Isabella the Flower Girl

We have been planning my good friend Kathryn's wedding for the last year. My role as a bridesmaid included making the flower girl dresses so that they would match the bridesmaids gowns. So I sent swatches of fabric and Pedro's mom was able to find just the perfect material in Puerto Rico.

Kat and I made the crowns for the girls and the end result was totally adorable. They looked like two little fairies flitting about the church and the field where the reception was held. My friend Amanda graciously offered to do my hair, even though she was dealing with a house full of boxes only one day after moving.

Instead of a traditional wedding cake, the couple opted for a cheese tower, using traditional British cheeses. Isabella kept robbing it of its grapes throughout the reception. We were experiencing one of the hottest days of the summer and this cheese tower got pretty ripe before the night was over.

It was one of the most beautiful weddings I have been to. The weather was unbelievable. Isabella was a perfect flower girl - she spent over three hours dancing on the dance floor, up WAY past her bedtime, but happy the entire time. Seriously, we couldn't have asked for a better experience.

Cooking with Kids - Cheese and Pizza!

First thing in the morning yesterday, we made mozzarella cheese.

It takes a lot of milk to make one ball of mozzarella cheese (3.8 liters - or one gallon of whole milk - the fattier the better!).

Paloma added salt, citric acid and rennet to get the whole milk to separate into curds (solids for the cheese) and whey (the liquid left over).

This is what it looked like once we poured off the whey. We then had to heat it up enough to get the curds really stretchy, in order to get that rubbery and slightly stringy texture of fresh mozzarella.

At first, it was too hot for Paloma to handle so I got it started.

Then Paloma worked it into a ball, folding the cheese in on itself until it was shiny and smooth on the outside.

Paloma claims not to like cheese unless it is on pizza....so we made pizza! We used the warm whey left over from the cheese to make the dough. It was a scorcher outside so we filled the kiddie pool and swam until the dough was ready.

She decorated her personal pizza with pepperoni and tons of the fresh cheese she made herself :).
We used the whole ball of mozzarella and had a pizza picnic in the backyard.

Cooking with Kids - Elderflowers

elderflowers

Our neighborhood has a plethora of things to pick and eat - as you may have seen we often pick things like nettles, wild garlic, and berries (sloe and blackberry). This year I have made it my goal to follow the seasonal foraging opportunities presented in a book I bought at the Eden Project last year (Seaweed and Eat It). The book chronicles the foraging adventures of a small family with two little girls who pick and prepare anything from wild crabs from the English coast, to sloe gin (which I actually made last fall). This year, I am right on track, having made special dishes from nettles and wild garlic. We are now full into the season of blooming elderflowers.

Paloma La Fritolera

We went for a short stroll through our village to find and pick a bagful of elderflowers - enough to make fritters (as you see Paloma doing) and elderflower cordial (a syrup used to flavor carbonated water or even white wine - though the syrup itself is alcohol free). Paloma was all over helping me pick the flowers, and I think she was especially excited by the prospect of getting to eat what we were picking.

the fried flowers

We sprinkled them with sugar and served them up with applesauce and jam for dipping. Isabella wasn't so sure about them, but Paloma ate more than half of the flowered stems that we cooked. Supposedly she is a picky eater - not too much evidence of that here.

ahhh, lovely donut-flavored flowers

and for good measure, look at this beautiful face!

Father's Day

I have been talking hundreds of photos in the last few weeks but there has been little time to update the blog. I know, I have had complaints :).

First of all, Happy Father's Day to all the good fathers in our lives. Our kids are lucky to have such a legacy.

Our family on this side of the pond spent Father's Day at the Haycock Hotel, where we had a traditional, full English Sunday lunch. The food was beautiful and delicious. Paloma especially loved dessert - some decadent chocolate tart.

And Isabella especially enjoyed the little fountain, conveniently located alongside our table!

Llegaron!

They got here yesterday and it feels like we have already done so much.

This morning we went for a short hike in the surrounding farmland. Then later this afternoon we all went to Haycock Hotel to sit in their gardens for a drink and to watch the girls play in the flowers and all the pretty things they have growing there.
Paloma and Isabella get along so well - it has been wonderful!
Isn't she just the cutest? She has been so excited being here and seeing such a big difference between England and Puerto Rico - it's nice to see because we no longer notice the differences as much.

In Her Own World

She likes to organize my plants.

Discovering the wonderful smell of basil - on her own.

This morning she was totally in her own little make-believe world with this very special cast of characters.

Tracia was involved. Maybe more than what wanted to be, but she didn't complain.

Los abuelos and cousin Paloma are coming - two days to go!!!! There is talk of a trip to Vienna...

27 Months

Finally the weather is starting to get warmer again. We're still using our heater. We had about a two week reprieve from winter, then it began to get cold again. That hasn't stopped us from getting out, however, Pedro was in Slovakia for work last week so Isabella and I got a lot of bike riding done. I now have a fantastic child seat installed on my bike - which I hadn't really ridden since she was born. I am horrendously out of shape - it's clear that my fit army days are well behind me (my sporadic yoga doesn't seem to have cut it!). With this new mobility, I'm finding so much more to see and to explore.

Today I took her foraging for wild garlic leaves and flowers. We got tons of it - so much that by early afternoon I was ready to throw it back outside because it was making the whole house smell terrible. I put it into a rice and pork chop dish and it ended up being like cooked spinach with a garlic flavor - really good!

Anyway, Isabella is 27 months old today. She's as smart as a whip and amazes me with all that she can say (and also all that she refrains from saying when she's having a wordless tantrum). Still waiting on those two-year molars!

Exploring

I took Isabella to see a scarecrow competition in a local village but there was only one scarecrow left standing! She loved it though. We spent the morning walking around and exploring...

Then we came home for a lunch of miso soup with a bunch of veggies. It went over somewhat well, but she really enjoyed trying out some chopsticks! Not too bad!

Easter - A Very Late One

But better late than never, I say! Because we were gone for Easter, I stubbornly wanted to celebrate it anyway and made big plans for an Easter get-together three weeks late. Odd, I know, but that's my personality for you!

So today we had a few of our friends with families over for a potluck lunch and egg hunt. It turned out so well that we'll just have to do egg hunts for the kids more often (just kidding). But it was really great - we had tons and tons of empty plastic eggs that we filled with jelly beans, chocolates, and other tooth-rotters and we hid them all along a trail next to our house. We had eggs up in the trees, in the bushes, and under leaves. Isabella was confused at first, but once she caught on she kept saying "huevos! more huevos!". There were five little kids running around frantically seeking out those little colored eggs - it made me so happy. Have I mentioned how much I enjoy holidays with kids?

As for the food...my friends went all out - there was moussaka, coconut chicken korma, mini-cheesecakes, treacle spongecake with custard, lobster salad, and nettle and feta savory pastries - to name a few.

Growing

Potty Trained!

This news deserves a post of its own. Prior to our trip, Isabella potty trained. She had been without diapers for a week and I thought for sure we would experience some setbacks while on our trip, but she stayed true to the effort and has been potty trained since the last week of March! This week I plan on freeing up a whole drawer of her cloth diapers and packing them away until our next little one :).

Scandinavia

the traditional Swedish Dala horse

A belated Happy Easter to everyone! We are home, and a good thing we came back before the Icelandic volcano blew it's top, because it sent so much ash over European air space that all flights around here have been canceled for days now. (Yet despite this ash cloud we have had an absolutely beautiful weekend! Sunny!).

Our trip to Sweden and Norway was lovely - we especially enjoyed Stockholm.

Pedro got his Scandinavian snow after all

In Stockholm, we stayed at a really fun hotel owned by ABBA's Benny Anderssen - so the whole hotel was done in hilarious 70's retro. The rest of our trip included eating lots of fish (Isabella was very adventurous), shopping in cool Scandinavian design shops (mostly for project ideas!), and walking, walking, walking. Our train trip from city to city was absolutely gorgeous and the countryside was studded with charming red and white houses and many, many tree-lined lakes.

this little girl is a great traveler!

Next time we're in that area we will definitely rent a cabin or something so we can experience more of the rugged beauty there.

Current Doings

these are some happy faces!

We went to a little wedding this past weekend. I think this was actually the first wedding Isabella has been to as well. She was so well behaved the whole time, even inside the ancient church where the ceremony itself was held.

Hemingford Abbots village where the wedding was

how sweet - i might not have caught this had i not been straggling behind in 4" heels

my girl and me

barely 7a.m. and she's already prepped for the paparazzi - thanks Auntie Lisa

We are about to leave for Scandinavia from this Saturday. I have been rushing around packing, finishing up taxes, sewing up last-minute orders, cleaning, and everything else that happens around here. Pedro and I are really looking forward to traveling again and this year may just be shaping up to be full of it (I hope!).