We have a reader

Just wanted to share a couple of videos of Sophie reading for the grandparents.





If you are curious about the cute little books Sophie is reading, here is a link to the site, MormonLittleBooks. They are great little books that have helped Sophie learn to read and recognize names from the Book of Mormon.
Today she surprised us even more and read D.W. All Wet by Marc Brown, of course I didn't have the camera out for that reading. The cute thing about her reading is she is excited and wants to read to Elanor during story time. Yeah for my reader.

Every once in a while I feel like a genius...

On Saturday it was hot (near 90) and we had a picnic to go to. I was to bring a salad and I planned on bringing a yummy vegetable salad with a mayo dressing. I just thought of my salad getting all soggy and warm sitting out for an hour or so in the hot. And what if there was leftovers, they would have to be tossed. Then came my genius idea, what if I put ice around the salad bowl to keep it cool. What if I put water in a bigger bowl, placed in the serving bowl (held it down with rice) and froze it over night.

The ice

The yummy salad in the bowl.

After 2 hours in the hot sun, there is still some ice left. The salad was nice and cool, only one serving of leftovers, sadness.

I know this isn't a new idea but I felt very clever. So the next time you need to take a dish to an outdoor potluck on a hot day remember this little trick.

Doesn't the salad look so delicious, well here is the recipe.
Sunny Vegetable Salad (Dorothy's recipe)
10 C vegetables*, cut into bitesize pieces- broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, peppers, etc
2 C shredded cheese
2/3 C onions
½ C raisins
1 C mayo
½ C sugar
2 Tbsp cider vinegar (or regular if don't have cider)
6 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled
¼ C sunflower seeds
In a large bowl, toss vegetables, cheese and raisins. Combine mayo, sugar and vinegar. Pour over salad and toss to coat. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Sprinkle with bacon and sunflower seeds before serving.

*The original recipe called for 5 C broccoli and 5 C cauliflower, but I just mix and match whatever veggies I have on hand the day I make it. I like to add carrots and red peppers for the color. You could also add hard boiled eggs or pasta and that would be tasty also.

Thursday Adventures

On Thursday Andrew took a half day and the girls and I meet him in the city. We wanted to see where he works, meet his co-workers and then see a museum or two. Let's just say parking is a big issue at the metro parking garages. After going to one, two then three metro stops we finally found a parking spot in a college's lot that is open to metro riders (thank goodness). Onto the train we went and the girls were very excited to ride a train. We meet up with Andrew and then took the 5 block hike to his office, about 1/2 mile distance. It was nice to meet the people he talks about. We ate lunch in his break room and then off to the Natural History Museum.

Here they are in front of a dinosaur skeleton.

Elanor looking at a triceratops head.
Looking at some undersea creature.

We had a fun time at the museum. We remembered why we don't do this very often, it is just tiring getting into the city and then wondering around the museum. After spending time here we headed to the Post Office Pavilion. We took the tower to the top and saw some great views of the city, then headed for home. Lucky for us the metro was not crowded and the girls had fun going "chug a chug a choo-choo" almost the whole way home. In started out as a crummy day but it ended up being fun.

Tree hugger

and kisser. After church on Easter, Elanor ran over to the tree. She wanted to wish it a Happy Easter I guess. But since she was being very cute we did what any good parent would do, grabbed the camera. Here are the cute ones. And we did try and get Sophie to come out and pose for a picture but she didn't.

Hugging and kissing.

Contemplating the meaning of Easter.

Dancing for the tree.

Easter

Dad showing Elanor how to decorate eggs.

Sophie is concentrating.

Elanor has the right idea.

Look what I found.

Do you see the egg, Sophie?

The hunt is over.

Rest of Birthday festivites

On Sophie's birthday we had a lot of fun opening presents while skyping with Grandma and Grandpa B. It was really nice having them there even though they weren't. The off to dinner we went and had a fun time eating out. Then this past Friday we ended the birthday celebration by having her party. It was a lot of fun seeing the kiddos play and eat. There was a butterfly theme so we ate catepillars (hot dog, no bun), cocoons (hot dog in bun) and butterflies (soft pretzels in shape of butterflies). I thought I was pretty clever. Then we decorated butterflies cut from posterboards and played with chalk. The birthday cake was ice cream sandwiches, which was a hit but messy. The best part was the party was outside on a fabulously warm day. Thanks to all our friends who made Sophie's birthday so special.

Happy Birthday Sophie!

Today is Sophie's 4th birthday. I can't believe she is 4, time has flown by. I remember the heartache of trying to have a baby and then the joy (and nausea) of bringing this daughter of God into the world. Look at the difference of 4years. Over her four years of life she has taught us so many things. But the best is the love she brings into our lives. Recently her favorite things are dressing up, writing/coping words, reading (she's learning) and riding her trike or Elanor's. She's had a lot of fun this year in preschool. Last Wednesday we celebrated her birthday in class. Since it was April Fool's day I made some extra special cupcakes.
Here's Sophie being shy while we are singing and her friend Asher showing off the surprise.


We love you Sophie and are so happy you are apart of our family.

Today's Fun

Picnics are a lot of fun, usually more fun if they are at the wished for location but we had to make due with this beautiful site as we ate. See the tale of today down below.

Elanor and Sophie by the LDS Washington DC Temple

So here's the tale of today. We left the house at 9:30 to meet up with some friends at the zoo. All was hunky dory until we reached Connecticut Ave. Ugh, traffic was awful and then trying to turn left into the zoo, I don't think so. Finally we entered the zoo only to find everybody on the Eastern shore had the same idea. Come on people it is 10:20am during spring break, shouldn't you be sleeping in. All, I mean all lots were full by the time they shooed us out of the zoo into unfamiliar territory. Was my map bible in the car, nooo. Luckily I am somewhat familiar with the area so I detoured us (unknowingly) into DC. Waving, almost, to dad's office we found our way out of DC and back toward the zoo. Another drive around and we had no luck. So the next best thing was to head to the temple, since it is off of Connecticut Ave. Another minor detour and we were at the beautiful temple. The girls had a good time seeing the temple and the Christus statue. The sister missionaries were nice of course. Now we are home. Just to make my exhausting day better, Elanor slept in the car, awoke in the parking spot and now is wired.
Must go to show the 2 year-old pictures, again.

Little Friend

Last weekend after Andrew finished working outside, we realized he brought a little friend for dinner. I thought it was just a stick but no it was a creepy crawler.

Mr Stick

The girls looking at Mr Stick

Kindness of Others

Thursday the girls and I were in a little fender bender, enough to put our car in the shop. We decided to go car-less, no point paying to have it sit in our parking spot. Since then we have been shown kindness in several ways. A friend from church called to see how I was and then she drove over a plate of cookies the next day. Another friend picked up some groceries while she was at the store. And to top it off, our neighbor called this morning to see if we needed a ride to church. They were offering to take and pick us up. I am so thankful for friends and realize that we are blessed.

My baby is no longer a baby.

Today we decided to put together the toddler bed. I'd tried several times to get Elanor to take a nap on just the mattress but all she wanted to do was pretend sleep then come and play. Well last night she wanted to sleep on the big blue reading pillow and Andrew let her. And much to our surprise she stayed all night. This morning I heard twisting of the door and out she came. I promptly sent her to find dad and Sophie and that was that. Now she is a happy little girl in a big girl bed. Of course she didn't take a nap today but she will or she'll be put back in the crib.

Putting the bed together

Sophie approving of the job with a thumbs up

Elanor helping out by staying out of the way

In bed with her glowworm

She is growing up in so many other ways. Here is a video of her helping me say the prayer:)




And another cute video of her.

Elanor's Birthday celebrations

We had a lot of fun on Elanor's birthday. We invited some of her friends over for lunch and a playdate and then we had some fun when dad came home from work also. Here are some pictures from the day and a cute little video opening a present.