The Lee Family: Aunt Becky Visits

On Saturday, we joined Stacy, Antonio, Luca, and Sandra at the Creme de la Creme festival. Both boys go to Creme and Stacy invited us to join them for the free event that had bounce houses, face painting, hot dogs, games and a visit by both Elsa and a real fire truck. First we made and ate pancakes and then met them over there around 11am. Again, it was a beautiful and cool day in the low-70s, which is weather Becky is very used to living in, but that we haven't had in months! Ironically, it's been incredibly hot in central California where she lives, so it was a nice break for both of us.

The girls had a ball! They hung out with Antonio and bounced in the firetruck bounce house at the entrance of Creme for a long time before heading to the play yard of the school. We decided to get the girls' faces painted before more people arrived, and headed into the school's "media" room. Becky has been a preschool teacher for many years and was in awe of the school, which is set up like a children's museum with various "houses" for classrooms and is really beautiful inside. There is even a splash pad for the summer and a koi pond with real koi by the library.

The face painters had a few kids waiting, but before long it was Sofia's turn and she asked to have a butterfly painted on her face. The lady who did it was clearly a face painting artist, while the other woman is a teacher at the school and her face painting was pretty primitive. Sofia was finished and looked amazing! Olivia wanted a mermaid, but the woman explained that she had a few different drawings to choose from, but no mermaid. She went for a "frozen" decoration on her arm.

After, we ate hot dogs outside and then the girls and Antonio played on the castle playground for awhile and then rode tricycles around the playground. Their absolute favorite thing to do was to have one of the girls peddle and steer the tricycle while the other one held on the back. Antonio explained that this "isn't allowed" but one of the teachers said that rule was only for the school day, so the girls spent most of their time riding around and taking turns. Antonio got bored, so Becky took him over to the soccer field and played soccer with Antonio. Stacy took Luca home for his nap, so we hung out with Antonio until the end of the festival.

The fire truck arrived and we all visited it, to Antonio's delight. The girls weren't very interested, although they took a look inside for a few minutes. Antonio loved it and the fire truck visit was the highlight of the day for him! We also were there for the visit by Elsa, who brought felt snowballs and the kids had a snowball fight, which the girls loved. Sofia was the oldest kid at the festival by far, so she had to be aware of all the little kids. We stayed until the end of the festival and ended with the girls riding the tricycles over and over around the track in the play yard while Antonio jumped on the fire truck bounce house. We dropped off Antonio at home and got home so Aunt Becky and the girls could swim.

Olivia was super excited to go swimming and Sofia said she didn't want to go, which I knew would change once we were all in the water. I put my suit on and had great intentions of swimming but just couldn't get past how freezing cold the water felt. The air felt cool too, so after getting out it would feel freezing! So, I sat on the lounge chair wrapped in a towel and watched as Aunt Becky and Olivia played games in the pool and swam together as "dolphins" or "mermaids." Sofia soon joined me and read for a bit before disappearing and returning in her swimsuit! She jumped in and the three of them played for a long time in the pool before Olivia got out and was "freezing" so I put her into a warm bath.

On Saturday night we grilled pork loin and veggies and then made s'mores in our outdoor bbq. The girls were SO excited to be making s'mores and asked about them every day Aunt Becky was there since I'd told them our plan before she arrived. They were delicious and the girls enjoyed it. Plus, since it was so cool in the evening it really felt great to sit outside by the fire in the evening.

Aunt Becky and the girls swam together every afternoon (I never could get in because it was so cold) and had a ball. Sofia and Aunt Becky held floaty races from one side of the pool to the other and then on Sunday afternoon Brandon came over and joined in the fun. By then, Aunt Becky had a game where they would all stand on the side of the pool and get ready to jump and she would yell out a question like "Favorite ice cream flavor?" or "Favorite animal?" or "Name a fruit?" and they would have to yell out "vanilla" or "dog" or "strawberries" before jumping into the water. They loved it! It was so cute to watch and they got out of the pool and ready to answer Aunt Becky's question and jump back in.

Aunt Becky also brought her mini iPad to show us pictures and books for the girls. She also showed the girls the game Mahjong, which she learned to play from our Dad and the girls loved it. Sofia played on her iPad and they both became pretty good at doing it. Olivia loved to have Aunt Becky read to her.

On Monday Sofia said goodbye to Aunt Becky before school since Aunt Becky was heading home around lunchtime. After we dropped Sofia off at school, we visited Kimsey Park with Olivia, her scooter, and Buddy and had fun walking around the lake and watching Olivia scooter and then play with the My Little Ponies she brought. It was another beautiful day and we had fun hanging out at the park for awhile before it was time to return to our house and take Becky and her things to the airport. The girls had such a great time with Aunt Becky and we decided that we will get together yearly - either here in Texas or visit Aunt Becky in California. Sofia announced that next time she visits she needs to stay for a month! It was such a fun visit and the girls adore their fun and silly Aunt Becky!!

Aunt Becky reading to Olivia while Sofia plays Mahjong