Heidi's Happy

6/17/13

Father's Day

This was Andy's first Father's Day with Charlie here. We did celebrate a little bit last year because we knew he was on the way, but it is more special somehow when he is here. Not that Charlie did anything special for him other than sleep a little bit better (but not by much). My dad was also in town for this Father's Day, all the way from South Africa! My mom and him got in a few nights ago and are staying in Charlie's room for a few weeks. We are going to have lots of BBQs and play lots of card games I'm sure.
To Celebrate we got together with my brother and his family and were planning on having brunch but it just turned into a late lunch with breakfast food. Which was delicious!

It has been so much fun to see Charlie interacting with his Pop Pop.

Playing some Legos while lunch was being made. Line found a spider and was pretty excited about building a house for it.

Grandparents with their Spokane grands (I love Charlie's facial expression here).

6/12/13

Schedule Schmedule

I enjoy a good schedule. And Charlie had been keeping to his for the past few months rather well. Sure, there were a few days where he wouldn't nap as well or want to eat a little early, which is fine. But for the past few days he has been nowhere near his normal schedule. He has been eating every 2-3 hours (which he normally goes 4 hours between feedings) and he only sleeps for half of his naps. And I must admit, it frustrated me more than anything when he wasn't doing what he was supposed to be doing. But then I realized that he is a baby and he is growing and that he's not doing it on purpose. I know that sounds silly and VERY obvious, but it took me a few days to get it. So, here is to letting him be on his own schedule if he needs to be!

This is what makes me happy :)

He has been non-stop chewing on everything and anything he can get his chubby little hands on. But, still no sign of teeth (when are they going to show themselves?!?).

6/11/13

Let's Go for a Bike Ride

I love bike rides. I have missed them so much since last summer, but we just ordered a bike trailer for Charlie and it got here yesterday, so what did we do? Went on a bike ride! It was just a short little ride around our neighborhood and then to a local park. Charlie was supposed to be sleeping but it was just too much excitement for him. Afterwards we enjoyed some piña coladas that I made using this recipe. They were good, very strong though. I think I'll stick with mojitos.

Line reminded us that her shoes were off and her feet were very dirty about 50 times. I guess she thought it was a big deal :)

There were many races to the end of the slide with Line.

And about 2 seconds later she had a handful of bark in her mouth. Yum.

Someone fell asleep on the way home.

6/10/13

Elkfest

Our weekend was jam packed! We started out by heading to Andy's mom's house to paint the exterior. We had just been out there a few days earlier and painted quite a bit of the house (almost half). Andy ended up painting the entire upper half this time and I ended up eating a ton of grapes; they were just so perfect! But after we painted the house we headed back home to clean up because we had some out of town friends stay the night and our house might have been a bit of a mess.
That evening we got to go down to Elkfest, which is a small music festival that they do annually and this is the first time we got to go! It definitely was not our normal scene, seeing as that is mostly at home or Red Robin its not hard to step out of it. We did end up running into one of Andy's good friends from high school and got to catch up. We then met up with our friends from out of town and went to a nice quiet pizza place so we could talk and hear each other.
We ended up only listening to one band while we were there and I didn't even catch their name. Oops! But it was entertaining and I think I would enjoy going back next year!

The Elk is what Elkfest is named after and it was the most crowded we've ever seen it. I kept referring to them as cattle the entire night. It just seemed so silly, but how else are you gonna get your beer on?

This was some sort of drawing for these two massive art pieces. They would not have fit into our apartment at all, but they were very cool.

Our little Charles has been teething the last few days and drooling like crazy. I am just hoping that these teeth pop out soon!

6/7/13

Zucchini Brownies

I love zucchini. I always thought that I hated zucchini until about two years ago and now I can't get enough of that stuff. Some of our favorite dinners include zucchini and I really wanted to try my hand at baking with zucchini. So I decided to try a zucchini brownie. Now, my absolute favorite brownies are the Ghirardelli brownies made from the box (they are pretty much perfection). And I never really liked homemade brownies because they never taste as good as the ones from the box. But this one actually came really close to the Ghirardelli ones, especially with some delicious homemade whipped cream on top. Yum! And not only did they have zucchini in them, but I also made them with whole wheat flour. I was very happy with how they turned out! I even fed them to my niece and brother and they both liked them without knowing what was in them! I am definitely going to be making these more often.

(Sorry for the blurry iPhone photo. And yes, that is our Bumbo that Charlie has a love/hate relationship with.)

Whole Wheat Zucchini Brownies (adapted from this recipe)

-1/2 cup canola oil
-1 1/2 cups sugar
-2 teaspoons vanilla extract
-2 cups whole wheat flour (I just get mine from the bulk bins at Winco)
-1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
-1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
-1 teaspoon salt
-2 1/2 cups shredded zucchini (I just used a whole medium zucchini)
-1 1/2 cups Ghirardelli milk chocolate baking chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8x8-inch baking pan.

2. In a large bowl, mix together the oil, sugar and vanilla until well blended. Stir in the whole wheat flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Fold in the zucchini and chocolate chips. Spread evenly into the prepared pan.

2. Bake for 40-45 minutes in the oven (or until a toothpick comes out with just a little goop on it, if you want your brownies gooey that is). The original recipe bakes the brownies in a 9x13-inch pan and you only have to bake it for 25-30 minutes (I just like to use my 8x8 because it doesn't stick as much).

6/6/13

Mule Days

Parades, parades, parades. We love parades :) This one was even more fun because Andy's grandpa was in it for his high school class, which made it a bit more exciting to watch. Also, this celebration was not just a parade, they also had a kids area with pony rides and a bouncing castle, they also had booths of random crafts and food. We enjoyed meandering through the booths while a folk band played a very random selection of songs. Then it was some greasy burgers for lunch and nap time for Charlie.

There's that princess wave again

Charlie has found his hands in the past few weeks and enjoys chewing on anything he can get his little chubby hands on. His favorite is his Sophie toy by far. She's just so squeaky :)

Line got to go on her first pony ride and she loved it. The pony was named Willy and he was the most adorable little shrimp of a pony.

6/4/13

Memories Made in May

I'm a few days late, but what a great month, right? Our time was spent enjoying the sun when it was out and playing games when it rained. We enjoyed the Jr. Lilac Parade with some family and friends the other day and it was a perfect parade. Not too long, beautiful weather and the kiddos got plenty of candy (which is by far the best part). Although the marching bands were a close second with the adorable middle schoolers. It is just now the beginning of June and I cannot wait for the heat to come back and play outside again!