Happy Day!

Two happy things today:  First, it’s my little guy’s 5th birthday!  We had his party this past Sunday and I have managed to stuff myself full of cupcakes in the days immediately preceeding and following said party.  All in the name of taste-testing dontcha know…  ;-)

Mmmm, Apple Walnut Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

Funny story on that party day…I had waited until the night before the party to wrap and display boy’s gifts from us and from the grandparents, just to make sure there wasn’t TOO much temptation in his little life.  And when I brought them down he was over-the-moon excited and wanted to know when, oh when, he would get to open them.  I was happy to explain that he would only need to wait until tomorrow to do so.

Fast forward to the next morning…at the butt-crack of dawn when I was roused from a dream by the sounds of rustling paper and exclamations like “oh my gosh!” and “I can’t believe it!”.  I immediately knew what was happening and threw myself out of bed and down the stairs yelling “NOOOOOOO!  NOOOOOOOOOOOO!”, but it was too late… I got down there to see him standing in the middle of all his unwrapped presents.

“But I get to open them today because today is my party…”

I was horrified, and totally felt cheated out of my picture-taking rights, but I DID say he could open them that day.  I guess in the future I need to be more “time-frame specific”.  *sigh*

"Hey look everyone, I opened this before any of you were awake this morning!"

So the other happy news is that there’s been a shop update!  Lots of stuff with something for everyone: handspun, fiber, sock yarn…  ENJOY!

Buff Base - MerinOcean single-ply in natural cream

Rain, rain…pathetic fallacy

It’s been a rainy week over here, and last night was one of the craziest lightning storms I’ve ever seen.  As I came home from knit group it was like driving under a strobe light.  The storm passed over our house and the thunder that accompanied some of those flashes I literally felt in the floor.  Thankfully my child didn’t wake up at all, although I thought for sure he would.  Maybe it was because he had such a rough day at school and was just wiped out.  Did I mention he started Kindergarten three weeks ago?  Yep, he did.  He was so excited on the first day, and he has just been loving it…well, you know, until yesterday when he jumped off the jungle gym and landed on his arm.  It was fine and just had a little bump on it, but it just set the tone for the day and he got embarassed and frustrated a few more times during the day.  I could tell when I picked him up that he felt rather deflated.  I’m sure today will be better, though, and here is a pic from happier times on his first day.  :)

zoo for you!

we went to the zoo last week, and by “we” i mean me, boy, chanelle, boy and girl, wannabe, and buggernut. and i’m pretty sure that until i get some kind of prescription allergy medicine, i should never ever go again. ugh. i thought i was going to DIE when i got home…

but i did get a bunch of pics, and the kids seemed to have fun, when we werent running over them with the strollers and they werent falling down.

i took about two hundred (yes! can you believe that!! dang.) pictures, but here are just a handful for your perusement.

and yes, those tortoises are doing exactly what you think they’re doing. did you know they sound like cows when they do that? yeah, well neither did we until that day… Never know what you’ll learn at the zoo!

Mwah!

Happy Huggy-Huggy-Kissy-Smoochy-Lovey-Goopy-Snuggle-Mushy-Gushy Day.

*wretch*

anyway… i’m REALLY here to give you a cookie recipe…

Egg and Dairy Free Lemon Sugar Cookies
adapted from this recipe on allrecipes
makes about three dozen 2″ heart cut outs (YMMV)

Ingredients:
10 TB softened vegetarian margarine
1/2 c brown sugar
1/4 c white sugar (replace all the sugar with 3/4 raw sugar if desired)
1 1/2 TB flax meal
1/4 c warm water
1 tsp lemon zest
1/2 tsp lemon extract
2 c AP flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 c 10x sugar
3-4 teaspoons lemon juice

Directions:

1. Place flax meal in the warm water and let it sit for a few minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. Cream margarine and sugar together. Beat in the flax mixture, lemon zest, and lemon extract.
3. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl, then stir into the wet ingredients. Cover and chill for at least an hour.
4. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Roll dough out on parchment paper (it helps to sandwich the dough between two sheets) and cut out desired shapes.
5. Place shapes 1″ apart on a cookie sheet lined with parchment and bake 6-8 minutes.
6. Cool completely. Then drizzle with icing made from 1 c 10x sugar and a few teaspoons of lemon juice.

enjoy! possibly with your Poopsie-Moopsie-Boo-Boo-Bear?? bleah.

is it a new year already?

man. i feel like i’m in one of those “life comes at you fast” commercials…

so, christmas was good. there was some of this:

and lots of this:

and i got one of these:

with some of this:

so my household will be producing some of this:

look! we made that!! yay us!

…there’s something else Tom can imagine me sitting in a corner doing, hee!i hope everyone’s holidays were wonderful. :)

incriminating…

helpful hint: if you’re going to claim that you didn’t do something, it probably isn’t a good idea to write your name at the crime scene…

so, THAT little incident aside, here’s what’s been getting done over here at Chez Gherkin:

gherkin and the cornichon stamped Christmas cards…

and the the gherkin spent two days baking Christmas goodies…(that sampler platter in the front is going to my knit grrrrls on thursday…they know i luff them!)

peanut brittle (3 pounds):

pappatate, an italian chocolate spice cookie (8 dozen):

double chocolate walnut cookies (6 dozen):

toffee shortbread (4 dozen):

and date nut cakes (6 mini bundts):
whew! i’m tired.

little shark, why are you so sad?

Boy made his own pizza crust for dinner this weekend. For some reason it was a shark, and a frowny shark at that. even his food is emo, haha!

“you don’t know what i think!!!”

LOLOLOLOL!

out of the mouth of babes

gherkin (to son during lunch): don’t put so much in your mouth at once.

baby gherkin (after a few moments of readjusting the bite on his fork): i’m taking a small bite. you can take a large bite because you have a large mouth.

gherkin: um, yes. thank you.

Maybe birthdays don’t suck

well, the baby gherkin had a pretty good bday after all. :)

there were cartoon cupcakes with sparkler candles (which apparently couldn’t be caught on film)

friends with blowers

the singing of the birthday song (i mean really, who DOES like it?)

the blowing out of the sparkler candles (gotta get far enough away from those things! boy did get a spark on the cheek at one point)
the eating of cupcakes

and presents!

(and apparently this gift must have been a score because his friend said “remember you said you were going to share your presents…”)

there were also lots of transformers, this particular one will be touring the neighborhood this halloween.

and the new bike went over well, except for the fact that when you back-pedal it is the brake and on his tricycle you can go backwards. that was a source of frustration…..for about an hour. since then it’s been nothing but smiles.
Happy Birthday, rat-rat.

and that’s SUPER!

I went to the library with boy today (even though any time we go i’m tempted to scour myself, him, and any books we bring home with bleach and scalding water, ack! ack! ack!!! die germs!!) and by request we checked out three books on robots. i swayed a little from the subject matter by also checking out this book because, well, it’s written by the truly gayest member of the Fab 5, and the title just could not be funnier to me. i don’t know why. maybe it’s because when i read it i hear Carson saying it. there were also some phrases in there that just tickled me pink, like “scrum-diddly-umptious apples”. oh Carson, can i carry you around in my pocket? because you are oh-so-cute!!

and you know what? the book ain’t half bad. my kid can definitely use a dose of “different is good”, since he normally points out people who are different in a loud, obnoxious voice (which i suppose is pretty normal for a three-almost-four year old…but i still don’t like it). or barring that, he runs, screaming and crying, from them….which is also nice.