38/52: Snow, Birthday Cake, and Tea Parties

In an ill-advised moment of weakness, I promised the kids we could do one science experiment every week for school. Little did I know that their idea of "science experiment" basically has to be very messy, have instant gratification, and include a sensory aspect. So we did shaving cream & cornstarch snow and thank goodness corn starch is relatively easy to clean up because that was NOT my favorite experience... We'll be doing slime, homemade bath bombs, coffee filter chromatography, ooblek, homemade silly putty, and who even knows what else... Apparently it only counts as a science experiment if it's messy?

Edith has been setting up tiny tea parties multiple times a day with the little doll tea set. She invites me every time because I'm the most fun (and come up with the most delicious pretend treats to serve) and while it's very sweet, we have a lot of other kids who could very easily take a shift so it might be time to start bribing them... I'm glad we're not using real food, because I brought pretend brownies to eat and she brought pretend ketchup sandwiches, and I'm not going to eat that even to be polite. Halfway through yesterday's tea party I thought to myself, "I should get her an actual tea set for her birthday..." And then remembered that I bought one for her two months ago and hid it in the storage room. That's going to be a hit for sure!

Our green beans are doing amazingly well—I finally took the suggestion of multiple people and got some neem oil for natural pest control. It worked great!! No bean beetles destroying the crop! So now we're eating beans with nearly every meal and the kids are snacking on them raw all day. I thought I could count on them to pick them as well, but they get distracted easily and never manage more than a handful before they run off to play.

I made perhaps the most beautiful cake I've ever made when we celebrated my sister's birthday over the weekend—it was delicious too, of course, and I've discovered that chocolate mousse is another frosting that isn't too sweet for the kids, although next time I think I need to double the recipe because who doesn't want an extra-thick layer of mousse? We topped it with Heath bar (the best candy ever) and Cecilia made stripes along the sides with the excess. I'd like to thank Instagram videos that I watched during late nights nursing for teaching me that a dough scraper is an excellent tool for smoothing frosting and making a cake look more professional. Yes, I'm still very proud of myself. I may never top this!