2012 advent : day 16

Today Olive had her second hot cocoa experience.  She was supposed to have a date with both myself and with Tyler for hot cocoa this month but our weekend schedules and a few other things haven't really allowed that to happen.  So... we had a family date at home.

Olive and I enjoyed hot cocoa with fresh homemade maple whipped cream and Tyler enjoy some chai tea with maple whip as well.

Olive had a great time and repeatedly shared most of her hot cocoa with us (but really with me since Tyler was drinking tea).

I realized the other day that Olive seems very interested in everyone taking turns.  She would sip her cocoa and then say it was my turn or Tyler's turn and sort of go in a circle like that repeatedly.  How nice.  :)

Unedited and not very good.. because I'm really tired today..




Thanks, Costco, for the cheap good things.














Olive's Advent Calendar
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
Day 11
Day 12
Day 13
Day 14
Day 15

2012 advent : day 7

Today Olive and I went on a date. A hot cocoa date!

I think Olive called it something like "ha ohco".

Tyler didn't have to work until 1:00 today so it threw things off a little bit. Shortly after he left for the bus (Olive says "dad dad, run run run run run, bus") we headed out for the post office where Olive received three stickers.

We haven't been to the Avenue Eatery since it opened with a new owner so I thought we would keep our trip local and head there. It's located on west Broadway in north Minneapolis, just a few minutes from our house.



This was Olive's first hot cocoa experience.

There were two pairs of people there - one was talking about the Bible and God and the other seemed to be talking about some sort of personality or skill inventory.. I don't remember.  We sat ourselves between the two pairs.



I ordered a hot cocoa (after I tried to get Olive to order but she burrowed into my neck instead) and asked for it in two cups. It took a while to make and I noticed the microwave was maybe involved... so I'm not sure what to say about their hot cocoa. It was yummy but was it microwaved rather than made with steamed milk? I didn't see/hear the espresso machine being used. But I may have been distracted by Olive's awesomeness. If I'm going to go out for hot cocoa I want it to be really special since it's so easy to make at home. The point of today though, was to go on a date, not stay home. :)

When it was brought out to us (after confirming that we wanted whipped cream) we were told it was pretty hot (they heat it to 140) so we had to wait a while. We were given two, what seemed like full sized, mugs. So either their hot cocoa is huge or we got a really great deal.



So we sat around poking at and eating the whipped cream and talking about the things we saw out the window. And then I drank most of my hot cocoa because I do that with hot cocoa (ask Tyler).



The guy who took our order came over and asked if Olive wanted a cookie while she waited. Maybe he was concerned that she was covered in whipped cream. He gave her a big cookie and a napkin and over the next 30 minutes or so she nibbled on it and tried to dunk it in her cocoa.

This was Olive's biggest cookie experience.





She got crumbs everywhere, looked out the window, and ran back and forth along the booth while giggling.



She kept running away and then back to me to give me big kisses which left me covered with cookie crumbs. So she's a kissy sugar high kid, then?

I asked her if I could take a photo of her with her cookie and this is what happened:







When her cocoa was finally cool enough to drink she kept trying to sip it and saying it was hot. When would get a little on her lips she would giggle and say yum and get really happy but was clearly not actually drinking it. I probably drank about half of hers before she finally picked it up and drank about 1/4 of it.



Then we went to the bathroom.

It was a pretty great date. :)

Olive's Advent Calendar
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6