It's Spring Break in River Vale

School is out this week for Spring Break, so Lizzie and I had to make adjustments to our weekly Tuesday morning get-together ... instead of our usual lattes at Starbucks, we hung out at her house with our girls. Lizzie's girls (Hattie and Emily) entertained Reagan, which allowed Lizzie and I to catch up a little. I didn't have my camera with me, but I had my iPhone ...

Reagan is in heaven whenever we spend any time next door. The first thing she did was jump on the trampoline with the girls. Then she had to check out the fish in the pond. To everyone's surprise, Emily spotted a toad in the water and was able to catch it in the net! This was quite exciting for all of us :)
Emily and the toad ... they quickly gave this toad a name: Ferdinand.

Reagan had never seen a real toad before, so she was pretty mesmerized.

Emily put the toad back in the pond and we watched it swim to this spot, then hang out in the water. I like this picture because it shows the toad, the fish, and the reflection of the girls. As we were getting a good look at the toad, I spotted a snake in the water too! He moved too quickly for me to get a picture, but it was probably about 3 feet long. What a morning for seeing wildlife!

In this picture, Reagan is doing one of her favorite things: feeding the fish with Hattie and Emily. Lizzie was holding Avery for me (the dogs are also in the picture: Maude - Lizzie's dog, & Verdell - our dog)

Lizzie enjoys photography as a hobby and she's quite talented. She took some wonderful pictures of the toad (I need her to email them to me!). She recently took the most beautiful picture of their dog Maude and had it blown up and framed.

In this picture, Reagan is busy with her favorite indoor activity at the Trimm house: playing with the refridgerator magnets. Our fridge at home has wood paneling to match the cabinets, so we have no magnets :( I wish we did, since they keep Reagan occupied for quite a long time! I didn't get any pictures of them, but Reagan also enjoyed playing with the girls' hampters.

It was a really fun morning with our next door neighbors. After that, I went out to lunch with my friend Nicole at my favorite lunch spot, The Rolling Pin Cafe.

This little 'hole in the wall' restaurant is right in Westwood (next town over) and the food is always exceptional. It's a very small place, so it's always packed full of women "doing lunch." Nicole and I devoured every bite of our salads and sandwiches! I'm getting hungry just thinking about it! If you've never been there, then you HAVE to try it ... you won't be disappointed.

This afternoon, we went to the park and I took tons of pictures ... but it's really late and I need to go to bed, so those will have to wait until tomorrow!

Slippery When Wet

I have to share one of those traumatic stories that I'll one day be able to look back on and laugh ~ hopefully. Every week, my next door neighbor Lizzie and I spend a morning at Starbucks, enjoying some much needed adult conversation while Reagan is at preschool (Avery comes with us). I look forward to catching up with Lizzie each week, while drinking my Grande Skim Chai Latte, no foam, with 2 Sweet & Lows. We placed our order and went up the few steps to see if our usual table was free, but our local Starbucks in Westwood was rather busy this morning, so we were forced to find another table on the main level.

As usual, I had my hands full: on my left arm, I was holding my purse and the diaper bag, while holding the change from the cashier in my hand with the umbrella (it was raining outside); in my right hand, I was holding Avery in the car seat. I was wearing my Nike sneakers which were obviously wet from the rain. This location of Starbucks has tile floors throughout, even on the stairs. I quickly discovered that wet sneakers and wet tile stairs don't mix well.

I slipped rather quickly while going down that first step, yet I remember it like it happened in slow motion ... all I could think about was setting Avery down safely. All my energy (and I guess my motherly instincts) went toward Avery, as I did my best to lower her car seat as close to the floor as possible before letting go. She landed safely, although with a bit of a jolt, as I came crashing down onto the edge of the step. I had no time to catch myself or brace myself for the impact. I landed extremely hard on the edge of the sharp tiled step, right on my tushy. Ouch! I could hardly move, I was in so much pain. One would think that all the extra padding back there would have protected me a bit more!

Anyway, I made quite a spectacle of myself. When I looked over at Avery, she just gave me a big grin, as if she were thinking, "that was exciting, let's do it again!"

I have a feeling my backside will be hurting for quite a while ...

UPDATE: 03/07/08 This afternoon, I left the kids with John and met my friend Meredith at this same Starbucks ... she had left her kids with a babysitter so she could get out for some adult time. Once again, it was raining, so John warned me to careful on my way out the door :) Anyway, the manager who had witnessed my fall was working today and he gave me my Chai latte for free! Good thing I ordered a Venti instead of a Grande today!!! For those of you who aren't familiar with the stupid Starbucks size lingo, a Venti is a large and a Grande is a medium and a Tall is a small. Go figure. There's actually a REALLY funny commercial on TV right now for Dunkin Donuts ... I just went to their website and it came right up, so check it out: https://dunkindonuts.com/ A woman walks up to the counter of a coffee shop and orders a large and the employee keeps saying, "you mean 'deici'? I think it's amusing, since the size names at Starbucks are silly to me.

Go Giants!!

By looking at the spread, you never would have guessed that this was the Trimm's first Super Bowl party! We had so much delicious food, and of course, we all ate way too much. My bacon-wrapped dates and spinach balls (the ugly green things on the white plate) were a huge hit, as well as the 7-layer dip. We had so much fun mingling, eating, and watching the game, so thanks for having us over, Lizzie and David!

Reagan had fun playing with this red cardinal


Reagan and Emily on the piano ~ Hattie and Reagan on the floor

Reagan had a lot of fun with David

Here's the recipe for the spinach balls, courtesy of Alexis Martinez:

• 4 packages of frozen chopped spinach
• 4 cups of herb stuffing mix (Pepperidge Farm)
• 2 chopped onions (small to medium)
• 8 eggs
• 1 cup of Parmesan cheese
• 1 tbsp of thyme
• ½ tsp of salt
• ½ tsp of pepper
• 1 ½ cup of melted butter
• ½ tsp of garlic powder

Squeeze water out of uncooked spinach. Mix all ingredients w/spinach in a mixing bowl. Roll 1-inch balls. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Makes 50-60 balls.