Bada is 3

Ada Jeanne = Ada Bean = Bada. Such is the progression of Ada's nick name. She turned 3 on Saturday. We had an invitation to a pool party for another friend's birthday and so we thoroughly enjoyed swimming together as a family even if it wasn't technically to celebrate her birthday. lol
She has been dressing herself for some time, and some days she looks really cute! She picked out this outfit and looked so much like she was ready for tennis, I had to take a picture (above).


Early in the morning of her birthday she got a helmet and officially got Odessa's bike. Odessa got a freebie used bike from our friends. Stephen is the diligent one- he worked with Ada for an hour until she could pedal the bike easily. I can't imagine how long it will take for them to graduate from training wheels!
Later in the evening, we had Ava and Ellie (sisters) over for a Princess party and dinner. For the party, we read Princess and the Pea and played a game where they sat on 3 pillows, trying to guess where the pea (ball) was.

After hunting in sand for gems to decorate their crowns with, the girls had a photo shoot. My girls have been wanting fans for a long time, they were a huge hit.

We served them Ada's favorite foods and used fancy plastic goblets. No one spilled! Ellie is only 2, and she immediately held her goblet up and as if to say "I can't drink from this, get me a cup" So funny.
Ada's big present was some other dress up clothes (she wears the Cinderella dress daily!)

She wanted a pink kitty cake

This is Stephen and I's favorite thing about Ada- her moon shaped smiley eyes. She's always turning the charm on, a real princess I guess! We can't imagine life without her.

Vermin and good eats (unrelated)

One night when my parents were here, I was sitting in the living room, looked up and caught sight of a raccoon standing on 2 legs with his paws against the sliding glass doors, looking intently at me as if to say "where is my dinner and why don't you let me in?". I had a totally literary reaction- I wrung my hands and my mouth flapped open over and over- I was speechless. I rarely have those kind of moments they describe in books, but this was one. His masked face in the dark was SO STARTLING, I could not speak. When we all went up to the glass, he did not budge which freaked me out even more. This is NOT a picture of him, I got this off the web- same with the opossum. After the raccoon visit, I had nightmares for the next 3 nights that robbers or vagrants broke into our house.

Then yesterday we caught sight (again) of a opossum. But this time she was carrying babies on her back and she disappeared under our deck. Awesome. Now we have more than one vermin problem. We really want to plant a garden and fruit trees, so I think these animals will have to be dealt with. It's a weird feeling of being invaded, I guess one of the many new feelings I have as a new homeowner.

Last night for Cinco de Mayo I made homemade tamales and some enchiladas verde that were different from any we had tried before. I also topped off the evening with homemade churros. I have linked all the recipes with their online sites, they were all good (well, I would like to tinker with the churros, but who really needs to keep trying fried foods? No me). I do like having some international grocery stores close by, we had Tamarind Jarritos with dinner too . . .
We love international holidays like Chinese New Year and Cinco de Mayo so we have an excuse to eat yummy food! lol

Disaster . . . . averted

Last week was my birthday week! Stephen did a good job of trying to plan a few things for me in the midst of me planning my own birthday. There were just a couple of things that had to be done by myself this year, namely deciding a shopping trip to an annual sale coming up would "the present".

I also decided that I wanted to go on a double date for my birthday. So when my friend and I got to talking about options, she and I planned the evening ourselves. Is this wrong? I think not. Anyway, I digress.Stephen surprised me at home with a cake and card after dinner and then we all got ready to go- the girls were going to a friend's house. I left the keys on the hook for Stephen, he came out the door and locked the doorknob, pulling the door shut with the keys still inside. Ay-yay-yay! He quickly ran around the house, trying windows and doors. Fortunately and unfortunately our house is pretty secure! Finally he found a narrow window in the laundry room where the window was not locked and he slid inside off the top of the ladder. Sheesh. So my birthday date that could have turned into a date with the locksmith was a half hour late, but at least disaster was averted. Whew.
That date was so fun!! First my girlfriend surprised me with 2 items from Trader Joes I have been dying to try (one chocolate item, one salt scrub)! How did she know? She didn't. Totally crazy. Then we went to Chocolopolis in Queen Anne and had some seriously awesome sipping chocolate. I had the Spicy Dark, Stephen had something from Columbia. . . they were so rich, so dark and SOOOOO gooooood. Then we went to Blue Highway Games and played board games! They have like 8-10 tables in the back of the store just for people to play their games- they have shelves and shelves of them that are open. Our friends take their kids regularly for some quality family time. We got to learn Ticket to Ride together and had a blast. Perfect evening. . . . sigh.
Other highlights of "birthday week":
Stephen fixed up my bike so I can take a ride.
He surprised me Wednesday night by saying we would go to this burger place we have been wanting to try near our house, then he invited our friends- double fun! The burgers are very good (they grind their own chuck each morning and have 20 kinds of old fashioned sodas!)

I took the girls to the zoo on my birthday- if I don't get the day off, we should at least have a lot of fun! We met a friend there.

There's cute, and then there's Meer-kute. Ha ha

Yay for birthdays (and on to the shopping trip!) I feel a lot more 30 than I did last year : )