events of the uneventful

Thing 1 doesn't want to let go of this birthday girl thing and I guess technically she can't because I'm going to bust my tail for the next three days to throw a spectacular birthday party this weekend.  She tried to milk it all day long; asking for candy, claiming she didn't have to share her new toys with her sister, demanding lunch at 1PM instead of noon with the rest of us.  That's my diva girl!

Thing 2 is killing me with this turning 3 transitioning out of a nap phase.  If she doesn't nap she's up all night screaming for God-knows-what waking us all up and the last thing I need is to wake up IN BETWEEN the times the baby is nursing.  Bella slept between 2 and 4:30PM today which was a relief but also a concern because then she won't go to bed at 7PM and my evening time gets cut into and that blows.  The one good thing is that she should sleep soundly tonight.

Thing 3 is cutting a tooth.  I think? I hope! Sheesh, she's 7.5 months with no teeth and that's not super weird because Bella cut her first tooth at 9 months, but Ashlynn has seriously been teething since she was 3 months old and with zero payoff it totally sucks.  She's fussy and drooling and refusing a spoon in her mouth.  This girl never misses a meal so there better be a little white nugget erupting soon!  The crawling has set in motion a series of "Oh crap" moments. Like today when she pulled herself up on the wiggly granite fireplace and almost wobbled her face into the stone or when she crawled to a black spot on the carpet and picked the tiny thing up with her superpower fine motor skills and luckily I was watching because that black spot was a dead fly I had swatted earlier.

On to the uneventful stuff.

We have to bleach our eggs in Addis Ababa (along with everything else really).  They come in plastic bags and are generally spotted with chicken dookie.  I also "float" the eggs.  Basically while they are soaking any floaters are tossed.  Gas is created in bad eggs that causes them to float and it's a pretty simple way of avoiding food poisoning via bad egg.  Especially since my homemade ice cream has raw eggs in it (gasp!) and I make an awesome pasta carbonara (double gasp!).  I never made these things in the States but here I am taking my chances on the eggs here in Ethiopia.  Maybe the dookie makes them seem fresher. Right out of the chicken butt fresh!  Anyway, floating the eggs makes me feel better.

I never thought I'd be saying this but the locally grown fresh strawberries in Addis Ababa are pretty slammin.   I get about a half pound for $1.50.  I always leave gorgeous bowls of fresh strawberries out for the girls when they get hungry and need a snack.  I almost never sit down and eat some myself because I play that I-should-save-that-lovely-healthy-fruit-for-my-growing-offspring-game.  Not today!  I threw all the really dark sweet ones down my gullet before the kids even saw the bowl. HA!

The house is filling up with roses for our upcoming birthday extravaganza.  At 1 birr per rose I am getting 200 roses which is about $10.  Ridiculously awesome and cheaper than balloons and streamers!

Here is Bella when she woke up from her juicy two and half hour nap.  Sometimes she only half wakes up (well-most of the time) and screams and kicks and whines and scratches herself for a good 30 minutes.  Lucky Me!

 There was mozarella at the store today.  Boo yeah!  The girls and I had pizza for dinner WITHOUT the obligatory side veggie I usually make to feel better about serving pizza.  Tonight it was, "No, you can't have a treat until you finish all those bits of olives and cheese on your plate".

Adelaide Rose turns 5

My eldest daughter knows how to be a birthday girl.  She is perfectly happy being in the center of attention at home.  She relished today even more because it's tough to be supportive of your little sister having her birthday first every year.  Today was Addie's turn and she loved all the pampering and extra love!

Justin made her favorite chocolate chip pancakes this morning.  Chocolate chips in the shape of a number 5-super cool Dad! (When I asked her this evening what her favorite part of the day was-number 5 pancakes was immediately her answer).  She opened up presents from us and had a movie afternoon which is pretty special.  I let her choose our dinner for tonight and her request was fish, cous cous, and corn (at 5 I think I would have chosen french toast or something).  I was pretty impressed with her decision.  I surprised her with a brownie sundae and we sang "Happy Birthday".  I was really touched with how loud and sincere Arabella sang "Happy Birthday" to her sister. It was darling. All in all it was a pretty great day.  

It's amazing how grown up Adelaide seems in certain moments.  She's responsible enough that I leave her in charge of watching her baby sister for short moments when I need to step out of the room.  She feeds the dog, calms down Arabella when she's upset, plays fairly with her sister and her friends, and has very mature self awareness.  She's a bit of a worrier.  She's perceptive about other people's feelings. If I asked her who her favorite pancake maker was she'd want to say Daddy but she's probably add something at the end of her sentence about loving my pancakes too so as to not hurt my feelings.  She's a graceful strong girl who will make an excellent athlete when she gets older if I can just expose her to some team sports for girls.  She has a rocket for a throwing arm and really good aim so I'm thinking she might make a good short stop some day.  Adelaide mostly warms my heart with her tenderness and love for her two younger sisters.  They idolize her and I have no doubt she will be a wonderful example for them.  

I love pictures of Addie where she's just a little girl, acting like a little girl.

I love how excited Addie is about math.  I love that she asks a million questions about everything.  She's a curious smart girl and I hope we can encourage her to work hard at math and science and whatever else she loves.  She's passionate about art and the process of making something.  I love watching her create things with her hands.

She's a bit of a head turner already.  Justin and I watched a little boy at the playground the other day completely mesmerized by her.  She ran around playing and doing her thing while he followed her like a puppy just staring, trying to do something that she'd notice.  That's why I love photos of my little girl like this one...

Because she has no problem giving me a photo like these ones...I'm thinking we need to slow down this growing up process somehow.

Tonight when I was tucking her in to bed she was asking me a question about the movie Annie.  It was one of her birthday gifts she received today and I told her briefly what the story was about earlier. She brought it back up laying in bed by asking me how I knew about Annie finding a Daddy in the story.  I told her that it was one of my favorite movies as a little girl and that's how I knew.  "So now you told me and I'm going to tell my girls and they are going to tell their girls and then they will tell their girls on and on... right Mommy?"   Sometimes she's wise beyond her years.  Luckily after that she cuddled up with her lovie and turned over to go to sleep and I could still see the baby in her, even if it's just for a few seconds.

Addie turns 1, 2, 3, 4

superbella

Ashlynn's crawling

At seven and a half months, Ashlynn Olivia is the youngest of my three girls to crawl.  She's definitely trying to keep up with her big sisters.  I'm waiting for one of her signature downward facing dog yoga poses to turn inadvertently into a somersault!  She does more of a crab walk than a traditional crawl right now.  I'm in for some serious heart attacks now that she's moving.  I've pulled three stickers out of her mouth along with a few other too-small toys.  We also have to watch her like a hawk around the stairs!

mad about Alice

More party preparations were completed this weekend.  I'm trying to get a jump start on things for Adelaide's unbirthday party this coming weekend.  Today is her real birthday so we are celebrating at home with a few gifts from Mom and Dad (wrapped ultra ghetto style in Christmas wrap), chocolate chip pancakes courtesy of Daddy, and maybe some homemade cookies and cream ice cream!  Oh to be five again!

Using red and white bakers twine, I strung up these awesome Alice in Wonderland playing cards with vintage pictures.  It's perfect for the Queen of hearts part of the party!  What do you think?  I LOVE the pictures and the quotes! "Twinkle twinkle little bat".  "We're all a little mad here!"

suck it Martha

For the record, I like Martha.  I subscribe to her magazine because the photography is excellent , the recipes are good and her party ideas are slammin (albeit a bit too perfect).  But I am not Martha, nor am I her food critic, food stylist, or the chef that makes those beautiful concoctions in the photos.  I wonder if those photos are supposed to make one's self esteem disappear completely when you try the recipe and by God it doesn't even remotely look like Martha's version?

It's my own fault, I get a little too crafty when it comes to my kids birthdays.  Today is the day Addie gets to celebrate her birthday at school.  I was required to bake something for her classmates.  I declined on the 60 cupcakes because that's a ton of cupcakes.  My initial thought was cookies but then I saw this photo on the cover of the June issue of Martha Stewart Living and right then and there Addie and I decided that was the cake I was going to make for her to bring to school.  It was perfect!  We can get strawberries and whipping cream here.  The cake looked simple enough...

This is not what my cake looked like.  Not even close!

Boy was I wrong.  The cake is an angel food type cake with a trillion and a half eggs that rose and puffed beautifully in the oven and then within 30 minutes of cooling completely collapsed into a wrinkly mess.  This is even after I adjusted the recipe for baking at high altitude.  This high altitude thing is really cramping my baking style!  Anyway, I decided to cut the two 9 inch wrinkly cakes so there would be four layers and try to disguise the wrinkles with whip cream.

I assembled the cake before school today and oh man-it did not go so well.  The cake was supposed to be light and airy and my wrinkly fallen mess WAS NOT.  The strawberries in the middle were fine but the whip cream just squished out the sides of the layers and the entire four layer cake had slid apart twice before I just popped the portable cake carrier's lid on and put it in the back of the car with a note that said "I failed.  I hope it tastes better than it looks!"

I was in tears in the kitchen apologizing to Adelaide.  "I'm so sorry honey.  Mommy was trying to make a beautiful cake for you to bring to school!"  She came and gave me a hug and  said "I love you, I don't mind a silly looking cake".  "It was wrinkly and now it's falling, it's ok".  Bless her heart.  She's such a sweet girl.

Anyway, I hate failing at cakes.  I'm a stay at home Mom. I've known about having to bring a cake today for weeks now and so the idea that I failed at it is depressing.  Seriously?!  I could't have just made a batch of brownies or a boxed sheet cake? That's where I failed completely.  I got a little too crafty and it backfired.  I'm sure the kids won't mind their scoop of cake today. No doubt it will taste delicious but I should have just sent her to school with a box of cookies like everyone else!

UGH! Martha and her beautiful cakes!

the bomb chocolate chip cookies

Everyone has their favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe. Lord knows I've tried many.  Can you honestly say you make the very best chocolate chip cookies possible?  I can! Believe me, it's not my baking skills, it's this recipe I found!  Finally, a chocolate chip cookie recipe I can settle on and make a million times because I know without a doubt, it's the best damn chocolate chip cookie recipe on Earth.

While we were in the U.S. all the Borders book stores closed and it became a family hobby to head to the closest Borders and pillage the shelves during the sales. We are total book geeks. Everything was so cheap we felt like we were stealing books.  Justin and I picked up stacks of great books, puzzles, games and movies for the kids all for a fraction of the original cost.  I ended up with this cookbook for $3 that I have used a ton.  The Hunka Chunka Chewy Chocolate Cookie recipe makes the most amazing cookie I have ever tasted.  I'm telling you.  You must try it!

The other day I made these cookies and I added 1 1/3 cups Heath Bar pieces and 1 2/3 cup chocolate chips instead of the all chocolate chips the recipe calls for.  They were the BOMB!  The cookies spread and flattened more here at our high altitude but they tasted amazing!  Anyway, since I altered the recipe a tad with the Heath, I figured this version needed a new name.  I can't possibly take credit for the original recipe in the book.