{brown's brownies}

every year, the kids' school hosts a night called "the celebration of learning" where each classs showcases what they have been working on throughout the school year.  the kids have a great time showing their parents and siblings the projects they have created and often do special presentations as part of the event.

2nd grade has a tradition where each child makes and brings a dish representing whatever country they are from.  (their school is pretty ethnically diverse and many different heritages were represented.)  the child then displays and serves the dish to whomever visits their "restaurant".  aiden named her dish "brown's brownies" and went with our old family standby of "best brownies".  since we kind of joke that we are muts when it comes to ethnicity, good ol' american brownies seemed as good of a choice as any (and much easier than fried chicken or apple pie!)

and since i get asked quite a bit for this brownie recipe, this seems like the perfect place to share it.  i believe it first came from a martha stewart magazine clipping, but i'm not totally sure.

best brownies

1/2 c. butter (1 stick)
3 square unsweetened baker's chocolate
2 eggs (room temperature is best)
1 1/4 c. sugar
2 t. vanilla
1 c. flour
1/4 t. salt
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

• heat oven to 350.  butter a 8x8 or 9x9 baking dish.  (i almost always double the recipe and just use a 9x13 pan.)  i line my pans with parchment paper to easily remove brownies for cutting, but this is not necessary.
• melt butter and chocolate in saucepan on very low heat.
• with an electric mixer on high, beat eggs with sugar for 3 minutes until thick and pale.  add chocolate mixture and vanilla and beat another minute.
• add flour and salt and beat until smooth.  add chocolate chips.
• bake 20-25 minutes until tester inserted 1" from edge comes out with only a small amount of brownie on it.  do not overbake or the brownies will be dry.
• cool completely and then lift parchment paper from pan and cut into squares. 

1st grade performed readers' theatre and highlighted janelle cannon books.  miles played the part of "mother bat" in stellaluna.  his voice inflections were hilarious!

and one of my favorite pieces on display...george & abe.  aiden rocked these portraits, don't you think?!!

{october & november MIA}

fall was a complete blur.  there was so much going on around here, i'm not even sure where to start.

#1- i got to take a photography class with the amazing wendy from bluelily.  i have been wanting to take a class since we got our dslr when miles was born.  it was crazy...a group of ladies were supposed to take the class cancelled the day before and so i got wendy all to myself for two hours!  i still have SO much practicing to do, but feel alot more comfortable shooting in something other than auto.  big accomplishment! 

#2- i got this crazy idea i should turn the upstairs dumping ground office into a guest room.  our neighbor steve moved and gave us a double bed which should fit nice in there.  mike went to a conference in il and took owen with him to visit the grandparents and his new cousin asher.  the kids and i ripped out nasty hot pink shag carpet and started painting the wood paneling.  (and we haven't made much progress since.)

#3- we went apple picking quite a few times at our fav orchard.  i can't say enough about those cider donuts!

#4- REUNION launched another location!  we planted a second site in somerville oct 23rd.  this has been a dream of ours to be a multi-site church since before we moved to boston.  it was truly amazing to see it come to fruition...total God-thing!  it was alot of work for sure and the team was pretty tired once we came off the high of the first sunday.  we dubbed that exhaustion that followed, the "somerville hangover".

woody insisted on wearing rain boots.  And we have pocahontas and a transformer.

#5- halloween.  we went trick-or-treating in the neighborhood with our friends lucca and levi.  good times and yummy candy!

this leaf had a heart-shaped hole.  see it?!

 

#6- gorgeous fall color.  seriously, you cannot beat new england in the fall.  breathtaking!

#7- thanksgiving feast and plays for aiden and miles.   lots of fun stuff happening at school.  aiden was asked the day before to step in and take the lead in a play she wasn't supposed to be in because "squanto" had to go out of town.  may be a first...a female squanto.  and she wore her great grandma's apron for her role as a pilgrim mama in play #2.

 #8- LOTS of writing on my part for life after sunday.  you can check it out here.

i think i may be caught up.  so is that good or bad that i can boil two monthes down to 8 bullet points???

{1st day of school}

they loved it and we went out for dinner at pizzeria regina to celebrate!

it was super hot outside, but the restaurant is always freezing (hence, the sweatshirts)

i think this may be a new tradition...out to dinner the first day of school.  it's a tradition if we do it three years in a row, right?!

friendly's~ first day 2009

{inspiration by pinterest}

have you tried pinterest?  it is such a fun, easy way to keep track of inspirational images!  while i still love to keep tear sheets from magazines and catalogs, this has greatly increased the "pool" from which to draw from...blogs, ezines (online magazines), other people's "pins", etc. seriously addicting!

a while back i "pinned" this image onto my party ideas board. 

recently, it was the last day of work for one of aiden's teachers who was moving away.  i wanted to make her cupcakes a little more special and thought i would give this a go.  (remembering the pin at 10pm and amazingly having everything here at home to pull it off!)

i used bbq skewers, some jersey fabric i cut up from a too small shirt, some bakers twine from some gift wrap, white cardstock and a circle punch.

you can find the directions here for making your own ruffled penant.

so back to pinterest...

here is one of my "boards".  boards are places you can keep a collection of "pins".  this one is my kitchen inspiration board.

and here's what a "pin" looks like.  this one is from my paint inspiration board.

and one of the best parts is, pinterest keep track of the source of the picture.  so, when you want to go back and find where it came from, it's easy peasy.

ooh...and you can follow other people's boards and "repin" their pictures. 

you can see my boards here, or request and invite to join here. 

seriously...so fun! 

{published}

aiden has been published! 

her class won a national competition and the prize was a published book for each kid and a $100 for her class. 

striking her best Vanna pose

here is a pic of her page in the book...page #1 i might add.  (i'm sure it has nothing to do with being alphabetical.)

and here is a link to the website with the press release.  looking here, it is a bigger deal than i thought. only 28 classrooms for the entire country!

and the bitter sweet news is that mr. mark is getting ready to move and we have had out last thanksgiving at his place.  guess this year we will need to make a new tradition...or buy some plane tickets to Texas for a visit!

{you are fab!}

I spotted this great Compliment Bunting here and fell in love.  I can think of so many uses for this, but I think I might save it for my kids' teachers for Teacher Appreciation Day (sshhh...don't tell!)

Check out the link above and you can download a .pdf for free!

{cupcake bunting}

it was aiden's teacher's birthday this week.  as the room mom, i was in charge of treats and a gift.  i had wanted to try making bunting to decorate a cake, but figured dishing out cake to a bunch of 1st graders sounded like a hassle.  i used cupcakes instead and it worked just fine.

her favorite color is pink

i looked on etsy for some inspiration and then just kinda winged it.  if i would have had heat-n-bond i would have used that to attach the fabric together so the flags would be two-sided and then cut them out. (i used fabric glue instead cause that's what i had.)  i cut out the flags and then sewed them together with embroidery thread.  wrap a piece of double stick tape around the skewer and then wrap the thread around that and it holds like a charm. i should have better planned the length of the bunting, but i didn't and just got lucky.

i used heather bailey fabric scaps

i decided i need a cake plate.  evertime i want to dress up something homemade, i just resort to one of our everyday plates.  i think i may need to find a fun plate at the thrift store and whip up one of these beauties!

via apartment therapy

{heart attack}

i am a room mom for aiden's class and always on the hunt for fun gift ideas to show our appreciation to our kids' teachers.  i am LOVING these valentine's day ideas on one charming party
via little lovely.  so many creative ideas if you are having a valentine's party (which i am not...but kinda wish i was!)

i am absolutely gonna steal borrow the *heart attack* idea.  You have the kids write something kind about their teacher on a heart and then tape them all to the door, desk, etc. just trying to decide if it would be cuter to have the kids hang their own valentine's (handing out tape as the kids enter the building), or collecting the hearts in advance and making a garland to hang inside the class like this. 

guess i'll have to see how far in advance i have my act together!

{a favorite Christmas gift}

Aiden worked on this gift for months...literally.  her class started it back in sept and she was so excited to give it to us (sweetly wrapped in homemade stamped wrapping paper!)  we will proudly hang it in the kitchen.  i'll have to remember this idea for next year when advent conspiracy rolls around and we are looking for gifts to make for family.

a few of my fav months...

and that sweet first grade handwriting...love it!