Cookie and Craft Fun

Sam has been loving "helping" in the kitchen during this visit with my parents! Yesterday afternoon, she helped us out as we finished up a batch of Christmas cookies. She might have gotten carried away sugaring a few of the cookies, but she sure had a good time :-)

The baker :-)

Making sure all the cookies are covered...

Shake, shake!

And now some green...

Big smile!

Very proud of her creations :-)

We also got out the paints yesterday, and made a big sign to congratulate Ryan on his race. Sam had fun painting all over it! Here is the finished product. Ryan was very surprised! And I know he was just happy to be able to give little Sammy a hug again :-) It was a long time for him to be away. 

The banner

Happy

Getting big hugs from Sam

~

This morning I got in a nice 4.5 mile run while Neenie and Pippi took Sam swimming. She had a great time, and I had a good tour of the neighborhood. It was a gorgeous morning to be out, and my legs had a bit more pep in them than they did yesterday, despite Sam being up many, many times in the night last night. There were a number of herons along the big pond out along the berm, as well as a few cormorants and a lot of canada geese. I also passed a tree (a sycamore, I think) with a ton of tufted titmice and yellow rumped warblers flitting about. I stopped to watch and listen for a while, just because their songs and calls were so pretty and there were so many of them. The kingfisher was sitting on a tree branch near the pond along the main street as I ran past too. Planning to take tomorrow off and then get in a few more runs later this week.