Happy Birthday Aunt Susie

Susie hosted a pizza and cake luncheon at her place which Ellie and I were both invited. Ellie had a good time getting into Aunt Susie's large collections of shot glasses and shoes. I enjoyed Susie's baking skills! Ellie and I shared some pizza, but Aunt Susie was generous enough to share her cake!

Happy 26 Susie!

(I'm not sure why the 2 didn't make it on the cake though...)

Baking and Birds

What a weekend!! It started off on Friday when Ellie helped me make berry (blueberry and raspberry) pancakes for dinner. She really did try to help. She understood stirring and putting ingedrients into the bowl, but not in the right sequence all the time. In the end she seemed to really enjoy the pancakes.

On Saturday we went to Brookline (a close suburb just oustide of Boston and only about a 12 minute drive from our house) to a pond and sanctuary. Ellie really enjoyed getting to see the duck and geese and the plants. Not to mention running around on the adjacent baseball fields.

15 Months!

Apparently she didn't want to take a picture with the dolphin and ran and hid in the corner. However, we did get a photo with Ellie and the dolphin in the same shot...kinda. She has a mind of her own now...

And she was just too cute not to share. Yes, she is covered in blue and red from the finger painting and jello play at daycare.

Happy 90th Birthday, (Great) Grandpa Van!

Ellie wanted to help make the "Happy Birthday" sign this time. She got very excited when she saw that I had markers and paper to draw with.

I guess she was tired of just being the spokesmodel.

Also, Happy Birthday Uncle Buddy!!

Happy 30th Birthday Nick!

(Mommy said I can help make the cake!)

Ellen feeds herself...with a spoon!

Yep, Ellie no longer needs us. She has mastered the use of utensils. Okay, so both of those previous sentences may be exaggerations, but, Ellen understands and is now capable of feeding herself with a spoon.

Tonight during dinner (dessert actually) I was feeding her some applesauce mixed with blueberries (one of her favorites). She became frustrated and would turn her head when I got the spoon near her. She then started grabbing for the spoon. So I thought, okay Ellie, let's see what you can do. Well, into the bowl went the spoon and into her mouth went blueberries and applesauce. She did try and use her other hand to put food onto the spoon.

Next time I let her feed herself maybe I'll put a bib on her and not have her eat something that can stain (like blueberries). Needless to say Ellie (and her highchair and the floor) got a bath tonight.

Boston Boil Order!!

Over this past weekend, the main, water main which feeds Boston and 29 of the close suburbs broke. Two million people were on a boil order! This includes us. The problem has been fixed now and all seems well (except they don't know exactly why the problem occurred to begin with).

Nick and his journalistic curiosity lead him to Costco on Sunday morning. He braved 45 minute lines, screaming and cursing public blaming the Costco employees for running out of bottled water, and near fist fights for cat food and toilet paper. There were rumors of fist fights and price gouging for the 72 hours of a boil order.

I'm happy to have my kitchen back. The environmentalist in me has a really hard time using bottled water, paper plates, and plastic utensils. However, I had meant to run the dishwasher on saturday morning before we left the house for the day (and before the main broke) so I found myself with a extra full dishwasher, no clean dishes, and no where to put dirty dishes. Pots full of boiled water sat on the stove for washing, cooking, and drinking and piles of dishes stacked up. Surfaces have now been cleared. The dishwasher washed and emptied. And order restored to the kitchen.

All in all, our "water emergency" wasn't that big of an issue (well not for us anyway). However, had the boil order lasted for more than the 72 hours it did, Boston would have erupted. I mean, there is only so long New Englanders can go without Dunkin Donuts coffee!!