The Squeeze

We squeezed in Six Flags Sunday. Well, we were there practically the entire day so I don't really know if it qualifies as being squeezed into our plans but we had fun. We walked the entire park and back again so Ava could get some exercise before she has to lay around for a week.

We began with the whale and tiger shows. Then we rode some basic rides like the trains or the other easy ones for kids Ava's size. Then we rode some other family rides like Thrilla Gorilla. This ride doesn't have a height requirement oddly enough since it goes really fast. Ava loved it at first but about two thirds of the way through she was done. It lasts a little too long in my opinion but Olivia loved it of course. The higher, faster, bumpier, spinnier they are the more she loves the ride. We then rode the waterfall raft ride and a roller coaster and then moved on.

Then we went to pet the elephant, touch the butterflies, view the shark tank which Olivia could not have cared less for...strange since she normally loves fish, sharks, or any other aquatic life. Ava wanted to pet the string rays so we went there for awhile and then headed home. It was a long day of walking. The girls enjoyed themselves and it was a fun family outing.

Yesterday we squeezed in a trip to Chuck E. Cheese. We had a few tokens left from the last time we were there so we brought those along. The girls played a few games, found some extra tickets, crawled around in that tube thing, probably got infected with a bunch of germs, and then spent the tickets to buy Olivia a pair of earrings and Ava a pink lizard. Then back home we went to eat lunch and take a nap.

Today the girls are playing in the tent that is set up in the livingroom while we are waiting for the hospital to call since they called this morning and said they would be calling after 11 A.M. today with Ava's appointment time. Then afterwards we are going out to ride the bikes and play outside for awhile.

Tomorrow we have Ava's shindig and St. Patrick's Day. I will be making corned beef in the crockpot in the morning before we leave so it will cook all day while we are at the hospital so no one has to come home and think about, "what's for dinner?" Tammy is watching Olivia tomorrow and since today is Tammy's birthday I set out a cake mix and frosting so together they can bake her a cake while we are gone. Olivia loves being in the kitchen and helping and this will be nice for her to have time without Ava trying to stand on the chair next to her.

Friday Olivia and Dave are headed to a class field trip to the Jelly Belly Factory. Ava and I will be sitting around watching movies all day, playing our games, and reading our books. Doesn't sound too exciting I'm sure but having a day with one kid all day and the ability to sit on my ass in the process- priceless.

Hopefully we are done squeezing in going anywhere else in for this week. The weekend is already full from Olivia's eye appointment on Saturday, we have to go back to the accountant as well to get our tax results, send my mom a birthday card, and attend to anything extraneous that may pop up. I think I need a vacation day without kids but to be able to be home alone to "just be". That would be nice. I bet Dave wishes for the same thing...

Spice Cake

Thanks to the last two days we spent in bed we have all recovered successfully and are doing fabulous. Unfortunately while we were recovering, my laptop was taken over by some pretty malicious malware and became super infected to the point I couldn't use it. I called Dave and his IT guru from work gave me an idea as to how to fix it. It worked and now my laptop is actually faster than it was before. So to thank Dave's IT guru, Ava and I made a delicious spice cake this morning while Miss Olivia was at school. Later after nap Ava woke up first and was just in time to help me make cream cheese frosting from scratch. She must smell it in the air when I'm about to step foot in the kitchen. She always ends up being right there behind me. Now Ava wants to lick the cake but she has been told we have to wait for Daddy to get home and some of the cake will be going to work in the morning. "That's not fun," she told me.

Here's Ava measuring the cream cheese while inspecting it's flavor.

Yep, tastes like cream cheese.
After sticking her entire head inside the measuring cup she managed to smear it all over her face. Go figure.

Now that the ingredients have been added, it takes a strong arm to wield the mixer.
The young Paula Dean.
And now to frost...
And then there's the smelling of the cake at which point Ava doesn't actually sniff the cake but instead she blows air out of her nose. You're thinking a cake covered in snot right? Exactly.
Hopefully it tastes as good as it looks. Ava did a great job in the kitchen today. She is becoming quite the cook.

We're On VACATION!!!

And being that we are on vacation we packed our best formal wear. Ahh the princesses have emerged. And what's better than a princess... one that's covered in cookie dough and making ginger bread men with Grammie. Silly girl!

And here's the official cookie tester... (you may wonder why she is sitting in a high chair since she is way past the point of needing one, but it is just so she can see over the back of the couch while she eats her cookie. If she sits at the table, she can only view half the screen and well, that's no fun.)

The baker has to test the cookies as well.

Oops someone got a "time-out" and chose to stand in the corner...which princess could that be...?

The Official 4th Birthday!

Happy Birthday Olivia My Sweet Peanut!!! or as Dave would say, Peanutbutter Pantalonies...but he'd sing it in a song.

Here's the birthday girl a minute after she woke up today:


I can't believe my little baby is 4 today. She was just a tiny little innocent bundle of joy 1460 days ago. She had a hard birth with her heart rate dropping and then needing to be vacuumed out, but after that she was perfect. She even had a little smile on her face. She looked nothing like what I expected, acted nothing like I imagined, and yet she was and is still a perfect little angel.

She woke up today singing a song about being 4. She was beaming all morning long until we arrived at the doctor. Dave had today off so he went in to get her 4 shots. Nothing like bursting that birthday bubble. But afterwards we went home and had lunch and took a no-nap (you know when they lay in there like they are napping and then appear at the door when their nap should be over yet they never really slept), and then Dave took both girls to see the lizards along with other reptiles at the library.



When they get back we are going to dinner with some friends and then Dave and Liv are going to bake cupcakes for school tomorrow. I get to fold and hang up laundry... how'd that work out?

I'd have to say that Olivia has enjoyed her birthday so far. I wish she could shake that terrible cough though. Ava is loudly anticipating her third birthday and is eager for her Ki-lan cake.

Our Chocolatey Creation

We are all anxiously awaiting Dave's arrival.

Wordless Wednesday #24

Wordless Wednesday Bakers

Manic Monday #15 Baking Season

This is the season for baking in my house. During the summer we buy most all of our cookies and cakes because the weather is so hot and it costs so much to run the air conditioner all day long. But now that the weather has cooled down, ok it is 80 degrees today and supposed to be hotter tomorrow but it is definitely cooler than it was over the summer, we can now bake cookies all day long. Then we hand them out to all of our neighbors and friends at Dave's job.

Here's a few pictures of the baking team...










Yip those cookies taste as good as they look...Yummy!!

Those are just are first batch for the season and we have many cakes and pumpkin bread loafs to make too. With my helpers we should be able to make great treats!

Manic Monday image courtesy of Jannaverse.

Change in the Weather

Yesterday the weather shifted dramatically for California. We got rain...ok so it was a mere sprinkle but it still counts as rain. Since we weren't going to be playing outside, Olivia and I baked cookies.

Livy got dressed in her apron and hat and climbed onto the kitchen chair. She's so big now she can actually help me cook and do a great job at the same time. It's cool. Ok so I'm partial- I am her mother. Anyway, we decided to make sugar cookies and roll them into sprinkles and/or cinnamon and sugar.

First, Livy got out HER scissors and cut open the bag. I know- she has scissors now!!! It seems like just yesterday she was bouncing in her jumpy thingy. She skillfully dumped the bag into the bowl and began to shake it vigorously to get the rest of the cookie mix out of the bag. Wow a cloud of cookie dough dust goes a long way. She added the water and began to stir. She was so proud of herself. Then came her hands into the bowl and straight into her mouth. Apparently dough doesn't taste that great when it's not fully mixed. *Cough. Cough.*

Once the dough was formed we broke off some chunks and began rolling it into balls. I made the portions pretty even so she could roll, squeeze, smoosh, flatten, and then bite it before putting it into the sprinkles. Once done she put all of her blobs onto the the cookie sheet in one big mound. "Ready for the oven" she exclaimed.

We made several cookie sheets full of cookies and after they baked and cooled we went to the family room and ate our fresh baked goodies. Ava wanted more like usual so Livy got to pass them out. It was a fun filled rainy morning that I can't wait to do again. It was such a kick watching Liv have such a great time.

Labor Day Weekend Rocked!!!

I love three day weekends that turn into 4 days of fun. We jumped into the car Friday night to visit Grammie. We always say we are going to Grammie's house but it is really Grammie & Papa's house. Liv came up with that so it just kinda stuck. Anyway, all day Friday we talked about how after our nap we would be heading to Grammies. When Livy woke up she was pumped up and ready to put on her shoes. On small glitch...Dave was not home from work yet. She did not seem to care. We were going to Grammies and that was final. Whew. Shortly thereafter Dave arrived and we high-tailed it to the car, buckled up, started our movie, and buckled the dog in too.

Livy was so excited. She knew she was going to go swimming at Grammies and had a baby and stroller waiting there for her. We were excited because we had a full-time babysitter, free food, a hot-tub and pool, and all the liquor we could swallow. Actually I was really excited because we were getting Olivia's big girl bed to bring back with us. This was also going to be the first time Livy would be sleeping at Grammies and it was not in a toddler bed but a real big girl queen size bed.

We arrive a few hours later and the girls were so happy to see my parents. They showed off their talents...Ava using the potty and Olivia riding the scooter. Amazingly enough both girls went to bed without any hesitation. Ava always does so that really wasn't a surprise but I didn't know what Olivia would think about this big bed. She seemed to like it at first but then wanted Dave to lay with her until she went to sleep. Mission accomplished.

My mom had bought a bunch of gifts for the girls so they spent the rest of the weekend playing in the pool, running crazy throughout the house, pushing the strollers, lugging around their dollies, eating, eating, eating, bowling using the Wii, and making and playing with peanut butter playdoh. Olivia ate most of it within the first half an hour and she had a great time "baking" with her dad. Dave likes to do one-on-one activities with the girls to spend quality time with them and it's also nice that they focus on him and forget about me for a little while.

Grammie also went crazy in the clothing department. Oivia now has a well stocked winter wardrobe. Ava has all the old stuff from Olivia so they are complete in wardrobes for the winter. She also bought Livy some monkey sheets and a quilt for her bed. Ok ok she bought me some clothes too. Grammie still loves me.

On our last night we had a bowling challenge. Somehow, some freakish way, my mom is holding the highest score in bowling. No one can understand this phenomenon but earlier in the day she and I started playing, while Dave was being our bartender. She racked up this really high score and then the rest of the night the three of us literally killed ourselves trying to beat her. The next morning I woke up and moved my arm...omg...the pain. Dave and my mom were all ready up and voicing their complaints of all over body pain. My mom chimes in with, "I guess 5 hours of bowling will do that to you." Um, where were your words of wisdom last night? I remember last night's words were something in the way of... keep the wine coming... no where in there does she say," and oh BTW you'll be screwed tomorrow." Thanks Grammie. We all left Tuesday with our battle scars. Ava got a huge bruise on her chin from falling down in the living room, and Dave, Olivia, and I are suffering from Wii's version of carpal tunnel. It was fantastic. We had fun, we played, we relaxed, we ate, and we slept. This was everything I could have asked for in a vacation.

When we got home a neighbor happened to be outside so he offered to help Dave set up the new bed and break down the toddler bed. He was such a great help. I spent the hour putting away Olivia's closet and then Dave went to work. He started teaching again...

Night came around and it was time for Olivia to get into her big girl bed. She was sooo excited. She looked at those monkey sheets and climbed right in. I kissed her good night and closed the door. Then she cried, "no big girl bed, no monkey sheets, old bed." Huh. We can't exactly bring back the other bed just like that. So I told her it was ok and that I'd come back in 10 minutes to check on her. She was ok with that so I left. About 8 minutes later she cried again. I explained that it had not been 10 minutes yet and that I would be back in 5 minutes. Again she said ok. So in about 15 minutes I went back in, her eyes were sleepy and her head was turned to the side. I told her I was there to check on her and I would be back in 10 more minutes.

7 am Olivia proudly exclaimed that she slept in her big girl bed and that she is a big girl. My little baby has become my little girl. Makes me happy and sad all at the same time. Ava is drifting farther and farther away from babyhood too. She wants to be like Olivia so badly, she's growing up way too fast too. Her little smooshy face is starting to lose it's round baby like exterior and becoming a little girlie face. I take a lot of photos and movies to capture every moment I can.

Wordless Wednesday #9 ~ Baking

Baking for Wordless Wednesday