POPCORM!

Zaida loves popcorn (or as she calls it popcorm)!

She was pretty excited to find some in her drawer today ... ... but that didn't last long. She kept yelling "It's STUCK!"

It only took a couple of minutes for her to decide it was okay, since she could eat them anyway!

Now she's figuring it out!

And that only lasted about 30 seconds ... so, here I am finishing it off. Thankfully I have a little photographer to document it.

A Charlie Brown Christmas

We have designated Sunday as the Chrismas movie day. Yesterday it was "A Charlie Brown Christmas". Zaida fell asleep about 5 minutes into it.

Nuff said.

Aloha!

Last night as an added bonus we had a Hawaiian dinner with Macadamia Nut Caramel turtles for dessert. And, just to make it a little Christmasy I included this card in our advent calendar. For those of you who didn't know me well ... yes, I am a little bit of a dork. And for those of you who do know me ... I am still a dork. But, thanks for sticking with me!

P.S. the other night we did a dinner of coq a vin fondue (along with crackers and some foreign cheeses) with our buddies, too. I don't have a card made for it yet (maybe next year), but it will probably be labeled "Joyeux Noel" once I do complete it.
Merci beaucoup, Grahams! We love you guys!

Puzzled?

So, today we look in the magic drawer and we have a puzzle piece.

Side note: Zaida helped put some of the stickers on the cabinet. It's pretty cute because she will group all of the like stickers together. She has a grouping of dots on the front, too. But, they migrate every day. I guess they are the funnest to play with.

How do these things fit together?! It's going to be a LONG day!

And, here we have the finished product. Zaida got to fit the last piece in (it even had the letter "Z" on it). And, yes, she actually did try to help put the puzzle together. She would take pieces and try to place them, then say "no ... nope" when they didn't fit. Or Corey and I would find a piece and show her and she would put it into place.

Okay, so this next picture has nothing to do with the puzzle. We went shopping this morning with my parents and we found a great toy for Zaida so my Mom and Dad bought it for her. I have some cute princess wrapping paper and volunteered to wrap it. Well, when we came into the house after shopping Zaida was asleep so she didn't see it. And when she came down from her nap we were busy doing the puzzle & forgot to hide it. Crap! She said to Corey, "Daddy, play?" He had to explain that she couldn't play with it until it was Christmas. Then when I went in the room she says, "Mommy, Christmas?"

And then this picture was taken.

Festival of Trees

Day 4 - we went to the Festival of Trees. Zaida was swinging her little wand around that I didn't get a good clear shot of her smiling face, except this profile shot. At least she was happy!

We went with my cute friend and her kids.

Little break for some snacks - sweet rolls, scones, chocolate milk, cheese & popcorn. Good healthy stuff!

They have this cute little kids section with activities. We went over to the fishing pond where they got "specials" (aka: suckers). Zaida is sitting on my lap while I blog & telling me about the pictures. She just said, "Nook at da fishies and da canders. So fun. Nook da fishies and da go fish." (Translation: Look at the fishing and the candies.)

Sounds of the Season

Tonight our advent calendar told us, well, nothing ... it was a bell! But, it was a clue as to what our activity was going to be.
We went to a Christmas concert held at the local high school. Part of the performance was the bell ringers. Funny side note: Before the concert we went out to get a bite to eat at a nearby Mexican restaurant. The waitress asked Zaida what she wanted with her meal - french fries or rice and beans. Zaida thought about it for a second and responded, "Pizza." She cracks me up!
Here is a pic at the entrance to the concert. Corey was at school again tonight. But us gals were super happy that my mom could come with us.

And here's about 30 minutes later!

Gotta "love" those 8 o'clock naps!

Well, after about 20 minutes of sleeping Zaida woke up again during the bell ringing portion of the performance --- which was uber cool, by the way. She started to fuss a bit so mom just picked her up and left. I grabbed all the coats, bags, juice and met them out in the hall. Only once we started walking down the hallway did Zaida realize we were going home. Although it was a little sad we had to chuckle when she started yelling "MERRY CHRISTMAS! MERRY CHRISTMAS SONGS!"

2 Turtle Doves

Day 2 of our Advent Calendar brings us "2 Turtle Doves", which for convenience sake has been shortened to "2 turtles" ...

... which we got at the Chocolate Factory!

Stick with me guys, I promise it is not all going to be chocolate related. We were going to do this later in the week, but we had to shuffle a little so our sweet neighbor friends could participate in some of the upcoming events. (We hope you get over your sickies soon!)

2 down, 22 to go!