It's Official

First Bombpop of the summer:


I remember grabbing a dollar from the kitchen drawer and racing out to the ice cream truck for these.


And I also ate them when I was a little kid.


OKAY Jeez I'll back off, Jane. I'm not trying to take your bombpop. I was just taking a picture!

Watch out for her. She is serious about her ice cream. Just OH: "HANG ON WREN! I can't talk when I'm licking!"

Party Trick

So a few weekends ago, Jessie and I threw a shower for a very lovely friend, who claims that judging by the pokes and prods, she will soon be giving birth to a unicorn. The unicorn will be her second baby, and so we did a surprise shower and everything went down great. We yelled surprise, she was surprised, there was beer for some, mimosas for others, and juice boxes for the rest.

The point of all this is that Jessie I and made some decorations and they were adorable and if you are planning a party, you should make them too.


Sorry about the dark picture, but I had to include it- please notice Jane, sneaking in the corner to climb the table and get her finger in a cupcake.


And here she is post-cupcake-refusal. Chase reports that other guests were slightly confused to see him taking this picture, rather than, you know, comforting his screaming child.

The idea from the decorations came from the crafty and stylish Noelle, who made these pom poms for her daughter's first birthday. And SHE got the idea from, who else, Martha Stewart, who has the tutorial up on her site.


They can either look like dahlias, if you make the edges pointy, or like fluffy poufs, if you round them off. They couldn't be simpler to put together- the most complicated part was finding the floral wire, and Jessie's rose growing ancestry came to our rescue there.


Our be-showered friend took home her favorites, to decorate the nursery, and I took as many as fit in the back of the Jetta. They are hanging in the girl's room and Jane calls them her "noflakes." I can't help myself- I will be so sad when she starts saying her 's.'

I still have two extras, pink and white, sitting on the piano in the living room if anyone wants to claim them. They are getting a bit bedraggled, but I bet they'd fluff up again if you hung them up. So. If you're throwing a party, you should make some pom poms! The end.

Bagel Attempt

One of the foods I've been consistently able to eat and enjoy this pregnancy is bagels, and no one in this house ever eats alone, with Jane in the vicinity to say "MAMAcanIhaveaBITE?"


So we have been racking up quite the bagel grocery bill. I have long resisted Chase's desire for homemade tortillas, even though we eat a lot of those too, because tortillas are ridiculously cheap to buy. But bagels, now that we no longer live near a Trader Joes (sob) are not. And there's a pretty simple recipe in my beloved Artisan Bread book, so I decided to give them a try.


Here's my capricious kitchen helper. About 3 seconds after this picture, she ate a fistful of salt from the salt cellar, and tried to wash it down with raw bagel dough. Then she went to her room for a little enforced rest time. This is the difficult time for kitchen helpers, in between being content to pour beans back and forth in tupperware containers on the floor, and being able to break eggs and stir on their own, like someone's big sister gets to do. It's a complicated balance, to keep her feeling involved and helpful, without letting her do injury to herself or ruin whatever we're making. Not starting a project 30 minutes before naptime would probably also be a good idea...

The dough was really easy to work with, since it was just pulled from the batch of plain boule dough I already had chilling in the fridge. And only a minimal amount of it got stuck in my jewelry, which I NEVER remember to take off until halfway through any bread making endeavor.


And here's the part that had intimidated me in the past and kept me from trying homemade bagels. I wasn't too sure how the boiling pot part would work, but it was actually very simple and fast. Then it was back onto the floured peel, and into the over on the hot stone for another 20 minutes. The girls requested an extra step, so we sprinkled them with cinnamon and sugar first.


I only made a small batch for this first attempt, but it was such a fast hassle free project that I will definitely be making these again and freezing as many as will fit in the freezer.


So far none have made it into the freezer. None have actually made it into the pantry either. We are trying to save some until Chase gets home, but I doubt we'll have any left for breakfast tomorrow. Maybe I should make some cookies, just so the bagels stand a chance...

Day Tripping

For the first weekend in forever, this last Saturday we had absolutely nothing scheduled. I had wiggled out of various end-of-the-school-year party type things, because that's just the kind of uninvolved jerk I am. And obviously we have lots of laundry to do, and a very dirty house, and a serious raccoon-on-the-patio problem that we will have to address soon, if Ramona ever wants to eat a full meal of dog food again. But we were so happy to have nothing definitely scheduled that we decided to get out of town, before we remembered a very important birthday party or something.


We grabbed swimsuits and towels and headed for Pedernales Falls, about 45 minutes from Austin. We've camped here before and really loved it. There are nice shady campsites, with a little trail down to the river. Next time we may try the more primitive sites, because this weekend the park was absolutely packed, which isn't a huge deal on the river, but might be annoying if you were actually camping.


Ramona is a huge fan of the river, but not a huge fan of being put on a leash about 3 feet away from the river. This is the other bummer of going on a busy weekend. She did get to run around whenever things calmed down. Actually, she ran around enough that she had her little old lady limp when we got home. Isn't she lovely and distinguished in her old age? With her little white muzzle? Usually a good night of sleep with fix her limp, and it has this time as well.


The water was just cold enough to be really nice when the sun was shining, and a little bit too cold when the wind was blowing. From my spot on the blanket, with a book, I could attest that the water was the perfect temperature.


Chase couldn't find his suit and was rocking the jorts, so I don't think he found the water quite as enjoyable, while he was fishing out various floating-away sand toys. Eventually I had to find out for myself. It was pretty great.


Pretty much the only thing that could make it better was a cherry limeade, and we stopped for one on the way home. I'm glad we did, because while walking around barefoot in beach clothes in a Sonic parking lot (CLASS) I realized I'd left my flip flops sitting on the ground, next to where we parked our car. That fuzzy-headed pregnancy thing is not a myth. I literally stepped out of my shoes, into the car. WTF.

So we turned around and went back to get them. Both tired girls fell asleep on the way home, and overall I'd say it was a pretty great day, even if we didn't do any laundry.

Big Bend- Window Trail

What we learned on our (supposed to be 3 mile, really secretly 6 mile) hike:


Always start a hike by following people who know what they're doing. For instance, notice the socks. I myself was not wearing socks and came to deeply regret this.


Watch out for bears. Also be aware that while your husband's boy scout hat is fun and ironic in Austin, it will cause varying levels of confusion and possibly anger when worn in a National park on spring break.


Don't drink the water. Even if you didn't happen to bring quite enough. Congratulate the littlest hikers on taking tiny sips and managing to make their meager stores last. Feel like an awesome parent.


Don't slip in the water.


Enjoy the shade, when you have it. And finally, although there are no pictures of this part, finish the whole thing with lots of ice cream back at the ranger station, and an eventual soak in the hot springs by the Rio Grande.