When Mom and Dad have a Date Day.....

Auntie Pookie and Treyden have a Baking Day!!!

After a Valentine's Day spent at McDonald's, Mommy wanted a real date night. So on Saturday, Auntie Pookie came out to visit and play and Daddy and Mommy headed to Calgary for dinner and some shopping. After two hours of playing and a few too many hours to go until bedtime, Auntie Pookie decided we needed an activity to pass some time. So we decided to bake!

Let our adventure begin....

Step 1. Test that Auntie Pookie knows how to use Mommy's camera. After I saw the camera strap hanging from the kitchen counter, Auntie Pookie quickly remembered she needed to keep the camera AND camera strap out of reach.

Step 2. Find a recipe in Mommy's recipe book.

Hmmm. Which one looks good? Corn salad? Nope. Sweet and sour spareribs? Huh?

Hey, what's this one? Chocolate cupcakes?

YAY! Auntie, let's make Mommy's favorite chocolate cupcakes to surprise her!

Step 3. Put cupcake liners in the muffin tin.

Hey, these are kind of funny looking...

Step 4. Stir the dry ingredients together. I was very careful and only got a little bit of flour on Mommy's clean flour. Auntie helped me clean it up.

Step 5. Get ready to mix! I'm not too sure about this though....

Hey, this is kind of fun!!!

Step 6. Put the cupcakes in the oven to bake. Auntie did this job, even though I wanted to help.

Hey, are they done yet?

Cupcakes take a long time to bake. I need a snack...

And a rest....

Auntie, baking cupcakes is HARD WORK!

Step 7. Ice the cupcakes. Thanks for letting me help and don't worry Mom, Auntie didn't let me eat too much icing off the spoon!

Step 8. Eat the cupcakes. Just to be sure mommy will like them.

Yummy!!! Auntie, we make gooooood cupcakes. Thanks for coming to bake.

Colouring 101

Charlie continues to enjoy colouring in the bath and on the table/floor!  As you can see, I often will grab the crayon and draw something too!

Eating with a Spoon

I've introduced the spoon to Charlie - and now he won't eat yogurt unless he is feeding himself!  He is actually pretty good at it (when he is in the mood).  I'm not trying to hurry the process, just get him using the spoon a little bit.....because really, it is a lot more messy and if you know me, I don't like mess :)

Bedtime Reading with Daddy

Daddy does the bedtime routine in this house.  I clean up the dishes and Daddy does the bath and the reading.  They have lots of fun and it always amazes me how fast he will go to sleep after being so energetic only 15 minutes earlier.

Grandma S brought Charlie some new "Grandpa" pajamas when she visited in January, so I had to get some pictures of him in them......Here is Daddy and Charlie reading before bed.

New Chair

Charlie got a new chair in January and loves sitting in it while listening to Mommy read!  I got out my camera to take a few pictures and had to convince Charlie that if he sat in the chair, he could see my camera......Well, the first few times he sat in it for 2 seconds and then came running.  That wasn't good enough for this Momma, so I told him to go back.  Below are the progression of the pictures.  Notice him sitting but not smiling, eventually a little smile, then my big boy smile!!!!

My Birthday......30.......

Yup - that's right, I turned 30 :)  I'm not bothered by it at all, so I had a fun day celebrating with some of my family.  Charlie had left his runners at his Grandparent's house, so once we got there for my birthday dinner, he found them and put them on....And I couldn't resist a couple of pictures!!!!

Mommy and Charlie on my Birthday

Cake time - black forest....My absolute favorite....I had two pieces that nite!

Mommy - you blew them all out in one breath!

A Few Extra Pictures

The Touchdown stance......

Someone loves to clean....

I'm still trying to find a good cleaning routine....We've been in our house for 8 months and I still am trying to figure out what works well without leaving too much to do on the weekend :)  I guess that's the luxury of being a mom that stays at home (and works during naptimes).

Daddy was doing the vacuuming the other day and Charlie was having his snack and 'helping' Dad.  We've just started letting Charlie eat outside of high chair.  I'm much too particular about food mess.....you can see why!!!!  And if I think about it, Charlie is a much better eater in his high chair.  He isn't distracted and he knows that it is time to eat.  When I let him snack out of his chair, he walks around, starts playing with things, and often wants more snacks than he needs.  So we'll see how long I continue this trend....

Whoops - sorry Daddy, I accidently spilled my cheerios!

Here - I'll clean and eat them up!

Better get them eaten before Dad comes back!

YES!  Finally, I get to vacuum!

I am so good - Daddy could hire me as a housekeeper!