JourneyLeaf: Life a Page at a Time

Spring Afternoon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Easter is Coming...

 

  

 

 

Happy Easter 2014

 

 

 

Hope everybody had a very nice Easter.  Ours was lovely -- good friends, a bubble gun, and spring sunshine! 

A Little Egging Around

 

   A little egging around...

   The smell of vinegar

    and the fizz fizz fizz

    of dye tablets.

   Ahhhh

   Spring!

 

 

 

 

      

A little egg help from Uncle Eric, Aunt Jennifer, and Cousin Margaret while Papa was out of town...

   

 

  

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Easter Peeps Prints

A nearby library had a drop-in program for kids where they got to make art with Peeps marshmallows...

The welcome station had paint shirts to borrow, spring-colored paper, brown paper bags cut into a basket shape, tape, and a few Peeps to eat.

 

The work stations had Peeps to dip, nontoxic paint in flat plates, crayons, markers, kid scissors, and paper towels. 

 

Chick Peeps actually make an egg-shape if you print carefully using their bottoms.  (They can be printed on their sides too.)  Bunny Peeps make a...well, a bunny shape!

 

I love that this activity is great for kids of all ages.  Tots are happy dipping and smearing with their marshmallows.  For older kids, a thin coat of paint applied to the bottom of a Peep with a paint brush would make a more precise and uniform print that you could then embellish with markers, glitter, and such.
 

 

 

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All Things Irish

It isn't even dawn yet.  Eli pads in through the dark, wriggles up on my side of the bed, and snuggles in.  All is silent.  Then his little voice pipes up, but not to say good morning.  Instead, he takes a deep breath and announces, "A long time ago in Ireland, if kids got a splinter they had to jump on one foot until it stopped bleeding."

Huh?

I still haven't figured out where that one came from nor what it means.  
But it did remind me that I didn't post our Savannah St. Paddy's Day Parade pictures.  It was wet that day, so I didn't risk taking my good camera.  But an iPhone works fine in a pinch.

 

Although it rained on our parade, it didn't ruin a thing.  We found a dry spot under a magnolia tree and enjoyed that the crowds were thinner this year.

   

Um.  Why did I think it was a good idea to buy my kid a toy trumpet?

 

 

 

Still hooting! 

 

 

 

Aaaaaaand maybe it is time to give the horn a rest when the huge horses come tromping by... 

 

 

    

This was Eli's first Savannah St. Paddy's parade and I was so excited to share it with him.  Looking forward to many years to come!

 

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King Cake

Mardi Gras is tomorrow!

I get a kick out of learning about other cultures through holidays and food.  When I worked at a public library, I used to thumb through the big reference book Folklore of World Holidays to come up with an excuse (and a theme) for treats to share with staff in the break room.  Now that Eli is old enough to be my "partner in crime" for such shenanigans, I've had fun tracking down picture books that explain holidays and recipes to go with them.  Last month I found Timothy Hubble and the King Cake Party by Anita C. Pireto and Mimi's First Mardi Gras by Alice Couvillon and Elizabeth Moore.  Dull and chilly February is a great time to host a king cake party!

I was tempted to do a real party and enjoy having lots of buddies over, but I was a little daunted by the recipe for king cake.  It has quite a few steps and if you over-bake it even slightly, it gets too dry.  This year we hosted just a small group of regular buddies to come be our king cake guinea pigs.  Our first step was to share the two picture books in advance with them so the kids would understand what a king cake party is all about.  

On the morning of our party, Eli helped me get the yeast going.  While he was at school, I kept my kitchen timer close at hand so I could keep track of when to punch down the dough and then when to make it into an oval rope to slide into the oven.  It was actually easy.

  

Time-wise it was a squeak, but I sprinkled on the last bit of colored sugar just before heading to pick Eli up from school.  It turned out well!  I wish I'd been able to find liquid purple food coloring, though.  Mixing blue and red made for a fairly somber shade.  

 

The kids didn't mind the dusky color.  They were just happy for homebaked treats.  And since they had already learned that a king cake contains a bead, bean, or tiny plastic baby as a prize, everybody's first action was to poke a finger in to search... 

      

  

Ta dah!  Usually the baby in your piece of king cake means you get to host the next party.  Just before serving, though, we slid sneaky little babies into the bottom of each slice so every kid would get one.  (Party stores usually carry tiny plastic babies in the baby shower section.)

 

As the preschooler party silliness commenced, babies were used as icing spoons...

 

Babies went swimming in chocolate milk...

 

Why, those goofy Mardi Gras babies even did wild rumpus dances!

  

A good time was had by all!

 

One Mama's Two Cents:
The king cake was easier to bake than I thought, so hopefully we'll expand our party next year.  I'll purchase brighter liquid purple food color on the web so our sugars shine a bit better.  (Ugh.  I try to steer clear of food coloring, but sometimes you just gotta use a little.  All things in moderation.)  The cake is fairly messy because of the sugar sprinkled over the top, so an outdoor party may be best for younger kiddos.  If you do your own party, let the kids know in advance that king cake is really more like cinnamon bread with glaze rather than the type of cake they get at birthday parties so nobody is disappointed.  We told our friends beforehand, but some of the kids were still a little taken aback.  However, most of them soon licked their plates clean!

I used a recipe I found in Louisiana Cookin' magazine (vol. 17, issue 1, Jan/Feb. 2014), but I doubled the cinnamon for a little more warm flavor.  
A comparable recipe can be found at Allrecipes.com.  (Click HERE.)  I discovered that there are mixes for king cake and many local bakeries produce them for the Fat Tuesday.  Although it is too late for 2014, mail order king cake is also a possibility.  My magazine listed the top king cakes bakers in Louisiana and several deliver -- Ambrosia Bakery, Gambino's Bakery, Haydel's Bakery, and Manny Randazzo King Cakes.
 

 

          

              

 

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Circle of Life Day Part II

It's getting to be like a Disney film around here -- animals galore.  (Click HERE for yesterday's post about a doe, a rabbit, and a fox.)  Except the fat gray squirrel shuffling around the yard under my office window isn't wearing a dapper hat.  (No shirt either.  Why do Disney animals often wear shirts without pants anyway?  Weird.)  If that squirrel was like a mouse out of Cinderella, I might get some help proofreading this manuscript or even tackling the kitchen floor where Eli spilled jam on it this morning.  Sigh.

But I digress...

For weeks now we've been avoiding the front door because an Eastern Phoebe built a nest on one of the porch columns.  Even walking past the front window meant the blur of an upset bird winging away as quickly as possible.

 

Mama Bird will sit on the edge of the gutter, giving you a stink-eyed look.  Chirp!  Go away!

 

Papa Bird has his lookout on the other side of the walkway.  He never looks as irked as Mama Bird does, but he's a lot more vocal.  Go away!  Go away!  Go away!

 

Today I saw Mama Bird zooming in with her beak full.  Sure enough, something fuzzy rose up in the nest when she approached.  Hatched!

 

I know there is definitely one baby bird, but I can't tell if there are more.  I'm just going to leave them alone.  After they clear out, I can go count eggshells. 

 

General Disclaimer:  Yup, the house is in need of pressure washing -- especially after all the nest-building. 

 

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Mother's Day Tea

Eli's class at school hosted an amazing Mother's Day Tea.  The kids sang songs about mamas and then got to serve their mothers tea complete with snowy tablecloths, cloth napkins, and real china.  They were so proud!

Each child got to choose foods to put on their mother's plate.  Eli chose fruit, a chocolately brownie, and tiny heart sandwiches for me.  Good boy!

 

 

 

After tea, the kids gave their mothers handmade cards.  The front of Eli's card has a white paper hand cutout holding flowers made of cupcake liners and buttons.

 

Eli's teacher used a photo of each kid along with handprints, star sequins, and beads to create a pictures of the children as angels.  She centered each one on a quilt square she sewed herself.  (Yes, she sewed twenty two of these!)  Eli's square is blue and his fabric has a sea motif (lighthouses, sailboats, and water).  I love it!

 

It was a wonderful Mother's Day celebration.  My eyes were not dry through the whole thing, I have to admit.

When I was little I thought mamas loved homemade gifts.  When I got older, I thought perhaps mamas were just being diplomatic about such clunky offerings.  It turns out that younger me was definitely right.  I adore Eli's crafts and creations, especially offered up with an enthusiastic smooch.

And I love being Eli's mama. 

Mysterious May

 

All winter long, the mature woods of North Georgia are open and clear.  The sun shines all the way down to the forest floor, falling through the bare limbs.  If there are fairies, they've had to don browns and grays just to get by.  They skulk along the tree roots and travel in the cover of hollow logs.  March comes and they take to the weedy edges of meadows.  I can imagine in April, the fairies squint up at the tiny, wrinkled, yellowgreen leaves and whisper, "Almost."  Then comes May.  The leaves grow and spread, turning dark green.  The woods have shadowy spaces again.  The damp, green smell returns and the forest once again seems dark and deep.  The fairies are now free to move about at will.  Last week when we were out hiking with friends, it seemed like we would see fairies if we just turned around fast enough.

 

 

 

 

 

See?  Fairies!

 

 This post is linked to The Magic Onions website's Friday Nature Table as well as Creative Friday on Natural Suburbia.

 

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