Archive for April, 2011

First soccer practice

Posted in Molly, Sports on April 7th, 2011 by jen – Be the first to comment

It's time for soccer again. This year, Molly's not just doing clinics. She's on a team with practices and games. These are some shots from her first practice.

Soccer practice

She's ready to go!

Ready to go

Excuse me, Ava.

Excuse me, Ava

Molly and Simon are having fun trying to chase Coach Joe to get the ball away from him.

Get it

Our own Biggest Loser

Posted in Celebrations on April 4th, 2011 by jen – 2 Comments

Five of my friends and I competed in our own friendly Biggest Loser competition. We started January 2nd and competed for 12 weeks. We reported in to each other every 2 weeks with our percentage of weight lost, which was a great way to stay motivated. There was talk of sabotage since I was often baking treats for playdates and passing them on to my friends...I mean their kids! But several of them would fully admit to the occasional self sabotage too!

Our biggest losers

It was a nail-biter to the end, but after all the results were in, I was the big winner! I lost 15 pounds (or 10.2%, and reached my goal weight!) and was treated to a Girls Night Out at the restaurant of my choice - eating tapas at Ranazul. It was a fun evening and we've decided to continue on for another 12 weeks. So stay tuned...

Mickey Mouse Cake Pops

Posted in Food on April 3rd, 2011 by jen – 3 Comments

Molly's teachers asked parents not to bring in cake or cupcakes for birthday celebrations since preschoolers + icing = a big mess! So, in an effort to follow the rules yet still sneak in a bit of birthday cake, I made Mickey Mouse Cake Pops.

Mickey cake pops

You've never heard of cake pops, you say? It's cake mixed with icing and covered in chocolate. How can you go wrong? It's not the most healthy treat, but oh it's yummy goodness! Check out all the amazing cake pops at Bakerella.com.

If you decide to make some, here are a few tips from a rookie:

  • I melted my candy melts in a double boiler. When melted, I removed the boiler from the stove, but left the bowl of chocolate over the warmed water while dipping. This kept the chocolate warm and thin.
  • The chocolate coating cracked on several cake pops during my trail run. After much googling, I realized that the cake balls were too cold before I dipped them. So, when I made the Mickey ones, I let the balls sit at room temperature for 15 minutes before dipping. I'm happy to report there were no cracks the second time around!
  • I inserted the chocolate dipped lollipop sticks while the cake balls were sitting out. The coolness of the cake balls set the chocolate quickly so they were ready to dip.
  • I had some streaking showing up while dipping my Mickeys. I thought it was because of the 2 Tablespoons of shortening I added to thin out the melted chocolate. But I realized it was from the ears melting! I used milk chocolate candy melts for the ears, and dipped in dark chocolate. So, if you make the Mickey Mouse cake pops, I'd suggest using the same kind of chocolate for the ears and dipping.

Now go make some of this yummy goodness for yourself!

Making

Exploring America’s Aquarium

Posted in Field trips, Leah, Molly on April 2nd, 2011 by jen – Be the first to comment

We decided to have one more family fun activity while G'Mom and Grampa were in town, so we headed to the National Aquarium. Molly loved it, and got excited about almost everything we saw. She just kept running up to each enclosure and exclaiming "Mom, look, more fish!"

The National Aquarium

We made sure to hit the newest exhibit, Jellies Invasion. There were so many jellyfish!

Wow, lots of jellyfish

One of the highlights of the trip was the dolphin show. It's not Sea World, but it was good stuff.

Hello dolphin

Molly decided that she wanted to use the map (like Dora does).

Tour guide

Molly's checked out some very large sea turtles in the "Animal Planet Australia: Wild Extremes" exhibit, though she wass so close to the glass that we got two pictures of her.

Up close