Local 'Carn-i-cal'

Okay, I realize this weekend is already upon us, apparently I am behind. Here is a glimpse of the local carnival from last weekend :

Carrying on her current love of carousals, we bucked up and paid the $3 for the approximate 90 second ride.

Once we (very quickly) realized how stinkin' over-priced it was, we quickly limited her to one ride, one game. In normal Tesfu fashion, she was still as happy as can be. Afterwards, Brad and Tes ganged up on me and said it would be very very mean if I made her go to bed at her normal time. It was just too nice outside, and we were just having too much fun of the family variety. So we started up a bonfire in the backyard, and cooked up some smores.

The smore aftermath. If possible, it was actually worse than it looks, even.

Wonderful evening spent with my two favorite people!

In Tesfu's World

Why hello, popsicle. So we meet again...

Hope everyone had a five sugar-free popsicles kind of weekend.
Tesfu surely did.

Peace.

Before / After

Indulge me for a moment and pretend to be interested. A few 'ooos' and 'ahhhs' would be nice, too. I promise I will be fooled, I am a pretty gullible lady.

before :

This unfortunately is the only picture I could find... I'm calling it 'Crappy grey masonite at dusk'.

In process. No, I do not think this was a good idea. See below for proof of my disapproval.

My sister and I being very disapproving.

after :

The finished product. And a beautiful little girl dancing in jubilation.

Another view.
*insert your 'ooos' and 'ahhs' here*

Hey, as long as you are indulging me... I also accept applause for putting up with the strange (late) hours our workers decided to pound on my house, which totally threw Tes' bedtime off of schedule. And for the mess the new windows made on my carpets (and continue to, we are still working on framing them in on the inside ourselves). Now tell me you love me.

BubbleGum Firsts

We finally did it. After months of Tesfu's begging, we gave in. We let her have a (half a) piece of gum.



Apparently, it was everything she dreamed it would be, because she chewed it for f o r e v e r . And asked for more.

Glad we could make your weekend, kiddo.

Peace.

Chef Tes

The kiddo and I are indeed very spoiled - Brad is an EXCELLENT cook. We have a nice little system worked out - Brad does the cooking, enabling us to eat delicious meals, and I do the clean up, so it can start all over the next day. Honestly, he even packs my lunch in the morning and leaves it on the counter for me. *swoon* I know. Be jealous.

Anyway, the three of us were sitting around in those wonderful cuddly moments between being done reading our nighttime books but before plopping Tesfu in bed for the night, when she quipped, “When I grow up, I want to be a boy so I can cook dinners”.

She did not look too convinced when I told her she indeed could cook, too, even though she is a girl.

Hey, I don’t blame her. I’ve eaten my food, too.

Hello Goodbye Weekend

The weekend was over in a blink of an eye. Brad had a last minute offer to take a (virtually) free weekend motorcycle trip, so the kiddo and I had the whole weekend to just our little girly selves. Oh, and did I mention that our new siding is currently being pounded on? As in .constant. pounding. So, I planned as much away from home activities as possible. But cheap. Away from home, no pounding, and cheap. Those were my goals.

This is what we ended up doing :

Since Tes thinks city buses are the pretty much the coolest thing ever, I decided see if that applied to the light rail, too. We hopped on and took the 35 minute ride to MOA.

Nickelodeon Universe at MOA. Bleh. Neither of us where impressed, until the little girl who can spot a lion out of the corner of her eye from 40 paces away saw an Alex the Lion stuff animal in one of the stores. She had $10 to spend, so Alex got to come home with us.

With both of her lion friends in tow (new Alex and Nala from home), she insisted we find a pretzel store. Ummm... okay. Didn't know you liked pretzels so much, kiddo, but whatever. When you are jonesen' for a pretzel, you're jonesen' for a pretzel.

On the train ride home, a train on the track in front of us broke down. We sat on the rail for an additional 20 minutes waiting for them to get it running, where Tes treated everyone to her two line rendition of the 'Scooby-Doo' song over and over. And over.

And over.

Then it was off to the pizza buffet for dinner, a showing of Madagascar (because she just HAD to show Alex himself in the movie), and was sound asleep by 7:45. Fantabulous.

Sunday :

I was super crabby today for reasons only known to the woman-folk out there, and it just so happened to be the hottest day yet this summer. I think. Or, at least if felt like it. But, I sucked it up, and went to Como to visit (who else?) but the lions.

And Sparky the seal. (Yes, that is Auntie you see in the background. She was nice enough to agree to come with, even given my super-b*thcyness this morning. Thank goodness for Aunties.)

And since this mean, mean, mean Mommy would not spend $18.95 to ride the carousel at Nickelodeon yesterday, we rode at Como today. She loved it. I honestly didn't think I was going to be able to pry her off.

Brad ended up making it home much later than I thought, so I was caught with nothing planned for after nap (TWO HOUR nap, by the way - what is with all this sleeping?! Growth spurt? Getting sick?) so... I thought quick and brought out the sprinkler. Child was sufficiently occupied.

And crazy cute.

Now all I need is a weekend to recuperate from my weekend :)

New windows and siding will be done this week. I will post before/after pics when it is all done, just because I am so darn happy it is almost done. Plus, now that we have this big expenditure which we could not put off any longer done - we can start saving for actual important things. Like adoption #2. We should be ready to go... let's see - add nine, carry the one, divide by 2/3... the year 2025.

*sigh*

Peace.

Princess II

Same princess, different princess dress.

princess

a princess and her swing.




peace.

I've learned to just not ask...

One moment we are having a great time playing outside, Tes joyfully pouring water from watering can into a bottle cap and proceeding to drink it (you know, 'normal' Tes stuff) :



Next thing you know, she is bare-butt naked and trying to get everyone to get in the car with her so she can drive us to Grandpa's.



Not sure if we were required to be naked for this trip, too...
Sometimes I find its just better to not ask.

Peace, until next time. Keep your clothes on.