Apple Pie for Breakfast and other things

Lily has taken her New Year's goal of doing more cooking very seriously, and often approaches me as dinner is being prepared to see how she can help.  And the truth is, at five years age, there is quite a lot she can do!  Yesterday she made the guacamole for our quesadillas, put cheese and meat on our tortillas while they were one the griddle, put salsa in a bowl, and set the table.  Zosia, not wanting to be left out, made some brownies (Trader Joe's Truffle Brownie mix is the best!), which meant that all I had to do was supervise, flip quesadillas, and enjoy the meal.  See, this parenting thing gets easier as you go!

Earlier this week, after the littlest three were in bed, Lily asked if she could do a cooking project with me, so we embarked upon making an apple pie.  It wasn't ready for the girls to have that evening, but the next morning was an unexpected snow day, and so all of the kids had a slice of pie with a piece of cheese in bed in the morning.  Apple pie might actually be primarily a breakfast food, not a dessert, to be enjoyed with a cup of coffee, if you ask me.

Hugo, Zosia, and Lily have transitioned to sharing a room in the past couple of months, and I think everyone is really happy with the arrangement.  It's the tiniest room in the house (so tiny I can't seem to get a picture of their bunks and Hugo's little bed in the corner of the room), but no one seems to mind, and we often find that all seven members of our family will gather in that teeny tiny room.  There's something so cozy about being in close quarters like that.

Just about all of the Christmas decorations are packed away, and we have started thinking about Valentine's day, which I have come to appreciate as a pleasant holiday to fill the span between Christmas and Easter.  The days are getting slightly longer, which is always a welcome change, and means that every now and then I might even be able to take a few pictures of dinner before it gets too dark.

And these twins.  Oh my goodness!  I don't think I've ever been particularly enchanted by the just barely one year old (When a certain first born of mine was that age I might have been feeling a tad overwhelmed, truth be told!), but Clara and Dorothy are making this age pretty magical.  They play hide and seek together.  They adore books, and bring us one after another after another and want to look through again and again.  They are mischievous and sweet and have decided that they truly do love tandem nursing, and insist upon doing so regularly throughout the day, which is sort of hilarious given the fact that they are these big babies, but I'm willing to roll with it.  And of course one of the best things of all is watching our older three play with and engage with the babies with increasing empathy and delight.  Twins are the best, you guys.