Yo Gabba Gabba

Check out what we scored!

Joe is a big fan of Van’s shoes and Lauren is a fan of Yo Gabba Gabba, so we have been drooling over the Foofa pair for her.  We haven’t bought them because justifying $37 for toddler shoes she’ll have for one season, is a tuff sell for us.  Well, Joe and Lauren were at a shopping center today and just happened to stop into the Van’s store at just the perfect time.  The guy had just taken this sign out of the window display and Lauren was checking it out, so he asked if they wanted it.  Next thing you know they are carrying this big foam core sign through the parking lot!

Imagine having this for your Yo Gabba birthday party.  What an awesome photo op!  Too bad this party theme isn’t at the top of Lauren’s list (she keeps changing between Olivia and Minnie Mouse). 

  

Hmmm…I wonder how much this would fetch on Ebay to some Yo Gabba collector.  They have sort of a cult following, you know! 

Halloween Fun!

I can’t believe October has already come and gone.  It was a super fun month for us, and it sure did go by in a flash!

 

Last weekend Lauren and I headed out to the pumpkin patch to meet up with a friend. 

The girls had a great time picking out their pumpkins and decorating them with foam stickers.  Lauren especially liked the bounce house…not exactly typical Fall fun, but fun nonetheless.






 

 

 

Lauren has been bringing home some really cute projects from preschool this month.  When I picked her up from school on one of my Mondays off, I noticed wire hangers sandwiched between orange sheets of tissue paper with glue all around the edges.  They were sitting out to dry and I wondered what they were making.  Well, they tore off the edges of the tissue to form a pumpkin…I thought this was a cute idea and one I might steal sometime. 

This past Saturday Joe was off and we had a really nice day together, just the three of us.  I put on a big pot of chili and then carved a pumpkin.  Lauren wanted her pumpkin to have round eyes and a nose with a happy smile… 

I wish I could give you a great recipe for the chili, but I kept it simple and used my favorite Coyote Country chili seasoning mix.  It was SOOO good with shredded cheese on top and crackers. 

Here’s my Little Red Riding Hood cutie pie!  I bought this storybook months ago and we’ve been reading it at bed time.  She loves it and knew right away what she wanted to be for Halloween.  This costume was made by my Mom originally for my niece, Katie, who is now a senior in high school.  I love that Lauren is wearing Katie’s costume from about 14 years ago!  Maybe if Katie has a daughter some day she will wear it too. 

The girls had a blast running from house to house and had no problem at all going right up to the door yelling “trick or treat”.  Last year they were both still a little apprehensive.  It was so much fun to see how excited they were and Lauren did a great job, after a little coaching, saying thank you to everyone.  We only walked a few blocks, but the girls certainly got a nice stash of candy including a full sized Crunch bar that somehow disappeared out of Lauren’s pumpkin over night.  ;)

  

San Diego Trip

We just got back from a trip to San Diego this past Thursday.  I had bought tickets for the Phineas and Ferb live show months ago and it just happened to fall on the day we were leaving to drive out to California, so we did the show and then hit the rode.  Lauren loved the show!

 

We spent one of our days at Legoland in Carlsbad. 

This was our first time there and Lauren loved it.  The magic height seemed to be 36” for most rides, so she was able to ride pretty much everything.  Most rides also had a second height scale to determine if the child could ride alone or had to ride with an adult.  Lauren was able to ride a couple of things alone and she really enjoyed that.  Here she is sporting her new driver’s license….

 

When all was said and done, we had a really nice day at Legoland.  If you’ve never been, I think it’s worth a trip if you’re in the area.  It’s certainly not Disney and you need to realize that going in and adjust your expectations accordingly.  Also, I think it’s best for kids at least 36” in height up to about 8 years old.  For the price of admission I would certainly rather do a Disney park, but the fact that Lauren could ride pretty much everything made it worth it for us.  

We stayed with some friends of ours in a rental house on the beach.  This is the first time we have stayed right on the beach and it was so nice to hear the waves…it’s such a calming sound to fall asleep to.  This was the view from our sliding glass door. 

This was Lauren’s first time at the beach and she had a great time playing in the sand and putting her feet in the water.  I think next time we’ll go when it’s warm enough to actually get in the water and lay on the beach. 

The best part about staying at the house was stepping right onto the sand from our door.  We had a bonfire each night and Lauren had so much fun roasting marshmallows. 

I love how plants and flowers thrive in the San Diego weather and we this beautiful little nursery.  I would have loved to bring some things back, but they would just fry in our Arizona heat. 

Just for the boat ride, we took the ferry from the Broadway Pier downtown to Coronado Island…

 

and here’s my girl and her mega-watt smile…

Fall is here!

Since Fall is my absolute favorite time of the year, I’ve got tons of great seasonal decor ideas on Pinterest.  You can check them out here.  It may not feel like Fall outside with our temperature still around 100 degrees, but at least it’s Fall inside.

Last weekend, I got motivated to do some crafting.  Inspired by the pumpkin specimen art at My Blessed Life, I picked up a leaf paper punch with my Joann’s coupon, some burlap and an IKEA frame I had laying around and made this for the shelf above my TV…

I saw this Halloween Banner for sale at an Etsy shop and thought it was really cute, so I copied her idea and made this banner.  I cut letters out on cardstock using my Cricut, removed the letters and used the paper as a stencil.  I used a little round sponge for the orange polka dots.  I’m thinking this is another crafting success!

 

Here’s a few shots of other Fall decor around the house…