Cooking

We seem to be on a little bit of a hiatus here - it's not that we're taking pictures and simply not updating, it's more that we've not been taking as many pictures of the girls lately.  Today was a nice, fun day at home and it seemed like a good time to get the camera out.

We were watching the movie Ratatouille in 20 minute increments, and then going downstairs to cook for most of the afternoon.  That movie really inspires the girls!  What they are wearing here is very typical of our "at home" wear these days - they either want to be in pajamas or dress-up clothes (today Clara was in her dance dress-up leotard).

While they were baking brownies Clara and Elena were getting so chummy with each other!  While one girl stirred/measured the other girl would tickle or kiss her.

They were great at taking turns today, which was a welcome interaction after a fair number of sibling squabbles lately:

Beaming Clara close-up:

When I tried to get a corresponding close-up of Elena she broke out in a wink:

And so then Clara wanted to show us her wink, too:

Those brownies weren't going to finish themselves, so we moved back to stirring, which the girls turned into synchronized stirring:

And very scientific tests of viscosity:

And, of course, the ever-present taste-test once the brownies got in the oven.

After washing up we turned our attention back to the bread we were baking - here Elena and Clara are getting ready to punch the dough down:

And, PUNCH!

While bread and brownies were baking the girls decided to play rollerderby.  We had just gone to another bout on Friday, and they were keyed up.  Clara's roller-girl name is Ellie-Mental, after one of the girls she liked on Friday. 

Elena's is Mermaid (one of the girls at the bout did have this as part of her name, but Elena liked it short and sweet and kicked out whatever funny part was added on to the name).

After roller derby it was time to prep for dinner.  Both girls are great at helping, but Clara can really be trusted with a paring knife at this point, and she was so proud that she chopped all of the broccoli for our dinner tonight.

After she finished it was time to take off our aprons, turn off the oven, and head to school to pick up Steve from his long day at work.  We were happy to have him home, and he was happy to come home to a house that had been busy cooking all afternoon.