Felt Food

I've been obsessed with felt food of late. For Christmas the kiddos are going to get a play kitchen from Santa. Shhhh! Don't tell!

Mom and Dad are giving them the felt food and probably some metal pots and pans. Again, it's for Christmas so Shhh!!!

Why don't I just buy them a set of plastic food, you ask? Have you ever stopped to think about how many of your children's toys are plastic? I did, and I was sickened. How boring and uninteresting. 

Probably you are all better parents than I and your children have lots of imaginative play toys. My kids do not.  I want my kids to experience texture and expand their imaginations. Also, have you noticed most plastic toys DO something?

I hate that.

Isn't the point of play for the children to do something? 

Imagine! Create! 

Get messy! Make Mistakes! (I love Ms. Frizzle)

So I'm making felt food. Because it's expensive to buy and because it's fun to make and because I'm just weird that way. 

Anyway, the point of this was to explain why I've been such a bad blogger recently. I'm busy doing something else that's MUCH more entertaining...for now. :) 

When I've actually made something worth taking a picture of, I will. And of course I'll post it. Because that's the kind of gal I am.

It's a First!

I attended my first birth yesterday. Well, the first one in which I wasn't the starring player.
It was FABULOUS! I want to do it again and again and again.
I got to rub acupressure points to stimulate contractions, and later, pressure points to alleviate pain.
We used guided imagery to visualize the birth and WOW it was so cool.
The momma was a superstar. Baby was beautiful.
Everyone was happy.
Sigh of happy contentment.

When Is a Preschooler Like A Superhero?

When he has a cape!

The Boy is SUPER into super heroes. The Hubs has even given him his own super hero name: Repetitive Man Repetitive Man (there may be more on this later).
Since I'm between semesters and casting about for something to do, I decided to make a couple of double-sided capes for the kids.

The Super Side of Life

(Note: my baby does actually have two legs, even though that doesn't appear to be the case in this picture)

Since these pictures were taken during what should have been The Baby's nap time, cooperation wasn't high on her list of priorities. You'll have to take my word for it that the jeweled crown on the back of this cape is spectacular.

Here's a picture to give you an idea of what the front of the cape looks like. It's a Velcro closure.
In the interest of full disclosure, I did not come up with this idea out of thin air, I saw it on http://pukingpastilles.com/?p=57, but I made my own pattern. Truthfully, her pattern is better. This was my first attempt at pattern making.

Who thinks it's time for another Blog Giveaway? 

I DO!!!!

Here's the plan, leave a comment for one entry. Invite someone to join my blog for two entries, and leave a comment about it. Contest ends August 25th. Winner gets a cape, either the pink/purple or the red/black.
Ready, set COMMENT!

I Am Going to Hell

If the environmental wackos are, for some mysterious reason, actually right; then I am going to Hell for the following reasons:

1. I NEVER, and I do mean never, remember to bring my resuable shopping bags to the store. Even if I keep them in the trunk of my car, they never never never make it into the store. I feel pretty awesome to remember to bring in both kids and a debit card.

2. Which reminds me, I drive 1/4 mile to the grocery store. I could walk, yes. But then I would buy less.

3. When I pack snacks for my kids, I pack them in plastic baggies. Yes, the kind you throw away. This is a near daily-event. Oh, and their juice boxes come individually packaged.

4. My children wear disposable diapers. My 3.5 year-old is STILL in pull-ups at night. I had every intention of ordering cloth diapers (both times) really I did. Something about figuring out a brand new baby made the environmental impact of disposable diapers fade to nothingness with remarkable speed.

5. I buy feminine products with plastic applicators. Told you, I'm SO going to H-E-double-hockey-sticks. Something tells me I'll be in good company.

More Trip Stuff

So the whole point of this trip was to celebrate The Hubs oldest niece getting hitched. I have exactly zero pictures of that. Oops. It was beautiful, but you're just going to have to take my word for it. I was busy.

Other Random facts from the trip:
1. Drove 2,170 miles
2. Listened to 1.5 audio books
3. Passed out 3 chew-able Dramamines (love that stuff)
4. Stopped at one Vegas Buffet (and swore never to do it again)
5. Ate out twice
6. Saw five of my friends and three of The Boy's friends
7. Attended one movie
8. Took one (yes, just one) nap
9. Visited my midwife AND my acupuncturist (on the same day)
10. Got my Hair done by one super awesome Jill (thanks honey, it looks FANTASTIC. When I'm rich, I'll hire you full time to make me pretty every day.)
11. Asked The Hubs if we could stay longer 14 thousand times, and that's how many times he said no.

On the way home we stopped at

to teach The Boy about hydro-electric power and water conservation. 

Just kidding.

We stopped because The Parental Units needed to use the facilities and a break from driving with small children. $22.00 and a metal detector later, we were allowed in. The Baby thought it was great game to dive under the ropes guiding the lines and take off in random directions through crowds of people. Lots of people were laughing, and I admit, I was among them. She was just so HAPPY, it was hard to be mad at her. 

The Hubs and The Boy, standing over one of the diversion tunnels several (hundred?) feet below ground.

Yeah, don't think about it. 

The Hubs and The Baby standing above the generator room on the Nevada side.

THE TRIP

Where to start. Ah yes. The Parental Units Joint Decision to travel from Idaho to Arizona in a single day...with two small children.


In a word: insane.
We didn't leave Idaho until mid-morning. Arrived in Las Vegas about dinner time, and the in-laws house at 2am the next day. 17 hours after departure. Can you really call it "driving there in one day" if the trip actually spans TWO days?

Anyway, on to pictures!

The Boy, "helping" with irrigation

The Baby, trying on Mom's running shoes

The Boy LOVES Grandma's house. What's not to love? There are cows to feed (moo), a ditch with tad poles, cousins at all hours of the day, a riding lawn mower, a barn to play in, and quads. He was in Heaven.

The Baby just loves being with Mom.

The Hubs mostly worked, and I did WAY too much, like usual.

The kids and I went out to lunch, rode a carousel,

and watched a movie (How to Train Your Dragon) with The Boy's friend, E.

For a frame of reference, E is only 3 weeks older than The Boy. Yeah.

We found out first hand why you should always put the sun shade up in the car, even when parking away from the sun. The car seats, including mine, were literally too hot to sit in until the A/C had been going a good 10 minutes AND I had spread out the clothes we'd just bought to go between seats and bottoms. It was OK, because in the mean time The Boy had to water my tires. Don't judge, it was an emergency. I simply couldn't handle walking BACK across the mall parking lot in the mid afternoon with two cranky kids. Did I mention it was 115 degrees? See? Emergency. Heaven help The Baby. I have no idea what I'll do when she has potty emergencies. (thanks for the idea, S. Truly, life saving)

Is that ALL you ask? Oh no. There is more. Much more. Stay tuned!

Neglected

The poor, poor blog has been neglected of late. Stinking finals! I did get an A in Sociology and an A (minus) in Anatomy and Physiology, which was a miracle. A HUGE thanks to my momma and sisters for watching my kiddos all day every day so I could cram 16 weeks of learn'n into 8 weeks.Ask me ANYTHING about your skin, bones or muscles. I know it all! (not really, but it's fun to say)
Right after finals The Hubs and I packed up the car and headed west (actually it was south east, but that doesn't sound as dramatic) for a The Hubs-side-o-the-family-wedding. A week in August spent in The Valley of the Sun reminded me why I wanted to go to Idaho for the summer, AND reminded me how cool all my AZ friends are. A week was not nearly long enough to do all my catching up and visiting.

Stay tuned for trip details AND pictures, coming tomorrow.

Must Join To Comment

So I've been getting tons and tons of Asian spam. I hate spam, both electronic and canned.
I don't want to make the blog totally private, but I have changed the settings. You must join my blog to comment.
If that doesn't work, I'll turn off comments. I hate that plan, since I LOVE commenting...sometimes. At least, I love getting comments.
So for now that means 6 of you can leave comments. What a select group!