What a wonderful, wonderful week it has been!!

sister love and palm trees	sparkles and Hello Kitty are a match made in toddler heaven
Polliwog Park and Manhattan Beach in general are my new favorite places
after five months of having a pool, none of us can imagine not having one & the same is true for these palm trees
white peaches and cluster tomatoes at the Torrance farmer’s market
loot from this Saturday’s farmer’s market	homemade vegan dragon fruit ice cream

What a fun week!! It started out sadly though – my most treasured pie plate (and of course the only one I brought with me) smashed to the floor with a beautiful chicken pot pie in it. I am not a crier and I swear I almost shed a tear over this. It was about 40 years old, snagged from a friend who brought it to my house in Toronto about 5 years ago with a peanut butter cup cake in it. The nostalgic part of this story is that the cake she brought was her entry into our annual bake off for my sister’s birthday and she lost but about a year later we found out the entry that beat her was a store bought cheat!. I lifted my spirits with these cinnamon buns though. Then I made my very first Battenberg Cake for Daring Bakers, it was hard but totally worth it!

Also:

-We have a Stone Cold Creamery across the street and it’s become a weekly treat for the kids to get a small bowl and I am uber proud of myself that I haven’t caved in over a month!
-Strawberry cake makes me extremely happy and yes I snack on strawberries while I bake it!
-Nothing is more fun than a random tutu!
-We went to the pool every weekday this week and man were the kids happy about that (I’ve never been so tan in my whole life)
-Butter Tarts for Canada Day
-Canada Day dinner of Peameal Bacon on a Kaiser with Poutine and a Moosehead

This post title does not at all describe what I’ve added to the site today, just what’s keeping me from adding more. Whenever my amazing, wonderful yarn-spree-paying-for husband buys me heaps of yarn, all I want to do is knit it up. We have been buying from Knit Picks a lot lately, not just because their prices are very reasonable (though they really are) but because their shipping isn’t painful. Ordering the same types of yarn from other shops will run us twice as much! Now that the wee ones have three other wee ones next door to play with everyday, I plunk down on the patio and watch all six of them run and chase each other and throw their little heads back in laughter and make delicious memories. Wee One #2 is the only one to have a new playmate her exact age and man, do they get along well. Instant besties, it’s the sweetest thing. The oldest kids are just a year apart and have created a series of videos for their new You Tube channel. Yup, that’s what I said. My favorite is when the neighbor kids stay for supper and we fill both kid-sized picnic tables, it’s soooooo cute to have half a dozen kids running around. I know, I know, that’s crazy. Don’t worry, I will probably not be having another three kids. Probably. I am still the weird neighbor that brings baked goods next door almost everyday – except now my next door neighbor totally gets it and so far likes everything I’ve made for them. Score. Anyhoo….

We’ve also checked out the park and we’ve gone swimming at the dock a few times. I have to admit though that I miss walking for an afternoon swim in the lake by our old place. There were often pretty decent waves on the lake, which was fun for so many reasons and the sand bar was sweet too. However, being able to go for a swim whenever is rad – dock or lake. 🙂

I added two posts today, one in Crafty and one in Healthy, though as I have noted before I am aware that most of the recipes in that section should be dubbed healthier, and not necessarily healthy. Ahem. I’m getting through the backlog of things to post. I should be totally up to date in less than a month! I’ll be posting Halloweeny stuff on time! Hooray!

These were silly and fun to make for the last day of school for Wee One #1’s class. He just finished grade 5, so it had to be something fun but not too cute. They’re one of those projects that’s done in 20 minutes and only requires a few supplies. These are literally Rolo sleeves wrapped in construction paper.

This is Jessica Seinfeld’s Deceptively Delicious version of Italian Meatloaf. It’s made with spiced breadcrumbs, lean ground turkey, carrot puree and turkey bacon (among other things). It was just meh but I think if I took out the extra liquid and just left the carrot puree it would hold together a lot better. Or maybe adding some ground oatmeal? We’ll see if I even re-do this one again. This book has had enough winners for me already as it is and this was the 13th recipe I made from it.

I also remembered to take photos of the kitchen to show you, so I’ll get on some pictures of the pantry and talk about that tomorrow!