Reading

For my birthday I received the book A Picture Perfect Childhood.  I have received, read and browsed several other books and sites with lists of great books for kids, but this one either hit me at the right time or was especially accessible to me and I am doing it.  This is the second month that I requested a bunch of the books from the library and purposefully selected numerous others off the shelves to bring home and read to Mara.  Some she likes, some she doesn't (or doesn't give a chance), and some are way over her head (the grammar ones are especially funny).  But today I wanted to tell you about one book and experience in particular, Cranberry Thanksgiving.  The first time we read it Mara couldn't have cared less, but I was very excited to see a recipe at the end.  When we first started it I had remembered I had just purchased a bag of cranberries at the store to try so I got a few out.  Eww, they're sour by themselves and we didn't really enjoy them but hey we tried them.  I patiently waited a few days to have the ingredients on hand, her to be well enough to care and have a chance sans baby to bake.  So today after lunch Mara and I whipped up a batch of cranberry bread.  Her favorite cooking step by the way is leveling the measuring cup, which she is way better at than pouring so I'll take it.  Now I just took 3 small loaves out of the oven, we'll enjoy one for dinner and the others will go in the freezer for impromptu tea party treats (and not Mom's naptime snack) I think.  But even more exciting was then we read the story again before naptime and she was delighted by the story because she had a connection to it.  And that is preschool by Mom for this week.

Ladybugs!

We had a fantastic Halloween at our friends party. Mara was set with the perfect 2 year old costume that would still work if she refused to wear part of it. We were in the clear until the night before when she learned her friend was going to be a princess, but mom saved the cute costume she worked so hard on with the promise of ladybug spots on her cheeks. Thank you make-up! Mara even warmed up to "Trick or Treating" after a very icy start at Dad's office on Friday afternoon; however, you still won't hear a "Trick or Treat," you'll have to be happy with "Happy Halloween." As for pictures, I have no good ones of Audra and the Jack-o-Lantern rotted before Halloween. But without further ado here is a mighty cute ladybug.

 

 

 

Forgot to add the costume was further enhanced at the last minute to have glasses like daddy's costume.   And she made mama proud when she got to choose one last treat before we changed into pajamas to head home from the party and she picked the teddy grahams.  (And both kids were asleep (in their pjs and carseats) before we made it to the highway on the way home).

Bubble Bath

This is the first good photo of both girls in I don't know how long. It was also the only one I took which might be even more amazing.  I think the key must be it was the first one.  The rest of the photo shoot was mostly Audra.

A sneak peak of our bubble bath fun, you can see more of it here.

A last but not least, see my teeth!

Wordless Wednesday

Classic Disney Photoshoot

The castle photoshoot took a little too long to get right.

New Ears!


She took Daddy on this photoshoot!

The budding photographer herself.

Just a peach all week long!

Characters

This was shall we say not Mara's favorite part of the trip.  She did warm up to the plush characters a bit, but despite her love of the princesses she preferred they keep their distance.  She did enjoy her bedtime princess story (via the TV channel) each night and spent the last day telling us she was Cinderella (which she says adorably by the way).

At least someone did like the characters though.

Rides

We spent last week in Disneyland on family vacation.  The following series of posts document our trip.

Mara surprised us and was quite adventurous when it came to rides. Like any kid her age her favorites were Dumbo and the Teacups. Daddy was a champ and endured the tea cups numerous times throughout the week, Mommy only went once and was very boring in the spinning department. Similar to the Aquarium Mara wanted to get out of the dark after awhile on several of the rides. Our little detail girl could tell you all week what color of Dumbo or Teacup she had ridden hours and days earlier.  She got off almost every ride wanting to hop in the next car and even magically got to a few times.  Audra's least favorite ride that she was subjected to was the finding Nemo submarine.

Just the way the line fell Mara scored back to back rides on Dumbo (Mommy and Daddy got pictures and saved Daddy's coffee).

Mommy only rode once but she's the only adult in pictures on this ride.

Mara used Rider Swap to score two rides on this one.

Mommy and Daddy's favorite rides of the week you ask?  Flyin' over California, Toy Story Midway Mania, and Daddy would probably add a few more to that list (maybe Tower or Terror?).