Six Months

 

Quinn, at six months you:

are rolling over like a pro

have started scooting backwards, on your way to crawling

sit in a high chair

loved your first time eating solids (yummy bananas)

think everything and everyone is funny

love to talk, sing, and laugh

are not sleeping through the night yet (much to mom and dad's dismay)

adore your big sister

have such a strong curiosity about the world around you

can sit up by yourself, but still fall over a lot

enjoy eating mom's chin

have tickle fests with dad

love to pull hair (much to lillie's dismay)

have traveled to ohio, indiana, miami, turks & caicos, new jersey, new york city, connecticut, and boston

are an extraordinary little boy

Happy six month birthday (two days ago.)

Our First Family Vacation

Last month we embarked on our very first family vacation, and our very first trip to the Caribbean. Wowza is all I have to say! This photo was from our first morning in Turks & Caicos. We were eating breakfast, trying to get the lay of the land and figuring out what to do for the day when Zoe and Elmo walked right by our table on a "walk about." Lillie spotted them first and made sure she got my attention quickly so we could go say hello to them. It was right then that we knew this was going to be one vacation to remember!

Lillie fell in love with Camp Sesame, the daycare with loads of fun things to do, and different events each day. From cooking with Cookie Monster to storytime with Elmo, she was in heaven. And even though Quinn won't remember much from his experience there, I think the wonderful ladies who cared for him will remember him! His giggles and big smiles won over the hearts of many of them, and he had a "girlfriend" by the time he left. One night, Conor and I decided to have a date and have dinner on our own so we dropped off the kids at Camp and when we returned to pick them up, Lillie promptly said, "no, you leave...bye Mom and Dad." Hey, we're on vacation, right?! So we took Quinn back to the room to put him to bed and when I went back to pick up Lillie, this is what she looked like! Lillie had talked a nice lady, Barbaralynn, into pulling out the face paints and making her into a cat. (She could have spent 24 hours there if they'd been open and we let her.)

This trip was full of firsts. First time to the Caribbean, first time to get passports for the kids, their first time out of the country, Quinn's first time to see the ocean and sand, Lillie's first time down a water slide, and Quinn's first time in a pool (and it was heated!)

There were something like 5 pools and 16 restaurants at the resort...awesome. The food was great, every type of cuisine you could want...there was even a Japanese steak house. Lillie was the star of our table, interacting and being super cute with our chef. The weather was great. Even though we had a few days of rain and clouds, we could have cared less - we still had fun. I guess we had another first: our first family portrait. It was windy, close to dinner-time, and Lillie refused to nap that day. Don't judge.

We saw some big fish, and a few tiny ones. We saw a lot of waves, sand castles and spent a lot of time burying each other in the sand. It was hard to pack up our things and come home, so for now we'll keep reliving our trip by looking at our pictures and look forward to going back again.

Birthday Cake

Since we were traveling back from our vacation on the day of Conor's birthday, we waited a few days to do a full celebration with cake and presents. After getting very little direction on what kind of cake Conor wanted, I decided to make this very cool looking zebra cake. It turned out to be very tasty and easy to make...just a little time-consuming. We were all big fans of this one, and I think we'll see it again for birthdays to come. Of course it's not a birthday cake without ice cream, and I tried out a recipe for a VERY easy chocolate ice cream. It was only okay, I still have some kinks that need worked out, so I'll write more about that later. I'm working on a good summary of how our vacation went, we had so much fun. I'll be working over the next few days to get everything updated on the blog...stay tuned!

Recipe: From Baking Bites
cake

• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup milk (low fat is fine)
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/8 tsp almond extract
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 1/2 tbsp cocoa powder (I used Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 9-inch round cake pan with a circle of parchment paper and lightly grease the bottom and sides of the pan. 
2. In a large bowl, mix together eggs and sugar until mixture is light and creamy and the sugar has mostly been dissolved. Stir in milk, vegetable oil, vanilla and almond extracts.
   In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Pour into wet ingredients and whisk to combine. Measure out just over two cups of vanilla batter and place it back in the medium bowl. Sift cocoa powder over the bowl and whisk until fully incorporated. 
3. Put 3 tbsp of vanilla batter into the center of the pan and let it spread slightly on its own. Put 3 tbsp of chocolate batter in the center of the vanilla. It will push out the other batter and, as it sits for a moment, will also spread itself. Alternating spoonfuls of the two batters, repeat the technique until all the batter has been used up. 
4. Bake for 38-42 minutes, until the cake is light gold and a tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
5. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes, then turn out the cake and remove the parchment paper. Reinvert on to a wire rack and let cool before slicing.

Serves 10.

buttermilk chocolate frosting

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 2 oz unsweetened chocolate
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 2-3 cups confectioners’ sugar, divided
• 6 tbsp buttermilk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

1. In a small, microwave safe bowl, melt together butter and unsweetened chocolate. Heat in 30-45 second intervals, stirring frequently, until mixture is smooth. Cool for 10-15 minutes, or until mixture is at room temperature.
2. Transfer butter mixture to a larger bowl. Beat in cocoa powder, 2 cups confectioners sugar, buttermilk and vanilla, beating until frosting is smooth and slightly fluffy. Add additional confectioners’ sugar to thicken, if needed (depending on the weather, you may need more one day and less another). Frosting should be at room temperature before using.

Five Months

  

 

 Quinn turned five months young while we were in Turks & Caicos. So I thought it only fitting that his monthly photo be a on a beach chair in the sand! In the past few weeks, he has started consistently rolling over from back to front, in fact he immediately rolls over anytime he's put on his back. He also seems to be teething something fierce, but we haven't seen anything poke through those gums yet. Quinn is very close to sitting up on his own, which means crawling really is just around the corner.

Happy Birthday Conor

Happy birthday to my dear, sweet husband.