Courtney & Veronica's Visit

April 8th -11th my two girlfriends from UCSB came to stay. We had a great girls time catching up & going out to eat in one of Scottsdale's new Fox restaurants: The Culinary Dropout, if anyone's interested, it was a nice place: http://www.foxrc.com/culinary_dropout.html.

It was also my first time meeting 'Baby Max' as Abby calls him, although not such a baby anymore. I'm embarrassed to say these are my only decent photos from the whole weekend:

Let's not leave it so long next time ladies - and Marie, you need to make it so it's the 4 of us again!

Jake's Birthday

A few days after Easter, we celebrated Jake's birthday. He treated himself to a snowboarding trip with Bryan to Mammoth, CA:



My mum & dad also had to unexpectedly fly home this week because my grandmother passed away. The volcanic ash in the skies from the Icelandic volcano (not even going to try & pronounce Eyjafjallajokull) meant they almost missed the funeral but they made it just in time.

Easter in California 2010

The weekend following Abigail's birthday party, we headed to Ojai for the Easter weekend. We stopped at Jake's Aunt Frances & Uncle Bill's for lunch because it's about halfway near Palm Springs. Thank you again for lunch Aunt Frances, I know you're reading :)

Our Ojai visits always include the playground with cousin Morgan & Grandma:

And sometimes the new candy shop in town:

The girls' favourite part is hunting for Easter Eggs in Grandma Carmen's backyard:

The Madonna Family:

The Holland Family:

The Crayon Party

As mentioned on this Blog this time last year, I LOVE party themes. I like to pick something that really captures the year the child has had. For year 1, we did Baby Einstein because she loved those DVDs and the caterpillar. Last year was ice-cream cones. And this year we chose crayons because she loves to colour.

So, here we are waiting for friends to arrive:

We had the kiddie-pool out in the backyard, which this age group love:

Dancing after swimming - what a party!

And, you might not believe this but in only five hours on a Friday night, Jake & I turned this pile of ingredients:

.... into this box of crayons cake!

It was the talk of the party!

The next morning over breakfast she opened this pile of presents (do you see the 2 giraffes!)?

And she was quite shy in trying on her first princess jewelry:

Wonderful presents, wonderful friends & family, wonderful party, wonderful little girl. Happy 3rd Birthday Sweetheart!

Abigail turns THREE

Yes, last week the mini-Madonna turned THREE. Not so mini anymore! Here she is at school having cupcakes with all her friends:

And here she is at home that night, her actual birthday the 23rd, having birthday cake:

Conversation at the Pool

Abigail to Stranger: "I'm having a crayon birthday party"
Stranger: "Ooh, that sounds nice"
Abigail: "I'm gonna be three"
Stranger: "Oh, wow, when are you going to turn three?"
Abigail, with pained face: "on my birthday" (stupid woman)

Childrens Museum of Phoenix

Last weekend Jake needed 23 uninterrupted hours to tile our bathrooms. Not a project for a perfectionist wife or a helpful toddler to be in on. So, Abby & I had to make ourselves scarce while he pulled all the toilets out & took over the house with dust, grout, tile saws & swear words.

We went to the Childrens Museum of Phoenix (see my 'Staycation' post of September last year - same place). It is a fabulous place for Abby's age group, she played for HOURS and had much more confidence than that September visit just six months ago.

Painting: "it's gonna be for you mum"

"Ooh thanks Abby, what is it?"

"It's a ..... air conditioner"

Painting the castle:

Concentrating on cutting:

And, the Noodle Room. This time, she loved loved loved it:

Making me a salad:

And I took this photo next to the ice-cream just so that I could get home & compare it to the September picture at the same spot:

It is true that you don't really notice the growth because you're with them everyday.