assume it's only natural to mourn the passing of your past life when you're about to embark on big change. Mommyhood must be the mother of all big change so I think I should be forgiven for a momentary bout of sadness. But it was only momentary. All in all, I can't wait to start 32!

So back to this year's birthday. It was really pretty fantastic! Greg arranged a dinner last night with a few friends at Hyde Park Bar & Grill, a restaurant I had always heard such raves about and really wanted to try. The meal was delicious. Being preggo, I didn't feel even slightly guilty about devouring my chicken-fried steak - bonus! And I must say once again that I feel so incredibly lucky to be surrounded by such great friends here in Austin. I wish I could give them all a big, wet, sloppy kiss! But they might not want to be my friends if I did that on a regular basis so most of the time, I refrain.

Then today I was spoiled again. First came the bouquet - so pretty!


And then Greg prepared what is probably my most favorite meal in his repertoire - goat cheese salad and sauteed sea scallops. So yummy!


He also got me a full-length body pillow - just what every girl with a burgeoning belly desires.And I'm also getting an as-yet-to-be-chosen laptop computer. Yay! I just need to pick out what I want, and I will finally be mobile, something bound to come in handy if I should happen to be forced into bedrest and once the babies are here.

My husband... What can I say? At least I can give him big, wet, sloppy smooches...

Hot Sauce Festival

A few weeks ago, we battled the heat and the crowds for a taste of Austin's local hot sauces.

Mmmm.... Nummy!

Working up a sweat and opening our sinuses.

Soufflé - FAIL

A few weeks ago, Joyce posted a link to the fail blog. That site cracks me up! And it also reminded me to post about a recent FAIL of my own.

Perhaps I was high from my recent tres leches cake triumph. Perhaps I was suffering from delusions of culinary grandeur. Whatever it was, my apricot soufflés were a massive blow to the ego.

Observe: beautiful, fluffy, perky soufflés

Then, ten minutes later: sad, deflated shells of their former glory

The original straight-out-of-the-oven creations were actually much fuller than the first picture captures. They had already started sinking so quickly I grabbed the camera to document their slow demise... At least I had no guests to witness my shame. (But then I'm now posting it on my public blog so... Whatever.)

If any of you cooking whiz kids knows the secret behind non-deflating soufflés, I'm all ears...

The Anti-Stress Diet

Compliments of my friend Bobbi (or Boobs as she's more affectionately known - hi, Boobs!)

*****
This is a specially formulated diet designed to help people
cope with the stress that builds during the day.

Breakfast
1 grapefruit
1 slice whole wheat toast
1 cup skim milk

Lunch
1 small portion lean, steamed chicken
1 cup spinach
1 cup herbal tea
1 Hershey's kiss

Afternoon Snack
The rest of the Hershey Kisses in the bag
1 tub of Hagen-Daz ice cream with chocolate chips

Dinner
4 glasses of wine (red or white) and 2 loaves garlic bread
1 family size supreme pizza
3 Snickers Bars

Late Night Snack
1 whole Sarah Lee cheesecake (eaten directly from the freezer)

******
My diet starts tomorrow...

We're On a Roll, Kids

Shortly following our first soccer win EVER (and then a bloody massacre the next week) comes our second, yes, second victory! WooHoo! We won 4-1 last night - congrats Glenn, Janice and Lance! My heroes... Of course, everyone played like rockstars, most notably Kim, whose 100-degree fever did not the slightest damage to her lightning speed and agility as per usual. Lance and Dilek's collision, giving Lance a sore jaw with Dilek splayed out on her backside, left an impression and is probably one of the many reasons Dilek is retiring her soccer cleats after this season. :( Other than that and Chris S bowing up and trying to throw down with one of the other team's players (not cool!), we played a good game. Friday marks the season finale and my sister's long-awaited soccer debut. This should be interesting. :)

After the game, Greg, my sis and I with my closely trailing undertones of sweat and garlic headed down to meet friends for a dinner party. Jim (who I've mentioned before), among other things, is a budding amateur chef. If you have none in your list of acquaintances, I highly recommend you proactively seek out and extend your social circle to include several such individuals. The perks are amazing... After stuffing myself with shrimp canapes, seared beef smoothered in gorgonzola, and some Turkish dish I can't pronounce, I am one happy camper. The plan is to make this dinner party thing a bi-monthly event, one in which I plan to thoroughly entrench myself.

A soccer win, good food and excellent company - it doesn't get much better than that, folks.

Off to eat my snagged leftovers...

p.s. Jim just started a most entertaining blog. Perhaps he will start including some recipes on his site - hint, hint...

The Lucky 8

Never heard of it? Its a sinful dessert at PF Chang's, consisting of:

"Eight crispy, chocolate creme filled sticks
served with a warm caramel and peanut butter dipping sauce
and bits of toffee brittle. Dip, roll and enjoy!"

Dangerous, ladies, very dangerous...