Sydney made dinner

They made chicken lasagne in her Thursday cooking class (a couple weeks back - I'm playing catch-up here).    It was stored in the school fridge until we picked up, and we just had to pop in the oven for 20 mins.    It was actually really really yummy.   She was SO darn proud of herself.    I probably shoud do this some weekend with her.

they have pics up in the office at her school of the kids all doing these and there is one of Sydney assembling her noodles.    I'm going to steal it off the board soon and scan it in.... maybe add it here - check back!

Annabelle's first pony (tail)

Ha ha ha ha ha ha!

ER visit with Bug

Monday, Aug 6... Buggy went to bed around 8pm totally normally.  With no issues.
She woke around midnight with a horrible bark/cough and was having trouble getting air in her breathing.   She was a bit panic-y and therefore I immediately called 911.  (usually I call the advice nurse and those calls can take up to 30min).

We had the paramedics, the ambulance, and the full on BIG firetruck arrive within a few minutes. (Kicking myself that I didn't get a pic of this - taking pics wasn't on my mind at the time). By the time they all arrived, Bug was calming down and breathing was much better - so I look like the big ol' over-reactor. She still had the bark and her voice was pretty feeble. Adding that she went to bed not having been sick or congested in anyway, they advised a trip to the ER as a precaution. They offered to take her in the ambulance, but since we are 4 miles from Kaiser, I grabbed her blankie, dolly, sippy and my purse and off we went. She even said to me "I wanna go to the doctor". That justified it to me if she was actually requesting a trip. She hates doctors - I knew she must be not feeling 100%.

We arrived at Kaiser and parked.   Walked across crowded parking lot with Bug holding dolly and my hand.  I was holding her hand, purse, blankie, and sippy.   All's good right?   Wrong.   Minute we get to the door she loses it and screams and screams and screams (guess her air is better, huh?).     I'm trying drag her in and hold onto everything.   She had given me a false sense of security that I didn't need to lug a big ol diaper bag to hold everything.     Then I had to fill out a form at the door.   While holding on to everything and a tantruming Sydney.

After about 10min she calmed down.

admittance bracelet after triage

A calm Sydney chilling in the waiting room



half a smile.   Mrs. Doubtfire was playing on the TV

Long story short.   They gave her some strong steriod drink (mixed in apple juice - to which she informed the nurse that the "apple juice tastes funny".)     And a breathing treatment.    Declared it was croup.   And sent us on our way at just after 3am.    Fun.

OC Fair - take 2

Since their Daddy was up the coast in Central CA racing,  I decided to hit up the OC Fair again, this time dragging Nana along.     It was much more crowded on a Saturday at 11am, than it was on a Sunday at 11am.





whoops... camera still set in b/w mode from the previous week



Sweet Bug (and yes, those are ladybugs on the underneath side of her hat)

Annabelle is recently fascinated by mouths

There was a belly-dancing class from Indio demonstrating their skills on stage... Bug takes this opportunity to do some dancing herself

Belly noms on cracker while watching Belly-Dancers

Okay... so I wanted ONE good pic of the girls together and both looking.   Didn't happen.

here we have "pouty face" and "easily distracted"

looking opposite directions

looking same direction - just not at the camera

Okay, this was the best I got - but the speedlight hadn't powered back up from last pic and didn't flash so they are all covered in those harsh noontime shadows that I've grown to dislike

woo!  Flash is back... but lost the girls attention

Then Syd wanted to give Belle a hug.  Sw sweet.

 Then we were walking to see the cows and other animals and I made the mistake of going "ooooh... they've got Pony Rides".     Whoops.   Now the only thing Bug wanted was to go on a pony.     We tried this last Oct at the Pumpkin Patch and she waited in line, then flipped out when it was time to get on.    So I was hesitant.   Ticket booth said $7, but you could get a full refund "if your child does NOT get on the horse".    I took the gamble.   

The line was very long.   They had 6 ponies/horses total.   We had to wait through 4 or 5 cycles of riders.   Bug still seemed confident that this is what she wanted to do.    Finally, it's her turn.   There is a sign that says parents can walk alongside if needed.   Great.   Bug climbed the little steps and the Cowboy guy picked her up and had her belted on the horse and sent on her way sooooo fast... I thought, "okay, I guess she's fine."    1/2 way around the little circle was a western photo backdrop and they would stick a cowboy hat on the kid (pink one for girls) and take a souvenier pic (available for purchase for another $X amount).   By the time she got to the backdrop she was starting to get wary.   When they moved to put the hat on her head she screamed- I motioned that we don't need a pic. 

approaching the backdrop for photo-op.   The boy in front of her was 10 months old.
(ride was for 6mo - 120lbs)
And Note:   Her "pony" was the biggest HORSE of the group.  His name is Aladdin

The horse started up again and hit a dip in the dirt on the backside and made a sway/bump motion for Bug.   Bug FLIPPED OUT.    Screaming. Crying for Mama. I'm scrambling to put down my camera (after taking one last pic), so that I can get in there with her.

Here she is approaching the front to the circle again.  Mid-Scream for "mama".
I snapped this one last pic before scrambling to get into the inner ring between the other horses

here is the close-up cropped version of the same photo.
I will crack up at this picture forever.   Poor scared Bug.

 It took probably 2 laps around for me to calm her down and stop the crying.   All the peeps waiting in line were like "awwwwwwww".     In all the time we stood waiting our turn  - about 30mins -  no child cried, much less went into full down meltdown like Bug.   Awesome!   Nana heard her across the way in some veggie garden tent thing.    Finally I was able to tell her the horses name and have her say "Hi Aladdin".   And get her to pet his mane.  But she stayed very much on edge, and was on the verge of tears again at any moment.  
But in the end she's got her first "pony" ride under her belt.   Maybe next Oct at the pumpkin patch will be better?!

Meanwhile Annabelle was chilling in the stroller with Nana in some shaded area looking at veggies or something.    Annabelle probably would have been fine on a horse.   Just sitting on it all serious-like.   LOL

With a giant Orange.   As you can see, she survived the horse ride pretty much unscathed.

The playroom - a work in progress

The bedroom that we chose to use as a playroom (for a few years until the girls want separate bedrooms...) was a very brown room.   The lighter of the 2 browns wasn't really *too* bad of a color - just not what I wanted for the playroom.     I decided to re-do in a pale lavender with a Tinkerbell theme.      D and I bought paint when it was on sale Memorial day weekend and bought for other rooms at that time too.    I bought a pale yellow for the hall bath (which is currently the same brown as the playroom - but will become a "ducky" themed bath for the girls).     Since we had the yellow paint on hand, I decided I wanted to do one wall in the playroom 1/2 yellow and 1/2 purple with a Tinkerbelle border dividing across the middle

Let the painting begin.   Everything was cleared out of the room except the daybed - which was moved to the middle away from the walls.



Sydney having fun running laps around the daybed




Annabelle in hot pursuit of her sister.
Here you can see the one really DARK brown wall



Day 1:   This is as far as the Mr. got after doing all sorts of prep work, such as changing out all the outlets to the kind that have 3 holes.   The yellow is up.   And all "edges" of the purple is on.

next weekend:   Painting is DONE!



such a nice shade of lavendar.   Calming.




Here is the Tink border that will be going up soon




Sydney loves the new colors!





someone needs to find a brush before church.




who is this big girl walking so confidently?  
Where are the baby arms out to the sides for balance?

When the painting was all done, Dana said it was good that I went with making half that wall a different color.   He ran out of purple.    Had just enough to scrape by and finish the walls that needed it - barely.   Would not have had enough to do that entire wall.