Leap Frog Magic

When Lillie was about twelve months old, we wanted to get her a new toy, something that she could learn something from, and so we decided to get the Leap Frog Fridge Phonics, in hopes that she would learn the ABC song. Well, that has been one of the best purchases I have ever made, twice. Lillie used to have a garbage obsession and threw away the main piece of the toy and some of the letters, but because it is so good, I spent another $20 to get it again. Lillie now recognizes almost all of the letters of the alphabet and can also tell you what sounds some of them make, plus she can almost sing the ABCs by herself. I think this is pretty remarkable considering I haven't helped her at all and she's 21 mos. I just thought I'd quiz her the other day and she got almost all of them right! She likes to play with it while I'm making dinner and we're waiting for Eric to come home and other random times throughout the day. Love, love, love it! Just thought I'd share. Maybe you could get lucky and find it on craigslist, but if not, it's worth the full purchase price.

Labor of Love...Most of the Time

So for the last month and a half or so, this is what I've been up to. I made my first quilt! It is a twin size for Lillie's big girl bed. I can't say it was the funnest thing I've ever done, but I enjoyed doing most of it and I've learned a lot. I picked Freshcut by Heather Bailey for my fabric because it's so cute and I'd already made a couple of skirts and a dress out of some of this fabric. Lillie loves the quilt so that's all that matters.

In fact, today, Lillie was trying to go "potty" on her little toilet and ran off without a diaper on and went and sat on the quilt. When I rushed over to get her off, she had already left a little puddle of pee. Sigh. It hadn't even been finished for a day. Eric just said that he was sure that wouldn't be the last stain, pee, food, dirt, crayon, etc. I'm sure he's right.

 

 

 

This last picture is a preview of my next project. It's one of the things I am going to do with the left over fabric. It's gonna be cute!

I Don't Want the Swine to Hit Mine

I am sick of waiting for the H1N1 vaccine to become available for my daughter. I feel like Father Time's scythe is hanging over our family. We are currently on our dr's waiting list but we're 30th. I don't know how long we can dodge the H1N1 bullet.

LA Observatory

I took Eric out for our date night to the observatory this past week. We were able to see Jupiter and the Moon through big telescopes, the moon was really cool. It is such a beautiful building, but it was too dark to take pictures. There was also a great view of Los Angeles from the back of the building! So it wasn't the most exciting date, but it was interesting and informative and something to check off our list as seen.







BTW, we have had blurry photos for the past couple months because all of our photos were taken with our cell phones. But we finally got our camera fixed and so the quality of pics should get a little better.

Disneyland Pals

This is our pumpkin for this year--jk it was at Disneyland, cool huh?





Eric was nice enough to take me to Disneyland again and let me stand in line for an hour for the haunted Space Mountain and went on the Haunted Mansion with me and stayed late that night for the Halloween fireworks. Which were all really cool, especially the fireworks.

Aquarium

This month we went to the Long Beach aquarium, when Eric had a day off. It was a lot fun, Lillie would run from one exhibit to the next, squealing in excitement at each new thing she saw. This aquarium was great because there were a lot of places where you could touch things like sharks, rays, etc., and had a lot of exhibits. That particular day was also Southeast Asia day, so there were dances and musical numbers all day and tables set up with awesome stuff from countries like Thailand, Burma, Indonesia, etc. Fun day!



Eric's pirate face. Ha ha.

Hike and Fire

Every year at the end of the summer, SoCal has to deal with major fires and this year wasn't any different. But this September, the big fire was in the mountains close to where we live and so the air was smoky and full of ash for weeks!




Last June we went on a little hike in the mountains above where we live. It was so beautiful, we didn't know there could be such natural beauty and greenery in L.A. A nice surprise. I have been so excited for it to cool down so that we could go hike it again. But now I am wondering if it still exists after the fire!

 

 

 

 

Bargain Princess

 

 

Lillie loves to dress up and I have been wanting to get her disney princess dresses but they are so expensive! I was at Goodwill the other day and picked up this beauty for $5. I had to give it a good wash and fix a tear, but it is good as new! Gotta love a bargain!