Monday, January 30, 2012

Visit from the Torres Family

January 13th - January 15th

Friday, January 13th, the Torres family came for a visit. They encountered some Friday the 13th luck with their minivan - it stalled 2 stop signs from our house. Thankfully, they crept along and made it to the house. Charles and Matt took it to Auto Zone , and LeAnna, Patrick, William and I stayed at the house. Patrick was hungry for Pop-Tarts, and when he said that he was hungry - he was hungry! He ate the first package and then asked for another. When he had eaten it, he wanted more, so a quick trip to Kroger later, and we were in business! Charles and Matt got back home just in time for a little play time and for Charles to read Patrick a bedtime book (or 2).

The next morning, Charles and Matt took the minivan in for tests, and Patrick and I had the best time playing!

We invented a new game...Monkey Moves!

where we each threw a monkey to each other at the same time...

while making the monkeys perform tricks in the air!

I pulled out our Smurf figures, and we also imagined a whole Smurf village! It was lots of fun!!

Charles and Matt got back and brought donuts for breakfast! After breakfast and a little photo-op, we played hide and seek with Patrick.

We then headed to the Memphis Children's Museum. We had a great time watching Patrick shop

at Kroger...

Charles helped with the check out part...

He put all the lessons he learned from helping me through our Kroger's self-checkout line to good use!
While Patrick was busy shopping, William had found a place to perform!

We found him dancing on the Orpheum stage and having the best time!

We all were his audience for a while...

We then moved to the rock climbing wall...

Patrick scaled all the way to the top in NO time!

Charles helped William get in some wall climbing...

The boys had a blast with the rock climbing wall!

While Matt, Charles and Patrick took in more fun things in the Children's Museum, LeAnna, William and I went to the toddler area so that William could play...

We watched future b-ball stars...

while William had the best time with the bus! He loved driving it and sliding down the slide on its side.

It was time to leave the museum, but before we left, Patrick played with the bean bag toss...

He did great! Charles decided to take a turn too!

That evening, after watching the Saints game, Matt, Charles and Patrick headed to the park to play a little tennis.

The next morning, Patrick and I played some more Smurf village...

When I started singing La la la la la la la la la la laaa, Patrick told me I sung the song wrong. He then sung the movie version of La la la la la la Sing a happy song and made me sing it that way too.

We had a great time playing and using our imaginations!

We had such a fun visit - despite the minivan ordeal! Thankfully, the Torres family made it home without any problems.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Snow flurries 01-12-12

As I walked to my car for lunch today, I noticed a little white blip fly past me. The weathermen said that we might get a few flurries today, so I perked up and was on the lookout. On the drive home, I realized that I had seen a snow flurry! They were coming down just a bit - fine and sporadic enough that they really didn't show up on this picture... As I was fixing my lunch, I kept looking out the back door to check on the snow and noticed that it was coming down just a bit more...

All the time I was eating my panini, I was keeping a watch and had to get up a few times to take pictures!

Then, I looked up and it had really picked up...

the flurries were coming down a little faster and were a little bigger! I squealed to Toula, but she wasn't nearly as excited as I was!!


The wind started whipping the flurries just a bit and they looked so pretty swirling around!

It was so exciting to see the first snow flurries of this year!



After I got back to the office, I looked out the window and even bigger flakes were swirling. It looked just like being in a snow globe - so pretty! I hate that I didn't get a picture of that!

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Green Monster Smoothie

So, this evening I put aside my skepticism and made my first Green Monster Smoothie. And it's true - you really can't taste the spinach! It was actually pretty tasty!!
I was really glad that mine turned out a pretty green color...


I used the basic recipe but am already thinking of trying some of the variations I've read about!