Miscellaneous Kelly Moments - Feb 09

Kelly has developed quite an interest in "doing art projects", especially painting. While I love the idea of this, I've been leary of letting her do much around the house due to the potential messes I have imagined in my mind that she is capable of creating with these art tools (I have mostly left that up to her daycare!). But she got some cool art kits and painting kits for Christmas, and she's been bugging me to use them, so we compiled all of her art supplies into an organizer drawer in the dining room with the rule that she use them only at the dining room table and with supervision! This has actually worked quite nicely and I've enjoyed helping her she spends quite a bit of time creating all kinds of beautiful works of art.


She's gotta have all the essential before going to bed... babydolls, check! big stuffed bunny, check! Warm, cozy jammies, check! Sippy cup of milk, check! Ahhhh.. now we can relax!



We met up with Nicole and baby Nathan for a walk along Carlsbad beach one day. She's almost too big for her jogger stroller now (sob-sob!), which is why she doesn't last more than about 15 minutes in it without complaining and wanting to get out of it! Of course walking doesn't last much longer than that either... we're sort of at that "in-between" stage I guess!



We were getting a birthday card ready for Kainoa's 3rd b'day party. I drew his name at the top and her name as a signature, and she traced them both! Great job!

We've been trying to introduce Kelly to all the Disney princesses, but not all the classics are out on DVD yet, so we borrowed Snow White on VCR, which was a totally new and interesting concept to her. She got a little bit scared when the queen transforms into the scary old woman with the poison apple, but she so adores Snow White's pretty voice and the cute "little guys" (as she calls them), it is fast becoming one of her new favorites evidenced by her wanting to watch it over & over! Here she is one night finally passed out during the 3rd time thru....

Baking with Mom

Kelly got a baking set complete with matching aprons for Christmas this year (from Auntie Sandy - thank you!), and I had been waiting for a good day to give it a try. A good day - meaning that I had a lot of time and didn't care about having a big mess to clean up. And that day actually came!

We put on our aprons and got to work. I picked sugar cookies since I figured she could have some fun decorating them as well. (Yeah, really not caring about the mess here!) She did a great job helping to add the ingredients into the bowl, but left the work of mixing to me. Once they were baked, I set her up on a stool at the counter to start the decorating assembly line.

She frosted about 5 cookies, then grabbed the sprinkles, coated them and popped one in her mouth for the first test taste.

Mmmmmm!! These are DELICIOUS!!

After 4 or 5 test tastes (make one, eat one, make one, eat one...), she kind of lost interest in doing much more of the work, so I had to pitch in and finish the decorating. But we had a lot of fun baking, laughing & making a big mess together!

Old Friends & New

I think it was through Facebook that I recently got back in contact an old friend, who was one of my very best friends in junior high & high school, Tammy Sharatz (now Holstad). Here is a photo of us circa 1985 I believe.


Tammy has a 4-yr-old son named Isaac. So for our first visit in almost 20 years, we decided to meet up at the zoo to catch up and introduce our little ones. It was so great to see her! Kelly & Isaac got along great and had a really fun playdate as well.

Hmmm... what a couple of cuties eh!?


Kelly had her face painted for the first time too. She very excitedly picked the butterflies as soon as we got in line and was still intent on that design after 20 minutes waiting (I would have expected her to change a million times!).

I really enjoyed seeing Tammy again too after all these years. I think there is always a little bit of apprehension in re-connecting with someone after so much time, but days like today further prove to me that, regardless of the different paths we take in our lives, our childhood friends always seem to have a very special connection with us that is ageless and timeless. We share special memories that forever connect and bind us, and those are the experiences that helped make us who we are today.

I think we won't wait another 20 years to get together this time though! We look forward to another playdate soon, maybe at the Wild Animal Park this time.