Cake and Tea for Breakfast, Of Course!

Ri, Ali and Grandma celebrate by eating the bottom
tier of the tiny birthday cake for breakfast!

Riley was so excited to have her grandma come over for a tiny, surprise birthday celebration. She wasn't the best at the "surprise" part. Telling Grandma what was in her birthday package,  and opening the card and telling her "and we have cake!". Ri also sang her rendition of "Happy Birthday" to Grandma at least three times and blew out the candle.

We had so much fun eating cake for breakfast and it's so adorable that Riley now loves the tradition of signing to family on birthdays. I can't wait to celebrate more special occasions with the girls!

Giving Thanks and Other Mischeif

Riley helps trim and sort the green beans

We spent a good amount of time relaxing on Thanksgiving day this year. We had good food at my parents' house and amazing desserts.The kids enjoyed playing with their cousin for most of the day. Everyone had a day that was worthy of giving thanks, I even let Matt watch football and nap for a good part of the afternoon.

Grandma instructs Riley on the food prep, what a helper!

Ali Loves to play doggie

The "twins" play so sweetly together

Celebrating Grandma's big day

A wonderful birthday dinner with our family, the three little girls, my parents and my uncles. We had great food and cake and Ali gave her grandma some sincere kisses for the special occasion!

Choc-lifting

We took a quick trip to the Co-op and while I was taking a look at the chocolate selection, Riley picked out her own chocolate bar, a 70% chocolate orange bar. She preceded to open it and had eaten 2/3 of the the bar, by the time we reached the check out. (she was also chagrined to have her photo taken with the chocolate bar, feeling guilty maybe?)

A Breakdown During Dad's Giant Birthday

For some reason a total meltdown ensued as we began to sing "Happy Birthday" to Riley's beloved dad. Were we that shrill or off key? Was she upset after hearing that the song is, perhaps copyright protected?!

Seriously, I feel some explanation is owed for the level of drama, that our little drama queen displayed. Here's the play-by-play of the lit candles and our song.









We had a wonderful dinner with baseball themed food and a Giants-colored cake. Thank you to all the family and friends who made this wonderful evening possible.

And a very happy birthday to the love of my life! 10 years together and 30 years old! What could be better. (well, maybe all of that without the singing).

Happy Thanksgiving

Riley enjoyed using the high chair that my dad built for us when we were little. She did look angelic in it, though she was a bit of a wreck for the long day without a nap.

We enjoyed delicious food and Alison was mellow, as always, for her first Thanksgiving.

Trick or Treat (or just knock on the door and stand there quietly)

Riley had her first experience Trick or Treating. We took her out in her oven mitt costume. It still fits great from last year and this year she's finally old enough to walk in it and candy gather.

We went to several houses in our neighborhood. She enjoyed knocking on doors and readily took candy from the people that opened the door and she successfully stashed it in her bag.

What she didn't master was saying anything to people. So I tried coaching and ultimately said the "trick or treat", "happy Halloween" and "thank you" to everyone and Riley waved good bye.













We went houses to house until Riley "dropped". After about 6 houses, Riley sat on a lawn in a front yard and spralled out on her back. It was then that we headed home and Riley checked out her loot.

I let her pick just one candy for tonight and she chose and enjoyed an Almond Joy.

Getting down to business - picking out apples

Even though we came to Apple Hill very early, we were still able to go home with some Gala apples and Bartlett pears. In fact, Riley picked out a whole peck of apples for us to take home. We let her pick from the vast bins (which were conveniently located on her level and saved me from bending over).

Here she shows off her skills and how aptly she handled two fruits at once. The photo of her with two pears almost looks like a complex sobriety test; impressive Mitt!

(thank you to Ian for not only taking these great shots, but for sharing :)

Baby Hannah's Party!

We had a wonderful time at baby Hannah's shower. Riley loved that there were a few other kiddos her age. Riley also enjoyed raiding the gifts at any opportunity she could manage!

I made coconut cupcakes with orange-passion fruit frosting for the festivities.

Heidi and I also managed to accidentally wear the same dress to the party - our matching outfit and bellies are almost cute and almost creepy!

All-in-all it was a wonderful party, great food, friends and adorable gifts to see!

Happy Birthday Rachel!

We had fun making a lemon poppyseed cake with cardamom and ginger and a raspberry whipped cream filling.

The sheer height of the cake was ridiculous and the individual pieces were "surprisingly" big!

Happy 25th, Rachel!

Messers-Mitt

We are so proud of Riley's enthusiastic eating at dinner. She ate mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes, and garlic all in one large meal. She is a very slow eater....we both waited at the table for a long time so she wasn't left alone eating. She is so mitt-ticulous with her food, choosing tiny pieces at a time. I'm trying to get as many veggies in her diet before she turns two and decides she is no longer eating anything but mac & cheese. Fingers crossed this won't happen!

Little Chocolate Monster

So lately we can't seems to get this kid to eat much solids at all. Tonight with both of us looselysupervising, she got a hold of a Lindt 70% dark chocolate and cherry chili bar. It looks like she had a pretty good piece of it, at least and inch square. Here are the mug shots from the very quick damage. Sooooo busted!