My Idea of Happiness: January 2016

Dakota's Semi-Healthy Mint Oreo Birthday Cake

We thought long and hard about what type of birthday cake to make Dakota as she turned two yesterday. We knew she loves chocolate... and she loves mint too (she tries to steal the adult toothpaste instead of the kid one and she says "Mmmm Minty!"). We had 1/2 a box of candy-cane Oreos that were more crushed than whole, and we had some leftover whipping cream, so we had a plan!

Oliver used this recipe for "semi-healthy chocolate cake" and we customized as necessary:

Preheat oven to 350F.
Blend 1 cup coconut milk with 1/2 an avocado.
Mix this with: 1/4 c avocado oil, 2 eggs, a splash of vanilla and a splash of peppermint extract.
Then add in: 1 3/4 c flour, 2 c raw sugar, 3/4 c cocoa powder, a pinch of sea salt and 2 tsp baking soda.

We prepped a cake pan by spraying with avocado oil and then lightly dusting with flour. Then we poured the cake batter in, sprinkled some chocolate chips on the top and baked for 45 minutes.

When the cake came out we set it to cool and make some mint whipped cream: 1 cup whipping cream, 2 heaping spoons of icing sugar and a splash of peppermint extract.

To assemble, we took the cooled minty (avocado) chocolate cake, topped it with mint whipped cream, and then dusted the whole thing with crushed candy-cane Oreos.

She absolutely loved it and Oliver was so proud to have made such a nice creation for his sister.

Things I'm always up for

I saw something online recently that listed "things I'm always up for". It was cute and had things like fuzzy socks, breakfast for dinner & long, meaningful conversations. I didn't end up reposting because a number of them weren't quite accurate for me but it got me to thinking... here is my list of things I'm always up for:

- grabbing Starbucks before we hit the road
- you bring the meat, we'll bring the cheese
- seeing a movie at the Hyland (before 9pm)
- recording an embarrassing video of singing/playing an instrument
- explaining the situation using only emojis
- putting on another pot of coffee
- hey, can you hold my baby for a minute?
- an after dinner walk around the neighbourhood
- covering someone's Friday shift
- accepting hand me downs
- Sephora browsing
- a library book recommendation
- an adventure that could end up with getting lost
- washing someone else's dishes
- just order me whatever you think I would like
- endlessly queuing up funny youtube videos
- discussing the Duggars
- having someone braid my hair
- a nap

Dakota's many names

This morning over breakfast I called out to Dakota to ask her how she was liking her cheese toast. I said, Hey Kimba? And she immediately answered, yeah? I realized I've called her Kimba so many times she now answers to it. Along with probably 30 other names. Almost exclusively beginning with the letter K even though the official name was gave her at birth begins with D. Go figure. Here is a sampling of the nicknames that have stuck for Dakota in her almost 2 year life:

Koko
Kota
Koty, kokes
Kodalina, Kookalina
Kodles
Kim, kimmy, kimma
Kimble, Kimba, kimbo
Kimmaluna, Luna
Koburg
Bodhi
Dax
Dakokes
Wild one

23 Unposted Photos of 2015

I have a Shoebox account to back up my photos and periodically it will show me what I was doing this time a year ago, or three months ago, etc. There are so many photos that I haven't posted for one reason or another. Here are some that I thought I'd share now. They are teeny tiny for a reason ;)

This is Oliver right before finding out if he would need glasses or not. (He didn't, and was super bummed.)

I ended up taking a better photo of Ollie with his birthday cake at the cottage.

We tried to take a family photo. It worked out pretty well. Love my parents.

That time Calvin got us a hotel room in Toronto and my sister showed up for the free breakfast buffet.

My little jungle cat on her new (at the time) kid-sized couch. It has since become Oliver's place to crash beside my side of the bed if he has a nightmare and doesn't want to sleep alone in his room.