Our birthday girl

Abigail requested a family cookout for her birthday dinner on Saturday. So we went to our new park down the street (!!) in the late afternoon. We invited some new friends there too--a sweet family we met recently (at a different park) from Colombia. They have a beautiful four-year-old girl named Eva who made instant friends with Abigail. Erik and I clicked almost as quickly with her parents. (Erik served a mission for our church in Colombia, in case you didn't know.)
The weather was perfect. The food was yummy. The company was delightful. The photography was...well, an afterthought, as usual.

Anne wore her "sassy senorita" shirt for the occasion.

These adorable little girls were much more interested in playing than in eating, but no surprises there.

The next day we joined the big Weiler clan for a family dinner to celebrate all our March birthdays: Uncle Tommy, Uncle Hyrum, Cousin Jane, and Abigail. Fun times!

Abigail has shared a birthday dinner with Uncle Hyrum every year so far, which I think is pretty special.

The birthday buddies

Happy birthday to our big four-year-old!

Positive Peer Pressure

*This post is dedicated to my older brother Caleb...
This is what I had for breakfast this morning. Almost three of them.

It's called a Green Monster Smoothie! I got the recipe from my sister-in-law Brittany, who made one on St. Patrick's day. I have been trying to find more creative ways to include different vegetables in our diet. We've always been pretty good about eating vegetables, even the girls, but I've been wanting to branch out and try some new ones.

Last week, I bumped into a friend at the farmer's market who is in the same boat (well, actually her kids have been on strike lately), so we were exchanging ideas. She introduced me to kale, "a highly nutritious vegetable with powerful antioxidant properties"--very high in beta carotene, vitamin K, vitamin C, lutein, zeaxanthin, (I'm assuming those are good for you...) and reasonably rich in calcium. (thank you, wiki)

So I bought some too, planning to look up recipes for it online. But as I mentioned, my sister-in-law did a Green Monster Smoothie post on St. Patrick's Day. I looked on the website, and most of the recipes use spinach but I found a yummy-sounding one that calls for kale! So this morning, while my poor sick husband was trying to sleep after working all night, I busted out the blender and made a Pumpkin-Kale-Banana Green Monster!!

Here is the recipe, if you don't feel like clicking on the link:

3 c. kale (2-3 leaves)
1 1/4 c. milk
1 banana
1/4-1/3 c. pumpkin
ice

I liked the look of it because it was so simple! And no added sugar! (all the recipes are like that)

I was a little nervous before taking my first sip....but it turned out to be SO delicious! I drank every last drop.

With a little help from my girls. Ok, Anne actually drank quite a bit.

I will definitely be making this again, and I can't wait to try some other recipes!

You should try it! (I dare you, Caleb.)

A Chance Encounter

I told Abigail earlier this week that she could choose one special thing to do for her birthday. She instantly requested going to Leapin' Lizards (a jump place for kids) with some of her cousins. Since we're going to be pretty busy on her actual birthday (Saturday), we went there this morning. Cousins Clark and Zella met us there, and they, of course, had a great time and were far too busy to pose for pictures. And since I am not the greatest picture-taker in the world even without a baby on my hip, I was not successful in getting a single picture with all three of them. And the few I managed to snap of one or two of them turned out blurry.

I did, however, manage to get several of this little cutie who is much more obliging when it comes to holding still and smiling for two seconds.
This is Jane, Clark's little sister. It was her first time (I believe) at Leapin' Lizards, and she absolutely loved it.

Now this next picture requires a little explanation. Ok, actually it could easily be summed up in a sentence or two, but you know that's not my style.....

When we arrived at Leapin' Lizards, we were the only ones there. Before too long, however, another small group came in--three adults and a little curly-haired blonde boy. His mother struck me at once for two reasons: 1) she had a British accent and 2) she looked remarkably like Minnie Driver.

After a bit, I leaned over to my sisters-in-law and asked them if this newcomer reminded them of the same person. They both agreed she had some similarities. Would it be tacky of me to approach her?? We deliberated for quite a while, but I finally decided to be bold--or tacky--and go talk to her.

Our conversation went like this:

Me: "Excuse me, you probably get this all the time. But you look a lot like Minnie Driver."
Her: (smiling) "I must look like a really tired Minnie Drive."
Me: (slight pause) "So....you are Minnie Driver?"
Her: "Yes, I am."

Unfortunately I probably reacted more like a silly teenie-bopper than a mature, refined woman and mother of two, but despite that, Minnie (can I call her Minnie now that we've met?) responded in a completely gracious and down-to-earth manner. We had a very normal conversation. She pointed out her son, Henry, who is 2 1/2 and his nanny. She was a little apologetic about her appearance (her own, not the nanny's) but didn't make a big deal of it (although she did put her sunglasses on for the pictures) and said she's been working 16-hour days. She's shooting in Atlanta right now.
So here we are, with the glamorous backdrop of the restrooms behind us. She's not doing it here, but Shannyn pointed out that in all the other pictures, Minnie is doing her "Red Carpet Pose"--legs crossed, torso turned in, and hand on her hip!

I need to work on mine. I'm looking a little too much like a giddy 10-year-old. (the funny thing is that I do not follow Hollywood people and am usually pretty clueless when it comes to names and faces of movie stars. But I do happen to know this one! At least her name and face. And a few movies that she's in...two, to be exact.)

Anyway, so that's my claim to fame for the day! It's not often we bump into Hollywood stars at our hole-in-the-wall kids' gym downtown...

Someday I'm sure Anne will appreciate my including her in this photo op, although she was a little unsure at the time!

Anne is walking!

Anne took her first steps last week while Grandma Heiss was here. I tried for the rest of the week to get her to walk for Erik. She's been doing it a lot more this week, and since Erik has been sick the last several days, he's been able to see her!

Abigail has adopted a new little brother! We've been watching this cutie, Albert, one day a week for the last several weeks because his mom, a friend of mine, is very morning sick. Abigail absolutely loves him! Yesterday at lunch she told him, "Albert, I love you. I love you way more than your daddy loves you."

Little does she know how much daddies love their little ones...

Happy birthday, George!

I hosted "preschool" today (just Abigail and her friend Siesa right now), and we made a cake in honor of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln's birthdays. The girls had a lot of fun pouring and mixing and licking bowls and fingers while we talked about who these wonderful men were.
The girls also colored pictures of Washington and Lincoln, and we talked about our flag. I showed them one that I had colored and pointed out the pattern of red and white stripes and the stars representing each state. The girls did their own thing, though, as you can see. And they told me theirs were "much prettier than [mine]." I let them use a little stencil for the star. They included some other shapes from the stencil too, in case you were wondering...
Abigail's cousin Zella also joined us for some birthday cake! They put candles in, and we sang Happy Birthday.

Hanging around Abigail's neck in this picture is the Valentine's Day "pocket purse" she made at Siesa's house last week. So cute!! They made them out of old jeans and filled them with Hershey kisses to give to loves ones. Abigail LOVES her purse. For Family Home Evening last Monday, we went around to all our neighbors and delivered kisses and Valentine cards. It was a lot of fun.

I forgot to mention an important highlight from last month: Abigail learned to spell her name! She loves practicing it, and we find her signature all over the place...

January Highlights

Happy 2011! We've been busy at the Heiss home as usual. Here are some highlights from January:

Snow!

We got some impressive snow (for us, anyway) here in Atlanta the second week of January. Erik left for work at his usual time Monday morning, only to find that all the Emory clinics were closed. So he got to come home! We felt like little school children again on a snow day. And what's more, the clinics were closed until Thursday! We really lucked out. (That's how I looked at it, at least. Erik is a lot more conscientious and responsible...) The girls had a blast having Daddy home all week.
Being sent home from work early was such an occasion that Erik felt justified in picking up some steaks and a Redbox movie on his way home. Part-ee!
Erik and Abigail walked to the grocery store the next day to return the dvd. They were gone for more than an hour.


We spent most of the week indoors. Thank goodness my girls are happy doing stuff inside. All my friends who have boys were going crazy! Here's Abigail making shapes with Erik from her new "foam" equipment she got for Christmas. It's pretty nice--no sticky residue! Erik made the apple tree, and Abigail's making flamingos...
Anne LOVES the new push toy she got for Christmas. She's not walking yet, but she's getting pretty close!

Sleep Study

At the end of the month, Abigail had a sleep study done at the children's hospital. Erik and I have been concerned with her sleep problems for a long time. She has always had enormous tonsils, and she snores and moves around frequently in her sleep. She even wakes up sometimes in the middle of the night or very early in the morning and has a hard time going back to sleep (part of that is just her stubborn nature; she would rather play than try to go back to sleep). We have struggled with this off and on since Anne was born. So we finally got her tested.
Here she is--all decked out. Erik actually spent the night with her. I had prepped her for weeks in advance, telling her about the "stickers" and "magic wires that would talk to the doctors" and help us find out how well she was sleeping. She was very excited about her special "sleepover" at the hospital. Erik said she was perfectly cooperative during the setup. That was a relief.
All ready for bed! The results showed that she does not have sleep apnea, which is good. But we're still searching for some answers/solutions. She has an appointment with the ENT this week. We're hoping they'll tell us a tonsillectomy will solve all our problems...

Preschool

Abigail's wonderful preschool co-op from the fall kinda fell apart this year, as two from our group are having babies and two others are moving. We are very sad. It was a great group, and Abigail loved it.

For the next few months, we're just doing something low-key twice a week with one of her friends, Siesa, until she moves. Then in the fall we plan to participate in a different co-op.

One year ago today...

...we got to bring our Anne-girl home!