Santa Land, 2010

We made our annual trip to see Santa. We had a good time. We went on a Monday, so there was no-one there, Mo was a little shy at first, so she had time to kind of get used to the big guy.....she sat on his lap and had a nice conversation. All in all, a nice Santa trip. I think the thing that notice more this year....is how independent Mo has gotten. As you can see from the first couple of Santa pictures, she is dressed super cute....I picked out really nice outfits for her to wear......

Christmas, 2008

Or even this wonderful outfit....Christmas, 2009...she even let me put in a ponytail for this one.


Now, look to this year.....this is most definitely a "Mo Outfit"....down to wearing her shoes on the wrong feet (because she likes it that way)......

Christmas Counting Cones

I have wanted to do a cool advent calendar for a while now.....I don't really like the store bought ones.....too kitchy, or too religious. But, I wanted something that Mo could do to 'count down' to Christmas Eve. I did an internet search, and found some amazingly creative ones...I mean.....there are people out there that have mad craft skills.

So, I decided to take a few of the ideas, and put them together into this idea. Here is what I did. I got fancy holiday paper, and made cones (harder than you think with cardstock). I also got a tag maker (this was really just an excuse to buy one), and made tags with numbers on them for each day in December. Here is a finished cone.


Then, using clothespins, I hung them on a ribbon that is draped around our dining room. The cones aren't very big, but with 24 of them, it covers 3 walls of our dining room.


You can put anything you want inside the cones. This year, I have put little notes.....each one telling Mo one thing to do that day to get ready for the holidays.....ex. Drink Hot Cocoa, Listen to Christmas Music, Go look at holiday lights.

It looks so pretty......I love that it counts down the days, and doubles as decoration too. I might add more pretty things to the cones after the holidays...to make them even more festive, but I think they are pretty darn cute.


I think we can re-use these year after year, putting new and different things inside the cones.

Love Handles

So, our house is for sure a 'work in progress.' Lately, I have been obsessing over the cabinet hardware in the kitchen......I never really liked the hardware, but it was not a big deal.

But over the past few months, I have grown to genuinely HATE the stupid handles. I think maybe I spent too much time in the house while my foot was healing. Every time I walk in the kitchen, I can only see the hideous handles......they mock me....


Honestly, I think the cabinets and counter tops are pretty shiteous as well, but they are too expensive to replace (right now)....

So, I finally replaced the pulls. After weeks of searching the internet, we settled on these......mostly, they were cheap, but they also look great in the kitchen....


They are a little more square than they look in the picture....but I really like them. Maybe, I will start to love my kitchen again....

Probably not....I'll just start obsessing over the ugly counter tops and back splash.

Speaking of birthdays

So, to piggy back on the earlier post. Mo also had a birthday party she was invited to this weekend. The mom said about 5-6 girls from preschool would be there. It sounded like real girly birthday fun......they made necklaces, magic potions, etc....

I assumed all the parents would stay at the party with their kids......boy was I wrong. Every single parent left.....every single one.

I looked around, the party was going well.....the girls were having a great time....the mom clearly had it all under control. I was just in the way.

I took a deep breath and left. I left my child at a stranger's house, for the second time in 2 days.

For the next couple, play dates are going to have to be here at our house......to ease my nerves!

Birthday Parties and Playdates

So, Mo is getting invited to play dates and birthday parties by kids from her new pre-school....which is wonderful. I love that she is making new friends, but it has really tested my etiquette of kid socializing in ways that I never expected.

Case in point, on Friday, Mo got invited over to E's house for a play date. Both girls were super excited about it when I picked Mo up the day before. I have never met the parents. They seem nice enough on the phone, but I DON"T KNOW THEM. Now I don't go as far as my cousin Amy who says, "I assume everyone is a child predator," but at the same time.....do I feel comfortable leaving my child at the house of people I have never met? No!

They invited Mo over for a play date, but I am sure they don't expect to entertain me while I stay to watch over my child.

So, I did the grown-up thing, and lied. I told them that Mo can be shy and nervous in new places (total lie)...and that I would stay just to make sure she was comfortable (total, total lie). As we walked into the house, Mo runs in and says "show me your room" and takes off, and we don't see her again. Busted.

The dad was very nice and offered me some tea, which I accepted. We had a nice conversation for about 1 hour. I could tell he was ready to get some stuff done around the house. I felt like this was a nice family, in a regular house, with normal people. So, I left.....I know, I left.

I went to the store, picked up one thing and came right back. I was gone about 35 minutes. Mo was bummed the play date ended so early, but I felt like 35 minutes was enough time to be in a stranger's house by herself.

Am I glad that she had a great play date? Yes!
Do I think that future play dates could occur? Yes!
Did I pepper her with questions about the play date after I left? Yes!

Is there some of my cousin Amy in me? Yes, I couldn't help myself and asked if the Dad came down to play with them...he did not.

Mo was happy as a clam afterward, and talked about much fun it was, and how E is now her bestest friend. I breathed a sigh of relief that it was all over.

PS. I am not as bad as my friend K, who actually ran a background check on a family when her daughter was invited over for a play date.

Missing "Our Target"

So, I know Target shows up in many of our posts (I promise we shop other places)....but this was just too good to pass up.

Last year at this time, Cascade Station was opening up. Cascade Station is a shopping center with lots of stores, a few restaurants, etc.... It is super close to our house....I mean we can get there in less that 10 minutes. It had been open for a while, but there weren't really a lot of stores that you wanted to go to.....they had IKEA, but you can't shop there all the time.

Last November, right before the holiday season, Target opened up at Cascade Station. We were stoked. Close to home....a place where we WANT to shop. The best part, nobody knew about it. I mean, the place was EMPTY. All holiday season, nobody was ever there. We always got great parking, right up front. Never waited in line. There were so many people working there and they would always ask "Are you finding everything?" at least 5 times a shopping visit. I made plenty of last minute XMAS runs there....and NEVER was there more than 10 people in the store.

Cut to this weekend....our Target is no longer a secret. The place is packed, in fact....all of Cascade Station is packed. We tried to zip up there, and got stuck in traffic! Tried to eat lunch, and were told it would be a 45 minute wait.

You know it is bad....when as were were battling the traffic and the people....Scout says, "I sure do miss last year when the Target was just ours."

Busted

Someone got their hand caught in the candy cabinet...