Princess Attire is Commonplace in the Salsa Home….and We Loved It!!!

(Hannah and I are now home but there are still some posts I wanted to share.  We had an AMAZING trip with our friends and all too quickly our time together came to an end.  So many wonderful memories and pictures that we will treasure for a long, long time!)

Hannah quickly realized that princess dresses were in abundance in the Salsa playroom and throughout the week she could be found trying on a variety of them.  There were always lots of little helping hands there to dress Her Mini Royal Highness!   Kate and Will may have been visiting Canada while we were in CA but we were amongst the most precious princesses ever!

Ro and Ree have mastered the art of wearing a tiara and know that truly no outfit is complete without one!  Hannah didn’t catch on to the tiara thing but I have a feeling it’s only a matter of time.

Princesses do everything in their dresses including eating

colouring

dancing

chatting with the commoners

shopping

and sharing a tea party

Hannah and Mommy also learned the very important lesson of custom fitting a princess dress.  Who needs trips to the seamstress when chip clips will do the trick?

One evening M3 and I went shopping with Hannah and it was easy to see that she had found her inner princess.  What fun to take her out dressed like this!  We have a couple of princess dresses here at home so I’m hoping there are more shopping trips like this in our future!

M3, Tuba Dad and I were surrounded by royalty all week long….and we loved it!!

Special Moments with Wela and BobBob

One of the special parts of being friends with someone is that you are privileged to meet their family and friends.  The first time I visited M3 and her family back in January of 2008 I met her wonderful Mom!  I still laugh when I remember that Wela questioned M3 before I arrived the first time about having someone she met on the web come and stay in their home for an entire week?  Was she sure??  Heh….3 1/2 years later and a number of visits under our belt and our friendship is better than ever!  And from that very first visit, Wela and I have been great friends too and shared some fun times together!

This visit Wela and BobBob invited us to their home once again for a yummy supper.  While Wela was finishing up supper I found Hannah and BobBob playing together and it was oh so sweet!

Hannah absolutely adores spending time with men who remind her of her Grandpas and it warms my heart over and over to see these men spend time with my little girl.  Being a single Mom I am very aware of how important it is for Hannah to have special men in her life and we are blessed over and over…and over again by both family members as well as friends who spend time with my sweetie.  Thank you to each of you!

After supper M3, Wela and I were enjoying a visit together while BobBob took the girls for a walk.   I still chuckle when I think of what I saw when I looked outside and saw BobBob jogging by, trying to catch up with the 3 girls on the run!

When they came back in there was a fun picture scavenger hunt that the grandparents had put together.  Much laughter and running from room to room was done as the girls searched for each and every clue.

In the end there were princess treats for all!

Wela and BobBob, we love you!!  You raised an absolutely amazing daughter who in turn with her great hubby are raising 2 awesome daughters!  Hannah and I are blessed beyond measure to have each and every one of you in our lives and we cannot wait until the next time we are all together!

We love you Salsa Family!!!

Thank you for welcoming us into your home once again M3, TubaDad, Ro and Ree and for the wonderful visit!  We’re already looking forward to next time!

Shopping, Swimming, Playing….Crash!!

We had a fun, busy day today and there was just far too many exciting things to do to nap so we just skipped that!  A girl has to have priorities and today napping was not a priority.

The morning was spent taking a quick trip to Lowes to pick up a few things.  The girls all enjoyed riding in the special cart and looking at some Princess books.  Who knew you could find princess books at Lowes?

Lunch is an exciting time as each of the girls gets to choose a portion of the meal.  Today Ro chose the protein, Ree the starch and Hannah was given the responsibility of choosing a fruit or veggie.  M3 has these neat little menu sheets that the girls look at (one for each of the categories above) and the girls choose their lunch from that.  It’s neat to see what they each choose and how the meal goes together with little fuss that it’s not what they want.  Ro and Ree are amazing little girls and get along SO WELL together!! 

Two things Hannah and Mommy have discovered this trip:

1. Food is always more fun when cut into shapes
2. Little picks make eating anything a wonderful adventure!

When the girls eat soup Mommy puts their hair into ‘noodle hair’ formation.  Hannah was only too happy to have noodle hair too and M3 and I giggled as we saw this teeny tiny noodle head that she created on Hannah!

Ro’s noodle slurped right up the straw!

After this yummy lunch it was time to go swimming!  The temp was a balmy 93o which felt much cooler than the 99o temps we’d been receiving the past number of days. 

This adorable little bathing suit was little Ro’s when she was just a baby!

Today I took along some floaties and water wings that were in M3’s garage and they were a wonderful help!  Hannah loves to swim and has more confidence then is probably good for her, but today her swimming skills mixed with floaties for assistance gave her the freedom and independence she wanted – even though Mommy knew she had to be within arms reach of her little fish!

I think Ro and Ree would swim all day given the opportunity!

Here’s a little movie made up of Hannah’s amazing swimming today!  Way to go Hannah!!

When we arrived home the girls were ready for a cool treat so M3 pulled out some yummy lemonade popsicles she’d made.   A fun treat on a hot summer’s night. The girls were still in full play mode so we decided to make some sidewalk chalk paint and let them get creative in the back yard.  What a fun little craft that was enjoyed by all!

By this point it was shortly after 7:00 and very quickly Hannah hit her wall.  An afternoon of swimming + no nap = early bed time.  I got her dressed for bed and then went down to heat her bottle.  I was gone only a couple of minutes but this is what I returned to

Sweet dreams baby girl!  Mommy loves you.

Sun, Fun, the Beach and Friends!

(A long overdue post of a day of fun late in our California trip)

Friday was a day we had been looking forward to.  M3 and I packed the girls into the van along with everything we’d need for a day of fun at the beach!   We hit the road and made our way to Santa Cruz.  I’m fascinated by how much the weather can change in a short distance.  Around home it might change by a few degrees but in CA the changes seem to be much greater.  At one point we crossed over a mountain top and the temperature dropped 9 degrees in a moment of seconds!  We could also see the infamous Santa Cruz fog that covers the beach much of the summer.

I anticipated a day of fog since that’s what we had last year but this year the sun eventually came out and it was beautiful!

The best part about our beach visit was that Kayce and Cricket joined us for the day!

I met Kayce 2 years ago when we were both just months away from our referrals and our friendship has grown from there.  She’s the kind of friend where we just take up where we left off last year.  Love ya friend! 
It was wonderful to see how her little Cricket has grown and how much fun she and Hannah had together this year!

2010

We brought a picnic lunch which was fun! 
I had to laugh though at the amount of sand that the toddlers consumed.  There was no question that we’d be taking some of California home with us.  Heh!

The waves were calmer this year so we were able to enjoy dipping our toes in the ocean.  It’s kinda fun to think that Hannah and I will have opportunities to visit both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans again this year.

Last year Hannah didn’t enjoy the sand and this year she couldn’t enjoy it more!

Practising her gymnastics

She was tuckered out by the end of the day but wouldn’t give in and nap.  I can’t say that I blame her!

2010

Ro and Ree were so patient with Hannah.  Here they let her pile on top of them with nary a whimper!

All too soon it was time to say good-bye for now.  We had shared a wonderful day of fun together watching our kiddos play and sharing our hearts with one another.  Friendships that can slip seamlessly between laughter and deep, heart-to-heart talks are few and far between.  I’m so thankful that this is the type of friendship that the 3 of us share.

Treasured friends – both mommies and daughters.