Cinnamondee

You say its your Birthday

C-boy finally had his long awaited 6th birthday.  Movies and popcorn and more chocolate cake than you could shake a stick at. 

We went to see "Where the Wild Things Are" which got very mixed reviews in our little bunch.  I enjoyed it, while the kids were about 50/50.  I would highly recommend this for much older kids (maybe 12 and older) who can understand the childhood angst and anger factor and what the monsters actually represented to Max.  All in all not a scary movie, just somewhat dark, although very beautifully made and wonderfully performed. 

C-boy got a Ripstick from my sister.  I was fine with it until W said, "I better teach him how to fall properly" then all the ER scenarios went swiftly through my mind.  They must make full pillow bodysuits for this type of thing, no?  He totally digs it though, and can't wait to get on it again.  We got him a pogo stick...the options available for him to hurt himself just keep on coming.

I'm also Transformered out at this point.  If I have to hear, "Mom can you fix this part again?" I will seriously go into a Transformer coma. Although I have to say those Transformers do give him hours of play(which includes making contraptions in his room for them to slide down and rescue each other).  He totally did get a lot of great gifts, and he enjoyed every single thing he received.  Almost too much, it made me wonder if never buying him stuff during the year makes for a deprived kid but really he just ends up LOVING his Birthday and Christmas like crazy. 

Happy Birthday little boy, worms and dirt and all.






 

Perfect Day

I had the sweetest bestest Mothers Day.  Acai bowl breakfast with a skinny mocha and gift openings - I love those ceramic homemade hand and letter plaques!

Then hiking up Tantalus with the kids.  It was so beautiful. 

 

 

This was the lookout before the hike.

After that Round Table Pizza in Waikiki with beers on tap.  No sir, this was NOT a low carb day by any means.  Especially since after that was Japanese Beard Papa Cream Puffs. 

Bring it.

Soccer and football in the park and a picnic for dinner. 

Perfect.

Hot and Sour

We made some Tom Yum soup tonight.  C-girl and W's favorite. 

She gets to smash the lemongrass...

C-boy is too destructive, that would end up a mess if I let him do that. 

So he gets to tear up the kaffir leaves-add both to boiling water

 

Then all that's left is add some mushrooms, firm tofu(or shrimp if you eat seafood), broccoli, lime juice and stinky fish sauce- sprinkle some cilantro and/or Thai chili sauce if you like it hot like W...

Serve with rice and smiles

 

(that looks like a thumbs sideways, but I'm assured its a thumbs up)

Here's a easy recipe link (we changed some stuff to suit the kids taste).

For a list of vows and a veil of lace, made a wife of you today, but you're still my Sister Rose the same

We attended Nonnahs wedding recently- such a beautiful day and a gorgeous couple. 

everything was done so sweetly and simply-

from the pretty flowers to the favors (yummy kilani brownies - a hole in the wall bakery from our hometown)

cupcake tower (which were as delish as they were cute)-

 

to the demure bride herself-

Congrats Nonnahs and B - with all our love and best wishes !!!!

New York

 

I went with my sister and mom to visit my little bro and his sweet wife who are going to have a little one soon of their own.  They live Hyde Park NY, while he finishes up his last few months of Culinary School.

This is me in front of some kind of some shmancy gardens at my brothers' school...

And this is my backside (gee thanks, sis) looking over the acreage at Vanderbilt Mansion-

are my eyes closed? Nice.

 

Here is me, my mom and my brother looking at a snake in the tree in front of the B&B we stayed in.

I couldn't say 'get me the heck outta here' fast enough.

 

Here is a yummy French Bistro, Le Petite Bistro, in Rhinebeck. 

 

And this is my Sis, with our wonderful friend, Kim, of the extraordinary Treats Truck, and Walt, my sisters' best friend since we were all in grade school(and my fashionista partner in crime).  They both live and work in NYC.

 

We had an awesome vegetarian dinner at Gobo, and then cupcakes at Magnolia's and then, an earnest search for an open Pinkberry at 11 pm.   

We stayed at Walts' place the nite we visited the city, thank you Walt, we'll be back!!!

Kim sent us home with loads of Treats from her truck and they were all so good!!  I set my group to task and they couldn't say much more than, 'Nom, nom, nom" I believe that's a thumbs up-  Thanks Kim!

 

 

nom, nom, nom, nom....

 

Happy Earth Day!!

I was going to post ON Earth Day (which would be the logical thing to do) but who is logical the day after eating rancid organic peanut butter and then not sleeping the entire night because of the most upset stomach in her thirty-something years of life?  Then having to drag herself to work, with said stomach, and face customers cheerily for eight hours.  So I took some Po Chai(whoa, that stuff is wee nasty smelly), bucked up and got on with the day for goodness sake.  I will celebrate Earth Day on the 23rd, thank you.

As Nonnahs mentioned, our new thing now is 'no plastics' so everything we purchase is with a conscious eye towards banning the evil petroleum by product.  So, many a cloth produce bag comes with me to the health food store for everything from rice, coffee, produce, grains and granola.  I had no idea that our health food store had big containers so you can fill up your own container, shampoo, soap, conditioner, olive oil and honey, as well as all the bulk spices.  That totally rocks.  The only thing we have yet to find a replacement for is soy milk and potato chips, there are those paper bags for chips but i think it has a plastic lining in it.  I can do without chips but if you've ever had a sandwich with W, you'd know that chips are an essential to that boy.   

By doing this, we have dramatically cut our trash down, we still have lots of packages from the past (its only been a month) but with this and our no-buying-new (non consumable stuff) for the past 2 years, composting and recycling, our trash bin has never looked so empty. 

We kicked off Earth week with the awesomest Kokua Festival.   Not only a great cause but the vendors they had were actually eco-conscious and most of the food was natural and/or organic.  The cups were compostable (the only gripe was that you needed to get a new one every time you purchased - apparently for inventory reasons, whatever).  Really laid back fun night, and even made friends with some people from Tahoe.

Sunday we went to the park all day with the kiddos - fun, family, sun, food(with no plastic)- no complaining from me!

Happy Earth Day!

Tiles and Cookies

My kids did a tile painting project this past weekend.  C-girl did the heart and C-boy did the rocketship.

I've had this forever but i wanted to make sure they could both do it since they love doing art so much, and when we first got it my son was 2.  Can you see a 2 year old with ceramic paint and a brush?  Uh, no thanks.  I still have a little paint stuck to the counter- colorwonder this was not.

It turned out pretty well (yes, I shaped the rocket a bit afterwards...okay and made the stars - I got permission from him :)

My sister hosted a cookie swap at her house last weekend too.... Yummmmm. 

Okay, I made some snickerdoodles but now that I'm trying to go vegan I haven't actually tasted any of them or the cookies I got to take home.  I'll live vicariously through the kids, er, yum(really not the same).  Nonnahs was home for the weekend (yay!) and made her yummy spiced nuts - I can honestly say 'yum' on that one since I tasted them at Christmas time and they were like Disneyland in yer mouth!

Christmas, children, is not a date. It is a state of mind. - Mary Ellen Chase

We finally set up the Christmas village.

And this child was found behind the counter after school,

munching happily on his gingerbread house-

 

Dinner with friends, and C-boy decided to make some more friends-

We made some memory books for jotting down thoughts this vacation-

And baked the Snickerdoodles-

Now just to relax here, enjoying the last couple days until Christmas..

Hope you all have a great heart warming Holiday-

Peace Out!

zero zero

We made eggplant parmesean a few nights ago, before this crazy house turned into a bunch of sickies.  Here's C-boy waiting, rather impatiently, for 'zero-zero' to hit so he can eat his creation.

He really enjoyed it... it was gone in no time.

Fast forward a couple days, that's when 104 degrees-plus fever hit for four days and actual hallucinations in his sleep began.  He's much better now, but sister just got it today, so not a lot of time to blog.  Or sleep.  Or breathe.  Oh well. 

W is out of state until Saturday, hopefully there will be time to breathe then. 

And make more zero-zero eggplant.   

Hermits Revisited

Heres the recipe ...

Hermits

3 cups unbleached white flour

1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp powdered ginger

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp ground allspice

3/4 tsp salt

1 1/4 cups sugar

1/4 pound butter or margarine

1 egg

1/3 cup molasses

1/2 cup milk

1 1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Glaze:

2 Tbs milk

2/3 cup sifted powdered sugar

- Sift together flour, cinnamon, ginger, baking soda, allspice, and salt. Set aside.

- In a large mixing bowl, cream sugar and butter together until fluffy.

- Add egg and molasses until well blended

- Stir in milk, raisins and walnuts.

- Add sifted flour mixture slowly and stir until combined.

- Divide into 4 balls, wrap tightly and refridgerate overnight(or a few hours).

- Preheat to 375 degrees F, lightly oil two 13 x 18 cookie sheets.

- Sprinkle some flour down and form each ball into a long snake, the length of the cookie sheet.  Place two snakes per sheet, and flatten slightly with your hand to about 3" wide by 1/2" thick.  Bake for 15 - 20 minutes.

- Cool slightly, then mix glaze and brush on.  Let glaze dry, cut into bars(see picture in last post) and - "eat me, eat me.."

Recipe courtesy of my Aunty she got it from a book, I'm not sure which one, I promise I would credit it if I knew...