The Aspiring Chef...

AJ and I have been doing a lot of cooking and baking lately. He loves to stand on the step stool and join me in working on the counter. If I just casually mention making something together, he'll say, "let's get the step stool!!" and head over to get it out. If only he were really strong enough to pull it out and set it up. Oh, wait! That might be disastrous. I'm glad I have to get it out myself for him, what was I thinking! LOL

We usually make something sweet (which might be part of the draw) and for a while we were on a real brownie kick. Here's my son with delicious batter all over his precious face. :) We make cookies and brownies, cakes and crisps. Mostly I like to make things from scratch with him for a few reasons. First, as a mom, I like knowing exactly what's in (or NOT in) the recipe. Second, it gives me a chance to add extra stuff like nuts or chocolate chips, or sub in something more healthy whole wheat flour. And lastly, we like to bake from scratch because it gives AJ a chance to "do" more...since there's more ingredients, there's more to measure, more to pour and sometimes more to stir. But a box will work in a pinch too! We do not discriminate against any desserts made in this house.

AJ's good friend Violet recently turned 4 and had a really fun birthday party at a nearby place called The Kids' Table. It is a super-cute place and cooking is the party theme, so that was right up our alley! The people leading the party did a great job of getting the kids to do the tasks while keeping them interested. They made little cakes, pizzas, lemonade, and fruit kabobs...not necessarily in that order.
AJ had a ball. Here, the instructor is showing the kids how to poke the fruit onto the sticks...she made a nice, colorful kabob and then let the kids try. Well, needless to say, our little fruit-a-holic had trouble waiting until he had a full stick of fruit before sampling the skewer. After a few tries, he started just poking the fruit pieces with his skewer and using it as a fork. Then by the end of the fruit-kabob lesson, he was just eating chunks of watermelon and cantaloupe right out of the containers! Good thing no one was really keeping track, because I'm certain he ended up eating the allotted amount of fruit for at least 2 other children...

Here are some cute pictures of the pizza making and pizza eating, as well as lemon-juicing! And of course a shot of Violet sitting with her personal cake (each child got one and got to frost it and decorate with strawberries - yum!) as we sang the Birthday Song to her. Adorable!

Elizabeth's Baptism

Elizabeth was baptized at our church, St Luke's, on Sept 6th. It was a pretty day, and not TOO hot, so we felt good about her wearing the knitted gown that my Nana knitted, though it was too warm to use the beautiful blanket. (And though there are also huge booties and a hat, we thought just the gown was plenty, and she got several compliments in it!) My mom wove pink ribbons through the little holes around the gown's neck and sleeves, and Elizabeth looked so precious, ready for her special day. Even though she was wailing in this picture with my mom, she really was very quiet and good through the whole service...this pic was taken AFTER the service, when everyone was nearing meltdown, as you will read...


The baptism itself went very smoothly. Elizabeth didn't cry when she had the Holy Water scooped over her head, and her Aunt Melissa who held her and "Uncle" Lucas stood by as the proud sponsors. One of my very best friends, Robin Schwartz is also Elizabeth's Godmother, but she couldn't be with us physically at the service since she is in Haiti. (You can read about what she does there in her blog, which I have a link to on the right of this page.) But she was there in spirit! When she comes back to the States, I'm sure she will play an active role in Elizabeth's spiritual life. We are lucky to have such great friends and family!


We sat in the back, as is the usual plan for the baptismal families, but there were 2 other children being baptized during that service as well, plus there was communion. All of that made the normally long service really long! And that, of course, spells trouble for the kids! The little ones started to get fussy, the older ones started to get antsy and whiny, and the adults started to get frazzled! (maybe this is why they have us sit in the back!? LOL) It became harder and harder to keep AJ, Grayson and Kyra quiet or distracted, and AJ was having a really hard time keeping still! Argh!! Well, what can you expect when the service runs over an hour and it's nearing lunchtime? Umm...I guess my expectations for my son to go home in the clothes he left in were too high, since after the service, as I was trying to get Elizabeth settled and ready for pictures, someone brought my soaking 2 year old up to me stating he had "gotten into" the baptismal font. Whaaaat?!! Oh my goodness. He was so soaked, and crying. I really to this day don't know for sure what happened, but I think he had just splashed in it, not actually GONE into it. This assumption was based on the fact that his feet were dry...not on the fact that he looked VERY wet. Luckily since he's potty trained but still a little shaky on outings, I always have a change of underwear and pants in the diaper bag. But I did not have a dry shirt! So the best we could do was to take off his wet (and cute) sweater vest and tell him we'd change his shirt when we got home. Knowing how much he loves water and baths, I'm surprised he was so upset about having a wet shirt...but I think he knew he had done something wrong. So maybe it was for the best that he had to wear it home!?

Then, as we finally got ready and started to have our pictures taken, one of the pastoral assistants came up to my family holding a crying AJ by the arm and asking, "Does he belong to you?". Oh. My. Goodness. How many family members have to be with us for someone to keep an eye on my son? I guess it was poor parenting on our part not to have specifically assigned anyone to this task. :( Poor AJ. Here he is in our beautiful family photo, after both incidents. Notice my (fake) smile, AJ's cheek-wiping after just about recovering from the freak-outs, Elizabeth's wailing with hunger or in need of a nap, and Andy's face actually looks like a fake smile. ...Like I said, at least the baptism itself was nice. ;) lol

And I just couldn't resist putting in this picture of Kyra, ever the ham, posing for a picture during all this chaos! She is so funny!

We all went back to our loft afterward, and everyone made a nice recovery. We had a delicious lunch from Wishbone, and yummy cake from Dinkel's Bakery. Both are great local businesses and we were happy with the service from each of them. The cake even survived being turned on its side by a child who will remain nameless, as you can see by this picture which was taken just after its rescue! All in all, it was really wonderful to see those family and friends who could take part in Elizabeth's special day, and those who could not be here were with us in our hearts. Like Pastor A. said when I asked about whether Robin could still be a sponsor without being at the ceremony, "It's the life, not the ceremony, that's really what's important."

AJ the Photograhper

AJ has decided to go into photography. He is available for weddings, birthdays and all other occasions. Please call for pricing and references, and have a look at his current portfolio: