Maltby Cafe, Fox Hollow Farm, and Community Kitchen

So much to share!

This morning, we took the boys out to Maltby Cafe for our annual end-of-daylight savings breakfast. We didn't mess around this time, determined to beat the crowds. As soon as we heard some stirring in the boys' room, we jumped out of bed, yanked them out of bed, too, and headed out the door. By 7:45am, we were sitting down at a table (no waiting) with coffee and a giant cinnamon roll. Once again, we were too excited for the cinnamon roll to get a picture of it before tearing into it. Hopefully you can get an idea of it's enormous size from this picture.

Vincent ate really well. Tyler was so-so. He mostly sat in his seat like this:

Some other pictures taken this morning:

It was only about 9:30am by the time we made it back home. We hung around the house, letting the boys watch "Toy Story 2," then Ty had himself a snack before heading up for an early nap.

After his nap, David took the boys to a birthday party at Fox Hollow Farm. I didn't go with them because I had plans to do this community kitchen thing with friends. More on that later. It sounds like they all had a really great time. The weather was beautiful today, although cold. There was a pony ride, train ride, and big wheels that the kids could drive around. And, animals. Sounds pretty amazing, actually. Ooh, and they were greeted with cotton candy. How great is that?

By the way, check out V's pants. There are sock monkeys on them. I found them at a local designer's home sale. They're a little funky, but looked so super comfy, I just had to get him a pair. He put them on yesterday and pretty much wanted to wear them forever. I got Ty a pair of fleece overalls that he's in love with, too.

As for me, my friend, Monica, used to do these community cooking events in her neighborhood, where a bunch of people get together and cook food, then split up the end product for meals they take home. She eventually stopped doing it for various reasons, but brought the idea forward to a few friends.

This afternoon, she and I gathered with two others in her kitchen, and we cooked up 4 dishes to take home. We each were in charge of one. I made the butternut squash and apple soup. So good. I was actually pretty surprised by the end flavor. There's coconut milk in it, which gave it such a fragrant flavor. We all went home with that soup, a Tuscan bean soup, Mexican quinoa salad, and Asian peanut noodles.