Miss E

Here's a snippet of a conversation that I had with Evie today. This is my life people, I cannot make this stuff up. Not sure where she gets all this spunk but it sure keeps us on our toes. Luckily, she is plenty sweet too!

Mommy: Evie, please put your shoes on so we can go for a walk.

Evie: Let's take the red stroller.

Mommy: No, we are taking the jogger.

Evie: (quite huffy): No, I am going to ballerina class. You need to let me go because I NEED to go. Evie got to grow up, Mama!

We had a nice walk! Mama is still the boss.

Frazzled Mama Bakes a Cake!

Look at that cute face!

He literally climbs the walls and the fridge. It's one of his favorite activities.

The cake finally made it into the oven!

I never really understood mommy brain before kids. Now, that I have two kids, it's become clearer by the day. Frazzle is my middle name and nothing goes according to plan these days. I am a planner with a capital P so this can be hard for me.

It was my turn to host the board for my MOMS Club and I had to make dinner for a new mom. Coffee cake seemed like the perfect idea because it would make a great breakfast but could still pass for dessert for the family with the new baby. Sounds like a great idea, right? Well, it did not exactly go according to plan but nothing really does these days.

Last night, I decided to prep the ingredients, my friend Lindsay does this and has told me that it saves so much time. I had scanned the recipe in advance so that I could purchase the ingredients. While, getting everything out, I notice that we are completely out of baking soda. I text Courtney to see if I can borrow some, then I keep going down the recipe looking for the next ingredient - cinnamon. YIKES, I am out of cinnamon too. I quickly text Courtney again to see if she has any cinnamon. She keeps her pantry stocked much better than me and was able to save the day.

By this point, it was after 8:30 and I was ready for bed. I decided to make the crumb mixture which only has a few ingredients. It seemed like a lot of crumb mixture but I did not give it much thought.

I went to bed expecting Henry to wake me up around 6. Naturally, he decides to sleep late on a day that I need him to serve as my alarm clock. I race downstairs after feeding him to work on the cake. My crumb mixture was totally wrong - I had used three cups of sugar instead of one cup plus had added the pecans and coconut to the wrong mixture. Then, I was almost out of sugar so I fished the pecans and coconut out of the crumb mixture to add it to the cake mix. Oh well, I just kept throwing stuff in the bowl and hoping for the best. Blueberry muffins were my back-up plan and I felt sure that I was going to be whipping those up last minute.

Henry enjoyed his view of the show!

Does your kitchen look like this after you finish cooking or baking?

My kitchen was a total disaster at this point. Henry was crawling all over the place and getting into everything. I secured him in the highchair while I tried to finish the cake before Evie woke up.

Evie was so excited to have cake batter to lick first thing in the morning!

Look at that sweet face!

Yum Yum! Evie likes licking the beaters.

She woke up just as I was sliding the cake in the oven. Shockingly, my cake turned out, the recipe must be extremely forgiving because I literally made about twenty mistakes.

Take it from me, if you are a mom with two small children - just buy something from the store. It's much easier! A friend that I used to teach with gave me this recipe and it is one of my favorites. Just make sure you have plenty of cinnamon! Oh, and the cake was so good, that I had to make something else to take the family with the new baby. See what I mean, nothing goes according to plan and that's okay!

                          Jewish Coffee Cake

 Crumb filling:

1 cup sugar

2 T. cinnamon

3 T. chopped pecans

3 T. coconut

Mix and set aside.

Cake:

1 cup butter

2 cups sugar

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

4 eggs

3 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

1 pint sour cream

Beat butter to cream well, add sugar and vanilla, add salt and eggs,

beat at high speed. Sift flour with baking soda and add to beaten mixture

alternately with sour cream. (begin and end with flour)

Pour 1/2 batter into greased Bundt pan,

Sprinkle with 1/2 crumb filling over batter.

Add remaining batter and top with remaining crumb filling.

Cut through with knife several times

Bake at 350*  50 minutes or until knife comes out clean. (I usually have to bake longer)

Weekend Wrap-up!

We had a pretty calm weekend. Nothing too exciting at all. I went out to run errands and Carl stayed with the kiddos. Christian came over to build a bulletin board for my office. I LOVE it! Can't wait to get more organized.

Henry and Evie both slept late this morning so we went to the late service at church. I definitely prefer the early service. Henry was exhausted and slept on the way home. We had a picnic pizza lunch since it was another gorgeous day!

I did some cleaning and organizing this afternoon. Carl took both kids to the park. Blissful! It was so nice being home all by myself. Not sure if Carl will take them both again because Evie was not happy to come home.

Ready for another week? Ready or not, here it comes. Hope you have a good one!

Week in Review!

We had a really good week! Carl was out of town and I had been dreading a week on duty without any help. It turned out to be such a fun week with my kids.

Monday: That was the day of the snake! We played outside a lot and had a picnic lunch. Henry skipped his naps all day. AHHH! It was the hardest day of the week since he was not sleeping well at all. Evie has been asking me to take her to Monkey Joe's for a long time so I decided that would be the perfect way to spend the afternoon. Evie had a blast until she decided that she "needed" a snack and I did not agree with her. Oh well, there are always a few tears at places like that for my sweet girl. She held it together and decided that a Ritz cracker would suffice for her afternoon snack.

Tuesday: Evie had school and Henry hung out with me after his nap. We went to the library and to Harris Teeter. Everyone knows Henry in our local Harris Teeter and Miss Doris always brings  him a balloon. I am a loyal Harris Teeter shopper so it makes me feel special that they take such an interest in my children. We picked up Evie from school and ate Popsicles outside before heading to Chick Fil A for dinner with The Porter's. Family Night is always crazy but it's fun for the kids. It was so good for me to spend some time with my sweet friend, Kristin, and have some adult interaction.  Evie was "sharing" her balloon animal with Henry on the way home even though I asked her not to share since it would pop. Of course it popped and then she was so upset that her balloon was popped. I pulled over to retrieve the balloon pieces from Henry before he choked. Evie wanted to call her Daddy to tell him about the balloon and she is still talking about her popped giraffe three days later.

Wednesday: Evie spent the morning playing with some pink yarn. Our house had pink yarn everywhere but she sure had fun creating mazes and practicing her "scissoring."We had our Wednesday Wildcats play date at Sarah's house and it was really fun! It was another gorgeous day and she has tons of outdoor toys for the kids. Evie tried roller skating and now she wants the Easter Bunny to bring her some skates. She has decided that the Easter Bunny should bring her anything that her little heart desires. Too bad, the Easter Bunny is not planning to bring roller skates. We went to the park after nap so that Evie could wear her new pink shoes. She literally showed them to every single person that we encountered - "look at my pink shoes. Do you like them?" Evie was crushed that no one even commented on her shoes and kept telling me those people were not listening.  

Thursday: Evie had school and Henry stayed home with his sitter. I had a hair appointment and ran a few errands. That time sure goes by fast! Evie was in the best mood after school. Henry went down for his nap and I watched a movie with Evie. Then, we headed out to the grocery store to kill some time since Carl was still gone. I had planned to go to the bank too but forgot to take the check with me. I am that frazzled Mommy! Carl had some weather delays getting back and did not make it home until 11 which gave me some time to straighten up the house. I totally let it go when he is gone so it's a mad dash to get everything back in place before he gets home. It's always nice to come home to a clean house.

Friday: I am usually exhausted by Friday but this was our best day of the week. Henry took a great nap and then we went to make sure his ears were better. Evie was so easy and pleasant in the doctors office so we headed out for cupcakes because I wanted something sweet. They had three different pink cupcakes and Evie chose the one with the crown. We came home for lunch and then Henry went back to sleep. Evie and I went outside for a dessert picnic and played outside for a bit. I put her down for a nap but she was not tired since she slept until 8:30 this morning. She had some quiet time and then we headed out to a new park after nap. We decided to go see the baby chicks while we were in the neighborhood. They are so cute and cuddly! Evie remembered that we went there with Ipop and I am pretty sure that was two years ago. Memory is such an amazing thing. I'd love to learn more about how it works and why we cannot remember things later in life that are such vivid memories as children. Evie played in the sandbox and ran around for the longest time. Henry just hung out in his stroller drinking his water and checking out his foot. We got home in time for an early dinner and then Evie was so excited to see Carl. She would make a spectacular member of the Welcoming Committee at church or in the neighborhood. We all went outside for a bit before bedtime. Now, it's time for a late dinner for us and then I am off to bed too after our busy day!

Happy Friday y'all!

Giving it Up!

Paper towels are just fabulous inventions. Don't y'all agree, they are so convenient and accessible when time is of the essence and a mess needs to be cleaned. But the time has come for me to give them up for a week or so. It's just gotten to the point where we use a roll per day and I think it's wasteful. Not to mention, Evie asked someone this week for a papertowel and the mom handed her a sponge. Evie did not even know what it was since we are not sponge-users at our house. So, I bought a large stack of micro-fiber clothes along with a few sponges - pink of course! And my paper towel holder is going on a little vacation to the pantry to keep me from grabbing a handy-dandy paper towel without thinking. I have a feeling this is going to take some getting used to using cloth instead of paper. Farewell, my absorbent little friend, I will miss your assistance more than you know. You take the drips off my children, the drops off my floors and the stickies off my hands. Wish me luck on this endeavour!

Sharing Popsicles

Slithering Snake Sighting!

We were at the park this morning enjoying the gorgeous day and noticed an extremely large snake slither across the path right where we were walking. It was literally the largest snake that I have ever seen outside an exhibit at a zoo or a museum. Evie was not thrilled but she kept it together while reminding me that she saw a snake last year too. She then went on to tell me that "we eat popcorn, not snakes. Snakes eat birds but they try to flap away so then they eat grass instead but that's not too tasty." My Evie comes by it honestly but she never stops talking. She was still talking about that snake at bedtime, "That snake was gross, Mama. Where did it go? I not like snakes. They not my favorite. I like dogs. They more useful." See, what I mean about the talking.