4/40 - Knitting, an excess of instruments, and the best cupcakes I've ever made

Challenge #4 of 40 was to learn how to knit or crochet something. Thankfully, I have just the friend to teach me. My adventure buddy Jamie is also a knitter extraordinaire. We sat down together last week and she taught me the basics of knitting and sent me home with a pattern for a dishcloth. Here I am snuggled up with her dog and cat on my learning day. 

I apologize for the poor lighting. Someday I may buy an actual camera with which to take pictures. I was quite pleased with how it turned out. Not too bad for my first try to knitting. You can see the reflection of the Christmas lights strung up in our living room. Aaron LOVES having white Christmas lights on and wants to leave them up all year. Not sure if I will go that far, but I agreed to leave them here at least for the rest of winter. It is pretty cozy to sit in the glow of the lights at night.

David had his trumpet section over last weekend for practice and fun. We had quite the assortment of trumpets and flugelhorns sitting around for the weekend. The guys were trying to estimate how much "money" was sitting there on our bench. I went into a baking frenzy to keep them fed while they were here.

For part of Ana's homeschool, she is in charge of teaching Scarlet preschool. It's a win-win to me as Ana gets a class credit for developing and implementing a program and Scarlet gets some great one on one time with Ana and is learning a lot. She's doing very well with learning to sound out simple words. Here they are on a reading session. 

And finally yesterday, I made the best cupcakes I have ever made in my life. We were planning on having company over for supper last night until Aaron came home feeling sick and cancelled that plan. I had already planned this dessert and had them made so we had the unfortunate task of eating all of the cupcakes and not sharing them. I did share one with a friend, but that's it. It made 15 cupcakes and there were two leftover this morning. Now there aren't any left.

They are Mocha Cupcakes with an Espresso Buttercream frosting and you can find the recipe here. Make them today. You won't regret them. Unless you are trying to eat healthy. Then make them and give them away (to me!!) after trying part of one. I will definitely be making these again.

What's your favorite dessert? Share a recipe with me! I love trying new things!