Happy Birthday Lukas!

We celebrated Luke's birthday this past weekend. It's hard to believe our baby boy is ONE year old! Abigail & I made cupcakes and frosted them with my mom's special secret buttercream frosting-- a tradition that I grew up with. Since I try not to eat anything artificial, I colored the frosting with 'blueberry food coloring' I purchased at Whole Foods. I used a lot...not the typical couple drops...and the frosting turned more of a light gray color, plus it tasted slightly blueberry-ish, which wasn't a horrible thing-- all this to say, I'll probably just leave it white next time. They were yummy though!!

Here's the Birthday Boy! He wasn't sure what to do with a cake at first, once he tasted the frosting he just sucked his thumb for a good 10 minutes before he realized the rest of the cake was good, too!

Luke's lap after he was done- he ate the whole cupcake!! That's my boy!

Look what I found!

A real life gecko! It's my first in-house lizard experience- yes that's right- I found him while I was vacuuming. He was creviced between the spindles of our stair rail upstairs. Jim wasn't home, so I got the brilliant idea of telling Abi to watch him while I ran downstairs and got a bowl with a lid so I could trap the poor guy. Luckily the plan worked well. We safely let him go in our backyard...oh! the joys of living in the South!

Restaurant Review: Gaulart & Maliclet

I had heard about this little French cafe from my go-to website tripadvisor.com. I have never been to France & don't know French...I don't even know how to pronounce the name of the restaurant. It has the nickname of "Fast & French" so maybe others don't know how to pronounce it either...anyway, it is one of the cutest little cafes ever. The inside is a long, narrow corridor with a long bar as the seating.

I ordered the ham & brie croissant which was so buttery & salty- perfect combination! Seriously, I don't think my taste buds could be any happier! It also came with a side of side of soup. I chose the cream of mushroom over gazpacho. Cold soup has never appealed to me, and I don't mind mushrooms, but this one was very mushroomy. They also serve Illy coffee, which I thoroughly enjoy. Overall, this is one of those places that I want to revisit on a cold, blustery day. The contrast of seeing the weather out the large front window and relaxing in the warmth of the restaurant while at the same time sinking my teeth into a toasty, buttery croissant and sipping a cup of steamy coffee sounds so wonderful. Not sure how many days will be like that in Charleston, but when they are, you know where I'll be.

Solid or Liquid?

I remember when I took a babysitting class when I was 12 years old at our local 4H center. The class taught us basic skills for watching children & also gave lots of activities to entertain kids. I remember one in particular: corn starch & water. Beware!! Super duper messy. Tons of fun, though! Abigail had a great time playing with this texturably unexplainable medium. I'm not sure of the proper measurements, but you mix the cornstarch and water until it's kind of solid, kind of liquid. Helpful, huh? Seriously, it makes for a fun afternoon!

It's raining, it's pouring...

Having only lived in the 'low country' for 6 months, we're still in the 'everything's new' phase. It's great really. Learning the flower & vegetable seasons, oyster & shrimp seasons, discovering what low country really means and experiencing the weather. Being the weather junkie that I am, I found out that July & August are the rainiest months of the year. To top it all off, we're currently 9 inches below normal. Well, not sure how to take that since our front yard was a no wake zone the other day:

Yes, there's a street under all that water! And we had waves on our lawn after these cars went by...

It's all good though. I'm enjoying all the rain, though I really wish it cooled off a bit afterwards. Nope, still high 80s!

Macomb

Here is the impressive corn we saw on a walk through the neighborhood...

A field of bales of hay near Lake Argyle...

Country roads less than a mile from where I grew up....

I've always loved barns....

Cousins!

We're back from a great trip to Macomb. I'll probably do another posting on the whole trip because, well, I took over 200 pictures while I was there. I just had to put this one up now. Aren't they all adorable?! This was the best one in about a series of 10. What a classic!! I'm so glad we had a chance to go the same time that Christina, Gabe & Will were there. All the kids had a fabulous time & got along great. Abi is still asking where Gabe & Will are. With the Klinepeter's moving to MN & us now in SC, the times we spend together are even more precious. We'll be framing this picture soon & talking about the the time well spent forever.