TWELVE

Early birthday dinner with some friends.

2016 week twelve

A lovely spring week ending in a magical Easter weekend for Vera.

Birthday afternoon playing around the water fountain eating free Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream.

Her favorite place to be.

Theodore the Baby of the World.

Beautiful birthday flowers from Matthew.

All our walks end in collected feasts for Dandelion the bunny.

Coloring eggs is magical.

Coloring eggs with friends.

Ward Easter Egg hunt.

Hunting with Papa.

Showing me that she found some "Grandpa Dean Candy."  Also, mouth full of candy already.

Theodore in the act of committing his first crime: picking the Texas state flower.

"It's too bright! I cant open my eyes." Bluebonnet photo: Nailed it.

Running in the bluebonnet field with Papa.

Quotes

*GASP* "Mama! MAMA! Look! I had a mermaid poop!" She got off the toilet and her poop had formed a little "V" at the end. It was clearly a mermaid poop.

"I have to hold on so tight. It's how I don't die on the swing."

"This makes me feel good, like not eating poison and turning into a skeleton."

Me, "I need to pick this weed."
V, "I want to pick a wheeze!"

I was feeling kind of poorly (mostly just exhausted from no sleep THEODORE!) and Vera came over to me and patted my head and said, "Can I get you water so you don't feel so sick?" It was so tender.

"Dear Heavenly Father. Thank you for my day. Thank you for my mustard and my sausage. Thank you for my food. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen."

Matt handed V a couple receipts he found in his pocket and Vera said, "What a great present for me!" And then Matthew said, "We never have to buy her toys again."

V has started trying to assimilate the word "options" into her vernacular. She'll say funny things like, "Big baby Lucy can close her eyes and that is your two options." or "I'm going to put my dress over my body and take of my pajamas and then these are your two options." Apparently we give her "two options" quite a bit.

To the tune of "I Love to See the Temple," V sang, "I love to see the Christ and Mary with her penguins."

I overheard Vera playing "Daniel in the Lion's Den" with her animals but she kept saying, "The lions have trapped us in their den! They lions locked us in here but Daniel will close their mouths!"

"Mama, my prince will come t'later." She always adds a "ta" sound at the end of the word later, yesterday, last night, etc. I think it comes from thinking that the "to" in "tomorrow" indicates a different time.

Stories

Vera loves to play "West Wing" with Papa. Every morning she asks to play when she wakes up and every night she begs Matt when he gets home. These are the rules: Vera has to be wearing her Belle dress; Matthew gets a small toy and goes and hides in "Papa's West Wing" or "Vera's West Wing;" When he leaves to go hide he says, "Belle is NOT allowed in the West Wing!"; Vera then sneaks down the hallway giggling and slowly opens the door; Matthew bursts out and loudly says, "Belle is NOT allowed in the West Wing! It is FORBIDDEN! Don't you know what you could have done?!"; Veronica runs away squealing and she is supposed to say, "Promise or no promise, I can't stay here another minute" but she always forgets. Repeat.

I had such a lovely birthday last Monday. First I had a dentist appointment at 730am. But it's not a bad way to start the day: with clean teeth and so many compliments. I love the dentist. Then, because my children were already been watched I went to get a pedicure. Then I got free lunch and free ice cream. If you don't already take advantage of businesses giving you free things on your birthday you really should. Then that evening Matt and I drove to Dallas to eat at a fancy restaurant with some friends. For starter we had bison meatballs over fried polenta and arugula. Then Matt and our friends got the famous "Best Hamburger in Texas." This is what Texas Monthly had to say about the burger:
The meat, ground in-house, is ten ounces of high-quality chuck-eye (renowned for having the best fat-to-lean ratio). The peppered bacon is cured on-site. The slightly sweet bun hails from a local bakery... The lettuce is Texas hydroponic Bibb, just the tender inner leaves; the Lemley tomato has achieved ideal ripeness. White cheddar cheese oozes across the meat patty, melding irresistibly with the Dijonnaise blend that has been swiped across the amply buttered, crisply toasted bread.
So, it's perfect.
I, however, had the Lamb Tartines. It was little crispy french bread rounds topped with shredded toasted lamb, roasted garlic, sweet onion jam, sun-dried tomatoes, and cambazola cheese. And it was so good. I will definitely be attempting to slow cook lamb in the future.
For dessert I had a perfect creme brulee with a florentine cookie.
I love food so much. It is so much more than fuel to me. I love meals that stay with you that you want to talk about and remember for a long time after. I really can't think of a better present to receive than some sort of tasty little food morsel. Or a gift card to Central Market, so I have an excuse to spend 2 hours browsing all the tasty little food items to come away with one jar of honey and one jar of olive oil.