Arlo Franklin

Lilypie Kids Birthday tickers

Magnus Russell

Lilypie Third Birthday tickers

Monday, March 04, 2013

Video for Russ

Here is the video of Trent scoring his first AHL goal!

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

We had a good trip

Magnus and I made an unscheduled trip to Michigan and Ohio last week. Gone ten days, we had many adventures and lots of fun with all of the grandparents and Tina and the girls. Magnus also got to meet 6 dogs along the way. We were glad to have some winter weather, but didn't need it during our ride home. Who knew a 30% chance of snow showers would lead dozens of accidents across Michigan and Ohio, one of which we nearly missed.

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Pistachio Cake

Sam's been gone all week. He took Magnus along and drove up to Ohio and Michigan and it's now 7 days since they left. Arlo (and I!) miss having them around, but we've been doing ok getting along here at home. It's certainly been busy - we made Valentines for his classmates, he had a few playdates after school, we went to dinner, ran errands, and today we baked a cake and took it to Anya's baby "sprinkle" for her new little girl. The cake was one I originally made for Anya's first baby shower (that cake was a bit more elaborate) and it's so yummy I was happy to make it a second time. Today's version was a slightly simpler take on the original, however, and everyone enjoyed so I thought it would be worth writing down and sharing. Based on the old "Jellow Pistachio Pudding Cake" recipe (and looking for a simple approach), I used the following (note - I wanted thicker layers so I went with 1 1/2 recipes - you could simply cut out 1/3 of this if you don't mind smaller layers, or use 2 full boxes if you want to disperse into 3 layers): Cake 1 1/2 package Dr. Oetker's white cake mix 1 pkg. Dr. Oetker's pistachio pudding mix 6 eggs 1 7/8 cups (just shy of 2 cups) 3/8 cups sunflower oil about 1 teaspoon almond extract a touch of green coloring paste if you like a more pronounced color I blended the pudding mix and cake mix together first and beat the remaining ingredients separately before adding together. Whisk together well til there are no clumps, then bake at 350 degrees. I prefer round cakes so used 2 9" springform pans - that took about 35 - 45 minutes. Check for doneness with a toothpick. Filling and frosting 1 pint heavy cream 1/4 tsp almond extract 1/3 cup sugar Cherry butter or raspberry preserves Roasted, unsalted, shelled pistachios - about 3/4 cup Almond Paste 1) Spread the cherry butter or raspberry preserves across the first layer of the cake. I stir mine first to make it smooth for spreading, and used about 1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp. 2) Finely chop 1/2 tube of almond paste with about 1/2 cup of pistachios, leaving a few bigger chunks. Apply these to the top of the first layer of the cake that already has the jam on it. 3) Whip the cream, after a few minutes add the sugar, then the extract. Once it firms up and holds it's shape, stop whipping. Spread the whipped cream in a thin (about 1/4") layer over the nuts. Add the top layer of the cake. Make sure it is settled well and straight, then spread the whipped cream over the top and down the sides. Smoothe the sides if you like. Chop the remaining 1/2 cup of pistachios and use to decorate the top of the cake. EAT! The Jello recipe says it serves 12 - depending on size of the slices, I think you could get more like 16 servings. This recipe is probably a bit less sweet than the Jello version. :) Arlo's comment while helping make the cake: It's not very much fun making NUT cakes! (Poor kid can't eat nuts, so he had to forgo all kinds of tasting during and AFTER the process.)

Thursday, January 24, 2013

A Blog Post!!

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

As you can see in the videos and photo's below, we have been doing some things. We went to the Maryland Renaissance Festival last weekend with our friends Matt and Amanda and thier kids Liam and Reese. Arlo wanted to climb the castle wall so he did. I was proud of him for having the idea to do it, and to get all the way to the top. There was also a pony ride for the boys. That video is around here somewhere. I got to throw battle axes. I have to build one of those for the backyard because it is super fun. Magnus is essentially teaching himself to play the ukulele. In this video he was just starting to try strumming. In later videos (that I need to get up here soon) he has figured it out can get the strings to ring. The other day I tuned the tenor banjo, ukelele and guitar all the same and Arlo, Magnus and I all played together. Everyone enjoyed it, especially Mag. There was a storm a few weeks back that left that raindbow at dusk then an awesome sunset, eventhough we were driving past McDonalds at the time. Arlo has now been to school for three weeks and has normalized to the new schedule. He has been sleeping-in till nearly 7:30am, then eats oatmeal, gets dressed, brushes teeth, and we go outside to play for fifteen minutes before his ride comes at 8:08am. Thats compared to waking up at 6:45am, playing for two hours in jammies, then rushing at 8:45 to get out the door by nine, last year. This new way is better. He seems to like school, but doesnt talk about it much at home. We have his first teacher conference next week. We'll hear more then I'm sure. The start of school also means we have to go pick him up after school. It takes twenty minutes to drive there, across town. Right now there are a maze of construction zones to avoid or drive through. Some are new building construction that block lanes; street revitalization where they are completely rebuilding the road, sidewalks, curbs, lights, water lines. Every cross street has construction for 1.5 miles. There are other lanes blocked for differnt things, and roads closed near our house for a sewer project. It amazes me at the amount of work going on. Add to all that random UPS trucks blocking a lane, busses, garbage pick-up, bikers, walkers, speeders, tailgaters and lollygaggers, its amazing I get to his school at all. Its eight miles roundtrip and takes 55 minutes. Makes me want to throw battle axes.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Wednesday, September 05, 2012

Monday, August 27, 2012

First Day of School!

Arlo started PreK today at Inspired Teaching School. He's in Ms. Lott's class.