I see elves.

I heard about a Tolkien Festival that was to take place at a local library and told A. about it. Since he was a big Tolkien fan he was very excited about the event. Well the event turned out to be a very small venue. It was kind of sad and depressing because of the lack of attendance. At one point, some of the people running the event tried to generate more attendance by recruiting from the general library patrons in the rest of the library. We stayed for the whole event with numerous 'breaks' for Aria because she didn't find the event as thrilling as A. did.

Tolkien Fest taking place. An elf was reading from one of Tolkien's books.

Aria was coloring. That's a hobbit's butt in the background.

Look it's Gandoff and a hobbit.

Long Saturday.

Last Saturday we hit 3 craft places. We went to an event at Michael's and we also did our usual YMCA craft class and the craft session at Lakeshore. Boy, was I all crafted out by the end of the day. But our day didn't end there. A. and I had date night that night. We've started a babysitting swap with my friend Alice. We watch her kids one Saturday so they get date night and she and her hubby do the same for us. We spent our date night at the movies watching 300 and then we had Japanese food for dinner. It was very wierd not having Aria with us. We were told by our psychologist to not talk about Aria during our date nights and we tried our best to stick with that rule but boy was it hard. She's our only child and since I'm a SAHM my world revolves around her. Date night was tough at times, we miss Aria alot, but we had a great time overall. This coming Saturday will be Alice and her hubby's turn to go on a date. It's going to be a fun and loud place at my house this weekend.

Strollin'

Kathleen called me and asked me if I was interested in going for a walk with her and her son Liam. How can I refuse especially when they both walked all the way to my house from their house (3 blocks away) and were waiting for my reply right outside my door? I opened my door to see Liam in a similar push car that Aria has except Aria's is pink. I had to retrieve it from the backyard and use it too. Aren't they cute in their matching cars?? Please excuse my daughter's messy hair.





It was a bittersweet walk because it might be our last with Kathleen and Liam. Their house is on the market and they're planning to move pretty far away. : (
I'm going to miss having a friend so close by to walk to local places with. I was hoping that Aria and Liam could grow up together. Darn. They would make a cute couple.

Cutie.

I have to share with you this wonderful bunny that we made in Mommy & Me class this morning. It's sooo cute and very easy to make. We made the basic pom-pom shape with yarn and glued on googly eyes, a cottonball tail and paper ears. Okay, it doesn't really look like a bunny but it's still cute. In fact Aria named it Cutie.

Change of plans.

I had a small list of things to do today-
1) go to 99 Ranch and do bulk of grocery shopping
2) go to regular store to get the rest of the grocery shopping done
3) return one library book that is due today.

My intentions were to get it all done before 1:00 PM, which is very realistic. Well, I didn't account for how Aria will feel about the whole event. We made great time by arriving at 99 Ranch around 10:30 AM. Then I foolishly asked Aria if she remembers going to the Vietnamese restaurant next door for pho when she was little and she instantly wanted noodles and soup. She had a tantrum about going grocery shopping without having pho first. Well, we ended up having a brunch at the Vietnamese restaurant. I guess she had a right to complain when I didn't really feed her breakfast. She loves pho and she ate a pretty big portion. I have to admit afterwards that I also enjoyed my meal too, and sharing with her made it that much more special. What's my rush anyways? I should cherish these times with her.

Enjoying pho.

Look how cute these packages are!

Here's Aria being silly. She's trying to catch rain drops with her tongue.


At the park.

Underwood Farm.

I had a playdate this morning with a few good friends and their kids at Underwood Farm. It's a really popular place especially during Fall/Halloween season. I expected more of a crowd there this morning but was pleasantly surprised to find the place empty. We felt like we had the whole place to ourselves. Aria and Cassidy had a blast feeding the animals: goats, cow, pony, donkey, ostriches, peacocks and rabbits. Their favorite were the pony and the donkey. Those were the only two animals where you can feed directly through the fence. It was impressive to watch them feed pony and the donkey because they were careful yet fearless at the same time. Hard to describe. I love kids at this age. Everything they do is so inquisitive. We also did some strawberry picking while at the farm. Most of the strawberries weren't ripe yet so it was tough finding some decent ones. The kids also got to spend sometime climbing on a huge haystack and some wooden structures. We left around noon and headed over to Panda 1 Buffet for some grub. Everything was delicious. It was nice to meet up with good friends and to chat over delicious Chinese food. We finally left around 2:20PM and Aria and I made it in time for her usual 2:45PM ballet class. She's got great stamina because she skipped nap and is quietly watching a Foster's DVD right now. I, on the other hand, is pooped.

Best friends: Cassidy and Aria.

Someone's excited about feeding the animals. We purchased bags of carrots from the farm for one dollar a bag. You will not believe how many bags I ended up purchasing. Next time, I'll be sure to bring carrots from home. It's way cheaper.

In front of the pony ride area. Aria refused to get on one though.


Feeding the peacock.


Feeding the cow.


Aria the pig and Cassidy the cow.


She loved feeding this pony. He loved the attention.

Here's the donkey that they also loved to feed.

Picking strawberries.

Dalia, Cassidy and Aria riding in a wagon back from picking strawberries.

One top of the gigantic haystack.

Happiest place on earth.

I've been meaning to post about our recent trip to Disneyland but I've been pretty busy. We (A., Aria and myself) went on March 7th. and met up with my friend Alice, Cassidy and Michael there. Her husband works for Disneyland and she was wonderful enough to get us in for free. This would make it our (Aria and myself) third time there. All three times we got in because of Alice's connections. It's great having friends in the right places. Well, the last time that we went was when Aria was 2. I can't say she had a great time. Everytime we went to take a picture with a Disney character she would freak out and cry. Well, now that she's older, we're able to prep her for the trip. I even taught her the princess wave. She's been wanting to go back. We asked her pretty much everyday for a week prior to our trip whether or not she will cry when she runs into a Disney character. She said 'no' and that she was very excited about going there. Conclusion: she had a blast. She didn't want to leave and she did awesome when she ran into any Disney characters. The highlight of the visit for her was the Small World ride. She kept on saying, 'Wow, it's beautiful!'. I caught the whole ride on tape and she's been watching it frequently since we've been home. I really enjoyed seeing some of the Princesses at the castle show (I forgot the name of that area). Aria was able to meet Belle, Aurora and Mulan! I wish she was a more of a Mulan fan though. She can kick butts and she's smart. Aria's is Ariel, The Little Mermaid. Go figure. We stayed pretty much till the park closed. Afterwards we headed over to Downtown Disney and dined at Rainforest Cafe. We were all pretty tired by the time we got home but I have to say it was the best trip to Disneyland so far.

Aria was wearing her Snow White costume. The ones on display were going for $65.00!! Yikes.

Aria with Pluto.


During the Princess show.


Look it's Jasmin, Cinderella, and Snow White.

With Aurora.

Cassidy, Belle, and Aria.

Cassidy, Mulan and Aria.

Here's Cassidy and Aria with ahh... I don't know who they are. They were the helpers but they were sweet enought to stop and take a picture with the girls.

Wow, she's actually hugging Mickey! I think Cassidy's presence helped.

During dinner at the Rainforest Cafe.

Duel Birthday Celebration

Last weekend we went to a birthday party for Nicholas and Paula - brother and sister who turned 3 and 1 respectively. One was born on the 7th and the other the 8th. There was a jumper there and Aria took to it immediately and spent the majority of the time in it. She had a blast playing with the two boys there.

Nicholas and Aria. She's wearing her Barbie princess costume.

Favia and Birthday girl Paula.

Here are the Birthday boy and girl with their father.

Bed hopping.

We finally got Aria to sleep in her own room, in her own bed. It's been almost 3 years since A. and I last had our queen size bed to ourselves. Aria moved around alot in her sleep. The 3 of us would literally form the letter 'H' in our sleep with Aria being the middle line. Not comfortable at all. A. would complain about having Aria's foot in his face on a daily basis. Well, I am sleeping so much better now that we kicked Aria out of our bed. I think this is going to stick this time around because I love being able to sleep comfortably. Aria cries and whines about it when it's bedtime but I'm not budging from my decision. She has woken up from sleep a few times and walked out of her room but I send her right back. It's only been less than a week but if all goes well, no more 'H's only 'I's.

Found trash.

Aria and I visited my friend Kathleen yesterday afternoon. We walked there since she only lives 3 blocks away. On the way home we spotted some metal pumpkins and stakes on the curb along with other discarded items. Well other people's trash became our treasure. We (really me) carried the stakes and pumpkins home. Aria was very excited with our find and she personally orchestrated the placement and the installation herself. We're having a mini Halloween celebration in March.

Package in the mail.

I ebayed this recently and it came in the mail today. Aria saw the package and she went ahead and opened it.

This is her response:

Aria: Oh, this is so cute. Mom, you're the best mom.

You're so sweet to me.

This is the best package.

This is my first drawer and I want to keep it forever. (walking around the house with it.)

Me: You're welcome.

I didn't mention to her that I really ebayed it for me. hehe.

Springing forward

A. had been telling me all weekend that it's 'Spring Forward' time and that we're going to loose an hour come this Sunday night. Funny thing was I didn't hear anything about this on t.v. like I usually do. So on Sunday night around 8 PM A. went ahead and changed all the clocks in the house up an hour. We've got alot of clocks too. This morning A. woke up at 8:45 AM to go to work and I went and turned on the T.V. The time from the info channel said that it was 7:45 AM. hmm..... I asked A. to check the time online and lo and behold, it was only 7:45 AM. We googled some more and found out that 'Spring Forward' doesn't take place until March 11th, a whole week from now. Someone is a dork and it's not me this time. We're seriously thinking of leaving all the clocks in the house as it, set an hour ahead of time so we don't have to change them again next week. Yes, we're that lazy.

Usual Saturday.

We spent this Saturday doing our usual routine of YMCA classes and then the free arts and craft at Lakeshore. We headed home afterwards instead of eating out like we usually do. While we were turning down our street, I spotted Flink our friendly neighborhood cat. I rushed home and we walked quickly back to his house for a little visit. We didn't spot him at first and we stood around 'meowing' to try to get him to come out. As we were about to leave, Flink came running from across the street. We were able to hang out with him after all.

Playing at Lakeshore.

Aria is so enamored with that cat that she's willing to trespass on our neighbor's front step to play with him.

Side note: Aria gets a small sticker after each YMCA class. I've been putting them on her membership card and I've ran out of room. I saw another mom put her daughter's sticker in an autograph book and decided to copy her idea. I transferred most of Aria's sticker into a little photo book and now I just use that as her catchall. She spent about 45 mins tonight cutting out pictures to put into that very photo book. Aria basically started her own little scrapbook. Have a look.

Friday finally.

Here's some pictures of Aria in our Friday Mommy & Me class. Class was okay except what happened during outdoor play. Aria was riding on a Little Tikes car and another little girl came by and took it from her. The teacher's assistance sided with that little girl and made Aria give up her toy. I guess maybe because Aria had it for a while. The mother in me told me to step in but I didn't because a scenario like that will probably happen again to Aria and I can't always be there to defend her. I let the T.A. do her thing. But boy was Aria upset. I can tell by her body language. Her shoulders were tense, she was grinding her teeth and she was just glaring at the T.A. I felt so bad for Aria. She got her toy taken away by the T.A. There were 3 other identical cars around. I don't know why the T.A. didn't tell that other little girl to grab one of those. I went to consult Aria but she was so mad that she didn't even want me near her. I eventually grabbed her and just hug her to let her know that I was there for her.
After class when we were in the parking lot, I asked her why she was mad and she was finally able to tell me that the girl with the braids took her car. I told her that I was sorry and that sometimes kids can do mean things. I hope she understands.

The car that was eventually taken away from her by the T.A. and given to another little girl. Aria was pumping gas and having a great time before the incident.

More dance.

Since Aria is doing so well in ballet, I decided to enroll her in another dance class. She's now in Ballet/Tap on Tues. This is the same class that I originally started her on way back in September. I stopped taking her to it after one class back in Sept. This time around, I wasn't too worried about her performance since she has been doing so well in her regular ballet classes. I was more leary of the snooty moms then anything else. The same nanny was there but the atmosphere felt better. Aria did awesome. She made me smile throughout the 45 mins class. She kept on telling me "look, I'm doing it!" Silly girl. The class did ballet first, then they switched shoes halfway through class to do tap. I don't have tap shoes for Aria, only shiny black Maryjanes that look like tap shoes. I didn't want to invest in the shoes if she didn't like the class. I think I'm going to have to buy some now. All the dance classes at the Y are preparing for a talent show in April so Aria was basically doing a tap routine for the first time that the kids have been practicing for months on. She did great. She wasn't perfect but she sure tried her best. That's all I ask of her; that she has a great time and try her best.