project runway?

It was hard not to laugh at Zuzu and one of her best little friends as they modeled three fabulous wigs for us during a play date this week. Of course, they both already donned pink princess costumes, princess heels & spoke confidently into their plastic mobile phones. While holding my roaring laughter to a mere chuckle, I couldn't help but to think of all those poor little girls that participate in beauty pageants and this age, and look somewhat like Zuzu here, with more makeup of course. And I couldn't help but to wonder how their parents find this endearing when it's just plain outrageous. Cute but absolutely outrageous.

Oh, and did you ever wonder what Zuzu's favorite part of our grand three day trip cross country to Disney World was? You'll never guess...

panic at the disco

Just in case you were wondering...
1. a sneaky three year old child can somehow manage open child-proof vitamin bottles on their own when motivated to do so.
2. the levels of vitamins A and Iron in approximately 10-12 chewable Flinstone vitamins (over 20x the recommended dosage) is NOT toxic for a skinny little three year old child.
3. it's best to check for yourself anyway if you encounter one such devilish three year old child and the number for poison control is 1-800-222-1222.

Go, Dog. Go!

A dog party!
A big dog party!
Big dogs, little dogs,
red dogs, blue dogs,
yellow dogs, green dogs,
black dogs, and white dogs
are all at a dog party!
What a dog party!
~P.D Eastman

Well, that might be a slight overstatement since there were actually only two dogs in attendance tonight...but I just couldn't resist.

Today was our four-legged friend Scout's first birthday. We celebrated with squeaky toys, cupcakes, doggy treats, hockey, baseball, costumes & goody bags. And friends. Most of all, we celebrated with friends. Here's the clip...

happy halloween!

No, I haven't completely lost my mind. Yet. You see, it's pretty much Halloween year round in this house. There are two closets and a rolling ottoman overflowing with costumes and "the silver box" where mommy used to stash her chocolate somehow became a candy free for all one day. But, it just wouldn't be Halloween if we didn't discuss (two months ahead of time) what we wanted to be and then order our favorite (expensive) costumes on line. And this week, we're celebrating the arrival of those costumes.

This post, will serve as a reminder of what the children ordered to wear on Halloween which we will inevitably refer back to when I post pictures of what they actually do wear on Halloween. I can assure you that at least one of them will be different. In fact, one of them already is.

Zuzu has chosen Little Red Riding Hood. Now, I've never actually read this story to her but somehow she knows all about Grandma & the Wolf. Could have been the ride at Lego Land or maybe they are actually teaching them something at pre-school. Who knows? Needless to say she is the cutest damn Little Red Riding Hood you've ever seen. And no, I'm not just saying that because she is my child....


Gage chose GI Joe Snake Eyes. Not because he has any idea who GI Joe Snake Eyes is, but because the costume looked cool and came with a super long sword. It was also one of the hardest costumes to find in stock. Go figure. I guess he has good taste. The costume that we ordered looked like this....


I do not, however, have a photo of him in it yet as he has already dismissed the costume for Halloween. He has now announced that he will be a football player and will sport his new San Francisco 49ers jersey that he got on Sunday and has worn all but one day since. And, as you can imagine, that laundry day did not come easy....


Alas, I will keep you posted. Stay tuned for more Halloween photos throughout the next 38 days....

tuck and hold

I'm seriously dreading going to sleep tonight for fear of how my body might revolt tomorrow. Today, you see, was my introduction to the dailey method. Instead of trying to explain what *the dailey method* actually is, and assuming you might be too tired or busy to click on the link I just supplied (or lazy), you can read this copy that I so generously cut and pasted directly from their website...



Now I like to think that my body is pretty well toned. I can make it through a 90 minute yoga class (and frequently do) without cursing once. Today? Not so much. And *the dailey method* class is only 60 minutes. And it was the beginner class. Seriously. I kept turning to my partner in pain saying, "how come everyone else in here can do this?" The woman in the corner next to us actually looked bored as she grazed on her chewing gum while tucking and holding. Me on the other hand? I really just had to laugh when the instructor came over and told me to straighten my legs and touch the bar with my feet while my quads were shaking so intensely that they were no longer under the control of the rest of my body. Not just twitching. Shaking so uncontrollably that I'm really not sure how I will stand or sit tomorrow.

My girlfriend thinks we should take a harder class next week. Her logic? Apparently it's more crowded so the instructor doesn't have as much time to correct you and you can cheat a little. But with my luck...

Pray for me and my quads why don't you?

all in a sunday morning

Just another Sunday at the farmer's market. We munched on some sugar waffles, croissants, kettle corn, peaches, plums, strawberries, grapes & tomatoes. We rode some ponies, tumbled in a jumpy house and even got a face painted. All in just over an hour. Damn I love California.

tutu school

Pardon my unexcused absence. One week ago today, my darling, but not so gentle daughter delivered a head butt so fierce that one doctor, one ER, one IV and one blood draw later I am only now able to deliver a fairly sensible blog post. Apparently her head is much harder than mine as she is just as spunky as ever. And today, little miss spunk had her very first trip to *tutu school*.

Now I know this is hard to believe but the class is even more adorable than the name implies. Truly. Below is a brief three minutes and four second edit of the forty-five minute class. Needless to say I went ahead and enrolled her for the next 18 weeks...

awesome!

Today was day five of kindergarten and tonight the (oh my goodness. I just wrote kindergarten.)
Stop. Scratch that. Let me start over.

Today was day five of FIRST GRADE and tonight the parents got to go *back to school*. We all gathered in our kids classrooms, sat at their desks, went through their stuff and, oh yeah, met and learned a little more about their teachers. But for me it was obviously the going through their stuff part that was the most exciting. Even if only five days worth of stuff.

The above photograph was taken with my cell phone because clearly I didn't show up to back to school night with the SLR although, in hindsight, maybe I should have. Anyway, this is page one of Gage's daily journal. Are you still wondering why I'm rambling on and on? Yeah, well, I'm getting there....

If you know me at all or have spent any time reading my blog(s) you might happen to notice that I use the word *awesome* quite a bit. Overuse? Yeah, maybe. Whatever. I like *awesome* and apparently Gage does too. Just because he spelled it *osum* in no way means that I didn't know EXACTLY what he meant the second I looked at it.

I love that "first grade is osum" & I love that he loves *my word*. But now I am going directly to google to identify as many intelligent synonyms as possible which I will begin substituting into my excited remarks immediately. I wonder what *cool* would look like phonetically to a five year old? Oh, did I say intelligent? Hmmmm....

hold your breath!

The proof is in the photograph. She's finally going under. And she needs a manicure. Happy Friday...

go directly to jail. do not collect $200.

Some things never change. Battleship, on the other hand has gone completely wacko and/or electronic, but Monopoly remains pretty much unscathed. I don't recall the "fast play" option but I suppose that is just a sign of the times.

We bought both games this week and I'd have to say it was the best near $50 I've spent in a long time. Do I say that a lot?

This is a shot of our ongoing game which, I have a feeling, will remain ongoing for some time. I honestly didn't remember quite how much time could actually spent on one game until we got started. This one is about 4 hours in and we've barely made an impact.

But what has amazed me most is Gage's ability to play. Really, I thought it would be a challenge but he jumped right in and was actually kicking my butt about two hours in (I caught up). It's fascinating to watch our five year old rapidly adding the numbers on two dice together (most games up to this point have just used one), counting money & making change. It's also fun to see his strategies & levels of risk he's willing to take. Come to find out, he's quite the shark. Who would have thunk?

If you have a kindergarten age child and, like me, have been hesitant to try monopoly don't wait. It's time. And it takes time. So be prepared. Don't set yours up on the dining room table like we did...cause I'm guessing it's going to be there a while...

lip service

Tonight, during the witching hour, Gage *accidentally* kicked his little sister in the mouth. I can't pretend that this is unusual occurrence but I can say that there is usually no blood. Tonight, however, was different. Blood. I hate blood.

Turns out she cut the little skin thingy that resides just over your front teeth, inside your mouth (I'm sure it has a better name than that but I didn't learn that one in Business School). Now the critical phrase to remember here is INSIDE your mouth.

After some ice and a raspberry popsicle, I decided it was safe to run a bath. Zuzu came to greet me in the bathroom a few minutes later looking like this. Apparently her boo-boo needed a band-aide. It was so cute I couldn't help but to just laugh at her. The first words I could muster were, "keep it on...let me go get the camera!"

seeing double...and then some...

The question here is truly not why our just three year old daughter has so many blonde Barbies, but instead, how in the world she can tell all of these Barbies apart. See, like most children, Zuzu likes to undress her Barbies. But when it comes time to put the clothes back on, and Mom inevitably is called to assist, she knows exactly which dress belongs to which blonde bombshell. Seriously, minus a few tell-tale hair accessories, can you tell the difference between Aurora, Rapunzel & the Island Princess? Well she can. And if it weren't for Snow White & Ariel or I'd be totally screwed.

traveling light

Today I flew cross-country with a three year old and a five year old. We woke the children at 6:30am eastern standard time. It is now 6:15pm pacific time (9:15pm eastern standard time) and we are eating dinner. Yes, I blog at dinner.

We have been up nearly 15 hours straight and consumed THE most obnoxious assortment of food humanly possible in one day. I will not tell you exactly who ate what (because that gets even more frightening) but I am willing to share our menu with you because it will make you feel oh so good about yourself today. It's listed in chronological order for the most part, and yes, I'm dead serious and I actually may have forgotten a thing or two.

But don't judge me. The kids are still happy fifteen hours and a 5 1/2 hour flight later and tomorrow, my friends, is another day...

one corn dog
1/2 of a large bag of mini chips ahoy cookies
one blueberry muffin
one package of starburst candies
handful of goldfish pretzels
snack baggie of chocolate covered pretzels
one candy bracelet
two handfuls of skittles candy
1/2 a second blueberry muffin
1 cup strawberry yogurt
1 chocolate chip granola bar
4 more starburst candies
2 mc donalds happy meals with chicken nuggets & french fries
1 in n' out burger, ketchup only
1 in n' out grilled cheese, add pickles, hold the onions
1 in n' out french fries
1 grande non-fat latte with one pump of mocha
1 sugar free fudgsicle
1 sugar free strawberry popsicle
three slices of pepperoni pizza
two bowls of spaghetti with marinara sauce & mushrooms
three slices of garlic bread

What do you think? Should I serve dessert?

vacation all I ever wanted...

Did I forget to tell you that we were going on vacation? Yes, I think I did and well, we did. We're having a lovely time catching up with friends & family and doing everything we can to entertain ourselves while avoiding the completely intolerable heat that is South Florida. Not an easy feat but somehow it's all worth it. I don't really have a heck of a lot to say so here are some photos.

This first one is of the grown women that I often refer to lovingly as "my girls". I can't tell you how long we've been friends cause that would most certainly age us all, but trust me, we go way back and have far more memories than we would all like. All college roommates of one another at some point and this week we took our collective nine kids bowling together. Yeah, I'm still getting over the shock too...


And here are some of the many ways we've entertained ourselves and kept relatively cool over the last few days... (Although the avocado adventure was a pretty sweaty one as it involved baseball bats, soccer balls & a now somewhat battered avocado tree.)

grab a seat. or two.

This photo is courtesy of my mother. These lovely commodes, circa 1970-something, were thoughtfully perched just across the street from her home on bulk pick-up day this week. Fortunately, they remained vacant all morning.

safety check

I swear. I read the trampoline manual three times and it says nothing about jumping while holding a functioning garden hose. Nothing. So it must be safe, right? Nothing this fun could be dangerous.

small print: children, do not try this at home unless, of course, your parents are nearby video taping you

the negotiation

betcha can't guess who wins...

silence is golden

Or is it?
We've all had one of those moments when we think, "Those kids are sure quiet, what in the world have they done now?"
That was me tonight.
I actually caught up on some emails while they jumped in the bath. I could hear them softly talking and giggling but then I realized something was up. Up, down & all around.
This is certainly not their first attempt at redecorating their decrepit bathroom but I'm pretty sure it's the first time I've shared it here. And this time was quite the masterpiece. Perfectly timed, of course, because the tub was just scoured yesterday. How DO they know these things?

dog days?

Did you know that "Dog Days were popularly believed to be an evil time 'when the seas boiled, wine turned sour, dogs grew mad, and all creatures became languid, causing to man burning fevers, hysterics, and phrensies' according to Brady’s Clavis Calendarium, 1813" & Wikipedia.

Mad dog? Check.
Sour wine? Maybe.
Languid creatures? Hmmmm. Not so much.

I just had to share these images from just one hour of our marvelous day today. This all followed school, camp, mommy errands, a doggy hike, a swim lesson & a trip to the sports store to purchase the new mask, snorkel and flippers (not pictured). Only now, as the sun has set on this beautiful day, are we languid.

Life is good.

sunday funnies

What NOT to do at the dining room table. Captured on film, posted on blog & titled *sunday funnies* in an attempt to teach disobedient child how NOT funny it actually was. French fry anyone?