CIRCUS PLAY SCHOOL + BANANA OAT MUFFINS

april is our month to host play school. play school is the little tots co-op preschool a few of us moms from my church put together. because $15k for a year of private preschool is a little ridiculous, but we would still like our kids to be exposed to as many germs learning opportunities here in the city as possible ;).  (we call it play school and not pre school because most of the kids are in the 2.5-3.5 age range, where they're not really learning things so much as learning to play well with others.)

we had a huge drawer full of birthday party decorations waiting to be used from huck's sandy'd-out circus themed birthday party, so i spent an evening looking up photos of circus animals so we could talk about all of the different sounds they make. i discovered a lot of horrible things about the treatment of circus animals in the process, actually, as well as the sad fact that, no matter how hard i wanted it to be true, there is just no such thing as a circus penguin. :( i also threw down some black butcher paper so the kids could go wild with their glue sticks and crayons.

we made lions out of paper plates (truly there is no end to the number of things one can make with a paper plate), talked about circus animals, and then we ate popcorn, banana oat muffins (seriously, let's talk about these in a minute), chocolate milk (organic chocolate milk! ;), and whatever fruits + vegetables i had in the fridge for lunch. and then we made homemade cotton candy on my cotton candy machine, because this WAS going to be a birthday party after all. geez people, personal cotton candy machines are probably a necessity.(we found ours on amazon HERE.)

those banana oat muffins, by the way . . . are ridiculous. i found the recipe on pinterest (where else). i tweaked them a bit, and i've made them five times over the two weeks since. i don't ever want to not have banana oat muffins waiting for me in my kitchen. here's the recipe:

(sugar free) (flour-less) banana oat muffins

ingredients

2 1/2 cups raw oats

1 cup sour cream

1/4 cup honey

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

2 ripe bananas

chocolate chips

method:

combine all ingredients and mix until combined.

pour into paper-lined cupcake pan and bake for 15 minutes in a 400-degree oven.

they keep on the counter for about four days, and can probably be frozen pretty easily. it's basically a bowl of oatmeal in a paper wrapper. ;) ooh! imagine them with slivered almonds!

LOWER EAST WEEKEND

two words for you! tacos, and doughnut plant. that's three words but we'll live.

on saturday brandon let me drag his tush down to la esquina for tacos, finally. and i'm sorry, but i feel a tangent coming on.

so, my husband is this funny guy. he does not like things that are trendy. if you tell him you want to try a place based on its popularity he'll roll his eyes at you so hard . . . but if you tell him it's a hole in the wall that will likely give him botulism, well. he is all over that. so getting brandon to la esquina, which is both a hole in the wall and a really popular place, took some finagling for a good long while before friday night when i suggested it (again) and he was suddenly, out of nowhere, totally up for it. he's sort of the purest essence of hipster, i like to think. wearing his grandmother's birkenstocks and eschewing materialism and thinking trends are soo beneath him. but then don't tell HIM that.

it ended up being the perfect outing, just us three chickens wandering through the lower east side on a chilly saturday afternoon. after the tacos and on our way to the doughnuts we passed a few overly trendy restaurants that made brandon roll his eyes, when suddenly he said, while deep in thought, "you know, i just noticed i'm wearing exactly the same clothes as all these people . . ." 

i know, brandon. i know.

anyway. tacos.

▲▲▲ i have such googly eyes for this huck boy lately, and he is becoming a hard-core mama's boy in return. i love it i love it i love it.

▲▲▲ two horchata for the road

▲▲▲ brandon stopped in at a bodega for a soda and huck somehow talked his way into a package of jelly beans.  i'd tell you how thrilled it made him but i think you can see it for yourself.

▲▲▲ from la esquina to the doughnut plant in stuy town is a longer walk than we expected, but it was worth it to snag the last of the day's creme brûlées. 

we ended the day with a quick stop at the playground at hester street to burn off all that sugar and then went home for some downton abbey for us and some donald duck for the small man. 

hope your weekend was lovely as well.

update:

for everyone who's asked, the boots are from anthropologie last fall, and the sweater is from zara last summer.

and i'm almost never in flats so i guess i'm the wrong person to ask, but they are super comfortable + sturdy. much more comfortable than flats ;). 

BLOSSOMS FOR MAMA

here it is the middle of april and i think i can finally say it . . . we made it! spring! 

generally spring isn't my favorite season. it's cold still and rainy and windy, and i just want it hot and sunny and baking already . . . but holy grape nuts has this spring been highly anticipated at our house.

we went out for a bit of a grand adventure on saturday to scope out some new-to-us neighborhoods and find us some tacos and while we were out we happened on this enormous cherry blossom tree smack in the middle of what might have been the ugliest intersection on the lower east side. 

and now to quote my friend hanner, "are you ready to be BATHED IN CHERRY BLOSSOMS???"

spring this year has really reminded me of all our springs in moscow, in that it has taken for-ev-ER to get here.

happy spring at last!

THIS IS A POST ABOUT MY SIBLINGS

yesterday was national sibling day, and tomorrow is my sister's birthday. SO. this is soppy and i apologize but that is all there is to it.

the pictures above are of all my babies. sometimes in my head they feel more like babies than siblings. blake was born when i was 13, so especially blake is my baby. oh, blaker.

of all the roles a girl could play, i think being a big sister is probably the sweetest.

blake is our baby brother. he's such a good man. he's 18 now, that's a man, right? that's so weird. he's graduating from high school in june with a good college waiting for him, he's putting in his papers to go serve a mission, he's pretty dang handsome, and he has a good head on his shoulders. when blake was little he used to call me whenever he had a stomach ache, and i'd help him to decide whether he was feeling nervous about something, and why, and then i'd help him calm down until he felt better. blake, i'm glad your stomach aches are gone, but i sure do miss those phone calls. sometimes when my stomach aches with worry over silly, stupid things i'll think of you and it helps me feel stronger. i am so excited for you to get married some day because i think whoever you pick will be the raddest.

alex came to live with brandon and me and the boys in idaho once when she needed a job and the moscow q'doba was hiring, and we became the best of friends. girl is the world's worst burrito roller. but she's the one to call when you need to analyze something all the way down to its insides. she has such confidence and her ability to be herself is inspiring. she is loud and she is fearless and she is infectious.

and now for a word about amanda. amanda is turning 27 tomorrow. i cannot BELIEVE this. amanda will always be 12 to me. (amanda was downright HYSTERICAL when she was 12.) amanda is like a butterfly. she has always been so polished and pretty. i remember she used to paint her nails every night to match her outfit for the next day, which she laid out on the floor as if they were covering an invisible body, all the way down to her jewelry. she's always known exactly who she is and what she wants from life, and i've always admired her thoughtfulness and quiet determination. she's the kind of girl who can make mountains move without showing even the slightest effort. i remember when amanda was born. i was three and a half and i thought for sure that she was mine, like my mom had just given me this little squiggly present. these days she is such a support. our boys are two months apart and i'm so pleased we get to raise babies together. i used to feel so jealous of amanda. she was the pretty one, i was the smart one. i'm not sure where we got that stupid idea, it definitely wasn't from our parents, but that was the ammunition we lobbed at each other during the high school years when our fights were at their worst. but amanda, you're pretty and you're smart. you are doing beautiful, wise things with your life and i'm so proud of you. you are a good mom. and i just like you so much! happy birthday tomorrow, we treasure you so!

A NIGHT AT THE STANDARD

whenever brandon and i have walked the high line together in the past we've always stopped just under the standard hotel and pointed and squinted and had the same old debate: what do you think it's like in there? do you think it's weird that we can see into their rooms? can they see us walking right below them? there's always a huge party going on on the roof and i always thought if i could have a night in a hotel anywhere in the city, it'd be here. (brandon would choose the mandarin oriental, so let it be known.)

when syd and the girls were in town they were put up at the standard, so on friday night my dreams came true, and i packed me up a little overnight bag. we slumber partied it old school style in one big old bed. it was mama's first night away from baby. after two and a half years! i slept horribly and really, nights off might be overrated when brandon's not involved. but it was fun anyway. 

and yes, you can see into the rooms, and no, there are no shower doors (sexy?) and yes, you can see the people walking down the high line below you in pretty close up detail. 

also i sort of wanted to tuck that leather chair under my arm on my way out the next morning, but i settled for a mini bottle of lotion. you know. 

um and now that i'm thinking about it, this isn't a sponsored post, just in case you were wondering. ;)  (oh blogging.)