An Apple A Day & Lil' Sebastian Returns!

This weekend has been action packed with goodness. 

Exhibit A: Planning a little baby shower with tasty treats

 For this cute girl

Exhibit B: Apple picking and DELICIOUS apple donut eating at Erwin Orchards

 

 (it was so windy, the picnic area looked like a parachute gone wild, stakes flying all over the place)

Warren found a new friend:

 ...and scampered up the apple trees like a little squirrel

 And of course we had to visit the baby nubian goats

 And Warren made another buddy

And we watched everyone chase this mini hog:

 Warren attempted to befriend a mini llama because it looked like him (lots of curly hair)

 But the llama ran away repeatedly (you can see the striking resemblance in their profiles here:)

 But finally, his dream came true--llama hug!

 

Most importantly, we got to meet Lil' Sebastian! He lives! It's true, we have an obsession with mini animals. But, come on, remember the cuteness that was Sunbun and Crew?

 Exhibit C: Warren's nephew mailed us Flat Stanley for a school project. Flat Stanley is invited to visit friends and family to see famous landmarks. So this afternoon we took Flat Stanley on a vacation to....

 CANADA! Well, the river walk in Windsor to see the Detroit skyline. But very exotic, yes?

We also took Flat Stanley to this awesome Dearborn site.

All in all, a pretty good weekend. Finally, I am in love with fall. And Michigan's fall does not disappoint, even though it's very short. What fall adventures have you gone on?

Cake Monster (and other news)

We celebrated Warren's 32nd birthday this weekend with an epic cake inspired by this beaut at Sprinkles Bakes (your life will change after seeing her creations). Since Warren's favorite candy is Reese's Pieces I knew, no matter how monstrous the task was, it had to be done. Yes, it took two days of oven hovering, freezing, and frosting but man, oh man, was it worth it. 

 We had some friends come over to help us eat the monster. Though they liked the cake, we're glad (sad?) to say that the kids just wanted to eat all of our apples and fruit instead...

 Here is the beastly thing all dissected. Yes, those are layers of chocolate cake, Reese's-studded cheesecake, and dulce de leche caramel flecked with peanut halves and smothered in a pound of chocolate ganache.

 Just for funsies, I baked this cake for a little dinner we had with some friends. This is the first cake I've ever made from scratch and layered--with seven minute frosting too! It was excellent practice for the Reese's behemoth. Is it sad that I'm so proud of it? I used this Smitten Kitchen recipe. Pure gold.

As an early birthday present, we saw Beethoven's 9th--one of Warren's favorite pieces--at the Dearborn Symphony. It was a delight. I'll post about some of our other fall adventures in a bit but the final bit of good news for this post is that the newest issue of New Letters has hit the stands! I'm so pleased that my essay found a home in such a lovely, well-curated magazine. The folks at New Letters were a dream to work with, despite my email switcheroo that threw things for a loop. Sycamore Review, an amazing journal out of Purdue, also took a chance and published a weird little lyric essay called "Go So Hae." The editors were amazing and gave wonderful feedback. I can't tell you how happy all this makes me. Hip hip hooray!