The Birthday Boy

Miles is two!

His birthday was last week, and I'm still feeling a little bit shocked by the fact that I have a two year old. Time goes by really fast and I've enjoyed this past year with him so much. He continues to get more and more fun so I'm sure age two will have even more funny moments.

Like when I took him for his two year check up, and the doctor asked, "Do you like Snoopy?" because he was wearing a Charlie Brown shirt. Miles enthusiastically replied, "I LOVE Snoopy!"

Or when we read his Spaceships book and he says "fuel tank!" and "rocket booster!" as we look at the pictures. Is it obvious that he has an aerospace engineer for a dad and rockets all over his room?

Or when we're driving in the car and he sings Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. For some reason he tries to sing it as fast as he can over and over, so it comes out as "TwinkleStarHowYouAreLikeDiamondSkyTwinkleStar!"

Since Miles is no longer allergic to anything I let him look through my Flour cookbook and pick out the cake he wanted me to make. He chose the yellow cake with chocolate frosting. Okay, I may have steered him toward that one, but he was very excited about it.

I'm not going to post that recipe here. But, I did make cupcakes to celebrate with our Bible study later that week. I made chocolate cupcakes and decorated half with vanilla frosting and raspberries and the other half with the chocolate-hazelnut frosting that I've been promising you since last year. So, finally, here is that recipe.

 Chocolate-Hazelnut Frosting

12 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1½ cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
¾ cup chocolate-hazelnut spread (such as Nutella)
Pinch of salt

Mix butter in bowl of stand or hand-held mixer on medium speed for 30 seconds until smooth. Add powdered sugar and cocoa and mix on medium-high speed for 2 minutes. Add vanilla, chocolate-hazelnut spread and salt and mix on medium-high until light and fluffy about 4 minutes more.

Makes enough to decoratively pipe 12-14 cupcakes.

Play Time

A few months ago I started making play dough for Miles. We were bored one afternoon, so after a quick internet search and a few minutes of stirring ingredients in a pot, we were rolling snakes, making snowmen and pressing it into car shapes. Since that day Miles asks to play with the dough, or "colors" as he calls it everyday. Now he's advanced. He likes to use my cookie cutters to make star cookies. Stars are also very popular in our house right now.

This morning Miles wanted his play dough right after breakfast. 

Play dough sometimes makes a nice hat.

Or you can even stick it to your cheek if you're in that kind of mood. 

Play Dough

1 cup flour
1 cup water
1/2 cup salt
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
Food coloring

Mix together the flour, water, salt, oil, and cream of tartar in a medium saucepan. Place over low heat and stir with a wooden spoon until dough forms a ball and stops sticking to the pan. This will take a few minutes. Let cool in pan 1 minute. Then place the dough on counter or cutting board. Apply several drops of food coloring to the dough and knead it in with your hands (be careful as it will still be warm when you first start to knead it). Add more food coloring and continue to knead until you get the desired color.

Store in a plastic bag for several months, or until your little one has pressed too many pieces of dirt, lint, food, etc into it and you decide it's time for a a fresh batch.