Heidi makes a visit!

All of us love when Heidi and Poppie make a visit out to Denver...family trips out West are few and far between so we cherish the trips when they occur :) I should say that trips for us out East to Chicago are also few and far between these days too... Only Heidi made a visit during this trip because Poppie had a corvette test that had been done...and he passed with flying colors as we all knew he would.

Sophia and Henry love to visit Heidi at the hotel and we all love the delicious brunch...

These are my favorites...I love to see Heidi reading with the kiddies. I know it isn't her favorite thing to do BUT the kids, especially Sophia at this age, love to read with her. Personally, since I don't remember (for obvious reasons...), I love to see Heidi settling in on the bed reading with the kiddies...

...and who wouldn't love a back scratch from Heidi?

And we couldn't miss a trip to the Cricket!

And we had to top off my birthday evening with a trip to my new favorite Mexican restaurant! I honestly don't think we could have eaten ANY more in the past few days...

Thank you Heidi for coming out for a visit, we loved having you!!

Henry's love for construction

Two days ago I promised Henry that I would take him to Fillmore Plaza (next to Starbucks as Henry understands it...).  It is indeed next to Starbucks, a one block stretch that is currently a 'plaza' but they are during it into a street for cars.  I drive Henry by almost every day so he can see the trucks...we don't actually get out of the car, we just drive by.

After we dropped Sophia off at school, we drove to Starbucks and then we walked over to the work site.  Mind you, it was a very cold 37 and of course, I was only wearing my down vest for a jacket.  Brrrrr....  

I was committed though, I wanted our little man to enjoy...and he did!  

yes, you can see through the fence!

 

  

My little helpers...

What a fun afternoon making some favorite new snacks!  As much as I miss the little bundle of joys I call babies, I just love that my kiddies can actually help around the house including the kitchen. 

First, we made some tangerine juice.  Yes, you are correct to pause a bit, it wasn't good.  But I had a whole bag of yummy tangerines that no one was eating so Sophia and I decided to make some orange juice (as Sophia understood it), aka tangerine juice (as mom knew it).  It really wasn't good but as far as Sophia knew, she had so much fun squeezing all of those tangerines into the little juicer.  She drank it too but then we decided to 'save it for later'...which by the way, in our house means, "I am just being polite, I don't really like it nor do I want to finish it but I don't want to come out and say it directly to you"  :)

Next on our list was some outstanding Gobble Up Granola snacks.  This will be a new staple in our family!  A little bit sticky but it was fun and now we have a great new 'healthy-esque' kiddie snack that is so easy to make.  I shouldn't say kiddie snack because Mom and Dad can't keep their hands out of the batch either!

 

One wish...

This was going to be my blog posting for Thursday but...things were delayed a bit.

Cecil has been working a LOT for the past several weeks, even months.  Over the past few weeks, I have been eating dinner with the kiddies at night (which I LOVE doing (and we always do on the weekends with daddy) and we are going to try to do from now one...even if we do have to eat late! :) )  In any event, Sophia and Henry love when we light candles so I decided to light one on this dinner night, and perhaps make it a tradition.  Sophia and Henry, let's make a wish...le'ts make a family wish before we blow out the candles.

Sophia said, "I wish for Daddy".  Now my worry was that this would make Cecil feel worse than he already felt for being away at work so much.  BUT, the thing is...is that Sophia said it with a smile on her face.  I had been telling Sophia that this (well last week now...) was such a big and important week for daddy.  She didn't seem to be saying it in a way of, 'I want daddy'...she truly seemed to mean that she was wishing daddy good thoughts.

We love you and hope that this is all that you had hoped for, for so long.  This is a tremendous accomplishment and we H-O-P-E that you feel sooo proud, because we do.

We love you so much.

How sweet it is...

Birthday parties are so much fun!  Well, let's be honest...sometimes they are so much fun :)  Who wouldn't have fun decorating their own cake??

Pehaps i shouldn't have spoon-fed myself sprinkles?

Maybe not, they were delicious and who doesn't love green hands!

I hesitate writing this down for fear that it will come back and haunt me some day...  So, as you can see, Sophia had a grand time decorating her own great big "cavity" that we called a cake.  Once we returned home after the party, I left it on the counter because there was no room at the Inn...I mean fridge.  One day turned into two...which turned into 3 days left out on the counter.  I figured that perhaps Sophia had forgotten about the cake so with only a smidge of guilt, I threw it in the trash and figured it was a long lost memory.  I mean, after 3 days on the counter I couldn't very well feed her any of the 'gone bad' cake, could I?

So OF COURSE, later that day, Sophia asked me where the cake was because she had forgotten about the cake and wanted a piece.  I froze...what do I say?  Do I tell her the truth and tell her that I pitched it??  So I did what any good mom would do, I said, "Oh Sophia, I am so sorry...Mommy had an accident and dropped the cake so I had to throw it out".  Oh the look on her face was just full of sadness AND disappointment to top it off, just like a big red cherry on top.  I felt awful. 

Fast forward 2 days and I am walking into school and Miss Karen, a teacher (who was also at the birthday party because she has a little one at the school...I don't know her that well because she is not yet Sophia's teacher...) approaches me and says, "Mom dropped the cake".  I was thinking..."what is this woman talking about??"  She then said, "Sophia came up to me and the first thing she said was, 'my mom dropped the cake'.  Miss Karen looked at me and winked and said, 'Sure you did!'.  Oh how I love when fellow moms make us feel better...we all do some things here and there that perhaps we shouldn't do but deep down maybe we know it is best :)  

After looking at pictures of the cake, would you have done the same thing?

Good ol' fashioned bribery...

I may be wrong about Sophia, I hope I am wrong, but i have this sneaky little feeling that our little girl isn't going to be a super duper neat freak.  I have been trying desperately to get her to clean her room, even tidy it up...but I usually have to ask at LEAST 7 times for her to do it.  And by that point I have a clump of my own hair in my hands because it may drive me to madness :)  A pair of undies over in the corner, some pj's lying in a heap, a pull-up (a dry pull-up at least!) tossed somewhere, anywhere...  The bed needs to be made, etc., etc., blah, blah...  Although, I do have to say that I always felt the 'making of the bed' would be the trickiest one for you because, the bed is a bit high and the pillows are European and Queen size, no small feet for a pip-squeak like you...  Typically, you drag one of the pillows, over to the bed and tell me that it is just too big and heavy for you to get onto the bed.  And pulling the covers up?  Forget about it...

So I turned to bribery.  While we roamed the aisles of Target searching for a princess doll to give to your good friend Caroline for her birthday, you cried and cried because you wanted another doll.  "Mom, I can't just have 2 dolls, I need THREEEEEE."   Henry, you cried too...you wanted the police car.  Cry, cry, cry...until Henry, you looked at me with those big crocodile tears, cocked your head ever so slightly and said, "Next time mommy?"  Henry knows better than anyone how to melt the ol' heart...

In any event, I told Sophia that if she wanted the doll she would have to earn her doll and truly begin to clean up her room without me having to ask 7 times.  One or two times is acceptable. ;)  She has been doing a great job!  That room has never been tidier (well that isn't entirely true...).  

Unlike yesterday, I did NOT get the head start on my day that I enjoyed so much yesterday.  As a result, I was racing around trying to get myself ready plus the kids.  I told Sophia to clean her room and off I went to dry my hair.  I returned to Sophia's room and much to my surprise her room was clean and her bed was M-A-D-E!  I about passed out...  I didn't even have to specifically ask her to make her bed.  Covers pulled up?  Yes!  Pillows on the bed in the right spot?  Yes! Undies someplace other than the middle of the floor?  Yes! I was just over-the-moon happy and I could tell Sophia was quite proud of herself.  Yippee!!!  That princess doll may not be too far away after all...

And Henry?  I have been trying to explain that he too can get the police car IF he stops hitting, pinching and scratching.  He just looks at me and says, "Why mommy?"  I think Henry may have a little farther to go... :)

Getting a head start and loving it...

Today was probably my 2nd day of getting a good quality head start on the day...and i loved it just as much as i did the first time.  Why can't I do this everyday?  I don't know...  Actually, I do know, i am just TIRED.

Dad had to be up bright and early at 4:30 a.m, in order to be 'wheels up' by 6am.  I was awake and didn't go back to sleep.  By 6am, I decided to go downstairs and get the day started.  

Thursday is swim day...our day doesn't truly need to begin until 10am when we MUST leave the house.  As a result, it is usually "pancake day".  Of course, the last (several!) times I have gone to any number of grocery stores, I have forgotten to buy pancake mix.  

With this uncharacteristic morning energy and my desire to start the day off well, I pulled out my Mark Bittman's cookbook, How to Cook Everything. The pancake recipe was delicious and so easy!  No more buying a pre-made mix for us!

This is how the table looked at 6:30am...never does this happen!

yes, that is a chocolate milk mustache!

Ready to dig in!

We love our grapefruit juice!