The Weekend Review

I totally gained stepmom points on Friday when Ke'ano was having trouble achieving 'emo' hair and quite frustrated before school in the morning. He had been planning on getting his emo style on for school and couldn't get his curly hair to cooperate. Enter me and my flat iron skills. I got the bangs to nicely slant over his eye as requested. He now can't wait to purchase his own slip on vans and tight black pants. We put our foot down on wearing black eyeliner...
Ale asked me to make him a hat in the afternoon. I wasn't quite sure what to do or use and then came up with this fun solution:
Saturday involved a fun outing to Fontucky where David competed in his first bike race in nearly two years. Ale couldn't wait to get there so he could eat...big shocker there.
David finished ninth in his category. Not bad for two years off and one bout of Pneumonia six weeks ago. This is him on his way to the finish line:
David's little brother and Ke'ano's life long friend has been staying with us since Friday. He and Ke'ano supplied David's water during the race since I didn't get out there until it had already started.
David's friend Edwin also competed in a different category. He didn't fall at all and only threw up once!
I went to a friend's blessing way at night and when I came back David had set the tent up in the backyard for the boys. Some things just scream SUMMERTIME and backyard camping has got to be one of them.

They loved it and stayed out all night long. I'm sure this is going to become the new standard for their sleepovers.

The big radish reveal day arrived. We planted, we waited the allotted days til harvest. The radish was planted instead of bean. Remember that? I was skeptical about there being a plump radish at the end of the plant but it was time.
Ale wrapped his little fingers around the plant and pulled up.
Very disappointing to say the least. Ale didn't seem to mind. Probably because he didn't know what to expect.
I love the little treasures he gives me. This was one of them that he insisted I hold.

We have managed to begin an art lesson coop with some friends. It was rather an accident but a good one! There are four families: 8 boys and 2 babies. We had someone instructing the boys once a month initially--a former animator but that fell through for various reasons so we decided to compensate and each take a turn hosting once a week. Yesterday was our turn. There were only four of us because everyone else was sick. Since I enjoy painting with acrylics and had all the supplies that is what we did. I very quickly showed the kids how to mix their primary colors to make all the other colors and then just let them go to town.
They were into it for all of 10 minutes and then we came in for snacks which included more homemade chocolate chip ice cream.

I've been feeling very crafty lately and have been on a roll the last week or so feeling inspired to do things with my hands. It's been fun including Ale in much of it as well. I bought a pad of Large newsprint from the art store and Ale has loved getting to draw on such big paper.
What do you think? Is he going to be a lefty?

I just finished this book last week. I highly recommend reading it.

On the subject of food, I made my own baguettes this week. While I've made them before and enjoyed the result I have found them to be labor intensive and came to the conclusion that I'd rather pay $2.50 at a quality bakery for one fresh out of the oven. Perhaps if I own a kitchenaid mixer with dough hooks someday I'll start making it by hand again.

Anyway, I have fallen in love with my bread machine. That is another post altogether. I decided to try making the dough in the machine and then rolling the baguettes myself. They came out great!
They look a bit funny on top because I don't have a scoring knife and used a regular one only I was afraid to cut too deeply. (Peter Reinhart drilled that into me while reading his book The Bread Baker's Apprentice, another fabulous cookbook.)

We ate them fresh out of the oven with a Cauliflower Cheddar soup and topped them with raw, fresh, local honey we picked up today at the farmer's market.
Food (and I use the term loosely) is getting creepier by the moment. I came across this product at the store a couple weeks ago:

That's right, pancake batter in a whip cream can (because it's way too hard to put flour water and sugar in a mixing bowl). It's even organic for the health conscious! If you are so inclined you can check out the demo video here.

Pollan warns in his book that it is only a matter of time before coke releases a vitamin fortified soda.

My girlfriend and I were talking about this the other day and realizing that it likely won't be long before we have organic high fructose corn syrup and crisco.

Here's another stellar product featured on the Daily Show not too long ago:

Bacon Flavored mayo anyone?

I came home from running early yesterday morning to find Yeva hanging out with David in the garage where he was using the trainer. Apparently he couldn't find a hat for her....
We made a trip to Dick Blick yesterday and bought a few art supplies. We are going to attempt to turn the garage into a large creative space for everyone...one of these days.

Ale and I decided to paint rocks in the afternoon.
Two of the chicks joined us outside. They kept running into my lap.
Yeva was there too.

Thursday entailed a visit to Travel Town with our good friends which included 10 boys and Yeva. We spent the morning climbing on old trains and playing on tracks.
A very cool, free place to visit in L.A.

This is Miles, Ale's best buddy, who is only a few days older. They love and fight like brothers...

A Monumental Day with Chicks and Mozzarella

So I've been wanting to try my hand at making mozzarella for a while. My sister got me a gift certificate which I used to purchase a mozzarella making kit. I made it this afternoon. It was incredibly easy taking less than 30 minutes to make.

We bought a fresh baguette from Panera and had a delicious dinner of bread, cheese, bruschetta and wine.

I've wanted chickens for five years. I even purchased a video four years ago about raising chickens in L.A. It was as low budget and informational as any video could be. However, I never bought chickens unsure of what to do with them or how much work they'd be.

So yesterday I start talking about wanting chickens again (actually, this is a frequent conversation in our home). David gets really excited all of the sudden and hell bent on going to look at some. Because of the season all the babies have just hatched within the last few weeks. We went to Steve's Pets a local store here in Altadena. I held a chick and Ale got to pet her. The young kid working said he'd had chickens on and off for years. He made it all sound so simple...David, a little more adventurous and bit more impulsive said, "Let's buy some!" They had a sign saying a minimum of 3 chicks had to be purchased. I had only wanted two for the sake of not wanting to kill anything and the fewer I have the fewer I could potentially kill. David grew up with chickens in El Salvador. On our way home he became all sentimental as he remembered his grandmother and her chickens. We stopped at the library to jack some free newspapers for bedding and headed home. David rigged up the heat lamp into a large rubbermaid container and got it all ready. Meanwhile, Ale and I played with the chicks.

Each Chick was $3.99. The 25lb bag of feed was $10.00 and the heat lamp was $12.00. We made it out the door for under $40.00. We could buy high quality organic free range pastured eggs from whole foods for a few weeks with that money but this is about process and teaching the kids where food comes from and how food should be raised and treated.

I am very excited about our new project!

The kiddies looked cute today so I tried to take a picture...Yeva wasn't having it as you can see.


So I tried again with little luck.


Then after a little consoling...


and finally this


After a trip to Ikea to buy plastic kid dishes (something I vowed I'd never do until I realized it was more cost effective than paper plates when I have large groups of kids over) Ale and I made vanilla ice cream:


Because David and I decided to have a date at home tonight and I was going to make apple crisp and home made ice cream just sounded too good to pass up...

Ke'ano learned to ride a bike this past Christmas. David, bike snob that he is, did not approve of Ke'ano's Wal-Mart Mongoose. And, truth be told it was a cheap bike with brakes that did not function right. Last week Ke'ano finally joined the ranks of real mountain bikers and got his first smokin red Specialized. When he was testing it out in the bike shop parking lot he flew forward and off the bike the first time he used the brakes...He wasn't used to a bike that worked!
Learning to ride a bike has done wonders for Ke'ano in terms of confidence and independence. He now rides to school and goes on his own solo rides into the Los Angeles forest by JPL. Sports and athleticism do not come easily to Ke'ano so it has been very refreshing to have him discover something he enjoys and can do on his own. Of course David is thrilled to be able to share his love of mountain biking with him. He is already planning their first descent down Mt. Wilson in the very near future.

The Mama Date

Ale has been great since Yeva's birth. Only recently has he started 'acting up' at times. It could be the age or it could be the fact that he shares the spotlight with his little sister now. While it hasn't been difficult having another little one, Ale and I obviously don't have the time we used to together. I've been feeling that I've been needing to spend a little one on one intentional time with him lately. So we took off this afternoon for what I hope will be the first of many mama dates.

He fell asleep before we got anywhere! Of course he is very selective about his naps these days so the combination of no nap, hot chocolate and a lulling car ride put him right to sleep.

We were just going to go to the park per his request but I though it might be fun to do something a little out of the ordinary just this once. We've been walking up to the stables by our house recently to watch the horses so I thought I'd see if he wanted to try riding a horse. We went to the pony rides at Griffith Park.
He loved it and started to cry when it was over. I think next time I'll put him on the *real* horse ride next to this one.
First time with cotton candy after the pony ride then on to the grocery store and home for dinner.
I love my little boy.........

With my new found interest of Yurt living we drove out to Tree People to check out the yurts they have on the premises.

When we got there we were disappointed to to find "New Yurt City" closed. All we could do was look through the fence. We will have to go back during business hours. The grounds, located in the Santa Monica Mountains, are gorgeous with lots of trails through the woods.

Ke'ano and Yeva

The Drummer Boy