After treating us to a fabulous breakfast on Sunday morning, Josh and Laura took us downtown for shopping, coffee and time on the playground. It was hard to leave, but we know the next time we see them, they’ll have two brand new babies!
9 Nov
Iowa Children’s Museum
We had a short but sweet visit to Josh and Laura’s house this weekend. The trip included a few fun hours at the Iowa Children’s Museum in Coralville. I’ll post more photos from our trip later this week, but in the meantime, here’s a little slideshow.
8 Nov
Caption this
Best caption in the comments section wins a call from Olivia! Her average call length is about 3.5 hours, so clear your calendar now.
5 Nov
More S’mores
Doug recently sent me a link to a gorgeous slide show of America’s best cupcakes on Forbes Traveler. One in particular caught my eye–a S’mores cupcake.
I checked out a number of recipe sources, including a few Martha Stewart recipes that seemed quite complicated. Since I was making these as part of our party last week, I decided to simplify by using the recipe for one-bowl chocolate cupcakes. Once I had the cupcake batter parceled out, I sprinkled each cup with ground graham crackers.
After baking the cupcakes, I topped them with an ethereal marshmallow frosting and toasted the tops with a pastry torch.
This may be my new favorite cupcake!
4 Nov
Sunny days
There’s an interesting article about the changes down on Sesame Street on CNN.com this morning. I was going to post snippets of the text, but really, the article is short and completely worth the read, especially if you were born before 1984.
Check it out here. I’d love to hear your thoughts!
3 Nov
Like 1970 on a plate
We hosted a cocktail party for about 20 of my coworkers this weekend. I built the menu around figs, goat cheese and port, and on a whim, I decided to try Julia Child’s recipe for Chicken Liver Pate with Figs. I wish I had remembered to garnish the top of the pate, though I’m not sure it would have saved it from looking so very dated.
I admit I wasn’t a huge fan, and I had to beg Bryan to even try it. So, I was surprised to see that nearly half it was gone by the end of the night.
Dagny enjoyed the rest!
2 Nov
Missed opportunity
Bryan was quite disappointed when he realized we didn’t snap a photo of our maple tree before a majority of the leaves fell. It was quite pretty this year, but when the wind blows 30 miles an hour most days, the leaves don’t last long. Here are a couple parting shots of the remaining red.
1 Nov
Busy Bee
Olivia reprised the bumblebee costume my mom made a couple of years ago. At the time, Ava was just about 18 months old, and she was terrified of the tutu. Olivia would wear it all day if you’d let her. The costume was a bit snug—we had to fasten the back with safety pins, but it worked out pretty well! Olivia spent the day saying, “bumblebee” and, of course, “more candy.”
1 Nov
Tinkerbell!
Ava dressed up as Tinkerbell this Halloween, thanks to a very cute costume made by my mom.
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