sous chef & taster extraordinaire

at least once a weekend, michael makes pancakes. perfecting the pancake has become somewhat of an obsession for him, with no bisquick involved. that's right. pancakes from scratch. they're not that much more involved than your good old bisquick cakes but they taste so. much. better. 

anyway, whoever is cooking/baking, always has the help of our little sous chef. elle loves being in the kitchen with us. and she almost always insists on "helping" us with whatever we are making. when pancakes are involved, it usually ends with her dropping the bottle of vanilla in the batter. so if you're pancakes ever have a little red tint to them, it's probably just the ink from the label. otherwise, they're perfectly edible.

as you can imagine, a pancake breakfast usually results in a very shiny child. elle somehow manages to apply a thin coat of syrup all over her head, arms...really whatever part of her body isn't covered in clothing. this morning, she proceeded to rest her arm in her plate...which lead to finishing her pancakes with one arm up in the air (her doing, not ours!).