Online Shopping, er, Browsing

Is it wrong to buy yourself a Mother's Day gift? I don't know, but I just saw these cute necklaces and now I have to have one. My birthday and Valentine's have already passed, but Mother's Day is just around the corner! I think they are so cute and casual, just my style. Of course there are a bunch more to choose from on the website Lisa Leonard Designs, but I like these ones best.

I can't decide if I like the above one best or this one (with my kids names on it):

Technically, I'm not Patrick's mother, so he doesn't NEED to get me a gift, but maybe I could drop a few hints so it could come from the kids? Patrick, the kids said they wanted to get me this for Mother's Day. Yeah, subtle yet direct.

Hey, it's cheaper than a trip to DisneyWorld, which is where we have spent the last 2 Mother's Days.

Up in the Gym, Workin' on my Fitness

So, I know I haven't uttered a word about the working out since my first post about it. Not to worry, I haven't quit, I guess I just didn't know what to write about. I mean, I'm in the gym for almost 2 hours a day, 5 days a week. I'm sweating, I'm grunting, I'm red-faced and workin' HARD and get this...I'm not losing weight. 

I weighed myself on the Wii Fit about a week before starting working out, so I know about what my starting point was. Last week, after 4 weeks of working out I got back on the Wii Fit board and it said I GAINED 2 POUNDS! C'mon!!! I was a little discouraged, but I shook it off. It's only been a month after all and I'm building muscle too.

This week? I'm feeling pretty good. My body is definitely changing even if the scale is not showing it. I've got more energy, my clothes starting to fit a little better and I can do more crunches than I've ever been able to do before. This week my neighbor commented that my face was looking thinner. My trainer just today told me my hips were looking smaller....and that "baby pooch" flab area that never seems to go away? It's definitely smaller. So...the weight loss will come, I'm sure, I just gotta be patient. My body is just readjusting itself.

As for those spandex tops I mentioned before? They're getting better. I can at least look at myself in the mirror now and feel better about myself than I did a month ago.

Wet 'n Wild

We pass Wet 'n Wild everyday on the way to and from school, so of course the kids have been asking since the first day of school when we can go. From the road you can only see two very steep waterslides and from some online reviews I had read that there wasn't a whole lot to do in the park, but since we have 3 young kids and the weather has been gradually getting hotter we decided to go check it out on Saturday. 

We were very pleasantly surprised!

For $25 US per person we got entrance to the park and all inclusive food and beverage all day long. You could rent towels, lockers and rafts for the lazy river for an additional fee. The food was decent: I had a chicken caesar salad and fries, Patrick had a hot dog, pizza and nachos. Ella and Kaley got chicken nuggets and a ham and macaroni dish and Jackson had a hot dog and pizza. There was also a salad bar and a couple hot dishes at the place we stopped to eat. There were a couple different places to eat, but we only ended up eating the one time. There were plenty of bars set up around as well, so we were never without a soda (or beer or frozen drink).

There were only 4 major slides, but that was okay for our family; our kids weren't even tall enough for all of them. We started out at the toilet bowl. Ella, Jackson, me and Patrick all took a couple turns on the bowl. 

There was a covered toilet bowl and a non-covered one. The kids wouldn't go on the covered one, but I caught a great photo of Patrick as he was falling out of it.

There was also entertainment a various intervals throughout the day. Ella and Jackson participated in the balloon toss.

Next up was the Twister. Kaley was not tall enough to go by herself, but Jackson and Ella dared to go!

Yeah baby!

We did it man!
The kids spent a good amount of time in the water playground. I liked the fact that there were so many lifeguards throughout the park.

We rented a few tubes for the lazy river, but only ended up going around 2 times.

Ella and Patrick enjoyed the wave pool. Jackson and Kaley weren't interested.

After a sun and fun-filled day a little ice cream is the perfect treat.
We really enjoyed our day at Wet 'n Wild even thought we all got good and sunburned. I thought it was a good value since you got all the food included. If our kids were older I could understand they might get bored easily with so few rides, but for us it was great day. We'll definitely be back when it warms up even more. And this time we'll be armed with sunscreen.

False advertising

Who put my baby's face on the back of a van?

Ella spotted the van on the road and said "Hey, look, Kaley is on the back of a van!" and then I had to race to keep up with it (and take some photographic evidence of course) Even Kaley asked "Is that really me on that van?"

There is a very good resemblance, but definitely not my baby-she's way cuter of course!

Smuggled goods

I like to bake cookies and other assorted treats at least once a week. I actually think I like the making and baking better than the eating, but that's beside the point. Since moving to Mexico it has been a little more of a challenge to make our favorite treat recipes though since I cannot find a lot of the key ingredients needed to make them.

Of course there are some ingredients they DO have, but they are just not the same. Like brown sugar, a key ingredient in any cookie recipe. I looked high and low for brown sugar around here. In Mexico the brown sugar is more like raw sugar. It doesn't pack nicely into your measuring cups and it has a much stronger sugar smell. I have bought it, but I haven't tried baking with it yet. So...what is this cookie loving family to do? Smuggle in the brown sugar from the states of course.

When my mom visited in November I made a list of grocery items I needed her to bring. Had customs checked her bags I'm not sure if I would have gotten any of it, but they didn't so I did. I asked for fruit snacks for the kids, lipton onion soup mix, bags of mini marshmallows, Nestle butterscotch chips and of course, brown sugar. 

Other ingredients I've had a hard time finding? Jell-O pudding, cool whip, graham crackers, almond bark for chocolate dipping, sweetened shredded coconut, caramels, canned pumpkin, and Chex cereal.

The good news is that we have had a lot of visitors, so we've had some fresh supplies every month or so. Plus we took an unexpected trip back to the States in December so I loaded up then too since we could bring a total of 10 suitcases baby!

Anyway, I was making Patrick's favorite cookie the other day since I had {{all}} the ingredients on hand. Can you spot the smuggled goods?

His favorite cookies are called Ranger Cookies. We first had them in college from my roommate Sara. I'm not sure if this is the same recipe as hers, but I thought I'd share it.

Ranger Cookies

1/2 C. butter (softened)

1/2 C. sugar

1/2 C. brown sugar

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

1 1/4 C. flour

1 C. Rice Krispies

1 C. rolled oats

1 1/3 C. sweetened shredded coconut

Beat together butter, sugar, brown sugar, baking powder and baking soda til combined. Add in egg and vanilla. Stir in flour. Stir in cereal, oats and coconut.

Drop rounded teaspoonfuls onto cookie sheet. Bake at 375 about 8-10 minutes or till egdes are golden.

Puppy on Board

Maho is a frequent rider in the car on the way to school in the mornings. She is getting to be a much better rider except that she has to sniff EVERYTHING in the car and she is always finding lots of goodies left by the kids in the car to tempt her.

For example, the other day Kaley brought 2 Polly Pockets in the car to play with on the car ride. She forgot to take them in that afternoon after school. The next morning Maho went with us in the car and when we picked up the kids after school Kaley found 2 Polly Pockets with multiple puncture wounds all over their bodies and no legs. It's dangerous to be a toy in this house right now.

After making her rounds in the car Maho generally likes to sit in 1 of 2 places, neither of which will fit her for very much longer. Her best place to be is right on my lap, but seeing as how I am very short and therefore have to pull the seat like right up to the steering wheel, that makes no room for puppy. She still tries though. It does make for a more adventurous car ride. Me swerving all over the road because I am trying to maneuver the steering wheel around a dog's body while she is trying to rest her head on my arm (that is trying to steer!)

Anyway, her second favorite spot is the console between the front seats. She can still be right next to me, she gets a view of all the things we pass by and she gets the air conditioner right in her face. 

The queen on her throne:

She better enjoy it while it lasts. She'll be too big before long to fit there comfortably.

Michael Jackson

Scene: Yesterday in the car on the way home from school

Ella: Mom, in dance class today we saw a scary movie with Michael Jackson in it.

Me: You have dance class?

Ella: (exasperated) Yes. Mom, you know that movie where Michael Jackson sings that one song?

Me: What kind of dances do you do at the dance class (Seriously, I didn't know they had a dance class at school)

Ella: We do all different dances, but we watch a lot of movies too. Mom, you know that movie with Michael Jackson and he sings that song?

Me: No, Ella I don't know what movie you are talking about. Maybe if you sing the song or say the words to the song I might know what you're talking about.

Ella: (tries humming to herself) Mom I can't! YOU KNOW THAT SONG THAT HAS 'MOONLIGHT?' that MICHAEL JACKSON sings?

Me: (racking my brain for a Michael Jackson song with 'moonlight') Ella I don't know what movie you are talking about.

::Ah-ha moment::

Me: You mean "Thriller?"

Ella: Yes! That movie. We watched it in dance class today and it had Michael Jackson and his girlfriend and they were watching a movie and then the girl didn't want to watch the movie anymore, so Michael Jackson and his girlfriend left and they were walking in the graveyard and then these scary dead zombies came out and then Michael Jackson got this light in his eyes and then Michael Jackson's girlfriend ran away and then all the zombies were doing Michael Jackson's dance and then it showed Michael Jackson's girlfriend in her house and Michael Jackson reached out to touch her and she opened her eyes and she realized it was all just a dream.

Me: Yeah, I know that one.

Ella: I just can't believe that such a good song would have such a scary movie.

Conversation over.

So, in review. 

1. so-called dance class is short on dance, but watches plenty of American videos. Nice to know.

2. Ella must have said "Michael Jackson" about 80 times in the course of the conversation and I didn't even know she knew who he was.