Making Cake (and messes)

Charlotte and I had a fun and messy mommy/daughter time as we baked a cake for my birthday today! Charlotte is an excellent helper-she threw away the egg shells, added the water, mixed the cake mix, and added the sprinkles! And the best part was that we didn't have to clean up! Thanks Greg! I love you! (I do realize that Charlotte is going to have to learn to clean up her messes and as my mom says, you should always clean as you go in the kitchen, but that is quite the impossible task with a toddler helping!) The cake was very yummy and a special treat, but the biggest treat was teaching my daughter a skill that I love to do and we had a blast doing it!

A bigger treat came today when Charlotte said "Happy Birthday" to me!

What the nine people who read my blog have been waiting for!

Yesterday I installed a counter on my blog, so now I know nine people read my blog. (Actually it's only 8 because my visit to the blog yesterday counted as 1!)

The 8 people who read my blog are waiting for a new post. Today I was going to write a few different posts from the last few days, but now I decided to just do one mega post, which I'm sure will disappoint the 8 people who read the blog.

Here are the highlights!
Saturday-a surprise birthday party for moi thrown by my wonderful, caring, loving, very sneaky husband, who had help from my fantastic and also sneaky friends! It was great! Pizza, cake, ice cream, balloons, streamers, presents, and most important 7 adults and 4 toddlers whom I love very much!


Sunday-Tuesday-a trip to Woodhaven for me and Charlotte to see my mom, gramma, and grampa. This was Charlotte's first time eating at Dairy Joy, a drive-in in Hinckley, IL and a tradition to stop at on the way to and from Woodhaven. Now, Charlotte's first time to Woodhaven, we did stop at Dairy Joy, but considering she was 5 weeks old, she didn't eat anything. On our way to Woodhaven she ate almost a whole cheeseburger by herself! Don't tell her though that on the way home, I did stop for an ice cream cone, while she slept in the back seat! Once at Woodhaven we biked, played at the playground with bopa and gramma, ate lots of ice cream, and drove on bopa's lap. (Now, before anyone calls DCFS, the speed limit at Woodhaven is 20 miles an hour, plus everyone leaves Woodhaven on Sunday, leaving it a ghost town during the week! *Additionally, my grampa can get away with anything when it comes to Charlotte because they are just so cute together and he would not put her in harm's way. This is also the reason Charlotte ate a lot of ice cream because bopa would give it to her and I just didn't have the heart to take away that joy from him and her!)
* These are only things my grampa can get away with, just in case anyone else was tempted to try.




Yesterday-Foster Family Fun day. Yes, we are still getting Foster Family Fun days because I am still not back at work. I went to get fingerprinted in the morning though, which would be a start, but I couldn't get fingerprinted because of lack of communication. I really think I should start a "When Will Nicole Go Back to Work" Pool. It would cost $5 to submit a guess and then the winner would split the money with the Foster Family (cause after all, I am the one out of work!) We got treated to lunch by Dave and Maria, former coworkers of Greg's who are a great Christian couple and are so giving! Then in the afternoon we went to the Nature Museum for a fall campfire for toddlers. It was very similar to toddlers, tunes, and turtles, but there was a campfire and marshmallows (which Charlotte did not like!)

Birthdays and Free Stuff: 2 of My Favorite Things

What better way to celebrate a birthday than with free stuff (besides the obvious gifts!) The marketing people at the below restaurants sure know their way to a girl's heart!

Noodles and Co-Free Noodles dish (no purchase necessary!) Charlotte and I went their last year for my birthday and you bet I'll do the same this year.
Red Robin-Free Gourmet Burger. No purchase necessary. (I LOVE RED ROBIN by the way!) They are still down on my list because they are only located far out in the burbs!
Bennigan's-free entree with purchase of another entree. Not as great as Noodles because you have to buy something
Famous Dave's-They only give you a free dessert, so the least favorite of them all.

My birthday is still a week away and I'm waiting patiently for my favorite one-a free like it size ice cream from Coldstone! (the only problem with them is that you now need to sign up at their website and log in to get their coupons.) I like the ones that automatically show up in my inbox!

Summer's Not Over Yet!

So just when you think that summer is over in Chicago, we get a heat wave! And of course, we took advantage of it and the fact that I am still not back at work. On Tuesday Charlotte and I walked down to the beach for mainly sand play, until Charlotte saw a dog near the water. Of course this meant that Charlotte wanted to go see the dog, and thus going to see the dog meant that she saw the water and thus wanted to get in. Now before commenting on how could we go to the beach and Charlotte not notice the water at first, I'll explain. We went to the big beach (Loyola Park) and sat far enough away from the water that it wasn't so tempting. Plus where we sat we were on a slight incline so while we sat we couldn't see the waves lapping up onto the beach, plus I had Charlotte very occupied with the sand!




On Wednesday we headed to GiGi and Bopa's for Foster Family Fun Day. They too thought summer in Chicago was over as they had deflated the pool. It didn't take long to set it back up and for Charlotte to enjoy it!



She is just so cute in this shot!

Yummy Sunday

Sunday afternoon we headed for Eli's Cheesecake Festival! What can be better than a free festival that features cheesecake? NOTE: The event is free but everything else once you get there costs money, including the cheesecake, even though the ads said free cheesecake samples. They did have free cheesecake samples but they were so hard to find (go figure!)

Anyway, we still had a grand time watching cooking demos and picking up some yummy free recipes and tastes of the food that were made at the demos! And yes, we did get some cheesecake. (For a dollar donation to the Greater Chicago Food Depository we got a slice of cheesecake!)

Here is Charlotte eating a whole apple by herself! What a big, healthy girl!



And, since we were at a cheesecake festival we had to let her try cheesecake! She loved the chocolate cheesecake! (And of course she had the cheesecake after eating the apple first!)

Big, Bad Adult

So when we came home from church on what I want to be a relaxing day there was trouble on the other side of the fence. We came in the back with the bikes and out front there were probably ten middle school and high school boys from the church around the corner fighting. I chose to watch for awhile and then something in me kicked me into action. I had made it up the stairs halfway still observing when I decided to run down and yell at the boys to get out of here. "Stop what you are doing and go where you belong!" Surprisingly, they actually listened!
What motivated me to action?

Maybe it was because I went through many torturous years in high school and middle school being picked on and I wanted to stand up for the little guy.

Maybe it was because on our bike ride home I was already angry because twice two cars went through the stop signs without paying any attention to me, Greg, and Charlotte on our bikes as we were at a stop sign.

Maybe it was because I miss being in the classroom and having an impact on students' lives.

Or maybe it was because Charlotte was with me, and I want her to know that fighting is not tolerable or that when she starts dating (yikes) she shouldn't pick a boy who thinks its cool to fight with others. Although she's only 15 months I want her to learn from me to stand up for the little guy or girl and step in to change the behavior rather than sit on the sidelines and watch.

Toddlers, Tunes, and Turtles

Yesterday was a gorgeous day and after a morning filled with running errands, it was time to get out and play! We invited our friends Roxanne and Anni to Gompers Park for a free event (gotta love free stuff) where kids got to play outside with puppets, animal costumes, books, wheelbarrows, and see live animals and hear music from a musician with Old Town School of Music.

Charlotte loved the chinchilla, whom she kissed and laid her head on. I don't blame her! They are so soft because they have 50 hairs come out of each hole on their skin! We also petted a hedgehog, held a chick, and fed a pig! It was the perfect thing for our animal loving girl!