Thursday, July 31, 2008

Summer Painting

The kids had big fun on the patio this afternoon. I hosed down the doorwall, and they painted the windows. The chosen theme was "Fairytale". They did all the of the work (and by "work" I mean all of the art work) while I kept a watchful eye on the curious toddler and snapped a few pictures.

Here's Laurel beginning to paint a princess carriage.


Holly worked on a knight.


Sean's chosen element was the dragon, of course! He decided to make it a "daddy and son" dragon. Lots of fire-breathing going on there. Looks a bit koi-like to me, but what do I know.


Liam sort of wandered around, not sure what to make of the new "stuff" on the patio. Eventually he found one of the tubs of water. That's when the real fun began.


He went inside for a wardrobe change and a nap shortly after the wild splashing began.


Here's the final window mural.


The queen:


The princess and coachman:


And a fairy, for good measure:


If you're into painting, these little numbers are well worth the price. We've had these for six years. I found them at a teacher-supply store. With these, the kids can take the paint container with them to the window, instead of running back and forth to reload their brush. Should a collision occur (and they always do), the likelihood of one or more children becoming covered in paint is much less.

They come with snap on lids so you can save the unused paint for several weeks, too.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Congratulations, Laurel!

Laurel was just informed that she won second place in a writing contest sponsored by her dad's employer. The topic: When It's Right to Do Wrong.

She wrote about how she jumped into a pond to help her then four-year-old brother paddle to safety. Upon our arrival at the pond, she had been given stern warning that she was not to get wet, you see. So much for stern warnings, and Thank God for life-vests. Not to mention big sisters.

To this day we're still sketchy on the details of how Sean came to be in the water but, no matter. For once she was glad to have been given a writing assignment.

Speaking of writing, Liam gave it a shot today.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Baseball

Tuesday nights mean only one thing to Sean this summer: Baseball.


Holly and Laurel play too but the rain started before I could get any shots of them.

Several of the "homeschoolering" dads teach the kids to play while the moms watch and cheer from behind the fence, keeping the littlest ones from getting too close to the field.



We currently have up to 42 kids playing and 12 littles who watch. The younger kids play first for an hour, then the older kids get to play.

This night, there was ice cream!
Publish Post

Friday, July 11, 2008

Party Day

Sean's party was yesterday. We had a beautiful, sunny day and held the festivities in our back yard, under the shade of the neighbor's trees.

The guests played lots of games. I was inside for a lot of the action, but did manage to have a few laughs as I watched this sweet group of homeschooled five and six-year-olds learn to play duck-duck-goose. Holly and Laurel were in charge of the games, and they did a fantastic job.

We served individual pizzas, a fruit salad (strawberries, blueberries, and nectarines) and chocolate cake with chocolate ice cream. And lemonade. Lots of lemonade!

The kids had an egg race (boys against the girls, of course):
Notice the intense concentration required, as evidenced by the sticking-out tongue.




















The pinata was a huge hit (har har). It took many, many, many strikes to get the paper mache beast to give up his loot. I thought he possibly might have been constructed of reinforced concrete, but no, he did eventually succumb to the kindergarteners' relentless beating.



































We gave out goody-bags filled with cool stuff that Sean picked out: bubbles, dinosaurs, horses, stickers, a pinwheel, and a pen that writes in a bunch of different colors depending on which switch you push. There was a parachute-guy, too. Oh, and a party blower. Someone recently informed me that you can't have a party without party blowers. I was not going to argue with the guest of honor over that point, no way.

Here's a picture of the boy-version of the (empty) goody-bag. The girl-version is almost the same, except instead of a blue beetle, there was a red ladybug.















Here's a shot of what I was doing at 5AM on party day.

Today is Sean's actual birthday. His choice of dinner is prepackaged chicken kiev. Blech! I can only imagine the load of preservatives and fillers it contains. We'll have fresh green beans, pasta, and fruit salad to accompany it. Dessert will be the other chocolate-with-ganache cake that I prepared on Wednesday. Holly wants to decorate this one, and I'm happy to let her do it. I don't like working with frosting at all (especially since discovering the joys of ganache). She's planning to draw Superman on the top of the cake. I'll post the results later.

First I have to mix up some frosting, and she needs to finish her reading assignment.

Birthday Cake Tutorial

Step one:
Bake some cakes. I used box mixes this time, due to a butter shortage I didn't know I was having. These are Duncan Hines Chocolate Fudge, which is my favorite box mix.

This day I was trying out my new 5" round pans. It turns out that half of the box mix filled the two pans nicely. I used the other half to make a dozen cupcakes.

Step Two:
Make an insane amount of ganache. I used the recipe in Martha's baking book, which makes about 7 cups. I had enough to coat and decorate an 8-inch tier cake, a 5-inch tier cake, and a dozen cupcakes. There is also about a cup left in my fridge right now.

Step Three:
Chill half of the ganache. I poured half of the hot ganache into the bowl of my stand mixer, and put the whole thing in the freezer for hmmm...a while...probably 20 minutes. Normally when I take it out and try to whip it up, it doesn't whip well, so I end up returning it to the freezer for another stint. After two or three more tries, it whips up beautifully and I have to resist the urge to dive head-first into the mixer bowl.
Leave the remaining ganache in the pan. We’ll return to it in a later step.


Step Four:
Devise a make-shift cake stand. Those of you lucky enough to already own an appropriately- sized pedestal can skip this step. An inverted lunch plate double-stick taped to an inverted cereal bowl worked well for my 5” diameter cake.

Steps Five, Six, and Seven:
Level your cakes, if necessary (or even if not necessary...maybe just do it to give yourself some cake remnants to sample) with a serrated knife. Place one layer of cake on a wire rack and coat the top liberally with whipped ganache. An offset spatula is a handy tool for this job. Carefully place layer two on top and coat all visible cake surfaces with the whipped ganache.

This is your chance to correct any surface defects in the cake--whipped ganache is sort of like cake spackling. You won't be sanding the cake though. You'll have to make do with just the spatula.

When you think you've got the thing as smooth-looking as possible, place the cake in the fridge for thirty minutes or so--enough time to allow the coating to stiffen.

Step Seven-Point-Five
If you want to induce a chocolate coma, add another coat of whipped ganache after the first coat has hardened. Chill after applying, as before.

Steps The Rest:
Remove the cake from the fridge and place the cake—wire-rack and all—on a sheet pan. Photos would be helpful here, but ha! There are none. I apologize.

Remember the ganache you left in the pan up there in step 3? Check that it is still warm. You want it to be in that magical temperature range where it is easily poured, but not so warm that it melts away the whipped ganache coating on the cake. You may need to rewarm it slightly.

Pour the ganache onto the cake. Marvel as it spreads and drips down the sides of the cake. Gravity will coat the entire cake for you—just keep pouring until the cake is completely covered.

Now place the cake (still on the sheet pan) in the fridge again for another twenty to thirty minutes. Feel free to use this time to "clean" any remaining ganache off of the mixer attachments, rubber spatulas, bowls, pans...

When the outer coat of ganache has firmed up, it’s time to transfer the cake to its pedestal. Use an offset spatula in a sweeping motion under the cake to encourage its removal. Grab a pancake turner in one hand, and an offset spatula in the other and ever-so-carefully, pick up the cake and set it on the cake stand. This is not a job for the faint of heart, but the less time you spend thinking about it, the better off you’ll be.

All that’s left now is to decorate and enjoy. The whipped ganache can be piped, but you’ll need to work fast or it will turn to mush. Refrigerate the cake. Remove from fridge and let stand for 20 minutes before serving.

Did you read that last sentence? I just want to be sure. Trying to slice into a cake of this sort that hasn't been allowed to warm up can ruin the look of your lovely cake. It will still taste wonderful, however.

Use a spatula to recover the ganache in the sheet pan. This is the stuff that slid off the cake during the coating process.

Store the extra ganache in the refrigerator in an airtight container. Rewarm it a tablespoon or twelve at a time for a heavenly ice cream topping.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Birthday Party


I've never hosted a birthday party for a boy before. Sean is turning six in a few days, and has requested this year be his first "party year". This means that he gets to invite a bunch of kids over for a cake-eating, pinata-cracking, lemonade-drinking bash.

Long, long ago when our firstborn was this age, we set some ground rules for parties. Here they are:
1) The child may have up to two birthday parties during their school-aged years that are planned, executed, and paid for by his or her parents.
2) The child may invite some number of guests--not to exceed the child's age (some exceptions may apply)
3) The child may not have two such parties on consecutive years.

I've held girl parties for ages 6, 8-1/2, and 12. I'm a little nervous about hosting little boys! It seems that mostly what little boys like to do is have sword fights, dig holes, and wrestle. None of these activities seem particularly suited to a birthday party. At least not the ones I'm familiar with. The girls and I have planned some games, assembled the goody-bag give-aways, and bought loads of candy for the (store-bought, boo hoo) pinata.

Party in 2 Days. Wish me luck.