A favorite breakfast in our family is pancakes. Actually, the most requested is waffles, but they take a lot longer to make, so we usually nudge the girls to pancakes. The other morning, I started a batch and as I was pouring batter on the griddle, Madeleine began to request all different kinds of shapes and faces. My freehand pancake skills are limited to Mickey Mouse, so I smiled and said, “Okay, honey, I’ll try to make a smiley face the next time,” thinking I’d pour out a curved strip of batter and call it a smile. She was determined that we could make all kinds of faces and started rummaging through a kitchen cabinet looking for what she said were some kind of pancake molds. She ended up with this stack of green face molds that I think are supposed to be for sugar cookies. I told her that, but she was sure that they could work on pancakes. I said that I’d try when we flipped this batch. So we flipped, let them firm up a little and pressed the molds into the pancakes. And wouldn’t you know, they left these perfect impressions of all different faces. Pretty cool. We are debating on the name for them and are between emoji-cakes or panmojis. Either way, we have now found a way to express our moods through breakfast, and I don’t have to worry about becoming a pancake artist.

One thing pancakes do is fill you up really well at breakfast time for a day out in the garden. Right now (June) Crape Myrtles are in bloom and lighting up gardens with amazing color everywhere you look. They are easy to grow and care for and perfect for planting at this time of the year. See our Crape Myrtle Care Guide for tips, and we look forward to showing you all the beautiful colors and varieties at the nursery.