hung out to dry

Kindergarten produces massive amounts of paper. Mira comes home with a new stack every day. We get to see the letter sounds and sight words of the day, a drawing or two, some cutting and pasting, and don't forget the coloring pages. I do my best to read through all of them each day, but I must admit experiencing Kindergarten paper overload from time to time, which causes me to skim through the pages or worse, add them to the ginormous stack of papers in my office waiting to be read. Today as I was cleaning out my office I made my way through the massive pile of Kindergarten papers. After the ladybug cutting and pasting project and beneath the "pan, fan, bat, hat" page on words with short a vowel sounds I found this:

If you can believe it, this little gem almost slipped by my fastidious review process. I've often wondered what Mira thinks of her little sister and this paper provides a glimpse. In case you can't read it, the directions state, "Draw something silly Mrs. McNosh might find at your house to hang up with the wash." Mrs. McNosh must be a character in a story that Mira's class read. For some reason, Mira decided that her little sister, Abby, should be out on the clothesline with the laundry. As you can see from the illustration, Abby is pretty distressed about being hung out to dry. Can you blame her?

thought process of a three year old

We walked back from the school bus stop this morning in blisteringly cold six (SIX!) degrees. Abby was not enjoying the weather and neither was I. Here's what she said:

Mommy, carry me. It's cold.
It's freezing!
I'm freezing.
I'm freezing like a popsicle!
...Can I have a popsicle???

three years ago today

Three years ago today it was the day before my due date. I decided to whip up a delectable castor oil orange juice smoothie for myself in the hopes it would encourage the baby to get a move on. You know the saying: "Make like a baby and head out." Well, it worked like a charm. At 8 pm I was sitting on my yoga ball eating pizza and watching Super Nanny. An hour later I thought, Well, this is the real deal. Time to go. By 10 pm we were at the hospital and 2 hours later Abby was born! It was a very productive day indeed.

Tomorrow we're hosting her 3rd birthday party and instead of a castor oil cocktail I'll be whipping up a raspberry ice cream cake and a chocolate marshmallow layer cake.

Happy Birthday Abby!

we're going to disney world!

The doldrums of winter were really setting in the other day, so we decided to escape to sunny Florida in March. The girls had so much fun at Disney World when we went two years ago that we've decided to go back. Here are a couple photos from our last trip.

homemade pasta

Fresh, homemade egg noodles are one of my favorite projects. The results are so worth the effort. Homemade noodles are so much more tender, delicate and rich than your standard dried pasta from a box. Even the fresh pasta you buy at the grocery store doesn't hold a candle to the homemade kind.

A few days ago we had homemade pasta for dinner. The recipe we used (here's a similar recipe) calls for 14 egg yolks to 2 1/2 cups of flour. You slowly work the eggs into the flour by making a "nest" of flour on your work surface and putting the eggs in the center. This technique is tricky because it is difficult to keep the eggs within the nest, so I would recommend using a large bowl to contain the inevitable spillage that usally occurs.

Once the dough comes together, you knead for 15 minutes and then the dough rests for a few hours or overnight. When you're ready to roll it out, you'll need some special equipment. I have pasta roller and cutter attachments for my mixer.

My assistant and I rolled out the dough and cut it into fettucine. As you can see, this process requires that you, your assistant, and every surface in your kitchen become coated with flour.

After the dough is all cut and dusted lightly with flour to prevent sticking, a quick 2-3 minutes in a pot of boiling water is all it takes.

We served our noodles in a rich and savory oven-roasted tomato sauce. Both recipes are from my new favorite cookbook, Ad Hoc at Home by Thomas Keller. The tomato sauce had such a depth of flavor and was so satisfying. I highly recommend it.

christmas steve and harry christmas

Three years ago today, when Mira was 2 1/2 years old, we told her it was almost Christmas Eve and time for Santa to come. The next day she kept asking us if Christmas Steve was coming that night. After trying to figure out what she was talking about and then correcting her a few times, we finally put two and two together and realized what she meant: She heard Christmas Eve as Christmas Steve. This, of course, became a running joke and an instant classic. We all believe in Christmas Steve around here.

Well, today Abby came up with her own Christmas tradition to add to the mix. As expected, we have been saying "Merry Christmas" to everyone and this morning Abby said, "Harry Christmas!" to a friend as she was leaving. We have to get Christmas Steve and Harry Christmas together. They really should meet.

I know it has been quite a while since my last post. (We've been busy, what can I say?)  Here are a handful of photos to catch you up on our holiday-related activities over the last few weeks.

Santa and Mrs. Claus came to Saratoga in a trolley. The girls caught up with Mrs. Claus on her way off the trolley.

Santa sees his subjects in a small hut along the main street in town. When it was our turn, Mira went right in with her carefully crafted letter.

Abby, however, had no intention of going into a confined space with that strange man in the flamboyant red outfit. She opted to wait outside with Daddy.

A few days later we headed to the tree farm. Mira enjoyed a cup of hot cocoa after our long trek across the parking lot to pick out a tree from the "pre-cut" barn (we whimped out after arriving and realizing how cold 17 degrees really feels).

Then we hauled our tree out and headed home to gussy her up with some sliver and gold bling!

my new toy

I got a new toy yesterday: a Flip MinoHD video camera. It's smaller than my hand and super simple to use. The reason I bought it was to make it easy to take videos and faster to post them to the web. Last night the girls were dancing around to a favorite song (Cake's version of Mahna Mahna) so I took a little snapshot of the action. Here it is:



I'm bringing this little toy to Vegas with me in three days. (Oh, by the way, we're going to Las Vegas with friends on Saturday!) I'm hoping to get some good material so that we can blackmail our friends if we ever need some extra cash. Just kidding- what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.