My little foodies

I love how when I ask my kids what kind of cake they want for their birthday, they pick a flavor rather than a cartoon character. My little foodies in the making.

For his birthday this year, Cole chose an ice cream cake. I searched around on the internet but couldn't find instructions for making one that didn't involve ice cream sandwiches (I already had a gallon of ice cream in the fridge that I wanted to use). Now that I've made an ice cream cake, I'd say that the ice cream sandwich idea is very smart. Also, a walk-in freezer would have been nice.

I made the cake layers on Friday night and let them cool completely. On Saturday, I thawed out the ice cream, spread it into a cake pan, hardened it back up, and then flipped it onto one of the cake layers, adding the second layer on top. Then I froze the whole thing for an hour. That was not long enough, so when I attempted to frost it, ice cream oozed out everywhere. I finally got it frosted and put it back in the freezer. We ate it three hours later, but even that was not long enough for the ice cream to reharden, and it was an oozy mess.


The key, it seems, is to refreeze overnight because today when we had cake for dinner (yes, we do that sometimes), it was perfect.

Happy Birthday, Cole!

We realized yesterday that Cole's birthday is exactly two weeks after mine, and then Rylan's birthday is exactly two weeks after Cole's. So between the three birthdays, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, November and December are one big party around here.

We started off the day yesterday with Raleigh's annual Christmas parade. We only stayed for an hour this year, so we didn't see if the Storm Troopers from last year are a regular feature. We actually weren't able to see much at all since we got there at 9:30 and the parade started at 10:00. Apparently you have to arrive at 7:00 in your jamamas to get a good spot. This was the view Michael and I had:


This was how the boys watched the parade:


Rylan had the best seat:


After the parade, we headed to Chuck E. Cheese for Cole's party. We did a family party this year, but let him invite one friend.
Back home to eat cake


And open presents


We also fed the missionaries that evening. As we sat down for dinner, Michael and I turned to each other and whispered, "Are you hungry? Me either..."

All in all, I think Cole had a good day.

Eli Says...

During journal time...

Eli: Daddy, I drew Cole, I drew ballons, I drew a piñata. What should I draw next?

Daddy: Why is there a pinata?

Eli: I'm drawing Cole's birthday.

Daddy: But there wasn't a piñata at Cole's birthday.

Eli: (in a "duh, Daddy" voice) But birthdays have piñatas.

Rylan Says...

Instead of "ramen noodles"...

Rylan: We're eating rotten noodles.

Cole Says...

Cole: I know three bad words that start with "d."

Me: Do you?

Cole: Yes, but I'm not going to tell you what they are. I already told Eli.

Me: You better not be teaching Eli bad words.

Cole: You already know one. You said it one day.

Me: I said a bad word?

Cole: Yes. You said "dead."

Me: Dead is one of the bad words?

Cole: Yes. Dead, deceased, and dying. Those are the three bad words that start with "d."

Cookie Dough Balls

Michael is in New York tonight, and it seems that I haven't been in a photo-taking mood lately, so we skipped journal night tonight in favor of a pseudo-fondue party (using this recipe except I skipped the second freeze part).

Because Kellie gave a thumbs down to the video I posted on Facebook...

...I have to post a bunch more videos. I discovered this new musician named Johnny Flynn this past weekend, and I have become borderline obsessed with his music. Some (Michael) might say I've surpassed obsessed. I may or may not have listened to his album twenty-five times since purchasing it last Saturday. I may or may not have watched every one of his music videos multiple times. And I may or may not have spent several hours googling reviews of his albums.

Michael, I promise it is purely a musical crush. You have nothing to worry about.

(Ladies, besides being a singer, songwriter, actor, and poet, this guy can play the guitar, banjo, mandolin, violin, and trumpet, and is pretty fine to look at, I must admit.)

Here's the video I originally posted on Facebook. I really like the cello harmonics, the catchy drum beat, and the way it builds up at the end.


The string instrumental about two-thirds of the way through this next song is so amazing - I'm pretty sure it's a violin/cello duet, but it could be two violins. And then I really like the violin plucking right after the instrumental.


This is the first song I heard of his, and it's not my favorite by any means, but it's his most popular.


If you've made it this far...this is my favorite on the album:


And Kellie, he's also the guy in Lisa Mitchell's Coin Laundry video.

JOHNNY FLYNN OFFICIAL
website
facebook
myspace
youtube