Gingerbread

The weekend before Thanksgiving Lea and I ventured into full on holiday baking. I'm not the most patient person when it comes to cookies, but I played it smart and made it a two day process. That was great. We mixed the dough one day, baked the cookies the next day before nap and decorated after nap. An awesome way to do it if you have all the time in the world.
Here is my cute little baker with flour on her cheeks while we were cutting cookie.


Mommy & Lea decorate. I thinned out frosting and put it into squeeze bottles and that worked great. We got a tiny bit messy, but nothing like if we'd tried frosting out of a can or using actual pastry bags.


Of course Lea's idea of decorating was squeezing all the frosting into the middle.
Some of Lea's cookies


and then piling on the jimmies and sprinkles I had for them. She didn't understand that if the sprinkle didn't hit the frosting it fell right off. We had far more sprinkles on the plate and the table than on the actual cookies.
House cookie


Although Dan did benefit from this process. I let Lea put her frosting and sprinkle pile on one cookie and then on the SAME cookie let her do a second layer of frosting and sprinkles. We called that the "Daddy cookie" and he said it was great.

Lea sampling her wor. Lea agreed that the cookies were very good.


Video of our decorating.

Halloween 08

And so on this the eve of Thanksgiving I'm finally making time to post Halloween pics. 

We had a good one. We started early. So early in fact that our pumpkins rotted two weeks before Halloween.

Lea in the market buying $25 worth of pumpkins.

But we had fun. We had Teddy, Trevor, Michael and Rus over to carve pumpkins, but the best guest was Wilder. Wilder had a sleep over at our house. 

Lea + Wilder all smiles

brushing teeth. What a couple of cuties.

Lea and Wilder watching a movie on the floor. Lea wanted to sleep in the living room because I was worried Wilder wouldn't like our "guest bed" (a pack N play with the sides cut out) but he was ready to head for bed before Lea!

I had the bright idea that Lea and Wilder could glue pasta and things on the pumpkins. Well Lea and Wilder just ate the raw pasta, but everyone else made great jack-o-lanterns.
We did actually carve pumpkins.
3 pumpkins

Rus + Pumpkin - with Garlic teeth! That was the most awesome pumpkin. I carved it and Rus finished if off with the garlic teeth.

Wilder/Teddy/Trevor carving


Then next day Lea took the gogglie eyes I had for the little pumpkins and made her own little costume.


Finally it was time for Halloween. Our them was fairies. I was the Tooth Fairy, Lea was Tinkerbell and Dan was the Staten Island Ferry. Brilliant!
The Fairy Family

On Thursday before Halloween we went to a neighborhood carnival at the Rec center down the street. It was really fun. 10 tickets for $1 and only 3 tickets to bounce house. They had a few games like throw the ball through the hole and win some candy... but really it was about the bounce house. There were some little girls who were in awe of my dress. One little girl would run up and tell me her brother lost a tooth. I wanted to say, "Don't you understand, I'm no more the tooth fairy than your brother is Batman." But instead, I basked in the glory of being the bell of the fairy ball. One mom actually asked if she could take her daughter's picture with me. That was pretty cool. 

Then on Friday, Halloween we went out the Richardson to a kids party that we've been lucky enough to be invited to for all the years of Lea's life. We trick or treated with Pam, Andrew, Anna and Molly, as well as a new friend  Faith. The party started out with a pot luck and kids playing. We wandered off to trick or treat. The girls were great this year with just the right excitement and innocence. And they got super candy!

Tinker Bell running off to Trick or Treat

Tinkerbell and Tooth Fairy after Tricks or Treats

Trick or Treating with Anna

Lea, Faith and Anna on the porch checking out their candy.
ToothFairy holding sticks I dragged for half a block in my skirt.

Then at the end of Trick or Treats we ended at the Joel and Cheryl Brown's house (The Brownies as Pam calls them). They had a small haunted house in their garage that there son wanted to escort the smaller girls through.

Lea went through once, but wouldn't go all the way through the second time. It was just a maze of black plastic with a skeleton or two and Cheryl dressed as a witch with puch or "witches brew" that Lea wouldn't drink.

The next night was our grown up party. Lea stayed with Grandma. We had a fine time. Sherry was in town for almost a week and a half and a good time was had by all. I mention this mostly because I crafted Sherry's Medusa dress by draping yards of fabric we bought the day before and it turned out damn well. Sherry had awesome snakes in her hair and cool green makeup. I had nothing to do with that, but still... the whole thing together was pretty cool.
Sherry as Medusa

And while we're on the topic of cool stuff I made for Halloween, here is a close up of the teeth I sculpted from Crayola Model Magic (or marshmallow fluff clay as Dalton calls it). I sat in an epic meeting at work sculpting teeth. I kept saying it was the most productive meeting of the year.

State Fair times two

We were lucky enough to visit the State Fair of Texas twice this year. We went the first time on a Sunday with Aunt Teresa on Oct. 5 and then again on Saturday, Oct. 18 with Teddy, Michael and Carrie. We had a blast both times and were there from about 11am to 7pm both trips. That's a lot of fair! We were exhuasted.

The first thing we did when we got to the fair was get Lea some cotton candy. She and daddy enjoyed big bites of spun sugar. Nothing gets you ready for a day at the fair like pure sugar.

Next on our agenda was Little Hands on the farm. We loved it even more this year than we did last year. I think Aunt Teresa had fun too. I love this attraction, its free and educational and fun. But pretty much we did the same thing we did last year and I went into a lot of detail last year so I'll just say we had fun. We did Little Hands on both visits. Both times daddy waited across the way eating his fried bacon. 

little hands video

Lea got to ride on both a little tractor.

And a full size one at the John Deer tent. When we went back the second time there were signs every where that said "Do not play on tractor" and all the big rigs were locked. I'm glad we got the photo when we had the chance.

Then we headed over to watch the "little stampede" or something. Little kids pretend to ride broncs and rope cows. Its for pretty little kids, we'll have to get more involved next year. This year we had fun watching. Lea was engrossed watching the kiddos.

Like a good little cowgirl.

Then around the corner to the petting zoo. We went early this year so we found one single hungry animal. They sell animal chow at the door, which we chose not to buy because we remembered that the animals are so overfed that they don't want anything to do with eating out of your hand. However, walking around, someone just handed Dan a cup of food as they left so Dan gave it a try. And sure enough, he had the deer eating out of his hand.

It was crowded, but not as crowded as last year. Still by the time we made our way all the way round to the giraffe it looks like Lea had had enough. I love this picture. "Mom please stop taking pictures of me with chocolate and cotton candy all over my mouth." At this point we'd been at the fair less than 2 hours and she'd had a nice cream treat, cotton candy and fried bacon.

Then mommy's favorite part of this year's fair. The Backyard Circus. We'd never even sat through a whole Backyard Circus before and this year Lea participated! She waited patiently.

And then was picked to be a Ballet Butterfly. They practiced.

And got costumes and then had to wait some more. She did pretty good waiting, but one bigger girl helped her stay put. It was all so cute.

In her beautiful Ballet Butterfly costume.

backyard circus video

Aunt Teresa's favorite part was the games. Teresa played the "throw the dart at the balloon game," while Lea played the "pick a duck for a prize" game. I thought they were pirate ducks with an eye patch, but they had sunglasses on.  Poor little blind ducks.

Teresa won a bear and Lea won a duck. Lea calls him "Free Duck." Dan says "Yes, enjoy your $10 free duck, sweetie." I don't think he was that much, but he was far from free. Lea and Teresa had fun playing anyway. 

We took a nice little break at the swans. On both trips, with Teresa and with Michael and Teddy we spent at least 45 minutes at the lagoon by the swans. This was a great place to take a break. We needed a break from walking and Lea enjoyed throwing things in the water. On our second trip this also made an excellent base camp because it was just about a block away from the cheapest beer in the fair... 6 ticket beer! So someone would stay at our table while others would wander off for more beer or a bathroom break (and then more beer) while Lea entertained herself throwing things in the water or picking lily pads out of the water. Apparently uncle Micheal watched her lean over into the water and pick about 12 lily pads out. He said "Well, she had a system." At least this particular system did not include falling in. Michael did add, "If she'd fallen in I would have gotten her out, or told her to stand up, its not that deep." He's a good Uncle S'comfy.

Dan and I reveled in the fact that our daughter could be so engaged at just throwing acorns into the water. So what did we do? turn around and head for the rides.
This was the first time Lea wanted to ride anything. She pointed to this round and round mini roller coaster. At the old county fair or Astroworld this ride was called the Alpine. Here it was called the lady bug.
The music was super loud and it went around fast on a track that went up hill and down hill. I think back in 1978 this was a smooth fast ride. In 2008 it was jerky and bone clattering, even in this little kid version. But we did ok.

Mommy and Lea on Ladybug. Doesn't this face say "We're having fun!"

Daddy had more sense than Mommy and picked a ride appropriate for Lea, and not just the one Lea said she wanted to go on. Daddy found the canoe ride. It was very cute to watch her float around the little path. Her review: "I liked it except when for the up and down part." I think you can hear it on the video. So I guess she just liked going in a circle in the canoe.

On the Canoe ride.


On our second trip Lea and Mommy rode a much better ride. We rode the bear. Like the teacups at Disney World there was a wheel in the middle to control how much you spin. Mommy likes to spin! Two ladies and a little girl got in with us. I thought one of the ladies was going to throw up, but she was sitting next to the outside so it was ok. Actually her friend spun us faster than I did. Lea seemed to like it. Hooray having someone to ride roundy round rides with. Both Dan and my mom hate them and Sherry has moved away, so I need someone who will tilt-a-whirl with me. Now I have Lea.

And that about wrapped up our first trip. Even after 8 hours of the fair Daddy and Aunt Teresa had the energy to dance with Lea.






The second trip was more of the same, as I've said. It was very fun to go with Carrie, Micheal and Teddy. They were very helpful watching Lea. They would hold Lea's hand and keep an eye on her. It was very cute. I think this picture said it all.
Teddy and Lea

Michael was awesome at the car show. Lea wanted to get in every single car, so I told her if Michael stopped to look at a car we could get in. Well when he learned he was in control of what cars Lea got to play in, he stopped and looked at almost all of them. He indulged her left and right. We must have crawled in and played in 30 different cars. And to be honest I'm not entirley sure which had more fun playing in the cars, Michael or Lea.

So like I said our second trip was more of the same, but with beer. The impetus to take a second trip to the fair was the Harvey Martin Classic. You see, the university formerly known as East Texas State was playing at the Cotton Bowl. I said I'd go to the football game if it was free... well it wasn't free, it was like $20 and to be honest, I'm not sure I would have gone even if it had been free. Our day got pretty busy. But it did lead to the best photo ever. Here is Michael outside the Creative Arts Building that back up to the Cotton Bowl. Dan pointed out the irony of these signs and Michael did his best to imitate having had too much 6 ticket beer (at this point I don't think he'd had even one).

So we had a great time at the fair both trip. Can't wait for next year.

Put the Biscuit in the Basket

My boss Rick was kind enough to give Dan and I his season ticket holder passes to a Stars Open House. We got to see the arena, have photos with players and skate. By the time we got to the arena the lines were pretty long (some even closed, like Modano and Turko) so we didn't fight the crowds for pictures.

We were "late" for the event... I put late in quotations because it was an open time frame thing, its just the late commers had long lines to contend with. So we were "late" because we went to eat at Snuffers before arriving at the AAC.

Dan surprised me with a fun Lea trick. He had taught her a new phrase. He'd say "What are you going to say when you see a hockey player?" She'd say "Put the biscuit in the basket!" It was so cute. Unfortunately, we didn't see any hockey players. Like I said we didn't wait in the lines, so those poor guys will never know how cute our kid is!

If however we had waited in line we would have been in the Brad Richards (whom I referred to last year as Rocket Richards) and Loui Eriksson. This could have been our Christmas card this year. Oh well...

What we did wait in line for was getting skates. They were all out of the big sizes, so Dan didn't get to skate. I wore skates that were about 2 sizes too small. Lea was having a blast. She'd never skated before, and I guess Dan hasn't either so we will soon be going over to the Plaza of Americas or Galleria or something for a family skating day soon! 

Hockey Video Playlist

When Lea and I talked later, during our nightly 5 questions... an extension of 5 things. First we ask 5 questions, then we do the 5 things we can do. Its a great way to break down the day. The questions range from "What was your favorite part of today?" to "What is ice made out of?" So... we did 5 questions, and one of my questions to Lea was "What did we do on ice today?" Her response, not Skate like I was looking for "We falled!" Yes, indeed we did fall. As we walked to the ice I told Lea I was sure we were going to fall and she didn't believe me. But she did take a tumble or two. Not too bad since she had Daddy to hold on to. He went out with his shoes on and we made it about half way around the skating area (which was only half ice anyway) when a supervisor asked him to leave. He had to take Lea because I didn't feel steady enough to save both of us. Lea didn't like that idea. There were tears. I made my way all the way around the ice, with one stop to sit on the bench... a cool feeling. The whole experience was pretty cool to skate out there and imagine thousands of people watching and cheering. Well if they were watching me, it would be thousands laughing, but I got the idea. It was a cool thing to do.

Then it was off to tour the locker room, which Dan wasn't to interested in. He said he'd seen (and smelled) men's locker rooms before... when it was over he said "Ok, the locker rooms I was in were nothing like that." They were pretty posh. Carpeted and luxurious. But the only thing that inspired me to take a picture was the shower area because of the crazy number of product on the counter... look at all that manscaping goo. A far cry from the hockey guys of yesteryear with no teeth and a funky smell.

And finally we showed Lea the seats. Preparing her for her first game which might come this year. We've been concerned about the noise level, but she's not as sensitive as she was last year. She was just interested in running. She ran all the way down and all the way back up. The energy she has is just unbelievable!

And that was our awesome Star's Season Seat Holder event. Thanks Rick!