Highlights from Disneyland

Riding the boat on the Storybook Canal in Fantasyland.

Pluto, the 'reindog':


French Quarter decorations:

Goofy 'goofin' around at Goofy's kitchen at the Disneyland hotel.



Watching the Holiday parade:

(on a side note...the woman you see next to Olivia took Claire's spot. She sat right behind her with her legs around Claire...she freaked Claire out. Then when we sat Olivia down next to her, she tried to put her arm around Olivia and being like a 'mother bear' protecting her 'cub', I told the woman 'no' and I moved her arm, saying "that's my child". It really got my adrenalin going...)

Here comes Santa Claus...

Here comes Santa Claus, right down Santa Claus lane....

Thanksgiving weekend

We spent Thanksgiving with my hubby's extended family in northern California. We had such a great time and everyone was a great host. The girls especially loved being entertained by their bigger girl cousins.


We went to my hubby's cousin's house for Thanksgiving. We had turkey, ham and all the trimmings. I brought a 7-up cake, it was easy to make and easy to travel with. Here are the girls playing a 'vintage' Hi-Ho-Cherry-O game with one of their cousins.

That night we all stayed at one of my hubby's cousin's house. She has 2 girls, one is a teenager and one is 11. Olivia and Claire loved wearing them out...ha! The next morning, J (hubby's cousin) and I went shopping at 4:15 in the morning. It was the first time I ever did 'Black Friday'. I was bleary eyed, but it was fun. We stood in a long line around the corner of the Circuit City hoping I would get some deals. As I approached the store, I noticed people breaking down tents...wow, there are some dedicated shoppers out there!

It was such a mad house in there and it seemed as if the employees didn't realize it was a special shopping day. They were not prepared for the crowds at all. I bought a couple of things, I tried to look at dvds but the customers were flinging them around the bins so it was hard to see if there were any movies I wanted. There was a huge checkout line snaking around the store, but somehow we managed to line up in a line in the automotive section and we didn't have to wait long.

Next, we hit the mall. I looked at Macy's and was hoping to find a good selection of dresses on sale for Olivia...I found 1 dress. After Macy's, we went to the Disney store which was having great bargains. I almost didn't want to go, but I'm glad we did. I got some great stocking stuffers for the girls.

Later Friday, we drove over to my husband's aunt's farm to visit with his aunt and another cousin. The girls always love going to the farm. They like to feed the fish in the ponds and chase the cats.

Here they are at the farm:




Here is Claire goofing around in my shoes at another relative's house, my hubby's other aunt and uncle.
It was a great weekend!

Slacker

Go ahead and say it....yes, I am a slacker. It's been a while since I posted. I keep thinking about it, really I do. I even have pictures ready to post from T-Day. It will have to wait a bit longer...tomorrow we are going to......

DISNEYLAND!!!!!

Do you know anything about Ghana?

If so, please inform me! No, we aren't planning a trip there...anytime soon, anyway.

My hubby's employer brought in 2 young guys from Ghana to help train them for 2 months. They are staying at an extended stay type hotel within walking distance from our house. We will be seeing a lot of them and hopefully we can show them how kind Americans are. Someone is have them over for Thanksgiving (we will be out of town) and I think they will be coming to our house for Christmas.

I've been researching a little bit what they eat so I can make something at Christmas time they will like. We are also trying to think of what to get them for presents, they will have to participate in the present opening, of course!

They are Christian (Methodist and Pentecost) as the majority of the Ghana population are Christian. They are interested in going to church so we will probably be taking them to church with us sometime.

Our neighbors moved!

You might recall our neighbors in the Big House. Well, they finally sold their house and moved out! It's the big house behind Claire. BTW, don't you love that 80's off the shoulder look?!

I'm anxious to see who moves in. I hope it's a nice family either with young kids or with great babysitters!

Proof that I do live in California...

I stole this from Alex. Interesting, but you still can't take a 'y'all' out of a Texan. People are surprised that I grew up in Texas (until they hear the 'y'all'), but I think I don't have much of an accent since I've lived in so many different places.

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The West Your accent is the lowest common denominator of American speech. Unless you're a SoCal surfer, no one thinks you have an accent. And really, you may not even be from the West at all, you could easily be from Florida or one of those big Southern cities like Dallas or Atlanta.
The Midland
Boston
North Central
The South
The Inland North
Philadelphia
The Northeast
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

I'm the Wicked unstepMother

I put the girls to work cleaning the floors! They always clamor to help when I'm cleaning so I give them some wet rags and they get to work wiping the floors. It's actually really helpful...until Claire starts wiping our furniture with it.

Getting ready for school.

I love these funky tights I got at Target for Olivia. Thankgoodness she had something to go with them!

Some fun pictures from this weekend

Just goofin' around!



They sure look like they love each other in this picture. I hope they will always be close.

My version of sushi (California rolls)

I've made them with crab before too. The green tube is Wasabi.

Our Sleeping Beauty

That's Olivia's 'blankie' wrapped around her head!

What Claire and I do Wednesday mornings

Claire loves going to My Gym!

It was so close...

It's just too bad the voters didn't pick the more qualified candidate.

Texas House District 106
Candidate Votes Percent Winner
Katy Hubener (D) 10,221 48%
Kirk England (R) 10,452 49%
Gene Freeman (L) 591 3%
Precincts Reporting - 35 out of 35 - 100%

Claire's stats

Today was Claire's 2 year well visit. All went well. At the end, she got a poke from the nurse (to check her hemoglobin). She said in a surprised voice, "oh" when she got poked and that was it. Olivia would have been wailing...she is so dramatic!

Her doctor gave us a prescription for vitamins with flouride. And said she looked great. I mentioned we were potty training and that we've had issues with biting, pulling, etc, with her sister. The doctor assured me she would grow out of that and the girls would become very close and gang up on me when they are teenagers!

She weighed in at 31 lbs (95%) and measured up at 35 inches (75%). She is a big girl! Olivia has always been at the 25% for weight and 50-75% for height. Just to give you an idea, Olivia currently weighs 33 lbs and is 40 inches tall. I guess I shouldn't be all that surprised when people ask if they are twins?? They might start fighting over clothes sooner than I expected!

Keeping an eye on Texas Politics

I want to give a shout out for my good friend, Katy Hubener, who is a Democrat running for House District 106. I wish her the best of luck, I hope she wins. In a world of unscrupulous behavior, she is a rarity, she is an individual you can trust to tell the truth and to get the job done.

She is very passionate about education and air quality issues. She has been striving to improve air quality in Southwest Dallas County for many years. After having 2 children and now living in an area of the country with the poorest air quality, I see why she has always been so passionate. Good Luck, Katy!!

Firefighter for a day

When we went to Florida, we visited a place called Wannado City. It's a small indoor city built just for kids. It was really cool. Kids can do jobs and earn Wanga bucks which they can in turn use for other activities. Olivia 'worked' as a firefighter, baby nurse, and dental assistant. When she was a firefighter, she got to ride the replica fire truck and go fight a pretend fire in another part of the city.

It's too bad I can't call in sick at work...

I was so sick this past week, it took all my energy just to get the girls ready, get Olivia to and from school and I would lie in bed while Claire watched videos. So bad, I know. I finally called an advice nurse Thursday night who said I should go to the doctor...apparently it wasn't just a sore throat I was having.

So I called my doctor's office and they didn't have any openings on Friday but said I could come as a walk-in and they would try and fit me in. So I began to wonder what I should do. I could go to urgent care and spend about 3 hours or so waiting to get treated without the kids or I could go to my doctor's at 8:30 in the morning with my kids....and who knows how long they would last. Mind you, at this point, I was so fatigued, I was mostly lying curled up on the couch or bed. All evening I was bemoaning the fact that I would have to take the 2 kids with me and I didn't know how I was going to manage all that.

Thankfully, when Friday morning came around, my hubby let me 'call in sick' so I could go to the doctor. Also in my favor is the fact that my doctor and his wife (a P.A.) live just a few doors down from us and have a child the same age as Claire...so they like me :). They fit me in their schedule just fine, I got a shot of antibiotics, a prescription for more antibiotics and gave blood. I'm starting to feel a lot better!

Trick or Treat!

Our house...a.k.a. the infirmary

Yes, we've had the germies in our house. First it was Claire with some nasty virus which had her fever spike several times, and with her throwing up medicine. Next the hubby and I started to feel run down. Then after Olivia got her flu shot she started a cough and started getting high fevers. 104-105 fevers, the ear thermometer even read 106 a couple of times. Poor thing was so sick and the high fevers made her so delirious she was seeing things...strangers, Cinderella and mice in her room. That is the first time that has ever happened. Well, the fever broke at last yesterday after about 5 days. And thankfully, no one had a seizure this time around.

Hubby and I are still fighting whatever it is that is going around. It doesn't help that we can't get any sleep because we are checking on Olivia or she is trying to come in our room in the middle of the night. Throw in the daylight savings time change and it has made for some early mornings in our house.

Pictures of a sick Claire (I didn't get any of Olivia):

We got Boo'ed

We got Boo'ed by a neighbor this week. This happened to us a few years ago in Texas. It's so much fun to pass it on. Whoever (next door neighbor) boo'ed us did a great job. They included chocolate, sidewalk chalk, coloring books and a videotape for the girls. Isn't that nice of them? So then I had to think of 2 neighbors to Boo. I decided to Boo our neighbors across the street with 2 girls and then our other neighbor in the 'Big House' 2 doors down from us. I thought it was the neighborly thing to do even though we are all scared of our neighbors in the 'Big House'. I waited till 11pm when no one was around to drop the packages off. I hope at least one of the neighbors continues the Boo.

Pictures from Claire's birthday

Claire's birthday

I thought having a quiet birthday at home would be no trouble, but it was more work than I thought! I wanted to make it special so I decorated our dining area, made a birthday cake and picked roses from our backyard for the table. I decided to go with a Dora theme since I already had some leftover party supplies from Olivia's 3rd birthday which was a Dora theme.

When their dad got home, we started making pizzas. The girls love to make pizzas. I buy the dough, sauce, cheese and pepperoni (for mom and dad) at Trader Joe's. Gotta love Trader Joe's! They love to roll out the dough (with a little help), spread the sauce and sprinkle...and eat..the cheese.

While the pizzas were cooking, I had them do an activity. It's an ice sculpture I saw from a television show. I froze water in a half gallon milk carton and had Olivia help me get it out and stand it up in a container. Then we filled 4 paper cups with colored water and had medicine droppers to use. Next, I filled a bowl with rock salt. So, I had them add rock salt to the top of the block of ice. Then they started dropping the colored water on top. It was really fun to watch the block of ice transform. The rock salt caused the ice to melt quickly and the colored water ran down the cracks. They loved it. It was a bit messy, I should have put art shirts on them, but the colors came right out of their clothes.

It was a great activity to keep them occupied while the pizzas were cooking. So then we had pizza for dinner with lemonade. After dinner, I brought out the cake I made and decorated. (Disclaimer: I do not claim to be a cake baker nor decorator and actually, I suck at it) I put a Dora and boots on top of the cake which were actually Olivia's toys...but I don't think Claire cared! After she blew out the candles and ate her cake, she opened her gifts. We got her more gifts than normal since she didn't really have a 'party'. Some of the gifts are more appropriate for Olivia, but hopefully it will get them sharing better.

I've been trying to upload pictures from her birthday for about 2 days so I'll have to post the pictures another time...sorry!

Happy Birthday Claire!

Newborn:

1 year old:

2 years old:


Wow, this year has gone by fast. It started out with you running, chasing your sister, talking here and there, being really shy. Look at you now! You talk so much, sometimes better than your sister I think. You seem to have really blossomed this year, I think you have learned alot from your sister! You are strong (willed), very talkative and mature. I hope all your wishes come true!

Been slacking off

I know... I tried to post pictures from our trip but Blogger wouldn't let me do it...arghh. Then Claire got sick this week and has been running really high fevers. I'm scared of her having another febrile seizure so we've been concentrating on getting her fever down. I took her to the doctor (a new pediatrician who I really like) and she has a severe sore throat.

We were supposed to go meet some of my internet friends from my mommy board on Sunday but we had to cancel. Today is Olivia's last soccer game so my hubby will take her and I'll have to miss it...boo hoo. Olivia is developing a cough so it looks like we will be homebound for longer than I would like. Looks like I might have to cancel a park date I set up with my mom's group, I was going to celebrate Claire's birthday then, but I can't take sick girls to it.

This weekend we are attempting to paint our master bedroom and bath. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by it, it is so much work to prep and paint. I think it's goine to be hard to do with a sick, whiny, clingy child....

Day 3-14...

Uh, you'll have to wait till after we get back from our vacation then I will be able to fill you in on the details and the pictures! I haven't had much internet access...

Day 2 - September 30th

Arrive to airport, check bags, get taken aside in security for carrying soymilk for my 2 year old and 4 year old. Talk to supervisor and convince her I am not a terrorist. She says they are not supposed to allow any beverages other than formula, breastmilk or juice for diabetics, but she will 'let it slide' this time.

Get to gate just in time to board so no time to buy sandwiches for the girls. Hopefully, we can buy something on the (almost 5 hour)flight. The flight leave about 8am. The girls are tired and I give them dramamine to help with the motion sickness (and also thinking it will help them take a nap). Nope, they don't nap...but at least they don't throw up. I give some snacks, I bring out a wrapped gift for each girl which entertains them all of 5 minutes. Claire kicks the seat in front of her. I try to wrestle with her, I try to bribe her and try to reason with her. None of this works and she kicks the seat of the poor man in front of her throughout the flight. Olivia fidgets some and complains some but is overall very good on the flight. I bring out another gift...it entertains them 5 minutes.

Meal service comes down the aisle and we prepare to purchase sandwiches to share with the girls. Nope, no more sandwiches, just chocolate chocolate chip muffins. I already have muffins I made at home so we pass.

Woman in front of Olivia turns around to tell me she is kicking her seat. I tell her to feel free to switch with the man who is sitting in front of Claire (not really, wish I had). I didn't see Olivia kick her seat at all. I tell Olivia not to kick the seat, dh has 'words' with the woman. Tells her she can put her seat up or move...there is a middle seat open next to her (which is in front of me).

Torturous flight finally ends! We arrive in Orlando.

We get to take the Disney Magical Express (free airport transfer) which means we have to wait in line to check in, wait to board our bus to our hotel at the Port Orleans resort and wait on the bus for all the passengers. At least they took care of our bags. Olivia still does not know we are going to Disney World. The bus takes off and after some time Olivia hears kids talking about Disney. Olivia says we are going to Disneyland and we explain that Disneyland is in California. Then, finally, the bus driver announces we are in Disney World so then we explained to her we are going to Disney World in Florida...she has huge smile on her face!

We finally get to our hotel with not much time to freshen up before we meet friends for dinner at Downtown Disney and Ragland Road. The food was great even though it is typical pub fare. There is so much to see at Downtown Disney, but the kids didn't nap so we had to get them to bed.

We are staying at the Port Orleans French Quarter, it reminds me of New Orleans. I love New Orleans.

Day 1 - September 29th

Furiously pack and run errands. Feed kids, dress kids, pack car. Leave house around 2pm so kids will nap. Drive 2 hours to hotel near LAX (Los Angeles Airport). Caught in traffic on I-5 due to some fire south of The Grapevine. So 2 hour drive turns into 3 hour drive. Kids only slept 1 hour, they complained the rest of the drive. Check into hotel, nicer than we thought. Bellman suggests cafe/bar on penthouse level. It's casual, we order pizza while girls sit by window and watch planes take off and leave. I have a glass of wine...

Olivia still does not know we are going to Walt Disney World in Orlando. All she knows is we are going to visit her cousin and go to the beach (later in the trip). She also does not know we are meeting her 'best friend' from Danville.