2.26.2014

mis amores

february has been nothing short of a love fest. as the day month requires, we spent most of it with our loved ones and celebrating each other. i've been wondering why i've been reflecting on the joys of the day-to-day so much the last couple of weeks...and the answer, most likely is, there has been a lot of love in the air. below are some photos that sum up the month:

our dear friends mark and nina brought by their newest family member otis. evia and o were instant buddies
"eat, drink, cheer, repeat" was the perfect motto for this year's super bowl and the tequila lime chicken was deelish
superbowl brought a beautiful full double rainbow that we all went outside to enjoy
nothing says love more than what evia thinks of her older cousin isei! they must have played in the mud for at least an hour
we met papa for lunch at the lake one day and topped it off with a playdate to feed the ducks by two wee-ones that the girl's can't get enough of.
 

 
grandpa mikey's birthday was spent celebrating over tacos and then onto "presidio by candlelight" where we watched the food cooked, yarn spun , music played, people dance and a "padre" write with quill and ink - as the presidio would have looked a few hundred years ago. fascinating
we try to get out and enjoy this town we call home, as much as time allows
 

a rare opportunity to double date for dinner followed by a girls night, at the granada as we watched luana perform. she was phenomenal and loved my time with rosi!!
as usual our dinner was exceptional at brasil arts cafe

making valentine's cards with great grandma lu
valentine's breakfast: cherry pancakes i've been instructed by the girls not to use cherries again. d and i loved them!
nana and grandpa brought over special heart boxes filled with chocolates

after a delicious fresh filet of salmon d grilled. we made a little late night dessert
put my sewing skills to the test again and made beautiful-mother-to-be laurie, a shower gift. hooded towel+kitty for baby

got to spend the day showering laurie with baby-love and chatting with sweet ladies, including this crafting extraordinaire, my sister in law
only one of the sweet handiwork rebecca provided for the shower decor

celebrating sweet naya's 3rd birthday, hopped up on her first blow pop (i don't think she likes it)
was not at all disappointed that i took my two energizer bunnies grocery shopping alone, when they gave away leftover valentine's roses at the door

have been working with evia on "go-fish" she loves it!
simple caption: I LOVE HER
if you know me. you know i love food. i love to read about it, look at it, eat it and of course document it
70 and 9am. loving my sister walks.

evia wanted to walk the whole way downtown from our house last week to see nana and grandpa at the new office building. she did an AMAZING job. no complaints, no rests. just one foot in front of the other
telling grandpa all about her adventure once we got there
evia loves nana
we celebrated a double baptism for george and pj. it was ANOTHER beautiful ceremony, as is every single event we go to there. so lucky to be included in the lives of our dear friends
 


and in true greek-fashion, that night i tried my hand at creating my first phyllo dough (frozen sheets) dessert. i have to say, it came out pretty bomb-diggity and it was a no-recipe-kind-of creation: pear cherry tart heart!
evia with her pretty auntie
we LOVE these jungle monkeys


2.16.2014

january = new beginnings

with january comes new beginnings and a chance to start fresh. and so the story goes for the littlest of humans as well. with each month i enjoy more of these girls of mine; the new things they're up to, what they've accomplished and the hope for what their future holds. 

this month, evia's daily nap, came to an end. i had dreaded the day. i use the two hours that the girls are asleep for my sanity. a time to breath deep collect my thoughts and gear up for the second half of the day. during december it was perfect for all the work that needed to be done in "santa's workshop." 

a few days in a row mid-january evia spontaneously went nap deprived. a birthday party, a funny schedule, something prohibited her from making it to the bed at the designated hour. her sister still needs her nap so much, that it doesn't really matter where we are, if the hour strikes she'll zonk (not always of course, but usually). 

we surprisingly had a great few days and NIGHTS without the naps. evia stayed happy through the afternoon and she went to bed a whole hour earlier, making mama and papa's nights a whole lot more enjoyable. it didn't feel like it was bedtime after evia went to bed...we actually had time awake together. yay!

so we decided to give it a try and it's been awesome ever since. evia and i have "mama evia" time every afternoon while mila naps - which sometimes have to be the tasks i would have done if she was sleeping..so she just gets included. organizing my house remodel filing system. evia put each piece of paper in the appropriate stack by year (with my instruction). worked on a sewing project: evia enjoyed handing me each of the pins out of the "tomato." 

or we do really fun stuff like play hide-n-seek or paint our toes. her favorite thing to ask people is "do you know that i don't nap now?" so happy for this change. thank you january. every year i'm thankful for the clean slate. 
on a walk with the girls, i looked back. clearly mila still needs naps

emily and i started a sister-weekly-walk. evia took a photo of our first one.


mila started going down the slide with no assistance. a sit, became a flat-out-lay-down, the first couple of park visits

evia loves "her" books. this one we opened had anna's name written in it, by a wee-anna way back when

some sea center fun with papa. mil'a's first visit.

such a beautiful location sea center on the wharf

evia decorating her free tote they provide at the sea center day
a gorgeous finish to our sea center outing, chowder al fresco. evia and mila preferred their almond butter & jellies
 
a family hike day. the girls are nature lovers

peaceful napper
on one of the first "no-nap" days, she had a huge meltdown and fell asleep on the couch

a great garage sale find by papa, stencils and a composition book. evia loves practicing her letters this way
mila one day had fun for probably 40 minutes, carrying buckets of water to the sandbox (the rest watered our flowers)

she got the hang of staying sitting, while sliding
these two are serious love-bugs
evia's self portrait

playdate with two welsh princesses
playdate with becker, george and pj


we left marisa's with oranges, broccoli and lemons (deelish)
my first homemade item with my new sewing machine. a romper for sweet ayin. pattern and fabric generously gifted by grandma lu
we started regular walks with grandma lu. she walks daily and we walk daily, so we decided to combine our walks once a week. the girls love our stops at the park to play with their great grandma lu
special art time just mama and evia
goofies
pretty fingers and toes!