Waffles from scratch

     It's not often that I have buttermilk around the house. When L requested waffles this morning I was happy to oblige. I also am usually a prepared mix kind of guy, going all the way back to bisquick. This recipe for Buttermilk Belgians in the Big Yellow Gourmet Cookbook did the trick nicely. Much better than a mix. I made a 1/3 batch and I used canola instead of butter. 1/2 a cup of batter did not quite fill my waffle maker. They were delicious. And they were gone before I could take a picture.

I got a picture this time. Special chocolate chip waffles for L's 6th Birthday!

Cake part one

     We make our nieces and nephews birthday cakes and my wife's sister makes our kids birthday cakes. We have made some pretty grand creations in the past. Today I started the 'How to Train Your Dragon' cake. It will be three layered and checkered chocolate, mint and buttermilk cake with Toothless on top. It we will be awesome but probably not a Pinterest moment. See phase one.

Chocolate cake tomorrow, then the building. Did you see that rainbow cake video in face book? We are trying a scaled down version of that. Go see our older creations on our Flickr site, see Birthday Cakes Album.

Kids traveling

     It is not always easy to travel with kids. Our children are usually awesome. Some times however they argue, hit, scratch, throw a fit. They are just kids and we have taken them way outside of their comfort zone for a long time.

     However they will be forever marked by this trip we have undertaken. This is Cael's fourth trip outside of North America and he is very sure about the next two places he wants to go: Paris and Athens.

     Cael has mastered Spanish numbers which helps us pay a cabbie and he keeps us laughing. He also has good pronunciation. He has been very willing to try new things, especially odd fruit at the markets. He doesn't always like them but neither do I. He keeps me busy with talk about nerdy things like the Avengers or Lord of the Rings. We are currently discussing the Silmarilion. 

     Lumia is ever the friend maker. She has made friends now with two sets of little girls which has led us to making friends with two families. She also made friends with our neighbor back at the beach which helped facilitate our weekly neighborhood BBQs.

     We planned this as a family trip hoping that they would have a good time. It has been wonderful to spend this time as a family. We are still working up to long hikes.