A Cute Little Weekend!

So, after the whole Library U-Turn on Friday, Ginger came home and went to bed. She slept and slept and slept. She didn't have a fever, she was just so tired.

On Saturday, she was back to her old self - so a trip to the Library was in the cards. The girls were so excited!




The computers were the big hit - they always are! The girls also made it into the stacks and checked out about two dozen books. Paprika even checked out The Hobbit! Haha.





Now I just have to keep track of ALL those books so we can return them.  ;-)




The weather was gorgeous on Sunday - perfect for a little beach trip...







Baby Violet likes to wave to EVERYONE now.  She waves hello and goodbye to everyone, and to no one in particular.

Hi!  Howya Doin'? 





She is a friendly baby! Haha.



Me and my little social butterfly:





Paprika had to run straight into the waves, first thing.  She is a little mermaid in the water and daily asks me for a boogie board or a surfboard.  I told her she can start surfing when she's 10.  She told me that she'll be counting the days.  I think she may end up being a little surfer girl.




Mr. M trying to take a snooze in the sun.  Easier said than done with Miss Violet around:




The only way we could get the girls to leave the beach was to promise them a trip to In 'N Out burger. ;-) Ginger's favorite thing at In 'N Out? A glass of ice water. Haha. But Paprika loves their chocolate shakes, and I don't think we could get her to leave the beach for anything less. :-)


Now Paprika is back to school (it's Wednesday already!) - and I am dreaming once again of homeschooling her. How many days until Spring Break???

The End.

A Little Sprinkle of Fairy Dust...

Do you ever have those days when you really try so hard to be a good mom and yet the cards just seemed stacked against you? Haha. Well, yes, today has been one of those days. And if I didn't know to laugh about it I just might cry.

I had decided today to take the girls to the Library for the day - they have been begging to go, and nothing makes you feel like a better mom than taking your kids to the library. Even though I knew Violet would try to climb the shelves and we might get kicked out for it (like we did with Ginger just two years ago!) - but anway, it would be fun while it lasted.

I made the Herculean effort to get all three girls ready: breakfast, potty, diaper changed, dressed, hair combed, teeth brushed, shoes located, snack!

Then it was my turn to get myself dressed. Getting myself ready now takes between three and five minutes. Five minutes tops. It's a quick change into my current "uniform" (sweater dress and leggings), a fast ponytail, and a face washing (no makeup). It is what it is - a season of life, and someday I'll spend an hour again getting dressed, but today was not that day.

Anyhoo- I closed the door to my bedroom to keep everyone OUT so I could get ready fast, and when I emerged four (maybe five) minutes later - I saw this:




Well, huh...that was FULL five minutes ago.   ;-)

So, it turns out that little Miss Violet got very mad when I closed the door and Paprika desperately wanted to keep her from crying. So, to keep Violet entertained, the girls had a very happy time sprinkling the rest of the house with "fairy dust" (salt) - all over EVERYTHING.

The floors, the beds, the couches...you name it.

Which wouldn't be so bad except my vacuum cleaner is a little cantankerous (it works sorta kinda, if you turn it just right).

Undaunted, I left the salt for later and forged ahead -  determined to get to the freaking library before Violet needed her nap. We got in the car and I noticed Ginger was acting a little puny. She is always SO energetic and yet she could barely keep her eyes open. I asked her if she wanted water, but she said in the most pathetic voice: No, just a chocolate shake from McDonald's, please.

Well, she's only had a shake once before from McDonald's - and she loved it. Ever since then I've told her that they ran out of ingredients and don't make them anymore. But today she looked so pathetic, I thought...Okay. Let's perk her up a bit.

We make it through the drive-thru and now I have bought three shakes because we're at that stage now where we have to buy everything in triplicate. I pull over and give Ginger her shake - but she won't touch it. She says, "Can we just go home so I can go back to bed?"




So, we made a big U-Turn in the van...and we never got to the Library at all.  I put Ginger to bed, and put Paprika and Violet in the backyard to play while I "de-salted" the house. 

I am sure we will be stepping in salt for the next five years...but I guess there are worse things than a little sprinkling of fairy dust.  ;-)


Happy Weekend!

I'll Feel Better Someday!

For the past week, we've all been fighting being sick...and we've all been in denial about it.  Ha!  On Christmas Day, we stayed indoors the whole day and so by the next day, we were itching to get out and breathe in some fresh air.

Everyone seemed to be feeling fine-ish, so we had a little family trip to the beach.  Ginger has been asking to make sand castles for weeks, so who am I to stand in the way of a girl and her dream?



We got to the beach and it was so windy and cold!  We were the only people at the beach - I didn't even have to photoshop anyone out of my beach pics to make it look desolate!  Haha.



The girls went back and forth between shivering and having a great time.  But after not too long, we decided the park would be better (less wind).  So, not only did the girls get to go to the beach, but they also got to visit the park (but that didn't last too long either because it was flooded!)  Then, Mr. M took the big girls to the library, while I took Baby Violet home for a much needed nap!



So, needless to say, the Day After Christmas was very busy and full of adventure.  Which would be great except that it probably was just a little too much...and by the next day everyone was super sick and continues to be a miserable hot mess. 

We should have been resting, but our zeal got the best of us and now we're spending the last few days of 2012 paying the price (a small price, but it's still miserable).





Even though Baby Violet is so congested she can barely breathe (and thus is sleeping in ten minute shifts) - she still manages to make us all laugh.  Nothing gets this girl down for long!  ;-)





The girls brought home a mountain of books from the library, so the past few days we've been having marathon reading sessions at home.  Ginger dresses herself now (can you tell?)  - I am so thankful she's wearing clothes, I can't say anything about whether or not they match.  And if you ask Ginger, they do match...which is all that counts!  Haha.





Paprika has been in bed reading all sorts of great books.  She checked out a stack of books about Frida Kahlo (her fourth favorite painter after Van Gogh, Picasso, and O'Keeffe).  I was kind of on the fence on whether or not Paprika was really sick or if she was just emulating Frida Kahlo (who spent a great deal of time sick in bed over the course of her life). 

So, I told Paprika that people who are sick are not allowed to have any chocolate (which is Paprika's #1 favorite food of all time, ever) but that if she was feeling good, I'd go get her some chocolate.

Paprika looked up at me with the saddest eyes  and said, "I'm really not well enough to have some chocolate now.  But if you wouldn't mind, could you save me a piece because I am sure I will feel better someday." 

:-)






The End.

Cool and Refreshing!

It was crazy hot here last weekend. Record breaking, in fact! We don't have air conditioning in our house, so by 10am on Saturday, it became clear that we all needed to go find somewhere air-conditioned before we all melted.

Our first stop was the park. Not air-conditioned, but close to the beach, shaded, and outdoors. :-) We just stumbled upon this park, and this weekend, we actually went twice - Saturday and an encore on Sunday!

It was nice and breezy, and fun!



In other news, I got food poisoning this past weekend, which made me feel a lot like I was on one of these swings, except without the fun. ;-) Thankfully, I am feeling better now!



Baby Violet had a great time just hanging out. She soooo wants to play with the big girls and do everything they do. I think it's a little frustrating for her. She will be walking before we know it and then boom...she'll be right there in the mix with them!



After the park, we had lunch at Rubio's - inside because it is air-conditioned! Then, I tried to think of the place that would be the coolest, with the least number of people, and preferably cost the least amount of money (free).

And, of course, you know where that is? The library! Nobody goes to the library on a Saturday...at least not around here!

So, we went to the library. It was refreshing and cool!



We actually visited the library about a week ago, and everything went great. I had been nervous about going because all the times in the past I've gone, I've gotten yelled at by the librarians. First, when Paprika was about a year to two years old, she pulled books off the shelves with wild abandon everytime we went. Then, when Ginger was 18 months to two years old, she climbed the bookshelves like a wild banshee.

But last week, it was so perfect, I could hardly believe it:



Even Violet had a good time:



The big girls were coloring and reading to themselves. It was like a dream:




Well, I got too comfortable with that, and this last weekend when we went, Violet had her own plans. All she wanted to do was crawl around and pull every dvd off the shelf! Then if we moved her to the baby toy play area, all she wanted to do was dump the toys on the floor, and then crawl off and rip the magazines from the bookshelves.



Then, while we were chasing Violet, the big girls plugged themselves into the library computers and just wanted to play Dora games! No reading books, no coloring! Just plugged in to the computer games, and Violet was destroying the library in the background. Ack!



So, I ended up taking Violet for a little walk by the beach while the big girls and Daddy chilled at the library.



I am so ready for Fall...for cool weather, pumpkin patches, and toasty drinks. Bring it on! ;-)

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Library Days!

One of our new favorite hangouts is the library! We used to go to the library all the time when Paprika was a baby...but that kind of stopped when she turned into a very active toddler (who just wanted to tear the books off the shelves!)

Now, she is at the perfect age to go back, and she's been begging to go...so we've been going! They have a bunch of great computer games that she loves. This one is a graphic design/drawing game...she could do it for hours!



When Mr. Mustard is home, sometimes Paprika and I get to sneak off for little "library dates" together while he stays home with Ginger during her naptime. I have to admit, it's about a gazillion times easier to just take Paprika to the library because now Ginger is at that stage where all she wants to do is climb the bookshelves.

I've taken Ginger a few times to the library, too...but she is much more inclined to look at books when we are at home. I guess the library is just too much fun to sit there and read! Ha!



Of course, everytime we go to the library, Paprika has to check out a gazillion books. She now has her very own library card - how grown up is that?! So, now we have stacks of new books to read at home! It's great! I just have to keep Ginger from destroying all these library books, which is already proving to be quite the challenge!