Four

It's been a very busy week. Anna turned 4 on May 13, but we celebrated with a party the weekend before. Parties of any sort turn me into an erstwhile Martha Stewart, although I think Anna's finally gotten to an age where that no longer makes sense. The amount of cooking (about 2.5 days worth) was really over the top for a few little kids and their parents! Next year, I think I'll just stick to cake!

That said, I did do a few things that I think worked out really well:

Given that it's springtime in Portland, I decided to combine an activity with a take-home gift. I bought small, terra cotta pots and had the kids decorate them with stickers, markers, and stamps. Afterward, they added a little soil and some wildflower seeds. Anna's started sprouting this morning, so I hope the other kiddos are watering theirs at home!

Sticking to the outdoor theme (party was in the back yard), Anna and I decorated plain brown lunch sacks with stamps and stickers, and then filled them with bubbles, sidewalk chalk. a cloth flower, and an organic lollipop.

The food was over the top, but delicious, and I think I'll post some of the recipes here. For the kids I made banana cupcakes with chocolate cream-cheese frosting. For the adults I made an orange-polenta cake, which was from Gourmet magazine and was made even more complex by the esoteric list of ingredients (orange-flower water!). Both were served with organic ice cream (thank god I decided not to make my own!). I also made spinach-ricotta pies (sort of like quiche) for the brunch, which I served with prosecco mimosas (see why this was over the top for a 4-year-old's birthday party!).

So I'll leave it to you in the comments to tell me which recipe(s) you're most interested in. Whichever gets the most requests will be posted sometime next week.