Toasted Coconut Cake

As I've mentioned before I am pregnant. Seven months pregnant to be exact. And all I want during this pregnancy is dessert (except for a short scrambled eggs period earlier on). As a non-pregnant person, I am partial to dessert- okay who am I kidding, I am ALWAYS ready for dessert. So as a pregnant person, dessert is pretty much on my mind twenty-four seven.

In my quest to conquer my pregnancy cravings, I remembered the coconut cake that I had at Mesa Grill, Bobby Flay's restaurant, in New York. It was definitely in my top 5 restaurant desserts of my life- yes it's that good. So I looked it up on the Food Network and made it earlier this week.

It is time consuming, as I'm sure any good dessert is, but so worth it in the end. I did leave out the rum in the custard partly because I am pregnant but mainly because I didn't want to make an extra trip to the liquor store. It's not as pretty as Bobby Flay's but just as good!

My taste tester liked it too! Click HERE for the recipe.

A Fall Walk

It was such a beautiful day today, sunshine and clear skies in November, so Ozzie and I decided to take a walk after breakfast.

Although my walk was kind of lonely because he was on a very important phone call.

Control Tower

The one exhibit Ozzie loved at the Museum of Flight was the control tower. He could have stayed there all day.

Watching for airplanes

You have to wonder what he is looking at here considering the binoculars are pointed straight down.

He told us he was talking to Nanay & Pepa, not communicating with the pilot.

Watching a real airplane land with Daddy.

Museum of Flight

Ozzie has been on an airplane kick lately, so Oscar and I took him to the Museum of Flight in Seattle. We thought he'd go nuts and love it but I think he was a little overwhelmed. He kept looking at the airplanes as if he was wondering why they were so close and not flying high up in the air.

The museum has a kids area where you can climb onto planes and pretend to pilot them. Ozzie wanted nothing to do with this. It's almost as if he thought the plane was going to fly away. Too cute!

So Ozzie had an okay time but Oscar and I enjoyed ourselves. Two exhibits that were fun to see were Air Force One from Nixon and Kennedy's presidencies and the British Airways Concorde. We really enjoyed the World War I and World War II exhibits as well.

We managed to get a few pictures from our adventure.

First up the Space Shuttle flight simulator

Next the view from the space station

Of course I dressed Ozzie in his "A is for Astronaut" t-shirt

The kids Flight Zone

Um is this the exact same hair or what?

The one plane we could get him to sit in.

Planes in the museum

Look Mommy cars!

Totally not where he is supposed to be!

This gives you a perspective on the size of this plane.

A family of astronauts!

Once again I took way too many pictures for one post, so I will stop here. Up next the control tower, WWI, WWII, Air Force One, The Concorde and sitting on a really old airplane.

Fall Decorating

My two favorite items to decorate every holiday are my mantel, which I purposely hung an empty frame over so that I could transform it to whatever I want, and my branch frame that Oscar and I made this summer.

Last year Sweet Paul made a pine cone swag for Country Living's November issue and I loved it so much that I book marked it for this fall.

My version of Sweet Paul's pine cone swag. So simple yet so pretty.

And the mantel, inspired by the pine cones.

 

My branch art adorned with two garlands. I found the "give thanks" font and the template for the acorns and leaves online. I did have to minimize the leaves and acorns down to 50% before printing my template. I used old scraps of felt and sewing thread for the garland.

The great thing about these decorations, like my Halloween decorations, they cost me close to nothing. 

Cinnamon scented pine cones- $2.99 at Joann Fabrics

Cranberry colored ribbon- $3.49 at Joann Fabrics

Give Thanks garland- paper I already had

Acorns & leaves garland- felt scraps from the craft bin

Leaves on the mantel- old leaf swag from previous years

Pumpkins & gourds- old from previous years

Candles- used from Halloween decorations

Total cost- $6.48

Another decorating bargain- Happy Fall!

Babylegs

Babylegs, aka baby leg warmers, are all the rage right now. Apparently they help keep baby warm and make diaper changes easier on mom since they eliminate the need for rompers and their tiny little snaps. 

I decided to make some for our little bambina. It was a super easy, super quick project and loads of fun. Because there are tons of tutorials on the web, I am going to save myself the effort and direct you to the two I used.

For a step by step video on YouTube- click HERE.

For a picture tutorial- click HERE. This tutorial skips a step and makes a larger cuff (see my solid pink babylegs above). Still cute but I think the smaller cuff will work better on infants.

Happy Halloween

As much as we tried, we were unsuccessful in getting Ozzie to dress up in his Buzz Lightyear costume and trick or treat in the neighborhood. He was much happier passing out candy to the kids that came to our house instead.

Giving one of the trick or treaters a high five. I have no idea why he's holding a hanger.

Here he is enticing the kids with more candy to come back. Notice he's wearing his build a bear football helmet. This year Halloween happened to fall on football Sunday. Ozzie wears his football helmet every Sunday when watching football with Oscar.

Taste testing the candy.

Happy Halloween!