Buttercream Butter Dream

Creamy dreamy buttercream. Oh, my lovely butter dream. Everything tastes better with butter. Everything tastes better with cream. And if you disagree, you're probably just trying to convince yourself because of the guilt-potential. :-P

I made buttercream frosting for the first time today. It's 228 calories per serving, but they're super dee duper delicious calories! Is it totally crazy to eat veggies for every meal just so I can eat buttercream frosting? Umm yeah.

The buttercream adventure began with my disatisfaction with Oatmeal Cream Pies. Plastic comes to mind when eating them. Plastic and sugar.  so when the whole box was gone, I decided to invent my own non-industrial version.

First, I made oatmeal chocolate raisen cookies. They didn't come out as flat as I wanted, so a little more experimenting is needed. Oh darn. ;-)

Next came the buttercream frosting to be sandwhiched between two cookies.

I found an amazingly simple and noisy recipe. One stick of butter {mmmmmmmm}, 2 cups powdered sugar {10X sugar is what the hardcore buttercreamists call it}, a bit of vanilla, 2 tbsp. of milk. Using a noisy mixer, cream {fancy word for mix} the butter, then slowly add the sugar, next the vanilla and milk, and voila! Buttercream that will make you use the word "buttercream" in every song....if you're lyricists like my crazy family pretend to be.

My hubby is playing the guitar and singing these lyrics with Aurora as I type. Here are a few gems:

"I like it....on my cake
  I like it....on my steak

  I will eat it....with a carrot
  I might even....share it

  Ohhhhh I like buttercream,
  I like buttercream."

And the lyrics go on and on and on in Dr. Seuss style.

Needless to say, buttercream frosting will be made on a semi-regular basis in this house...

{I secretly saved a cookie sandwich to take a picture of, which is coming soon!}

Big Girl Blues

Why does anything good have to end? There's less than two weeks left until she goes to a new school, and she has no idea how much she's going to miss her first school, her first best friend, and the amazing teachers she grew so close to.

My baby--no, my "big girl"--is graduated from preschool. Yes, there was a graduation commemorating her completion of k-4. She even wore a cap and gown...no joke. :-)

It's wonderful and dreadful at the same time. She's thriving and moving on to more advanced work, but with that comes more stress and less fun. There is so much expected of kids in kindergarten. Kindergarten is the new first grade, and that means more responsibility. It's funny how kids want to grow up so badly. They admire teenagers, pretend to be adults, and yet they have no idea, NO IDEA how much work it is being "mature".

Aurora's first school, Stage Door Preschool of the Arts, is the creme de la creme of preschools as far as I'm concerned. I feel silly even saying such a thing :-P But they are impressive!

They provide such a rich environment for students to express themselves in many ways: dancing, drawing, painting, coloring, music, and they even have a special Spanish class. And to top it off, they're rated 198 out of 200 in preparing children for Kindergarten. Go Stage Door!

From the first day, Aurora had a best friend. Lilia. What a cutie. And they're so much alike. After one conversation, Lilia's mom and I discovered they even sass in the same way. They love each other so much. It's hard for me to think of them not going to the same school this fall. Look at these adorable partners in crime....



It's hard to let go of my little girl and let her grow up, but I'm proud of the changes she makes ever day. I'm so blessed to watch this amazing little human being evolve into a strong and self-sufficient young lady. This year is sure to be full of major changes! Most of all, I am looking forward to the advancement in her reading skills. Because once one can read anything, the possibilities are limitless!

xo

jbnewcomb<3

My Leo Lover

She spent weeks crafting him present after present. The moment she awoke on the big day, she went to work on wrapping up her works of art. Finished, she helped me make him breakfast, complete with his favorite flaky rolls.

"Happy Birthday, Daddy! Time to get up! Breakfast is ready!" Aurora announced as she jumped on top of her sleeping Daddy. He wrapped his arms around her, and I fell into their love pile to take part in the birthday wake-up call. Jason was simply happy. The love was palpable. And there's nothing that means more to me than seeing my loved ones happy. Especially on their birthday! :-)

Birthday celebrations are one of my favorite events. Of course nothing can take the place of weddings in my heart, but birthdays are a close second. Love! Cake! Presents! Birthdays and weddings have it all. But one thing birthdays have over weddings is that we get one every year! {I'd love to be able to afford a full-on wedding every year!} Jason's birthday this year was made oh so special.

The morning went swimmingly! Jason was so impressed with Aurora's homemade presents. Among them was an incredibly detailed Chinese Dragon. I've seen our daughter produce amazing works of art, but this was in a whole other league! She'd perfectly cut out an orange dragon, bejeweled it with glass stones, and drew a beautiful, realistic face. It was superb! Besides being an exquisite piece, Jason looooves Asian art!

Jason also loves attention. Of course he would. He's a Leo! AND his birthday is the 1st of the month. I love attention, too, but I also love to make my loved ones feel like the center of my world. And my world is blessed with a man with many wonderful qualities. He's strong-willed, ambitious, and outgoing. All of those intense qualities are balanced out by his extraordinary, intuitive sensitivity and his humble {sometimes too humble ;-)} nature. All that is topped off by a controversial sense of humor. His fresh perspective is always entertaining! Politics. Religion. Society. Pop culture. All taboo subjects, he lightens, hence lifting my spirits with his open-minded humor. He's my favorite comedian. My favorite lover. My favorite friend. And he can cook, too!

Happy Birthday, baby! May we get to spend dozens more together. :-x

xo
jbnewcomb<3

Boobies!

Boobies are fabulous! At least that's what my infant daughter thinks. ;-) Yesterday, we went to a nation-wide event called The Big Latch On by Le Leche. The goal was to have as many women as possible to breastfeed in public for one minute at 10:30am. We had about 70 momma and baby pairs. Woohoo! Go boobies! Here's an article by the Sarasota Herald Tribune.

There were tiny, practically newborn babies, and babies that were not-so-little babies. And then there was my fat little piglet Elena. I just loooove to breastfeed her! {Obviously! She's 18 and a half pounds and only 4 and a half months old!} It's relaxing for us both {and we sleep well together because of it}. This momma isn't losin' sleep, and all because of these glorious lady lumps on my chest!

How cool is it that we are built for this? Ready-made food for our little ones....no bottles, no sanitization, no expensive formula, no gross poopy diapers! That last one makes it totally worth it. And you might think I'm nuts {I do}, but I actually enjoy changing Elena's poopy diapers. lol Ok, I'm not some poopy sicko, I just really like mothering. I enjoy all aspects of taking care of my baby. Oh wait...there's one thing I haven't appreciated this time around...vommit all over my bed! lol But let's not delve too far into that subject!

Watching all of these beautiful mothers breastfeeding inspired me to want to photograph mommies feeding their babies. I am SO in love with breastfeeding, that I want to celebrate it with my art. So, my next goal is to take a ton of pictures of breastfeeding mommas. Maybe I'll even create an art book. Maybe I'll title it Celebrate the Beauty of Breastfeeding. ;-)

A very cool thing is that I saw several women from my midwifery birth center Birthways. AND I got to chat with Risa Segal, a gal as beautiful as ever that I went to high school with! Her baby boy is GORGEOUS and only a half month younger than Elena! Too cool!

Alright, it's settled...I'm shootin' boobies! lol

And here's a pic of my 100% breastfed piglet...look at those arms! I just want to eat her up!

xo

jbnewcomb<3

Super Deliciousnous!

He just could stop himself. The moment the sweet deliciousness touched his tongue, he was addicted! No one thought they looked like anything special, including me. It was a simple, mostly pre-packaged recipe, but oh so freaking fabulous!

For the 4th of July, my fam went to our daughter Aurora's best friend's house. Aurora and Lilia were smitten with each other since day one of preschool, and they had a BLAST watching fireworks and playing with glow necklaces! It was Lilia's brother Ren who was smitten with the dessert we brought.

The cookies we brought were Aurora's creation. She drew a picture of what she wanted them to look like:

What a creative mind! She's simply amazing!

Here's Aurora's recipe, which is not from scratch (my favorable method, but we were limited on time)...

Ingredients

Sugar Cookie Mix (plus all the necessary additions)

Pre-made CREAM CHEESE frosting (again, I would have preferred making my own, chemistry set-free :-P )

Blueberries

Strawberries

Powdered Sugar (granulated would work too)

Directions

Follow Sugar Cookie Mix Directions

If you wish, roll out dough and cut into fun shapes. We did stars for the 4th of July!

Bake, then let cool

Place Strawberries and Blueberries in a bowl and coat lightly with sugar

Spread a thin layer (or thick, as my hubby prefers) on each cookie

Top cookies with blueberries and strawberries, and voila!

Now try this and tell me you could resist it...I think it's pretty impossible!

xo
jbnewcomb<3