Bagels

I decided to make whole wheat bagels tonight, and according to Jimmy, they're excellent! But I can't really trust Jimmy's taste buds right now as he's on this diet where he eats, like, two grams of turkey and a stalk of asparagus six times a day. So ANYTHING I've made lately that he takes one bite of to try, "SO GOOD! YOU COULD SELL THIS! I'M SERIOUS!" he says.

I'm on day three of a detox/fresh juice fast, so I haven't been taste-testing at all. I haven't done one since Owen was two, so it's a bit more difficult now that I have six mouths to cook for. And for some reason, even though I can only drink fresh juice, I've been wanting to bake like crazy - yesterday I made two batches of chocolate chocolate chip cookies for my neighbors, and today I made homemade chocolate chip granola bars and bagels. Jimmy is wondering why I'm torturing him so... :)

I'm not the smartest girl on the block....

.... but how hard is it to make a zip-line and slide down it? We never got it to work.

For Below-Sea-Level Ammye...

The last four pictures were all taken from our back deck.

Happy 8th Birthday, Owen!

I'll admit, when we lived in Houston for most birthdays I'd buy a Baskin Robbins ice cream cake. Every time I bought one I thought to myself how it was too expensive and a waste of money, but what can I say... I love their ice cream cakes!

Well, since we moved to Colorado in a somewhat remote area, it's just not as convenient to run to the store to buy a cake. So I finally got my act together and started making the kids' cakes. It's very difficult to make a cake that won't sink at 9200 feet, but they've turned out okay.

Of course this year Owen wanted me to write Star Wars on his cake. Not only write Star Wars, but make the lettering the same as their trademark lettering. Luckily I have a very artistic husband. He did a great job!

It's a bit unnerving...

..... when my husband is two stories up on a ladder! Our house was not put together well - cold air is leaking in everywhere - so he is trying to caulk every single nook and cranny to remedy the problem. Would you believe he wore the above Batman hat almost every day this winter, INSIDE OUR HOUSE? Yes indeed, he is from the South...