Happy Birthday Henri!

Henri is 4 today!

We had a birthday party for him on Sunday. He wanted a "monster" themed party and a cake with yellow frosting. So that's what we tried to give him.

Whew! Good news. He liked it.

Henri is allergic to eggs. Imagine the challenge of having to make an eggless cake. I've tried MANY recipes, and only ONE recipe I have works well for making layer cakes and tastes great, thanks to my friend Jess. This year instead of making a round layer cake, I tried the recipe in a Bundt pan, adding 20 minutes to the bake time, to make this cake:

Henri's Birthday Cake

My good friend Jess realized a couple of years ago that one of the cake recipes in her cookbook (that she made for her dad's birthday) did not require eggs, and she passed the recipe on to me. In my opinion, it's also a REALLY, REALLY good cake recipe (if you like rich, moist, dense chocolate cake). The recipe is from an out-of-print cookbook called American Bistro by Diane Rossen Worthington. So for your baking enjoyment, but without the frosting recipe included because I always do something different, I've put the recipe down below. If anyone knows that I should not reprint this recipe, I will quickly remove it. I'm so thankful to Jess for passing the recipe on to me and to the author of this recipe. Henri is so grateful when he gets to actually eat cake, and asked me again and again this year if I would make him an eggless cake for his birthday party. I just want to share the love. Thanks.

Chocolate Celebration Cake
from American Bistro by Diane Rossen Worthington

(aka Eggless Chocolate Layer Cake)

• 3 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 cup hot water
• 1 cup cold water
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour two 9-inch round cake pans. (I use parchment paper or Pam Baking spray or Bakers Joy. Once the cakes stuck to the pans badly when I used just butter & flour, and I called Rachel crying. She straightened me out and sent me off baking with parchment paper.)
   
2. Prepare the cake: In a bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt.
3. Place the cocoa in a large bowl and slowly add the hot water while stirring constantly. When the mixture is smooth, stir in the cold water. Stir in the vegetable oil and vanilla. Whisk in the flour mixture just until incorporated. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pans, dividing it evenly, and sprinkle the chocolate chips evenly over the pan.
4. Bake the cakes for 30-35 minutes (or Bundt pan for 50-55 minutes), or until they begin to come away from the sides of the pans and the tops are springy to the touch. (Do NOT open the oven until you are ready to test the cake for doneness). Remove to racks to cool for 20 minutes. Run a think-bladed knife around the edges of the pans to loosen the cakes, then invert onto the racks to cool completely before assembling.
5. Place the first cake layer, chocolate chip side up, on a serving plate. Spread frosting thickly over the layer, leaving a 1/2-inch border around the edges. Top with second cake layer, chocolate chip side up, and push down gently. Finish frosting as desired.

Makes one 9-inch, 2 layer cake (serves 8-10).

Enjoy! It's 1:00 am, so I will post more about the party activities later.

Cosette turned 14 months

and I missed it... because I forgot... but then I remembered... the next day.

a new arrangement

We moved our computer into our bedroom last night on a whim out of the 3rd bedroom, which has been a guest room/office/Cosette's sleeping room (it has a pack 'n' play set up in it). Maybe I'll take a picture later, but I'm still figuring out where to put all the office stuff that came along with it. Things are messy right now. Plus I want to nap. Nuts, Cosette just woke up from her nap.

I'm also pondering putting Cosette or Henri into the 3rd bedroom. Right now the crib & Henri's twin-size bed are in the same room. But then what do we do with the full size bed that is in the 3rd bedroom? I might continue to keep our pack 'n' play in there for when Cosette naps. Perhaps we'll wait until Cosette graduates out of her crib, and we'll throw her in the full size bed. To have the kids share a room or not, that is the question.

Giggling with excitement in her sunglasses.

Right now, Cosette is enjoying shutting herself into our closet. Problem is: she cries every time as she pinches her fingers when she pulls the door shut.

one track mind

Either all I can do these days is work on staffing nurseries & plan Henri's birthday party

OR

I'm just going through a season when I take zero pictures and make zero blog posts. Seriously, sometimes I can think of 10 things to blog about and other times nothing comes.

So for now, it's back to staffing the church nurseries & planning Henri's birthday party.

Toodle-loo!

mishmash

mish·mash n. A collection or mixture of unrelated things; a hodgepodge.

I haven't posted in a while, so here's a hodgepodge of thoughts:

• Cosette loves Sandra Boynton books, especially Moo, Baa, La, La, La and Doggies. She flips through the pages and hands them to me to read to her. She also likes Pat the Bunny, which is in pieces from Henri's days with it. When Henri was her age, these were his favorite books too.

• About a year ago, we realized we were spending more than we made. We cut way back, sold stuff, paid off all our other debts, cut up our credit cards, and saw that our house payment had become a curse to us. In May 2007, we put our home up for sale after only living in our home since August 2006. We thought about moving out of state to live near my husband's family, but it didn't sell. We reduced the price to below what we paid for it, and we only got 3 showings. After the listing expired, we talked to real estate agents and came to the conclusions in the previous post.

• On Sunday, while at a birthday party, our car's driver-side window was smashed. The police officer said that he had just come from a similar incident. My Honey drove it home in the cold, while our friends drove the kids and I home. We prayed with Henri about the "bad men" who broke our window. On Monday, our insurance company told us that the repair would be completely covered with no deductible and the claim would not affect our premium. Thank you LORD!

• I've been VERY busy this last week and will be for a number of weeks with my nursery work for the church. I've spent A LOT of time trying to find childcare workers for our weekday morning Bible studies that started up last week and for several other seminars and events requesting childcare. I've got more to come too. This would be the main reason why I haven't posted. Plus I'm trying to figure out what we want to do for Henri's 4th birthday party coming up.

• Henri continues to be the great pretender. His latest: pretending the couch is an airplane (as taught to him by Ava) & flying to visit Nani & Bapa. Their house is in our half-bathroom. He pretends to bring Nani gifts, putting his toys in boxes he finds. Then I have to be Nani and open them up. OR he hands them to me, asking me to give them to him so that he can open them up. Another favorite pretend game is that there is a monster in the house, and he either must chase it and shoot it or he must run & hide from the monster.

• Cosette came down with another cold yesterday. This would be her 3rd cold this season. We've been hanging out at home, while I ask other childcare coordinator's to cover for me at church.

• Cosette's words: mama, ni ni (night night), nah nah (no no), ah ah (oh oh)

• Cosette takes about 5 steps at a time, lunging for whatever she's heading for before crawling the rest of the way.
  

on the homefront

We interviewed 7 real estate agents this past week. Thanks to everyone who gave us referrals. They were really great and gave us lots of good advice.

Based on their advice regarding our tricky financial situation, we have decided to:

• wait a month or two before listing our home.
• look into refinancing our mortgage.
• try to stay in our home at least another year and possibly not list our home for sale again until next year when hopefully, the market will be better.

We're praying for wisdom and that the Lord will provide what we need during this coming year. Thanks for your prayers.

What?! I changed my blog colors again?!

Yes, I did. Because I like to change the colors. You might blame this on:

• My mother is always rearranging her house.
• I'm a middle child pretending to be a firstborn.
• My inability to make decisions.
  
• My 4th grade teacher let me rearrange our assigned classroom desks after school...EVERY DAY! The poor 4th graders never knew where they were going to sit the next day. I got to sit exactly where I wanted: next to my best girl friend. Everyone else had to sit where I put them. To this day, I wonder what was my teacher thinking? (It was her last year teaching before retiring.)
  

ruler of his household

Henri, upon coming downstairs from his nap, "Okay, Papa. You have TWO choices."

1. Holding up one finger, "You can play with me."
2. Holding up a second finger, "Or, you can watch something with me. Which one do you want?"

The Honey, "How about I read you a book?"


Henri, "Papa, you have THREE choices."

1. Holding up his first finger, "You can play with me."
2. Lifting his second finger, "You can watch something with me."
3. Lifting his third finger, "Or, you can read me a book. Which one do you want?"

Things Henri said

to me in front of a real estate agent at our home:
"Mama, do ladies have babies in their tummies?"

to a real estate agent at our home:
"This is my sister. She poops!"

something about that smile

reminds me of the good-looking guy on the right. (My husband, that is, not my son whom we already know is practically her twin).

Driving Miss Cosy

real estate agent marathon

It's begun. The explaining, interviewing, questioning, ect.

After receiving 9 referrals for real estate agents from you, we finally called them all.

I didn't really want to have to start this all up again. I mean we have to explain to EVERYONE again & again as to why we think we have to sell our home and lay out our financial situation to them. It's just hard. But we knew we had to make the calls.

We had our first meeting with one agent today, and we've got 6 more in the next four days.

Thank you all for your help.

We're looking for wisdom in making the best decision on who has the best plan for us. Now we need your prayers.

practically grown up

My first reaction when I saw this picture was to blink a dozen times to make sure I was looking at my baby girl. I'm not sure what it was, but I thought she looked much older than 13 months in this picture.


Then I saw this one:



And this one:

And I began to panic and thought, "Oh, no! She's going to take the lap top and go to some office and leave! She IS growing up!"


Then I saw that she tried to eat the lap top:


And her brother's tools:


And a book:

And I felt relieved to know that she's still my baby girl, not quite grown up.