The Caitlyn Files, Episode 5

The girls are home from school today because of snow. So, Caitlyn decided she wanted to do this now rather than waiting for the weekend. (And I guess between President Hinkley's funeral and a baptism we're going to in the afternoon, it's probably a good thing.)
Babymouse a sassy young mouse... ...with a giant attitude problem.
Would you like to hear the critics? I take it as one of my favorite books. - Caitlyn. Her friend Wilson had been friends since kinderarten.She dreams of Queen Of the World!!
So can she get Felicia Furrypaws uncrowned ? Find out in the best book in the word!!

They are really funny and they remind me of comic books. I liked them really much and if any one trys it they're a life time good books.

What State Do We Live in Again?

Guess what I heard Megan playing last night?


Funny, huh?

(Go blue!)

The Great Chocolate Cake Quest #2

This was a debacle.

I got the recipes from Perfect Cakes, by Nick Malgieri . It's a beautiful book, but I have to say I'm underwhelmed by the chocolate cake recipe. It was good, but really moist. So moist, it fell apart on the cooling rack (stuck to it). I don't know if it was something I did, or something inherent to the recipe.

Then I ran into ganache problems. First thing I learned is that you can not make ganache an hour before serving a cake. Last time, I made the ganache the day before, and then warmed it slightly to spreading consistency. It worked so much better. This time it was chocolate soup on the cake.




Second thing we learned: while bitter chocolate ganache was too bitter, milk chocolate ganache was too sweet. I think the best ganache will be some sort of combination of the two; it's just a matter of figuring out what that combination is.

So, while the first taste got a thumbs up,


No one finished a piece, Russell didn't even have one, and we threw out more than half the cake.

That's why I'm working on this 2 months before Caitlyn's birthday!

The Caitlyn Files: Episode 4

We forgot to do this yesterday. Ack. Maybe because it was 60 degrees out? So her she is.

I had my friend Meridith over to play and to sleepover.When she came we went straight to my bed and started to play a game we started at school. Then we wached Hook hafe way through we got bored so we went up stairs to play are game and to make a comic book . Soon my parents were done with the potibel DVD player and soon it was 12:00 but we still where waching Peter Pan ,Princess Diaries 2 , The Princess Bride , and Matilda. Then we went to sleep around 3:30 . We had eggs. Then me and Meridith dicied have a presadent of the Dolls in the house Kit agenced Samatha. Kit got 3 and Samatha got 4. Then Meridith and me asked if we could make something in the kitchen. Me and Meridith tried so hard to folow the resipe but it still terd out good . We made 14 pretzels. Then we put powder suger and honey on them. I diced to give some to Meridith's family. It was the funest sleepover ever!!!!!!!!!!

Who Let the Cat Out?

We did, actually.

She liked being outside. She didn't like the leash so much.

More of that Smilebox stuff

We got creative with the camera again. I'm having WAY too much fun with this. :P

Make a postcard - it's easy!

Kristen's Friends

We realized that we hadn't told y'all about Kristen's friends. Here they are, "Meow" and "Woof":


She loves them very much.

Wasting Time

We're bored today. REALLY bored. We tried to jazz things up by making a slideshow... hope you like it.

Make a slideshow - it's easy!

The Caitlyn Files: Episode 3

Not needing any introduction this time:


Okay I'm going write a story that I wanted to tell my friends but my friends didn't sound interested.
Moose & Kangaroo.
One cloudy warm summer day, James T. Moose was taking his afternoon stroll when he walked right into Kelly Q. Kangaroo who was in his normal path. " Madum," Moose said " please get out of my way." "But Sir." Kangaroo protested "I'm WAITING for the BUS!!!!!" "Well then Miss you couldn't come with me on a picnic tomarrow. I'm sure you don't want to go sence you have to ride the bus. Good Bye!" The next day came Kangaroo got ceroge ( sometimes Kangaroo is shy.) to say to Moose " Sir. you have shown no care. You are a rottten egg!! Good Bye!!! (HUMPH!!) You know this could go on for days. Well it didn't. Moose and Kangaroo got along qite nicely they acshuly became friends.
The End
P.S. 3 years later Moose perposeed and they got married.

New Chores

We decided that Alison needed more chores (I tried to make it sound fun...) and so we gave her the opportunity to put away the utensils in the morning. She's very excited by that, volunteering to do it every day (not just on the weekdays!).


Since that was Caitlyn's job for the last four years, she needed something to do... so she got Megan's job of putting away the dishes. She's excited by that, too.


As for Megan, she was put in charge of the cat: feeding and liter box cleaning. She's not so excited by that, and requested that I not take her picture cleaning out the litter box. Ah, well.

H is for Hilarious

So, for FHE last night, we played Orange Polo. You take pantyhose, cut them in half, put an orange in, tie it around your waist and try to hit a ball with it. No hands, no kicking. It was very funny.

The Great Chocolate Cake Quest #1

I'm searching for a chocolate cake recipe (from scratch!) and ganache recipe that will end up like this for Caitlyn's birthday:


I found this recipe from Epicurious.com. I didn't take pictures of the whole process. It crumbled a bit as I took it out of the pans, but held up well after being refrigerated overnight.

It ended up being edible (good for me!) and dense, but not terribly moist or flavorful (the recipe called for espresso powder, which I didn't add. I wonder if that made a difference?)

The ganache was 10 ounces bittersweet chocolate to 1 1/4 cup heavy cream. (Here it is, waiting to go on the cake):

It turned out a bit bitter for Caitlyn's taste.


The cake, after frosting:

And cut:


The first bite:

It too rich for everyone's taste (not one finished their piece; they all said they got too much!).

We'll try again with a different recipe in a few weeks. (Any ideas where to find a good dense, moist chocolate cake recipe?)

The Caitlyn Files: Episode 2

It's been a really slow week around here. Might as wll let Caitlyn take over.
I hope you like poetry.
Math Poems
Times tabels Hour hands
2 x 4,What thing could you ask more? 7:00 ?5:23? Whatever can the time be? Mabey it's hafe past 3?
What Q: could you ask more Hafe past 3? No ,No, No, it can't be hafe past 3. It's 3:00, you see.
than 2 x4. Max. Min. Mode.
Max? Max or maximum.
Oh 4 then the minny nunber is 1. No 1 is 1 ton. 4 is 4 tons. Mode oh you mean moode I'm in a bad moode because Igot a F- on this test.

hope you likedthe poems bye!!!

The Caitlyn Files: Episode 1

We're starting a new feature around here. Megan started a blog page, and Caitlyn wanted a space to call her own, too. So, I said she could, once a week, ramble here.

Here she is:
I 'm going to write a legend. The LEGEND of O'Nealia. How O'Nealia got to be a country on the coast of Caitlyn wold. 1,257 YEARS ago O'Nealia had not belonged to me, it had belonged to Asia. Asia was very cruel to O'Nealia. So one day I bought O'Nealia for 9,099 gp. They SO took it from me. Me and my family became very popular and very rich. Asia is now our definite enemy. But at least O'Nealia is safe and now my family is the national symbol for O'Nealia's country birthday. Hope you liked my story! Bye!

Budding Architects

Caitlyn read the latest Magic Tree House book, Monday With a Mad Genius, and got inspired to make her own "dim litted bridge".

She had made a whole village, but the evil Catzilla got it before we could take a picture of it.

She did help Alison build a "animal and princess" castle, though.

Happy New Years

No picture of the girls banging pots this year (we all miss the potato); Mom and Dad were at an adult-only party (our first in ages!), and the big girls slept over at the Kitchens. But we do have some pictures of our party on New Year's Day. Interestingly, none of them were of our kids. :)

Sarah and me as the Greater and Lesser Dalmuti (the kids -- we had about 9 of us playing -- insisted upon hats).


And the Lesser and Greater Peon hats. (That's the bishop there in the middle.)


Playing Killer Bunnies. Unfortunately, we still haven't found any converts to the game. Most people just think it's utterly ridiculous and confusing.

Russell's Birthday

I'm a bit behind, if you can't tell.

There are more pictures over at Flickr.