TWELVE

Birthday dinner prep

2017 week twelve

We had grilled crab legs, shrimp and mussels in a white wine garlic butter sauce and homemade french fries, The kids pretty much only ate the fries. Fine. We were more than happy to not share the shellfish with them. 

Birthday box of tea. I have to say, after trying Mariage Freres, no other tea really compares -at all. 

Beautiful birthday flowers from my mom. Thank you so much. 

First day of spring lunch: ham and cheese omelette with spinach and chives from the garden. 

Vera in her kitchen before. 

We added a shelf and she was so happy to hang up her dress up on hangers. She was beyond thrilled. 

Our first stop at Lowes -every time. Theodore is absolutely in his happy place. 

On Thursday Matt and I went to Dallas to see a live taping of Wait Wait Dont Tell me. While we were waiting, the lady at the end of the row took her shoes off and propped her foot up on the arm rest... 

This has been something we've wanted to go see for a long time. It was even funnier in person because the comedians would just riff off each other for extended periods of time. The 40 minute show took nearly 2 hours to tape. Most of that was just Matt and I laughing and cheering. This was such a fun birthday date. 

Matthew requested homemade pot stickers and crying tiger beef. Our kids only wanted to eat the pineapple and mango. Again, fine. We don't want to share. :) 

On Friday night our friends had us over for a murder mystery dinner. Matt was carny folk and I was the "sexy" sheriff. We had so much fun and again, laughing all night. 

Our first rose bloomed this week. I cant wait to see our back fence covered in apricot colored roses with blackberry bushes overflowing at the base. In the background is Vera laying face down on my birthday hammock chair. 

Our blackberry bushes are covered in mini berries and blossoms this spring. I think it's going to be a good berry year. 

And a good spinach year. The spinach is kind of taking over. 

Vera's snap pea and pole bean teepees are coming along nicely as well. 

We cleaned up the brush pile and I spent the morning tangling and weaving branches into a little fairy hut for V. I think we'll plant some honeysuckle vine at the base to grow up and over. How lovely it will be in the heat of summer to lay in her little tangle hut under the shade of the leaves and flowers. 

Quotes:

I didn't write down as many quotes this week. But I wrote down a couple of the games that Matthew plays with Vera.

In one game she sits on his lap and he says, "Nothing to see here." and pushes her hair into her face. She laughs and pushes it away until he does it again.

And alternate version of this game is when Matthew says, "Let me fix your hair" and he pushes her hair into her face. She pushes it away to make him say, "Oh dear! Your hair. Let me fix your hair."

Vera loves to play memory with playing cards and candy land.

Vera likes it when Matthew puts her in a blanket and picks up the corners and swings her around. For some reason this is called "Fairy Swing."

She likes to ride on Matthew's back in horsey fashion as every child has done at one time or another.

He will also grab her feet and look surprised and say, "There's something stuck on the bottom of your feet. I need to get it." Then he will tickle her feet. She loves this.