Bubbles, Birthday Parties, and St. Patick's Day!

First off, I must apologize.  I am not a single parent; although I've been writing as if I'm the only person involved in the daily lives we're sharing, which is completely false.  Valerie is very much involved with our girls, and I haven't included her in these blogs as much as I should be.  I think part of my concern in doing so thus far has been my apprehension of "putting words" in her mouth.  I apologize and insist I will try to keep her a part of this as much as everyone else.

I think we're finally getting into a routine, as much as we can so far.  Every day we face new challenges which we previously thought had been dealt with.  For instance, school.  Example: Valerie leaves for work in the morning and I take the girls to school.  Maria's backpack has everything she needs ready to go, including lunch and any homework or assignments that need to be returned.  I drop her off at school after I get off work, but bring Fatima home with me because her class doesn't start until 12:15.  Yesterday, 17MAR10, I told Fatima (insisted is more like it) that she didn't need her backpack at school because it was empty and she wasn't taking anything with her.  She plead with me to let her take it, and even told me "mommy said", but I wouldn't listen.  I was wrong in not letting her take the backpack, because she brings things home pretty much daily, whether I see them or not.  I found out while the girls were in school that I was wrong, so I decided to surprise them with home-made tortillas when they got home.

The tortillas turned out alright, but could have been better.  I thought something was wrong with the shortening when it was somewhat "hard", because I remember Crisco being smooth and soft, and it definitely affected the taste.  The girls ate the tortillas as though nothing was wrong.  I tossed the bad batch this morning after stopping at Fred Meyer to get new shortening and Fatima and I made a fresh batch, this time we made 1/2 whole wheat tortillas.  I must admit, good ingredients are key to the final outcome!  I'll have to keep an eye on that in the future.  It's probably a good thing nobody got sick.

Valerie's brother Daniel stopped by recently on his way to a dance class in the Seattle area, and the weather was nice enough the girls went outside for awhile to play and blow bubbles.  Valerie found large bubble wands at Wal-Mart and since they were only a dollar figured what the heck, why not buy some.  As large as these bubble wands are, they're not the "large" ones offered at the store.

Valerie and Daniel with Maria and Fatima in the front yard with the "bubble wands".

It almost looks like the wand is floating, but Maria is holding on to it.  I don't know what bubbles are made out of these days, but it looks almost like a Gel rather than "soapy water" like I remember.  The bubbles are no less fun than they used to be!

Fatima had a hard time getting bubbles to emerge from the wand, but so did I.  Rather than try unsuccessfully to get bubbles going, she had more fun spinning around trying to chase and pop as many as possible.  Valerie and Daniel are definitely Pros when it comes to bubbles!

Fatima, Daniel, and Maria.  The girls definitely had fun with their Uncle.

Last week my sister Lorien came to visit with her friend Jason.  It was nice to see Lorien, since we hadn't seen her in about a year and a half, and also meet Jason for the first time.  We were excited to hear they became officially engaged during their visit.  It would have been nice to spend more time with them while they were here, but they had a limited amount of time and Lorien wanted to show Jason the coast as well as other places in the Northwest.  Friday night we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house to celebrate Aunt Karyn, Cousin Ryan, and soon-to-be Uncle Jason's birthdays.  Karyn baked an awesome cake for Ryan, and Jason was honored with a Butterfinger Blizzard cake from DQ.

Lorien and (fiance) Jason on the couch at "Grandma and Grandpa's".

Saturday night was a pizza party for Cousin Ryan's 2nd birthday.  Papa Pete's has a nice "party room" upstairs which families can reserve space in.  It's pretty large, and that night there were two other groups celebrating as well.

Valerie actually does a lot with the girls that I either feel I'm not qualified to do, or have no clue...  Valerie gets up early with girls while I am at work and chooses school clothes, does the girls' hair, and makes sure all their school supplies (including backpacks) are ready to go.  I've tried combing and "styling" the girls' hair, but there is much pain and crying involved.  If it were socially acceptable for 5 and 6 year old girls to have shaved heads, I might consider it.  Ok, maybe not.  ; )

While Valerie does pick out the clothes (or give appropriate choices), the shoes in the picture were totally Fatima's choice.  This was actually one evening before dinner.  I'm surprised she could walk at all in the heavy, tall boots.

It might be too hard to tell in this picture, but Fatima has two small "buns" on either side of her head.  Valerie does the girls' hair, and it always looks cute.  I thought this could be a "princess lea" style. Maybe we have her halloween costume picked out already!

Yesterday was St. Patick's Day, and although the girls might not be Irish, Valerie got some shirts to show off their Irish Pride on St. Patty's Day.  We're not completely sure what the girls know about the meaning of certain holidays, so we're learning things about the girls all the time, but there's nothing wrong with wearing green on March 17th.  Coincidentally, St. Patrick's Day is the day Valerie and I started dating in 2004.  Rather than spend a ton of cash on an over commercialized "holiday" every year to express our love for each other (think Feb. 14), we have tried to spend time alone together in March instead.  It's much easier to find a table in March because everyone is off drinking adult beverages that have been colored green.

Valerie picked out matching shirts for the girls.  Regardless of the color green, I'm sure the school has a "no pinching" policy.

We've got some more family from out of town coming this weekend (Grandma Beverly and Aunt Veronica), and it will be nice for the girls to meet them.  I'm not sure what, if any, activities have been planned for the visit, but if the weather holds out and stays nice it would be great to get the girls to the park a few blocks away.  I know they've been anxious to get on the playground, but it's been so wet we hate to have the girls come home covered in mud.

Until next time....