Santa Barbara Zoo

Santa Barbara Zoo

Gigi was able to get off work early today, so after lunch we headed to the Santa Barbara Zoo.  This was Serevina’s second trip to a zoo, the first being the Bronx Zoo last summer, which I don’t think she remembers.  She LOVED it!!  She was so excited to see all the animals and had a wonderful time walking around with Gigi and Auntie.  Once we stopped at the first animal and took her out to lift her up for a better view she decided she wanted to walk.  She was a trooper and we all had a wonderful time. 

We loved looking at the monkeys.
 

Serevina thought the giraffes came over our way just for her.  
She was waving at them and yelling "hello!" 

When we stopped by the gorillas they had a sign showing the arm span of a full grown gorilla.  Mom and I had Amber stretch out to see how her span compared and then Serevina wanted to do the same.

And I even got to have my picture taken with our little cutie!  


In the car on the way home we asked what animal was her favorite, 
to which she responded “elephant.” 

Thank you Auntie and Gigi for a very memorable day!

Smiles!!

Smiles!!

Sammy has started smiling in the last few days and gives some of his best smiles to his aunties!  First when Jacinda visited and now with Amber. It is so much fun watching his little personality start to come to life.  

He is just so cute!!  These first smiles are just so precious!! 

Serevina's 2!

Serevina’s Two!

I can’t believe she is already two!  A couple weeks ago I was talking to Amber about the birthday girl and she asked if Serevina was getting excited about her birthday.  I said no and then realized we hadn’t really been talking about it.  So I really made a point in the weeks leading up to talk about it often and to read birthday books.  It helped that there were a couple of birthdays in her classroom at day care so she had been exposed to some festivities, plus we attended Grant and Ade’s 3^rd Birthday Party last weekend.  Between their party and her big day there were lots of discussions about “happy birthday cake,” who was coming for her birthday, and singing of the “happy birthday” song.  Unfortunately we had to cancel her “friends” birthday party at the last minute.  We thought she had Hand, Foot, and Mouth (it was going around her classroom), but thankfully it was just some really bad eczema.  But since we had already sent out a cancelation notice we had a mellow party at home with Gigi, Papi, and Auntie Amber and hopefully we can reschedule the other party for soon!

When asked what type of birthday cake she wanted the most frequent response was “Happy Birthday Cake.”  Since I wasn’t sure what qualified as that I prodded further and possibly suggested things.  We settled on chocolate peanut butter.  I found a great pan at TJMaxx that makes three Jumbo cupcakes – it has six “cups,” three tops and three bottoms.  You cook them and then frost the halves together.  Amber made a delicious batch of  Barefoot Contessa Chocolate Cupcakes  We put them together and put a number 2 candle in one for Serevina to blow out and let her have it to chow down on. 

For the adults I made a delicious chocolate peanut butter cake that I found through pinterest.  It was awesome!!  I will definitely be making it again.

Serevina was a little unsure when we were done sining to her and didn't dig in to her cupcake like I thought she would.  But once she had her spoon in had she happily ate away!