Bath Boy

Up until now, Simon has bathed either in a small tub, the sink, or in the big tub with Mommy. This week, he had his first solo bath (closely supervised, of course). Okay, so maybe it's not exactly a rite of passage, but Simon sure had a great time. He kept crawling from one end of the tub to the other, shrieking with delight. Guess the boy likes to have his space!

Blessed are the Cheesemakers

Last Friday we decided we were going to learn to make our own cheese. This is part of what I hope will be kind of a series of learning experiments. First they taught me all about making jam. This time cheese! I know, I know. You're probably asking yourself: "who the heck decides to make their own cheese?" What can I say? We're creative women up for a challenge.We were working with a cheesemaking kit that made things relatively simple. There was a booklet (with hilarious illustrations, like a goat in a graduation cap & gown) with recipes. We chose 30 minute mozzarella. It seemed straightforward enough. You start with a gallon of milk, add some citric acid and some rennet (a cheesemaking enzyme), separate curds from whey and voila! Cheese! Some of us were less optimistic than others, as evidenced by this photo of Ingrid:
So, we begin! Here we are warming the milk to a cozy 90 degrees. So far so good!
In this photo, the curds are starting to separate from the whey. We were instructed to slice the top curd into little cubes. (Insert your own "cut the cheese" joke here).
Now the mixture is sort of like soupy, lumpy yogurt. Are we really going to get cheese from this stuff? At this point, I have to admit I was having my doubts. Also, might I add, this is the point where the cheese-to-be started smelling less than appetizing.
In this photo the cheese had progressed to a new level. See what it looks like? It smells the same way.
Here the cheese has reached the point where we separated out the curds with a slotted spoon. It's ready for the next phase! We poured most of the mixture through some cheesecloth (who knew?) to separate everything. I wasn't sorry to see the whey go down the drain. Siobhan pointed out that some folks like to use whey when they make pizza dough. She even initially was trying to save it. But I think her sense of smell and gag reflex made her change her mind. Bleh!

After separating the curds, we had to heat them in the microwave a couple times, and then pull them like taffy. The recipe book suggested wearing rubber gloves to protect you from the heat. The ones we wore didn't help much. Though they did give our cheese a nice balloon-flavored aftertaste. Tres gourmet!
Here is the finished product - our cheese blob. After this point, we rolled them into string cheese type logs and chilled them.
Cassie tries the finished product. She looks happy, but after we took this photo she stated rather adamantly that she would not eat the latex flavored cheese and threw hers away. Can't say I blame her.
So, for our first try, I think it went rather well. I mean, other than the fact the cheese wasn't exactly palatable. It was still cool to go through the process and see everything come together!

He cracks me up

Simon is closing in on his first birthday. I can't believe it. He's such a big boy. And look at how much lighter his hair is now. It's definitely not the platinum blond that Joey and Kristin have, but I'd still call it "blond." He's such a smiley little guy.
And he still scrunches up his nose when he laughs. I love it. I know it doesn't necessarily make the cutest picture, but it still cracks me up! He's also doing this thing now where he'll scrunch up his nose an snort in and out a bunch of times. It makes me laugh, which makes him laugh and want to do it again. Kids are such great entertainment.

Mud!

The weather's been hot, so the kids said they wanted to run through the sprinkler in the back yard. When I went to check on them, I found that they weren't using a sprinkler - they were using the nozzle we use to water the lawn (not that we've done so much of that lately, since we need to plant some grass seed). They'd made a nice little mud hole and were joyfully jumping in the puddle.
That devolved into the two of them throwing mud at each other. They weren't being mean about it. They were having a great time. Joey's aim was a lot better than Kristin's, though. He hardly had any mud on him. It was another story with Kristin.
But she didn't seem too upset about it.

Alphabet Blocks

The other day we were over at my mom's house, and the kids started playing with alphabet blocks. They were spelling their names, and playing so nicely. So I took a photo:Then I looked a little closer and noticed that in the photo above, he'd spelled out the phrase "use an adverb." We're a house of nerds, and I love it.

Candid

Sometimes when you're trying to take a nice photo, you give kids directions like "try not to squint so much" or "instead of a big cheesy smile, why don't you just give me a normal smile?" It's just an exercise in futility.

Mother's Day Surprise

About a week before Mother's Day, Kristin started talking about how they were making a special surprise. She was very excited about the project. The last day before Mother's Day was one of the rare times I was able to pick Kristin up from school. Normally I'm working, but I was home that week because I still had flu symptoms. Kristin was so excited to see me, and so excited to give me this beautiful Mother's Day gift: a special cupcake in a box she'd decorated herself.


I wish I'd been able to get a picture of the box before she opened it for me, because it was tied with a really pretty rainbow ribbon. She was so proud of her creation! Awww....Happy Mother's Day to me!