Post 2 of 2 - Knitting!

What I've mostly been knitting for the past two weeks is Swiffer covers - now I need to sew buttons on them. But, on Monday I recieved a box in the mail - it was the DishRagTag!

Here's what was in the box (not including the instructions and cards):

There was a lovely cotton dishcloth, in the official pattern of DishRagTag2009, yummy bath salts, and (not pictured) a ball of red, white and blue striped cotton yarn.

The left-over yarn, after I knit a dishcloth out of the striped cotton, is in this picture, along with the dishcloth itself, a tin of mints that went inside the box when I sent it, and a new ball of cotton yarn.



I stayed up way too late knitting it, but, not counting the interruptions, it only took 2 or 3 hours to knit. fun!

Post 1 of 2 - Birthday!

Little J's birthday was a lot of fun! In a grand family tradition, his mommy and daddy procrastinated until the last minute, but I think the cake was a success (at least with the little people), and that's what counts.

This was the cake that I made for Little J's birthday cake. Big J saw it online, and pointed it out to me, months ago. When Little J saw the picture, he asked, "Me have shark cake?" (over and over, and over...) So, I had to fufill his little heart's desire, and make him a shark cake. The only difficulty, was that Little G was trying to blow out the candles before Little J got a chance!




We did eventually manage to convince the girl that she should wait for her brother to blow out the candles, but it was difficult :D

The cake was yummy. I used a recipe from King Arthur Flour's website for a vanilla pound cake, store bought vanilla frosting (note to self: it melts when it gets too warm) and we had chocolate ice cream with it.



And, after cake and ice cream, there were presents! Little J had already received a wooden train set from Aunt R and Uncle D (Thank You! The kiddos play with it quietly) and a card with money from his Grandma and Grandpa. Mommy had a Ravensburger puzzle with a Papo knight figure, and a Ben10 sticker book for him, and daddy picked out a SharkAttack hotwheels car playset for Little J. So, not too many toys for mommy to find places for, but enough to make him happy.


And, even Big J liked playing with the sticker book...

feeding frenzy, radishes, and a new vaccum

This post is a bit random, it covers different things that have happened...

I fixed up lunch for the kiddos, and here is Little G dipping her fingers in ketchup, peanut butter, and yogurt. She prefers the yogurt, her brother likes ketchup better. The yogurt and ketchup were intended to be for dipping tortilla pieces. Below is a picture of the tortillas, I made snowflakes for the little kids. They thought it was so cool!







And, Big J's parents sent the kids presents from Thailand! Below is a picture of Little J and Little G wearing native Thai costumes. Little J and G like them because the clothes are jingly - there's little bells sewn on.

I tried my aunt's recipe for microwave pickles last weekend, and I'm not sure it turned out right. First, the recipe is for pickling onions, not for radishes. But I really love pickled radishes, so I thought I would try (it took trips to two seperate grocery stores to find the ingredients.) Then, I missed the step that said to COVER the container before microwaving. Big J complained about the smell of vinegar in the kitchen. He's the sensitive sort. The radishes looked beautiful at the halfway mark, when I stirred them, and the liquid had already become a lovely clear red, but after 10 minutes of microwaving, the radishes are all shriveled and cooked! AuntR, did I do this right?

Tonight, we had a door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman come by and give us a demonstration. He was very good at his job, and the vacuum was very good at it's job. He left us with a new vacuum, and removed our old vacuum, just like magic. Big J and Little Sister are very excited, and have all sorts of plans for vacuuming and shampooing the carpets. I can't wait (to have them vacuuming for me!). Hopefully, this more efficient vacuum will decrease the allergens in the house and help with Big J's allergy symptoms.