John Paul can put on his sneakers by himself.  This is AWESOME, because I can ask him to do it when I'm getting things ready to head out the door and he usually has it done by the time I'm getting Cecilia in her car seat.

Unfortunately, now he wants to learn how to wear ALL of our shoes.  And once he succeeds with one pair, he moves on to the next. 

He found my wedges.

They are very tricky!  Impossible for him to walk in, and he REALLY wants to wear them.  I encouraged him to try my sneakers on, those are quite a bit easier (also, yes, that's Cecilia climbing the stairs.  She's a freaking terror.).

But apparently it's not enough of a challenge.  I suppose they're not too much larger than his sneakers...  Looks like it's time to hide the heels.  Can't have him ruining them!

Delicious!!!

I tried a new recipe this week - the cover recipe on the latest issue of Martha Stewart Living:  Braised Short Rib, Stout, and Potato Potpies

I reduced the recipe by about 1/3 and it was just enough for Andrew, John Paul, and me (we also had green beans).  It was SO good.  SOOOOO SO SO good.  I'm still thinking about it a week later.  I think next time I'll substitute a chuck roast for the short ribs - it's only about half the price and the short ribs were honestly a little *too* tender for us. 

It was also an excuse to get my mandolin slicer out, which is a lot of fun to use!  Looks like next time I need to make more so that we actually have leftovers.  Seriously, it was SO good.  Andrew didn't even notice the onions (I only put the whole onions on my half, he just got the thinly sliced ones that cooked for at least 4 hours)!



Our Saturday

 

John Paul's first "face" painting.  He was SO excited and kept talking about all the paint colors on the table.

He was very proud to pose with his snake (which looks a little bit like a gummy worm/tadpole...)!

They cleared out the moonbounce for him.  He may have jumped once...  He climbed over the humps to the back of the moonbounce, then slid out the front and ran to his shoes exclaiming, "MOOBOUNCE!" and trying to get back in.  Maybe next time he'll understand that he's supposed to jump...

Of course, we had to spend some time jumping on the bridge on the playground.

For some reason I always have to sing, "La-dee-dah-dee-dah what's the name of that song" when he's jumping on the bridge.  Apparently it's our "thing" that we do on playground bridges.  Don't ask me why.  He made it up.

It took like, 5 minutes to get him down the slide.  He just wanted me to shout at him through the tube.

We also had a couple of awesome train rides (his favorite part?  Reading the word "train" on the sign), burgers, and cheese curls!  Definitely a successful Saturday.

Bread

I'm sick of buying bread and the grocery store and forgetting about it and having it go bad.  So I'm pretty much just baking my own now. 

I had avoided doing this for a long time - baking bread seems like an epic task to me.  But apparently it's really not that hard...  My first time baking rolls from scratch a couple of years ago, they turned out rock hard.  So that dissuaded me for a while.  Then I realized a month or so ago that I should probably try again, and had great success!

I started with a simple focaccia, since I knew it didn't require too much kneading.  SO delicious!  I ate half the loaf on my own before Andrew even got home from work...  Then I tried a no-knead bread recipe, using wheat flour instead of bread flour.  BAD CALL!  I had no idea how different these flours are when it comes to bread - it was dense and HARD.  John Paul loved it and begged for it daily, but Andrew and I were not such fans... 

I enlisted Andrew's help to make a couple of loaves of white bread.  I was SO thankful for his kneading skills!  The recipe called for 6-8 minutes of kneading.  I was tired after 3, but he took over and the bread turned out great!  Exactly like an $8 loaf from Great Harvest, for a total cost of *maybe* $1/loaf. 

But it still seemed like a lot of work...  Wouldn't a bread machine be easier?  We really didn't have the money for one, but I remembered reading somewhere that tons of people have bread machines that they don't use - things registered for as wedding gifts and then tucked away along with the more ambitious specialty appliances.  I posted on our local freecycle and got one for free!  I tried it out immediately and ended up with...  a tasty but awkwardly-shaped loaf of italian bread.  Hmm...  For some reason I want my bread to be beautiful AND tasty.  And then I realized that I might as well just use this for the dough setting and then bake it on my own - no need to proof the yeast, no need to knead (haha!), the perfect compromise! 

And the result?

Totally beautiful!  And totally easy!  I'm really looking forward to trying out new recipes now that I don't have to get countertops clear just to cover them with flour.  I've already perfected a thin-crust garlic-herb pizza crust recipe, and now I want to find some more good basic recipes that I can punch up a little - I'm thinking Great Harvest X-Treme Cinnamon Chip-like.  That stuff is SERIOUSLY delicious.

A funny

John Paul had just taken a CD out of the case and put the case on the floor.  The camera was also on the floor (someone was trying to take a picture).

Me:  "Can you give me the case and the camera?"

John Paul:  *Bends over and gives the camera a kiss*

Hmm...  Not exactly what I said, but close!