first day of preschool: discovery science center

 

I'm sure Hannah is wondering: "Why can't every day of preschool be like this?" This was the perfect way for Hannah to start preschool because um, I got to go! No separation anxiety today! (Ok... almost. I did have to duck out twice to go install and then return the carseat for her new friend Alex who rode in the car with us today. She got kind of nervous while I left, but seemed rather comfortable with the amazing Mrs. Lucy when I returned!)

She had a blast at the Discovery Science Center:


using the computers

listening to ocean sounds

making friends

learning

playing

creating

dancing

and saying cheese!

Ta-da! A preschooler!

The End.

The men in our family salute you, Pioneer Woman!

You can't do any wrong with cinnamon when it comes to the men in my family. So, for Father's Day, I tried the world-famous Pioneer Woman's cinnamon roll recipe. I read her blog, and want her to be my neighbor...scratch that, I want to be HER neighbor every time I read it, so it was high time I gave this a try!
I was a bit nervous about making something from scratch that can easily be plopped from a tube and baked in the same time, but I can say that I actually totally enjoyed the process! It was more time-consuming than difficult, and the taste was well worth it!

Here's my favorite shot:



I never do anything ahead of time. I started the night before, and was up waiting for the dough to cool before adding the yeast, and then waiting for it to rise some, etc, and I snapped this photo of my tranquil kitchen, all ready for the task at hand in the morning!

Then this is what they looked like all baked up and FROSTED:




And then, wrapped up and ready for fresh delivery! (love the sink full of dirty dishes in the background!)



Hannah came with me, and thoroughly enjoyed the sneakiness of it all! I wish I had taken video of her singing and dancing along in the car as we drove around... fun times!

ps- Micah's rolls were also served with her recipe for iced coffee. Amazing.

hosanna. banana. hannah.

Hannah is watching a Jana Alayra DVD in the living room, dancing away, and as I pass, I hear her playing with this new word "hosanna". She's trying to repeat after the song: Banana? ... Hannah! ... Huh-nana! So cute hearing her play with words!

given up the nap? perhaps not.

Hannah may or may not be giving up the nap. Most days, yes, she presses on through the day and has a great sleep at night. For whatever reason, she was up with me at 5 this morning. Ready for breakfast and some TV. And I finally convinced her to get back to snuggle with Daddy at 6:30, but I ended up setting the good example and getting another hour's sleep, and Micah popped up with her at 7 or so... I heard them giggling and stuff when I woke up, and I was amazed that she was still going. And why wasn't I?
After our morning walk with Gus, we had a good snack and settled down to watch a bit of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. (First episode I've caught... I've been dying to see this. I love his initiative! So cool) Anyway, I was cleaning up after her snack and telling her about our grocery store run, and got no response after a question. Thinking that she was distracted by the TV, I turned around to ask again, and saw this:



So, she is blissfully napping away... and I am soaking up some much needed free time. I just had a great read over at the Desiring God blog. Here's the chunk I loved:


"Look at your children in faith, and see how many people will be ministered to by your ministering to them. How many people will your children know in their lives? How many grandchildren are represented in the faces around your table now?

So, if mothers are strategically situated to impact missions so greatly, why do we see so little coming from it? I think the answer to this is quite simple: sin. Discontent, pettiness, selfishness, resentment. Christians often feel like the right thing to do is to be ashamed about what we have. We hear that quote of Jim Elliot’s and think that we ought to sell our homes and move to some place where they need the gospel.

But I’d like to challenge you to look at it differently. Giving up what you cannot keep does not mean giving up your home, or your job so you can go serve somewhere else. It is giving up yourself. Lay yourself down. Sacrifice yourself here, now. Cheerfully wipe the nose for the fiftieth time today. Make dinner again for the people who don’t like the green beans. Laugh when your plans are thwarted by a vomiting child. Lay yourself down for the people here with you, the people who annoy you, the people who get in your way, the people who take up so much of your time that you can’t read anymore. Rejoice in them. Sacrifice for them. Gain that which you cannot lose in them.

It is easy to think you have a heart for orphans on the other side of the world, but if you spend your time at home resenting the imposition your children are on you, you do not. You cannot have a heart for the gospel and a fussiness about your life at the same time. You will never make any difference there if you cannot be at peace here. You cannot have a heart for missions, but not for the people around you. A true love of the gospel overflows and overpowers. It will be in everything you do, however drab, however simple, however repetitive.

God loves the little offerings. Given in faith, that plate of PB&J’s will feed thousands. Given in faith, those presents on Christmas morning will bring delight to more children than you can count. Offered with thankfulness, your work at home is only the beginning. Your laundry pile, selflessly tackled daily, will be used in the hands of God to clothe many. Do not think that your work does not matter. In God’s hands, it will be broken, and broken, and broken again, until all who have need of it have eaten and are satisfied. And even then, there will be leftovers."
I totally needed the encouragement as I know I feel like as soon as I clean up from a meal, I immediately pull out prep for the next one.

And onwards we go. I've relished the quiet moment, and I'm happy with that! Our day will be an exciting one as we prepare for Father's Day tomorrow! I've got cinnamon rolls planned for the morning, though depending on how long this little nap lasts, I may have to skip the amazing Pioneer Woman's recipe and just go for the Grands! Either way, it smells delicious, and makes everyone in my family happy!

i think a whole new world has just opened up.

it's hot. and i would like some flowy comfy new tanktops.
i googled t-shirt to tank top tutorial, and came across countless fantastic options on youtube.
i'm tempted to stay up for a few more minutes and do this one right now.
it would take like 5 minutes!



i see all kinds of easy crafternoon projects coming up... soon!

Tortilla Soup.

Potty training makes it harder for Hannah to settle for a nap lately, and so she's super ready for bed by 8 o'clock or so. Last night it was taking me a while to get dinner prepped (it was Cajun Shrimp Boats, with steamed potatoes and collard greens, and I was completely out of energy, so it just took me forever) and so Micah put Hannah to bed and we had the pleasure of settling down in the living room for dinner and a movie... just the two of us.
Streaming movies through Netflix is my favoritefavoritefavorite innovation in latest techonology... and I picked Tortilla Soup. SO satisfied with this movie... I was thinking about it all day! I love the cooking footage in this film.... I love food prep (even when it takes forever) and I long for serious chopping skills like the dad (he's a chef) in this movie. The music, the food, his chopping skills, totally reminded me of nights when dinner is so fun to put together.
My family has been doing Sunday night dinners, and it's also fun to dream about preparing such elaborate meals for my own family, and I loved watching the three daughters each make "announcements" of their own. It's kind of like a "Fiddler on the Roof" storyline (but set in LA), each daughter breaking tradition in her own way... but there's a lot of food, a lot of humor, and a lot of Spanglish!
Five stars!

potty training!

When I'm asked how the summer is going these days, my response is: "We're potty-training, and trying work preschool out". And it's no surprise that people look at me like, "Don't you know how to have any fun?" Yes. The answer is yes. I do, but later on in the summer. I'll just take care of some business. And I've pretty much made up my mind that this is fun (even though sometimes it's not) and I'm pretty sure that Hannah is buying into it, too!
She's pretty much a potty training champ... she'll pee anywhere we take that little potty! And she even went once on a public potty! She's still yet to drop the big poop in the potty, but I just know it will be one of these days soon!
How cute is she perched on her little pot in the trunk? Like I said, anywhere!
She makes me so proud, I think I'm having fun!

As far as preschool goes, we've checked out:
Good Shepherd Lutheran in Irvine (Micah's family favorite)
Orangetree Christian Preschool in El Toro (I've got my heart set on this school, I love it)
Lutheran Church of the Cross in Laguna Woods (awesome, but won't take her til she's totally three, in the fall of 2012 - that sounds like a distant future year, doesn't it?)
and Abiding Savior Lutheran in Lake Forest. (Amazing school. Too far out of the way according to Micah.)
As we start the application process, I keep feeling like I should have filled out the FAFSA form as this is all reminding me of college tuition and applications! Alas, there is no such aid for preschoolers that way, and so now I think we should start encouraging newlyweds (or at least new parents) to start saving for preschool! As Micah loves to grumble every time we pass into a new stage..."Nobody ever tells you about this stuff!" He said that twice today: Once about preschool tuition, and the other time when Hannah left a doody on the living room floor. (First time for that one. In her defense, we had just had a loooong talk about not pooping in her panties. Ok. We're more specific now. Poop in the potty!)
It's amazing how fast things are changing around here these first few days of summer. I'd imagine there will be many more surprising discoveries like this before school starts in the fall!

A little riding video

This is Brian filming Micah riding Santiago Oaks. Awesome riding footage, so fast and so crazy, and complete with a crash scene... it's awesome! (Sorry for the grown-up words... the film was edited by a friend!) Enjoy!

2010-2011. Done.

Done with another school year. And not a minute too soon.
Grades were due at 12 midnight, and I finished my last comments at... 11:59 or so.
Somehow, as I know I have Spanish 2 again next year, and they will all move on, I have a hard time letting go. Especially this year... it was a good one. ::sniff, sniff::

Blue sharpie.

I have a feeling today will be one of those days I remember. Forever.

When I was three (or so) I drew on my brand-new, unfinished door with chap-stick. I remember. I'm still sorry. And I'm even sorrier today because wow, I got payback. BIG TIME.



Today was the last day of school (for students, at least) and I was headed in to wrap some stuff up, and pack up my classroom some more. Hannah was cranky and seemed like she would need an early nap. We cuddled some and then I expertly set her up with some Sesame Street and milk while I took a quick shower. Hopping out of the shower, she greeted me cheerfully "Hi Mami!"... stark naked and COVERED in BLUE SHARPIE. OH.NO. It was on her face. In her ears. She colored in both of her nipples and her belly button too, before she scribbled all over her belly, her legs, toes, behind her knees, on her back, and you know? she even colored her own butt-crack. HOW? WHY?
Expecting that that would be the worst of it, I rounded the corner to my room, looking for the pen, where I saw that she had colored Micah's college ID, the corner of our quilt, the laundry basket (Micah's), the carpet, the wall, and both sides of the door.
So much mischief. So little time.

It's an understatement to say that I was pretty overwhelmed by the whole thing.

Once Hannah realized that I did not think this art project was "fun", she promptly went to work on the door and walls with the baby wipes. She knows that's how we like to clean up almost all accidents around here.



It was a long cranky afternoon for both of us, between trying to recover from the skewed-plans for going in to school today, and trying different ways to clean things up, all whilst keeping BOTH eyes on that kid, she had a hard time going down for a nap. I had to lay down with her, and you know, I needed the rest. Look how sweet she looks sleeping, even though the evidence of her mischief was still (kind of) all over her face!)




As I logged on to google how to get stains out of all of this, I decided instead to post the question in my Facebook status. Social networking to the rescue: I had answers, good ones, within minutes:
For the walls:
"Home Depot makes a graffiti eraser, but Hannah may have to be blue for a while"
"Magic Eraser"
For the toddler:
"Rubbing alcohol"
"Nail polish remover and hot water"
And "Comet for all of it."

Turns out, two rounds of our favorite standby for all stains (the baby wipes, once by Mami and again by Daddy with more elbow grease) gets most of the marker off of Hannah. The belly button will be blue for a while.

I think I'm going to hit the walls early tomorrow morning. (Hannah is sleeping for right now, and I dare not wake her!)