Easter

I'm a little behind on posting. Too many sick babies running around to post as often as I want to! I'll update one by one. Here's my Easter boy. He looks so cute and southern in his seersucker suit!

An insult?

I am sitting on the couch this morning trying to catch up on some emails, updating my calendar etc. E is sitting on the other couch reading a book and S is sitting on her little pottery barn chair. S's chair is right next to E's pottery barn chair which is right under the window. Occasionally the girls will stand on E's chair to look out the window at passing puppies, people etc. S decided to stand on E's chair to look for puppies when E yells over to her 'get back to the Jersey side, that's my chair!' I guess S's chair can now be referred to as 'the Jersey side!'

After I asked E what she meant by that, she said 'the Jersey side just isn't as fun as the other side. You know, New York.'

Poor baby...

An April Fool's Dinner - Ha!

As always, I had SO MUCH FUN with April Fool's Day this year. I was sick as a dog, but I still spent all day in the kitchen just for a 2 minute reaction or two ;)

On this year's menu - Cake for dinner, followed by grilled cheese for dessert.

The cake was a meatloaf that I cooked in two cake pans and stacked on top of eachother frosted with beet infused mashed potatoes. I love the way beets make mashed potatoes the perfect shade of pink!

The grilled cheese dessert was easy and looked perfect! It was sliced pound cake with orange buttercream frosting in the middle. Threw one piece of the pound cake in a pan with some butter to give it a toasted appearance and to melt the icing just a touch and that's it!

Now for the fun part...
I told E that morning (because S is too young and M already knew something was coming) that I was tired of cooking and that we were going to have cake for dinner. She, of course, was thrilled. She and I baked a pound cake together (the one that I used for the grilled cheese) so she was 100% sold that we were having it for dinner. As she was playing, I made the frosting and let her taste it. She was so excited for dinner...

Throughout the day, I prepared the meatloaf cake. I think she was so excited to have cake for dinner that night that it didn't even occur to her that I was cooking other stuff.

Once dinner time came around, she was so excited. She sat down at the table and re-iterated how I am the best mommy in the world. I was getting nervous at this point that it was no longer funny, but maybe cruel ;) The pictures will tell the rest of the story!


Beet infused mashed potatoes


Meatloaf 'cake' with beet infused mashed potato 'frosting'


Eva's reaction to the taste of the 'cake' Her smile dropped in a matter of seconds and she said 'something isn't right', 'this isn't the same frosting that I had earlier', 'this cake tastes like chicken!' Instant disgust!


Inside view of the 'cake'


I explained April Fool's Day to E and she thought it was funny, for the most part. I also reassured her that she would get cake for dessert. I reminded her that she and I had made cake so she was sure to get some! She was a little cranky (she hadn't been feeling well either) and was pretty whiny. Todd sent her up to her room for a few minutes to calm down so during that time I prepared the 'grilled cheese.'

'Grilled cheese' dessert


When E came back down, I told her that we had decided that since she really didn't eat her meatloaf cake that she would have to have grilled cheese before she would get any cake. She was so adamant about not eating the grilled cheese, it was hilarious. We heard everything about how it wasn't good, how she doesn't like grilled cheese, how the bread was yucky, how the cheese looked gross. Obviously she hadn't even given it a chance. Here is her reaction to the sight of the 'grilled cheese' dessert:


So I told her that I wanted to SEE her taste it. Here's her reaction to the taste of the 'grilled cheese' dessert:


She finally concluded with, 'oh, I get it, April Fool's!'

The best part was fooling M. He thought he was going to be too cool for April Fool's Day this year and informed me in the morning that he knew what day it was and asked what I was making for dinner. Since he had swim practice during dinner time, he asked if I could save him 2 pieces of 'cake.' When he got home from practice, I gave him a nice hot 'grilled cheese' instead of the meatloaf cake. Meatloaf is his favorite so he was not happy. I told him that I accidentally underestimated how much meatloaf to make and didn't realize that it would be gone by the time he got home. He was so angry. He took a bite of the 'grilled cheese' and laughed, then he got his 'cake.' :) I wasn't sure that I was going to be able to fool him, but I am glad that I did! Next year is going to be even tougher, I just know it!