Patient Little Kittens

We now have two kittens. The original kitten is Gracie. Her sister that came to live with us a while after is Beetlejuice (due to her smaller than proportionate head and of course Jake). Emma love her kitties. She calls to them, reads to them, hugs and kisses them. Luckily we got them as very young kittens, so they don't know any different than having a toddler love all over them. Emma loves to carry them around as well... which I did not think would be very popular with the kitties...but so far they don't seem to mind. They never try to wriggle free, and they don't even seem to mind getting "caught." Every once in a while it's clear that they are not interested in playing with a one year old...so they take refuge behind the washer and dryer where they have a nice warm place to lay down.

Cruise to Mexico

Cabo was very beautiful! Heather and I did some snorkeling while my mom, Jen and Aunt Kathy did a canopy zip-line tour. Emma had a great time hanging out with Great Aunt Maryanne, second cousin Juls and Great-Grandma Hillery (Eema).

We had a a great time on our all ladies cruise. I was so happy for Emma to be able to spend some quality time with all of these lady relatives. It was a great opportunity to be with Grandma, but it was too bad she was kind of under the weather.

Emma had the most fun when she was eating (which was a lot). Her second favorite thing was the childrens pool. We didn't go as often as we should have, but when we did Emma had a blast. She laughed and laughed.

Grandma like to hang out near the pool too. I think it was nice for her to be around a young baby again and hearing her laugh and play.

Ladies Lunch

Every other Friday everyone at my office is allowed an hour and a half for lunch. Since I am off Fridays I invited three of my closest work friends over for a little luncheon (a free lunch made by me has to be as good as going to Ruby Tuesday's right?). Sylvia wasn't able to make it... but Dawn, Misty, Emma and I enjoyed ourselves. On the menu: a salad of arugula and watercress, prosciutto, fried goat cheese, honey and a fig balsamic vinaigrette; orange balsamic glazed open faced chicken sandwiches with caramelized onions; and chocolate molten lava cakes with chili-chocolate whipped cream, all washed down with iced tea and frozen lemonade (sort of an Arnold Palmer slushie). It was nice to see those ladies I don't get to see for very long because of my crazy work schedule, and a good chance for me to do some cooking! Jake was a little disappointed that I didn't cook for him (like he would eat goat cheese anything!) so the next day I made him pineapple upside down pumpkin gingerbread.