Let's Face It

Another art project I have been trying is face painting. My girls just love getting there faces painted, but it can be expensive and seasonal. So I thought why not learn to do the ones they love the best, right at home. I also wanted to get good by my youngest daughters second birthday, so I could paint all the kids faces. Not sure how that will go, but practice makes perfect right?

My first try at a Butterfly Mask

My Second Butterfly Mask

Charlotte didn't want to sit still long, but I did a happy sun for her!

Jazzy's Angel Wings

We didn't have time to paint at the party. Then my husband took over for 4th of July...and he is a natural artist, oh well I tried! On to my next idea.

You Know Your a Los Angelenos When...

You Know Your a Los Angelenos when... You know that Hollywood is a real place, and no one wants to go there. You refer to freeways by their numbers. Your sense of direction is: Toward the beach and away from The Valley, by the 101 and the 10. You know that planning something outdoors in January/ February is just asking for rain. When it sprinkles, you know it will be covered on every news channel as 'Storm Watch'. When buying flowers you go to the Flower District instead of calling a 1-800 number. You know what a Mission is. You always include your city when giving your address, and your area code when giving your number.
You think its 'freezing' when you have to remember to wear a coat and long sleeves. Boots are not practical they are a fashion statement. Know that the 'Santa Ana's' and 'Earthquakes' are also types of weather. Are not surprised when you pass multiple uprooted trees in December. Know that it can be 80 degrees anytime of year. Your winter activities include going to the beach. You think of anything hanging from the ceilings or walls as Earthquake Hazards. You hear 'Big Bear' & 'Mammoth' and think of snow before animals. You know that it does snow in California.
Going to Disneyland and Universal Studios is back up plan for any dull weekend. If people from other states tell you their city is diverse too, you laugh. When you hear a house is selling just below $1 Million you say, not bad! When someone asks you how long it will take to get there, before you answer you ask them what time of day they will be going. You laugh when you drive by the crowds of people lining up at movie premiers with cameras. You know that when your in 90210 doesn't mean rich or on TV. Have seen a real 'hippy'. You can spot a Los Angeles landmark in most movies, even when they are portrayed as being somewhere else.   You think smog makes the most beautiful sunsets.

Preschool Graduation

Hard to believe it, but my oldest daughter is done with preschool! I was sad the first day I dropped her off at preschool when she was just 3, and so was she. I was sad when she graduated, even though I thought the whole idea of a preschool graduation rather unnecessary. They sang sad songs about goodbye and growing up, so sad my daughter didn't want to sing them, they made her sad too. The girls wore red, the boys blue, cap, gown, hat, tassel and all.  My daughter acted so grown up, graciously taking the flowers and gifts she received from family and making sure to say goodbye to kids she would most likely not see again.  As far as we know only one kid from her preschool will be going to her new elementary school. Which is a point that my five year old points out often, when I remind her of all the new friends she will know by this time next year. I really thought it was crazy to have a preschool graduation, but it really changed my little girl. I think she and I both realized she was growing up and moving on to Kindergarten.  Saying goodbye to things can be steps towards growing up, first her Binky, then diapers, then preschool and naps.  Now she is proud, to be moving on to Elementary School, and maybe her next graduation wont be so scary since she will know a little of what to expect. Now, we have a great possible Halloween costume, and next I just have to survive the first day of kindergarten!

Bugging Out With Summer Time Blues

I have heard, 'I am bored', and 'I don't want to do that, that's boring', one too many times already this summer. So I went shopping at Michael's Craft Stores and bought some fun art projects for us to work with this summer to keep Mama happy and my two little girls.

First off we made foam bugs. My mother in law was over the day we did these, they are self adhesive and come with many pieces.  Eyes, bodies, wings, pipe cleaners for antennae and you can even make them into finger puppets.  Although they are self adhesive, it is not a strong glue, so we tried others and quickly realized we needed one stronger then Elmer's.  I ended up digging out my hot glue gun which worked great! It took quite a bit of time, and we had fun. The house was pretty quite while we were concentrating, except for Charlotte who was busy pulling the eyes and dots off the the finished bugs. End result, see the picture below, not bad for a bunch of kids and amateurs.

Our foam bugs!

The Writing On The Wall...

My adorable, not yet two toddler, has done the unthinkable! Yes, little Charlotte drew on the wall with blue crayon!  Now, how did she get the crayon in the first place?  Her older sister, left a few crayons and kid scissors reachable after she finished a 'project' she was working on.  Now, I am glad Charlotte didn't get the scissors, but for the first time in my motherhood, I was so shocked I was not mad.  I scolded both of them out of habit.  Then made both of them try to remove it, just to show how hard it is to remove crayon from the wall!  I don't know why, but I thought only kids that were as wild as my sisters and I were as young children did things like that.  Yes, dad I remember the time I put the crayons in the floor heaters to see if they would melt.  I also remember piercing my dolls ears with real earrings, and even cutting my barbies hair.  This is why I am so particular about keeping objects out of reach that can cause some serious damage to the home, the kids toys and even the kids themselves.  Yet, I too have failed to prevent things once again from turning my house upside down.  Over the years I am beginning to try to accept that failure is going to happen, but its not just the end result that matters, its the way you handle the bumps on the way there.

Yes, I finally got the crayon off, well most of it, and yes the paint is mostly gone from that spot on the wall, but you know, worse things can and could have happened. Que Sera. This photo is now a cute memory for me and one I can surely tease my little one with later some day down the road, just for laughs.

Chocolate Rice Krispies with Sprinkles

Today we made some Rice Krispie Treats.  I was searching the web for some new recipes to mix up the traditional version.  I was craving a chocolate peanut butter version, which oddly enough I never found (well except in a balled, version too messy to do with my girls running around).  I did find alarmingly most of the recipes do not just add more ingredients to the original recipe.  The variation recipes change the basic original recipes from simple; butter, marshmallows, and cereal, to; caro syrup, sugar, and cereal.  Some even recommended adding things like salt, cranberries, and nuts.  Well, I don't want them to be any sweeter then they would be by adding some simple toppings or mix ins.  I was going to try combining a few recipes I found online to make my own Chocolate Peanut Butter version.  However, when it was time to make them, my daughter was not interested in adding peanut butter to her precious Rice Krispies, but she did finally give in to adding some chocolate!!  I will have to try my own version later.  I also showed my daughter all the things we could add to it, and she decided just add chocolate (2 tbsp of unsweetened coco powder) to the melted marshmallows and then sprinkle the end product with candy sprinkle decorations.  I think they will be her favorite ever, with no added sugar, caro syrup or salt!

A Traveling We Go...

I recently went on a trip out east with my two girls to visit some family, and thankfully my dad flew with us as well.  Unfortunately, it was during what is now referred to as the 2011 Groundhog Day Blizzard in Chicago.  Our flight had one stop, which was in Chicago.  The day before we were to leave, I tried to check in online and found out then that the flight had been cancelled. We could have flown only one day late, if we wanted a red eye flight, which I really was trying to avoid with my 19 month old Charlotte, and my 5 year old, Jasmine.  So we had to reschedule it for two days later.  Although we were lucky not to be stuck in Chicago during the storm, as I am sure many unfortunate people were, we still ended up sitting in Chicago O'Hare Airport for 5 hours only to find out they cancelled that flight too.

Charlotte, my 19th month old had never flown before.  She cried when we got on the plane from Los Angeles to Chicago, but once the plane began to move, she stopped crying. All three people seated in front of us requested to be moved (not that I can really blame them), but after that, she was good the rest of the time.  Since Charlotte didn't have her own seat, she even napped on me. When we got to Chicago, since we were not fed on the plane from LA to Cleveland from 9am - 4pm we raced through a meal to get to our gate on time for our flight to leave.

Only when we arrived to our gate there was no agent at the American Eagle gate or a plane. Our flight was to board at 4:30 pm and leave by 5pm. A little while later, an agent for a later flight arrived, and we inquired what was going on with our flight. We were then told, 'the plane was in the hanger but we will let you know when we get more information'. This went on for 2 hours. While we were waiting, the monitors that listed the times of all the flights still said 'On-Time' for our flight.  They just kept changing the flight time by about 30 minutes each time the old projected flight time passed. My kids were running around crazy trying to entertain themselves, and I was losing my patience.

Then after about 2 hours, a small plane arrived at our gate. Oddly enough, then they announced that there was 'no flight attendant for our flight', and when they knew where she was they would let us know. Then the attendants began to be very short and upset with all the people asking questions about the flight. This flight was operated by American Eagle since it was a smaller plane from Chicago to our destination. The lack of updates from the agents, led to people inquiring more and more often.  I have flown my fair share since I was a young child, but this is the worst airline customer service I had ever experienced. The lack of caring and control was obvious from each person working at the gate. Once an aggravated agent told someone asking about the flight, quite loudly, that the flight would probably be cancelled due to the flight attendant who didn't come to work, since she probably was sick or something, but she couldn't confirm the cancellation at this point. I thought to myself, they won't really cancel the flight like that will they? After losing so much money from the 13,000 flights that were canceled just days earlier due to the storm, you think they would have a little more consideration, right? I was almost ready to freak out.  After another hour of waiting they then announced they have found a new flight attendant to take the flight and they would be there at 8:30 pm, and we were all relieved.  Until, about five minutes later they announced that the flight was cancelled with no further explanation.  They also would not be able to rebook anyone and to call an American Airlines 1-800 number to reschedule our flight with them.

I felt like I was on some sort of a movie. Was this really happening? I was at my wits end, I had two kids crying. One wanting simply to lay down and go to bed, and they other wanting to know why other people near by where getting on planes one after another, while we continued to sit there waiting.  My dad was upset but remained more calm then me.  Now, normally I would call my husband and vent my frustrations but unfortunately my battery was dead after I had let my kids play on it during the first flight, and my charger I had of course packed in my checked luggage.  I had a fit from imagining going to a hotel over night and feeling helpless and upset that my girls had to be dragged though this, but my dad kept on.  After all what else could we do?  We walked down to the booths for calling the American Airlines 1-800 number and they scheduled us on a flight the next morning, I was ranting about how I would be less than thrilled with leaving the airport.  I had been hearing flights leaving for LA constantly during the 4 hours we were waiting, and the thought of going home right then crossed my mind. On our way out of the airport we passed another flight to the same place on American Airlines and we asked to be put on the standby list. We were warned that we would most likely not get on since it was a full flight. As we sat and waited many people came got on the standby list as well, even some that were trying to get on our last flight on standby. After waiting awhile for everyone to board I am glad to say we were able to get on the flight at 9:30pm, which was delayed as well, and we landed just after midnight in Ohio.  I have never been so happy to get on a plane in my life! Though I love Chicago and would like to spend more time there someday, I didn't want to do it that way with two kids after the day we had, and then rush back to the airport to leave in a few hours the next day. As the plane began to move my 19 month old said, "Bye Chicago"! I was so proud.

Visiting family is always fun and this time was precious for me. We got to play in the snow, met new cousins, and say goodbye to others.  Before we flew back, I had chalked up our bad experience there was weather related, and the after effects that greatly affected business in the Chicago O'Hare airport and people flying.

Crazy as it may sound, our flight back home, was worse.  No, not due to flight delays, but because my youngest, cried non stop until she threw up all over me and herself, my dad, and the ladies luggage behind us. Fortunately people were very understanding of our situation, it is awful to be stuck on a plane and have no where to go to comfort your sick baby, or even to change your clothes.  I thought possiably she was air sick, until I realized, it was just this flight, this day, it had to be that she had caught the stomach flu some of my family had gotten while we were visiting.

Once we got home, I was glad the trip was over thank goodness, but then on Sunday Jasmine got the same type of stomach flu Charlotte had on the plane home. Today I am feeling kinda queasy too, hope I am not next. One thing that's for sure, is I wont be flying with the girls again any time soon.  I am truly sorry for everyone on our flight that had to listen to the crying on and off all the way to LA.

Back to Work, Already?!

I am a happy stay at home mom. I love my girls, I love my husband, and I love where we live.  Lately the topic of money has been hovering over our family for sometime now. In a heated conversation about budgeting, saving, and where does the money go my husband blurted out, "You need to go back to work!" Of course later he told me he was not really serious about the demand for me to be working again, but I knew it was on his mind. We all get frustrated about money, especially this time of year, when peoples W-2's are coming in to prepare us for the dreaded yearly tax filing.  We begin asking ourselves, where did it all go?

I had no intention at any point in my life prior to the birth of my children, and perhaps even a little after that, of being a stay at home mom. I was going to be a career woman. Laugh if you will, but that is what I thought.  Now here I am in my thirties asking should I go back to work, and what would I do if I did?  I, like many others, have worked most of my life.  As a child I would get paid for doing extra chores for my parents which led me to wanting more extra cash, which led to babysitting.  Babysitting eventually led me to my first real job, at a restaurant.  The restaurant was owned by our neighbors, for whom I used to babysit.  I was 15 and had to get permission from my school, called a work permit. At the time I thought it was strange my school had something to say about it, but there it is.  I loved meeting my coworkers at the restaurant, but I was a table busser. I would try to make my job more fun, by having races with the other bussers who could clean a table the best, at the fastest speed.  Since I was only 15, I thought my boss was too strict. I would get the 'glare' if I was in the bussing station talking for even a minute to my fellow employees, which meant to get back to work.  I learned that pleasing my boss would make my job more satisfying. The job didn't last long, from what I remember, but it was my first lesson in the importance of pleasing people.

Before I had kids, I worked in the book business. In the last week, my old company has been contacting me to ask if I am available to work again.  It really surprised me and I began to wonder if I am supposed to go back to work now. Then I hear my 18 month old calling, "Mommy, Mommy, MOM!" and I remember who I work for now can be very demanding. At times, my kids drive me crazy and I feel as if I could pull my hair out.  However, on the other hand I am having a hard time thinking of my 18 month old in a daycare. Economically, I have to decide if I can make enough money to cover the cost of daycare. After that I will have to deal with my trust issues. Living in Los Angeles, I am not sure how people are able to trust enough to leave their kids with strangers in this city.  How do you really know who they are? Then again I trust my daughters preschool, and will be sending her to the local public elementary school with few reservations.  I have been lucky enough to be at home with my first daughter until she started preschool when she was 4. Will I not be able to do the same with my second?  I have a feeling my second will be starting preschool way before she is 4. In a time where jobs are scarce and money is tight, I am curious when will the right time be for me to return to the working masses.

The bigger question may be, am I ready to go back to work? My wardrobe certainly is not, my little scheduled life would be thrown out the window as well.  Yet, maybe I am ready to be back with the well dressed, busy working adults. Contributing to society, creating office relationships, with no talk about naps, and potty, and diapers. I realized I still want to be that stay at home mom, just a little longer. I want to be there for the big steps, like potty training, and kindergarten which are right around the corner for my girls. My girls will grow in time, and I know when they go to school then I too must go back to work.  These precious years I am sharing with them, when they are just beginning their life, are wonderful memories for me.  Memories full of chubby arms, baby talk, sweet kisses, hugs, diapers and nap time that I wouldn't trade for more money in the bank.