Bedtime stories

Our night time routine:

Bubble Bath
Brush Teeth
Dress in her Kerjamas (yes, KERjamas)
Comb Hair (thank goodness for de-tangling spray)

Then it's off to bed!

Oh, but wait! There's more.

First I have to read THREE BOOKS ("Cause I'm Three Years Old!" she says). Her current rotation is Blue Puts on a Play, Olivia, and the Great Cake.


After the books, but before the songs I have to tell her a story about "Baby Lauren" or "Princess Lauren" or "Puppy Lauren." It's basically a roundup of her day that always begins "Once upon a time, Baby/Princess/Puppy Lauren woke up in her room/castle/bed" ...and ends with "...then she took a bath, brushed her teeth, read three books, and now it's time to go to sleep...The end."

Then comes the songs. Unlike the books which change rotation every few days, our bedtime songlist is NOT FLEXIBLE. Believe me, I've tried.

First it's "Happy Heart" from the Veggie Tales Madame Blueberry episode.

The next song is Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. This is how it goes down every night:

Me: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star....
Lauren, interrupting: Mommy...why does Madame Blueberry buy too much stuff?

Me: Because she thinks buying stuff will make her happy...but that's not true.You don't need to buy stuff to be happy.

Lauren: Yeah. And then her house broke.

That happens word.for.word. Every. Single. Night.

After Twinkle Twinkle Little Star it's Somewhere Over the Rainbow. I sing the Judy Garland version but every now and then (upon request) I'll play the Iz Kamakawiwo'ole version on the Ipad. If the rainbow song hasn't done it's trick I break out my no-fail-lullabye, the one Lauren calls the "Angel song." It's Billy Joel's "Lullabye," a sentimental favorite.

If she's not asleep by the end of that one I'm in trouble.

Good night, Sweet Dreams my baby boo.

Sunday Afternoon Tea Party

What better way to spend a Sunday afternoon...

Than with a hot cuppa tea on a brisk Sunday afternoon

Delicious treats
(they're made of plastic but they taste divine..)

Good friends...
(Stitch is the honorary member of the Roundup Gang)

And this face.

Treasure Hunting and other adventures

Ahh, the life of a preschooler is filled with so much adventure that I can barely find the time to update my Facebook status, much less write a blog post...

Example: Tonight, we played hide and seek, hunted for treasure (in the dark scary forest of my craft room), made brownie covered Oreos, had a singing and dancing contest, ate some chicken and corn while watching parts of the Indianapolis/New York Jets football game...all within 3 hours. I'm tired just typing it out.

It used to be I'd put Lauren to bed and then have plenty of time afterwards to go online for some social networking, blogging, and shopping. These days I either fall asleep right alongside her or have just enough energy to drag myself back to my own bed, exhausted and fulfilled..resting up for tomorrow's new adventures.

Funny Girl

Yesterday, Lauren was walking around with this big ol' hole in her pants and her white underwear showing through..right there on her backside, down the middle of her butt. When Uncle Chris asked her over the phone how she split her pants she replied:

I UTOT!!!

(translated: I FARTED!)

Only 3 years old and already a comedian!

Halloween 2010

Lauren's choice for costume this year was LADYBUG (second choice: Grasshopper. Thank goodness she didn't push for that one!)

.
The Trick or Treat Crew and our little ladybug

My friends and their kids came over and the moms went off with the kids while the dads stayed home to distribute candy and watch the World Series (Yay, Giants!). It was hard for me to leave the game but we got updates as we went along and asked for the score every now and then. It seemed everyone had the game on TV.

Trick or Treat!

By the end of the night, Lauren's basket of candy was so heavy it was dragging on the ground. We took her stash and let her have a couple of pieces that night and one piece a day for the week after Halloween. Once the lollipops ran out she wasn't interested. Planning to make christmas candy leis with all that leftover candy.

I made yummy Giants cookies and spooky ghosts.

It's Pumpkin Time Again!

Lauren's class had their first field trip today to a pumpkin patch. We arrived at 9 am and I foolishly thought that there would be light traffic at the farm since it was a weekday. I don't know what I was thinking. I think EVERY single preschool, kindergarten, and elementary class in Placer County had a field trip to that same farm that day. It was pretty hectic and busy but enjoyable nonetheless.

We enjoyed the hayride to the field where we got to roam around and pick the perfect pumpkin. Lauren picked a two tone (i.e. unripe) little pumpkin and was so excited that it was both green AND orange. There was also a petting zoo, a train ride and this patch of HUGE pumpkins for display only.

One of the best parts of the field trip? The freshly baked apple spice muffins, apple cake, and apple turnovers

Cuzzy

We're back home from So-Cal..dead tired but so happy. While we were down there we attended a Mexi-Cambodian wedding in Pasadena and got to spend a few special days with our cousins. Best of all, Lauren got to hang out with her cousin, B-Nut.

B-Nut is a bit older than Lauren and this is the first time that they actually got to PLAY together. We spent a few days at his super-cool new house and they became fast friends. They bonded over the iPad, colored, painted Halloween ceramics, went to a park, played hide and seek, got on each other's nerves, chased the cat, read bedtime stories, and we practically had to separate the two at bedtime. The fist thing out of Lauren's mouth in the mornings was "Where's Kuya B-Nut?"

I wish they lived closer to us, and can't wait to see them again. We're already planning our next trip down there.