Busy Busy Boy

Aiden had his first "school" pictures...

We made some Texas Sheet Cake before visiting our friends. Aiden is so into helping in the kitchen. he'll squeeze himself in between me and the counter if he's not involved in the action. He's very good at mixing ingredients. 

Luckily, he didn't realize what he was mixing until the end (our first flopped version is being washed down the garbage disposal while he samples our second round).

He also loves feeding the kitties in the evening.

We visited Whitney and James to meet their new little man. 

Aiden was only a little bit jealous and after protesting briefly when Andrew and I held another baby he spent time trying to hand him his toy over and over before sharing my lap.

This is our rainy day entertainment...

Snuggles with the parentals!

Outside Adventures

Now that the days are longer and it's warming up we've been able to spend lots more time outside. 

What is a boy to do with a lawn mower in the rain?! Jump in puddles instead, obviously.

 

 When he's all done playing outside, he likes to go knock on the front door.

 Playing at the park...

After all that playing it's time for a bath and a story before bed.

Yummy Green

We unintentionally had lots of green this weekend. Aiden and I shared my green monster shake in the morning and I used our new popsicle molds to make Avacado & Coconut Milk Popsicles.

I had birthday lunch with Emily and Kelly this past week. We also celebrated Emily's acceptance to UW to become a Nurse Practitioner and Kelly's new job in Seattle. We ate at Matt's in the Market and this was the view from our table. 

Seattle to Sonoma

I got to spend a long weekend in California with my friend Casey. This was Chirstmas/birthday gift from Andrew. 

 I flew out Thursday evening into Sacramento. Friday morning we headed to Healdsburg with Casey's friend Margo. We started off at Francis Ford Coppola for lunch and tasting. It was a gorgeous vineyard/winery!

I took this picture from Forbes.com since it was rainy and dreary while we were there. 

After lunch we headed to Healdsburg Square where we could walk from tasting room to tasting room (ya know, tasting room hop). Our first stop was Hawley.

We stopped by Stonestreet where we shared a couple tastings. 

We went to Thumbprint where they were featuring an artist who painted Super Monks. So awesome!

Then I quit taking pictures but we had the best wine tasting with food at Williamson. They served parmesan cheese with different things on top, the two best were beet horseradish mustard and truffle salt. We ended our night with a late dinner at Bear Republic Brewing. 

We had every intention of swinging by another winery before we left Healdsburg Saturday morning but instead we got coffee and headed back to Sacramento. We stopped for In-N-Out (a glorious hangover meal) and picked up Pliny the Elder at Russian River Brewing Company (for Nelson and Andrew). After dropping Margo off, Casey and I spent the afternoon outlet shopping where I was too successful and then grabbing food from the grocery so Nelson could make us dinner, delicious!

On Sunday, I was so excited to participate (and lead, yikes) a project with the Make It Happen Mondays team. I had a great time chatting with Casey and her mom while we made watercolor creations inspired by an Etsy artist I really like. 

Between the baby-less wine, art and 70 degree sunny weather I felt like I was in a time warp. I was so disconnected from reality and it felt amazing!

Andrew loved his souvenir from California, he also got a few goodies from my outlet shopping, and he still has a Cabernet Sauvignon to drink that I brought him from Stonestreet (his favorite type of wine). It was an interesting winery. They were very focused on the elevations at which they grow the grapes. Our tasting was from the "Fog Line" collection. Thanks Andrew for being such a thoughtful husband and rockin' single parenthood for the weekend, so I could enjoy myself. Andrew and Aiden had a playdate with friends, went to the KidsQuest Children's Museum and visited Tom and Emily.