We started our Sunday at home trying to get some wiggles out by taking our bike and scooter to the empty library parking lot.

One of the highlights of the morning was A FaceTime call to my dad. He sent us a book in the mail and we wanted him to be apart of it while we opened it. He is the best! And he is just as thrilled as my girls as they rip open the envelope. This week he sent us Waiting. It has fantastic water color paintings. We all read it together with Papa and then he played the emoji face game on his phone with the girls, changing his face from a rainbow unicorn, to a monkey, to the poop emoji 💩 (but Ruby just thinks it’s a giant chocolate chip).

Later we had a morning snack and 15 minutes later the girls insisted they were starving to death and now needed lunch. So I distracted them from starvation by pulling out my library cookbook and had Ruby pick a recipe we should all make together. She chose snickerdoodle cupcakes with buttercream frosting.

Cooking with toddlers is not the fastest way to cook but it’s defiantly the most entertaining. And Levi thinks he is now big enough to get in on the action too.

The cupcakes turned out looking nice, but were really lackluster in flavor. So the girls licked off the frosting and we chalked it up to a good time but a marginal recipe.

The afternoon entertainment was paper airplane making with Marc and then throwing them off the balcony.

The girls threw them and then Marc would fetch them and throw them back up to the girls.

Our recipe for homemade bread makes three loaves. And since we started making it regularly at the beginning of the year, we have also made the habit of giving one of the three loaves away. So this morning I felt like the third loaf for was for our neighbor. This particular neighbor bangs on their ceiling/ our floor on a regular basis. And he has strongly expressed his frustration as to the noise we make in the mornings. He has notified the office and we too have let them know when we get reminders to be quiet at eleven in the morning. Last week, the office presented to us a option to move our family in October to a bottom floor apartment on the other side of the complex pool. We agreed. So this morning, I took the loaf of bread and my three, not so quiet, children with me downstairs to give to my neighbor along with the good news about our move. He was very kind. And especially gracious and grateful when he learned it was homemade bread. He went on to tell us he got a dehydrator, and when he figures out his fruit roll up recipe, he will bring some up to share. I think the world needs more homemade bread.

There is a song that first perfect with my bread story, “What the world needs now, is love sweet love. It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of.” 2020 has been one for the books. And with all the politics, scandals, horrors, natural disasters, man made disasters, violence – there is just too little of love.

In other news, I am reaping the benefits of watching a season of the Magic School Bus with my kids. Ruby’s new go-to responses when learning something new are “interesting” and “fascinating!” And while Hazel plays pretend on her sketch pad she says, “according to my research…”

We had our At Home Library Story Time at Chelsea’s house this week. And she is crazy talented and fun and made the greatest dragon themed story time, probably the best dragon story time ever.

This week was also Chelsea’a birthday so we had a fun birthday BBQ party

My girls and I had lots of fun doing cake decorating research and watching several YouTube tutorials to make this chocolate cake. It had a layer of brownie sandwiched between two layers of cake with chocolate mousse and homemade caramel layers. Frosted in mousse and topped with dark chocolate ganache and candied gram cracker pretzel mix and golden Oreos.

Along with a fun time by the pool we also got heat exhaustion Friday night. I didn’t know the AC had gone out in my van and we had to pick Marc up… long story short we were in the car for like an hour at the hottest part of the day and then a BBQ. I slept most of the day Saturday because I was so sick. So it was a lazy laundry and movies day and everyone was content to lay around.