Quacky Halloween!

We had a good time trick or treating tonight at all of our neighbors. Zara was actually really looking forward to the costume and happily got dressed so she could go see our neighbors. We prepped her to say trick or treat for the last couple days and before we went out, but the speaker turned off as soon as doors opened. She did still have a good time, just wasn't going to talk in front of everyone. She got scared by one neighbor in a ghost mask, but, other than that long distance trick or treat though, she had a good time. Pictures of our little ducky who enjoyed the costume so much she kept her hood on the whole time much to my surprise.

Arts and Craftiness

For the big birthday party, I decided to make cupcakes this year and be very suburban mom-ish. But cupcakes being all the rage, I opted to try and do something a tad more sophisticated than vanilla and chocolate. The first cupcake was a mint chocolate with vanilla icing, nothing too fancy there but still yummy. The other I had started googling for ideas and came across banana cupcakes. Perfect, Zara loves bananas. The recipe I ended up using even called for the bananas to get sliced up and caramelized with brown sugar before cooling and blending into the batter. Um, so like a bananas foster cupcakes, yes please! For these I also topped them with a nutella frosting, something else I'd never heard of before googling but figured that combo would be good. They definitely were good and it was worth the effort.

Being a 2-year old birthday, we needed an activity to keep said small children occupied. We ended up losing a few kids to illness, but still had a respectable little group for Zara to play with. Being a week before Halloween, I decided we'd stick with a Halloween theme this year (not to be repeated every year or Zara will start to dislike her own birthday). I couldn't find any undecorated trick or treat bags so I had to sew up some myself from felt. I made the bags in orange and then we cut out mouths and noses and eyes in black. The kids got to pick out their jack of lantern face and we glued them on. They came out pretty nice and now they all have pretty nifty bags for Monday.

Pumpkin Patch

One of the things we were sure to do while the grandmothers were here was hit up the pumpkin patch for our Halloween goods. It could have been better without the horrible mosquito attack in progress, so we didn't stay too long for pictures. Zara was in love with getting to pull the wagon around and less interested in the pumpkins. But every time she touched the pumpkins, she seemed to go for the warty ones. So we got ourselves a nice big warty one and a couple small ones for Zara and baby for inside the house.

Big Girl Birthday

I've been remiss on the blog lately, not for lack of things to post but lack of time and motivation. A couple weeks ago was my company picnic. Zara had her usual blast on the playground equipment and it was good to see everyone. After initially boycotting the dessert making competition since last year's "winner" was jello shots, I got suckered into making a dessert by a friend since they were short. Without time to make baklava, I tried a new date cake recipe and, surprised the heck out of me, won. At least I didn't make jello shots.

Zara's second birthday was Sunday and both of my parents and John's mom came down for a week to be here for the celebration. Much of that time was spent prepping for the party which involved me making cupcakes and trick or treat bags for an activity (I'll have to take pictures and post that later), along with the usual cleaning and preparing party food. Good thing I had some extra hands around to help. Zara got lots of neat presents from everyone (Thank You!) including some awesome clothes and toys. She was most enamored with the tissue paper, but such is a two year old.


But its not a toddler birthday without the picture of the cake eating. Zara is a rather neat eater, so nothing crazy there. But, for some inexplicable reason she opted for the no hands method of birthday cake eating.


Zara, you are a wonderful surprise every day. Watching you grow and learn, so quickly, has been an amazing experience for us both. You are such a grown up little girl, it's hard to even remember you are only two and its almost like you are skipping straight into being quite the young lady. Never stop smiling, never stop loving. Happy Birthday Sweetheart, Mommy and Daddy Love You!

Back with Splash

The work on the backsplash was completed Wednesday and I really liked the way it has all turned out. Overall, the feel of the kitchen has improved dramatically and is so much nicer than the cheap formica counter-tops and ugly 90s tile from before. Everything is really tied together and we were debating repainting the cabinets but now we think the colors are so nice together it isn't needed. The light fixture comes out later this week and the drywall on the pillars and the ceiling will be fixed just after. One thing that doesn't show in the pictures is that the pass through is now several inches wider and can support stools and a breakfast bar from the living room side in the future. Another minor thing we need to do is stop by the granite place later this week and get the matching tile outlet covers to get those to blend better too.

Phase 2

When we first moved into our house (oh my goodness) more than 2 years ago, we had Phase 1 of the kitchen remodel completed which changed non-useful desk and wall oven into useful cabinet and counter space. So what looked like this...

From New House

became this up until Sunday night. Since this, we also upgraded the dishwasher to stainless and the only appliance left in white was the stove pending Phase 2.

Now, phase 2 of the kitchen is in work which is ultimately where we wanted to go in the first place but didn't want to do with a newborn in the house. Yesterday was new counter-tops installed and wow what a difference just that makes. Today is tile back-splash, tomorrow tile sealing, and then the last step with a different crew will be getting rid of the horrid fluorescent light box and repairing the ceiling behind it plus we have to install the new stove and faucet and stuff. Here is the Monday night picture. I'll update again in the next day or so.

The Darndest Things

I've been remiss posting for awhile since I haven't been getting on the laptop much at home and work started blocking the frame I need to login and post during my off time there. I blame/admire the wonders of smartphones really for both keeping me off the laptop and making the other work blocked websites still totally reachable. Really no point in trying to stop people from checking their fantasy football in the office when almost everyone can just pull it up on their phone sans big brother.

Zara is only a few weeks away from her second birthday and while I know as much as she's grown she's still "small", that hasn't stopped her noggin. She long ago passed us trying to estimate the number of words she knows and frankly she can talk about anything for the most part and makes full sentences without missing a beat. Some incorrect pronoun usage is about the most difficult thing. If someone knows how to explain that she is "me" in the first person and not "you" let me know, but for anyone else "I help you" really means "you help me".

Lately though she has pulled out some real interesting sayings including telling Daddy to open the window "right now" and we've both gotten a "Good job Mommy/Daddy" when we gave her something she wanted. The one I'm still puzzling over though was when she got her sock on wrong and announced "I screwed up." John and I aren't sure if we've said that or someone else did but she gets the context right at least.