Oh, the things a two year old says

Asha: "I WANT STRAW!"

Me: "What do you say?"

Asha pouts.

Me: "Say 'please'."

Asha: "I can't say please!"

Me: "You can have it when you say please."

(Meltdown ensues)

Five minutes later a soft voice asks, "Mommy, can I have straw please?"

* * * * *

Asha wakes up from her nap and sees that I have put a ponytail in Mila's hair. "Oh, no! My ponytail", she exclaims. She's not happy until I have taken Mila's ponytail out and put her hair in one.

* * * * *

During dinner:

"Yummy supper, mommy"

"Thank-you mommy, thank-you"

"Yummy"

"Thank you for supper, mommy"

Yummy Three-Minute Cupcakes

So this morning I was having a chocolate craving (what else is new, and no, I am not pregnant again)... so I decided to try a recipe for chocolate cupcakes that are baked in the microwave. Anyone who knows me knows that I love to bake, but I've never tried to do so in my microwave. I've been wanting to try this ever since I saw the recipe since they are done in three minutes, and the recipe is for only six cupcakes so it's just enough for our small family or a few friends. They turned out pretty flat, and square shaped since I don't have a microwave safe muffin tin, but overall they taste great so who cares!

Here is the recipe:

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa

1/4 tsp baking powder

1 egg

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup milk

Mix all ingredients together until well blended. Pour into six paper liners and cook in microwave oven at 80% power for 3 minutes.

I whipped up some buttercream frosting and threw on a few sprinkles, and ta-da! We're done! (I actually made these while on the phone with my mom, they were done and the kitchen cleaned up before we were finished our 40 minute conversation.)

Now, if anyone knows of any other great microwave recipes, I'd love to hear them. Especially if you know of any vanilla cupcake recipes, I'd love to try it!

NOTE: I have a Panasonic Inverter microwave, so I'm not sure if it would work in all microwaves.

The End of Summer

Today when I saw the neighbourhood kids waiting for the bus, a part of me wondered what it would be like if my kids were going off to school leaving me with an empty house and hours of free time (yeah, right). Within seconds I knew that I am SO not ready for that, I am glad my kids are still little and I can still enjoy (almost) every second of every day with them.

Thinking back to this summer, we didn't do a whole lot of crazy or exciting things, but we did have a lot of fun. Here are some of my favorite summer memories:

Playing with the neighbourhood kids

Trips to the park

Learning to garden

Having little friends over

Asha turns two!

Blowing bubbles

Lots of birthday parties

Going to the beach

Mila turns one!

Family walks

There are so many more memories. The girls are growing so fast and I can see so many changes in them from the start of summer until now. I'm glad I used my camera so much - since May I have taken almost 1500 photos. How's that for memories? Now if only I could get caught up on scrapbooking...