Las Vegas Mama

I've searched and searched and SEARCHED, and SEARCHED for kid-friendly things to do in the city for New Year's Eve. There isn't much, because, well... this is Las Vegas. I will tell you this - taking your kid to the Strip on New Years Eve probably borders on child abuse. Don't do it. Leave them with a baby sitter, please. Apart from the unsavory craziness, there are the crowds...and those will easily crush your children like a used tissue. Does it sound scary? Because it is. But if you are interested in blowing a noise-maker at midnight with your kids out in the city somewhere (off-Strip), you can read about what I did find, right here . And the good new is that these are very safe options!

The festivities are largely over. My family has gone home. Wrapping paper has been cleaned up, leftovers are mostly gone. Puppet head on a stick has gone back into hiding. I am back to being home alone with the kids, and with no car. I am feeling stuck. There are any number of crafts I could do. There are tons of things I could be playing with the kids. I could be organizing. Cleaning. Doing laundry. But I have no desire to do any of it. I am sleepy. I want to sleep. But that clearly is not an option. There is not a single thing I can think of that I am actually interested in doing right now. Other than sleep, natch. So I am sitting here, listlessly surfing the net while the girls zone out to Sesame Street. I should start some lunch, they'll be hungry soon. Looks like a microwaved frozen nuggets kind of day. Ketchup counts as a vegetable. TV and nuggets? I am Mother of the Year... for a few more days at least. In a few days its a new year and the award is up for grabs again, lu...

Puppet head on a stick continues to haunt us, and that means he is still here during the holidays. If you missed the original puppet head on a stick, catch up here .  My family drove up late last night, and while we all went to bed, mi familia stayed up late, partying with puppet head on a stick. Let's start with the daily activities of puppet head on a stick, shall we? And then we can make our way down to the photo essay on puppet head on the stick meeting my family for the holidays. Here is puppet head on a stick helping to decorate the tree. Puppet head on a stick is slightly sacrilegious. 'Sup,  Caga Tio ! Fa la la la la... la la la la! Stocking stuffer.... Here he is reading over Violet's shoulder. Rude. Is it me or does Ivy look like she was not expecting him to be there just then? And now, introducing a photo essay entitled, " Mi Familia con El Payaso. " Enjoy! Meet mi madre . This explains a lot about me, am...

We took the girls to see Tangled today. We were a little apprehensive about some of the darker scenes. We had read that there is a stabbing scene. Turns out the "stabbing scene" was just the sound of the hero being stabbed by the evil witch - they never showed anything. What was scarier was the demise of the witch as she turned into a skeletal thing that staggered out of the tower and fell all the way to the ground below. I recommend covering their eyes on that scene. But then the hero dies. I know - pretty dark for a kid movie. So Ivy turns to me during this death scene. Her eyes are wide. Are those tears gleaming? "Mom...." she whispered apprehensively. Uh oh , I thought. This was a mistake. Why did I ever bring her to this movie? "It's ok, Ivy," I whispered back. "It will be ok in a minute." I peered into her face, trying to see if she was crying. "Ivy, are you crying?" "Mom..." she whispered again. No tears, I...

So we were driving somewhere yesterday evening when Ivy got really excited about something and said, "Mom!! Look! It's your blog!" Totally random. I had no clue what she could possibly be talking about. I thought maybe she was having a stroke. Not unlike the time when Ivy was about 6 months old and Phillip and I became convinced she had had a stroke because suddenly her smile looked slightly crooked. In our new-parent haze of sleep-deprived madness we even considered taking her to the emergency room. Only the guffawing of my best friend gave us pause. Maybe we were overreacting. Possibly. We nervously fluttered around Ivy for a little while longer before apprehensively deciding that maybe, maybe she was too young to suffer an actual stroke. So back to yesterday I asked, "Ivy, what in the world are you talking about?" "Your blog is right there , Mom!" I looked out the window, and sure enough.... it was my blog. So it is now official - my blog i...

A Very Merry 4th Un-Birthday to my sweet first-born daughter! Let me paint the scene of the party for you. For all you men-folk reading this, and for other people who care nothing for party planning ideas, you can skip down to the actual party photos. For the rest of you who enjoy planning creative parties for your kids, I am giving you all the juicy details. I apologize in advance for the length of this post! Here is Ivy, the Un-Birthday Girl: The Menu: Blueberry Scones Orange Cranberry Scones Buttermilk Scones With: Tea Sandwiches (made by my husband Phillip): Roast Beef and Cheddar on Rye Caprese Cucumber with Dill Cream Cheese Cashew Cranberry Chicken Salad  Snacks: Brie en Croute with Apricot Walnut Glaze (made by my husband) Fresh Fruit Assorted Fancy Cookies (store bought!) The Cupcakes: A beautiful assortment from The Cupcakery , our fave cupcake place in town.  Cupcake toppers were made by Phillip - Vintage Red and Black drawings from the original Lewis ...

Here is a picture from Ivy's birthday party. There will be more to come, but I got an early preview of it and I just had to share it. Go ahead, tell me how adorable it is. The photographer is Sheryl Spellman, the party is Fairytales & Tutus, and the cuteness is overwhelming.

Lots of stuff going on these last couple of days... Ivy's birthday party is today.... I mean the party for her friends. We already had the family party. We had the brilliant idea of making the food ourselves, and I got the genius idea that I should make really labor-intensive thank you gifts. What am I doing sitting here blogging? I gots ta go!!! Write at you later! Lots of pics to come!

Alright, as promised here is the 411 on the yuletide pooping log. In order to put it into context, however, I must first give you some info on other holiday traditions from around the world. In Greenland they wrap up a dead auk (it's a bird) in seal skin, bury it under a rock, and wait until Christmas rolls around a few months later. Then they dig it up, squeeze out the guts (because, ew, who would want to eat guts), and then eat the auk. Probably as part of the Christmas feast. In Greece they hang a pig jaw in their chimneys so that the evil spirits (Kallikantzaroi) will be driven away.   In Estonia they do a Christmas Eve sauna with the whole family. Then they go to the graveyard to sing songs to the dead. They also claim their Christmas (Jouloud) has nothing to do with Christianity.  Latvians do something called mumming. The mummers dress up as horses, bears, Death or corpses. They go house to house singing songs, and they are invited in to eat and drink. I thi...

Ah, where to begin? I have so much to say to you about the last 4 or 5 days. There was the whole stomach flu escapade. There was Disneyland. There was a yuletide pooping log. Yes, I said a pooping log. Early this morning in between sleep and awake I had an idea for how to make this a whole, cohesive and entertaining blog post. But I lost the idea when I fell back asleep for 30 seconds. Let's start with the sickness. Here's the story: there was sickness. Contrary to what I had thought (that I felt sick from lack of sleep), I really was sick. It was awful, I was miserable, and now I am better. End of story. I am going to skip the story about Disneyland and make that a separate post. That brings us to the yuletide pooping log. It is much more poetic in Spanish- Caga Tio . Well. Not too poetic. But better than Pooping Log.  Ok, never mind. I need to make that a separate post as well. Just forget I said anything at all and think about what holiday activities you have planned t...

***GIVEAWAY CLOSED-CONGRATS CATHOLIC MOMMY*** Remember the ABC Kids Expo? Let me refresh your memory here and here . One of the things that really impressed me was how many interesting and innovative products are out there. And one that really caught my attention was the Baby Hip Hugger by Baby Nari . You know how some days your baby or toddler flat out refuses to be put down? How no matter what you do or say, they screech like banshees if they are so much as an inch away from you? Well, Baby Hip Hugger can and will rescue you. The Baby Hip Hugger is a little ledge that fits around your waist which you can use to distribute your toddler's weight more evenly. It was invented by a father who had to tote his little daughter around incessantly. A little light bulb popped on over his head, and the result is this very innovative product.  The Baby Hip Hugger has been a lifesaver in numerous situations around the house. I even took it with me shopping. I put Ivy ...

Hi everyone, I am in Los Angeles at the moment, and Violet spent last night being sick all over the place. Like as in, she was getting sick every half hour all night long. It was rough, I'm not gonna lie. Now I am feeling a bit sick too, but I think its from lack of sleep. Because lack of sleep is disgusting and wrong. And it makes me sick. I will write more when I get back to Vegas, but in the meantime, here are some places where you can see the Christmas lights .  Oh, and I will remove the turkey header when I get back too. Because right now I have bigger fish to fry. One fish in particular, actually. Her name is Violet.

For all my local readers, you may not have heard about this yet, so here it is. Snow Day is Saturday, Dec. 4th at Exploration Park at Mountain's Edge. And the best part is that it's free!

Apparently I my blog is starting to be like the bubonic plague of blogs. Because people are avoiding it like the...plague. First of all, no one commented on my last post. Ouch. See, this is what happens when I stop trying to be entertaining and just write what is on my mind. And second of all, no one commented on my last post. I am weeping. Ok, I am not weeping. But seriously, where is everyone?? I am pretty sure most of you have nothing better than to wait around, refreshing the browser to see if I posted anything new. I mean really, it is not as if there was a holiday recently and you are all catching up on everything that got put on hold over the holiday! Oh, wait.

The Thanksgiving holiday was all kinds of awesome. There is nothing in the world like spending quiet, quality time with the people you grew up with - the people who know you better than anyone else in the entire world (except my husband, who uncanny with predicting how I will react to things). Although Thanksgiving Day itself was a lot of fun, Saturday night seriously takes the cake for fun family nights. My mom and sister cooked an amazing dinner. In other words, I did nothing ! Yay!!! We also cracked open a few bottles of wine. I am not much of a drinker but when the mood strikes me for wine, I gets all thirsty-like. So glug glug glug. I had a couple reds. A few whites. Over the course of what was probably two hours, we had that delish dinner, drank up, and had a very engaging and lively conversation about life, religion, and... well...ok, it was just life and religion. Ivy and Violet eventually decided we were not paying enough attention to them and pulled me and my sister Nat...

Hi everyone! Hope you had a beautiful Thanksgiving! I have nothing much to say, except "Good Luck!" on shopping all those Black Friday Sales! I, for one, am going nowhere. This is a perfect day for staying warm and cozy and spending quality time with la familia. I am going to start decorating for Christmas, do some crafts, and be as silly as possible with my family. What are you doing today? Braving the sales? Drinking hot chocolate and eating leftovers? Watching snoozeball? Are you still in a food coma from yesterday? Whatever it is, I hope you are happy and having fun.