the sidewinder blast

We got a new toy last weekend. It's a giant inflatable water slide called "The Sidewinder Blast". We saw it in our weekly Aldi flyer and knew we had to have it. It was one of those Aldi "special buys" where they get random items for a good price but have a limited number available for sale. Tim made me drive to our trusty neighborhood Aldi store a good 20 minutes before they opened so that I could beat out the throngs of shoppers waiting to spend a few hundred bucks on a giant water toy. Needless to say, there was no wrangling necessary at Aldi for this thing. My competition was more interested in the 99 cent Pringles and 29 cent per pound bananas than a 75+ pound box filled with a ginormous inflatable water slide.

So of course right after I returned home with the booty, we had to play with our new toy.  We invited the cousins over and spent a good four hours testing out this beastly addition to our backyard. Good times were had by all. Here's the highlight reel.

goodbye cosmo

Today we had to say goodbye to Cosmo. He has been a good friend and companion for almost 14 years. We will miss him.

balsamic strawberry-rhubarb jam

After our trip to the strawberry patch, we were left with way more berries than we could eat. On top of that, my rhubarb started to get out of control again. Solution to both problems? Strawberry-rhubarb jam with a splash of balsamic vinegar.

In case you would also like to whip up a batch, here's how: Since I don't like huge pices (small ones are ok) of fruit in my jam, I started by running the strawberries through my food processor to coarsely chop them. I then combined the strawberries with sugar (based on the ratios given on the Sure Jell box) and left them to do their thing for a while (about 5 hours). I did the same for the roughly chopped rhubarb and gave 'em a stir every hour or so.

Now it's time to cook: After their sugar soak, I strained out the fruit and put the resulting juices into a large pot and brought it to a boil. After about 5 minutes of boiling the juice to concentrate the flavors a bit, I added the rhubarb and cooked for 4-5 minutes (I wanted the rhubarb to almost completely break down). After the rhubarb reached my desired consistency, I stirred in the chopped strawberries, 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, and the pectin and boiled for 1 more minute before pouring the concoction into the jars. The color is a rich wine red and they look amazing. And the leftover jam that I managed to scrape from the pot was very tasty.

the magic forest

Last week Abby and I joined Mira's school class on their end-of-year field trip to the Magic Forest. It was a cute little amusement park perfectly suited for their age group. All the rides were vintage, but really well maintained. The only low points were when I had to ride the Tilt-a-Whirl and the Scrambler with the gang due to Abby being too small to ride without an adult. For me, spinning rides are not so good.

Mira's friend Sarah was also with us and her dad (a professional photographer) took a few really great shots that he shared. Here they are:

happy birthday mira

Mira turned six last week. We had a party with family on her birthday and a luau themed party with kids on Saturday. Here are a few pictures from our action-packed week.

In making Mira's birthday cake for the family party, I've discovered the best-ever yellow cake recipe. The method is so easy and foolproof and the result is just the perfect texture- fluffy yet substantial. You can find the recipe here. The frosting is a light chocolate buttercream.

For the luau party, I made yellow cupcakes and frosted them with a vanilla-almond-coconut buttercream. They were so very tasty.

Here is the birthday girl and two of her friends hula dancing for the camera.

And here are Mira and Abby resting under a palm tree after the party.