Why I Love Las Vegas

A couple of days ago I had the privilege of hanging out most of the day at a poolside cabana at Vdara. It was about 115 degrees outside, but with fans, misters and a private dipping pool for those in the cabanas, it was pretty fantastic. It's on days like this that I suddenly remember that living in Las Vegas has its perks.

The day was arranged to celebrate the birthday of my good friend Naomi, but it may as well have been my birthday, because that is how much I enjoyed myself. Naomi used to be a Christina Aguilera impersonator before she had kids, but she is an incredible singer in her own right. She is one of those women who can wear a bikini top and chaps until they are 5 months pregnant. Which she actually, really, truly did while she was pregnant with her first baby and was still working as an impersonator.

Shout out, Naomi! Happy birthday!


I would post a pic of my chums and I on the day of, but I haven't gotten the pics from my friend Jess, who managed to get all the non-boring shots ... I'll update when I get them!

Over against the back are the private cabanas we stayed in:

This is the pool for people like me who put on too many airs to use the pool that everyone else uses:

We ordered drinks and a tapas-style lunch, which was DELISH. After lunch, champagne and chocolate covered strawberries were sent down to us, soon followed by ice cream. But the best part was the completely decadent strawberry and vanilla cream birthday cake with Naomi's name written on a towering piece of chocolate and sprinkled with gold bits. I am sure there is a fancy name for a cake like that, but I don't know what it is. So I am going to call it the Mouthwatering Strawberry Gold Bits Cake With Specks of Vanilla Beans in the Cream And Everything.

You would expect the food to be amazing quality, and it did not disappoint considering the menu was the creation of Chef Martin Heierling, who is the Executive Chef at Vdara.

This was the view from our cabana:

I loved the big screen tv in the cabana, and the fact that the amenities included water bottles, soda, snacks and this really cool water spritzer thingy - excuse me, I mean "oxygenated water atomizer". It smelled faintly of eucalyptus and money. I didn't discover the water spritzer until it was almost time to leave. I was so enamored of it I had to take it with me.

Is that low-brow and cheap? Well, that is because I am the descendant of Castillians and I grew up in East LA. Anyone who knows about Castillians or East LA knows what I am talking about. It's a deadly combination. I frequently do things like make sun quesadillas instead of Sun Tea and refer to helicopters as Ghetto Birds. So this kind of behavior is to be expected, really.

But here, I took a picture of it against the backdrop of my expensive Kate Spade purse so I can pretend that it is cool to snag "atomizers" out of private pool cabanas.

How to Hold a Backyard Campout

Today was our Sid the Science Kid Backyard Campout. Since the friends we invited over to hang out with us all have kids that are too small to do a real overnight campout, we decided to make an afternoon of it and after they left, we would sleep outside in the tent on our own.

It is now that time... the kids are in their jammies, 'Smores galore have been eaten, and we are all ready to rough it tonight. Here are the deets from our daytime campout!

First we watched the new Sid episode, "Sid's Backyard Campout", and thus inspired, we all went outside to have fun.

Here is Violet, ready to rough it in our paved backyard wilderness.

We all made Reese's 'Smores, which means we substituted Reese's Peanut Butter Cups for the chocolate, and I have to say it was FANTASTIC.

NOM NOM.....

Since we do live in the desert and this is Vegas, there may or may not have also been a dead body involved.

After the 'Smores, I passed out Nature Journals and a pencil to all the kids (I used Composition notebooks, $1 ea. at Target). Then we went on a Nature Scavenger Hunt!

First on the scavenger hunt was to look for 3 different kinds of insects and draw them in our journals.

The next task was to find different kinds of animals and draw the ones you found. The bad news: no one found a desert kangaroo. The good news: No one found a scorpion, either.

The final task on our Nature Scavenger Hunt was to observe a flower or leaf and draw it in the journal, leaving it untouched in its habitat, just as Sid tells us to do.

Here is Violet, post-'Smores, drawing in her nature journal in the tent.

The whole thing was so much fun, and the kids were totally into the scavenger hunt.

Be sure to watch tomorrow's episode at 11am on Vegas PBS and plan your own easy, fun backyard campout. I promise your kids will love it, and all it requires from you is: 1) 'Smores, 2) a Nature Scavenger Hunt, and the optional #3) a tent!

Here are the details on the new Sid episode:

Premier episode: June 20th at 11AM on Vegas PBS 10 and 710 Cox Cable 10.1
Encore broadcasts: June 24th, July 12th, July 27th and August 19th.

New Episode: Sid the Science Kid

I am sure your kids have all seen Sid the Science Kid on PBS by now. If they haven't, well, I find that odd since even my kids have seen and loved it, and they don't watch TV much these days.

I wanted to give you the heads up that there is going to be a new episode airing on Vegas PBS this Monday. It's called "Sid's Backyard Campout". I was invited to hold my own backyard campout and to blog about it, which sounded like so much fun I simply could not pass it up.
 
So this weekend I am having a backyard camp out of my own for my kids and some of their friends. I'll be posting pictures on Sunday of how it all went, and I just have one thing to say to you: 'Smores.

I know, its hot. But 'Smores defy all seasons, frankly. And if you do not agree then you are probably un-American. You are probably one of "those people" who complain about too much salt in our diets. Besides, I could even skip making a fire and just roast the 'mallows on the pavement.

So check back Sunday night for pictures of our campout shenanigans for ideas in case you want to hold out a backyard campout of your own. Which I don't see why you wouldn't, considering how easy and fun it would be and how much your kids would love you for it!

Here are the details of the episode's air times:

Premier episode: June 20th at 11AM on Vegas PBS 10 and 710 Cox Cable 10.1
Encore broadcasts: June 24th, July 12th, July 27th and August 19th.

I Pickled My Baby

I went to a picnic yesterday afternoon, and I unwisely brought potato chips to share. And I also unwisely brought the remains of those chips home. And I stupidly just ate the rest of the bag.

And I think I might have pickled my baby.

Do any of you know much salt does it take to pickle a baby in utero? If you do, please tell me.

I have been craving salt lately, but when I mentioned it to my OB last time he said I needed to be careful because Americans already have high-salt diets. But here's the thing - why are people always complaining about Americans having a high salt diet? Other people in other countries also consume a lot of salt and no one criticizes them for it. Its unfair. Americans are not the only people in the world who enjoy salt.

Take Argentina, for example. According to this article, Argentines eat way too much salt. But you never hear people complaining about their salt consumption. When was the last time you heard anyone purse their lips in disapproval and growl, "Those Argentines need to cut back on their salt!"

Who are these America-haters that complain about our saltiness, anyway? Last time I checked, saltiness was a good thing. Just ask any pirate if he likes a salty wench. 9 times out of ten he will say "Arrrgh", which means "Most assuredly, yes!"And the 10th pirate would have said yes too if he could hear you, but sadly he was deafened by a canon blast and could not hear the question. This makes him sad and depressed, but at least he has a parrot to be his ears and his voice, although the parrot can only say strange and discomfiting things like, "I see England, I see France, I see Bob's underpants!" And then you are like, "Who is Bob, and why is this parrot privy to what his underpants look like?"

The point is that I think salt is a good thing. It makes food taste yummy. And I am sure it makes the baby's amniotic fluid nice and flavorful. But I am a little concerned that I might have actually gone a little too far and inadvertently pickled her.

11 Year Old Grown Ups

I went to the mall today for lunch, because my cupboards are looking rather bare and the things I do have I cannot eat due to the fact that carbs make my blood sugar spike. I could have gone to the grocery store to stock up on real food but that makes far too much sense and is too practical. I will leave it to the June Cleaver sorts to do smart things like grocery shop.

So off the to mall we went, to get irresponsible food for the kids responsible food for me. FYI, I am still hungry. And now I am home again with carbs staring at me in the face. I'm not going to lie, it hurts a little.

Anyway, the point in telling you all this is that I want to make a comment on all those pre-teen girls at the mall, the ones wearing mini-skirts and high heels. What is up with that???

I found myself zoning out on someone's feet, which were clad in wedge heels. Those are cute shoes, I thought to myself. Being a girl and all, and having interest in fashionable things on occasion, I decided to aim the eyeballs upwards to see what outfit one pairs with those shoes. My eyes traveled up the person's bony legs, and saw a fashionable but very short skirt and tank top. But something seemed off. The body type was far too thin and small to be a grown woman. My eyes made it all the way up to the face of the owner of those shoes, and I was shocked to see that the owner of the shoes and mini skirt was an 11 year old girl.

As we walked through the mall, I began noticing more and more of these types. Young girls, many of whom have either not yet hit puberty or were in the first dawn of it, and carrying Victoria's Secret shopping bags.

Why?? Why. These are children. And they are dressing and acting like they are grown ups. What has happened to our society? There are many things I could complain about in regards to our society, but right now I am just going to focus on this one little aspect. Wait, let me climb up onto my soap box for a sec before I launch into this. Ok, here goes.

It says something pretty sad about us as a whole when our children are dressing like adults. Not even just adults - like skanky adults. They wear outfits meant to reveal their bodies for the visual consumption of men. High heels to lengthen their legs and force their bust and their bums to stick out unnaturally. Short skirts to invite to the eye to travel upwards. Tight shirts to reveal what? Bony A-cup chests? And let me just ask - what can these young girls possibly need Victoria's Secret underwear for?? Who is going to see it, anyway? The answer to that is what worries me.

The whole idea of these young girls dressing and acting like sexualized adults has me completely disgusted. They are being indoctrinated by our society to treat their bodies like something entirely common, to be adorned and put on display. To what purpose? Well, follow it to its natural conclusion and you can see that the purpose is to attract men. I would ask where these girls' fathers are, but I actually passed by one bony little child in high heels and a mini skirt who was walking alongside her father.

Maybe some of my readers have children of this age who dress like that. And if you do, please tell me why you allow it. Don't you worry about inappropriate attention from older men? If you buy your daughter Victoria's Secret underwear, can you tell me what purpose that ultimately serves? And don't tell me its confidence building or that it helps with self-esteem, because I am not buying it. Learning to play sports or how to play an instrument builds self-confidence. Beauty and youth are fleeting - so I hope you are not going to tell me that you are pinning your child's self-worth on something that is going to fade. Besides, you can dress very nicely and fashionably without revealing just about every inch of your body.

Maybe I am more sensitive to the darker side of human nature because I live in Sin City and all... but I really cannot think what positive purpose it would serve to allow your daughter to dress in skimpy grown up clothes. Someone enlighten me... please.

This is About Feet (Mostly)

One of the things about being pregnant is that you have to go to a lot of appointments for stuff - doctors, labs, ultrasounds, etc. etc. And when you already have two other small children to wrangle and out the door, coupled with pregnancy brain, some things just go by the wayside. Let's take today for example.

I fed the kids. I clothed them. I got their shoes on. I grabbed my purse, and since we were already running late, I hustled them out of the house: "Move, move move! Come on, let's go! We're late! Out the door, now!" I quickly closed the front door and turned my key to lock it. But suddenly something seemed wrong. What was I forgetting? Keys, check. Children, check. Cell phone, check.

I looked down, past my watermelon belly, and stuck out one foot to get a better look. Sure enough, there was the problem. I had forgotten to put shoes on.

In my defense, our shoes are right by the front door so I never put them on until we are literally walking out the door. But still, I was surprised that I could forget something so basic as shoes. Who ever forgets to put on shoes?? Apparently I do.

I opened the door again and stuck my feet into some flip flops, and we were on our way to the ultrasound appointment.

You will be glad to know that the baby is looking just fine and healthy, and is still kicking a whole lot. Which means I still have to stand by my earlier assertion about the baby being a match for Chuck Norris.

And now that we have body part measurements, it has been revealed to me by the ultrasound tech that my baby has huge feet. How huge? One and a half inches long.

I know. Big foot, right?

Well alright, admittedly that does sound tiny. But she was telling me that most babies at this gestational age have feet that are only one inch long. Either way, can you just picture that?? A tiny little one and a half inch long foot???? It melts my heart just to think of it. That's a only little longer than a small paper clip! And that is powerful cute.

Oh, and P.S.  I should probably also tell you the following: