My Girl

So, the heat has passed. We had a few really hot days (really hot) and now it's back to normal.

I never did get any fans (it's on my to-do list for next summer). But, necessity is the mother of invention as they say, and so we played many games of "Ice Game!"


Ice Game basically involves playing with cubes of ice outdoors (exciting, right? haha). Eating ice. Seeing if you can tag the other person with ice. Putting ice cubes in the baby pool when someone is swimming inside (Ginger did that to Paprika). Just stuff like that. Hey, it was free and it cooled us off! Mission accomplished!



Ginger was fascinated by the ice and wanted to play with it, examine it, and then eventually eat it!



Ginger and I have been having our morning dates. For three hours/day, she gets to have as much of me as Paprika had all the time when she was Ginger's age (because Paprika was my first). I really cherish this time with Ginger, and I know she loves it, too.

Yesterday we went to the beach. She ran down to the ocean and wanted to get right in the middle of the sand.



I was yelling at her, "Hey, come back!"



But she didn't really listen. She wanted to be IN the sand...and I can't blame her!



She gives me so much joy, I can't even describe it. We have been going through some pretty heavy times lately. My grandpa is in the hospital right now and I am so very worried about him and I love him so much. My step-dad is going through some major health issues that have me scared silly. It seems like every time I turn around, the hits keep on coming with no end in sight.

I am so grateful for this little bundle of love. On this day, the song that kept going through my head was,

I've got Sunshine on a cloudy day
When it's cold outside,
I've got the month of May...



And whenever I need a reminder of what's really important in life, she finds a way to show me.



My girl.

The Hottest Day Ever!

Today was the hottest day ever in Los Angeles. No, really! It was 113 degrees today, which is the hottest day ever recorded in LA history, since they started keeping track of the temperature back in 1877. It was so hot that the official thermometer broke when it got to 113...so it might have been even hotter than that!



I suppose that it could have been hotter back before 1877...there's just no one still around to tell us about it.



I was feeling a little bit like I was back in 1877 today because all we had was one teeny tiny little desk fan blowing a whole lot of nothin' besides hot air around our house.


It ended up being hotter inside our house than outside. Once the orange tree in our yard started giving off some good shade, I got the baby pool open for business and let them have fun.

And oh, how they did have fun.





It was instant relief.



So, even on the hottest day ever, we still managed to have a lot of fun and make a few memories, too!

It's Getting Hot In Here...

It's hot here. So freaking hot. All anyone around here can talk about right now is how hot it is. In Pasadena today, it was 113 degrees.

That makes me soooo glad we moved by the beach! Haha!

We are home right now while Ginger is taking her nap. It's probably 100 degrees inside our house. We have ONE fan. Just one. It's in Ginger's room so she can stay cool while she naps.

We have no air-conditioning (or heat) in our house. Never thought we'd need it.

But yea. We do. Right now.

Or at least a fan. But I am guessing that all the fans in LA are sold-out.

I am considering over-nighting a few fans from Amazon. But then...the heat wave will have passed, right? Isn't that how it works?

Party Time!

(This photo is of Paprika from a few days ago...I didn't take any photos today- read on!)

Today we went up to a fabulous first birthday party for Devon's one year old baby girl!

It was a beautiful party - great food, great people...you know, the works! Mr. Mustard was working, so I took the girls up by myself. It was about a gazillion degrees outside...and we got stuck in major traffic on the way up. And I spent the whole party chasing after Ginger and didn't really get to talk to anyone.

But other than that, it was great! Hahaha!

No really, the best part was just being there with Devon's friends and family and celebrating a miracle girl. If you knew everything Devon went through with her sweet baby P, it's just amazing to see her sweet babe a year later: chubby, healthy, and thriving. She is dear to my heart, and I was so excited to get to celebrate such a huge milestone with Devon and her family!

But...I was sooooo busy watching the girls, I did not take a single photo. Not one. :-( Hopefully Devon will post some pictures on her blog soon, so I can snag them for my memories! :-)

A New Dance!

Paprika started at a new dance school today. It's the place where one of her best friends goes for ballet, and since they aren't in the same Pre-K class this year, I thought it would be fun for them to have class together.



Paprika was sooooo excited to wear her new purple leotard, and her crown. She made sure to tell everyone at the dance studio, "Purple is my favorite color."

I don't think they would have guessed that! Haha! ;-)

Before the class started, the teacher asked me if this was Paprika's first time taking dance, and I had to laugh. Um...no. This is actually her FOURTH dance studio! The first was with Ms. Gulch, the second was after we moved, the third was a free trial at another studio, and now this studio.



When we got home, Paprika said she was "sooooooo thirsty from all of her dancing and please, please, may I drink fresh cold ice water out of a fancy glass." I let her pick out her glass, and this is the glass she picked.



What can I say, dancing is hard work!

When The Cat's Away...

You know that saying, "When the cat's away, the mice will play" - well, that is what's going on with Ginger while Paprika is at Pre-K.

The first thing Ginger wanted to do yesterday while Paprika was at Pre-K was get in her bed and start thumbing through her books:



She was so excited to get Paprika's favorite doll all to herself:



Ahh, that feels good!



I had this idea that I would dress Ginger up in this one blue outfit that Paprika wore at her age. Remember these pics of Paprika from back in the day?



Ahhhhh, Memories!



So, I took Ginger into her room to get her changed out of her jammies and into that cute blue outfit, and she was not having it. She kept saying, "No, no, no, no!" She was mad. I said, "What do you want to wear?" And she said, "That!" and pointed to this one dress in her closet. I was testing her, so I got the dress right next to the one she pointed to out, and she said, "No mama!!!! Dat!!!!" and pointed to the same white dress again.



I put it on her and next thing you know, she is in her dresser drawers picking out a shirt to put on over it. A few minutes later, she went into the living room and picked out shoes to wear. She went through all her shoes till she found two that matched, and then she started trying to put them on.

I am not joking.

This girl is 15 months old. Not 15 years old! What in the world?!



Then it was time for piano. Of course!



And after that she went out and got her driver's license and drove me over to get Paprika at school. Just kidding. Ha!

My Ebay Mania

***My Little Disclaimer: These pictures really have nothing to do with this post. They're just pictures I took of us hanging out at home...so I thought I'd put them up. Paprika found her hat in a box we were cleaning out - she hasn't worn it since she was 2 years old...and Ginger's outfit was passed down to us from a friend- I love it and have been waiting for her to be big enough to wear it, and now it's almost too small!

There, I said it! Phew, I feel better!


**********

I don't know what it is about the change into Fall, but it always makes me want to get super organized. It all started last week when Mr. Mustard decided to list a few things on Ebay. Then I started thinking about all the things I wanted to list on Ebay...which had me digging through boxes, through the closets, and into every hidden corner of our house.



On top of that, I found a Stokke Tripp Trapp highchair on Craigslist for a steal. It's basically a chair that Ginger can have from now and then it will grow with her into adulthood. Paprika has had one since she was 6 months old, and she still uses it and loves it! You can actually kinda see Ginger's new chair in the above picture - it's at the table behind Paprika.



Anyway, so I found the new highchair on Craigslist for a fraction of the price new...and it was great except the harness was broken. Well, we have a harness from Paprika's chair, which I figured I could just swap into Ginger's chair. Of course, I had to find it first, and it was buried in a box...oh, I don't know...somewhere...that we haven't opened since we moved.



So, I spent the better part of two days going through boxes searching for this harness, and in the process organized a bunch of boxes, and found lots of stuff to list on Ebay.



I have to be careful with Ebay. It's a little bit of an obsession of mine, and as soon as I start listing things, then I start looking at things to buy, too! It's kind of like Target with returns- I find that whenever I go to Target to return something, I always walk out of the store with more than I just brought back! It's tricky like that!



Mr. Mustard has been working his "typical" hours- which means a whole heck of a lot. So, I've been home taking care of the girls on my own, and I have to say, they have been really helpful with organizing and taking Ebay pictures with me. I am also having them do crafts on the side while I list things.



So, I guess that's what we've been up to! Just hanging out, posting a lot of stuff on Ebay, clearing out the closets (and discovering some old favorite toys in the process), and just being together.

I have a feeling we'll have a huge trip to the post office in our future next week when all of my Ebay items sell. Phew!

I am so excited that the DWTS Results Show is about half an hour from starting- that means that Mr. Mustard will be done with work soon, and we'll be ready to start our "weekend" together! Yay!!! We all miss him so much! And, for the record, I LOVED last night's show and am so proud of Mr. Mustard and everyone who works on the show!

Autumn Changes!

This past week it has really started to feel like Fall. Paprika cannot stop talking about Halloween. Our neighborhood does a big thing for Halloween- every one really goes all out decorating their houses, there is a huge block party, and over a thousand kids come to trick or treat. Seriously.

Many of our neighbors have already decorated their houses. One of our neighbors usually starts decorating his house in June. Yes, June. This year, he waited til Labor Day! He has a storage unit devoted to his Halloween decorations. Now, that's dedication!

All the decorating going on the neighborhood has Paprika really excited about Halloween. All she can talk about is Halloween, trick-or-treating, and costumes. Every day, she says, "Is it Halloween yet? Can we go trick-or-treating tonight?" We've still got six weeks to go!

She's been practicing trick-or-treating in the backyard with the flowers:



And we've been doing Halloween-themed crafts during Ginger's naptime:



I've got to think of more Halloween crafts for us to do. I hadn't anticipated we'd start this early!



We let the last of the butterflies go last night. The girls had so much fun setting them free. We have seen quite a few butterflies flying around our yard this past week, so I think they are sticking around. It makes me smile!



We were able to let all of the butterflies go except for one. She has a broken wing, and so we're keeping her in our little net and feeding her. Even though she can't fly, she seems pretty happy in there.



In between crafting, chasing butterflies, and playing in the backyard, we've been meeting up for playdates with friends. Yesterday we went to the park with some of Paprika's friends.



Ginger loved the park as much as Paprika, and was having the time of her life! She rode down the slide by herself, had a great time in the swings, played in the sand, and last but not least...got pushed on the train by Paprika!



Today was Paprika's first morning at Pre-K. She did GREAT! Today is a big day for us all. DWTS premiers tonight. I am so excited to see all the work Mr. Mustard has put into the show. I am so proud of him, and I am really looking forward to seeing the show! :-)