C is for Cookie

I need to confess an addiction; one I have battled for years and gave in to completely when I was pregnant.  Sweets.  I am a choco-sugar-sweet-aholic.  While I have tried to calm my own cravings, sometimes they come alive again and I drag someone down with me.  I sit down with a handful of M&Ms, and who wants one?  Brian.  And he doesn't take one, he wants like 3/4 of my handful.  So I have to go get more, and the cycle continues until the bag is empty and both of us are feeling choco-sugar-sweet-eater's remorse.  

 In the case of this rainy day afternoon (our 4th spent indoors), I wanted to make cookies for two reasons.  One, I was bored and so was Trey.  We needed a new activity.  Two, I was falling off the wagon!  No healthy snacks for this rainy day, we were going all out.  We had all the ingredients for homemade oatmeal cookies!

Since it was a rainy day (that needed to be filled with activity) and it was going to be a learning opportunity, I opted for the homemade variety.  The pillsbury pull-out kinds are great, but there is something about getting it all together from scratch.  Trey loves to watch me in the kitchen anyway, so I was excited about the ways in which he would help.  Once I decided what we would do, I went to get him.  I asked him, "Trey!  Do you want to make some cookies?"  What he heard:  "Here Trey, come get some cookies."  This was immediately followed by him running to his table, and upon seeing that there was no plate of cookies waiting for him, running to his drawer to grab a plate.  He then proceeded to hit me in the leg with his plate screaming "Cootie!  Cootie!"   Well, we found yet another similarity to mommy:  Trey likes sweets, especially cookies.

Miscommunications happen all the time between us, but this was not good.  I had essentially created a monster!  A cookie monster... haha sorry I couldn't resist.  I had nothing to offer him except flour, sugar, eggs, etc etc.  I picked him up (still screaming) and proceeded to show him what I was doing.  He calmed down and even helped to put some of the ingredients in.  The whole time we prepared it I emphasized the words making cookies.  Patience has never been one of Trey's strongest virtues but he was learning it now.  He kept saying "Ummy!*  Ummy!"  (*yummy).

Trey was rewarded with a beater.  I think he liked it...

Welcoming a New Princess

I went back and forth with whether or not I would wake up at 1 a.m. to watch the wedding of Wills and Kate.  I consider myself  a bit unlucky to have been born a couple of years too late to see Princess Diana's wedding, so I felt that I needed to involve myself in this bit of history.  My momma was an admirer of Princess Di and I suppose that stuff is genetic.  Brittany went as far as to send a love letter to Prince Harry, only to be answered by Her Royal Highness herself (or a lowly staff member).  I vowed when I was in my teens that Prince William would be mine, regardless of my status as a commoner.  (And maybe I was right; he did after all, marry a commoner.)   Lucky for me, I  found my prince charming outside of the royal family.  I did, however want to watch history being made with the introduction of a new princess into the world.
After weighing my options I decided that if I stayed awake, it ruin my day the next day.  So I would have to settle for watching it on my own time, after Trey went to sleep.  Turns out, I didn't feel like waiting until he was in bed, and I thought I would turn it on and "listen" to it while I chased him around the house and got him ready for bed.  However, he and I were both so caught up in the beautiful fairy tale (that's right, both of us), we ended up plopped in the middle of the floor soaking up every minute detail.  Where was Brian?  Behind us on the couch... watching it too.  That's right, both my boys watched the royal wedding with me.  Brian made his usual comments  like, "Wills?  That's his name?"  "Did you know he was sooo bald?"  "I don't really think he is that good looking."  "Kate?  Yeah she's really good looking."  The point is, he watched it.  :)  The photos are of Trey avidly watching it... he kept going up to the tv to get a better look!
 All in all, we enjoyed all the outrageous hats, spotting the celebrities, and the silly facts that the anchors threw out to entertain us while we watched hundreds of people flock into Westminster Abbey.  Next royal wedding, I will wake up, I will wear a ridiculous hat, and I will dine on tea and scones to mark the occasion.  Congratulations, Wills and Kate!

 

Pup and Kat Come to Visit

It was so exciting to get to see Pup and Kat again!  (Especially since they seemed to bring up the nice weather!)  We actually had our nicest day in 2011 (warmest and sunniest) on a Saturday, so we headed to Skagit Valley to see the tulip farms.

This was taken at Roozengarde farm, and Mount Baker can be seen in the back.  Isn't it beautiful?  It is still completely snow-covered!

The five of us are ready to begin our tulip adventure...

 

Here is a picture of William Brendel original, William Jr, and my precious little William III... Pup, Brian and Trey: three generations of Brendel men!

 Trey looked inside as many tulips as he could.  Judging from his shouts of "T!  T!"  He seems to have lost the letter T somewhere...

Oh, look!  I found a daddy in the tulips!  :)