Guys! Guys! Hey, you guys! It’s Wednesday, which means it’s time for some Wednesday Cute!!!

My Modern Met has assembled a collection of animals and their mini-mes! That’s right: There are animals that are adorable in their own right, accompanied by their adorable, smaller doppelgangers! Folks, we’ve got proof positive of Cute Overload’s Rule of Cuteness #7: A thing, accompanied by a smaller version of that thing, is always cute.

• And a bonus item: From the Huffington Post come these adorable kids’ letters to the Tooth Fairy, in which they express their hopes, their fears—and their desire for more cash. Dream big, kids!

—Avery, who thinks the ultimate pairing would be a tiny turtle with its even tinier turtle twin. 2 cute 2 handle!!!

Olympics! Olympics Olympics Olympics!! Aaaaaahhhh London 2012!!!

If you’re anything like us, your every waking moment over the past week has been consumed by thoughts of the Olympics: the races! the medals! Her Majesty skydiving! But you might have missed this: an adorable short film by Amael Isnard and Leo Bridle in which the vermin—ahem, excuse me, urban animals of London carry their own tiny Olympic torch through the streets. It’ll make you see rats in a different light (i.e. a cute one). (Via The Mary Sue)
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/46296980[/vimeo]

• Excuse us, CNN, but why are you asking if the Olympic mascots are “cute or creepy”? Wenlock and Mandeville—yes, those are their names—were forged out of steel and rainbows. STEEL AND RAINBOWS, people! We all know the answer to their question is “absolutely adorable.” And if you don’t think a big-headed alien-type-thing can be cute, we implore you to watch E.T. immediately.
• Over at her blog, Katie Workman, author of The Mom 100 Cookbook, writes about making food for two young boys who aren’t always that easy to please (and what kids are?). But this week the tables turned, when her son Jack and his friend Aaron made breakfast for the whole family—specifically, popovers. This blog post has the double-whammy of cute kids and adorable little puffed breakfast pastries. Yum!

What with the rumor-mongering and mud-slinging that’s so prevalent in contemporary politics, we wouldn’t be surprised if all this election talk was getting you down. Luckily we have the solution: Kid President! This little POTUS knows what’s what, and he can also seriously cut a rug. Plus, he’s wise beyond his years: “If it doesn’t make the world better, don’t do it.” You’ve got our vote, Kid President!
[youtube]http://youtu.be/7bW7s98R088[/youtube]

•  On the one hand, this story about bears in Bearsville invading a home multiple times while the owners were out is scary. It’s sad that their kitchen was ransacked, although fortunately nobody was hurt. On the other hand, you adorable silly bears!! We know you probably got confused because you live in Bearsville, NY, but that’s not your house!! (Via Stephen Colbert)
• If we’re going to blog about cute things we might as well include this link to a piece on the origin of the word “cute.” It even has a totally cute graph.

We’re suckers for a cute animal video, and goats rank SUPER high on the hierarchy of animal adorability. Need proof? This tiny goat is doing parkour—off her friend’s back.
[youtube]http://youtu.be/5IuRzJRrRpQ[/youtube]

• Speaking of cute animal videos, enjoy these kittens drinking from tiny bottles. You win again, Cute Overload!!

—Avery, who’s off to practice some parkour

In this week’s Wednesday Cute: a rainbow pony made of paper, adorable kids reading in an adorable underground library, and the gift of literacy from a sweet dad to his high school grad. Happy Wednesday!

If you like books (duh!), you’ll love the Underground New York Public Library, a charming blog by a photographer who snaps pictures of people reading on the NYC subway. Below, two young bibliophiles devour Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw by Jeff Kinney and Warriors by Erin Hunter while their parents look on. (Here’s another of my favorites. And look, someone reading Water for Elephants!)

• Speaking of parents and books, awesome dad Bryan Martin gave his daughter Brenna the sweetest high school graduation gift of all time: a copy of the fairly typical Oh, the Places You’ll Go!—inscribed with messages from every one of her teachers, principals, and sports coaches since kindergarten. Awww.

We love all things paper-crafty (exhibit A: Paper Made!), and these animals are no exception. Artist Diana Herrera has made a veritable menagerie of adorable paper craft creatures; you can see them on her Flickr site divided into birds and other animals. Here, a rainbow horse! (via The Mary Sue)

• These papertoy monster robots are kind of intimidating…and also CUTE.
• Ever wonder what life looks like from a dog’s point of view? Check out this video of pups at play, captured by a camera attached to a dog’s collar. They are clearly having so. Much. FUN.
• You’re more of a cat person, you say? Here’s a live stream of seven kittens in a box. You’re welcome.

In honor of the “My Dog Needs Glasses!” Pinterest contest, enjoy this collection of bespectacled dogs (and cats).

• AND AN ENORMOUS PINK KNITTED RABBIT. Ahem.

—Avery, who wants to open a papercraft zoo

In April, my mom came across some quick and easy sorbet recipes she wanted to try, and purchased an ice cream maker. Her plan was to make a mango sorbet early on Easter morning, and serve it fresh and delicious that afternoon at our Easter brunch. But after an hour of processing in the ice cream maker, the result was more like an icy smoothie than a rich sorbet. We wound up serving yogurt with warm fruit compote instead. The alternate dessert was good, but we were disappointed that our attempt at using the ice cream maker hadn’t worked out.

This Memorial Day weekend we were determined to make a successful dessert with our new machine, so I brought Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home along for my visit, to see if we’d have better luck with Jeni Britton Bauer’s innovative and fail-proof methods.

My parents have lots of mint in their garden, so it seemed like a no-brainer to make Backyard Mint Ice Cream. We gathered a large handful of mint in the morning and, after washing and drying it, roughly tore the leaves and cold-soaked them in the ice cream base overnight. Jeni says that tearing the mint bruises the leaves and opens the oil pockets, releasing a minty scent into the cream.

The following afternoon we got the rest of the ingredients ready:

• 2 cups of whole milk
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch
• 1 ½ ounces (3 tablespoons) cream cheese, softened
• 1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1 ¼ cups heavy cream
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons light corn syrup

To prep, we mixed two tablespoons of the whole milk with the cornstarch in a small bowl to make a smooth slurry. (Note: We used Lactaid whole milk, and had very successful results, texture and lactose intolerance-wise.) In a medium bowl, we whisked cream cheese and salt until smooth. Finally, we put lots of ice and some water into a very large bowl. We set the three bowls aside for use later.

Then, we combined the remaining milk, the cream, sugar, and corn syrup in a 4-quart saucepan, and brought the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat. After it had boiled for 4 minutes, we removed the pan from the heat and gradually whisked in the cornstarch slurry. Then we brought the mixture back to a boil and cooked it, stirring with a heatproof spatula. After about one minute, when the mixture was slightly thickened, we removed the pan from the heat, and gradually whisked the hot milk mixture into the bowl with the cream cheese. When the mixture was smooth, we took the frozen mint out of the ice cream base and added it to the bowl.

We then poured the minty milk mixture into a one-gallon Ziploc freezer bag, sealed it, and submerged it in an ice bath. We let it sit for about thirty minutes to fully cool.

After about thirty minutes in the bath, Jeni says to refrigerate the bag for 4 to 12 hours to allow the flavors to steep. We had to get to a dinner, and wanted the ice cream to be ready for dessert, so we only let the mint steep for 3 hours.

To strain out the mint, we poured the milky mint mixture through cheesecloth and into the ice cream maker’s frozen canister. We turned on the ice cream maker and let it begin to spin.

Since we guessed that the mint flavor would be subtle because we weren’t letting it steep as long as was recommended, we decided to put dark chocolate freckles into the ice cream from the Buckeye State Ice Cream Recipe, to add a little extra something-something. To do this, we melted 4 ounces of chopped chocolate (55% to 70% cocoa) in a double broiler. Then we took it off the heat to let it cool until it was tepid but still fluid.

When the ice cream was thick and creamy and just about finished, we drizzled the melted chocolate slowly through the opening in the top of the ice cream machine and allowed it to solidify and break up in the ice cream for about two minutes.

When the ice cream was finished, we packed it into a storage container, pressed a sheet of parchment directly against the surface, and sealed it with an airtight lid. We froze the ice cream in the coldest part of our freezer until it was firm (about 4 hours).

After dinner, we invited our friends over to try the results, crossing our fingers that we wouldn’t have another incident of homemade dessert gone awry.

And we didn’t!

The ice cream was such a hit (a subtle hint of mint with bites of rich dark chocolate) that we decided to make Jeni’s Baked Rhubarb Frozen Yogurt the very next day. The result was equally delicious.

—Emily

(Anatomy of a book publishing ninja move, in two parts.)

Part 1. Imprint States Problem. 

Algonquin publishes important, conversation-altering AND policy-changing book about the effects of “nature-deficit disorder” on our children.

Part 2. Imprint Responds with Solutions.*

Workman publishes bible of good-old-fashioned play; sweet, gorgeous book full of outdoor activities for grannies and their green-thumbed visitors; creepily (Bugs) and gorgeously (Butterflies) visual field guides for twee explorers.

*These events are not actually connected and the timeline makes positively no sense. We’re just naturally wholesome.

And we like calling ourselves ninjas.

The last weekend in April saw Workmanites at events of all kinds, from a crafter’s wedding paradise at the Etsy wedding expo to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Sakura Matsuri, a Japanese cultural celebration. But the other big event of the weekend was the USA Science and Engineering Festival, a free event for families and kids to get up close and personal with real examples of science at work. I was lucky enough to represent Workman—and all of our awesome science books—at the two-day celebration, and I’m excited to share the details with you now!

The adventure began on Friday morning, when Maggie, John, and I hit the road in our amazing custom Brain Quest minivan!! This year marks Brain Quest’s 20th anniversary, and we’ve teamed up with Chrysler to give away over $25,000 in scholarship money and other prizes through the Brain Quest College Tuition Sweepstakes. Be sure to enter online!

Maggie and John are ready to hit the road in style.

It’s a long drive from New York City to Washington, D.C., but we came prepared: In addition to Brain Quest for the Car and Natan Last’s crossword puzzle book Word., we also brought a copy of All-American Car-I-Oke—and busted out a car-rocking rendition of “Proud Mary.”

Maggie bringing down the house---er, car.

When we arrived at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, we pulled the van into our booth, which was decked out with some truly amazing signage, made by our great studio team.

Brain Quest has never looked better.

After a good night’s sleep, we got up bright and early to greet the crowds! Thousands of eager science enthusiasts flocked to the convention center to get some hands-on scientific action. As you could probably guess, a huge part of our weekend was about Brain Quest. Lots of kids stopped by the booth to be quizzed on math and science topics from their grade levels. And we unveiled the brand new free Brain Quest app for iPad, iPhone, and Nook!

Jessica quizzes some Girl Scouts/future Marie Curies, while two others play with the new Brain Quest app for iPad (right).

Plus, just in case you think we were too easy on the Brain Questers, Selina fired questions at kids while they hula hooped.

"I'll take the physical challenge!"

We also had the distinct pleasure of hosting not one but two Workman authors in our booth. The first was Sean Connolly, author of The Book of Potentially Catastrophic Science and The Book of Totally Irresponsible Science. Sean performed experiments from those two books as well as from his most recent endeavor, The Book of Perfectly Perilous Math. Below, Sean Connolly demonstrates some of the more surprising principles of sound waves to young science buffs.

Stop, hey, what's that sound?

And did you ever hear the story of the inventor of chess, who asked only that his only reward for inventing such a spectacular game be a piece of rice for the first square of the board, two for the next, four for the next, and so on, doubling the amount for each square? Below, Sean uses a real chess board to show that the reward wasn’t as measly as you might think.

Scientists of all ages are amazed by Sean's math skills.

Also in attendance was Allen Kurzweil, author and inventor of Potato Chip Science, a book and kit that includes everything you need to complete 30 science experiments involving potatoes and potato chips. Allen showed us how to turn an ordinary potato into a mind-blowing display of Boyle’s Law, which states that volume and pressure are inversely related. In other words, as pressure increases, volume decreases (and vice versa). In other other words, load a chunk of raw potato into either end of a patented Potato Propulsion Pipe, apply pressure, and BAM! Potato goes flying! Science!!

A budding rocket scientist loads his Potato Propulsion Pipe.

No one can resist a mad scientist who advocates launching veggies in the air.

The USA Science and Engineering Festival was a truly wonderful experience, and I’m so glad I got to be a part of it. Seeing all those kids learning about the way science affects their everyday lives proved something I’ve been pretty sure of all along: It’s FUN to be smart!

—Avery, who got to stand about 50 yards from her childhood hero Bill Nye the Science Guy. BILL! BILL! BILL! BILL!

I wish we’d had Katie Workman’s The Mom 100 Cookbook when I was growing up.

When I was a kid, there was very little I wouldn’t eat. Broccoli? Bring it on. Oysters? Okay! Something foreign and unidentifiable? Sure, I’ll try anything once. I didn’t often complain about what was put on my plate—and that’s why I’m my parents’ favorite.

My sister, on the other hand—aaargh. Every night was a battle of the wills as my mom plied my sister to eat and the girl just flat-out refused. If it were up to her, Meredith would’ve eaten fish sticks and mac and cheese for every meal of her childhood. And sure, I guess there’s something sort of appealing about that (no…no, there’s not), but it’s just not a viable option—not in terms of health (hello, vegetables?!) and not in terms of practicality, either. Because what mom has the time and the energy to whip up a healthy, tasty meal for not only herself (and potentially a spouse), but also a handful of kids all clamoring for different variations on the same old bland kids’ dinners? No mom, that’s who!

Enter Katie Workman, chef extraordinaire and savior to moms everywhere. With The Mom 100 Cookbook, Katie has assembled a hundred recipes that are guaranteed to please everyone in your family, from the budding gourmands to the pickiest of picky eaters. Every recipe is healthy and delicious, and the excellent “Fork in the Road” feature highlights ways in which moms can cater to kids of all levels of food-adventurousness.

Katie recently spoke with a few local moms about their most common cooking predicaments. How many of these have you experienced? (I’ll admit it: Even I don’t love fish.)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h57gr04xTkQ&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]

The Mom 100 Cookbook comes out on April 3 of this year. You can preorder copies now.

In addition to the Westminster Dog Show and the Dog Writers Association Awards (what a busy week!), this week also brought the 2012 Toy Fair to New York City. Yes, the Toy Fair is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: a big room full of toy-makers, toy-sellers, toy-buyers, and toy-enthusiasts, sharing their products and ideas. There were board games and building blocks and bicycles and even some books—a real wonderland for anyone who likes to have fun.

Workman was there to represent our numerous kids’ books, but the star of the hour was BrainQuest, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year! Below are some photo highlights of the event.

The biggest BrainQuest decks ever! Fun to be smart indeed.

Honk if you love BrainQuest!

Me realizing my dream of meeting a LEGO minifigure (or maybe "maxifigure" is more appropriate).

An awesome "Bananagrams" book and calendar display at the Bananagrams booth.

Can you spot Waldo in this enormous mural?

—Avery, who wishes every day was Toy Fair day

Happy Valentine’s Day! Last year we celebrated with some adorable babies reading/snuggling with their beloved copies of Sandra Boynton’s book Snuggle Puppy. Now it’s been a year, and those babies are babies no more! Well, yes, they definitely still are—but now they’re mobile! They love to crawl and climb and run and play! And when they’re done bouncing around, they still love to read.

Recently* the Workman office hosted a party for the many kids of Workman employees. The results, as you’ll see below, were incredibly cute. Enjoy these photos from the most recent Workman play date; they’re sure to melt your heart, chocolate or otherwise.

Group publisher Bob Miller serenades Charlotte...

...while Scarlet rocks out on the tambourine...

...and Trey and Lorca break it down on the dance floor!

Levi loves bubbles! (And who doesn't?)

Vallen knows that books can be enjoyed both rightside up AND upside down.

Caleb samples the snacks (and books) on offer...

...while Isabella enjoys storytime with Mom.

Evie's ready for a day at the beach!

Some babies, like Madeleine, were still a little young to join the action...

...but that doesn't mean that they, like Serenity here, didn't enjoy watching as much as we adults did!

*Okay, you caught me: This event was actually a few months ago. (No, we don’t wear shorts and sandals in February around here…) But the pictures just seemed so right—so sweet and cute and fun—for Valentine’s Day that we couldn’t resist sharing them today.

Call us biased, but we think the best presents come in book form. Since we’ve recently welcomed the newest little Workman-ites into our extended office family, that got us thinking about our favorite gifts for new parents. Here are just a few of our picks for the new mom, new dad, and mama-to-be:

• Snuggle Puppy by Sandra Boynton – What could be better than a great big hug in book form? It’s the perfect love letter from parent to child.

• Beautiful Oops by Barney Saltzberg – A sweet book with a powerful message: When you make a mistake, think of it as an opportunity to make something beautiful!

• Gallop by Rufus Butler Seder – Every turn of the page brings a new animal to life: a horse in full gallop, a turtle swimming, an eagle soaring. It’s impossible not to flip the pages again and again!

• Indestructibles - Beautifully illustrated books that babies can really sink their teeth into! They’re waterproof, tear-proof–baby-proof!–and truly impossible to destroy. (Trust us, we’ve tried.)

• What to Expect the First Year by Heidi Murkoff – Why not get something for the new mama, too? This book has absolutely everything parents needs to know about their baby’s first year from one of the most trusted names in pregnancy.