Five

*Sigh*

My baby is five. I remember being sad when she was one and Xander was three. I thought their clothes were getting SO big.

*Another sigh*

She is now the oldest child in our weekly group of kids that visits the nursing home.

She's going to kindergarten this fall and can't wait.

She talks ALL DAY LONG. Seriously. It's no wonder she doesn't have any trouble going to sleep at night, she's got to be tired from all the talking. And if there's not any humans to talk to she'll talk to her babies and her stuffed animals. I've been told she gets it from her mother, but I wouldn't know anything about that.

She's such a sweet little girl and has friends everywhere she goes. I can't even imagine life without her.

We had quite the busy birthday week for Jordis. Her birthday was on Wednesday, but we have bible study on Tuesday mornings so I let her take birthday treats to share with her friends. She helped me make marshmallow pops and they were so cute and yummy.

For the next morning we took little cookies to share at the nursing home.

Jordis was so polite and passed them out to the residents.

Miss Kelly, the activities director, was so nice and had planned a party for her birthday. The residents made the cupcakes and there were party games to play. It was such an incredibly nice gesture and Jordis loved it (after she got over people giving her all the attention).

When Xander got home from school she got to open her presents.

I love that she gets excited about cute clothes.

Happy Birthday, Sweet Girl!

Gorging on Goodies

Remember awhile back I told you about my super fun friend Jen? Well she found out about early ticket sales for Cupcake Camp Columbus III and ordered us two tickets. Ten dollars sounds like a lot of money to eat your fill of cupcakes, but the proceeds went to the Mid-Ohio Food Bank so our sugar high was helpful to a good local charity.

The first half hour of the event you weren't allowed to eat anything. Most people were standing around scoping out the cupcakes, taking pictures, and doing lots of posting on Twitter and Facebook.

All of the cupcakes were displayed on tables, grouped by category, and you were able to walk around and see what was available while the judges started eating and scoring the edible entries.

Then at 1:30 it turned into a free-for-all when the green light was given to grab your selections. We had taken that first half hour to make a game plan, so we were ready. There was a particular table that had a few items we wanted to try, so we agreed upon who would grab which items, then we would split up and go to other tables for random selections, and meet back at a pre-determined spot. Jen and I are experienced at food adventures, so we knew we'd get to taste more cupcakes if we split them. Somehow we managed to each bring back a whole plate full of different cupcakes, and the bigger ones had already been cut in half or fourths which came in really handy. Between the two of us we were able to taste half of all the flavors, so we felt pretty good about that.

Cupcakes could compete in the following categories: Spring-Themed, Use of Bailey's or Bushmills, St. Patty's Day, Vegan and North Market Inspired (meaning they had to represent one of the vendors who sell food there). Some that we thought would be really good, like the Pad Thai Panache, were not so great at all. Others that we tried only because they sounded different, like Lemon Basil, were incredible. This one here, Chocolate Baklava, was not one of our favorites, but we liked that it was baked in phyllo dough and you could eat the wrapper. Good for the planet.

These honey bee cupcakes were very cute, but we determined they tasted like something we could make at home.

This cupcake here was one of my favorites. It was called Irish Neapolitan and was in the Bailey's/Bushmills category. Although I'm not a big fan of food coloring, the cupcake itself was the most gorgeous shade of dark green. It was in cute scalloped wrappers, neatly iced with yummy frosting and had Italian flags stuck in them. It not only tasted good but was pretty as well.

I couldn't narrow down to one favorite, but I came up with six:
Irish Neapolitan
Chocolate Stout with Irish Cream Icing
Lemon Basil
Jen Surprise (was a chocolate Vegan option that had a filling in the middle)
I Can't Believe It's Not Butterscotch (another Vegan one)
Belgian Waffle (tasted like it had belgian waffle batter in it)
Cardamom Sweater

We also tried:
Honeypot Lemon & Thyme (okay, but didn't even compare to Lemon Basil)
Hello Hummingbird
Gluten Free Bailey's Irish Cream (good, but then I tasted Irish Neapolitan)
Irish Coffee
Pistachio Lime (WAY too much lime, not enough pistachio)
I Can't Believe It's Not Bacon (not bad, just not a favorite)
Anything Goes - The Master & Margarita
Dark Chocolate Blackout (can't believe I'm saying it, but it was TOO chocolatey {if that's even possible})
Earl Grey Chip (Jen really liked this one, it was one of my least favorites)
Hot & Cool Mango (we thought this was horrible, it was mangoes and chili - it ended up getting 2nd place)
Citrus Serenade (very amateur tasting, like one of our kids could have made it)
Chocolate Baklava
Pad Thai Panache (very dry, nothing to differentiate it from a regular peanut butter cupcake)

After awhile of tasting and critiquing we noticed there weren't very many people left. Apparently we were taking this much more seriously than everyone else. And then it was over.

Jen came up with a great cupcake idea so we might try it out and enter the contest next year. If not, we still hope to be there to eat. It's an event not to be missed.

Happy Birthday to Me!

I blog about everyone else's birthday, so I figured I may as well blog about my own. I am only child after all, so it's always been a pretty important day. The festivities started last week when my friend Jen took me out to dinner at this great place in the Short North. One of the things I like best about Jen

is that she is low maintenance and will pretty much go along with whatever. She also shares food, which is rare. We've traveled together and been to many a restaurant and festival, and Jen is one of the few people in my life (besides my mom) who will split food with me. I love splitting food, that way you can each try two things. So we split two dishes: a grilled cheese on whole wheat with 3-cheeses, Roma tomatoes and pesto with a side of skillet corn and grilled chicken with Dijon cream sauce, garlic redskin mashed potatoes and skillet green beans. The food was incredible. I love eating at independent restaurants, so I hope I can go back there again soon. After dinner we walked to Jeni's ice cream which I've always wanted to try. After sampling about 4 different flavors I settled on Thai Chili, which was so good. Now that I just got on their website to post the link, I see I was a week too early for some great seasonal flavors: Apple Cider Sorbet, Pumpkin Spice and Chocolate Marshmallow. Check out her flavors....you'd be surprised at how all the listed ingredients could equal great-tasting ice cream.

Speaking of ice cream.....


Max & Erma's loaded my dining card with a free order of their hot chocolate chip cookies. Jason had to work 2nd shift the night before my birthday, and being the cool mom I am I figured I'd take the kids to eat cookies and ice cream for dinner. What kid doesn't want an ice cream sundae and chocolate chip cookies for dinner, right? Apparently my kids. They also roped me into chicken nuggets and fries because they felt they needed a meal. I guess in the big scheme of things I should be happy they weren't satisfied eating dessert for dinner, but I would have been all over that as a kid.




My mom had offered to watch the kids on my birthday so Jason and I could do something, so he planned a surprise for me....we went to Kentucky for lunch at my favorite Italian place, Pompilio's. Most of you will recall it from previous blog posts, as we've eaten there the past two summers on trips down. I had the toasted ravioli and Jason had the tortellini with chicken, sun-dried tomatoes and artichoke cream sauce. It was fabulous as usual. Then with a little time to spare we stopped at IKEA on the way home. I've always wanted to go there and it was so much fun to walk around and look at all the cool decorating ideas. While we were there I bought this pillow.
It's so tacky, isn't it? But I had to have it. Not only is it the same color as my kitchen walls, but the kids always pick me dandelions when we go on walks, so it reminded me of them and makes me happy. It was a long drive just for lunch, but it was great alone time without any distractions and going out of state felt like a mini-vacation. We had fun!

I came home to find that my mom and the kids had made me chocolate cupcakes, and I had fun kitcheny presents from my mom and step-dad. Tomorrow night my dad and step-mom are taking us to dinner at Carsonie's to celebrate mine and Jason's birthday. What a great birthday it's been.

Girls Day Out!

So after a bad day with Xander on Tuesday, Jason decided I should take Jordis someday soon and go have a girls day. Excited at the prospect yet befuddled at where to take her, I wasn't quite sure what to do. We had a playdate at the park schedule for today so I didn't want to go there, and it was to nice to go somewhere indoors like Magic Mountain or the mall. Then I remembered that the city where Jason works recently got a tea house, which sounded like something girlie we could enjoy together.

Jason has worked in this city for eight years now, it was actually still just a village when he started. The main street has some little shops, all inside old houses, and I've never really been in them. Partly because a lot of them sell antiques which isn't my thing, but also because I don't parallel park. The traffic there in the afternoon is bad enough anyway, but the thought of getting someone to let me on the roadway from a parallel parking spot is too much for me to undertake. Far be it from me to speak ill of said city, but aside from them providing for all of our material needs for the past eight years, I'm not real fond of the city itself or the skills of the people running it. The two businesses I used to frequent (with parking lots of course) are long gone, so I really have no desire to be there if I don't have to, especially now that we've switched pediatricians and I don't even have to go there for that anymore. But with the price of gas being what it is and the fact that Jason informed me of some other parking options, I decided some food and strolling with my little girl could prove to be fun even if it was in a locale I'm not fond of.

I decided to capture the afternoon in pictures which shouldn't surprise any of you. Jordis was quite a trooper considering she didn't get a nap. We had a great time!

Off we go!



Fascinated with yard ornaments for sale.



Hello in there.



Ribbit



Had to see the duck in the pond.



Then a train came by Daddy's work.




Time for tea. Fresh flowers and good food, though the food picture turned out blurry.










The fairy room had boas to try on.



Let's go Mom!



Off to Pink Moon Cupcake Bakery across the street, then to Petland to look at puppies (and some other animals).





We also went to some other stores and to visit Ba and Ba-Dee (my mom and step-dad, named by Xander for reasons we have yet to figure out), but I figured at some point I just didn't need that many pictures.

Today my little girl traded in her frilly dress for shorts, and after falling umpteen times at the park and on my neighbors driveway she looks like she was in a playground scuffle. She never flinched, just got up and kept going, not even accepting my offers of band-aids. Maybe she's not as girly as her mom afterall.