Friday, February 27, 2009

Photo Friday-Scooter Time

We managed to luck out again today...another day forecast of rain and another sunny day. Apparently it won't be the same tomorrow. So, we got outside for a bit after naps to scooter. And yes, I let Kate stay in her dress-up dress. She was Scootering Cinderella.
Padyn started off scootering in her slippers. Eventually she decide that wasn't working out to well for her and put on her oxfords instead. Smart move.

This is my favorite.


Happy Friday!
(PS Since I'm been so good about blogging this week, I'm taking a break this weekend. Don't expect anything new from this site for a few days.)

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Cookie Time

I've been making a lot of cookies lately. (Must be a pregnancy thing.) A few weeks ago I had a craving for Chocolate Crackles, a cookie my mom made all the time when we were growing up, but I had never made as an adult. I didn't have the recipe, so instead of calling my mom (sorry, Mom), I looked on-line. There are hundreds of "Chocolate Crackle" recipes out there. I chose the one that looked the easiest and that I had all the ingredients on hand for. Turned out I made a fine call. We've had them twice since then. They are really good. If you want the recipe you can go here to my recipe blog. (Didn't know I had a recipe blog? Well, now you do.)

Part of the cookie making process is rolling the balls of chocolate in powdered sugar. Here are the girls helping out with that. You can use your imagination to visual how messy this process become. Powdered sugar everywhere. But the cookies were totally worth it.


And no...it wasn't warm day. My 3 year old just doesn't like putting clothes back on after her nap. And that 5 year old thinks it's summer all year long. I was probably wearing a two long sleeve shirts and a fleece sweatshirt. We're a bit different, these girls and I.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Catching Up...

Here's a couple of shots I took today in an attempt to get a good one of the two of them...


The princess top Kate is wearing over her clothes? She's been wearing that all day long. With the skirt. Over her jeans. She had many admirers on our errands around town today.
Looks like the rain is on it's way back in, eh?

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Updates

I know I've been a total blogger slacker lately. It's not just my blog that I'm avoiding. I haven't even looked at my friends' blogs in a few weeks. This phase seems to be lasting longer than usual, but I am trying to come out of it. It doesn't help that there are a bunch of things that consume my time that I can't write about. I have to stick to the safer subjects, which I'm not as motivated to write about.

But, as an attempt to overcome the staleness of my blog, instead of taking a shower right now (yes, you see the time stamp correctly), I'll give you a few updates on us.

*Kate is all about being almost 3. Currently she is in a heap on the floor that is supposed to be a time out. She crinkled up her sister's school page then refused to give it back to her. She loves running away from Padyn holding something of her sister's above her head (as if Padyn isn't taller than she is.) She knows how to push all of Padyn's buttons and doesn't hesitate to do it-even when she knows it will get her in trouble.

*Oh, and then there is this milk thing. She still wants her milk heated up. She gets milk twice day-when she wakes up and when her quiet time is over. Lately, her requests have gotten more bizarre and if the temperature is not just right, she could end up in a 30 minute screaming tantrum. Apparently her milk now has to be "hot and cold." Basically, she wants me to heat it up too hot to drink then add a splash of cold milk. You see why this is difficult? Sometimes I don't give in to her insane demands, but you can see where this is going-screaming heap of mess of floor. Not fun for anyone.

*While Padyn still complains about going to school everyday, she clearly is very happy in kindergarten. She's got her best bud that she plays with everyday, a nice bunch of kids in her class who seem to treat each other very well, and plenty of books to read. She's gotten pretty good at sounding out basic words and we are working on sight words. She wants to know how everything is spelled and quiz me on simple math equations. At least she seems impressed that I know what 4 + 1 is.

*Padyn's favorite thing right now is computer time. I only let her look at a couple different websites. If I let her, she'd be on it everyday for hours at a time. Good to see she follows after her parents.

*Out is the tent, but hanging in their pjs for the afternoon is still a fun game. The castle recently reappeared as a new favorite toy and fort building also seems to be making a comeback. We talk a lot (or whine a lot) these days about"shared toys" versus "special toys." Kate is pretty good at being willing to share with her sister and Padyn is pretty awful about it. Padyn has reached expert levels of tattling and and acting like the Mommy.

*The whining (on Padyn's part) and the bickering (on both their parts) is driving me crazy. I've been trying to not yell but some days it is so maddening I think I'm going to come out of my skin. I'm such a crank by the time they go to bed because I'm so sick of refereeing all day long. I really really really need wine. Of course, even if I had a little, it would just exacerbate the acid reflux and would be of no use.

*Me? Well, still pregnant. Couldn't really tell you how far along I am. I know I'm in my 3rd trimester and after my appointment next week I have to start going in every 2 weeks. That makes me think I'm getting closer to the end. My glucose and iron levels are good, so that's nice. I would hate to have to cut out the sweets or have to go on the constipating iron supplements. This little guy is super active and loves to kick anyone who puts pressure on his bedroom (aka my stomach). People tell me I don't look that pregnant but I certainly feel pregnant. I'm starting to get really tired in the afternoons and I have started trying to sleep sitting up to avoid the acid reflux feeling. (I really haven't been good about cutting out the foods that are supposed to be bad for it.) There are no pictures of me (blame Daddy) and no names yet.

I guess it's time to go take a shower now since I'm pushing into dinner time...

Fairy Running Princess


Monday, February 16, 2009

Vacuum Day

If only I could get them to do all my household chores...




Is it too early to have them do their own laundry?

Friday, February 13, 2009

Photo Friday-TV Coma and Close-Ups

I know, I know...it's been a really long time since I've put pictures on. I missed last Friday, and it's been a busy week. I've hardly taken any pictures in the last couple weeks, so I decided to take some close-ups today. All the ones of Kate are while she's watching Curious George. Clearly, she's a little distracted. The one's of Padyn are a combination of TV viewing and posing.

We're going to stay indoors this weekend to stay dry. Not complaining about the rain, though...we really need it. Maybe we'll go stomp in some puddles tomorrow.

Happy Friday!

Monday, February 02, 2009

Snow Instead of Football

Since we aren't really into football, and therefore, don't really give a hoot about the Super Bowl, we decided that yesterday would be a good day to go play in the snow. Padyn has been bugging me to go since Christmas. (I think she was jealous that many of her classmates spent time over winter break in the mountains.) I try to avoid all things crowded on the weekends, but since most people would be home eating chicken wings and onion dip, I figured this particular Sunday wouldn't be to crowded, and therefore tolerable.

Off to a SNO-PARK we went. We've never done a sno-park before...it's a CA state park that is just what it sounds like. A place to play in the snow. It's SO MUCH CHEAPER than skiing or paying to go to one of the resort's "playlands." Even if it totally sucked, we'd only be out $5, so who cared?

The fun started in the parking lot. Kate was fascinated with the snow bank. She kept stomping on the fallen snowballs and digging out the side of the bank. She would have stayed there all afternoon if we let her. But the rest of us wanted to see more of the park, so we made her come with us.Oh, where they excited when they saw that snow was EVERYWHERE. Daddy went off to find a good place to sled, so we practiced making and throwing snowballs. I think she had just hit something with a snowball...Kate wasn't so into the sledding. This is about as far as she went..."sledding" on her bottom down a 5 degree, 5 yard "slope"... and being pulled up the mountain (and back to the parking lot). We spent a bit of time wandering around the mountain looking for a good place to sled. We finally found one...Padyn and Daddy spent the rest of the day coming down this little hill. Padyn had a blast. This was by far, her favorite day ever (well, in 2009 anyway).Kate, on the other hand, spent her time hanging out in the snow. We built a baby snowman, she tried to make snow angels, and she pulled her water bottle around in the sled. She particularly enjoying throwing little bits of snow around.

Eventually, Padyn did the unthinkable...she wanted to go down the hill by herself on the saucer. Daddy was happy to oblige seeing as how his neck was getting quite sore from all the bouncing around. You should have seen her flying down that hill. The photos can't capture the sheer joy she was experiencing.


Padyn's first question when we got up this morning? When can we go back...

Sunday, February 01, 2009

Snow Day

This picture pretty much captures the day.