Play days with K & A

The past two days have been gorgeous, sunny and warm with almost zero humidity and because Maisie's gym is closed this week until Elite camp starts on Thursday, we've had extra time to play and spend our afternoons at the pool. Maisie, K & A have such fun together and have been bouncing between the two houses, eating here and there, spending time at the pool together and when not together, asking where the other ones are. It's great to have K & A right next door as Maisie just adores her friends and it makes it easy for them to get together often.

K & Maisie yesterday after eating lunch.

Maisie and A yesterday at the pool.

Maisie and A warming up and having a snack this afternoon at the pool.

We're hoping that the weather tomorrow is as gorgeous as it has been as we have another play/pool date on the schedule.

Sunday with friends and in the garden

We had a great day filled with food and friends.  Our day actually started quite early as Maisie was up and ready to start her day at 6:30 am and she was having no part of going back to sleep or allowing me to sleep in.  She and I headed out to pick up some fresh bagels as Ilene, Michael & April were going to be coming over for brunch.  Once back at the house we played a little outside and checked out the garden before I had to head in and do a bit of cooking.  Once K & A awoke (at a respectable hour mind you) Maisie went next door to play for a bit before our guests arrived.

Michael, Ilene and April arrived for brunch and we had a nice time together eating, chatting and watching the girls play and have fun with one another.

Maisie and April had a blast playing together.  They colored, did gymnastics, played in the kitchen, with the trains & Lincoln logs and of course dress-up.  It was a fun morning and great to spend time together.

After our brunch and some nice playtime it was time for April and family to head off to see Grandma and we had afternoon and dinner plans at Steve & Anne's.  So we headed next door for more food and time with friends.  Anne made one of my favorites, her version of P.F. Chang's lettuce wraps, total yum!!  We also took all the children into the garden to make our first official harvest from the garden that Steve and I started from seed back in April.

Maisie, A & K picking the first cuke from our garden.

Peyton, Lily, Maisie, K & A with the first picked cuke and ready to harvest more.

Maisie showing off the spinach she picked.

Happy farmers with their bounty.

The back yard garden contains broccoli, Jimmy Nardello's peppers, jalapeno, habanero and Italian sweet peppers, pumpkins, butternut squash, a variety of slicing, plum, grape and San Marzano tomatoes, yard long beans, malabar spinach, Japanese & white eggplant, carrots, bush & sangria watermelon,  passport melon and possibly a few other items which I'm forgetting. We are trying to be very natural with our garden and we're using bamboo as our stakes for all our vining plants. Right now the bamboo is only in for the spinach and cucumbers but soon will be in place for all the veggies that need it.

The melon & squash bed.  Pumpkin, butternut squash, sangria watermelon, early gala melon and passport melon.  In another bed off to the left is the zucchini, as well as beds containing basil, cilantro, rosemary, mint and oregano.

Look at that adorable butternut squash!!

Malabar spinach, which when it gets a little bigger will start vining up the bamboo.

We're going to be eating a lot of cucumbers.

The zucchini  is coming!

Steve pointing to our first pumpkin, very exciting!! We are all going to have a blast harvesting from our garden and hopefully growing and picking the veggies will encourage not only the children but all of us to eat more veggies.  I know that Anne and I are going to love coming up with new and interesting recipes incorporating all the fresh ingredients.

Katie's 4th birthday party

Today Maisie and I attended Katie's 4th birthday party and after a (waiting for her pal Briana to arrive) bit of a slow start, Maisie had a blast running around from inflatable to inflatable. It was a fun party and Maisie enjoyed seeing and spending time with so many of her friends.

Maisie climbing up the largest inflatable.

Maisie coming down one of the slides.

Maisie, Briana & Emily Grace, off and running.

Briana, Maisie and Chani taking a little rest time.

Birthday girl Katie and her friends.

Katie having fun at her party.

Maisie

Briana

Chani

Emily Grace

Claire

Zoe.

It was a fun afternoon and both Maisie and I enjoyed seeing and spending time with so many friends.  Happy 4th birthday Katie and thanks for inviting us to your party!

The 10.5 hour play date

Today Lisa & Briana came over for a little play date and girls lunch. We played, went out for a fun sushi and dumpling lunch, played some more and before we knew it dinner time was around the corner. We didn't want our fun day to end so we decided to invite the Dads to join us at the end of their work day and all was arranged. Doug came straight from work to our house and not long after, Eammon arrived.  We then headed out for a delicious dinner of spicy Chinese food.  After dinner we returned to our house where the girls changed into pajamas, played some more, read some books and then it was time for our tired little girls to end their day.

Lisa and Briana arrived at 10am and Bri immediately wanted to put on a Princess dress, shoes and tiara. I don't know how I missed it in pictures but there were numerous costume changes by both girls throughout the day, Princess and fairy wear, always fun!

Fun times drawing, coloring & writing together.

Two little monkeys on the bar.

Being silly was fun too.

Snack time and squeezing their heads together.

School time with Maisie teaching Briana how to underline special blended sounds in words.

Good students and teachers get Popsicle treats.

Play-doh was the perfect arts & crafts activity.

In their pajamas reading one last book together.

It was a fun day with friends and though we didn't want it to end, by 8:30 PM we had two very tired little girls.  Hopefully Bri fell asleep on the drive home and was easily transferred to her bed and is now, like Maisie, fast asleep for the night.  A fabu play date and a great way to end the week!

A preview of the teen years

Five minutes after..."I'm not tired, I don't need a nap!"

The girl loves her jewelry.

Miss Ambivalence and Miss Frustration.

The Apathy girls.

The week that was and Tanglewood Farm

This week I was overwhelmed with more doctor visits and tests. Monday I went in for a stress test, echo cardiogram and to get a 24-hour halter monitor. When I arrived though I was surprised and less than trilled to find out that it was to be a nuclear stress test which entailed having an IV inserted into needle phobic me, talk about stress right off the bat. Also with the nuclear stress test I had to spend about 20 minutes before the treadmill having pictures taken by a gamma camera, then the treadmill, then the echo and then another 15 minutes of gamma pictures. Finally I was fitted with the halter monitor but it was a long day. By that evening I had a wicked headache which probably was just a side affect of the chemicals they injected but not fun.

Tuesday early afternoon I returned the halter monitor and then headed off to have an MRI where I spent just shy of an hour keeping myself calm inside a what seemed like a very closed-in tube. Funny thing is, I've never considered myself to be claustrophobic and I really don't think that I am but it took a good amount of effort on my part to not push that panic button, I can't even imagine how a claustrophobic person could handle a MRI. After having to keep my shoulder immobilized for almost an hour, two days running, when I awoke Wednesday it was just screaming in pain and it's taken three days for the pain to subside to a now tolerable level.

Thursday was my long awaited appointment with the hematologist for look at my wonky blood. This of course involved another needle and Maisie, who watched with great interest while I laid there trying not to pass-out, said that they drew 19 tubes of blood. I don't know that they took quite that many but it was a very long draw with many, many tube changes. No answers, just new concerns and more questions so this visit has now led to the scheduling of more and unfortunately, much more invasive tests. At this point I am so physically and emotionally drained and stressed beyond belief that I just really wanted to get out and do something fun with Maisie so today we headed to Tanglewood farm. About two years ago Maisie and I met up with friends at the farm and at that time Maisie wanted nothing to do with the animals but today she really enjoyed petting and feeding them all so it was a fun day.

I'm hoping that the weather cooperates tomorrow and Monday and that the daily rain storms hold off until evening so that we can relax and play at the pool during the day. I feel the need for some quiet and easy days so that I can get myself ready for another busy week of Maisie activities and more doctor visits and tests.

Ready for a new week

I am ready for this week to be over as it has been a rough one and I'm hoping that this coming week is much better. The day after I got out of the hospital I had to go see one of my docs and Maisie couldn't come with me so she stayed home with Eammon. I called the house just as I was leaving the doctor to let Eammon know that I was heading home and he informed me that there had been a little accident but that everyone was okay. Apparently Maisie was moving around some large coffee table books and the plate glass top somehow managed to shatter, cutting the top of her foot. Eammon said that there wasn't much blood and he got the cuts washed out and bandaged. When I arrived home I took a look at the cuts and really thought that one was deep enough to need stitches and after a second opinion by our neighbor Steve, Eammon and I got Maisie in the car and headed to urgent care. The doctor there said that the cut was boarder line in needing stitches and suggested that gluing it and using steri-strips would probably take care of it. I was much happier with that option as the idea of Maisie getting stitches made me sick. Once her foot was all glued and bandaged we returned home where she and Eammon took a nap. Once up from her nap, Maisie's foot seemed not to bother her...except when she remembered and would limp and say she needed crutches. The next day when I changed the bandage the top of her poor little foot was all black & blue but the wound looked clean. Maisie went to gymnastics practice in the afternoon and didn't miss a beat but loved telling anyone who would listen about her accident and why her foot was all wrapped up.

I'm feeling okay and a big thanks to everyone who left messages, emailed, called and for all the good wishes and prayers. Other than feeling really run down and a bit overwhelmed by all the doc visits and tests that I have over the next two weeks, I'm really doing fine. I'm going with the mindset that if there was something life-threatening wrong they would have kept me in the hospital. I sort of agree with what the cardiologist said about an acute reaction to a chronic condition and not everyone falls into what is considered "normal" range, and trust me, I'm definitely not normal!

One thing that I have not done, in what seems like forever, is cooking. Between being away on our cruise and then coming back and being busy with Maisie's end of school year activities and of course that little medical scare, well no wonder. But, I have missed it and I also have missed having some good and healthy food in the house so the other day I made a trip to my favorite International market and stocked up and have been making some new and interesting things. I am absolutely addicted to Greek Yogurtand many nights if Eammon is working late I'll make something easy for Maisie and I'm happy with my yogurt mixed with some Kashi Mountain Medley and some diced up fresh fruit. Even more decadent though is when I eat fresh fruit with Labnehwhich is just absolutely wonderful. This week I decided that I was going to make my own Labneh as I wanted a fat-free version. I made a big batch which was super easy and have been using it in all the recipes that I've made these past two days. Chinese five-spice wings with cilantro labneh dip, sugar & fat-free frozen vanilla yogurt and for dinner tonight, campanelle with pesto labneh, chicken, roasted tomatoes, whole roasted garlic cloves and toasted pine nuts,totally delicious and I'll get all the recipes up on Cook Lisa Cook as soon as possible.

Now some pictures because that's the best part of any post and they make me happy.

Though Maisie has multiple tables and work surfaces, she loves to set up her "office" and "desk" on the steps. She will spend hours a day coloring, doing school pages and reading whilst sitting on the steps.

Almost exactly a year to the day, 364 days to be exact, from when I got my new car, I hit 15,000 miles. I still love my car but what makes me love it the most, check out my mpg.

Depending on how I drive, I average between 47-49 mpg, not too shabby especially with petrol prices seeming to be creeping up and up.