Super 8 on a Saturday

Daddy has been transitioning back to work this week, having a few full days of meetings.  That's sometimes a tough transition for the girls...but so far, so good.  And I'm very thankful for that!

What else made our week super-fabulous???

1)  On Saturday we took the girls to one of my favorite bakery / cafes.  Hubby and I used to go almost weekly.  Their chicken salad is some of the best ever.  For some reason, though, we'd never taken the girls to eat there.  It's a quiet, "little old lady" kind of place, and they have vinyl tablecloths that kind of give me the creeps, at least in thinking about two tiny sets of roaming hands.  I was pleasantly surprised that they'd done away with their tablecloths...and I was so very proud that the girls loved the chicken salad just as much as their mama.

2)  One of my very dearest friends, J, was in town with her family over the weekend.  I worked closely with J for many years, but almost exclusively over the phone.  I once traveled to see her in Seattle, and we try to get together whenever she's in town, usually about once a year.  This time - for the first time ever - she had her family with her.  How awesome it was to finally meet her sweet boys...and to see her boys and my girls together.  I love this picture, "Hugs for Aunt J!"

3) On Monday, Daddy's second-to-last full day of vacation, we took the girls to eat at one of our favorite restaurants downtown.  It's semi-swanky, at least by little kid standards, and we hadn't been there with the girls in about a year.  They did so well!  They enjoyed their pecan-crusted tilapia and a good portion of Mommy's crab cakes, and they behaved like little ladies.  It was an awesome lunch.

4)  On Monday afternoon the girls and I dropped off a casserole over to a dear friend, who just had surgery on her hand.  She came out to say hello to the girls, and my sweet, tenderhearted B's chin began to tremble at the sight Aunt Shanda's bandaged hand.  I hate to see her upset, but how sweet was her sympathy...

5)  On Wednesday morning, we enjoyed having our friends K&S, and their mom Jenny, over for a play date and lunch.  It makes me so happy how at home those kiddos seem to feel in our house...they ran in, said hello, and started looking for specific toys.  I think K picked right up pretending to shop in dress-up garb, right where she and A&B left off a few weeks ago.  And...we got another "green couch" picture for the collection.  :)

 6)  Baby B was in true form on Thursday, explaining the world around her.   Here's a small excerpt:

"...but a butterfly is a type of insect that is just pretty, not like a fly or a bug. Like a fly or a bug might hurt you if you're not careful, but even if you're not careful, a butterfly wouldn't hurt you, right Mommy? It would just stop by to say hello to someone."

And later, I overheard her talking to her daddy on the same subject.  She added in a few lines about carpenter bees.  "...but carpenter bees are not our friends.  Bumblebees are our friends, because they help flowers, but not carpenter bees."

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.  HA!

7)  And Baby A cracked me up, too.  I asked the girls if they wanted to watch some swimming on the Olympics. "But we're not going swimming, right, Mommy?" Baby A confirmed. "Because England is a long way away. And we would have to ride on an airplane for a long time. So we'll just watch."  As one of my friends noted on Facebook, she was just setting her expectations.  :)

8)  On Friday we took the girls to the zoo to mark the last day of Daddy's summer vacation.  We took them at the end of May, to mark his first day of vacation, so this was only fitting.  It was a great, overcast day.  We got an early start and walked every square inch of the zoo before lunchtime.  I love that the girls know our zoo so well...they know which direction to go, what animals are where.  Still, we had a couple of sweet surprises...a new baby giraffe, and three clouded leopard cubs...so sweet! 

Here are the girls, showing the flamingos how they, too, can stand on one leg.

Very thankful for another super-fabulous week!