Stuart and His Birthday

 Stuart and his 4th birthday.

This was the one for him, the first birthday that he got really excited about. Yet, he was sweet. When I teased him about his gift he was all amazed that we had one for him, and he gave me a hug and said, "Thanks Mom!" this was a few days before his birthday.

 Stuart has not stopped playing with the crane since it was unwrapped this morning. 

 The gummy bananas were cracking me up. 

Remind me next time,  it does not matter how ugly the cake is, it's going to be fine.

A cut out cake or whatever you call these, they can really stress me out. There were crumbs in the icing and I was being kind of "I don't care" about the cake that was showing through. See, I was trying to get by with the icing that I had on hand, did not want to mix up more. Anyhow, in the midst of making a cake like this I am always sure it will be the ugliest one ever and I pity the child. I feel like I'm wasting time and destroying the kitchen. Every time. Then it turns out... I don't notice the skippers in the icing and whatever else I think was bad.  And the children really don't notice. They just see candy.

3 Weeks

Naming Baby Olive

When it came to naming baby dear, I broke one of my self imposed rules. Never tell people a name that you just love. You know, for fear of putting that awesome idea into someone else' head. So I was crushing on the name Olive and Nate was like no way. At one point I printed him a chart of how many ladies were named Olive in like the 1920-30's. He remained silent. So assuming it was out, I told many people, "Do you know what name I just love?" yeah... Imagine my surprise when Nate mentioned that he was starting to like that name. So in those last few weeks of waiting I had people texting me saying, "Oh I hope Olive shows up tonight" or, "I heard what your baby name is",  Most of them thinking it was a joke. The real kicker was when my Mom told me she heard what we are naming the baby. I did my best to not give it away.  Each time this happened I would tell Nate I am so sorry that I told people and then we would laugh and laugh about it.
She is being seriously good and we are just soaking up the baby days. All too soon it will be back to life as usual. 
About naming babies. I sure did love the site, Nameberry this time around.
And whatever you do, don't look at the cute clothes on J.Crew baby. It will break your heart.

Uncle Ted from Philly                           Aunt Carla all the way from Erie

I made these bars yesterday due to finally gathering enough of brown bananas in my freezer. I heard Stuart telling Ellie after school, "Mom smashed up rotten bananas and put them in the cake!" He was horrified. This is a recipe from pinterest that you would be happy if you made. 

Banana Bread Bars with Brown Butter Icing

One of my most favorite blog posts by the pioneer woman ever. She re-posted it today.
The donut story. 

Sweet New Baby Days

Olive Marie

We are so blessed to have her.