Today I Made Pancakes.

I haven't given my kids anything more than eggs, cold or hot cereal, and fruit for breakfast in a loooooooooooong time.  Today I got up early and made them pancakes and chicken apple sausages.  It was all really good.  I sampled some for myself before I gave them some.  Totally loved the pancake recipe I tried!  It calls for buttermilk, but of course I replaced it with homemade rice drink instead.  Fluffy, syrupy bliss was the result. 

Guess what?

The girls ate two bites of pancake, five bites of sausage and then just wanted saltine crackers.  They were so unimpressed with my special efforts. 

**sigh**

I'm pretty sure they are coming down with whatever Tony had last week.



Like my apron?  It totally saved my clothes while cooking the sausage.  My bloggy friend, Elizabeth is having a giveaway for a darling apron over at her space, Home Musings.  Hurry over there to enter because it ends today! 

Today I Did a LOT of Cuddling.

Kind of a continuation of yesterday.  Sometimes you just have to step off the merry-o-round for the sake of those you love and let the to-do list lay unchecked. 

We've done lots of hugging, laughing, tickling, doll playing, dancing, and snacking.  And that's all.  Pretty sure that's all we're going to do as well.  Oh, and napping and book reading too.  Of course!

Ash.

Britt.

Today I'm Letting Everyone Know....

.... that Britt is back to her normal self.

Well, her normal self with a black eye.

Ash is the one acting out of sorts.  I think the weekend was rough on her emotionally.

She got almost no attention and has probably been feeling quite shuffled.

I spent a lot of time trying to help make it up to her.  Hope it made a difference.

Gotta go to bed.  Night!

Today I Brought Britt Home From the Hospital.

View from the bottom of Space Needle.

Yesterday Hubster and I took Ash and Britt to Seattle again.  This time we went to the Pacific Science Center where we saw dinosaurs, played with planets, hung out in the butterfly house, and watched Lewis, Clark and Sacajawea on IMAX.  It was fun.  We spent way more time there than we meant to, which caused us to miss the Seattle Aquarium (which I highly recommend). 

View of Downtown Seattle from the top of the Space Needle.

We did go up to the top of the Space Needle.  

View of the harbor from the top of the Space Needle.

On the outside of the Space Needle, where one can walk around and take spectacular pictures, the inner wall isn't straight up and down it comes out in a soft point. Well, not totally soft. It IS metal. Tony was holding Britt and standing right next to that point. Britt decided do her normal head banging (to the tune that only she can hear) and she smacked her lower left eye socket right on that metal. She screamed for a really long time and a bruise showed up right away. 5 minutes later she started vomiting. And wouldn't stop. We took her to Swedish ER and they gave her baby Valium because she had to have a ct scan (which showed that she had no fracturing), but because she wouldn't stop throwing up, they decided to keep her overnight and said she was suffering from a concussion. She had a major headache last night but once she got some Tylenol and a bed, she settled down. We're all home now and have to make sure she doesn't bump her head again for 2 weeks! Wish I could just cover her in bubble wrap for that time.

Poor Britt right after getting checked in at the ER, before they started poking and pesting her.

It certainly hasn't been the staycation that I planned and imagined, but I'm just so grateful Britt is ok and that we're all together. 

This morning, feeling better and poking her head over the top of the cage they call a crib.

Today I Did NOT Upload the Rest of Those Pics.

I just didn't have time.

I slept in until 10:15 (the fact that the girls let me do that is amazing!!!)

Britt and I went to try out a Kindermusik type of class (pretty sure we'll be signing up for the next semester).

I had to run boring but necessary errands.

I made a big batch of rice drink (I'll post about it some other time).

I was on Facebook waaaaaay too long.

I made over 50 chocolate cupcakes for Britt's birthday party this weekend.  Gonna stick 'em in the freezer and frost them on Saturday.

Did some laundry.

Made myself an appointment to see the optometrist.  Really pushing it since I'm currently wearing my only pair of contacts!

The car got semi-cleaned out.

I think I ate some lunch and dinner in there somewhere.

We didn't go to Seattle because Tony wanted to relax - understandably.  Plus, the girls get really grumpy and out of sorts if we go-go-go without some normal at-home down time mixed in between.

I promise to finish putting up the rest of those fun photos sometime soon!

Night!

Today I Went to Seattle! Yay!

I guess sleeping all day yesterday did it for Hubster.  He woke up today feeling much better and now has only a cough - which has left him with no voice.  It was pretty funny to have to climb over him to order at the drive-thru (he was driving, but can't talk). 

So we purchased our CityPASSes and used two of the tickets today.  We went to the Woodland Park Zoo & we went on an Argosy Harbor Cruise.  Then we took a short walk around Alki Beach before heading home.

Just to warn you, loooooots of pictures to follow.

We figured out why this particular zoo is Woodland Park Zoo instead of Woodland Zoo Park.  It is much more wood and park than zoo!  The animals are quite lucky to have such large habitats and to be so spread out, but it makes for much walking and binoculars would have been handy.  It was fun to see the animals that we did see, but I think we'll stick with the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium from now on.  I apologize for the pixely pictures.  My camera doesn't zoom very well.

Giraffe

Komodo Dragon

Meerkats

Beautiful Britt

Penguins

Silverback Gorilla

Zebra

Mommy & Britt Britt

We saw many exciting animals, Ash fell down and scraped her hands, someone gave us their parking spot for free, Britt fell down and scraped her knee, we walked a lot and now I'm tired, we stayed so long we almost missed our cruise!  OH, and it was blue skies and 65 degrees today!!!

The lighting on this picture was weird, so I changed it into a pencil drawing.

I snapped this as we pulled away from the dock.

We were able to see a ferry being worked on.  Pretty neat.

Ash loved going up and down the stairs.

Rice drink break.

View from the top of the boat.

Me, smiling from the top of the boat, with my hair being crazy (as usual).

Another pic of the Space Needle.

After we got off the boat, we grabbed some dinner and then headed to Alki Beach in West Seattle.  It's one of our favorite spots!

Daddy & Ash walkin' down to the beach.

Alki's replica of Lady Liberty.

On our way to the stairs so we can get down to the beach.

I love this picture because it represents my life exactly right now.  Ash is always charging ahead, looking for the next adventure.  Britt, on the other hand is a bit of a rubber necker - constantly stopping to smell the roses.  I swear she she's every, little speck!  So, I'm being pulled in both directions on a daily basis.  Hahahaha!  In this case, Ash was on her way to the beach, while Britt really wanted to pet the little dog that had just passed us.  **shaking my head**

Ash could throw rocks for hours.

Babycakes.

We sure love our little girls!

That's it!  I know it's a lot of pictures, but believe it or not, this is just a small percentage of what we took.  I couldn't par it down any more than this!  :)

Today I'm Going to Gripe.

I'm in such a bad mood. 

Tony came down with something last night and is sick to his stomach, dizzy and coughing like crazy today.  So he's in bed and our plans for this week are pretty much ruined.  Can't really get your money's worth out of a CityPASS in a day or two. 

Maybe I should be optimistic about it, but his sicknesses with a cough never run short.

I keep feeling so picked on and then guilty because some families have a husband who can't afford to take time off from work.  Some kids have a daddy who can't ever get out of bed.  Some wives have lost their husbands.

And I'm boo-hooing because Hubby is sick during our vacation???

It looks like Britt is coming down with it too. 

I'm gonna hope that we have some fun Seattle pics to post later on this week.

But, it looks like not, as of right now. 

Guess I'll go catch up on laundry.

Blah.

I actually feel a tad better, just writing about it and having a source for venting. 

Thank you for listening, bloggy friends.  :)

Today I Planned My Staycation.

My husband got next week off because we were going to go to Disneyland, but that's not going to work out.  We want to go when our friends can go too.  So, Tony said we can go for my birthday instead.  Woohoo!  Anybody else wanna go with (early September), lemme know!

Anyways, we planned our staycation and bought a CityPASS.  Soooooo excited.

I plan to blog about it next week, but if I miss a couple of days...well, now you know why. 

Have a fantabulous weekend friends!

 Seattle Waterfront.

Today I Was Thinking About How to Help Japan.

We've all had it on our minds - the plight of the poor people in Japan whose lives have been forever changed by the devastating natural disasters that recently occurred there.  I've been thinking about beefing up my family's 72 hour kits and brushing up on my first aid knowledge.  I've also been thinking about how I can help the people of Japan.  I could try to raise money, but as I've been reading online, I've realized that there are plenty of other great fundraisers going on and I've compiled a short list of people trying to make a difference for Japan.

First off, my sister and a friend are donating all the proceeds from sales on their soaps.  I've received her soaps before and they are niiiiiiiiiiiice.

(source)

Here are some more:

Felt hair clips.

(source)

Handmade Nature Greeting Card.

(source)

Handmade Birthday Card.

(source)

Sushi Candles.

(source)

Red Polka Dot Skirt.

(source)

Ferris Wheel Print.

(source)

Cascade Drop Earrings.

(source)

Silver & Copper Ring.

(source)

Also, we can simply give money.  Just make sure that 100% of your donation is going to Japan.  Not all charities are created equal.  :)  I'm going to go through the Humanitarian Aid Fund.

Today I Pinch-Proofed My Kids and Myself.

My leprechauns.


Bedhead is in, dontcha know?


First smile for the camera in months.


Pot of Gold.

HAPPY SAINT PATRICK'S DAY!

Today I Turned My Back for Two Seconds.

Ok, probably more like 2 minutes.  :)

And in that short amount of time the girls pulled out every single toy we own and made a new carpet for their bedroom.  It was immense!  But not uncommon.  These chiquitas are also very skilled at using just a half cup of cereal to decorate every room in the house.  It's pretty amazing. 

It was only last week, I had put Britt in her bed with a bottle so I could finish up a project in which I didn't need her grabby, little paws helping out.  Ash was innocently reading a book.  It was only 5 minutes and when I went back into their room, I found this:



Look at that smile. 



This may be an over share, but I couldn't pick just one!



Britt is just so stinkin' cute!



She thought it was fun to be swimming in a pile of books.



Ash was uber pleased with her handy work.



Cuteness aside, these kids are quick!  On Sunday Ash got a hold of one of her great-grandpa's blood pressure pills.  We're so blessed.  She took a small nibble and spit it all out.  Scared us all though.  Guess I better keep the back turning to an extreme minimum.