Toddler's Day Out With Gaa

 I took a day off and spent it with Aggie!

We started off visiting great grandma, my mother-in-law, and she gave us a tour of her nursing facility.  There are fun toys there and lots of space to run around, skip around, jump around.  And Aggie threw a plastic ax.  Stay out of her way!

After G-Grandma's, Aggie and I went to an indoor playland across town.  Since it was no school for that area of town, the place was hopping.  Aggie was a bit apprehensive to go down the big bouncy slide and only tried a few steps before chickening out and coming back to me.

She found one more her speed.

Her cute dress was impeding her efforts to climb the stairs inside a huge plastic tree, so we went and changed.  By that time, it was Bubble time and that made her a bit more brave to try things she hadn't yet.

She got about 6 steps up the bouncy slide before chickening out.

We're making progress!

She finally got brave enough to climb all the way up the huge plastic tree, of which I don't have a good pic.  Then she climbed across hanging rope tunnels.

I was so proud of how brave she was getting!

She finally found where the huge solid slides were and I JUST got to the bottom of them when she came hurdling down, bonking her head in the process... 

Poor thing!

She did NOT go down that a second time!  but cried for a while and went back to the bubbles for more strength.

She was still too bashful to go down the bouncy slide again, so I climbed up those hurtful little steps (at my weight, they truly hurt! I had to put my feet sideways to climb up them) and I went down it 3 times with her on my lap and two kids immediately behind us, who insisted on going down it so they could use me as a cushion at the bottom.

After 3 times, I said that if she wanted to go down again, she could do it herself and she did!

Notice her in front of a bunch of very patient kids who waited for her to climb it all by herself!

And those same kids went down immediately after her as she flew down the slides! Aggie went several more times enjoying it all immensely.

The lines for food there were really long and I was doubtful she'd even like the $10 chicken nuggets, so she and I said our goodbyes to a fun time and headed to Burger King nearby.

She initially said NO to a crown, but then while we were waiting for our food, she saw a family with lots of kids come in and all the kids grabbed a crown. "Gaa - hat!" You BET kid!  I got one too.

They had a kids playland at this BK and she refused to go climb in it.

ENOUGH ALREADY GAA!

She was only in it for the burger anyway.

Random bits, mostly Aggie

Beauty & the Beast in my new office/sewing room.  

I was sitting on the floor with my legs crossed and she is a mimic. :) 

SO COMFY! 

Her in the kitchen watching Beauty & the Beast.

New chair cushion but with the right distraction, she'll sit in it.

Last weekend with my GIRLS!  I was dogsitting for the kids and Zola was not getting OUT there!

Granted, it was cold and drizzly...

And look what they're doing at the state fair this year!!!  I am SO DOWN!!!

as in, on the ground.

Aggie, for ten solid minutes, as she denied she was pooping the entire time.

And gymnastics.

Life has been very busy this week with weird health issues.  I scared some folks at church Wednesday, by almost passing out.  And if I hadn't watched Dr. House so much this week, I'd be certain it was just an electrolyte imbalance.  But now I'm suspecting a tumor...  JUST KIDDING!!!  

(I don't want to startle my family who read this!!!!)  Gatorade is ON the menu again today!

Dr House is like WebMD for the middle aged.  Watch out!  It might be Ebola!

All in five minutes

 

My grandkids playing happily together on Wednesday evening.

  I'm sure the day will come when she's all up in his business and they can't stand each other, but for now, we're cherishing it!

Twisted Thanksgiving

 Our Thanksgiving on Sunday was a lot of fun.  I made three pans of sliders, different types (turkey & havarti, ham & swiss and then ham/turkey & American), on Sunday early morning, ready for the girls to pop into the oven so everything would be ready by the time I got home.  The Hawaiian rolls were made ahead of time as was the cranberry relish.  There was also a new twist on the pickle relish tray, which involved pickled eggs, Jelly Belly beans, wasabi peas and of course black and green olives with pickles, because, duh, Thanksgiving!!  There were amazing mashed potatoes as well as smiley face fries and also green bean casserole in pastry cups!  Lots of wonderful desserts.  

My weight is up this morning...  and probably will be all week.  Lots of leftovers and the big family reunion is coming up. whew!

Aggie sat in her highchair for the first time and SO many smiles!  Of course I didn't get any pictures of that.  I need to get into the "I might blog about it" mode like I used to be in all the time.

We'd worn Aggie out by this time.

Leon and I made some bread dough Saturday and he shaped his dough lump like a fish very artistically.  We made a pizza and breadsticks with the rest.  He served the fish bread at the meal, taking orders for what fish part everyone wanted, after clarifying that no real fish were killed in the process of making this fish.  Well then!  I'll take the lips, or fins or tail!  I think someone asked for the stomach.  He also insisted on making a duck cake.  wha?...  Apparently he saw it on the show Bluey.  Well, if Bluey made it, I guess we can.  I'm a huge Bluey fan but hadn't seen that episode yet.  I later did with Aggie.  The only kind of cake mix I had on hand was devils food or angel food.  We started the angel food, with me not knowing he wanted to do both so it could be layered. Um nope dear...  We only need one and angels and devils don't belong together for obvious reasons.  It cooled all night and early Sunday morning, we made homemade frosting and he carved the duck into shape.  It's not easy to carve angel food, but he did it and I have lots of little bits to much on today.  *tasty...*

He covered it with popcorn, because...  duck feathers... and added chocolate chips for the eyes and torn up tortilla for the bill, but it kind of fell a little.  and in the Bluey fashion, he said "and that's okay!"  He had a great attitude about it. Bluey is a great show because it "sneaks" in lessons without being preachy about it and saying "That's okay!" was part of this one. Unfortunately, we didn't cut into the duck at all!  So Leon suggested freezing it for Friday's family reunion and we'll put it out then.  Maybe as a centerpiece because I don't think the popcorn is going to make it, unless he'll put new "feathers" on it.

Well, Happy Thanksgiving week!  I'll be pulling out my WKRP t-shirt on Wednesday and will wear it the rest of week. :) kidding.  I'll wash it each night and you'll be THANKFUL!

Full of What?!

 Life has been full!  Not all because of this little girl but she IS fun.  I can't believe she'll be 4 months in a couple weeks!

I made my sample batch of Hawaiian rolls last weekend in prep for our personal family Thanksgiving this Sunday.  I'm making turkey sliders.  The rolls are SO good! I made another couple batches yesterday and plan to make two more as soon as the bread machine pans come out of the dishwasher.  I have two bread machines so double your carbs in half the time! :)

The recipe is HERE in case you want to try it in your bread machines.  Google for a different recipe if you don't have a machine.

A few months ago, I was taking garbage to our local waste reclamation center and I found two heavy duty bookcases!  I know, right?!  EEWWW, they're from the dump???!!!  Another mans junk... was tucked into my van!

They sat in the garage until this week when I decided to clean up one of them and set it up in the Livingroom.  It looks like it should have been there the whole time!  Jen called dibbys on the other one so that'll go downstairs this weekend.

And yes, we have a security camera in the living room.  Don't do anything stupid in there or it will be recorded for proof later!  If we think to look at the recordings...

Kevin seems to love it.  So I left that side of the shelf just for him.  Games that we don't play a lot are on the lower shelves to free up the actual game cabinet a little better.  It was getting too crowded.

And in line with my church's Bible study theme, I found this mug online!

Who can I give it to? hmmm

Kevin is leaning on the sill with his elbows...  What a crazy cat.  Frank must have been in the garage.

Here is a tip for when to pull the turkey out of the freezer for next week, unless you're doing sliders of course, because then you'd buy sliced meat.

Leon will be here for the weekend and if he's home in time, we'll get an episode of Dr. Who in.  And if I don't get back to my blog before next week, Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Life and how we *spend* it

 What a weekend!!  Where to begin...?

Leon was here!  We watched another episode of one of our shows and he rode his scooter over to Meri's to meet me there to care for the cats.   I'm still pet sitting.  While I was working outside, I saw him cross the street and as soon as I turned my back for a second, heard him start screaming.  He'd hit a patch of gravel at the end of the sidewalk and wiped out.  He had scrapes and dings all over and just wanted to go home.  I helped him to the car, finished my chores and took him back.  He claimed he wouldn't touch his scooter for probably 3 months.  :) that changed the next day.

On Saturday, he went with me to a couple garage sales in the morning.  Then in the afternoon, he attended a meeting with me and our pastor to get ready for confirmation classes coming up.  He's growing up!

There were also free carousel rides and yes, I rode one too!  I was so afraid it was going to break with me on it, I clung to the pole!  I won't be doing that again.

I made 9 trays of flavored dehydrated cucumber slices and ate a whole quart of some just this morning.  I may need to ease up on the salt for future batches if I'm going to plow through them like that again.

I got to hold Agnes a lot this weekend and I think we've imprinted!  

She calms down when she looks me right in the eye and she's smiling more!  

I had planned to burn branches but the breeze kicked up late in the day so that plan was cancelled.

Reedus being lazy.  Yeah, I always lay down to eat too!

Maddy and Matthew came on Sunday and we all got coffee after church and hung out with Aggie for a while.  

The dogs all had a play date in the backyard.  

Like Maddy's bones costume?  She got them all matching ones for Halloween!  Cute.

Speaking of Halloween... It's not even September yet and it's all up at Sam's Club!  While I am loving it, yikes it's too soon!  Leon has already decided that I'm going to sew him a Link outfit, like from Zelda.  We'll see how it goes.

I took him back to his mom's yesterday and when I got there, they noticed smoke coming from my engine...  !!!  Looks like an oil leak somewhere is leaking onto the engine and causing the smoke.  I've got some long car rides coming up this week and don't want to get stranded on the side of the road!  I put in a call to my car guy but no answer yet so put in another call to a different company and have an appointment set for tomorrow.  We'll see what we find out.  Hopefully nothing too expensive.  I've already got the rider lawnmower in for repair this week too. 

Living is expensive! shoot.

School, Babies and more

 Leon is loving school so far!  The first day, he made 5 new friends, only remembering the names of two of them.  He called me after school and gave me the low down.

and get this...

There is NO homework in Middle School!!!  *really?* I gasp.  Nope, they give you enough time to get your work done in school.  *no study halls?* Nope - just home room.  And if you don't get enough time to finish it at school, you take it home to complete it. *um, that's homework.*

and yeah... you're going to have some...

Anyway, there was a heatwave in Iowa the 2nd day of school and they got out early. So, so far, he's having a wonderful time!

And yes Kathy, he has a cheeseburger backpack.  Seems like a lot of pockets to lose things in, but he'd picked it out and his mom obliged.

Wouldn't you just know it?  His first open house and it's the same night that I'll be at a Rick Springfield concert with my sisters!!  Oh well.  Ryan is going and will let me know all about it.

Practical Parsimony - Your suggestion on the porch goose costume is duly noted!  I'm in the middle of watching North and South and that idea would be perfect!!!  Will keep my eyes open for something Madelyn or Brett would wear and go with it.  Ashton's Southern Belle outfits are JUST too sleazy.

My baby photo dump for the last couple days.  I didn't realize how much cat hair and general lint is on my shirt! sigh.  But her hand is exquisite!  Piano playing hands...

She got to sleep on me yesterday and I loved every second of it.  I watched a virtual movie with my bestie who moved to the east coast and Aggie got to be with me for most of it. 

If I didn't explain a virtual movie, it's when Julie and I are both on our phones, streaming a movie at the same time.  It's difficult to line them up right so sometimes you get an echo, but it's a good second to watching them together in person.  And we talk a lot, for example, last night we watched Vertical Limit and most of it, we're gasping a lot and saying "NOPE! I will NEVER mountain climb!" 

If you want a cling to the edge of your seat movie, that is the one. *burrrrr*

Meri is still on vacation and sending wonderful pictures of their time away.  The three of us had a video chat on Wednesday and she showed me the property around the yurt that they're renting.  I think they're hitting the Grand Canyon today.

And Reedus and I are becoming buds.  He wears a cone when we're not going to be with him for a period of time, but even a trip to the bathroom can give him enough time to do damage.  I don't have the time to put the cone on him for that! yikes!  Come on in the bathroom with me so I can keep an eye on you Reedus!!

Have a wonderful weekend!  There are a couple garage sales that I feel like I need to hit tomorrow.  Crossing my fingers for a dehydrator!!!