It's partay time!

Today we celebrated Abbie's 4th birthday with a party at the park. Abbie has been really into Mickey Mouse Clubhouse lately so I wanted to do a Mickey/Minnie Mouse themed party. Here she is wearing her Minnie ears.

Leah giving them a try!

Abbie's friends Brigham, Nora, and Grace.

Notice the Dora the Explorer cake.... I made the mistake of taking Abbie with me to the store to pick out her cake, pretty confident that she would agree with me and want to get the cute Mickey Mouse cake that I had seen there that looked like this.

Well, as soon as we got to the bakery counter she saw a Dora themed cake and starting freaking out over it, say that she wanted that one. I pointed out this cool Mickey one and told her that we were having a Mickey Mouse party and tried change her mind but she wouldn't budge. So we ordered the Dora cake with bright green and orange frosting that had nothing to do with all the red, black, pink, and blue decorations I had already bought.

I almost called the bakery to change the order later that day but finally decided against it because I didn't want to chance Abbie having a total tantrum/meltdown at her party when I brought out the wrong cake! If I just would have ordered it at another time when she wasn't with me and she didn't know that the Dora cake was an option, she would have been fine with the Mickey cake and probably would have loved it! And if I weren't such a perfectionist and control freak, it wouldn't have bothered me but because I had driven all over town this week to find all the cute Mickey stuff, I really wanted the cake to match.

Even so, after all that drama, she loved the cake, it tasted great, and all the other kids thought it was cool too. They didn't seem to notice it was different than everything else, I mean, they're only 4! And it won't be long until Abbie is into princesses, Barbie, and Hannah Montana so I should enjoy this innocent stage while I can.

Anyway, Abbie was really excited to open all her presents and got lots of fun new toys! (More Dora, I know, I can't escape it!)

Leah enjoying the goody bag and her sucker. She loves suckers and I rarely let her have one because she makes such a sticky mess. Today was no exception, she actually got it stuck in one of her ponytails soon after this picture was taken!

All the Dads pushing the kids on the swings. What a perfect summer-like day for a party!


Here are the kids playing with their bubbles. Thank you all for coming and having a great time with us!

My baby is 4 years old!

Abbie's birthday was today! She has been so excited to turn 4, she 's been talking about it for months! She has been sleeping in a crib up until now but we told her she could have her big girl bed when she turned 4 so Jared set it up tonight. She was so excited to put on her pajamas and go to bed tonight and so far, she hasn't come out of her room so we're crossing our fingers that this continues. At preschool today they made her a crown and sang her a song and she got to share a little treat with all her friends. We are having a little party for her on Saturday so that's when the real fun will happen. She can't wait to sing Happy Birthday, blow out her candles, eat some cake, open presents, and play with her friends. Don't you just love a child's enthusiasm for simple things?

Since Abbie is 4 years old now, I thought I would post 4 things that I love about her.

1. That she is so excited about everything and always makes me smile with her happy attitude. If I'm having a bad day or is mad about something she'll ask "Are you mad at the computer?" (or dishwasher or garage door or whatever isn't working at the moment) and then she'll give me a hug or say "It's okay, Mommy". She is always singing or dancing or doing silly things to make me laugh and it's hard to stay mad when she's around.

2. That she is always so willing to help out around the house, whether it be taking out the garbage, helping to clean up toys, help make dinner or cookies, change Leah's diaper, get something in the storage room, or check the mail. Sometimes I just want to do it myself because it's faster but she always wants to be right there helping. Someday, when she can do these things by herself, this attitude will come in handy!

3. How several times a day she'll ask "What are we gonna do today?" and is usually happy with the answer, whether it is hang out at home with Leah, help Mommy clean or run errands, go to preschool or a friend's house, or go outside on a walk or to work on the yard. She is a pretty easy going, adaptable kid and doesn't have a hard time when I need to leave in the evenings for something. She'll just say "Have fun, Mommy, see you later!"

4. How she is growing up to be such a fun kid and is starting to be a good older sister to Leah. She is starting to be more creative and comes up with funny things to do or say that I know she didn't learn from us. She is also starting to share more with Leah, involve her in her play, and wants to be with her from sunup to sundown. It's fun to see her evolve into a little girl with her own personality and quirks and watch her grow and learn new things. I can't wait to see what the next 4 years bring. I love you, Abbie!

P.S. Here's some pictures of past birthdays so you can see how she's grown!

My kind of town, Chicago is...

We finally made it back to Chicago! It's been four years since we've been there (for Jared's certification exams) and we've been wanting to go back ever since. For those of you who don't know, we lived in Chicago for six months back in 2002 when Jared went to Northwestern for his Orthotic schooling. We had the time of our lives living there right on Lake Shore Drive and visiting museums, eating out at all the great restaurants, and just enjoying big city life. Then we moved to Michigan to do a residency and had kids and just haven't made it back. Well, we finally got the chance with a work-related conference and so I lined up some great babysitters for the girls and we took off for three days! Here's Jared visiting his old stomping grounds. Do you think he planned to wear that?

The Wrigley Building across from our hotel. Isn't the city beautiful at night? We walked up and down the Magnificent Mile a couple times going to different places and it was fun to remember all our favorite stores and restaurants. We went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner one night and Ghiradelli's for ice cream another night. We walked up to the Hancock Tower on Michigan Ave, over to Northwestern University and Navy Pier, down along the lake front, and back in along the Chicago River the first night.

I was really there, see? I wasn't just dreaming!

The next day I walked around for hours south of the river and came across this by the Art Museum. It's called the Bean and reflects the buildings and skyline and was just really different and cool. It wasn't there back in 2002, I'm pretty sure I would remember it!

I also did an Architectural boat tour which was really cool. I learned more things about all these skyscrapers in 90 min than I learned from 6 months wandering around and reading two guide books before. This was the one thing that I really wanted to do this trip because I didn't take the time to do it back then.

Here we are eating at our favorite restaurant, Giordano's Pizza, which lived up to the expectations we had built up in our minds the past four years. We could eat this everyday (we used to almost once a week) but good thing we don't now! I don't know what we're laughing at but doesn't that pizza look heavenly?

This was the first time we've been away from both kids overnight and I was a little nervous about how they would do but they (and the babysitter) did great, everyone survived and was alive when we got back. It was nice to not have to worry about the kid's schedules and all their stuff (strollers, diapers, clothes, food, tantrums in public, etc.) for just a few days and to visit some of our favorite places.

We did good representing UM while we were there, notice Jared's shirt and hat. And I had a UM umbrella which came in handy since it rained all day Friday and Saturday. It didn't put a damper on our mood, though, because we were in Chicago, baby, without the babies! It doesn't get much better than that!

Playing a little putt-putt...

We went miniature golfing this weekend and had a lot of fun. We haven't been since last summer and Leah has never played but she quickly got the hang of it and had fun trying to hit the ball with her little plastic club. Here she is measuring the angle of the slope compared to the ball's location on the green before she goes for a hole in one...


Abbie is an old pro now and was doing pretty good, she probably got the ball in the hole in less tries than me. She was very sad, though, to see her ball go down the tube at the 18th hole, she didn't want to stop playing.

Here they are helping Daddy make a critical shot and giving their professional advice. Abbie: "If you hit it like this, it's bound to go in." Leah: "If you just pick up the ball and put it in the hole with your hand, it's much easier. Why do we have these silly clubs?"

Now who won? I have no idea, we didn't keep score because we were too busy having fun. I would guess it was Abbie though, she was the only one taking it seriously, making sure she got the ball in each hole before moving on. Jared and I were a little preoccupied making sure Leah didn't run off and fall in the river, off the bridge, down the stairs, or get caught in the path of someone else's moving ball. Don't you just love toddlers!

Abbie's 1st day of preschool

Abbie started preschool this week! She was so excited all weekend and kept asking when she could go to school. On the actual day, I think she got a little nervous because a few times that morning she said "I don't want to go to preschool today, I want to stay home and play with you and Leah." But when it came time to go, she was excited to put on her new princess backpack, walk down the street, and go inside her classroom. She had a lot of fun this week painting, singing songs, reading books, playing outside in the sandbox, and doing all the other things they did for three hours. I really like the teachers and their classroom and Abbie seems to like the other kids and her teachers so far so I think it's a good match. Her teacher today said that she noticed that Abbie is so enthusiastic about everything and that she wishes she could bottle that joy up! Sometimes I wish the same thing! Here's some pictures of the big day:






Sniff! :) My little girl is growing up!

Oh, for the love of salsa!

How do you go from this?

To this?

It's a little thing called salsa!

I made this delicious homemade salsa from fresh tomatoes from our garden last night and it was heavenly. The only problem was the jalepenos! I had made the same salsa a few days ago and didn't have any problem cutting the jalepeno bare-handed so I figured it was fine to do it again. About an hour after cutting and seeding 1 jalepeno, I started to feel burning in the fingertips of my left hand, kind of like a bad sunburn. After running my hand under cold water and using an ice pack, the stinging just seemed to get worse, spreading down my fingers and under the nails.

So I turned to the internet for what to do (http://www.tipking.co.uk/tip/7275.html) and started trying all sorts of interesting remedys to help with the intense stinging. I tried a baking soda paste several times, rubbing alcohol, milk, salt, honey, soap, Neosporin, Ibuprophen, and even Desitin (diaper rash cream). Nothing seemed to work except the milk, as long as it was cold. As soon as my hand dried or the milk got warm, it started to sting again. After a couple hours of pain, I finally gave up with all these crazy options (some of the ones I didn't try was orange juice, toothpaste, olive oil, mud, vodka, urine, gasoline, and paint thinner!) wrapped my hand up in a towel with an ice pack, and went to sleep.

This morning I woke up and guess what? No pain! I couldn't believe it! I don't know if it was just the time passing that finally worked or something I did that helped but it feels so good to have my hand back and not be in so much pain. The inconvenience of using gloves while handling peppers is much better than dealing with that pain and I didn't even have it that bad, compared to some of the people on the website above. Now for those of you who would like to try my salsa recipe, here it is. But you have to promise me you'll use gloves!

Fresh Tomato Salsa

4 tomatoes, chopped and drained
1/2 onion, diced
1/2 green pepper, diced
1 green jalepeno, minced
1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped
1/2 tsp minced garlic (1 clove)
1 Tbsp lime juice
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar

Mix everything together and add more peppers, garlic, and salt to taste if needed. Chill for 1 hour. Makes about 4 cups.

Grandma Reita's Bread

In my family Grandma's bread is lengendary. We all grew up smelling it as soon as we walked into her house and eating big rolls of it with butter and honey. I finally tracked down the recipe, through a sister who got it from another sister who watched Grandma make it and estimated how much of this or that she threw in since Grandma never used measuring cups. It could be that some if the ingredients were just something she happened to have on hand that day and wanted to use up. Nevertheless, I tried it out the other day and it turned out pretty good! Mind you, this isn't like your typical sissy fluffy white bread that most people make. Grandma was a serious health fanatic and it was only whole grains and natural ingredients for her. So here is the recipe, try it if you dare!

Combine and let sit for 5 minutes:
3 cups warm water
2 Tbsp yeast
1 cup honey (seems like a lot, I used 2/3 cup)
A big handful of oats (approx. 1/2 - 1 cup)

Blend together and add to above:
2 eggs
1 whole potato, mashed (approx. 1/2 - 1 cup)

Add:
2/3 cup oil
1/2 cup powdered milk
1 Tbsp salt
8 cups red wheat flour (I used white wheat because that's all I had but red is better, preferably freshly ground)

Add more flour or water as needed to get a nice firm dough and let rise until double in size, about 1 hour. Punch down and form into loaves (about 4) and place in greased bread pans and let rise until double in size again. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Eat warm with butter and honey!