Dinner Al Fresco

We dined in the open air last night with family and friends. It was a perfect evening, warm and breezy, kids running around the table, the smell of roses everywhere. Chris and Yiayia created a sumptuous BBQ dinner of salmon and steak, chicken and salads with lots and lots of wine (or sparkling lemonade for the drivers). When twilight came, we put candles on the table, and continued on with raspberry tart and cappuccinos. A truly, delicious evening.

Mariana and Mimi, Lorraine and Luca came over the mountains to visit with Yiayia and our family in the 'burbs.
YiaYia and Lorraine catching up.

Chris and Athena sporting that same smile.
The Dude looks around checking out his unfamiliar surroundings.
Predinner Twister was hilarious.
Even the Dude was an enthusiastic participant.
Mariana and the girls spun the wheel for the grownups round, but there are NO flattering pictures of that so I will refrain from posting any!

The Elusive Ice Cream Man

Ever since this post, YiaYia has been on me about why I didn't buy her grandchildren ice cream, and how could I just let them stare at the neighbor kids getting ice cream and not give the girls anything. But it was right before dinner, I protested. So, why didn't you buy it and keep it in the freezer until dessert?. Frankly, it never occurred to me (stupid ice cream truck).

Yiayia promised my poor neglected children that while she was visiting she would buy them ice cream anytime they heard the truck in our neighborhood. That was a week ago and nearly everyday since then when we've heard the gentle peels of the ice cream truck's song, the house goes into a frenzy. The girls jump up and race to the front door, YiaYia runs to get her wallet, only to reach the edge of our front lawn and see the ice cream truck disappearing around the corner going too fast to see us and never looking back.

Finally, tonight we caught up with him. Actually, the same thing happened again but some neighborhood preteens on their bikes offered to chase after him and tell him to double back around.
Luca was visiting and we did so want him to experience one of the summertime joys of the suburbs, ice cream delivered to your door.

The girls' first choice was some kind of SpongeBob popsicle, but they were denied. A traditional ice cream sandwich was an acceptable second choice.

Zoe did a spontaneous victory dance lost in the pure joy of the moment.

Yiayia did not hesitate to give him a piece of her mind about how every time we saw him he was tearing around the corner, driving too fast to notice us and never looking back.

And they ate the whole thing, with a few stolen Daddy bites. Sticky and covered in chocolate we made them go snuggle up to Yiayia so she could see what she had done.

I think she looks pretty pleased with herself.

Carwash for a Cause

Athena and Zoe's preschool had a carwash for Relay for Life today. The whole school participated, Athena's class of "big kids" dressed in purple and washed the cars. And Zoe's class were "Anastasia's Angels" who prayed for a little girl who is battling for her life.

Athena took her role very seriously.

and was, of course, inseparable from her bestie Amelia.

It was darn cute seeing a pack of little people washing and scrubbing our car.

Serious cuteness for a great cause.

Nocturnal Activities

Maybe it's because they sense the void and want to fill it. Maybe its because they feel our family is out of balance with Daddy away and they need extra comforting. But every night this week I have gone to sleep alone and woken up with two little people in my bed.

They come in at different times in the night, usually I hear their little feet padding down the hallway alerting me of their imminent presence. Sometimes they surprise me and I'm startled awake with a little face peering over my bed very close. Usually I mumble something totally incoherent, the remnants of a dream, and scoop up their warm bodies.

There is always kicking and elbowing, snoring and wiggling, but I love the company. And the bed that felt so big and empty when I went to sleep is quite snug by morning.

When Chris is Away

Chris told Athena he would miss her so much while he was at his week-long conference because who would he read to and tuck in at night? She thought about it for a minute, then said "You could take Max?" Max is Chris' well known favorite of the girls' stuffed friends. So, here's Max, resting on Chris' hotel bed, a little piece of home.

When Chris is away, he needs tons of pictures of his minis to help bridge the distance.

Here you go, my love:
Yiayia is here taking great care of us while you are away, but we miss you. Zoe said it was "taking a long time" for Friday to get here. We're counting the days, come home soon and give us squeezes!

Wordless Wednesday

Postcard from the Desert

Dear Family,

We are having a lovely time in the desert visiting Granddaddio and Grandma Andree. It's Easter weekend and we are relaxing and spending our time scootering...

and swimming...
and golfing...
or, more like, 'golf carting'!
On Easter morning, we woke up to find the Easter bunny had left us chocolate bunnies and hidden Easter eggs all over the house.We found them all and then even got to eat jelly beans for breakfast!
Afterwards, the whole family got dressed up and went to church with Grandma and Granddaddio.
...and, back at the house, Mommy made us pose for more photos (as usual).
It was a wonderful trip and we didn't want to leave but agreed only if we were allowed to bring all our chocolate with us.

Love you and miss you,

Athena and Zoe

Eggy Weggs

For decorating eggs this year we got extra crafty and created a beautiful Easter egg tree with our visiting friends. Credit goes to Martha Stewart for the idea, who makes everything seem so easy, but, you really have to have alot of time on your hands to do this kind of thing. The multi-step project took a full 24 hours to see it to the end.

In the morning we blew out the eggs.
Delphine and Athena were fantastic at this.

After we emptied a dozen eggs (with the eggy remains we had quiche for dinner and French toast for breakfast. Yum!)we went to the park for a picnic and then came home to dye and decorate.

No Paas kit for us, we used real food coloring and made interesting new colors, like combining blue and green to make "turquoise" and pink and green to make "apricot," extra drops of purple helped us achieve a deep and pleasing lavender.

The girls also layered the colors on top of other colors which made
for special "sunset" and "tie-dyed" effects.

They took the color combinations very seriously.
Here Athena contemplates her next move.

After all the eggs were colored to everyone's satisfaction. We gobbed on tons of glitter glue and pearly paints because, we decided, no Easter egg is complete without glitter.

It was so fun even Alaine got crafty.

I had the tricky job of gluing the ribbons to the eggs, which we left overnight to dry.

Then, first thing in the morning, while still in our jammies, we decorated our "tree."

The final result was pretty fantastic.

How long past Easter do you think I can keep this around?

'cause it looks really awesome in my dining room.