Blueberries and Cake

Hello internetty people! I am back from my blogging summer break. The weather around here feels like it's fall already which means its beautiful out, but it's August still and I'm really not ready for summer to end. We have a packed schedule the next few weeks trying to squeeze in all the fun we can before school starts, but I am dusting off this little blog anyway. So hi again.

Last Sunday we drove out to a beautiful farm in Connecticut to pick blueberries.

Baby girl wanted to get in on the trying-to-take-an-artsy-picture action too.

I am about as city girl as they come, but it was so nice being on the farm and enjoying the near silence. (I have never heard anyone chew as loud as the guy picking munching berries next to us.)

We decided to go blueberry picking because they are easy for the kids to pick themselves, and even though you end up picking a lot, you don't get overwhelmed by them. I figure it's a lot harder to think of things to do with five pounds of apples (which I'm allergic to anyway) than the same weight in berries. And they take up less space too. Freezer space is considered prime real estate at my place.

Even though blueberry season is pretty much over, I have to share this recipe with you. I have no idea where I got it from, it was scribbled on a piece of paper in my recipe stash, so I can't give credit to the genius behind it. But seriously, go make this cake. And then invite ten of your closest friends over for a blueberry cake tea party because this cake is enormous.

Blueberry Bundt Cake
3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons vanilla sugar
1 cup oil
1 cup orange juice
1 cup oil
4 eggs
18 oz. blueberries

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix all of the ingredients, besides the berries until combined. Carefully mix in the blueberries. Pour into a well greased bundt pan. (Pam Baking is a lifesaver).

Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

So easy, and so good.

Did anyone pick any produce this summer? Or do you wait for fall to pick apples and pumpkins? Let me know below!

Mother's Day

There aren't enough mushy or cliched sentiments to describe how much I love being a mother.

We had a lovely low key day over here with pancakes made by Daniel and his sous chef Moshe, baseball, and the first barbecue of the season at my parent's house.

We also had a little bit of drama. Lily fell down yesterday and knocked her front tooth out of place. After having a slight (or maybe not so slight) panic attack a  family friend who is also a pediatric dentist checked her out today and said the tooth doesn't need to come out. Being a mama bear, I only want the best for my children, I don't want them to be hurt or scared. In moments like this when it's out of my control I go a little crazy. We had a happy ending to this little saga and I couldn't be happier.

Mo and Lil, you make me the luckiest and happiest mama out there. I love you to pieces, and thank you for being the wonderful little people that you are.

With about two more hours left I want to wish every mother out there a most fabulous Mother's Day!

Weekend Recap

Yesterday tricked me a little and had me start off the day in sandals. I couldn't help but feel springy it was opening day of Moshe's little league. 

He loves it even more than last year and that makes for a happy mama.

Even though it was still cold out we decided to make an icy snack in the afternoon and I present you with what I have named, "The Rainbow Smoothie That Broke My Crap Blender."

The strawberries, mango, yellow and green squash and spinach looked a lot prettier layered in the blender than when it was all blended after, but M and L happily drank it all up, and I got spinach into them without begging. Popeye would be so proud. 

Now I find myself in the market to replace said crap blender. Any recommendations? I want to be able to whip up many more healthy smoothies without having another blender die on me. Let me know what kind you use below!

When The Odds Are Ever in Your Favor

We are a family that runs on the, "You get what you get, and you don't get upset" philosophy. And it works out pretty nicely for us.

Enter Lily, my very much obsessed with the color pink, daughter:

"Please straw! Pink!"

As I reach behind me not looking and grab a straw, I repeat that little philosophical line of ours. And then wouldn't you know, I come up with a pink straw. I stick it in Lil's milk cup as she squeals:

"PINK!! Me not upset!"

I'm just ecstatic she's grasped the concept so well. (That is known as sarcasm, internet friends ;)

Side note: Is there anything better than a freshly bathed baber?

Baby It's Cold Outside

I feel like I spend a little too much time here complaining musing about the weather, but it just seems like this eternal horrible winter will never end and we'll be frozen forever.

The one, and not so great picture of my kid's in the snow this year. Despite the many snowy picture opportunities I choose to stay inside and succumb to cabin fever, because I'm just not interested in freezing outside while they play. I know that makes me a not at all fun mama, but can I make it up to them in the spring? After today's little jaunt outside I even ordered myself a pair of snow boots. Hopefully my toes will thank me, but I'm also employing some reverse psychology here. Since I waited this long to buy some boots that means by the time they get here I won't even need them anymore, right? Hopefully?? If it works you are all very welcome.

Moshe and Lily have found new ways to stay busy inside, like doing some baby yoga. They love to help in the kitchen, and have assisted in making more than one soup, which is a great way to pass some time. Even though I love baking, I don't do it unless I have a very good reason to (calories, I'm giving you the side eye) but we made some Muddy Buddies today that gave us an activity for exactly six and a half minutes. They play so nicely together, it would just be wonderful if we could get out a bit more.

The cold has zapped me of any desire to work on any new projects, but at the end of every week I think next week will be better. So here's to hoping next week is a warmer, more productive, crafty week!

How are you all coping?

Vacation Recap

I bet you all thought I'd never be back, but here I am with a little vacation recap from an amazing week spent in Orlando. Remember (or maybe you don't) way back before Lily's party I said we had our trip coming up and then had to deal with planning her party in just a week? Yeah, well that vacation never happened. Womp womp. There was a snow storm two days before we were scheduled to leave, and our flight was then cancelled and rescheduled twice. The second time the flight was cancelled, which was already technically on the second day of our vacation, the whole thing got scrapped. So Lily's party ended up happening first.

We managed to reschedule the vacation three weeks after the original one and everything worked out for the best. Right before we were supposed to leave, it snowed AGAIN, (but we got out!) We've been back now for half a week, and in that time it has snowed twice more.

From the bottom of my Disney princess loving heart, Elsa, shut up! The cold bothers everyone else a lot!

Anyway, back to Orlando. It was so much fun experiencing this trip through the eyes of Moshe and Lily. Half the time Moshe's mouth was literally hanging open in awe. And as much as I love me some Disney princess, I hold nothing on Lily's obsession.

Our week was non stop parks, with the weather really cooperating for us at the beginning, and then not so much at the end. Instead of just writing our itinerary, I'll share a few a lot of pictures.

In addition to three Disney parks (Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios), we also went to Legoland, and Universal Studios.

There is really nothing like the Magic Kingdom. Lily didn't want to wear the personalized Minnie ears I blogged about a few months ago, so I ended up wearing them instead. We wore our best Minnie inspired fashion for the day, but actually met Mrs. Mouse wearing the same dress two days later in Hollywood Studios when Lily was not dressed for the part. Oh well.

Since we went off season, the lines were not terrible at all. Especially the day we spent at Universal which was insanely cold and rainy. We managed to get on the Harry Potter ride in less than ten minutes. Because we went with family, there were other adults to watch our kids for the few times we got to sneak away on an adult ride by ourselves, and that was lovely. No one else is pictured because I was given a strict no pictures of them on social media rule. (Hi Mom!)

Hollywood Studios (which used to be called MGM) didn't have a lot of rides we could take the kids on, but we took them to some fabulous shows, and one of the highlights of the trip was seeing them dance and sing along with the characters that they know.

We came home exhausted and not really ready to face reality again (especially because reality has so much snow in it!!) but after all that happened with our first trip getting cancelled I'm just so thankful we got to go, and had an amazing time.

I've read other blogger's travel tips like "How to go to Europe with Two Kids and only Two Backpacks" and "How to Train Your Kids for Disney" (where she paid them for the miles they walked before the trip to get them ready for the amount of walking you do in the parks) but I don't operate like that at all. When it comes to packing, I pack too much, and when it comes to treating Disney like a boot camp... just not my style. While I'm not really qualified to write a vacation guide I do have two small tips. The first is bring a zip lock bag on the plane with you. The kids kept handing me garbage that I kept in the small zip lock bag until the end of the flight when the flight attendant came around with the garbage bag, and I got to throw the whole bag in. That one small bag certainly made my flight less messy and more enjoyable. The second tip is to download a movie onto your phone, or iPad. On the flight to Florida I packed books, stickers, crayons, coloring books, and small toys so they would be occupied but Lily was not interested in being seated and buckled in for the half hour of take off and again by landing. And so she shrieked. Oh yeah, I was that mom. The one everyone hates. On the way back home, the movie managed to keep her occupied during the times of the flight when she really had to be seated and buckled. My ears, and I'm sure everyone else on the plane was thankful.

So that concludes my post with a record number of pictures. Anyone have real travel or Disney tips? Let me know how you keep your kids occupied on planes below.

A Surprise Name Cake

Hello there internet people!

This past Sunday we got to celebrate Lily's second birthday at her tutu party.

I've always done a dessert buffet for our family for these super young parties. Once Moshe started school I did a party there (he's actually a summer baby so he gets a camp party). It's nice to have our family come and eat too many sugary things in honor of our birthday girl. 

I took a bunch of different ideas from Pinterest and put them all together for Lily's cake. 

I wanted a simple cake with a topper that looked pretty but not super exciting so that when we cut into it there would be a major surprise. 

When I cut into the cake I did an end zone dance in my head that it actually worked. Our guests were super shocked and it was so fun to watch.  

So for anyone looking to try this, here's how it worked for me. 

I made a double batch of brownies but instead of baking it in a regular pan I used a cookie sheet. This way there was a lot of surface area to use to cut out the letters and the brownies bake flatter so it's easier to get a cookie cutter to push the whole way through. (Bad blogger points here for not taking a picture of this step).

Once your brownies are baked take letter  cookie cutters and go to town cutting out the name you need. I cut out Lily's name 12 times so that's 48 letters that came out of a cookie sheet of brownies. 

Next you will need four small loaf pans. Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper. Lay the letters down and then stack two more brownie layers on top. 

Each pan should have your name three brownies high. At this point stick your pans in the freezer. I decided it couldn't hurt to freeze the brownies so that when they were being baked a second time in the cake they weren't going to get super hot. Probably they wouldn't have been fine in the oven without being frozen first but it also helped that they were frozen hard for the next step. 

Make the yellow cake you are going to use. It will take two batches to fill four loaf pans but I made one batch at a time. Fill a large ziploc bag with the batter and then snip a small corner off and start to fill the pan around the brownies. 

Bake the four pans. Here's where I get a bazillion more bad blogger points because I didn't take pictures of the next steps.

When the cakes are cool cut the tops off so they are level. (I find it's easiest to do this after the cakes have been refrigerated over night). You will be able to see the name in the cake so stand it up on your cake plate in the right direction. Basically you have your loaf standing on its side and not bottom. Put the three other loafs the same way on their sides behind the first one. You want it to look like its one square cake instead of four smaller ones. Put some frosting in between each of the cakes so they hold together well. Then frost the whole cake and decorate however you wish! 

Make sure you remember which is the front of the cake so you cut it the right way. If you cut from the wrong side you won't see the name. My cake platter has a silver decoration so I put the front of the cake that way so I knew I would cut it the right way. Once you cut the whole way across the cake you should see the surprise name. 

The birthday boo loved it. 

Any birthdays coming up for you? Are surprises being baked into cakes, wrapped in boxes, or happening some other fun way? Let me know below!

Happy Birthday Baby

Lily turned two today. I don't know how it happened. 

Last night just before midnight Lily woke up pretty unhappy. A pacifier, a cup of water, and getting tucked back in didn't fix anything. So I took my not-a-baby-anymore baby out of her crib and brought her to the glider to rock her and snuggle for a few minutes. And that's how we welcomed in her birthday together just after midnight. If those quiet lovely moments with her weren't enough Moshe woke up just then too. He looked over at us and said "mommy that's what you did for me when I was a baby too."

And then my heart melted.

Happy birthday beautiful Boo.

A First That Didn't Change Much

Lily had her first haircut today! I am of course that mama that gets very emotional and excited by every single "first" my kids do. They are all a big deal to me but that's my personality, things tend to turn into productions around here.

I was looking at old pictures by my parents and couldn't believe I had my first haircut at around a year old. I had so much hair. While Lils looks exactly like me, we clearly don't have the same hair because hers is taking its time coming in. My mom pointed out that trimming her hair could help it grow in nicer so I decided to do just that. And while her first haircut is really just a little trim I had to take the camera with me and go crazy snapping pictures. There is hardly a difference between her before and after but hey it's a first! 

She was so serious during the whole cut. I think she was thrilled it was finally her turn to sit in the car chair after watching Moshe doing it so many times. 

The best after shot I could manage because the Barbies in the store were a huge hit with my Lily Boo.  Like I said, she looks the same but it was a big day anyway.

Who else out there gets all dramatic with their baby's firsts? 

Thanksgiving Traditions

This title should really be "Thanksgiving Traditions, But Really This Year Things Are Weird Because It's Thanksgivikkuh Which Won't Happen Again For Another Billion Years And So We Have To Combine As Much Turkey And Jewishness Into This One Night As We Can."

Anyone still here or it took too long to read the title and you got ADD and went away? I totally understand. 

So it's the day before Thanksgiving and I am so excited to start some new traditions with the kiddies tomorrow. We have a few family traditions that we do throughout the year, but last week I decided it was sad that we don't have one for Thanksgiving. Even though we always have a big (both food wise, and the number of extended family wise) Thanksgiving dinner every year, I wanted to institute a little something we can look forward to doing every year with just our little family.  

Tomorrow morning I will be making pumpkin french toast (recipe here) and we will drink hot chocolate while watching the parade. There you go. Nice and easy little tradition. Minimal effort and some cute little memories for us. 

{This is where I was going to insert a hot chocolate related ecard, but they are all too risqué for this little sparkly blog of mine... who knew hot chocolate was so naughty?)

Anyway, I will be spending the afternoon cooking my contribution to my family's Thanksgiving dinner. This whole Thanksgivikkuh phenomenon has me combining a Chanukah favorite, latkes, with my favorite part of Thanksgiving (and fall in general), pumpkin. So I'll be making pumpkin potato latkes (recipe here). It sounds kind of weird at first but I decided how could it be bad? I'm sure my little sous chef will want to help out in the kitchen tomorrow. 

After dinner is over and we all have too much of that sleepy turkey chemical in us, Thanksgiving will be over for me. I don't participate in any Black Friday craziness because I don't have the patience for it. And since Chanukah starts tonight I already shopped for everyone. It's so strange to have our whole holiday season on the same day. 

Happy Chanukah and Happy Thanksgiving to my lovely readers!

The Yellow Brick Road of Leaves

Look what we found:

After last week's super cold weather, (did it snow or did I imagine that?) we all thought fall had left us for good. And it was a tough breakup. But then we woke up to this and some little people I know were really happy about it.

Thanksgiving is coming!! Who's excited? What are your plans?