Cupcake Ice Flowers

Really! It is so hot. Too hot. My poor kid hasn't seen a park in weeks. I can not handle even opening the door after 8am. I melt. Pink puddles of me line the sidewalk. So we stay in. But I want my kiddo to have fresh air, so we head outdoors early early in the morning and do a fun little craft, swing a few swings on the backyard swing set and then its back into our Pink Haired Cave for the day.

This was a fun little activity we did. It was actually a two parter. On the first day we braved the heat and waltzed through our family garden at Gha's (grandma) ranch. We studied leaves and bugs and most important, Flws, or Flowers.

Big Sis DIVA loves flowers these days. She examines them with a keen eye. Smells them and carries around her pretty flws. She loves them. So we picked a variety of flowers as we named off what color they were and a few leaves and brought them home. I decided to take these fabulous find and freeze them in water in a muffin tin. So day 2, before the heat set in outside, found us in the backyard exploring "Cupcake" flowers.

Quite enjoyable. Cool. Easy and educational.

H.A.L.S Family fun

Our calendar is a hot mess. Baby DIVA seems to be quite the social butterfly and her presence is requested at so many affairs, it is hard to keep up. Couple that with momma's insane need to expose her to every kind of tot fun in the city and she is one tired tot scooting around town, but she sure is cute and loves it!

Last Saturday H4L and I took Baby DIVA to a fun family outing, between rsvp'd birthday bashes, that I have been dying to try since she was just a tiny infant. We introduced her to train riding. The bright spring sunshine, crisp breeze and blue skies only enriched the experience, allowing us to enjoy a bit of relaxing calm before resuming out tight tot schedule.

H.A.L.S., Houston Area Live Steamers provides a wonderful family event the third Saturday of every month during the warmer months of the year, March through November. Enthusiasts and hobbyists alike, who share a passion for are things locomotive, can find a piece of happiness via H.A.L.S. Members construct their own engines and delightfully allow the general public to come out once a month a take a ride on their creations. We were just 3 of the many local folks who went out last Saturday to support this great organization.

4700 feet of tracks, many, many engines and ride on cars escorted us around Zube park
in the beauty of the day. We basked in gorgeous rays of enjoyment as Baby DIVA squealed with delight on the "choooo choooo's". We felt the wind slap against our skin as we sped around the park watching families fly kites, enjoy picnics, play games together while laughing and giggling and soaking up the spring air. The incredible members of this organization offer this wonderful experience at no charge. Donations and souvenir purchase are available and appreciated, however you can see that the fine folks of H.A.L.S are kind people who have such an enormous passion for their trains that the smiles of all the kids is what keeps them going.

So if you are local, and are looking for a way to spend the gorgeous spring days, head out to Zube park on a H.A.L.S. Public Run Day. Pack a fabulous picnic lunch for the family, load up the kites and spend all day enjoying each others company as you ride the rails and build wonderful memories.

Colored Ice fun

Since the snowmagedon blizzard of 2011 failed to arrive with the gusto as predicted, we were jipped of our snow ice cream making plans. BOO! Instead we improvised and made colored ice.

Really simple. You need water, food color, a freezer (or snowmagedon outside), and a fun loving toddler who likes to get dirty.

Baby DIVA helped me color the water in the ice trays. Then she took a nap. Exhausting work. But perfect timing for the colored ice to freeze to play perfection.

When she woke up the ice was ready. I grabbed some towels and wrapped a baking sheet in white paper. Gave her some colored ice and some cups and let her go to town. she got all kinds of dirty and lots of "ewwww's" were to be announced. But she had a blast playing with the ice, sorting the colors, naming the colors and showing me her colored fingers. A great way to waste half an hour!

This project was a lot of fun and is quite similar to the project we did last summer, Ice Painting, which is also lots of fun and messy!

Snack Necklace

Baby DIVA and I have been doing a little project everyday. Some days it is as simple as sitting in the backyard naming off colors as we see them. Other days we make crafts or bake or dance and sing silly songs. Whatever it may be, I make sure to spend a minimum of 30 minutes to an hour uninterrupted each day giving Baby DIVA my undivided attention. No laundry, no phone calls, no Facebook, no tv, nothing. No interrupting mom and babe. Just time devoted to one another without distractions. This is a very important gift that I give my child, and I do my best to make sure she gets it almost every single day.

The other day we did a project and Baby DIVA had so much fun. she giggled and laughed and it tickled me so. It is a really simple project. Something that all of us moms, girls, humans know how to do. A project I kind of threw together last minute. The project was making cereal necklaces.

I took some string and plain old Cheerios's. And then we began to string the cheerios. Baby DIVA squealed with delight and promptly began to eat the cheerios off the string quicker than I could put them on. She looked adorable. Like a little puppy scavenging for treats, as she devoured each "bead" of the cereal necklace. She thought it was awesome. After a few minutes she grasped the concept and we worked together to finish the first necklace. She quickly put it around her neck and started eating. Giggling all the while.

It just tickled me so to have her react so well to such a simple idea. We had a ball making necklaces. We ended up making about 6 in all. And she was ever so delighted to show them off to H4L when he came home from work.

Toddler time FAIL

Books. Books on shelves at various levels. Books on shelves at various levels in a quiet location. Not a good mix for Baby DIVA.

My little one has always been interested in books, but not really for reading. She loves to snack on them, tear the pages, flip the pages, wear them as hats, make them into flying carpets. Whatever, she is using her imagination so I roll with it. Over the last few weeks, Baby DIVA has sparked a interest in the actual words inside those flying carpets. She will bring me a book and we will sit down and read.

I love it. I have a passion for books, (although chasing a tot around 24/7 leaves little energy to actually hold my own book up and read), so this development made me really happy. I decided it was time to brave the library with Baby DIVA. We have toddler time at our local joint and I was thrilled to finally be able to attend with a story interested tot.

I HAVE NEVER BEEN SO HUMILIATED!

My precious, quiet on the car ride, relaxed Baby DIVA and myself arrived at 10am prompt for toddler library time. We strolled inside and grabbed our tot ticket to story time. Then we headed over to the children's area to look at some books and see what craft they had for us to do. I am not sure what happened on this short walk, but Baby DIVA grew some horns. As we rounded the corner and entered the racks of kid books, her voice began to echo throughout the area. "Mama, Mama, Mama, Ca-Ca, Mama". So I thought perhaps she needed to take a crap. I asked her if she needed to go potty. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, Mama" at full scream.

Attempting to distract her, we went over to the craft table and I tried to engage her in this activity. She proceeded to try and eat the glue stick, try to climb up over the top of the table, tried to steal craft pieces from other kids, all while squawking and mortifying me. Fail.

Then I pulled out the big guns and decided we should walk the racks, burn off some steam, hoping that this might bring my sweet quiet Baby DIVA back to reality. Off we went, hand in hand. And then she squirmed loose and was gone. Sprinting through the racks. My Fluffy pregnant self chased her down and found her attempting to scale the racks of My first Chapter books. AWESOME. Baby DIVA scurrying up the racks in the library. Yes, I am that mom. And might I add, quite memorable with hot pink hair. No hiding me!

A glance around the room at my fellow toddler moms, hoping to be met with looks of "oh honey, I have been there stares", was met with a surprise. Pure distaste looks from these fellow tot moms. Hatred. I am the devil with pink hair mom looks beamed my way. Like their tots are always perfect. Again though, Mortified.

I scooped up baby DIVA and headed back to the librarians desk to turn in our tot ticket. There was no way we were going to make it to story time, much less through story time without destroying something. The kind librarian asked me to please stay. That she had some toys to entertain my tot, and that she would eventually learn the ropes. I denied the offer and high tailed it out of the library. Glances from peering adults from the historical section on the opposite side of the library pretty much demonstrated I need to leave with my tot, PRONTO!!

Perhaps we will try again in a few months. Until then story time will be on my living room floor and might involve a nibble of pages and a timeout or two. Oh and did I mention as we drove home, Baby DIVA was a quiet perfect little princess? Don't you just love the terrible two's?

Oh and those moms who gave me the look of death, I hope your kid throws food at you tonight at dinner!

Must do's for December

December is almost here. It is time to race around like the world is coming to and end and get everything done. Never mind we have spent the last 12 months sitting on our asses watching re runs of House all weekend. NOW though, we are just so busy and must get things done. No more butt sitting. Must be jammed packed from this point on!

Okay so perhaps I am over exaggerating a bit. But seriously, have you ever noticed how "busy" we all become during the month of December? Each year I feel that no matter how prepared we are there is still the hustle and bustle and constant "stress" of the month to get everything done. Make sure all the sights are seen and pcitures taken to document the season. I recently was checking out our family calendar while trying to schedule lunch with a friend and caught myself saying, "Well you know I am really booked up, What do you have available in January"". REALLY?? How the heck did that happen? I am a SAHM, and don't get me wrong it is a double full time gig, but really how did my schedule get so backed up.

Then I looked into this problem a little deeper. What exactly is it that we are so" busy" doing? Here is the rundown. Now take notes locals, you might need to fill your calender too! Some of these things are just too good not to stuff on your schedule!!

City of Katy Tree lighting
December 2 at 5pm Katy Heritage park.

Lanier Xmas party December 5: and invitation only bash thrown by a local lawyer. Complete with an invitation that came via Ferris wheel! This will be our first attendance to the bash and I am actually looking forward to it. An alcohol free family event with guest performer Sting. Sounds fun to me!

The Cottage Charm A wonderful little spectacle we discovered last year. Local christian ministries team up and provide a wonderful display of dancing lights themed to wonderful music all while running a food drive to help those in need. WE took many cans of food last year and enjoyed the show so much. It is free, just if you can spare it please donate some can goods and take your family out to see spectacular dancing lights. Runs 6pm to 11pm every night throughout the holiday season

La Centerra offers visits and pictures with Santa every Saturday and Sunday throughout the month of December. Cost is free. But remember to bring your own camera if you want those pictures. We took Baby DIVA last year and were delighted to find out Santa also provided breakfast prepared by Mrs. Claus who also makes her appearance. We look forward to visiting again this year.

Houston Area Mommies in addition to our regularly scheduled play dates and mom events, HAM will also be hosting some fabulous Holiday events/parties for the moms, tots, and family. Such a great community to be involved in.

Other things we have going on this month include Baby DIVA's 2 year checkup! WOWSERS. Numerous Birthday parties, Uncle Diamonds Graduation: complete with a trip to Paris!, and of course TONS of holiday baking! It is a very busy month but I am looking quite forward to it all! Maybe not all MUST HAVE to do's but majority of it is fun anyway. Maybe a nice hot cocoa and a snuggle with Baby DIVA on the couch watching Backyardigan re runs instead of House re runs might need to be added to schedule too!

What are your plans this season?

Vacation: The Tourist Crap

You know it has to happen. Family vacations always involve some stupid pictures in front of silly signs and such right? Well now that I am all growed up and a super mature parent, I get to CHOOSE and FORCE someone to take these glorious pictures to look back on and have memories drift through our minds.

Well on our recent vacation, H4L and I became those annoying parents and forced, suckered, tricked and tortured Baby DIVA into taking those unforgettable memory pictures that she will love to look at in about 30 years. And here is what she had to say about it:

Our vacation took us on a nice long car ride (and believe it or not...no parent squabbles), in the mom ride of course, that drove us right into many a tourist traps. And we soaked up the opportunity to snap some photos of our Baby DIVA as she ventured across the great state of Texas.

Tourist Crap stop one, we hit the Sam Houston State Statue , in Huntsville, Texas. Surprisingly in all my years of driving past old Sam, I have never stopped at this great tourist locale, so I enjoyed the moment. Baby DIVA did not. She pretty much refused to be photographed with a smile. Nonetheless we snapped the pics like all annoying parents do and moved on.

H4L and I found the small park area and grounds to be super clean and inviting. A lovely amphitheater was also discovered amongst the fabulous vegetation that helped block out the blistering Texas Sun. The amphitheater featured a exact in size replica of the face of Sam Houston that is displayed on the enormous statue.

Check out that Shnoze! How would you like to wake up to that sucker every day? EEEK!

A few interesting finds here:

1. The brick that lay in honor of H4L and I.

2. The Highlight to our visit was the utterly fabulous find I encountered in the Bathroom. The Diaper Deck! Complete with instructions on "How to" no less!! Truly something spectacular and enlightening!

After the Diaper Deck scare, we loaded back in the mom ride and took off down the road. As we were driving along We passed this really weird thing being hauled by an 18 wheeler. Me, being the now so savvy mobile picture taker, I snapped a picture and uploaded to Facebook. In a matter of moments my weird find labeled " weird things you see while driving", was quickly defined by my fellow facebookers as pieces of a windmill. And sure enough we saw GIANT blades pass by not long after. Thank goodness for Facebook! :)

And so the adventure continued on and on and on until someone had to go to the bathroom. And luckily at that exact moment a Beaver popped up on the horizon. BUC-EES Beaver that is! Not sure if this fabulous Beaver ventures across state lines, but here in TEXAS Buc-ee is kind of a big deal. This mecca of a pit stop has it all. Every kind of jerky you can imagine, candied pickled jalapeno cream cheese dip, toys, clothes, gifts, Gas, grills you can buy and tote behind your car, and the cleanest snazziest toilets I have found in a long time. Each private toilet room provides its user with enough toilet paper for Armageddon, a nifty seat cleaning regimen and germophobe cleaner. Total awesomeness man!

And yes I am that crazy Pink Haired woman taking pictures in the john at the truck stop. Get over it!

Oh we are not done yet folks! Did I mention our quick trip over to Paris? Seriously! We visited Paris, well Paris, Texas and we saw the Eiffel Tower adorned with a Red Cowboy hat. Ain't we fancy in Texas! We have Famous Beavers and Towers wearing hats. We are just rocking here in this great state!

Free Fun out back

Back to school is right around the corner. Are the kids working your nerves? Are you looking for ways to entertain them, wear them out, get them outside outta your hair? Well I found some fun things to do with my crew that didn't cost a dime and kept the kids outside playing for hours! Followed by nice long naps from 7 year old video dude, 11 year old sassy gal and 20 month old Baby DIVA!! Which is precisely why I now have the time to blog about this! HA!


I rummaged around in the garage and found 3 buckets, 2 hula hoops, some rags, some twine, and some unused balloons. Hmmm???

I took two rags and rolled one into a ball, wrapped the other around the ball and secured with twine. I made 2 of these, one for each big kid. Then I filled the balloons with water, secretly of course. I let the kids watch an episode of Yo Gabba Gabba and I headed out to the backyard. I laid one hula hoop on each side of the yard, however within tossing distance for the kids. In each hoop I placed a bucket full of water and a rag thing. The water balloons were stashed away in a secret place.


Yo Gabba Gabba ended and the kids were enlightened to the fact that no more tv would grace their eyes the rest of the day. 911 was almost contacted, but luckily the kids managed and came outside. Each big kid was asked to stand inside of the hula hoop. I then let them "play".

A simple game of toss the rag into the bucket soon opened the door for a multitude of creative, use your imagination children's games all around the backyard. The kids, amazingly, had a blast for many hours just filling up buckets with water and tossing them on one another. No TV. No video games. WOW! Imagine that.

I did engage them in one fun activity. I filled up some water balloons. Then I had the two big kids stand back to back and I placed a very full water balloon between them. They had to work together and move around the backyard obstacle course without dropping or breaking the water balloon. They did great. And I must say it was awesome watching them try and work together! Other than me initiating a little here or there, the kids took off and invented all sorts of games themselves with the items we just had stashed in the garage! Free fun Rocks!

And Pink Haired Momma enjoyed the lovely nap time that followed, by ALL!

Mosquito...I mean Nature walk

The temperature is rising, Oh wait it has risen!! We hit a blistering heat by 8am here in Texas. And if the misery of bare legs baked into the leather seats of cars is not enough, the mosquitoes are breading like love crazed teenagers and biting the crap out of us like they are members of the twilight crew. It is just flat out miserable outside. So what do I do? Load up the kids and take them on a nature hike through the Houston Arboretum. Go me! Smart thinking right?

We arrived at the Houston Arboretum and were greeted with a bucket of bug spray and a map showing us the "way" through the urban nature trails to visit the swamp, the meadow and the lovely summer flowering plants. "Watch out for those beasts!", we were so simply advised by a volunteer. The beasts being the killer mosquitoes!! And if you know me and my crew then you know we did not follow the rules or the "way", we struck out on our own. DUMB!

A couple of steps from the educational building that started our journey we happened upon a fabulous little playground, full of dirt and trees to climb. No Kidding! The playground was so "GREEN" and fabulous. Tree stumps were carefully placed in order to provide all sorts of climbing apparatus for the children ( and perhaps one Pink Haired Momma) and sand brought in provided a great clothes destroyer for Baby DIVA. Video Dude quickly zoned in on a game of how to walk the tight rope and inched his was to success. Sassy Gal found that she enjoyed the dirt with Baby DIVA. AWESOME play area!!

MOMMA!! I can do the tight rope too!

We got attacked by mosquitoes despite our shower of bug spray. Luckily Pink Haired Momma's magic bag held another bottle of spray, and this spray was brought out and drenched all over us. Moving on.

We headed down the path not really knowing where the heck we were headed, only hoping to happen upon a swamp. Now I ask you this, Why the heck would a momma want to take her kids on a hike through "nature" and heat and a veil of mosquitoes to a SWAMP??? Well forgive me I was dropped on my head as a child. I did it. I took them to the swamp. And you know what? It was gorgeous. Heat scorched plants and all, the swamp area was fascinating. A Bridge led you though a maze of lily pads and swampy waters allowing the kids to look, see, and understand why I continue to express our need to not have standing water near the house: mosquito party zone. But the brilliance of the natural vegetation and thriving insect colonies was very intriguing to the captivated minds and eyes of my crew of kids.

After spending about 2 hours hiking through mosquitoes, mosquitoes, puddles of sweat, and some fabulous trees and things, our nature hike ended with a fantastic play session in the educational building. I was pleasantly surprised to find a multitude of teaching tools hidden in the obscure area blasting with cold air conditioning. We were able to learn about all kinds of bugs, animals, animal tracks, work puzzles, do leaf rubbings, look at all kinds of goodies under a microscope and chit chat about what we saw that day. Extraordinary I tell you. Before we knew it another couple of hours had passed! Seriously! Nearly a 4 hour adventure of hiking and learning snuck past without any of us realizing the time!

We definitely will be heading back to the arboretum, only we might wait until it cools off a tad, or perhaps until the mosquitoes actually back away when you have a pound of bug spray permeating from your body! But you know the best part of this adventure, besides keeping the kids engaged in an activity of learning for 4 hours? Well this entire adventure cost not a single dime! Hot diggity dog!! FREE LEARNING!!! And we had an incredible time together!

Children's Hilltop Theatre Festival

This morning Baby DIVA, Sassy Gal, Video Dude and my dear friend Love and I, met up at the Miller Outdoor Theatre for a fabulous FREE Children's festival of theatrical entertainment. This week from today Tuesday July 20 through Friday July 23 at 11am, the Express Children's Theatre is putting on various plays to captivate young audiences. And let me tell you it is calling a great crowd. I also ran into TWO really fabulous friends in my life that I haven't seen in ages whom were both toting their kids out in the heat for this fabulous FREE event.

Today the show was Three Billy Goats Gruff, a fabulous little tale about 3 goats wanting to cross the Grumpy troll's bridge to get the "greener" grass on the other side. The story line was adorable. The actors really engaged the kids and brought them into the story by having the kids act out the story line from their seats. Adorable! Simply adorable. The kids were entertained with a cute rendition of this tale and also were treated to a moral meaning throughout the story. Nicely done. There were no fancy stage decorations, lights, or anything of this nature. Just simply people using their imagination with minimal costumes and backdrops to entice young children to use their own imaginations. I was incredibly impressed and happy we attended.

Tomorrow at 11am the Hilltop Festival will feature The True Story of the Tortoise and the Hare. Thursday at 11am one can find the story of the Three Little Pigs gracing the stage.
And on Friday at 11am the Express Children's Theatre will present Jack and the Beanstalk.

After the play we wandered about Hermann Park , sweating our behinds off (wish i could have sweated a whole left cheek, but that's another story). We happened upon a lovely little spike head duck family and were lucky enough the receive some bread from a departing stranger to feed the Spikey Duck family. The kids had a ball. Baby DIVA however was a bit fussy at this point and decided it to be more fun to SCREECH at the ducks. Lovely. Yes I AM that parent!

In an attempt to cool us all off and to have a look at what other activities the fabulous Hermann Park has to offer, I loaded the kids and Love on to the park train and we went cruising. This was awesome. We cruised right through the park and I located our next adventure. A FANTABULOUS HUGE play area and splash pad and COVERED picnic area. I am all over it!

We plan to hit at least one more of the Hilltop Children's Festival performances and then suit up and hit the splash pad and playground for an afternoon and pure summer bliss. You too can enjoy these festivities! And the best part? Pack a lunch and the play, the picnic tables, playground and splash pad all provide you with an afternoon of pure summer bliss for not a dime! Enjoy! See you out there!