Paraquito Azul

Dear Paraquito Azul, welcome back to our home. Each child in the kids' school gets a turn with Paraquito Azul. Our turn came early this year (early November I think). When in possession of PA, you are to well-document every outing and then do a write-up in this little journal they send home. So here's our pictorial documentation. A day at Nonnie and John's, time at Lifetime Fitness and at gymnastics. And then the trip to the zoo. Apparently the real live version of the blue Macaw became quite agitated seeing PA. And we also found a bin of PA's for sale at the zoo! I tried to do a bang-up job of documentation on this deal. And sure enough back PA came a couple weeks ago (January)...this time I don't even think I got a pic.

These boots are made for walkin'

So I invested in a pretty nice pair of boots for Price. I'd had my eye on these boots for well over a month and decided to bite the bullet. They are just the cutest things ever, right?

Since I am actually doing this post some 5 months later, I now know that it may not be prudent to spend too much on kids' shoes. He virtually refuses to wear them unless everyone else in the family is wearing boots also. I mean I can coerce him occasionally, but it's a bit of a struggle. They're still super-cute though :-)

A food post

In early Fall, my blender broke. My sweet children had helped me make homemade salsa - they are regular helpers in the kitchen. Little Price wanted to eat some and pulled that blender, full of salsa, right onto the floor. It was not my best parenting moment. I was frustrated both by the broken blender as well as the quart of salsa all over the floor and was concerned about glass in the feet. So I totally yelled at them to get out of the immediate area and it hurt their feelings. And that makes me sad. Above is a pic of them helping before "the incident".

So without a blender, I had to resort to homemade pico de gallo. This was actually quite fun and super tasty!! I read somewhere that pico should be equal parts red, white and green, just like the Mexican flag. So naturally Chris appreciates this as a fine representation of his heritage (ha) and it was a hit! I found it to be a bit more work than salsa in the blender though...

My 35th birthday (August 2010)

Well I seem to have fallen way behind here as my goal is one post per month. Here it is January and I am going to give it a shot to get caught up on this past Fall. My birthday was kind of a bummer. My sweet husband had made big plans for us. He had made arrangements for a weekend getaway to Austin - hotel and spa packages booked, childcare lined up, the whole deal. But sadly, we got a call the Thursday before we were to leave that Chris' Uncle Ricky had passed away. Ricky was very young (40's) and this was a total shock. Naturally Chris went to Illinois to spend time with his family. Sometimes we just never can anticipate the twists life will take. Here's a fairly recent pic of Uncle Rick with his 21 year old daughter, Carly. And on the right is a pic of Chris with Rick's son, Ryan and a cousin, Little Henry.

I ended up having a nice dinner at my mom's with my sweet kiddos. Then my sweet friend Amy just did not think I could stay home alone and do nothing on my birthday so she took me out to Gloria's for a fun evening! Thanks, Amy, it would have been even more a bummer to be home alone for that one :-)