Auntie Jen

I mentioned in a post the other day that my good friend Jen is Eva's favorite "auntie" so, with Jason still out of town, we met up for brunch after church yesterday.  Jen helps bring out Eva's diva-ness... or maybe it's the other way around LOL

Crazy eyes!

She's too quick for me to always catch her cute smiles

Soccer

We have an annual chili and cornbread cook off at work and I've won 2 years in a row now for my cornbread.  Last year I used my prize to get Eva into her first gymnastics class at the Brooklyn Park Rec & Park center, she loved it so much it turned into on-going classes at TCT and she's truly blossomed.  This year I'm going to use my prize to enroll her in a soccer and t-ball preschool sampler class.  It will begin the week after her 4th birthday and run through the end of the school year. 


I was a bit hesitant at first, she is so small that I worry about her in contact/group sports but my doubts were put to rest when we walked into Old Navy on Friday night.  She ran straight for a sparkly pink and purple soccer ball, picked up, and drop kicked it half way down the toddler section.  She has never shown an interest in balls or sports at all before so I'm taking this as a good sign.

If she ends up liking soccer we'd put her the Champlin Dayton Youth Sports league this summer and she'd have weekly soccer games.  Then I would officially be a soccer mom... and my life will be complete :-)

After a kick, please excuse the cluttered kitchen in the background!

Fun Fest

According to the stats, not a whole lot of you visit here on Sundays, so perhaps no one will even read this until tomorrow, yet I blog on undeterred.  I'm taking this blog challenge very seriously! 


Yesterday was Fun Fest at Eva's school.  It's an annual event that combines a silent auction to fund raise for the school with, well, fun.  The theme this year was ancient civilizations so the classrooms had different themes and games from Greece to Rome and China to Egypt.  My favorite was the "see how fast you can wrap your teacher as a mummy in toilet paper" game.  Eva's favorite was the bounce house and inflatable obstacle course- way to pick an item of such immense historic importance... 3 year olds! ha

I didn't snap too many photos of the games, costumes or set -up because I didn't want to be that creepy lady with the zoom lens camera who may be taking a photo of you without you knowing it but here are some of Eva.

Waiting patienly in line

bounce house

50's Grill

With Daddy out of town for a work conference, Eva and I took the chance to hit up my old stomping grounds in Brooklyn Center with Auntie Maria.  50's Grill, for those of you who don't know, is one of the best restaraunts ever and I worked there for years when I was younger.  It's where I met one of closests friends Jen almost 13 years ago and since Eva looooves Auntie Jen and Auntie Jen still works at 50's Grill 1 or 2 days per week, we like to visit her from time to time.


I also like showing off my mini-me to old coworkers.  Actual quote from my friend Amy, "Oh hello Becca.... (looks at Eva)... hello mini-Becca."  Ha!

Amy put her to work sweeping!

Auntie Maria looks cute... Eva looks confused, c'est la vie

of course I couldn't get the cute shot to not be blurry :-P

retro waiting area

Kiddywampus

I learned about this cool art studio in the Twin Cities specifically for kids and today my friend Erin and I took our kids (Ray- 5, Jack- 4 and Eva-3) to a special Valentine's Day session.  The kids had an hour to glue, color, paint, cut, sprinkle and stamp to their hearts' content and the best part was that I didn't have to clean up!  I'd go every week if we lived closer to the studio.  Oh and to top it all off it has a wicked cool toy store seciton too- loved it!

getting supplies ready

Eva & Jack hard at work

GLITTER!

Dot art

Mid-air jump

Ray & Eva

Cheeeese

Blog Challenge!

In an effort to keep the blog views rolling in (we're almost through another 1,000!)- I will be posting something new every single day in the month of February.  I realize that 1) I am already behind since it's the 5th and 2) it's sort of cheating to pick the shortest month of the year to do a blog-a-thon in but hey, at least it's a leap year so you'll get 29 instead of only 28!

Eva's Book Review- February

Madeline and the Cats of Rome by John Bemelmans Marciano

We're focusing on some of the classics this month for our book review selections.  In this book, Madeline has to fight off and then befriend a homeless girl in Rome who wants to help the city's stray cats.   I love the rhyming of Madeline books and Eva was insightful enough to ask questions about Madeline's mommy and daddy, to which I had to explain what an orphan is.  There are some things I wish I could shield her from forever but as Baba often reminds me, Mothers are not for leaning, but for making leaning unnecessary.   



Paddington at the Beach by Michael Bond
Eva loves this book because it's a counting book, as each page goes on more and more seagulls show up to try and steal Paddington's bread.  They eventually succeed, but the silly seagulls didn't know that Paddington always has a marmalade sandwich hidden on him!

Babar's Little Girl by Laurent De Brunhoff

Babar is such a classic.  I loved it growing up and I remember Baba doing many accents while reading the books.  This book is about Babar's youngest daughter, Isabelle, and her adventures.  While it's a little on the long side, I really like that there is (what I can only assume) is a gay couple in the book.  Two older men that live alone in a big fancy house in the meadow (where they have lived together for years) and have wonderful toys and fun things for Isabelle to do.  They also like to dance and sing.  If they are not gay, that's fine too, but I like the idea of adult people of any sex being allowed to live in peace and harmony in the book and having it narrated so naturally.