Pbenjay's Blog

I know I have been amusing my readers with tales of trauma and drama in Florida, however we did have some good times too!  Of course we NEVER got to the beach and we DIDN’t go in the pool because somehow the days were filled with pre-planned activities as well as the daily chores of running a big household.  Not sure if the highlight of my trip was the fact that I did 3 loads of laundry in a washer and dryer that was right in the house! Yes I know that sounds silly to all of you who own homes but in NYC, washers/dryers in apartments is not all that common so it’s down to the laundry room trying to figure out when all the cleaning ladies won’t be there taking up all the machines.  I’ve become a late night washer lol.

We made cookies; Finley mixed all the dry ingredients and she blended the butter and brown sugar in a bowl and she cooked the caramel.  Francesca broke up the pretzels and eventually it came together to make Caramel Pretzel Bars.  BUT…somehow I had the wrong temperature on in the oven so the crust burnt, Chiara didn’t have a candy thermometer so I don’t think I ever cooked the caramel long enough or hot enough because it was soupy.  Frankie didn’t break up the pretzel rods small enough and we were supposed to use small twists which are significantly thinner and would break into odd size pieces – instead we had thick sticks that lined up like Lincoln Logs on the crust.

Look Mommy, Gigi lets me sit near the open flame!

I’m cooking the caramel

And we had quiet time too…

Quiet time in the kitchen

I got stickers!

And we went to a great Easter Egg Hunt and event at the Delray Beach Historical Society. It was a gorgeous day and the ladies had done a spectacular job creating and coordinating the events. There were T-shirts you could design, sticker puzzles, carrot baseball and carrot golf (don’t ask) the egg hunt and a big pinata for the kids to try to break open. A table was set with tiers of mouth-watering shortcake cookies and mini-cupcakes and they served Arnold Palmer‘s (iced tea and lemonade). Chiara told me to dress the girls in their elephant dresses;  She had bought them matching dresses in Thailand last year and they were the HIT of the event. I don’t think there was one person there who didn’t come up to me and remark about how cute the girls looked in their dresses and how adorable the dresses were and where did they come from.

Finley Ray (4 years old) knocked the pinata off the tree! She also got the most eggs in her age group but the prize only went to the girl who found the Golden Egg!  No matter, when we got home and emptied out the two bags of plastic eggs, each one contained candy! Wow just what we needed!

Batter up

Francesca and the Hula Hoop

Whack that egg!

They do look adorable don’t they?