What a great vacation!

We are back from vacation and finally settled back in at home. As a little bonus Lauren and I picked up a cold on the trip.

The first part of the trip was in Orlando, FL for a reunion. There were nine families and ten kids in all. We have been all been friends via a Yahoo group since the beginning of our long wait and get together annually. We hope to stay connected for the duration and that our girls will be a support system for each other as they grow up.

Here’s our cuties after a swim in the beach towel cover-ups I made (Lauren is 2nd from the right in the 1st row)…

Here's a video of how we tried to keep their attention...

After a visit to the ice cream truck, they are all enjoying their Dora pops (Lauren is on the far left)…

Most of us stayed in one huge rental home in Lake Davenport, FL about 20 minutes west of the Disney resort. I LOVED that we all stayed together and hope we can do this for future reunions. It maximizes the amount of time we can all be together and it’s so much fun watching the girls play in their PJ’s before bed. They all got along so well together and had a ball.

We were doing one day at Disney while there, so we decided on Epcot Center since it’s the least like any thing we have in CA. Lauren just made the 40” height requirement for Test Track and Soarin and loved both rides.

Here she is joining in for the Pledge of Allegiance. Never mind that she’s using the wrong hand…she was so proud of herself nonetheless.

Here’s the girls for our infamous tutu picture (Lauren is 3rd on the left)…

and here’s our pic from last year. It will be fun to have a collection of these from over the years…

One night the girls had a little party and did themselves up with make-up and jewelry and matching princess nightgowns. Aren’t we the bomb? Check out Lauren’s blue eye shadow on her eyebrows!

Here's a little video of the girls playing Ring Around the Rosie...

I love this pic of Lauren with Mary Alice. It just seems to show how much fun the girls were having. Lauren seemed to really click with her and I think that’s cool since the girls are from the same orphanage.

This is the morning we were leaving the house to head to Jacksonville for the second part of our trip. The pic is missing two of us who were headed out already for the day.

In Jacksonville, we stayed with my Aunt and Uncle and visited with them and my three cousins and their 9 kids. Lauren had an absolute blast running around with her cousins and they were SO great with her. This pic was taken in the historic downtown in St. Augustine, the oldest city in the country founded by Ponce de Leon in 1513 when he landed in Florida. It was a beautiful day.

As you might have noticed from a few of the pics I posted, Lauren’s beloved Perry the platypus made the trip with us. You wouldn’t believe the strange looks we got at the airports and around town from non-parents who have no idea who Perry is. We were walking off the plane back home in Phx and the pilot asked…is that a platypus?? Why, yes it is. ;)

Vacation!

I’m on vacation from work for two glorious weeks!!!  Yes, you heard that right…TWO WEEKS!  Can you tell I’m excited??  ;)  Part of the time we’ll be on a trip and part of it I’ll be kicking back at home.  When we get home from our trip (details to come later) I’m hoping to get some craft and sewing projects done.  I’ve got so many things I want to make and just not enough time to do it. 

This weekend, I spent a lot of time at home finishing up a project for my trip.  I was sewing like crazy on Saturday morning, but I took a break when my mom stopped by with some donuts.  It was 11am and Lauren was still in her jammies watching cartoons (ugh).      

 

Lauren went straight for the one with frosting and covered with mini M&M’s.  She picked off all the candy first…

 

Then went in for a bite…

Today was another sewing day to finish everything up and tonight I got my project all packaged up and ready to go!  It’s a great feeling to be finished and I think everyone will love them…

 

Catching up…

Lauren started her 2nd year of preschool last week and she loves it!  She’s going four days a week now from 8:30am-12:30.  It’s only because Joe isn’t working full-time right now that we’re able to have her in a curriculum based pre-school.  If we were both full-time, she would be in daycare.  As much as I miss not having two full incomes, sometimes it’s a blessing.

 

Today I was off work so I gave a half-hearted attempt at a bento lunch with what I had on hand.  Certainly not Wendolonia, my bento idol!

My tomboy girl, who is starting to tolerate an occasional dress, wore this “ballerina” dress today.  If I can convince her that it’s a “ballerina” dress, then half the battle is won right there.  She loves to twirl!

  

Yes, she is holding Perry the platypus (if you’re a mom, you know who he is).  No dolls for this tomboy.  It’s Perry love in our house.  When his leg is squeezed, he makes that strange platypus sound from the show…oh goody! 

I’m working on a big assembly line style sewing project right now.  No, it’s not beach robes like the one I made here, but they are made from beach towels.  I’m making ten of them so I’ll be BUSY for a while and covered in little towel fuzzies until I’m done!

Hot Dog!

Hot dog fans rejoice cause these are the yummiest dogs you’ll ever sink your teeth into!  These bad boys are sonoran style dogs.  I say bad boys because they can’t be much less than 1,000 calories each, so it’s definitely an every once in a while type food.

Here’s the low-down.  You take a bolillo (Mexican sub roll) and toast it up.  Then you add pinto beans, a fat hot dog (we used Hebrew National dinner franks from Costco) wrapped in bacon, shredded cheese, chopped tomatoes and sweet onions, salsa verde and mayo sauce.  Then you take a big bite and go straight to hot dog heaven. 

 

The salsa verde was SOOO good, so I’m sharing the recipe.  

This recipe makes a bowl full of salsa, so you’ll have LOTS of left-over for chips, tacos, etc.

Salsa Verde

1 lb tomatillos, husked and washed
1 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
3 fresh serrano chilies, seeded
1 cup chopped sweet onion
2 cloves of garlic
pinch of sugar
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
sea salt to taste

Put the tomatillos in a saucepan and cover with water.  Bring to a boil, then turn off the heat and allow them to soak for 5 minutes. 

    

Remove from the heat, drain and puree in a food processor.  Add the cilantro, serranos, onion, garlic, sugar, and lime juice and pulse to combine.  Season with salt to taste. 

The mayo sauce is just 4 tablespoons of mayo and a little more than 1 tablespoon of hot sauce (Tabasco or equivalent) and juice of a little more than half a lime.  This sauce would also be delicious on fish tacos. 

Give it all a try…you won’t be sorry!

What a mess!

This is enough to make a grown women cry…

Okay the room was a mess to begin with, but this is how it looked after Lauren disappeared and was suspiciously quite for a while.  This was last night and it still looks like this now and probably will until I get the energy to do something about it.  Ugh.

Bedroom finally done!

A while back we got Lauren some “big girl” furniture at IKEA but we never really got her room done. Everything on the walls was still set up for her old furniture and her room has been a mess.

Today, we spent some time getting her room cleaned up and re-hung all her wall stuff. As you can see in the pics, she LOVES her big girl bed and Tinkerbell comforter set.

This vanity and chair work out perfectly as a little desk and it’s so cute. There are two top drawers and a big pencil drawer for stashing stuff. I’m thinking when she gets older she can use a laptop here and have a quiet spot for homework.

The picture that looks like it’s hung too low is actually a growth chart and I really LOVE it. It’s a painted canvas. I only have today’s height marked right now (39”) so I need to back track and fill in the rest.

This picture is one of the first we ever saw of our sweetie. We fell in love at first sight!

Beach Robe Done!

I had a day off from work today, so I decided to be productive and sew the beach robe I cut out last weekend.  The pattern was done very well and it came together perfectly, but it took me quite a while to pin and sew ALL that bias tape.  That just may be the first and last project with lots of bias tape I’ll be doing in a long while. 

It was well worth the time because Lauren seems to really like it and had no problem humoring me with a little modeling... 

 

This robe, made from a Tarjay towel, is going to work out so much better at the pool than a big bulky beach towel that is usually falling off of her.   She’ll be able to sit and eat her after swim class snack and be cozy and warm.