Leopard Spots

Cub's New Camera

Another Christmas as a single momma down. And another amazing year! 

The little leopards were so generous by allowing my to sleep in until 7:30. I truly expected to be up at 5 in the a.m. They even got dressed before we went out to the tree to open the presents! 

Of course, they received the normal gifts. Cub pretty much got all the High School Musical and Hannah Montana stuff she could ever want. Kitten got a ton of doll stuff so she is content being a little mommy to her new doll and old ones as well. Now that she has all the gear! I actually had to take her new doll stroller down to my uncle's later in the day. I think she needs to go back and read my stroller rant post! 

The big gift of the day, however was a camera! Big Brother who has decided somewhere in these past six months of getting to know each other that I am a pretentious film snob or something like that (I wasn't really listening) mostly because he's probably right. He also thought he would stoke the pretentious fire for the next generation and get Cub a camera. It's a pretty rugged Fisher Price toy digital camera. A perfect for the first time snob, I mean photographer!

Once we got batteries in the camera she was off. Cub took close to 300 photos on Christmas Day. I deleted most of them because they were of pretty much nothing. But it's so fun to see her framing her shots, arranging the items she's going to photograph and instructing people how to pose. Omigoosh! Once we got down to my uncle's house she had a whole family of captives I mean willing models...we all had a blast posing for photos and taking some and laughing every time Cub took a photo of some and said, "Gotcha!" 

The best part of new camera day was what Cub decided to take for her first photo. A picture of me! As most of you momma's know all too often we fade into oblivion when it comes to mommy hood because we are the ones stuck behind the camera! And now I finally have someone who's going to take photos of me! Big Brother doesn't know it yet (until he reads this) but that in itself is a huge gift. I get to be a part of my own family's photographic story. 

Here are a few photos from Cub's first day as a photographer, she even started working on self portraits! Goodness a little photographic monster has been created!

Going a little experimental on that one! Love it! 

The first self portrait!

Visit Cub's photo stream here. I'll upload the next batch tomorrow!

already?

Honestly, I have nothing at all to write at this point. I'm completely in shock that Christmas is only three days away! I feel so unprepared! 

I work straight through until Christmas (the joys of retail)...I have a couple of last minute presents to wrap but all of my shopping is DONE...and then perhaps even bigger than Christmas...my cousin is turning 21 on Tuesday! I will do a birthday post just for her because she is truly my sister more than a cousin. We have been through so much together and even though we are 8 years apart in age, we are inseparable! 

After that we are looking forward to a low key Christmas Eve, just preparing everything for a crazy, crazy Christmas! Filled with family and fun and hopefully some skating (which will be another post) if it's not too cold!

Happy early Christmas everyone and keep your head above water until the big day! 

Cozy Wednesdays...

With the cold weather (abnormally cold) and snow days (abnormally snowy) upon us, The Baby and I have holed up in the house during our days. Normally, that day is Wednesday. I have it off every week (yay, retail schedule!), but during the holiday season I have most of Friday off as well. Don't get too excited, it's cause I work until midnight. 

Anyhoo, today after we got back from dropping Cub off at school (woo, a whopping 2 degrees our for that jaunt!) we snuggled back in our own beds for a little movie watching. After a little bit though, The Baby always crawls into Momma's bed for some snuggle time and we hang out there until our day absolutely has to get started. Normally, around the time of that first poopie diaper! 

Today, and because I'm not sure if my mom reads my blog, so you'll just have to click the link to read on...that is unless you're my mom...then don't ruin your Christmas surprise!

Like two movie watching peas in a pod...

...only one is the Baby and the other is her newest bestie "Beary" 

Her dear, newly found uncle got it for her on their first visit last month. Oh, wait that was almost two months ago?!?! Omigoosh!

Beary and the Baby were instant friends. Never mind the fact that Beary looks suspiciously like a dog. 

Even so, Beary has joined the Baby's entourage of her Dora blanket and Dora pillow. For her to go anywhere requires some serious logistical planning!

However, as some of you may know, the Baby has a deep, deep love with movies. She really doesn't watch any TV. No interest at all, but she does love her movies. And I normally allow one or two a day. 

For the most part I feel like it's a wasted effort as she runs around the house like a crazy lady and doesn't pay any attention to what is on at all. Yet, she somehow is able to quote endless movie lines...go figure!

Every once in awhile though, I find her curled up with her newest friend, Beary. It's so sweet seeing the Baby, the bear/dog, a Dora blanket and of course her pillow all snuggled to watch a movie. And as winter has been tightening its grip on this state, this has become an almost daily occurrence. 

This morning was no exception, a showing of Polar Express (it's Christmas time, you know!), and the Baby's entire entourage snuggled in her bed. A good thing as we are preparing for our first winter snow of the year! 

Christmas is Fancy and Other Musings From Kitten.

My work schedule has settled down slightly this week and Kitten and I have been spending the mornings together again. This is truly my most favorite time of the day. That and the precious moments I get to spend with Cub, but she's five going on forty so they are increasingly intellectual rather than sweet. 

Somehow, Kitten has gotten word that it is the Christmas season. This scares for two reasons.

1) I did not tell her it was Christmas. Where is this child getting her information and who is this person who will paying for all her presents she is asking for now that she knows what season it is? This. Is. Scandalous!

2) It is not quite Thanksgiving yet and she is already telling me it is Christmas. She is clearly on a retail schedule. Oh, dear I am concerned for her future vocation. Not that there is anything wrong with being in retail management, I just didn't realize she settled on her vocation at such a young age! 

Aside from being scared of my daughter's extensive knowledge of Christmas we having been musing about this wonderful time of year. 

We already have our advent calender hung on the fireplace. We have never done one before, but my aunt sent this wonderful calendar our way and the girls just can not wait to start using it! 

Christmas means Holiday movies. I don't know if any of you have caught wind of it, but Kitten likes her movies. And she loves her holiday movies. Especially Polar Express, she didn't stop watching that one until February of last year!

Christmas means winter, and winter means lazy days with Momma. We love us our lazy days. Cuddling and running only a couple errands. We don't even care about our field trips to the zoo anymore, mostly cause there aren't any dolphins. 

Winter means, school breaks and adding Cub to our lazy days. Just the three of us leopards, hanging out, being our silly selves! 

And lastly, 

Winter means hot chocolate and on our lazy days we make hot chocolate for lunch with marshmallows AND whipped cream. We hate to play favorites in this house and so we use both generously!

Just so you all know, that's fancy, as in marshmallows are fancy, which means winter is fancy, which means Christmas is fancy...

Just so you all are aware! 

Guacamole Anonymous...

Hi.

My name is Momma Mac.

And I'm a Guacamaholic.

It all started innocently enough. Really. There was a time in my life when I did not even like guacamole.

I miss those days. Truly, I do. 

But as I grew up and started to appreciate the avacado, things changed...

It started as a simple little dance, you know...I just had it during lazy days by the pool in summer and perhaps you know, a few dips at a party I was at. 

And then I started making guacamole, because you know, it was yummy and I appreciated it. It started to become clear I had a problem, becuase you know I just needed to make more. Always more, go on kids keep playing, Momma needs to make the guac...

But as summer ends, so did my guacamole making. See I can (and have quit!) any time I want.

Except, these past two weeks my addiction has reared its ugly head. 

Long holiday hours have kept me away from the kiddos and at home meals and I have been scavenging the mall for the best chips and guacamole combo they have. 

EVERY DAY I WORK. 

I take my break as early as possible to find another place...

I'm hoping it's just the stress of working retail during the holiday season. Really, I am.

Or, I have a problem.

So please, help me ease my addiction, when out shopping this year be nice, you could be sending someone off the guacamole deep end! 

Kitten's Pu Panda!

For those of you that read this blog, you may have noticed the the baby is a little obsessed with the movie Kung Fu Panda, this can be noted by reading this or perhaps this. 

Also, if you watch any amount of television you may have noticed that Kung Fu Panda was released on DVD this past Sunday. 

Wait for it...

I have not gotten it yet.

Wait...

WHAT?!?!

That's right, my copy, or shall I say the baby's copy is still sitting on a store shelf somewhere. I'm sure I'll run out some time this week and pick up a copy, but the baby still will not be the proud owner of this DVD.

No, she's gonna have to wait until Christmas. 

That's right.

I simply cannot deal with repeated viewings of this movie until then. 

Have I mentioned the baby is obsessed?

And honestly, the movie is not that great. I can say this. I've seen it twice in theaters. So I'm good. And the baby is not smart enough to figure out that it's out on DVD.

Now if only I can keep her sister quiet...

The Ballerina and Kung Fu Panda

Okay, so this is a little late but I'm posting it! Our Halloween adventure!

First off, costumes. I really try to discourage the "pre-packaged" costumes. They're easier, yes, but honestly, how many Hannah Montana costumes did you see this year? However, that doesn't mean we haven't done them more often than not. 

This year, the girls had some great costume ideas and we went with those. 

The baby has just a little obsession with Kung Fu Panda, or as she calls it..."PU PANDA!!!" Okay, okay...it's a full blown obsession. You can't really see the homemade panda ears in the photo, but they're there. Along with a cool face painting job. I couldn't find an appropriately sized panda mask, so we did facepaint instead. And she actually enjoyed getting her face painted!

People loved it! And most got what she was dressing up as!

This is the second year in a row that Cub has gone as a "Ballerina Fairy Princess." Notice sparkly balley flats and leotard (ballerina), the fairy wings (fairy) and wand, the girls have broken all their tiaras (princess, and feel free to read into the tiara statement as well!) Easy and fun, and yes she did drop her Nim from Nim's Island plan as well! 

And a photo of the little leopard's together!

So after the photo session, we headed off trick-or-treating. But not in the neighborhood. We headed to the Mall of America!

Yeah, you read that right. World's Largest Indoor Trick-or-treat!

There are three levels to the mall, but we only did the first level and got enough candy. As the kid's get older we'll add the second and third levels to the mall, but that was enough for the little leopards. And they did enjoy it! Cub even declared it, "The best halloween ever!"

After the trick-or-treating fun we came home, ate some dinner and then Cub started handing out candy to all of the trick-or-treaters that came to our house. Cub, as I've said before is my little 40 year old in a 5 year old body. She completely owned handing out treats. She ooo'd and aaah'd over all the costumes and helped the little kids get candy. I actually think that she had more fun giving the candy away (I know, odd child) than she did getting it. 

She cried when we ran out of candy and had to shut the door!

So, it was a great Halloween and Kitten is already planning her return of PU PANDA!!!

Pumpkin Day as told by the directionally challenged mom.

It is a long weekend in the state of Minnesota. The teacher's have their statewide union thing, so the kids normally get two days to all five days off (school's tend to throw conferences in the mix for this week as well).

In an effort to occupy the kid's this week, I told them I would take them to a pumpkin patch. You know, go out onto the field, grab your pumpkin from the muddy earth. Get dirty. You know, loads of little leopard fun. 

Apparently, those are hard to find.

I guess we like our fall/harvest festivals more in this state.

Everyone has a corn maze or a hayride. And loads and loads of other activities. And then at the end of the day, you can grab a pumpkin that has already been picked for ya.

That's not what I really had in mind.

So I started calling around and after quizzing the poor person who answered the phone about their pumpkin selling practices and I found one. Really far away.

But never fear! 

I have an iPhone! I Google mapped it and we were on our way!

Except that there is a ton of construction in the city we went to and the streets weren't all that well marked. And we passed something more exciting that Cub just had to go to. 

So we forewent finding the really cool pumpkin patch. And going and grabbing our pumpkins from the field.

Because commercialism is what captivated my five year old child. 

That's them posing by the numerous little cutouts. Aren't they adorable? At least that's an image of a pumpkin patch!

And this is my little Kitten as well, a cub!

And in fall festival tradition there had to be a hayride involved. Yay! It was also on an over sized radio flyer wagon attached to a tractor. So that was kind of cool. 

Feet have to be dug into the hay. And there is still hay in my purse as well. I'm looking forward to cleaning that thing out for the next month! 

Umm, that would be the "pumpkin patch."

These are the pumpkins we chose, after much inspection. They're actually the nicest pumpkins we've ever gotten. I'm going to be kind of sad when we cut them up.

At the end of the day, Cub looked at me and said, "Next year let's go to a pumpkin patch to get our pumpkins instead of the store."

Sure honey, sure. 

So many decisions...

Okay, so the above is last year's holiday card.

Pretty freakin' cute. Yeah?

I know.

The little leopards take a good pic. 

I have all these adorable photos for this year that I want to use for the holiday card. 

And a coupon for Shutterfly. But I need to order by the end of October. 

Which means I need to order them soon! 

While I loved this format, I don't want to do it again, I kind of want something with more flexibility...

Any thoughts???