Cal Cup 2013

We enjoyed our Memorial Day weekend at Cal Cup for the 4th year in a row!  Cal Cup is the field hockey tournament Glenn's team plays in every year.  Since we moved to CA, he hasn't been playing with them (obviously.  They practice in AZ).  However, they called him and said they needed another guy for the tournament this year, and Glenn was delighted!  The team is so great, and always acts so excited to see us, and we are always excited to see them.

They got second place this year.  They were undefeated until the championship match.  It was tied at zero at the end of the match, so they had to do penalty flicks, and that is when they lost!  It was a hard way to lose, but I'm proud of them for playing so well!

You can make your own conclusions from the next series of pictures about whether Violet preferred my company or Glenn's this weekend:

Yeah.

One fun thing about the tournament was that this year, Violet and Luann were old enough to play with each other!  They had a lot of fun, and Luann was very patient with Violet always stealing her snacks.  

matching hockey sticks!

Violet looked the part of a very patriotic American on Memorial Day, thanks to Grammy!

Also, one time Violet wanted a snack and I told her no, and so she ate this pretend apple for a long time. 

Choo choo!

This morning before church, Violet was playing with her blocks alone in her room.  We heard her talking to herself, and saying, "choo choo!" and when we went in to check on her, she was playing with her own homemade train!

We think she is smart and funny.  Also, after Sacrament meeting today, our whole ward knows how naughty she is.

Violet Knows Best

We had a funny conversation with Violet yesterday.  

Glenn:  Violet, do you look like Mama, or do you look like Dada??

(pause)

Violet:  Like Violet!

By the way, we must have told her that she is sassy too much lately, because today in the car she told me, "Mama, I'm sassy!"  Amen to that, sister.

Violet Gets Wet

We hardly ever bother to dress Violet in a swim suit when we got to the beach, because she is usually so scared of the water she never gets close.  Yesterday she surprised us by grabbing Glenn's hand and dragging him to the water as soon as we got there!  She loved letting the water wash up over her legs.

After a few waves went up to her arm pits, we took pity on her (she was shivering like crazy) and took off her wet dress.  Naked babies are the cutest anyway.

And then, my favorite part!  She was so cold she needed to be cuddled!  And I savored every moment, because that hardly ever happens.

Putting my Mothers' Day gift to good use

We bucked tradition and had pizza night on THURSDAY!  Crazy, I know. 

You guys, the pizza pan Glenn got me for Mothers' Day made our pizza SO good!  Seriously, it was the best pizza I've ever made; the cast iron just really improved the texture of the crust.

I made one of my favorite pizzas that I hardly ever make (I blogged about it here).  I'm glad I did because it was the best it has ever been because of the new pan.

And since we are on the subject of food, here are a couple of other good things we've eaten lately!  (Sorry, I know I've been posting a lot of food pictures lately, but our new camera takes such good pictures of food!)

These edamame dumplings (from the book Sprouted Kitchen) were awesome:

And this salad (from the book Plenty) was delicious. 

I think I am going to make both the salad and the dumplings again next week because they were so good.

Outside

I just love this little person so much.

Violet and I spend A LOT of time out on this porch.  I'm glad Glenn took these pictures today to document our favorite place to hang out.

The Zoo with Dad

Last week, Glenn took Violet to the zoo.  Hannah and Sofia went with their dad too, so Violet was basically in heaven.  Her 3 favorite people and her favorite place!  While they were at the zoo, Brittany and I got our nails done.  It was a good day for everybody.

Apparently the camel was the place for picture taking:

Violet likes to look at the animals, but we always end up spending plenty of time at the park too. 

The best Mothers' Day

I am the luckiest mom!  These two did a great job of making me feel special on Mothers' Day.

As soon as I woke up in the morning, I got to open my present from Glenn.  He got me a cast iron pizza pan!  I have been complaining about not having a pizza pan ever since we started our tradition of having pizza every Friday, and the one he got me was way better than what I would have bought for myself!  I can't wait to try it out.  Come faster, Friday!

Glenn is so sweet.  He made me breakfast and brought it out to me on a tray!  I made him pose for a picture.

Glenn and Violet also gave me a VERY sweet card.  And Violet colored a picture for me!  Behold:

I just love that smile.  And I know I'm biased, but is that a good drawing or what?  Take a closer look:

Thank you for everything, Glenn and Violet!

Our food lately...

If you care, here is what we've been eating lately.

This pizza was a winner:

We go to the farmer's market every week, but all winter didn't buy much. But this last week the summer produce was out in full force!

The strawberries were so good and so cheap, and I was told this was the first crop of tomatoes of the season!

If you don't love oatmeal, but realize that it one of the healthiest and least expensive breakfasts around, you should try overnight oats!  I did this week, and it is my new everyday breakfast!  Also, it is soooooooo good with those amazing strawberries from the farmer's market.

(basically, you just mix 1/2 cup of oats with 1 cup of almond milk at night in a tupperware, and then put it in a bowl with berries and a little sugar the next morning. I love the texture, and it is nice not to have hot oatmeal now that it is warm outside.)

As for the tomatoes, I had this amazing salad for lunch.

I used the basil from my own plant!  This salad was so good that Violet ate tomatoes for the first time!  She just kept asking for more, and I was so proud.

Ward party

It is the end of the school year for most USC students, which means about 75% of our ward is heading home within the next week or two.  (By the way, we usually have about 12 women in relief society, so losing 75% of that is... a big deal.)  Anyway, as a last hurrah, we had a ward party for FHE on Monday night at the bishop's house.

Ever since Violet took swim lessons a few weeks ago, she will occasionally yell, "No swimming!  No swimming", whimper, and need a hug (sad, I know).  Well, this was a swim party, and we didn't want to freak her out, so we didn't dress her in her swim suit.  Still, she was NOT pleased when she saw that we were bringing her swim suit and towel in the car.  The funny thing about kids is, peer pressure works every time.  The moment Violet saw Hannah and Sofia in the pool, "No swimming" turned into "Swimming!  Swimming!" and we couldn't get her in her swim suit fast enough.

Another highlight of the party for me was this:

A girl in our ward, Katie Stump, is a great singer and guitar player, and treated us to an impromptu performance.  And then, completely unprompted, all the little girls started to dance!  It was just about the cutest thing I've ever seen.  I'm smiling just writing about it.

This week, Violet loves...

Dale

Play-doh

Swimming (more on this tomorrow)

and reading the scriptures.

Haha, she really only did that last one once, but it was so cute we took a picture!  But something she really does love lately is saying family prayer.  She repeats the last word of every sentence we whisper to her, and it is very sweet.

The last of the AZ pics

Here are last few things we did in AZ that I wanted to document:

Violet flew a kite with her Grandpa at the park:

I tried a new hair do on Violet and thought she looked cute:

We went bowling for my sister's birthday and had the best time.