Las Vegas Mama

My parents are made of gold. And you know how precious gold is these days, right? So you can imagine how precious the two of them are, seeing as how they are well over a valuable few ounces in weight. They are in town this weekend and are allowing me to completely take advantage of them. One of the special joys in my life is when they come for a visit so that I can completely abrogate my parental responsibilities and make them raise my kids. At least for the weekend. And what am I doing while they feed, clean up, and entertains my kids? Nothing. Seriously, nothing. I might be sitting on the couch while my mom reads to them. One of my girls has to go potty. Instead of getting up and helping them I just call out to my mom from my cozy little spot on the couch, "Maaaa? Can you help herrrr?" And she totally does. Or maybe I want to go run errands. "Mom, I'll be right back I have to run some errands. It'll take me an hour, max." And I breeze out the doo...

Here is the next set of my chore chart drawings. Here is the first set . Today's set includes mostly mommy and daddy chores. Here is daddy taking out the trash - it's my fave one so far. He likes to relax in this outfit when he gets home from work. And here is a sheet for the rest of them. For the mom/dad chores they are more obvious and plus I know how to read, so the depictions for us are minimal and some have words. The chores are: Menu planning, sweep kitchen, do laundry, wash dishes, set the table (kid chore), and the upper right picture is "pick up after yourself when you get home from work" (dad chore). If you are making your own chore chart like me, I suggest printing them on a pretty color, laminating them and using velcro to stick them to your poster board chart. Since my kids cannot read yet, I am putting a picture of each family member at the top of the poster board, and the pertaining chores go under the picture of each child or family member...

I have been looking online for some free clip art depicting girls doing chores so that I could make my own chore chart. Part of starting the homeschooling next week also involves other really ambitious things like starting the girls on a set of specific chores and running our days on a schedule (ha!). But I could not find any clip art that I liked, so I decided just to draw my own stuff and hope for the best. And because I love you all I am going to post it on here so you can download it for free. I am not done yet, I still have other chores to draw, like setting the table and things like that. If I get favorable comments (or any comments at all for that matter, since I think mostly everyone has given up on me by now because of my lack of posting) then I will also post the rest when I am done. These are all princess themed because I have 2 girls and one on the way, so why even pretend to be neutral! Here is a princess for the task of making your bed: And here she is picking up ...

Do you hear that sputtering sound? That is the sound of my engine running out of energy and fizzling out. I am not talking about my car. I am talking about my body. And how it is not yet 10am and I am already done. Last night I woke up at 5am to use the bathroom for the 4th time, and when I got back to bed I simply could not fall back asleep. My brain got to thinking (stupid brain, of all the nerve!) about the things I have to get done this week. For those of you who only know me for pretends on this blog and not for reals, I should tell you that I am going to be homeschooling Ivy starting on August 29th. So I have been busily putting together all my supplies and writing a basic Spanish and a basic Music curriculum to supplement the Catholic Heritage curriculum I already bought. I am sure there must be something out there for young kids in those topics, but since she already understands Spanish and is really flighty about Music, I figured I would just start her off where she needs ...

I received an invitation to review Chuck E. Cheese's new pizza... they completely revamped it for the first time in like 30 years. When was the last time you went to Chuck E. Cheese? Before this year, the last time I had been to one was when I was a kid. And that was a long, long time ago. What do you remember of this place when you were a kid? I remember a dark, dirty interior with creepy animatronic animals(?) or puppets whose eyes went CLICK CLICK when they blinked loudly during their song performances. Even as a kid I was not much of a fan of the place. So when I had kids, I stayed away. Finally, a friend invited me to a play date there and I decided to just go for it since it had literally been decades since I had been to one. I was so pleasantly surprised to find that they were bright, clean, and the animatronics had been replaced with movie screens and only one animatronic Chuck, who didn't seem to click quite as loudly as he used to. The games and rides were lots ...

I thought you would all appreciate knowing that the Carousel at the District in Green Valley Ranch is FREE for the rest of the summer (probably until Labor Day)! It used to be $2 per ride. Also, on movie nights there is free popcorn. Woot!

Ivy: How old awe you, Mom? Me: 34. Ivy: Soon yo' going to die. Me: What?!? Ivy (matter-of-factly): Soon yo' going to die, I guess. Me: No, I'm not! Why?? Ivy: Because yo' 34. That's old. Me: Um, its not that old. Abuelita didn't die til she was 100.  Ivy: Dad is old too. He's 35. He's an old man. Me: Yeah, well, we aren't going to die yet. Sheesh.

   Good Idea: Hitting a piñata at a birthday party. Bad Idea: Trying on the broken piñata head in the presence of the same children who destroyed it.

I took the girls to Run Plus Fun in Henderson this week, which is an indoor playground, kind of like Child's Play . The whole thing is set up on three levels where kids can run through at full speed. No worries on the children getting hurt as they come around corners though, because everything is padded. Like an insane asylum. Not that I have ever been in an insane asylum (Yes you have. No I haven't. Yes you have. No I haven't. Shut up! Shut up!). It's what I imagine an asylum would be like. There is also an area for infants and small children, and a snack area with tables. It costs $8 per child, and everyone has to wear socks - even the adults, otherwise you will have to buy some of the socks they sell there. Here are the girls, all excited and ready for some running and funning.   There is a pit full of yellow and green balls, and kids can go down a slide and land right in the middle Upside down lollipops Is it just me or does this look like a...

Hey, remember when I used actually go places? And review them? Remember when I would totally write about fun places for moms and babies to go in this town instead of relying on my other blogger friends like De Su Mama to review places for me? Do you remember my Muppet Rating System?  If you don't remember, here it is again. I was visiting another Vegas mom blog with a name very similar to mine and she sure has it together, with a little calendar of local events and everything. I'm not going to tell you what that blog is though, because I am jealous and I think if I tell you then you will leave me for another blogger. Especially one who updates her calendar regularly. There is only room for ONE fabulous "Las Vegas Mama" in this town, thanks. So here you are, and here you will stay. You and I will be happy here...together...forever. But not in a creepy way where after you die I keep your body dressed in your wedding outfit and prop you up on the couch and pretend ...

Seeing as how I am a major slacker these days about posting, I am going to give you a special treat. A double treat. Not only do you actually get to read something on this blog, you are also going to get to meet my new Las Vegas blogger friend Vanessa from De Su Mama , who wrote this guest post.  And you get a review for somewhere new, which I have not done in forever . And that is not even hyperbole, it really has been forever. Like, literally. And if you don't beleive in forever just try and remember how it used to take for the bell to ring and let you out of your high school geometry class. Am I right? It was forever. After you read this post, head over to her blog, give her a "follow", and enjoy her amazing photography skills. And don't forget to give her some comment love!   ********** Tivoli Village For the last few years, as you drive down Fort Apache where it turns into Rampart, you would see a large stretch of land slowly being developed into what a...

Today we celebrate the day we gained independence from England by trying to blow up America. Let freedom ring, yee haw!!! Happy 4th of July! Love our tiny hats. I mean that in the imperative.

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 al...

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 Jou...

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...

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 ...

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 t...

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 d...