Cake and Croissants

I love cake. I live for cake. I could be perfectly happy only eating cake. When I go on a "cake diet" meaning I DON'T eat cake I can drop like 5 lbs in a few weeks. That is how much cake I eat. For Valentines Day I only ask that Rich buys me a sheet cake. I certainly would be open to jewelry but would be happy as a clam with a butter cream sheet cake with lard frosting roses. I set my own cake eating record at one wedding by eating 9 pieces. Wedding cake is the bomb and my favorite probably because I believe it is infused with love Since I can't eat wedding cake everyday, I have to find a substitute.
When Rich and I moved to Austin I figured out that it takes quite a while to scope out all bakeries and restaurants for the perfect piece of cake on the run. I knew where to go in DC but was lost in Austin. I still never found it before we moved to Dallas. Before we moved I researched the cake scene in Dallas/Plano. The first restaurant we went to in Dallas was a restaurant that was rumored to have chocolate cake "better than Prozac." It was pretty good, but not exactly the cake on the run I was looking for. Cake to me has to be great even without ice cream. Before the whole baby blog thing I was pretty convinced I was going to start writing about my quest for the perfect cake. But my cake plan got derailed.
So now in Milwaukee I'm starting over on my cake quest. I'm giving it my all and even recruited some extra hands. Thanks to some sleuthing by my sister Sarah, I may have found the perfect cake. She doesn't like or eat cake but happened to have a bite at a kid's birthday party and loved it and thought of me. It is by appointment/special order only so it doesn't fall into the "cake on the run" category but it is so good, I have waived that qualification.
Sarah ordered me a cake and dropped it off along with homemade cake in the shape of The Colosseum (ate it before I took a picture of the Jelly Belly people in the stands), bread pudding with whiskey sauce and rosemary bread.
I patiently waited until after dinner to try the new cake so we could eat it while trying to have a first tea party for the kids.

Think Beckett is excited?

Eloise didn't want cake or a tea cup with water. She just wanted to eat the plate and then throw it on the floor and rest on her daddy's lap with a lovie in her mouth, IE, she was tired.

I try not to let them eat chocolate so our little cake and tea party turned into a frosting, fondant and water party.

They must take after their dad because water was the favorite at the table that night.



No water for me. Look at that ganache. Rich has to ask permission before he takes a slice.

Delicately Delicious in Cedarburg, Wisconsin. Who knew I had to come all the way to Wisconsin to find the perfect cake.

The next morning my cake high was smashed because Beckett had to go in time out 4 times within a few hours. He hates getting his diaper changed. He squirms, kicks, screams, flips over, goes straight as a board, you name it. It is a huge problem when he has a poopy diaper and I would take any advice to solve this problem. For example this morning I was putting the trio in the feeding table with Beckett the last to go in and I smelled he needed a diaper change. So I gave the girls a pile of bananas and went around the corner to change him. To make a long story short, both Beckett and I were covered in poop, he had alligator tears streaming down his face, I was sweating buckets from fighting with him and the girls were screaming because they ran out of bananas. Ugg, and that wasn't even one of the 4 times he went in time out.
So I happily packed the kids up for a French brunch date with my dad and Bambi. The rest of the day is always better after some mimosas.


Okay so it was orange juice but we asked specifically if we could get it in a champagne glass so everyone could be fancy.

Nothing fancy about this, just plain funny. Why do all kids like sour stuff?

Always need a little sweet with the sour for balance...




And a quick picture and a hasty escape before they figured out the kids smeared up the windows looking for trucks and buses.


This is all that is left of our attempt at a family picture. You can see that Addy is trying to make her escape as well. I'll keep trying.



Come on Addy, let's go home and get some cake!

Weekend Shopping

We are crazy, but not THAT crazy. As tempting as it was to wake up the triplets at 3:00 am on Friday to get in line for the best deals, we didn't take the triplets shopping on black Friday. But we did take them to Target today because we were desperate for an outing and I can always find something I need at Target.
Eloise loves to shop. She walks all around the house pushing her shopping cart, usually with her stuffed goat in it along with a few food items like cheese, baguettes, some fruit and a piece or two from the Curious George tea set.
She must have been exhausted from all of the sales yesterday or maybe had a case of buyer's remorse because today my little shopping girl just chilled out.

Bok, Bok, Bok

Whoops, my turkey sounds like a chicken, that is because it was! We had a last minute change in plans for Thanksgiving because of illness so we ended up staying home with the kids and I had to scramble to figure out a proper Thanksgiving meal the night before. We were going to go to my sister's and have our meal during the afternoon nap. I had it all planned out with bringing 3 pack n'plays and 3 booster seats and their pajamas in case they fall asleep on the way home. I look forward to a break in the routine. Routine is really good but it does get tedious for all of us and I need to work to be a little more flexible. Holidays are a perfect excuse. I was totally bummed because Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and it would be first big holiday we would be celebrating in Wisconsin.

Those of you who know us or have followed our blog know that we have so much to be thankful for, more than I could even list. But this year seems to be about health. I can count on one hand the number of times that one of the babies have been sick and that was nothing more than a sniffle. So we stayed home rather than the potential for exposure to illness. We are not officially under RSV restrictions like last year but may be during the height of RSV season in March/April. For now, we are just being sensible and cautious which sometimes is no fun. But we tried to make it fun.
Anyway, we kept our normal schedule today but allowed some special treats like watching the Thanksgiving Day Parade on tv. They kind of liked it for about a minute. They don't know any characters so the Dog Championship on Animal Planet was way more exciting. I think my ears are still recovering from all of the yelling.
After going to Whole Foods to pick up the food I didn't want to make from scratch, the kids read some books while I made lunch. These are not posed, this is how they were sitting reading.

I think they were sitting below the lookout window so they could jump up and look out at the slightest hint of a truck, dog or fire engine.

Another example of Crazycakes.

This one didn't end so well.

I picked her up and took her out and put her back on the ground as Rich called for help in changing Beckett's diaper. He can be just a slippery little worm when he feels especially attached to his poop-filled diaper. The wiggling usually results in a total mess so I was helping in order to preserve his clothes. Then we heard a big thump and Addy screaming. She must have crawled back in the truck and then lost her balance because she was sitting leaning up against the stair banister. If she was a cartoon character she would have birds flying around her head.

Since we never eat meals together as a family (because of the feeding table) I thought I would take advantage of the borrowed booster seats and have all of us eat Thanksgiving together. The problem is that really all of our dining room furniture is in storage and we only have a little table in the dining room and only 4 chairs. I moved the feeding table into the dining room and the little table into the kitchen and Rich attached the booster seats. Then I cooked like crazy while the kids were sleeping. Of course the girls woke up early (slept 1.5 hours) and were sooooo excited to see the booster seats and wanted to sit in them immediately. They had a snack and practiced coloring. I think being in the booster seats rather than the feeding table helped to eliminate the crayon munching.
Eloise was really going to town. Little thing could was just barely tall enough.



Foiled again. I guess I hadn't used the oven in this house yet and didn't know that the oven temperature was really off. Therefore, everything took twice as long to cook which threw off the whole eating dinner together thing. I was still bustling around the kitchen and we decided to eat after the kids went to bed. I only say that to explain why the table looks totally empty. We probably should have used plates or the trays but they looked so grown up sitting at the table by themselves.





I love turkey at Thanksgiving but can't deal with the carcass and all of the turkey breasts were sold out so we had pumpkin risotto stuffed chicken breasts instead. It didn't matter, we are all about the stuffing, cranberries and pumpkin pie anyway. Whipped cream and pumpkin pie is the best, well most fun, part of the meal for kids. I don't recall if they had whipped cream before but they thought it was so funny and the pumpkin pie was just a bonus as you can see.

"I'm having a little pie with my whipped cream."

"I'm a little scared. This whipped cream is as big as me."

Here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Claus...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

The Dad Weekend

I desperately needed a break. Not just a 2 hour break when the kids are napping but a good 24 hours without worrying about spilled sippy cups, picking up toys, planning the next meal, breaking up fights and reading truck books. So on Friday night after the kids went to bed, I threw some clothes in a basket and drove to Green Bay to spend the next day with my mom.
I have spent exactly 3 nights away from the triplets since they came home from the NICU 16 months ago. Well, it has been 8 nights but 5 of those were hospital nights but that was not optional so I don't count it. I just needed a day to sleep in, shop and sleep in. Also, there is something about going "home" that has always recharged me. I remember when we lived in DC and TX and when we would fly to Green Bay to visit, the minute the plane wheels hit the runway it was like a weight was lifted; I would take a big sigh and was home. I wasn't really nervous about leaving Rich with the babies, I was more worried about the condition of the house/laundry/dishes when I got home. But then I realized that I had been training the kids for a opportunity such as this.

Beckett knows how to sweep- but we have to work on the difference between a broom and a vacuum.


The girls know how to scrub the floor.




The girls know how to do laundry.


Addy can get herself dressed, at least one leg.


Beckett knows how to find the extra diapers.


Eloise can set the table.


The girls will make sure their Daddy doesn't go hungry.


It was awesome. If you want to recharge, go to my Mom's house. Lots of good wine, snacks, awesome hand-me-down clothes and "the dream room". This is the guest bedroom that my sister Sarah has dubbed "the dream room" because it is a cozy comfortable room with all these crazy antiques and vintage clothes/hats/gloves and tons of lotions and candles and pretty much anything you can imagine if you open the dresser drawers. All of that makes for a very peaceful and just dreamy night of sleep. On Saturday we ate and shopped. That's it. Perfect 24 hours.
While I was gone Rich took the kids to the Harley Davidson Museum and let them ride motorcyles. Serioulsy, could he be more of a rock star dad? This is the picture he sent me.


I started to head home around 8 pm so I could get a good night sleep and be there when the kids woke up on Sunday but turned around remembering that gun deer season just started in WI. Sounds silly I know but hitting a deer is not uncommon in these parts and it does serious damage to your car, the deer and probably you. I know too many people who have hit a deer to take it lightly. My sister being one of them. One season she hit so many deer I think she single-handedly brought down the deer population by herself.
Anyway, I got one more luxurious night of sleep in The Dream Room, got up early and was home before breakfast. Happy to be gone but so happy to be home.

(Rich figured out how all 3 could sit on his lap so they could watch garbage truck and fire engine videos on You Tube.)

On Sunday night for dinner we went to my Dad and Bambi's (can't figure out if she is going to be Grambi or Bama) which is always such a treat. Great and I mean great food, I don't have to cook or more importantly think about what to feed them for dinner and she always gives us the leftovers!
She must be giving Eloise a lesson in cooking beets and their greens.


Addy was very excited to sit in the booster seat and anxiously awaited dinner showing off her utensil skills.


Eloise managed to stab a beet but I think she resorted to her hands with the rest of the meal.
No pictures of Beckett at the table because he didn't sit for too long. Food takes second fiddle to toys, especially toys in a new environment.

For Addy, the clasp on the booster seat is way more interesting than trucks or books. (Oh yeah, the china cabinet ranks right up there too.)


Did you buy your tickets...


To the GUN SHOW?