Good Things Houston - Cupcakes

I love me a good cupcake!! (See my Mothers Day post) Last year for my birthday I got a dozen different cupcakes instead of a birthday cake. I have my favorite bakery - Sugarbaby's on Shepherd just north of 59. I could eat one of their Black Forest cupcakes every day and not get sick of them. The cherry filling is nice and tart and there is a little ring of sweet vanilla buttercream frosting around the edge. Not too much, just enough. They are perfect! I could go through their whole menu and comment on the virtues of each flavor. 

There's a new cupcake joint in town though that the rest of the fam likes. Crave Cupcakes, right off of Post Oak and the 610 loop.  I like the cake part, but it crumbles and their frosting is too sweet and not light like Sugarbaby's. They do have mint chocolate though, so I will continue to deign to go there - until Sugarbaby's comes out with their own chocolate mint . . .  mmmmmm . . . cupcakes. . .

Homeschool?

Yes, the rumors are true. We are homeschooling this year. So now we're LDS, mostly vegetarian, AND homeschoolers. No, I'm not going to grow my hair to my knees and keep it in one long braid. Yes, I am the one who vehemently said she would NEVER homeschool. And no, I am not anti-public school. If we were still in Provo, my kids would still be going to Freedom Academy. Things are different here and the school we are zoned for isn't the best, nor is the environment. 

We are still working some of the kinks out, but I think we made the right choice to do this. I love when Grace says "I love homeschool. I love to spend all day with mom." Collin loves that we don't have to get up at 6:30 am anymore (that's one of MY favorite parts too), and that he can "scooter" most of the day. 

Let the adventures begin!!

Beach Tales aka Human Antidote

So, "back in the day" when Jon and I were first married every Thursday we had "Thursday night line up" with our friends Holly and Keith Raab and/or Joz and Seth. I have no short term memory, or long term for that matter after having kids, but I have vast stores of useless trivia stuck in my brain. In one episode of one of our favorite shows they went to the beach and one of the girls got stung by a jellyfish. The guy with her said that he had seen on the Discovery Channel that if you urinate on the area that got stung, it would take the pain/sting away so they tried it and it worked. We have joked about that for years when we've seen jellyfish at the beach. Well, back in June we were at the beach down in Surfside and I guess the jellyfish were breeding or something because the ocean was swarming with them. Grace started screaming and crying and came running up to us saying that a jellyfish had stung her. We were so glad watching sitcoms had prepared us for this crisis. Jon got a water bottle and produced some "human antidote" in the car which we administered to Grace's wound. It worked!

A few minutes later we heard screaming again, this time from Collin. Jon gave him the water bottle and had him go produce his own "antidote" which Collin pretended to think was so embarrassing. 

We all KNOW he thought it was the coolest thing ever to get permission to . . . you know . . . AND to pour it on his foot. 

The Bybees

In case you're wondering about the picture in our new header, I will explain. Last year Collin came up to me and said, "what do you think?" I looked over and he had drawn this picture of our family and I LOVE it. I framed it and the other day thought you (the 3 people who read this blog) would like it too, so I put in on here. 

Jon - I love the real life hair and 'burns. You might not be able to tell, but Jethro is there too. He is also holding an Izze, which is carbonated juice, in one hand and a Dunny in the other. A Dunny is basically little toys with a big price tag that Jon collects. He also really does wear his belt that way with the shirt tucked in just in the front. And the shoes are his favorite Sanuk's. 

Collin- he is wearing his favorite outfit complete with his holey jeans. He is also holding a Bionicle box in one hand and a Dunny in the other and striking a cool pose. He always draws his hair spiked up because that's how he wants it to be, but alas, he has too much curl in it for it to spike properly.

Me - I like my sporty 'do and my Roxy shirt. I am holding a huge salad in one hand with a cupcake coming off it (it's right under Grace's chin). In the other it's either a spoon or a chocolate chip cookie, I can't remember. I'll take the cookie though. 

Grace - notice her cool flower jeans. And he drew her hair with a sprig of bangs to look cool, even though she doesn't have bangs. She is holding a bag of peppers in one hand and an orange pepper in the other. 

Good Things Provo

Ok, I know I live in Houston, but Jon is in Provo this weekend  "on business", so I guess that got me thinking of my favorites in Provo and what I would do if I were there too. Other than hanging out with our families, which is my real favorite thing to do, eating wise, my perfect day in Provo would be to go to lunch at our favorite place:

                                                      

In case you didn't know, there is a huge debate between Bajio's and their competitor, Cafe Rio. Almost everyone else in my fam likes Cafe Rio better, but we are die-hard Bajios people. I'd order my "usual", the Veggie Ensalada Bajio. Half a scoop of sweet rice, extra black beans, corn, onions, tomatillo sauce (I could drink that stuff straight up), extra lettuce, "pico" and of course, a few lime wedges. (I know you all wanted to know that!) YUM! My mouth is watering. After lunch I'd drive up canyon and go for a walk or up to Squaw Peak etc.  Dinner would be a hard choice . . . there's always the old stand by, Bombay House and their wonderful "Hershey Kiss shaped things filled with potatoes and peas" (as Grace describes Samosas - her favorite). Lately the Happy Sumo has sounded really good too. Maybe it's a good thing I'm not there . . . too many choices. 

Advice

So we learned a few good things going out of town this weekend. First, kids, when "y'all" are driving down the middle of the busy 610 loop, even though you ask your mom 10 times for a _____ (you can fill in the blank), she still might not have heard you. Please don't grab her purse to get one yourself. First, it might give your mom a heart attack to see something flying by out of the corner of her eye. Second, one of the purse handles might be hooked on the gear shifter (is there a correct term for that piece of equipment?) and when you grab it, it might put the car into Neutral making your mom have a second "coronary" because all-of-a-sudden, the car won't go when she is pushing on the gas (remember the part about being in the middle of traffic on a busy freeway?) and she can't figure out why. 

Second, we won't name any names, but when we are traveling along and see a really interesting car that has religious statues glued all over it, please slow way down (yes, that means breaking off the cruise control) to let the car pass you (even it if is going 45 mph on a highway) if your wife asks you to. She wanted to pay attention to it, but she thought she had enough time to pass a banana to the kids and then get a good look. She didn't know that in the 3 seconds she turned away, that it would go from being a good 50 feet in front of us to eating our dust.  

Third, no matter how much preparation you do to ensure that the 64 cupcakes you are taking with you to San Antonio are cool and well packed for the trip, make sure that when you put them in the car (again, we won't mention names) they are in a place that 1) is completely horizontal and stable with no chance to topple or slide and 2) the AC can reach them:

                                Before

                                 After

Fourth, if you go to see Shamu at Sea World and sit in a bench marked Splash Zone, no matter how far up you are, expect to get wet.

This may not look like we are wet, but let's just say, I didn't dry out until we were almost leaving. I also had helmet hair from the salt water.

Fifth, kids, please listen to your parents when they ask you not to wear flip flops with rubber between your toes. They really will give you blisters! And dads back can't handle shlepping you around all day. Parents, maybe deciding spur-of-the-moment to go to a theme park all day because it's "pretty much on the way home" might not be the best idea. Also, don't forget to put sunscreen on your part (if you have one) in your hair, or wear a hat. 

And finally, before you go out of town, you all know to check lights and door locks etc. but make sure all hoses are turned off outside. The local wildlife might think there is a new lagoon on the block and stay at your house for days wondering where their new habitat went. Sorry, no pictures of the flooding. Let's just say emotions were running a little high wondering what our water bill is going to be next month, and today, thankfully all the puddles are gone. 

Oh. My. Goodness!

Did you watch the Opening Ceremonies tonight? I got chills and tears. Un-be-livable! Am-A-zing!

Wait a Minute . . .

That shirt looks familiar!

Oh yeah. Now I remember why. 

I don't know why she thinks that one is girly enough to inherit, but she wears it all the time!

Good Things Houston - Gelato

I guess one of the good things about having a hurricane (ok, I know Edouard got downgraded to a Tropical Storm, but hurricane sounds better) barreling down on you is that you get to play hookey from your routine. Jon didn't have to go in to work and as we were getting for swimming lessons at the YMCA, they got cancelled too.  So, I have exercised and now Jon is in the office dejunking (we never did get fully unpacked in there), the kids are playing games on the new and old iphones (both Jons, but with good reasons). Later, since a cool spell has come - only the low 80's today! - I feel a soup cooking coming on, but for now, I will post a blog - yes, another one about our favorite past time - food, but with some stories thrown in. 

Collin's best friend, Brendan had a welcome home party on Saturday so we asked Grace what she wanted to do. I loved her response - "go to CPK and eat noodles (?) and then drive over to Gelato Blu for dessert". My kind of outing! We did as requested and ate at CPK (did you know they have great salads?) and then headed to Gelato Blu. We found this place because it's on the way to Jons work and is fabulous. We've been going almost every weekend lately.  The only drawback is we somehow always seem to miss the days they make our absolute, all-time favorite - gianduja (chocolate hazelnut). They have a lot of flavors we have never heard of and great sorbeto too. They had one - can't remember the name made with blue cheese, figs and something else. They have a great vanilla with a tart cherry swirl going through - another name I can't remember. . . and again, they didn't have gianduja BUT, they did have . . . OLIVE OIL!! Which brings me to one of my other favorites - reminiscing. 

Last year all my sisters met in NYC for a weekend and we had such a good time - despite the extremely cold weather. We ate some great food - the Magnolia Bakery (I ate all 4 of my cupcakes and then finished off my sisters!). We also ate at one of Mario Batali's restaurant Otto. The highlight of the meal was the olive oil gelato. I have been talking about it ever since because of how surprised I was at it's fruity taste. So it was fun to see it at Gelato Blu and I was even more glad that Jon liked it as much as I did. 

So, this is Grace trying to decide which flavors to get . . . 

And a shot of the Olive Oil gelato, and the popularity of it. This shot is for you Sarah, Laura and Ems!! We need another sister trip soon!

Good Things Houston - BBQ

AKA another one of our favorites . . . 

So, you can't live in Texas and not have a favorite BBQ joint! I'm sure a lot of locals would not agree with our favorite - Pappas, it is a chain after all. But to be fair, we have tried quite a few different ones and this is our fav. We like the brisket, the turkey (YUM!), the kids really like the smoked sausage and their sauces - the sweet cola is so delish. My favorite part are the sides - green salads (I know "any BBQ place that has green salad can't be good"), slaw, beans, fruit in a cinammony sauce etc. The only downside is that they only have 2 dessert options, neither of which appeal to us, BUT they have 3 kinds of Agua Fresca - watermelon, cantaloupe and our favorite, pineapple. Not too sweet and so refreshing. Just one more reason to come visit!

Happy August!