The Zoo!

We went to the Dallas Zoo with the Cook's today. It was a great day. We visited their new exhibit which is similar to the Wild Animal Park outside of San Diego. The highlights of the day were: feeding giraffes, feeding goats, and playing in the play area (getting soaked in the water).

The most amazing exhibit was the cheetah exhibit. They built one wall so there is a jeep with the driver seat exposed to the humans and the bed of the jeep (flat area on the back) inside the pen. There is (of course) a VERY thick glass wall seperating us, but it brings you right up, close with the animals. We were there at lunchtime and the staff chained a big, meaty bone to the bed of the jeep. So, there were 2 cheetahs sitting right there gnawing on the bone for a long time. Stephanie and Josie sat on the seat in the jeep staring at the cats. It was amazing. I will try to get the picture from Jessica.

Inspired by Olivia

I showed the girls the video of my friend's (Emily) daughter, Olivia, "reading" a book. Stephanie and Erica watched in awe and later on I found Stephanie "reading" to Erica. It was so cute - a beautiful sister moment.

What to do with leftover frosting and cake scraps ...

Ha ha ... like you need any ideas, but I had fun throwing this parfait together.

And I still have 2 cakes in the freezer (all leftover from my cake ball experiments) .... I didn't think I'd ever get sick of chocolate cake!

Beautiful Weather

It has been heavenly here for the last week or so. Go figure, the city was at a stand-still 3 weeks ago and now we're enjoying 70 degree weather. The girls were playing outside one day and Stephanie wanted to have a picnic with her toys.

After lunch, we put down a blanket and read our stories in the backyard. Even after dinner, Stephanie was still commenting on how she really liked reading stories outside. It was cute how you could tell that a simple thing like that made such an impact on her. Perhaps I should let her have her quiet time in the tent?

Cupcakes!

I found a really cute Disney Princess cupcake set at Walgreen's while Christmas shopping. I figured the cake and frosting were probably inedible, but it came with a spatula, spoon, tablespoon measuring spoon, liquid measuring cup, 12 princess mini cupcake papers, 2 mini foil cupcake pans, 3 little bags of sprinkles and 2 tubes of decorating gel. I figured that was worth spending the $5 on it. We finally got a chance to make them the other night and sure enough, the cake and frosting were HORRIFIC. Stephanie was so excited to help me mix up the cupcakes and was so proud of them, I didn't have the heart to tell her they were bad. So, I secretly whipped up a new batch of homemade yellow cupcakes. She helped me throw together some homemade buttercream frosting, too. The mini cupcake size is great. I put the extras in the freezer. I can pull 2 out before lunch and they are thawed out by the time we are ready for a little treat. Both girls have been having fun doing their own decorations.

Cake balls, raspberry bars and kolaches ... oh my!

Well, the bridal shower is over! Phew! I ended up making 110 cake balls, 50 raspberry bars, and 72 kolaches. I didn't get a picture of the final cake balls, but they were chocolate cake with whipped chocolate ganache frosting. My friend asked that half of them be white with a pink drizzle and the other half pink with a white drizzle. I didn't get a picture of the raspberry bars either, but I was able to find a square cutter that was perfectly sized for some square papers I found. Everything turned out really nice and I was pleased. Patti was happy, too ... and that's really all that matters, right? Ha ha!

Anyway, I did get some pictures of the kolaches since it seems that nobody outside of Texas knows what they are. They are typically open-faced and filled with a sweet filling, but they wanted the Quiche Lorraine filling that I made for the women's brunch a few months ago. The dough is a simple roll dough that you roll out really thin. I put them in cupcake wrappers to make it easier to serve at the shower. They are very tasty and very addicting.

All about Stephanie

Stephanie is growing up so fast. She is experimenting with language. Her favorite phrase right now is, "What the heck!?!?" She got that from me - oh the things they pick up. She is also into making up her own language. We saw some pigeons on a sign the other day and I pointed them out to the girls. Stephanie informed me that she called them something different. I forget what her word was, but it was cute how nonchalant she was in dismissing English. She has an imaginary friend named, Chiglia. Ha ha! I have no idea where that came from, but this friend (I believe it is a girl) appears from time to time.

Stephanie also loves to have at least 30 clothing changes per day. Here she's modeling an outfit along with her princess shoes.

Here are the slippers she got with the Claire's gift card from Grandma Gray.

This is the new leotard that she got with the Valentine's money from Nonna and Grandpa Piccolo.

The second night that Erica was on antibiotics, she slept for 14 hours! Daddy was gone for the night at a sleep study, so Stephanie and I had a rare night all to ourselves. At one point, she was assembling a caravan of various toy cars. She wanted to have her dog ride with her, but insisted on putting on a helmet and finding one for the dog, too. It was very clever and cute.

Some friends from church raise sheep and have some babies whose mama died. So, they have to bottle feed them. They invited us over to let the girls help feed them one day. The girls were in awe and LOVED it.

Stephanie loves to play with all her stuffed animals. She spends hours just dressing them up (thank you, Aunt Allison and cousins for the clothes!!) and takes care of them with all her doctor toys. When we took Erica in for her ear infection, Stephanie took the pad from the scale and the wooden stick the doctor used to look in Erica's mouth. Here's she is demonstrating how she uses these tools to care for her animals.

All about Erica

Poor Erica had an ear infection, but it took mommy about a week to catch on. Within 24 hours of starting the anti-biotic, she was a completely different baby. She had eaten like a bird for a week and then all of a sudden she ate a WHOLE bowl of guacomole (1 avacado worth).

I was brushing her teeth the other night and realized that she has 2 more teeth poking through, but just on the left side and toward the back. I am afraid that the ear infection (it was only on the left side) pushed them out. Once we get past the ear infection, I'll take her in for her 15 month checkup (better late than never!) and see how much she's grown. She is big for her age, but still small compared to this Sonic Route 44 sized drink! Ha ha!

She LOVES the "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear" book that Grandma Gray got her. She continues to respond amazingly to music. She looks for any chance she can get to go upstairs and jump on Stephanie's bed. She has also begun going down slides all by herself. Her favorite thing to do is whatever Stephanie is doing.

She has continued to play with the toy kitchen and served up "cupcakes" the other day.

4 cakes and 4 frostings later

A friend from church has asked me to make some food for a bridal shower next week. One of the items she'd like me to make is chocolate cake balls. I have made them before, but just with whatever leftover cake and frosting I had at the time. This time, I went on a quest to find the best cake and frosting recipes. I only had a week and with two little ones, I could only try so many recipes. I did end up making 3 different cakes and 3 different frostings. I also made Dinosaur BBQ's (restaurant in Syracuse, NY) Dr. Pepper cake. Needless to say, I have not had a chocolate craving for a few days now! Ha ha!

My friend asked that the balls be pink, but I have never colored the coating before. So, I thought I'd play around with colors with some samples. The coating is just colored - not flavored.

Here are the samples I am going to bring to my friend tomorrow.
Pink: Blackout cake with whipped ganache frosting
Purple: Dr Pepper cake with Dr Pepper frosting
Blue: Blackout cake with tiramisu buttercream

I didn't get a big enough box to hold all the samples I needed to give my friend, so I used some cute, heart-shaped foil baking cups I found at Target (you can see them at the edge of the picture) to hold a serving of each sample.

Thank you, Grandma and Grandpa Morabito!

We got a beautiful Valentine's Day package from Christian's grandparents today. Here are the matching PJs! Sorry for the tongue sticking out, but it really was the best picture I could get! Ha ha!

Girl After My Own Heart

The other night while I was making dinner (Stephanie was still napping), I heard a sweet little, "mmm mmm mmm" from the living room. I looked over and found Erica at the play kitchen stirring a spoon in the little tea kettle. She spent the next ten minutes insisting on feeding me her "soup" and was thrilled when I reacted positively. So cute!

Crazy Texas Weather

Where else can you have 70+ degree weather on Saturday, 6 inches of snow by Wednesday and 60+ degree weather by the following Saturday?

On the first Saturday, we went to the Dallas Arboretum. It was Christian's first visit. I went with the kids back in October for a concert, but we did not take the time to explore the gardens. We were there for 2 hours and it seemed like we barely scratched the surface. It was a gorgeous day and the kids had a great time. (We shaved Christian's beard and hair when we got home, but he looks like he almost belongs on that wagon, huh?!?)

On Monday night, it rained ice and turned to snow by Tuesday night. The local kids had 4 snow days in a row. The whole city came to a grinding halt. According to a teenaged employee at the grocery store, she never had a snow day since kindergarten!

Happy Birthday, Grandma Gray!