Glamorous

Today Miss Z had a play date with her cousin, little L. Not only are Z & L cousins, but also GREAT friends. It has been such a treat for us because L's family lives just minutes away. After they had tired of playing ponies, jumping on the trampoline & eating left over candy canes, they decided to get REALLY girly by putting on "makeup" & painting their nails. So, foreseeing a possible mess, I sent them into my bathroom to primp....as far from carpet & furniture as possible. As the baby was napping & little man L was off on his own play date, I enjoyed a few quiet minutes folding laundry & answering emails. I suddenly realized that the girls were quiet, TOO quiet. I decided to go investigate. I discovered two very glittery & glamorous little girls who had not only covered themselves in sparkles, but the bathroom too! Oh well, you're only 5 once right?

Lookin' good girlies!!

Super Shopper

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I am the queen of coupons, clearance & close-outs. In other words I LOVE a good deal. So imagine my delight today when I popped over to Target (one of my ALL TIME FAVORITE stores) for some drawer dividers & discovered that they had just marked down the overstock of toys from Christmas to 75% off! Wooohooo!

I scurried through the aisles, (as I had very little time before I needed to pick up L from preschool), elbowed my way through the crowds & stuffed 2 carts full of all kinds of toys. I think I got pretty much everything I will need for birthday parties this year as well as a few little goodies for my own kiddos. Eighteen items, all for under $100!!

Whew, it was fun! Those little red stickers make me simply giddy! I may just head back over there tomorrow for a more leisurely exploration of the playtime possibilities. ;)

To Market, To Market

Once a week, my kids & I head off for our weekly rendezvous to the local farmer's market, known to our family as simply "The Market" or affectionately as the "fruits & begetables store." I love it there. I love that I can get tons of fruits & veggies for my brood without breaking the bank and that we can try a wide variety of healthy options. It can also be fun naming the colors of things & discovering unknown treasures. That is the ideal of course. This can happen with one, maybe 2 kids in tow, but when you are talking about THREE....well then it basically turns into get in, get it done & GET OUT! Bribery is usually involved especially for Mr. L as he seems to have a hard time staying in the cart, not pulling down every neatly stacked pile of fruit he sees and keeping the noise to a reasonable decibel level.

What bliss for me today as I only had ONE child with me. Turns out Miss B has learned her brother's tricks & spent the entire time trying to climb the vegetable stands & doing amazing feats of aerobatics in order to wiggle her way out of the cart. It never fails, as I am scrambling down the aisles with one hand trying to keep the baby stationary & the other pushing the cart, that we see another young family perusing the produce. This one had a child, no older than Miss B, sitting sedately in his cart with an arm protectively clutching a cauliflower.

There was no climbing, no fussing, no screaming (happy, sad or otherwise!), no sampling, no throwing and certainly no destruction of displays! I eyed this calm mother, smiled & wondered how she did it....not one of my kids was EVER that calm when faced with such exciting opportunities for mischief.

My kids must just REALLY love produce. ;)

Back to School...Preschool that is...

Today was L's first day back to preschool. It's been awhile...he started back in September, BUT, well...lets just say that he wasn't QUITE ready. Ummm, something about teacher's in tears, inability to sit still, overzealous friendliness....now don't get me wrong, he is NOT NAUGHTY, just busy, busy, busy...I guess just a normal 3 (then 2) year old little boy. (Lucky for us he was attending his Aunt H's preschool & so we got special attention....I NEVER would have sent him that young if he hadn't been going with family.)

Huh, I guess there IS a reason preschools don't accept kids under 3. ;)

But just look at that face...how could HE give anyone a moment's trouble?!? hahahaha.....we know the truth!

Just seconds after I took the above picture, I said..."hey buddy, turn around so I can see your backpack...." This is what I got:

....NICE.....now THAT is the true spirit of my little man....endlessly silly, amazingly outgoing, such a smarty and quite the chatterbox.

BTW, he had a GREAT day. Looks like 4 months really does make a world of difference when you're 3. :)

Blond-haired, Blue-eyed Baby B

Before Rob & I had kids, we were sure they would be of the dark-haired, green-eyed variety. After all, that's what both of us looked like, what else could we possibly get?

Wellllllllllll...the mysteries of genetics threw us for a loop when our first child was born with dark hair & not green, but big BLUE eyes. Surely it must be some fluke!

When our son was born, he was a bit more what of what we had originally expected...dark hair and hazely green eyes.


But along came #3, Miss B, AND as if our kids couldn't possibly look any MORE different from each other...she surprises us again with not only blue eyes, but blond hair to boot!

What on earth could be next?!?

Ode to a Cloudy Day

When we woke up this morning and saw a grey sky thick with heavy clouds, I was delighted! Being a true Arizona native, I absolutely LOVE cloudy, rainy days. I suppose if I lived somewhere like Seattle, I would blog "ode to a sunny day," but not here in the Valley of the Sun where we have nearly 300 sunny days a year. We relish the rain.

Not only do I love cloudy days for their potential rain (which we sorely need here in the desert), but also for their beauty. I am seriously a cloud junkie. I always notice clouds, their shape, color and size....the way they spread across the sky and hover over the mountains. AND because I am also a photography fanatic, I love a cloudy day for the landscape photo potential and also for the perfect light it creates for portraits...soft & even...a giant light box in the sky.

Arizona has beautiful wide open skies and absolutely stunning sunsets and when you add a cloudy sky to that combination, it is nothing short of perfection.

When it comes to kids...EXPECT the UNexpected!

So I heard in a talk in church about 6 months ago that part of the way this certain family maintains unity is by taking monthly day trips to explore Arizona. Wow, I thought! How cool is that! AND since Arizona is an amazingly beautiful and interesting place...there are unending opportunities for exciting exploration. I rallied the troops...mainly my hubby...& we really got excited about this idea.

Today we thought we would begin. Since we were taking a day trip to visit family for a holiday party anyway, why not add a little cultural experience to our excursion?!? Just a quick stop of course, but worthwhile none the less!

And so the 7 of us (my sister & her husband joined in on the fun) set about exploring out first location...

Besh Ba Gowah Archaeological Park in Globe (say that 10x fast...sheesh!).

Well, the fun started when before we even entered the park when little Miss B decided to overflow her diaper & I mean REALLY overflow. Not to be put down, we just clean her up, scooped herinto daddy's jacket & set off.
Truly we did have a blast exploring the ancient Indian ruins, checking out the little museum and learning a little about the way the Indians had lived. We were pleasantly enjoying our outing, preparing to head out, when little man L starts the potty dance. Now he had JUST gone no more than 45 minutes previous so I thought he was exaggerating...ummmmm m no. That wasn't just a pee pee dance, that was the BIG poo poo dance! By the time I got to him it was, well, a bit too late, ok A LOT too late. Yep you guessed it folks, two pooped pants that day, all for the bargain price of admission to Besh Ba Gowah Park.

I hope this isn't an omen for our future Arizona adventures. We will persevere!
Gotta love the L man's post clean up dance. :)

C&J: I hope we didn't scare you away from having kids!