Moments with Maisie: July 2013

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Another double play date weekend

Maisie's really enjoying all the play dates she's had with her friends this summer. She had a whole list of friends she wanted to play with this summer and we've been working our way through, doing pretty good especially as summer break is almost over. Maisie had another wonderful weekend having play dates with two more of her friends from the gym. Early Saturday morning Maisie went over to Neil's home.

The girls spent some time at the high school with Neil's older sister, while she participated in some cheer leading activities.

I don't really know what activities were going on at the school but somehow it included greyhounds which Maisie happily posed with for a picture. The girls then returned to Neil's home where they played for a few hours. Maisie had a blast with her friend. Thanks for a fun play date and all the pictures.

Sunday afternoon Maisie went to Sarah's house. The girls spent the afternoon together at the pool and by the pictures I was sent, eating chips.

Bathing beauties.

After the pool Maisie returned to Sarah's house and played for a while before it was time for me to pick her up and bring her home for dinner.

Maisie was one tired girl, she struggled to eat her dinner, gave up and decided instead to make it an early night and off to bed she went. Maisie was sound asleep by 7:15! Thanks Sarah for a fun time and wearing out little Maisie.

Maisie loved playing with her friends and wishes that every weekend could be filled with play dates.

Lately I've been craving avocados and what I'm really wanting is a dish I posted way back when on Cook Lisa Cook for Baked Egg & Avocado. This dish is beyond wonderful and I could eat it everyday but for some reason I haven't made it in a while. Think I'm going to remedy that situation tomorrow. Click on the link to be taken to the recipe..

Enjoy!

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Double play date weekend

During the school year Maisie has very little free time, between school and six days a week at the gym, getting together with her friends is quite difficult. During the summer I try my best to make play dates as often as possible and with all the friends she misses seeing. Maisie especially misses her old level 4 teammates. Though she sees them at the gym, she neither practices nor has the opportunity to interact with them so she was super excited to have play dates this weekend with her old teammates Taylor & Mia.

Taylor came to play on Saturday. The girls spent the day running around the house, making water balloons, playing on Maisie's bar and beam and even playing school. Then they got ready for the pool where they swam and played for a few hours.

Once back at the house the hungry girls ate lunch.

Next they gave each other multi-colored pedicures.

The floor got some color too.

Maisie had a fun day with Taylor and when it was time for the play date to end, she was quite disappointed and can't wait for the next time.

This morning Maisie was up and waiting for Mia's arrival.

Setting up the mats through the living and dining room was the first thing the girls did...but what would you expect from two little gymnasts.

Then it was off to the pool for a few hours.

The two little bathing beauties had a blast playing at the pool, they spent the entire afternoon in the water.

Once home they were cold and hungry so some homemade chicken noodle soup to the rescue.

A partial repeat of yesterday's activities. Thankfully it was the pedicure part which was repeated and not the break a bottle of polish on the floor part.

Next the girls decided to make themselves beautiful...not that they could be any more beautiful than they already are.

Seven year olds applying make-up. Subtle is not a word they understand.

The play date ended with a few rounds of Twister.

It was such a fun weekend for my girl, she really enjoyed both play dates and is looking forward to more playtime with her friends.

Since I served the girls some of my Cheaters Chicken Soup (with rice noodles) I figured that I would feature the soup recipe today. I always have individual serving size packages of this soup in my freezer so whenever I need stock for a recipe or one of us wants a nice bowl of soup, it's readily available. Click on the link to be taken to Cook Lisa Cook and the recipe.

Other delicious soup recipes on Cook Lisa Cook include: Loaded Potato Soup, Mom's Beef Vegetable Soup, Thai Chicken Noodle Soup, Strawberry Soup, Pork Belly Soup with Collard Greens, Tom Yam Ghoong (Spicy Shrimp Soup), Watermelon Tomato Gazpacho, Mango Gazpacho, Caribbean Clam Chowder with Corn, Fire Roasted Tomato and Chicken Tortilla Soup, Vanilla Scented Melon Soup, Creamy Tomato Soup Florentine, Lasagna Soup, Cioppino and Tom Kha Gai.

Enjoy!

Friday, July 19, 2013

Strong girl and giant practice

In the past five days Maisie has spent twenty five hours at her gym, it's her home away from home and I think her favorite place to be. If she could spend everyday there or even move in, I think she would. On Monday I saw a bit of her practice where she was working on forward rolls to press handstands. I'm always amazed by her strength and control.

I am also amazed by her speed and endurance. During the summer the optional girls begin their Friday morning practice with a mile and a half run. They run a route which takes them up and down hills, along gravel & main roads and then they finish with a final tour around the building. Other than Maisie, the girls are 11-18 years old and they run with an adult at the front of the pack and one at the rear so no one gets left behind. The first week that they ran I stayed at the gym waiting for their return because I was pretty sure that Maisie would return holding the hand of the adult bringing up the rear but to my surprise, Maisie was the fifth girl back out of about the 40 who ran. She was so proud of herself and honestly I was too. Each week since that first run Maisie has challenged herself to be at the front of the pack when running and she's met her challenge as she's always the fourth or fifth girl back. She did tell me that she'd be back faster if she didn't have to wait for one of the "big" girls to catch up with her so that she can cross the road to return to the gym. Yep, that's my rule. I told her that all the other girls are a head or more taller than her and drivers can see them easier, so she's good and waits for a partner to cross with her.

This afternoon I saw a bit of Maisie's practice where she was working on the strap bar practicing giants. Pretty soon she'll be flying around that bar on her own.

We have a lot of little lizards in our yard and I just had to snap a picture when this little one snuggled in with a beaded lizard I have on a post on our patio. It's like he found his mommy!

We had a good week and Maisie's looking forward to the weekend as she's going to be busy with play dates, I know she'll have good fun with her friends.

Yesterday was my Improv Cooking Challenge post day over on Cook Lisa Cook. It's month we were challenged to use the ingredients of peaches and herbs so using them I made some wonderful Peachy Cola Ribs which were fall off the bone tender deliciousness. Click on the link to be taken to Cook Lisa Cook and the recipe.

My previous Improv Cooking Challenge entries over on Cook Lisa Cook:

June 2013 Fish & Chips: Salt &Vinegar Crab Cakes
May 2013 Cinnamon & Sugar: Cinnamon Bun Cookie Bars
April 2013 Bacon & Eggs: Mini Bacon & Swiss Quiche Cups
March 2013 Carrots & Peas: Mom’s Beef Vegetable Soup
February 2013 Hearts & Flours: Three Ingredient Fudgy Nutella Brownie Bites
January 2013 Bananas & Nutmeg: Baked Bananas
December 2012 Chocolate & Marshmallows: White Chocolate Marshmallow Cranberry Cashew Bark
November 2012 Sweet Potatoes & honey: Sweet Potato Glass Noodles with Honey Garlic Lime Shrimp
October 2012 Oatmeal & Raisins: S’mores Granola Bars
September 2012 Zucchini & Brown Sugar: Zucchini with Onion & Brown Sugar
August 2012 Tomatoes & Peppers: French Fries Hash Browns
July 2012 Corn & Butter: Fritos Crusted Pollock
June 2012 Cherries & Almonds: Dried Cherry Almond Tart
May 2012 Strawberries & Cream: Strawberry Soup
April 2012 Peanut butter & Jelly: Peanut Butter & Jelly Bars
March 2012 Potato & Cheese: Loaded Potato & Buffalo Chicken Casserole
February 2012 Ginger & Carrots: Shrimp & Avocado Salad with Carrot Ginger Dressing
January 2012 Lemon & Sour Cream: Ponderosa Lemon & Sour Cream Tart
December 2011 Eggnog & Cranberries: Eggnog Popovers with Cranberry Butter
November 2011 Pumpkin & Cream Cheese: Praline Pumpkin Cheesecake
October 2011 Caramel & Apples: Caramel Stuffed Apple Cider Cookies

Enjoy!

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Fun days and tooth #4

Maisie is missing her friends in SLC, waking up in the morning and having playmates right in the house was a real treat for my girl. Though she's missing her SLC friends she was excited and happy to return to her gym and gymnastics teammates. We returned home late Wednesday night and Thursday and Friday Maisie spent her days in the gym. Saturday Maisie's teammate Sarah came for a play date.

The girls are really good at finding activities to keep themselves busy.

The day was somewhat overcast and Eammon and I were having people over for dinner so he and I both had preparations and chores keeping us busy. I decided that the girls could help too, by making a special Maisie "safe" dessert for the evening.

The girls did a great job stirring and mixing, sharing all the tasks.

The girls made chocolate peanut butter Rice Krispy bars. The recipe will post over on Cook Lisa Cook on August 15 as we made these as part of my Improv Cooking Challenge.

It wasn't all cooking and work, the girls had fun playing too. There were hula hoops, water balloons, games, bike & scooter riding, playing with chalk, general running around and of course some gymnastics.

When it came time for dinner the girls couldn't be bothered sitting with the adults and chose to have a table of their own.

After dinner the girls enjoyed the fruits of their labors, the Krispy treats were a big success.

It was a long (7.5 hr) and fun play date which made for a great night of sleep for my girl, infact she slept until 9:30 am...almost unheard. One very rested little girl and also one happy & rested Mama!

Today was an exciting day for Maisie as she lost tooth #4. She's one very happy girl and is looking forward to a visit from the tooth fairy tonight.

I had been working on some new recipe posts over on Cook Lisa Cook but while in SLC my computer wouldn't power up and when Eammon checked it out and brought it to the repair shop, we found out that it was the motherboard. I'm hoping that Eammon will be able to retrieve and save all the info from my hard drive but until I get a new laptop I'm limited to iPhone pictures and blogging on my iPad mini. So, not a new recipe but since I mentioned my Improv Cooking Challenge above I'm going to post one of my previous challenge recipes. These Salt & Vinegar Chip Crab Cakes were a huge success with all of us, especially Maisie so this is a recipe I'll be making time and time again. Click on the link to be taken to Cook Lisa Cook and the recipe.

More Improv Cooking Challenge recipes available on Cook Lisa Cook:

May 2013 Cinnamon & Sugar: Cinnamon Bun Cookie Bars
April 2013 Bacon & Eggs: Mini Bacon & Swiss Quiche Cups
March 2013 Carrots & Peas: Mom’s Beef Vegetable Soup
February 2013 Hearts & Flours: Three Ingredient Fudgy Nutella Brownie Bites
January 2013 Bananas & Nutmeg: Baked Bananas
December 2012 Chocolate & Marshmallows: White Chocolate Marshmallow Cranberry Cashew Bark
November 2012 Sweet Potatoes & honey: Sweet Potato Glass Noodles with Honey Garlic Lime Shrimp
October 2012 Oatmeal & Raisins: S’mores Granola Bars
September 2012 Zucchini & Brown Sugar: Zucchini with Onion & Brown Sugar
August 2012 Tomatoes & Peppers: French Fries Hash Browns
July 2012 Corn & Butter: Fritos Crusted Pollock
June 2012 Cherries & Almonds: Dried Cherry Almond Tart
May 2012 Strawberries & Cream: Strawberry Soup
April 2012 Peanut butter & Jelly: Peanut Butter & Jelly Bars
March 2012 Potato & Cheese: Loaded Potato & Buffalo Chicken Casserole
February 2012 Ginger & Carrots: Shrimp & Avocado Salad with Carrot Ginger Dressing
January 2012 Lemon & Sour Cream: Ponderosa Lemon & Sour Cream Tart
December 2011 Eggnog & Cranberries: Eggnog Popovers with Cranberry Butter
November 2011 Pumpkin & Cream Cheese: Praline Pumpkin Cheesecake
October 2011 Caramel & Apples: Caramel Stuffed Apple Cider Cookies

Enjoy!

Thursday, July 11, 2013

SLC 2013

Very, very early last Wednesday morning Maisie & I headed to the airport for our flight to visit friends in Salt Lake City.

Though they hadn't seen each other since our last visit in 2010, Maisie, Eliza & Sollie were all smiles & hugs and happy to see one another. Maisie and I were spending the week at Tiffany's home and immediately after all the welcome hugs, the kids happily ran off to play and other than when it was time to go for dinner, we didn't see them until bedtime.

Thursday morning the girls were up early bouncing from bedroom to bedroom playing and then it was time for morning stretch.

And some bridges

Out came the electronics.

Maisie and Eliza spent many hours texting one another, often when sitting just a few feet apart.

I'm sure that this is a preview of teen years. Charlee, Maisie & Eliza sprawled on the bed texting away.

Later in the afternoon Tiffany had friends over to celebrate July 4th. All the children had fun playing and Eliza, Maisie & Tate did some gymnastics and practiced handstands against the fence.

I would share all the firework photos but by the time they started Maisie was stick-a-fork-in-her-done. She had been going strong but to her body it was 11PM and with the previous day waking at 4am to travel and the two hour time difference & late night, she just couldn't stay awake and asked to go to bed. She must have been exhausted as fireworks were going off all through the neighborhood and she fell asleep to them & slept through all the noise. She's not a lover of fireworks and the noise so she didn't feel like she missed out on anything so it was good that she got the sleep she needed.

Friday morning we headed into Salt Lake City to visit Temple Square. Our first stop though was for lunch at The Lion House.

Sol and his ladies, Charlee, Tate, Maisie & Eliza in front of the Temple.

My beautiful Maisie in front of the Temple.

We went to the top of the Church Office Building where we got a beautiful view of the Temple and the Tabernacle.

And of the Utah State Capitol.

The girls with a statue of Angel Moroni.

After our outing all the little ones were tired and happily dozed during the ride home.

Maisie and I left Atlanta just as the torrential rains and flooding began and came out to Utah which has been in a severe draught. Guess we brought some of the rain with us as each night it's rained and there have even been severe thunderstorm watches and flood advisories.

Saturday we headed out for lunch at Z'Tejas with our three very well behaved children. Extra well behaved as we promised candies for their good behavior.

Then we headed to Gardner Village where we enjoyed strolling around and did a bit of shopping.

Gardner Village is such a fun and pretty place to spend a few hours.

Sunday morning Maisie wanted to go to Church with Eliza & Sollie so that is how we spent the morning. Three little cuties, ready to go.

Sunday afternoon the kids played at the neighborhood playground then after dinner we headed over to Station Park where the children had fun playing on that playground.

The park had a wonderful fountain which every hour put on a spectacular light and music show.

The girls did some gymnastics and Maisie helped Eliza with her handstands.

Maisie & Eliza doing some splits to end the evening.

Monday we spent a pretty quiet day around the house as we knew that it would be a late evening. Jay & Laurel had invited a big group over for a BBQ that evening. All the children had a blast playing together and the adults enjoyed seeing one another and catching up.

Jay and Laurel have the best yard for entertaining and always have fun things to keep the kids entertained like duck races down the river.

These beauties Maisie, Grace & Pearl have grown so much since the last time they were together.

The evening ended with all the children making ice cream. It was so much fun seeing everyone and catching up, wish we could do it more often.

Tuesday morning I was really tired and slept in but the kids were up early and Charlee & Maisie decided to practice their tagging skills on the wall of Tiffany's garage...with her permission of course

Once I finally rolled out of bed we decided to head over to Snowbird where our first stop was the trampolines.

Then we took the Aerial Tram up to 11,000 feet above sea level, to the top of Hidden Peak.

The views from the top were just amazing.

Not the best smiles as we headed back down in the Aerial Tram but the views all along the route were gorgeous.

We rode the Mountain Flyer and the Alpine Slide numerous times.

Maisie loved racing down the mountain as fast as she could.

After our fun day at Snowbird, Tiffany took us all out for dinner at In-n-Out Burger, a first for Maisie and I. Maisie doesn't eat fast food because of her allergies and I don't eat it because I neither care for it nor like it but because we both got 100% beef burgers (no fillers) and had them "protein style" (wrapped in lettuce leaves instead of a bun) it was Maisie "safe," healthier and quite delicious. The kids all enjoyed their meals and had fun wearing their hats at their own special table.

It had been a long, fun day but unfortunately our time in Utah was coming to a close as Wednesday morning Maisie and I would be flying home. We headed back to Tiffany's where the very tired children all went to bed and I packed and spent my last evening hanging with Tiffany

Wednesday morning Tiffany brought Maisie and I to the airport for our journey home. It really shouldn't have been too bad as we were just scheduled for a brief layover in Chicago before the final leg to Atlanta but things didn't go quite as planned. We made it out of SLC just fine and landed in Chicago a little ahead of schedule. But then there was a plane at our gate which had no plans of leaving so we sat and sat on the Tarmac until well after our scheduled arrival time. Then we were assigned a new gate but when we arrived the jetway motor didn't work so they couldn't extend it to the plane. By that time our short layover time had passed and according to the airport's website, our connecting flight was on time and should have left. By the time we actually got off the plane and into the airport it was about 40 minutes after our connecting flight should have left but we found it was delayed a few hours because of weather. So, good and bad. Good that we didn't miss our flight and we got home Wednesday night but bad in that it was after 10 by the time we got in and crawled exhausted into bed.

Just like all our other trips and visits with friends in SLC, it was a wonderful time and we can't wait to see everyone again...hopefully it won't be three years again between visits.

While in SLC I had my Secret Recipe Club reveal day and this month I baked, making wonderfully delicious Andes Peppermint Snowball Cookies . Check out the recipe over to Cook Lisa Cook by clicking on the link.