Jack loved his birthday presents. :D
Auntie Steph sent him a horse head on a stick, which has the capacity to make battery-operated whinnying noises, and which Mark kept trying to steal. We ended up hiding it in Jack's room. ^_^ He also got a small plushie horse and a pair of plastic horse figures from me and Tom. He adores all of them, but is particularly fond of the figures; Tom picked them out.
Cupcakes continue to be a failure. Mark was at least willing to pick up the cut chunks and press them to his lips - but not to taste them or even open his mouth. Jack completely ignored his cupcake in favor of playing with his new horsies.
I tried adding drops of food coloring to two of the cupcakes, just to play around with color. Two drops of red in one cupcake, and two drops of blue in another cupcake, stirred into the batter with a clean knife for each one. The color came out not nearly as saturated as I hoped, and while it covered the top, it didn't quite penetrate all the way out to the sides of the base, just filled the center. Steph suggested next time I should try a concentrated food color gel that's supposed to give really good saturation without the funky flavor excess amounts of regular food coloring can give. I hadn't been aware this gel existed, or that too much food coloring makes things taste odd; the last time I played around with food coloring was when I was a kid and colored Easter eggs.
Not that it matters, when my boys steadfastly refuse to EAT my efforts. ;p But it'll be fun to play with.
Had a very nasty bout of gastro. symptoms starting around dinner time Tuesday, which finally ebbed around midnight, and have spent the last two days recovering from the after effects. Sigh. At least it didn't kick in until after I got to the library with the boys to retrieve some of my holds.
Finally felt good enough this afternoon to make a short jaunt to the Citadel for window shopping. Assuming I don't have ANOTHER bout, I'm planning to go see Brave on Saturday, after Tom gets back from Dragonman and also makes sure the office doesn't need him to update the website again. He's planning to see either Prometheus or Avengers tomorrow night. I hope he picks the latter; I am dying to geek out at him over it. ^_^
Right now, he's at the store, and I'm wrangling Zodlings. Probably going to break out some of my library books while they watch Backyardigans; it is entirely too hot in the yard to let them loose.
Cupcakes continue to be a failure. Mark was at least willing to pick up the cut chunks and press them to his lips - but not to taste them or even open his mouth. Jack completely ignored his cupcake in favor of playing with his new horsies.
I tried adding drops of food coloring to two of the cupcakes, just to play around with color. Two drops of red in one cupcake, and two drops of blue in another cupcake, stirred into the batter with a clean knife for each one. The color came out not nearly as saturated as I hoped, and while it covered the top, it didn't quite penetrate all the way out to the sides of the base, just filled the center. Steph suggested next time I should try a concentrated food color gel that's supposed to give really good saturation without the funky flavor excess amounts of regular food coloring can give. I hadn't been aware this gel existed, or that too much food coloring makes things taste odd; the last time I played around with food coloring was when I was a kid and colored Easter eggs.
Not that it matters, when my boys steadfastly refuse to EAT my efforts. ;p But it'll be fun to play with.
Had a very nasty bout of gastro. symptoms starting around dinner time Tuesday, which finally ebbed around midnight, and have spent the last two days recovering from the after effects. Sigh. At least it didn't kick in until after I got to the library with the boys to retrieve some of my holds.
Finally felt good enough this afternoon to make a short jaunt to the Citadel for window shopping. Assuming I don't have ANOTHER bout, I'm planning to go see Brave on Saturday, after Tom gets back from Dragonman and also makes sure the office doesn't need him to update the website again. He's planning to see either Prometheus or Avengers tomorrow night. I hope he picks the latter; I am dying to geek out at him over it. ^_^
Right now, he's at the store, and I'm wrangling Zodlings. Probably going to break out some of my library books while they watch Backyardigans; it is entirely too hot in the yard to let them loose.