Sunday picnic.

Aria woke up really early this morning and decided to have an indoor picnic. She took out a red blanket and laid it out need the patio doors. Then she went and retrieved some plastic cups, a plate, a canister of potato chips and some oatmeal chocolate chips cookies and started started setting up. After laying it all out, she invited us over to her picnic. We obligingly sat down for a meal of water, cookies and chips. Aria came up with a poem during the picnic to convince us to eat more cookies:

Chew, chew, chew...
Chew, chew, chew...
It's good for you.

It worked. We consumed it all. It was a lovely picnic.

Mission accomplished.

I got all 8 of the Hello Kitty Happy Meal toys. It took me many trips over a 4 weeks period but I've accomplished it with Aria's help. Actually, we did more than required. I got a complete set, Aria has a complete set and I got 6 out of 8 for my sister. If you do the math, that's 22 Happy Meals. Yes, I'm all Happy Mealed out. (Burp) The things I do for Hello Kitty.

Cassidy and Aria at one of the countless trips to Mickey D's.

Weekend birthday party.

We had a pretty fun weekend. We did our usual YMCA class and venture to Lakeshore for their free arts and craft event. We also attended a birthday party for Giulianna who turned 4. She and her family just came back from a year abroad in Spain. They were going to stay there for at least 3 years but things didn't work out and they decided to move back to the States. It's been a whole year since we've seen each but we didn't have a hard time reconnecting. They threw a pool party for Giulianna and Aria's swimming lessons sure came in handy. She had a blast in the pool. The kids played well together and I had a good time drinking red wine under the giant mulberry tree.

Aria and Giulianna, the Birthday girl.

A Giulianna sandwich.

Halloween in July.

I finally found a Dorothy costume for Aria through Ebay. The shoes are from Target. Let me tell you, it was not easy finding that dress. Most of the Dorothy dresses are pretty expensive. I paid more that I want to but it has finally arrived. Aria is estatic with the whole costume. She's been wearing it around the house alot which is great since I'm getting my money's worth.

Swimming update.

Aria just finished her 2 weeks-half an hour a day swimming class and I have to say that I'm really blown away by the progress. She's a real swimmer now. She can swim at least 5 feet by herself, without a floatation device, head in the water. That school is amazing. I compare it with this other school that I've been taking Aria to since she was one and this new school is so much better. The teachers are so professional and they're no nonsense. No playing in the water, it's all about drills. I've signed Aria up for level 2 which starts up in 2 weeks. I need a little break away from driving her there everyday. It's pretty time consuming and it breaks the day in half and I can't seem to do much afterwards. Next session will be in the morning so I can have the rest of the day to do things with her.

Cassidy, Aria & Zoe.

Intense.

Aria started her intensive swimming classes at a new swim school yesterday. The course goes for a half an hour a day, for 2 weeks straight with the weekends off. I'm very impressed with the progress and we're only going on day 2. All the kids (except for one and thankfully it's not Aria) can keep their heads in the water with their eyes opened and jump into the water and submerging their heads. The teachers are amazing. All the kids are paying attention and following orders. Aria's best friend Cassidy and her friend Zoe are taking the class with her. That helps. I think it also helps that she's been taking regular weekly swimming lessons at another place. But this place rocks! I highly recommend it. This school guarantees that each child will be able to swim, unassisted, from 5 - 12 feet by the end of the 2 weeks session. Can't wait to see the end results to see if it adds up.

Waiting for class to start. There goes that crazy pose again. These two are really into Ariel, The Little Mermaid. Can you tell?

She's in the water...

her head's in....

she's done it!

Zoe, Cassidy and Aria after class.

The Simpsons + Aria.

After hours.

Sunday night, we hit the bookstore and purchased some bargain books for Aria. They we dined at Wood Ranch (even though we had Wood Ranch the night before at Cassidy's party). It was pretty late after the meal was over but we still wanted to walk around for a little bit, so we snuck into the closed mall (well the doors were left open but all the stores were closed). It was fun exploring a place after it's been closed. We had the whole mall practically to ourselves and since all the stores were closed we didn't and couldn't spent any money. We just did window shopping. Free entertainment.

In front of the Disney Store. That's Aria's pose when I told her to say 'cheese'.

Same pose, different store.

She's giving a thumbs up sign.

She actually pretended that she was manipulating the keys on the iPhone. Good thing she's not old enough to ask for one yet.

She was in heaven. I was extremely glad that this place was closed.

I sat her in front of the photo kiosk and used their setup. She refused to pose properly.

Party at Cassidy's!

We went to Cassidy's 4th Birthday party on Saturday. Oh my, what an awesome party. The food was catered by Wood Ranch, A.'s favorite meat place. The jumper was enormous (I want the same one for Aria's birthday), there was an great sand castle project for the kids and ice cold Heinekens for the adults. Everyone was happy. We were one of the last couple-with-kid to leave. The childless adults stayed later to partake of the empty jumper for games of naked sumo wrestling.
j/k.

Aria and Cassidy doing the sand castle project. Recipe is sand and glue.

The pinata.

The cake. Oh my god, was it good.

Blowing out the candles.

One of the party favors.

Here comes Kitty.

I'm in Hello Kitty heaven. We went to McDonald's this morning to satisfy A.'s craving for a McDonald's breakfast (blah) and we spotted Hello Kitty as the new Happy Meal toys. Yeah!!!
I'm a big fan and a collector. I tried sweet-talking the cashier to sell me the whole set of 8 today but the office door was locked. I told him that I'll be seeing him soon. Guess I'm going to be eating McDonald's Happy Meals for awhile till I get the whole set. 2 down and 6 more to go!

4th of July recap.

We spent our 4th of July at the mall avoiding the 100 degree heat. We met up with A.'s parents at the food court and spent 6 hours at the mall just lounging, talking and shopping. There was an awesome sale at The Disney Store and Aria benefitted from it greatly. She now is the proud owner of a gigantic Little Mermaid flush. Highlight of our day was when Aria rode on a double decker merry-go-around that was located inside the mall. She picked a dolphin to ride on and had a blast on.
We asked Aria if she was interested in going to view fireworks and she said 'no' because she's afraid of the noise. This will be the first time in 3 years that we did not go see fireworks on the 4th of July. To my surprise, a neighbor behind us set off alot of fireworks and we were able to view it all from the comfort of our couch at home. Nice way to cap off a midweek holiday. 2 more days to go till the weekend.

Simpson

Saw this on Jen's site and decided to give it a try.

This is what Aria would look like if she was a Simpson's character. Pretty funny.

Arrival.

One of our 2 existing moths has finally broken out of his cocoon. Aria has been playing with it all afternoon. One more cocoon to go. I hope we get fertilized eggs from the 2 so we can start the whole ordeal all over again next Spring.

Only Aria would take a baby moth and turn it into a living belly ring.

Puppy love.

We had a B.B.Q. last night and A.'s friends came over to partake of the goods. One of his friend brought over his 2 weeks old puppy named V.J. He was so freakin' adorable. The little thing is hand fed with a bottle every 2 hours and would sleep the rest of the time. Too cute. Aria was very gentle with him. She's very good with animals and will do great with a small dog. No new pets for us though. We'll just have to visit V.J. instead.

Aria and V.J.

V.J.

Vu, the proud dad.

Aria trying her hand at feeding V.J.

Happy drunk.

Sloppy drunk.

She was just posing. She did not consume any alcohol. The bottle was empty. She understands that alcohol consumption is for adults only. Please don't call the child protective services on me.