Rowan is totally working it!

Rowan is having a real language explosion, although of course you'd have to be his mother to understand most of it. I'm really enjoying it, each day he puts new things together, even 2 words sometimes! So today while we were picking up dinner, the cashier was putting our food in a bag and Rowan made eye contact with her and starting saying and signing "more, more, more". For Ro that means, "Give me some food please." I thought it was hilarious since he just barely saw her putting the food in the bag, he must have been really hungry!

Tonight when I brought him in to get ready for bed, we passed the table for what seemed like a second and he recognized the package of animal cookies and starting signing/saying "more" and then signed for cookie! I could not say no even though he was about to go to bed because I was so amazed that he was being so specific! "More cookie!" When he signs cookie it looks a lot like the way he signs a few other things but in this context it was pretty obvious (he kind of claps his hands together and twists them a little).

****Funny Car Conversations****
Athena: Mom, Rowan KEEPS putting his foot in my face!
Me: Maybe it's because he's a baby.
Rowan: (unintelligible) RaaaRaaaBAAADAAA
Athena: No, he says it is not because he's a baby.
Me: Well then why is he doing it?
Athena: It's because he is still LEARNING, not because he's a baby.
Me: Oh, O.K., that sounds right.

4 year old check up and funny toddler

Athena had her check-up today and surprise surprise, she is doing quite well. She is still a BIG girl, topping the charts for height (90th %ile) and weight (80th %ile). She was super good at her appointment and cooperated in doing an eye exam, hearing exam, peeing in a cup, and talking with the doctor. Her doctor was impressed with all she knew and all she had to say. I was proud of Athena for being so cooperative because Rowan was being a real handful. It was too cute though because he wanted to do EVERYTHING Athena did, right down to peeing in the cup. He follows her around most of the day and wants to do what she does. If she is coloring, he wants to color, if she is reading, he is, if she is peeing in a cup, well, then why not him too? So Rowan was upset because I took a crayon away from him when he was supposed to be drawing like his sister, BUT he was actually sneaking tastes of the crayon. Sorry buddy, but no.
Other funny Rowan stories:
I've been teaching Rowan about the potty and he just recently started to understand and run to the bathroom. He just sits though, doesn't actually use it, but it makes me smile because he sits down for a second and then wants to get up right away and wash his hands. Then he will sit down again and want to wash his hands again, but I usually only play the game once. So today I was showing him his doll that sits on the potty, and put his potty right next to "Paul". I left the room to get his diaper and when I came back he had traded potties with Paul. It was absolutely hilarious to see him squatting over this tiny 1 inch high/3 inch across potty.
The other funny thing that Rowan does is blow his nose. He'll pull off a piece of toilet paper and blow it, or grab a towel. His little scrunched nose is soooooo adorable. I love that he mimics us so much. He is always helping Chris out in the yard digging with his shovel. Only bummer is that he often digs up the stuff we just planted.

Taking Turns

We've all been taking turns being sick since Saturday so no holiday weekend for us. First up was me, I stayed in my PJs all day Saturday and Chris tried to keep the kids occupied best he could on a rainyish day. Saturday night Rowan developed a fever and he was out of it all day Sunday. I took off with Athena for a couple of hours to attend a birthday party which was nice. She had a great time and I ate 3 delicious cupcakes. Rowan and I were feeling much better by Monday, but not 100%. This morning started off pretty normal, I even took Athena to school with NO signs of illness. As soon as she got home though she started complaining of neck (throat) and ankle pain and I checked her and she was burning up. She assured me that she felt fine at school, it was only on the drive home that she started feeling sick. So she has been laying around all afternoon with a fever and no appetitite. I made her some popsicles which she proclaimed tasted like water, which was pretty much what they were (I added just a little juice for flavor). I tried to keep Rowan busy so she could rest and we had a good time. He bit me super hard on my leg though and left a bruise! He also threw his lunch and then had a fit when I took the plate away, threw legos at me while saying "no, no", bit me a few other times, yeah, he's a real handful these days. He is so darn cute though I have a hard time telling him no or being firm in the least. I'll be glad when the throwing stage is over and his vocabulary develops beyond the 10 words or so he uses regularly. (mama, dada, dog, ball, nuhnuh [athena], no no, dah dah [trash truck], Da Duh [cousin Dante] duck, numanumanum or dubadubadub [nursing], hat, and more) He also signs a handful of signs like more, banana, bath, diaper, hat and ball (which he does a throwing motion even though I always modeled the ASL sign). There are more words and signs he has used, but those are by far his favorite. I could of sworn he said cookie a couple weeks ago, it was like "ki ki". I'm actually surprised that wasn't his first word knowing who his mother is:) Mostly he just whines an "uh unh uh" sound all day to get his point across. Anyway, back to the sickness, it looks like Athena will be sick tomorrow and miss her swim class :(, and Chris will probably get sick over the weekend with our luck. I'm really hoping he doesn't get this round but it seems inevitable...Hoping the rest of you are healthy, we should be soon!

The Biggest Cookie Ever

I made a double batch of Dreena Burton's Vive Le Vegan chocolate chip cookies on Friday (a rainy day) but made a big mistake! I thought I followed the recipe to a "T", but when I opened the oven to take them out, this is what I saw! I thought this recipe was foolproof but I was wrong...


I realized afterward that there was a side note I had missed. When using spelt flour, add another 1/4 cup of flour. Oops. I missed that, and here I was thinking I was all cool for using the spelt. Oh well, they still tasted great but they didn't serve their purpose which was to deliver them to the winner of my blogiversary, the same woman who I nailed in the face with a softball this week (still sorry)! She definitely deserved better than a flat pan of cookies so as soon as I get to the store to buy more chocolate, I'm going to make things right again!

Thanks Sweet and Sara

My box arrived Friday and thankfully our weather had cooled down from about 95 degrees when I won the contest, to 65 when the box contents arrived. It was the first time we tried a smores (from them) and it did not disappoint. The marshmallows are the same as usual, absolutely fabulous. So I just want to give a shout out to Sweet and Sara for their generous giveaway. The whole family appreciated it (well, Ro didn't get any but he wanted some).

The Disneyland Trip

Thursday was our Disneyland Day. Athena was super excited to go for her birthday this year instead of having a party. So we packed the car nice and early and headed North with Grandma, Uncle, Aunt, and cousins. The day went amazingly well, with the exception of the rain. Yes, Rain! It never rains in So-Cal! The rain was steady at times, but there were breaks in it, and the lines got significantly shorter once the rain started so that was nice. The kids really didn't seem to mind at all. I considered getting one of those rain ponchos I saw everyone wearing, but they were $7. I just couldn't bring myself to spend $7 on a plastic bag and it wasn't cold at least (until the evening). So the day went kind of like this, we went on a bunch of rides, had a little break for lunch that we packed in, more rides, road the monorail to Downtown Disney, dinner, shopping, home. We were planning on going back for more rides after dinner but the rain was really coming down and it was starting to get colder so we decided to call it a day. If I counted right, we went on 12 rides which was more than enough I'm sure. Rowan did marvelously. We had to chase him around as usual but he took 2 naps in the ergo (1 was really long and my shoulders were killing me!), he slept through or nursed on practically every ride. Let's see, Peter Pan he was sleeping, carousel also asleep, the Tea Cups he was nursing, Pirates of the Caribbean he nursed and started to fall asleep, then proceeded to sleep through the Winnie the Pooh ride and The Jungle Book Cruise, slept through the long line for Finding Nemo, but woke up for the ride. I was very happy that the employees seemed pretty laid back and I never had to take him out of the ergo for the rides. He was awake for a few, but not many! He woke up when Chris and Athena were on Dumbo and was very sad. He kept whining his "uh uh uh" meaning he wanted to join them but it was too late:(
For dinner, we went to the Rainforest Cafe. I wouldn't call it vegan friendly, but the staff was very helpful and I felt pretty knowledgable as well (they seemed to know what vegan meant). The excutive chef ended up coming out to our table because we had so many special dietary needs in our party. He assured us that their veggie burger was vegan, but not the bun so he served it on their foccacia bread and made sure to leave off the butter and the house sauce. I thought it was a pretty good burger and the kids did like the restaurant because of its theme. I wouldn't go out of my way to go back there, but it was good to know that if we were hungry and stuck at Disneyland, then there was some place to go.
The drive home was peaceful with both kids sleeping. All in all, a good day, and while we are definitely not Disney people (in fact we try to avoid Disney as much as possible), I definitely plan on going back again maybe next year. Athena had such a great time and I think she'll even enjoy it more now that she knows what to expect.
Athena not so sure about Pinnochio.
Rowan nursing on the tea cups.
Athena and Oli on the tea cups.

Rowan exploring the grounds.
Athena with her Grandma purchased souveniers. She loves those ears!

Don't play ball with me!

I sent my friend to the hospital tonight for stitches! Yikes! It was a total accident but we met up to play softball with some friends in the park and while we were supposed to be "not hitting the ball very hard", I nailed her in the face and split her lip open. Needless to say, I feel absolutely terrible! I really wish it would not have happened, but it did, so I just keep saying I'm sorry! Anyway, maybe I should stick to batting cages for now? Chris keeps saying it was too much softball in my childhood playing the "Lakeside girls". He may have a point there but seriously, I haven't played softball since I was 10! Anyway, just wanted to warn anyone who may have thought of crossing me that I can do some pretty mean things with a baseball bat!
Here is a pic of my friend that I stole without permission from her blog.

Potato What?

We love potatoes. Tonight I kind of made up what I was cooking for dinner as I went along and it ended up being a potato pizza. I started off by sizzling up some potatoes with onion, kale, and salt. When those were finished cooking I was originally thinking of making tacos BUT I then noticed some pizza dough in the fridge that needed to get used. Thus, potato pizza. I made a tasty easy pizza sauce as follows:

Tasty Easy Pizza Sauce:
1 can of Muir Glen Fire Roasted Diced tomatoes (28 oz)
1 can tomato paste (6 oz I think...is already out in the recycling, you know those little cans though)
1-2 cloves garlic minced
2-3 tbsp olive oil
2 teaspoons Italian Seasoning

Simmer for 20 minutes stirring occasionally. Mix with had blender to make smooth or leave chunky if you aren't feeding picky kids.

I spread a layer of the sauce on my pizza, sprinkled it with nutritional yeast, spread a layer of potato/kale/onion mixture, and added a few olives. Baked for 15 minutes or so at 450. This was a big hit. Athena even ate some of the kale as long as it wasn't too big of a piece and especially if it was crispy! I'd make this again. The potatoes got a nice little crisp to them while baking.
After dinner, we went on a bike ride. When I put my helmet on, Rowan got the most precious look in his eyes. I am not sure what he was thinking but it was definitely along the lines of "Mama has a helmet too!" or maybe "Mama is going riding?!" The kids were both very excited since I have only gone on a ride once since Rowan was born. I rode Athena on the trail-a-bike and Chris rode Ro on the bike seat. It was very pleasant but started to get cold so we didn't ride too long. It was still nice to do something after dinner though.

Bad Vegan

I've been a very bad vegan over the last 10 years or so. You see, I've always thought that Einstein Bagels were vegan. I was told they were dairy and egg free, so I just thought I was safe. This weekend I was poking around on their site, and found the ingredients including l-cystine (an amino acid that can be animal or synthetically derived. So I emailed them and this is the response I received:

Thank you for your recent email. No, our products are not vegan
products. They do carry the animo acid Lcystine which is a derived from
Duck Feathers. Thank you again and have a great day!!

Ew, that is disgusting. I'm so bummed. It is not that we really ate there all that often, but it did come in handy on a few occasions. O.K. That's all for now.

Sweet & Sara contest winners announced!

And we are one of them! Hooray, this is a very special present to Athena since in my email I was asked why I should win and I said, "hey, I'm Sara, and my daughter loves your marshmallows plus it is her birthday!!!" We are so excited to be receiving a delicious package filled with their vegan marshmallows and smores. I'll keep you posted as to when we receive these special treats.

The Big 4!

We had a pretty fun day for Athena's birthday. Grandma came over in the morning and brought bagels, Grandpa and Mimi followed shortly after. She opened LOTS of presents and I think she got just about everything she's been asking for. Very lucky girl for sure. When everyone left and Rowan was up from his nap, we let Athena pick out where we would eat lunch and how we'd spend the afternoon. She chose Sipz Cafe for lunch and the UTC mall for play time. She loves the little water fountain there that the kids can play in. I tried to convince her to go to a "sprayground" or pool, but she would have nothing of it.
Rowan was super good during lunch, he actually is good at most mealtimes. It helps that he loves to eat. And if he doesn't get what he wants, he knows to just look on Daddy's plate to find the good stuff. He often whines to get in his high chair at home, it is kind of cute. As soon as he hears mention of food, he tries to climb up in his seat.
Athena got a complimentary piece of cake for her birthday after she finished off her favorite dish of BBQ "chicken" and brown rice. Since it was her birthday, I didn't even make her eat anything green. (Usually if she wants more food I ask her to eat a few bites of green food) She ate all of the frosting off, and not one piece of the actual cake. I was happy to polish it off for her. We were so pleased that they just knew to bring a pink candle too. She was super happy as everything is about pink these days, or months, or years at this point.
The kids playing in the fountain (although you can't see the water because Athena's foot was blocking the spray).
After the kids were dried off, they were ready for some more fun. Rowan went in the bouncy house with Dad while Athena and I watched from outside, and then I took the kids on the train. At this point we were getting pretty tired, but Athena had one more thing planned out. So we headed over to Pottery Barn Kids to browse. Of course she found a new doll to covet, but they actually both had a good time playing in there and we got out of there just in time before anyone had a meltdown. Finally, we headed home and both kids fell asleep in the car for a little car nap which was nice.
And finally, we HAD to replace her old glitter shoes because I couldn't stand to look at them any longer. She informed me though that she will still be wearing her old glitter shoes even though she is 4. Darn it! I'm thinking we'll have to save these shoes forever because they are probably the first pair of shoes she has ever really worn out. (The girl has lots of shoes {grandma} and usually outgrows them before they are destroyed. Not this time. I am really hoping the new pair will fill her glitter shoe void, but unfortunately I'm not sure it is going to work. I wanted to just buy a new pair of the same ones, but they didn't have her size in the old kind.

4 years ago...

I was in labor at this time. This was about the time things picked up in my labor and I spent some time in our tub trying to get a hold of myself. By 11:00 P.M., we were meeting the midwife at the Birth Center. On May 18, 2004, 8:15 A.M., little Athena Sage made her way into the world. She was 8 lbs 12 oz, 21 inches, and was born with a nuchal hand (power puff girl style). I was so tired after a long "challenging" labor, but so happy to finally meet my baby. She was pretty cute too. I remember right from the start she was wide awake and never went into that deep sleep that all the books said newborns would. She cried a lot, but was happy to nurse right away. It seemed like if she wasn't nursing or sleeping, she was crying. But now my high needs baby is a fairly typical 4 year old. I love her more than I ever knew was possible. Happy Birthday Baby Girl, can I still call you that?
Newborn Athena.
Athena's 1st birthday.
Athena's 2nd birthday.
Athena's 3rd birthday.
2 days until I'm 4.
1 more day until I'm 4!

Nightmares and Successes

The baked macaroni and cheese from The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook turned out very well. We all loved it. Athena ate 3 bowls of it, I think I did too. It is pretty quick to prepare and my trick was to blend the onions in with the sauce because Athena HATES onions. Onion flavor seems to be O.K. though. Yay.
Nightmare! These were supposed to be the Mucho Margarita Cupcakes from VCTOTW. Where did I go wrong? I could tell the batter was a bit runny and then halfway through the baking I realized I forgot the salt, but I don't think that could have been the only problem with them. Maybe though? These were supposed to be for my Dad's birthday since he loves tequila. I even went to the store to buy tequila and I haven't bought hard liquor in about 10 years. Oh well, I gave the rest of the bottle fo tequila to my Dad for later use, and at least the next batch of cupcakes turned out...
These were the Cookies N' Creme cupcakes BUT I used the basic vanilla cupcake recipe with the added cookies in the batter instead of the chocolate ones just to stir things up. These turned out great, even my family members who don't like vegan cupcakes much raved about them. The frosting wasn't just right, but with the cookies mixed in it tasted fine. Oh, and all my cupcake recipes are soy free because my nephew and SIL are soy free. I usually use almond milk and/or rice milk as substitutes and they both work great!
And finally, pink cupcakes for my almost 4 year old! We are having a playgroup party for her and her cousin tomorrow at the park. I made 2 dozen of these puppies to share, minus 2 that I turned into blueberry muffins for her school today. She had a "Mom's morning" and my first muffin attempt failed (why such bad luck in the baking department this week?), so I threw some blueberries in a couple of these cupcakes and of course she loved that. At her school, we did a craft project where Athena decorated a frame with flowers and they took a picture of us together to put in the frame. Then we got to play in the classroom in Athena's favorite areas. Her favorite things are putting on the "high shoes", playing in the loft, and drawing at the writing table. Then we ate our special snack, and had "meeting time" where they do a song (Hokey Pokey) and read a book (The Mommy Book). It was nice to have that special time with her and I know she loved it. Rowan did well with my friend, I think that was his first babysitter if you'd call her that. He has only been with family the other times I've left. Tomorrow kicks off another busy weekend with birthday parties, book clubs, circus performances (the people kind), etc. I'm looking forward to it but at the same time I was so burnt out today. My kids apparently were too as they both fell asleep at 6:45 on our drive home from dinner at the Che. Rowan is getting 3 teeth and has been biting like crazy! He said cookie for the first time yesterday. It was more like "keykeykey" but he was picking up a tupperware full of cookies that my friend had made. He also started signing banana which cracks me up every time. He talks and signs more every day. I really need to make a list of it. Some of my other favorites are elephant and fish for signs, and how he says "Hi" all the time. He is so sociable and friendly. He smiles at almost everyone. Even men, who don't usually stop to say hello to babies will stop and say hi to him. In a coffee shop today, ok it was starbucks, 2 guys were giving him high fives in the stroller. It was pretty cute. Wow, I can really ramble.

And the winner is...

Luci from Mindless Mom Ramblings. I can't wait to bake her a nice plate of cookies, and lucky for me (I swear it was luck!) I don't have to ship a thing since she lives only a few miles away. This contest was not rigged, pinky swear.

Shadow walking

When I took this video I didn't realize what Rowan was doing. I'm pretty sure he was stepping on his shadow.

Beach Clean-up/Party

I went to a "Mom's night in" last night and stuffed myself full of vegan nachos and home made vegan ice cream. It was a fun night but I had to wake up and get going right away this morning for a beach clean-up with Athena's school. The highlight of the clean-up was riding in the lifeguard truck. They drove us about a 1/2 mile down the beach and then we walked back to our starting point cleaning up little bits of trash. Very little bits. We were possibly on the cleanest beach in town, Chris thought it funny that we threw all of these bits into a giant plastic bag, way larger than any of the trash we found. BUT, I still think we were instilling good values in our kids and got to talk about taking care of our oceans, etc. Athena was really into using the little trash grabber tool and was quite skilled at picking up the little bits.
We went straight from the clean-up to a FABULOUS b-day party at the Humane Society. Athena has already told me that she wants her 5 year old party to be there. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera and diaper bag at the party so I can't share any cute pictures yet. I promise they exist though and at least I know my diaper bag is safe and sound. I thought Chris grabbed the bag as he usually does when I'm carrying the baby, but, well, that didn't happen. Anyway, Chris is out grabbing some last minute ingredients for the Mother's Day waffles I requested, I mean suggested.

Blog Anniversary

I was talking to Lindsey of Day to Day Vegan tonight about her upcoming blog anniversary and realized that mine must be coming up real soon. Doh! I forgot my anniversary! It was April 24th. Oh well, I'm still going to wish myself a happy anniversary. It has been a fantastic year. I hope this year will be even better. Next year I promise to celebrate big! In honor of my anniversary, I'd like to host my first ever contest. To enter the contest, leave me a comment. I'll pick the winner at random. I was trying to think of some clever comment stipulation, but I'm too tired right now so any old comment will do. That is of course, if I approve it so keep it clean folks. You could tell me your favorite veganmomma moment or something to that effect. Oh, and I almost forgot to tell you what your lucky prize will be...vegan cookies. I can't be more specific because I'm making this up as I go along, so please enter at your own risk. You have until 8 P.M. Wednesday May 14th to enter. And sorry to my massive international reading faction as I can only afford to ship in the U.S.

Last Post Today, I Promise!

I got my haircut today and my lovely husband hasn't noticed. I'm waiting to see how long it takes. I even dropped a hint mentioning cutting the baby's hair, but no notice. In his defense he only saw me for about an hour tonight before he crashed out on the couch, but an hour is a long time not to notice something like that. Don't worry though, this is not unusual behavior from my man, I always play this game but usually I spill the beans after a few hours. This time I'm really going to try and hard and see how long it takes! So don't spill the beans and call him and tell him he should look at my hair because that will ruin my plan. Thanks!

Missing 2 pieces

I was at G.T.M. today and found a pyrex bake 'n store set for $23.99, on the box it said it was missing 2 pieces, but I decided it was still worth the price since that would mean it had 9 dishes with 9 lids most likely. I opened up the box and was surprised to find just 8 dishes with their lids and 2 extra lids. But the amazing part of the story is this...I bought the 2 "missing" bowls on a whim last week at G.T.M., thinking that maybe I could just buy the lids from their website or something. I have know idea how these 2 bowls got separated from their family, but now the 20 piece set is reunited in my kitchen and it feels so good.

Gazpacho

My friend Luci brought this over yesterday. I had never had gazpacho and I thought it was pretty tasty. Rowan did too. Athena on the other hand, does not eat soup, not hot nor cold. And speaking of Athena and food, she has always been a bit picky, but lately she is refusing to eat stuff that she used to eat. I'm really struggling to feed her because part of me thinks I need to not give her so many options but the other part of me understands her true dislike of so many things. She pretty much lives on carbs and beans. But she will only eat hummus (and it can only be garbanzo bean hummus) or refried beans. She hardly eats fruit, and even more rarely veggies. It makes me pretty crazy but I'm trying not to worry as she still does eat a varied diet most of the time and she isn't eating fast food. I just hope this is just a phase and doesn't get worse. Now when I tell her she has to eat something healthy, as in she has no other choices if she is actually hungry, she will always ask for nori. That is one thing I'm happy about, she still eats that almost every day, but would an apple really kill her?

May SD Vegan Families Potluck

It was an Indian themed event. The food was delicious, the families were fantastic. We had a fun day although I realized it is really hard to prepare Indian food the morning before a 12 o'clock potluck with 2 kids and a husband off for a long bike ride. I pulled it off, but it wasn't easy! Here is a picture of Natalie's plate because it looked much prettier than mine by the time I remembered the camera.

The Bad Mom Club

Tonight I thought I'd join the club of bad mothers, you see, I haven't grocery shopped all week and each night I've been barely getting by come dinner. Monday night I made lentil soup and cleaned out the crisper of wilting veggies by throwing them in the soup. Tuesday it was pasta with peanut sauce. And tonight, well, tonight it was waffles. And then I decided to use up some seitan and make BBQ seitan sandwiches. Both the waffles and seitan sandwiches were delicious but pretty void of any nutrition. I used the waffle (1) recipe from the Joy of Vegan Baking and they were nice. I did use 1 cup of buckwheat flour instead of the all purpose so that we weren't indulging too much in refined flour. Other changes were sunflower oil for the "vegan butter" and rice milk was the only non dairy milk in the house. So you may now be wondering why exactly I'm in the Bad Mom Club, right? Like feeding my family those meals doesn't sound too horrible, does it? Please say no!
What happened was that tonight while I was making the waffles, Rowan climbed up on a stool and burned his hand on the waffle iron. The lid was down but man it is as hot as an oven on top. I saw him reaching for and jumped to his rescue but I was a few seconds too late. Luckily, he seem to have a very quick reflex and pulled his hand back quickly and then he just had the saddest look on his face. I felt awful, because it was all my fault! I quickly put his hand under some cold water and checked the damage. I actually couldn't figure out where he was burned which a relief to me as I figured it wasn't as bad as I first thought. Then in the bath, every time he put his right hand in the water he'd pull it out and give me this sad face like "ouch", and I kept saying, "Yes, owie, hot," etc. etc. Anyway, I think he is going to be fine as I really don't see any burn yet, but man that was a close one. The thing is, that I had just taken him out of the sling. I guess that was a bad idea. I put him in his high chair with a cooled down waffle to eat while I finished cooking and luckily Chris came home shortly thereafter because it was stressful over here. More blogging to come, I'm so behind.

Cinnamon (Swirl) Muffins

These cinnamon swirl muffins have the perfect texture and a light taste. Athena and Rowan loved them. I subbed applesauce for OJ because that is what I had, and added a handful of oats just because. I will definitely make these again. I didn't actually have time to swirl them with a toddler and preschooler hungry and at my heels, but they are still a little swirly naturally. I love that they use agave instead of sugar to sweeten them, a much better choice and my children don't seem to mind at all.
I also made the banana muffins from The Joy of Vegan Baking, and while they tasted fantastic, they have A LOT of sugar. I will make them again for sure but maybe not as often. My kids preferred the cinnamon ones while I prefer the sugary banana ones. They both have a place in my recipe file now though under "darn good muffins".

Fairy Party

It has been such a busy week, yet again. It was fun though. I did some cooking/baking for a few friends, one who just had a baby and one who is pregnant and on bedrest. I really enjoyed it and want to make more of an effort to cook for other people. Of course this weekend presents me with plenty of opportunity with a friend of mine hosting a tea party PLUS the SDVegan Families Potluck.
Um, so back to the fairy party. Our playgroup got together at a park without a playground and brought flowers, confetti filled eggs, wands, fairy dust, tambourines, etc. and a huge potluck of food. Everything was wonderful and the kids had a fabulous time. They climbed the tree for hours, marched around, and even sat for quite a long time for some fairy stories. Athena dressed as a fairy, borrowing her cousin's coveted pink fairy costume (I think I am going to have to buy her one for hr birthday). Rowan dressed in a cute elfish/trollish hat that my talented friend Natalie made. I can't wait to do something like this again for the kids, it really was a special day.
The troll fell down.
He's O.K. though.
Fairy flying.
Mini agave cupcakes from VCTOTW with fairy dust (cinnamon/sugar) on top.