Eric loves rice.

Today is my husband's 44th birthday, and his most favorite food in the whole wide world is rice - plain white rice with soy sauce. He eats it ALL THE TIME.

So I thought a birthday cake that looked like a bowl of rice would be kinda funny. I layered white cake inside the bowls, and used a potato ricer to make the frosting look like "rice." Then I put a mixture of chocolate and butterscotch schnapps inside his precious soy sauce bottle, and we drizzled it over the rice cakes. Delish. But very sweet, even for me.

Besides the silly cake, Eric celebrated with Kung Pao Beef from his favorite Chinese restaurant, completely random presents from me and the kids (two shirts, a sauté pan and a therapeutic hot & cold pad for his injured runner's foot) and his very own, made-up-on-the-spot-birthday-song from Miss Bea.

What 44-year-old wouldn't be completely thrilled with all that?

Happy birthday to our rice-lovin' guy.

* Note to self: Owning a new camera, doesn't mean you have to share EVERY single photo. Sorry, I couldn't help it. I just love our new toy.

Pinning our hopes on an academic scholarship.

As these photos indicate, we're not raising the next Michael Jordan. 

That's OK. I'm just thrilled that Gus even WANTED to go outside and play basketball on such a cloudy & chilly day.

A handful of Spring.

Bea found the yellow crocus that were blooming on the side of the house today and got so excited, she picked a giant handful and came running around the corner yelling "Look mommy.... the flowers grew back!"

Oops. Oh well. Mother Nature will make more.

First photos with the new camera.

I literally looked at the owner's manual for 7 1/2 minutes tonight before I packed up the kids & the camera and headed down to the Wichita Garden Show. Eric was working at Tree Top's "Jurassic Park" garden and I was dying to try out this new fella. 

It was pretty crowded, but I was able to take some fun, colorful pics. Way better than anything I would have gotten from our old point-and-shoot. I can't wait to see what's possible when I've had more than 10 minutes to play with it. Maybe Eric will have the patience to give me a tutorial. (Please honey, you know how much I hate reading instruction manuals?)

Our new baby.

Meet Canon Rebel Denneler. (T3i for short.)

We've barely had him 5 hours, and I'm already in love.

Nooks & Niches

Eric cringes every time I ask "Hey... are there any wires or electrical boxes in this wall?" because he knows I'm going to want him to cut another hole somewhere. I can't help it. I like nooks & niches. They're the perfect solution for displaying fun treasures (or hiding gobs of stuff) in crowded hallways, tiny spaces or on odd-angle walls. Here's a few of the nooks & niches in our house. I have ideas for more in the basement, but I haven't shared those with my handyman husband just yet. Shhhhh.....

Hallway nooks: Yes, I know. They're restaurant steamer pans inserted into the wall. I used to be a salad bar attendant at a Sirloin Stockade in college, and these shiny silver pans always intrigued me. I like them even better in my wall, highlighting photos of Bea.

A bathroom niche: I asked Eric to give this one an arched top. Then I framed it. Makes the little blue birdies appear even more special.

Look behind that canvas painting. It's actually our medicine cabinet. Kinda sneaky, huh?

Bedroom knick-knack nooks: This crazy-angled wall in Gus' room was the perfect place for shelves to hold his Gus-themed collection.

CMYK Cookies

We got a new color printer at my WSU office last week - HOORAY!!!!

And to celebrate the colorful occasion, I baked some graphic-design-y CMYK cookies. I let Bea nibble on one after it came out of the oven this morning and her teeth didn't turn black or blue, so that's a bonus. You never know with these intense food colors.

For those not familiar with the term CMYK, it refers to the four inks used in color printing: cyan, magenta, yellow and key black (there's a very printer-geeky explanation as to why it's called key black, but I will not bore you with it here.)

My favorite part of making ice box cookies is slicing through the frozen dough. I just love those bright stripes.

Dirt Don't Hurt

It doesn't hurt to save 10% at Tree Top Nursery either.

Starting in March (and at the Wichita Garden Show, March 2-6), you can buy this gardening t-shirt I just designed for Tree Top customers. Every time you wear it into the store, you'll get 10% off your purchases this year.

Look good & save money. It's a win-win.

Peace, Love & Pizza

Don't ask me to be on the PTO or sell popcorn at the school carnival, my talents are better used for planning a party. Which is probably why I enjoy being the room mother for my son's 3rd grade class. 

Today's Valentine's Day party theme was: Peace, Love & Pizza. Everyone in the class got their own pizza box with a giant sugar cookie, a zip-lock baggie of frosting and a spoon. They had to sauce/frost their pizza crust and then add the dessert toppings - sprinkles, gummie worms, Swedish fish, conversation hearts, M&Ms and strawberries. What a delicious mess it turned out to be.