Cinco de Mayo Celebrations

Saturday was a fun day for our family.  It was Cinco de Mayo.  For those of you who are still thinking Cinco de Mayo is Mexico's Independence Day, then you'd be wrong.  It's actually the day that commemorates Mexico's win over French forces at the Battle of Puebla.  Any who, Rick and I love Mexican.  Between the two of us, we've been to Mexico probably 10 times. It's an amazing country with some really great people.  

When I was pregnant with Addie, I ate so much Mexican food.  People would often ask me if I was having any weird pregnancy cravings and I wasn't.  Or at least I didn't think it was weird, but I ate so much Mexican food, especially salsa.  Towards the end of my pregnancy I was getting heartburn bad.   Immediately after eating bowl after bowl of salsa it would hit me hard, but I couldn't stop.  It was like crack, I was a salsa addict!

So it really came as no surprise that Addie would love Mexican food as much as I did.  She's still not into meat too much but enjoys rice, beans and quesadillas.  Saturday we ate a local favorite of ours and Addie was really reaching for the chips and salsa, which she's never had.  I was really nervous about the chips, the sharp edges, chance of choking, etc. but I gave her a bite without salsa and she loved it.  So after a couple bites, I let her try the salsa.  The salsa was a bit spicy but it didn't even faze her.  She loved it.  

This is post margaritas for anyone wondering (just kidding)!

You've got something on your face there.

Addie's view.  Love this.

We had so much fun and Addie loved every bit of our lunch.  She even ate a lot of food which she hardly does these days.

Addie is such a Mexican natural, just doesn't have the complexion.  She should be a natural the way I ate Mexican and our visit to Mexico while she was still in utero.  What did you do this weekend?

-stephanie

Frugal Find: Starbucks Happy Hour Begins Today

The Starbucks Frappuccino Happy Hour begins today at 3pm and will run every day until 5pm today through Sunday, May 13th.  You can purchase your favorite frappuccino for half off!  I'm counting down the hours until I can get a Caramel Frappuccino!  What's your favorite flavor?

-stephanie

Middle West Spirits Distillery

A little Columbus, Ohio love for any of you who may make trips to Ohio.  I heard about Middle West Spirits from a former coworker who loved it and raved that we had to go.  So, this was our April date envelope.  I don't think I've ever told you about our date envelopes so I'll make sure you get an update next week on what these are and how they started.  

Any who, Middle West Spirits is a local micro-distillery set in the Short North district of Columbus which is a really hip neighborhood split nearly equi-distant between downtown Columbus and The Ohio State University Campus.  Here's a blurb from MW's website:

Set in the heart of Ohio, Middle West Spirits is an ubran micro-distillery that draws inspiration from its surroundings. We are mindful of the immense resources we have nearby, and make every effor to use them.  

Rick and I went with Rick's brother Joe and his fiancee, Loralei last Friday for a tour and tasting of the distillery.

This is a view from the outside, you can see into the distillery.

Joe & Loralei

Rick & me

This is the assistant distiller.  Fun fact, he has a good taster and sense of smell and can pinpoint where  they are in the distilling process just by scent.  He's also responsible for crawling into those stainless steel cylinders to clean them out. He has to slide through the side door you see on the right of this picture.  Eeek!

Wafting for the smell of the liquor in the distilling process.

Where the whiskey is stored.

MW shares these barrels with another local company Rockmill Brewery.  On the flip side of this is the MW branding.

The co-owner

The products, from left to right, OYO plain vodka, OYO honey vanilla bean vodka, OYO stonefruit vodka, and OYO whiskey.  My favorite, the stonefruit hands down.  I don't like drinking any alcohol straight and the stonefruit is so smooth it could easily be sipped.

The experience was so neat and to see it happening right in the midst of Columbus was even more exciting.  You can check out the Middle West Spirits website here, their Facebook page here, and look at ordering here.

-stephanie

Wordless Wednesday: Don't Mind My Bangs

No matter how many times I brush her hair out of her face, she messes it back up.

-stephanie

Adalyn's Bedtime Routine

Addie has finally turned the corner and is sleeping approximately 10 hours every night.  It's amazing!  If only I could get her to sleep until 7, we'd be in perfect shape.  She gets a bath every other night so as not to dry her skin out and she's not crawling around in the dirt all day so she's not that dirty.  Our bedtime routine goes something like this:

7:30 - Addie starts to get really cranky and it signals that it's time to start the bedtime routine.

7:45 (on bath nights) - We asked if she wants a bath, she immediately stops what she's doing, looks up and says, "Ba!".  Then runs down the hallway to the bathroom where she proceeds to stand at the door and beat on the door and whine.

7:47 - we strip her down and put her in the tub where she proceeds to drink the water, lay down and splash, throw her toys out of the tub, and play the stand up/sit down game.  This is a game to her, not to me.  She stands up with a troublesome grin on her face and I tell her to sit down (because I know she'll fall at some point).  She squats for a second, then immediately shoots back up and starts cheesin.

8:00 - bath time is over and we take her to her room to put on the night diaper, PJs, lotion, brush her teeth, then let her brush her own teeth while I comb her hair.

8:10 - we sit in the living room on the couch and she drinks her bottle and plays with her hair to wind down.

8:20 - she's finished her bottle and we go into her room and sit down and read for 15 minutes.  Lately she's been in this routine where she only wants me to read her Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss.  It's really cute how excited she gets, but seriously, how many times can I say, "No Pat no, don't sit on that"?!

8:35 - I turn on the white noise machine and let her listen to the ocean as she falls asleep.  She goes down with her Fisher Price Seahorse and a book.

8:40 - on a good night, she's already asleep at this point.  On a bad night, she's begun her meltdown and could cry for 20 minutes.  Occasionally I cave and snuggle her in the glider and we glide for a few minutes until she's asleep.  I know I have to stop this, but it's my favorite thing to do with her since I only get to do it sporadically.

-stephanie