Staycation, Part III

Saturday, March 13, 2010
(sorry i've been mia, i've been reading fablehaven and doing other things of lesser importance, such as taking care of sick kids)


Saturday, we headed to the Discovery Children's Museum. If you have never been there, it is totally worth the trip. The girls could have played there for hours.

The Boss didn't really want to ride the pretend horse (see the zoo post for her aversion to animals live or fake).

(Drama and Pooh Bear acting in a play they wrote and produced).

We left for lunch and The Boss was so tired she fell asleep, slept through lunch, but woke up just before we left the restaurant and was not a happy camper. Nuclear, is the word that comes to mind.

When we got home Saturday evening, I, for one, was exhausted. I don't think I have ever been that tired after a vacation. It might have had something to do with The Boss not sleeping very well in a strange room/bed and might (probably not) have something to do with the amount of caffeine consumed at the Gymnastic meet (nah.)

Two Peas in a Pair of Shoes

March 12, 2010

On the way back to the Hotel, Friday after the University of Utah Gymnastics meet, I sat next to Drama on TRAX. I noticed that we have a lot of things in common.

I guess I will enjoy my shoes for the next few years while I am the only one wearing them. She already borrows my earrings.

Staycation, Part 2

When we last saw the Van Horn Family they were at the Zoo. . .
 
After the zoo we checked into the Little America, raced to our room and changed into swimsuits. The Boss needed a nap so I volunteered to stay with her in the room and I didn't send my camera with Mark, so there are no pictures. But I assure you that the girls had a blast.

We cleaned up and went to dinner in the Little America restaurant. Then we hopped on TRAX and headed up to the University of Utah. There was a gymnastics meet between the U, Southern Utah University, Pennsylvania, and Oregon.

We got there a little early for the face painting and balloon animals. (Don't let anyone know that Pooh Bear wanted a "Y" painted on her face and was truly upset when we told her it was not a good idea. Shhh.)

It was fun for Drama and Pooh Bear to see the gymnasts doing the things that they have practiced (well a higher version of what the girls learn) and the U won the meet, so that was extra exciting. The Boss had a great time eating popcorn, drinking caffeinated beverages, cheering with the crowd and running up and down our row.

Staycation 2010, Part 1

This year we are not going on a big lavish vacation, so we decided that we should take a fun "stay"cation in Salt Lake City. We had a lot of fun acting like tourists; we were from out of town after all. (There are way too many pictures for just one blog post so I am going to break it into several posts to spare your computer's video card from having a heart attack.)

Friday: (Drama and Pooh Bear missed school for this vacation) 

First stop was Grandma and Grandpa Van Horn's House. Aria was having her own personalized vacation with doting grandparents. Apparently she went to the Home and Garden show with them and helped pick out new carpet? She has her own set of standards, drool absorbancy being top on the list.

By now it was lunch time so we headed to Hires, yum.

Next we headed to the Hogle Zoo. I have great memories of the Hogle Zoo, sadly they have quit giving rides on the elephants (can you say lawsuit?). That sad fact aside, we loved watching the baby elephant and her mommy, the giraffes, gorillas, monkeys, etc, etc, etc. Ask Drama to show you her pictures, but only if you have an hour.

The Boss didn't like being so close to the animals real, fake, statue. No. Thank. You.

This is as close as she would get to the rino statue.

If you go to Hogle Zoo you have to get this picutre.

@ the U of U Gymnastics Meet

We're living it up at the University of Utah gymnastics meet.

Face painting and balloon animals, the best.


Shhh, don't tell anyone, Pooh Bear wanted a "Y" painted on her face. (grimice)



Popcorn and diet coke yum.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

No Really, I Made These

I really don't know what has taken over my very un-crafty self lately, cause I have been cranking out some way too cute stuff (if I do say so myself).

I'll start with my new favorite things. Did you know you can MAKE baby shoes? I have seen these on Etsy and thought I should totally get my Mom to make these for me. Then I found this blog with a pattern, and I had just been to Broadbent's and picked up some totally cute fabric. So, I said to myself, (everyone together now) just try it, how hard can it be really? (don't look to close at them, it was my first attempt and there are A LOT of mistakes)

Get Out!

Shut Up!

I lined the insides with that super soft minky fabric and the best part is, when we went out today, she couldn't kick them off. No matter how hard she tried, they stayed on her feet! And it was cold outside today. Warm and invincible! I am working on a totally cute onesie with this flower appliqued on the front. Hello domestication, my name is Amy.

Next - I started these 2 weeks ago....

I was watching Studio 5 and saw these cute pillows and immediately wanted them, I even went to the same store to by the fabric they had used. The pattern and instructions for the super cute flower came from here.

All of the pillows are supposed to have cute flowers on them. However, I made the first flower, the beautiful white one, and it took for. ev. er. I got it all attached and fluffed up and placed it lovingly on my couch. Then morning came and it was immediately initiated into our loving household (here you should read, "the girls fought over who got to sit (seriously, girls, sit!) on this pillow to do their morning reading." I can tell you that the pillow did not win that fight.) Aria also thinks that the pretty fake pearls in the center of the flower are fascinating, if she could just get them into her mouth. . . (They're probably dipped in lead and powder coated in arsenic.)

I don't know if you can tell from this picture, but the pillow is actually cowering in fear and making sad whimpering sounds.

So, the other pillows will remain flowerless until the girls grow up and leave the house, because they will never stop fighting.

Ever.

Pictures From My Phone

I often take pictures with my phone and then forget that I have them. Here are a few of the ones I moved over to my computer today. . .

What Do You Collect?

It's no secret that I go to Sonic every morning (except Sunday's, but I think there should be some sort of exemption to the not buying things on Sundays rule, like the taking a sick kid to the doctor exemption. Sometimes you have to get the ox out of the mire. . .) Whoa, where did that come from? Anywho, I go to sonic every morning and I get 2 diet cherry cokes, one for now and one for later. They give me 2 straws with my 2 diet cherry cokes, but I only use one, cause I wouldn't want to be frivolous and wasteful. Pshh. And this is where the other straw goes.


Drama counted them on the way home from school the other day and there were 96! Since that was about a week and a half ago I have to have over a hundred now. Yes, I am very proud of myself.

I am also very discriminating on the brand of straw allowed in this particular collection. It has to be a sonic straw. Don't try and shove a McDonald's or a gas station straw in here. End of discussion.

Another Oldie But Goodie. . .

September 19, 2007

Disneyland

Pooh Bear and Drama

They had "princess makeovers" at Libby Lu's this morning complete with finger nail polish and sparkle stickers. The last time we were at Disneyland Libby Lu's had gone out of business, sad. You can see from this picture that they were feeling like the princess' they were. Also, they had just met a pirate and were quite in love. You know how it is with pirates and princesses. . .

Crocheted Flowers

Here is my new obsession, crocheted flowers. . .

Admittedly, my first dozen or so were seriously deformed. This particular pattern has six petals on each round. Earlier versions had one round with 5 petals and the next with 4, and many variations on that theme, none of which were right. I've made these in black, brown, & white, but my favorite version are these two toned ones. And the models aren't that hard to look at either.

 

I attached one flower to an alligator clip and glued a piece of fabric to the back of the other with a channel to slide the headband through.

Love these faces.

Our New Favorite Book

I love children's books, not as much as my mother but close. At the last school book fair Drama and Pooh Bear "made" me buy this one. . .

The Pout Pout Fish

The poor hero of this story thinks that his face was made for pouting so he spreads the dreary wearies all over the place. His friends give him advice on being happy, to no avail. 

"He's a pout pout fish 

with a pout pout face.

So he spreads the dreary-wearies

all over the place."

Our (okay, my) favorite part is the . . .

But in the end a mysterious fish teaches him that he has a choice to be a pout pout or a kiss kiss fish.

It is so much fun to read and the Boss loves it.

Come to my house, go to the library/bookstore, borrow it, read it, love it.

More From the Archives

My desktop did it to me again. It found another picture that I loved and wanted to share, only this one was harder to find in the ol' files. I had to dig around and came across some other winners.

The one I went looking for:

The Boss, 12/27/2008, 11 months

What I found whilst I was digging:

Drama, 11/22/2008, 7 1/2 yrs 

Pooh Bear, 3/21/2008, (almost) 6 yrs

No School Today

So we busted out the play-doh. How many hours of fun can you have with play-doh? If we were judging by today's count it would be 3.5 hours. The mess is totally worth 3.5 relatively fight free hours.

The Boss only ingested the teeny tiniest little bit of play-doh. It's non-toxic right?

One From The Archives

I like my new windows operating system okay, but what I really like about it is that it automatically rotates pictures from my "My Pictures" folder as my desktop wallpaper (I don't have any idea how it got set up to do this). I always have 800 applications/ windows/documents running at the same time, so I wouldn't normally see my desktop, but if I point my cursor at some magic spot on the screen it will show my desktop. Not take me there, but just show it to me. And 85% of the time it's a fun picture from the archives that makes me smile (sometimes it's a picture of random things that I never got around to deleting).

Anyway, here's what showed up today, and it made me smile so I thought I would share.

Christmas, 2008

Drama, Pooh Bear and The Boss

Tree decorating day

 

Drama and Pooh Bear's hair is really long and the Boss is so little (but always up to no good). . .

ps - Aria is wearing this same outfit in the last post. She chose to go with the leg warmers that day. The Boss is not really a leg warmer kinda girl. Note the difference in thigh circumference.