My Little Helper

Ginger has become my right-hand helper. Whether it's juicing oranges (like in this picture), or putting in the laundry, or picking up toys, or handing me my keys...she's always right there by my side and so excited to help! I don't know how she became such a helper, but I am loving it!

Dancing In The Dark!

Paprika and Ginger have been staying up so late lately. It has a little something to do with Mr. Mustard's crazy hours on The Amazing Race, and a little something to do with me being really relaxed with them at night. Paprika likes to take 90 minute baths, and then take a shower afterwards, and then read 7 stories before bedtime, and then have a snack. And since I'm a night owl, too, I just go with it.



Since we are staying up into the wee hours, we have to find things to do after it gets dark. One of the favorite things to do is play "Dancing In The Dark," which is a game Paprika made up. (And no, she's never heard of Bruce Springsteen!)



Basically, it involves turning off all the lights in the living room and dancing until you just can't dance anymore. Ginger, of course, is a good sport about it all. But after awhile, she loses steam and becomes an audience member. ;-)



But Paprika? She can dance until dawn...well, not literally, but she probably would if I'd let her!

I Heart Faces - Smile!

This week I'm participating in the I Heart Faces photo challenge, which is all about smiles. Don't you just look at her and wonder, what is she thinking? I love this smile! :-)

First Week of 2011!

In this first week of 2011, we have been busy. I feel a bit like a cliche, really, because we seem to be doing the same things that everybody else is doing. Cleaning out our closets. Getting rid of things that need to go. Eliminating clutter. Packing up the holiday things.

Oh yes, and doing our double bathroom remodels that seem to go on forever and ever and ever. Pictures soon, I promise!

In the in-between times, we are enjoying time spent together. We have a very prolific orange tree in our backyard, and it has allowed us to make fresh squeezed orange juice by the pint. We are getting spoiled!



Ginger wants to help pick the oranges. I think she's a little too young to be climbing up ladders, though!



Paprika went back to Pre-K yesterday (she goes 3 days/week). She was so excited to be back amongst all her school friends. It's great that she's in the afternoon class because it means she gets to hang out in her jammies all morning.



Mr. Mustard finished up working with Paula Abdul and is now on The Amazing Race. His hours on the Race are really weird, so that's an adjustment. But it's actually a schedule that I love and that fits our family pretty well. No complaints here.



We have been hanging out around the house, and even watching some movies together. Paprika discovered Toy Story this week, and that's all she wants to talk about now.



I rented her Toy Story 2 from Netflix and she watched it for the first time tonight. Now all she can talk about is "Jaxie" (Jessie). I surprised her by picking up the dolls from the movie at Target today, so now she loves acting out the whole story. It's really fun.




Ginger has been so much fun lately (she's always fun, but the bigger she gets, the more fun she gets, too!)

Tonight while we were eating dinner, she really wanted the hummus container. So, I let her have it. I know Mr. Mustard would not approve, but I just had to indulge her!



She had the best time playing with her food, and made such a mess. Afterwards, she had a nice, long, warm bath and was back to her old self!



I mean, how fun is it to be 18 months and pour hummus on your head? Whoever said that youth is wasted on the young never met this girl! Ha!

1/1/11!

On this first day of 2011, we had a relaxing day at home. Mr. Mustard had to work part of the day on New Year's Eve, but was home in time for us all to go out to dinner for his birthday and ring in the New Year with us, too!

We went to Islands for dinner on New Year's Eve (it's one of the few places Paprika likes to eat). My sandwich was disgusting, so I told the waiter I couldn't eat it. It was soaked with so much teriyaki sauce the bread disolved in my hands. Well, then the manager came over and she told me that if I didn't want to have a soggy bread sandwich that I needed to order my sauce on the side.



Of course! Why didn't I think of that? If Paprika had more places she would actually eat, I would say we'd never be going back to Islands again. But the sad thing is, we probably will go back there...and yea, I probably will order my sauce on the side next time.



Well, the whole Islands thing ended up being a little bit of a disaster anyway because Ginger didn't get a great nap in and really wanted to go home and sleep. What can you do? I guess these are the times when we remember why we either get a babysitter or order in when we want to have dinner and conversation all at the same time.



Then we came home, put the girls to bed, and watched movies together. We saw The Sting, and it made me remember how great Paul Newman and Robert Redford were in movies together. There's really no one quite like Paul Newman, is there? He was a true great.



Then, today it was a low-key day around the casa. We had a picnic in our backyard and watched the girls play the day away. We are starting back up on our bathroom remodel, and so that was the other excitement of today. Ha! I am hopeful we will finish it tomorrow and then I can cross that off my list of things to do in 2011! ;-)