The Age of Aquariums

Before Big Sis headed back to teaching, we had to have an adventure and went back to Sealife Aquarium. J went for her bday back in December but I think she liked it even more with her cousins.

The 50mm lens wasn't quite up for focusing two feet away.

The infants were rather happy with their limited views.

The girls really liked the sea turtles

E even managed to get a high five.

They really liked touching the starfish.

 And the viewing domes.

Big Sis's knees will tell you they are not made for adults of Maidename proportions.

They had a new exhibit with a room full of jellyfish, the stuff my nightmares are made of. It was still pretty cool though. They had lots of heavy base going and the jellies would move to the beat.

Like I mentioned after the first trip there, the lighting design is really fantastic.

M agrees.

Last time the 360 degree tunnel was one of J's favorite parts, this time, not so much. She still was willing to pose with me though.

M was super entranced by the fish. It was fun to watch him follow them with eyes.

 Nemo is always a hit

They have a big McDonald's like play place at the end with this sub at the top and both girls loved it.

I loved that my infant  took a bit of a nap.

We headed to Rainforest Cafe for lunch to make the day even more awesome. And because I found a coupon in the Entertainment Book next to the aquarium passes.



The girls adored the slightly creepy animatronics.

I enjoyed the fun bar stools.

They even had more fishies!

As well as awesome frog hats.

M was not amused.

The pigtails did not last through the aquarium and definitely not to lunch, giving my daughter a rather eccentric style.

It was a really fun adventure and a great way to end Big Sis's summer vacation.

The Glories of Flatware

My dear son has decided 2 months is the appropriate interval for growing teeth. They haven't sprouted yet, but he has become a snotty, drooling mess and found a source of happiness other than boobs (but they are still the number one favorite).

Personally, I prefer my cold spoons with ice cream on them but in all fairness he hasn't had that experience yet. Heaven help us though because 2 months is way too young for teething.

Puzzling

I almost threw away this puzzle because one of the pieces disappeared and my OCD was going a little nuts about it. I knew it was somewhere in the house though so I figured it might turn up if I gave it more time. 6 months later I never found the piece myself, but since J's strength and height have combined to allow for fridge opening, the missing piece has somehow reappeared in lower temperatures.

I have no idea why, but she has been referring to the pieces as her sandwiches and keeps sticking them in the fridge when I'm not looking. I'm just happy she is content with putting things in the fridge and hasn't started taking things out. It may be time to move the eggs.

Mint Ice Cream

As an adult I've found I rather enjoy the simple pleasure of getting a magazine each month. I change it up every couple years, mostly due to my old ones going out of print (RIP Domino and Readymade *sniff sniff*) and I'm currently enjoying Real Simple.

They had a whole spread on beautiful homemade ice cream treats and I may have indulged in a manic moment by spontaneously attempting three of them one evening. It all started with this lovely picture.

image found here with the recipe

Makes you sort of want to lick the screen, eh?

So I read the recipe and it called for 2 bunches of fresh mint. Mint that I have finally convinced to grow in my dog-trodden herb garden. I will admit that it has sort of mutated from smooth, fragrant leaves to ones that have saw-tooth edges, but that's the cost of surviving in my backyard. 

Anyways, there is a special kind of pride that comes from using the products of my garden so I decided to go for it and try the recipe. Simple enough list of ingredients, mint, cream, milk, sugar, eggs, chocolate chips, and a bit of salt. I can do this.

Of course I have a little bit of a problem because I didn't fully read the recipe, just the ingredients. I got J all ready for making ice cream, expecting creamy deliciousness in about an hour's time. I didn't plan on having to steep the milky mint mixture for 30 minutes. Boo. But then I use this steeping time to read the rest of the recipe and ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! WHAT KIND OF ICE CREAM IS SUPPOSED TO TAKE 8 HOURS TO MAKE!

Such was the sad truth. Now I'm sure I could have cut some corners, but I feel the need to follow a recipe completely the first time I make it. It drives me nuts on Allrecipes.com when reviewers give it 1 star and say they added this and didn't use that. Or when they give it 5 stars and tell how they modified it. If you are going to review a recipe you should, you know, follow the recipe. 

Of course it was all meant to be because it delayed our ice cream eating until the next night so my Big Sis could partake. I must say, it really did turn out rather divine. I give credit to my man-eating mint plant. Next time, I'm going to try using the mint steeping method with a non-custard recipe and see how that works. There were no complaints though.

Ice cream is better in your pajamas

M felt very left out. Just a few more months son, a few more months.

Yet Another Post of My Baby Napping

 What really makes it cute is that his dad is napping too, but I have yet to meet an adult who looked photogenic napping and I value my marriage enough not to publish the other pictures.

The shutter was too loud and he woke up right after :( Still handsome though.

Smiles

M has figured out this smile thing. It makes him much more pleasant to be around.

 He has also discovered his hands. Now if he could discover how to get them to his mouth we could all enjoy much more sleep.

My Little Vampire

I was having a cookie craving one Sunday so I asked J if she wanted to make some.

"Ummm, no. Cupcakes."

I wanted cookies so I tried to convince her otherwise, but she was adamant and I thought it was cute that she had her own idea. I let her take her pick of flavors and she chose the box of red velvet.

Mmmm. Red #5.

Pair it with our genetic alabaster skin and she is ready for a ridiculous name like Renesmee.

Amazing Jake's

So my dearest daughter has been overly emotional lately. I'm not sure how much of that is just being 2.5 and how much is the stress of life with a new baby brother finally getting to her. She adores M and hasn't shown any aggression or dislike towards him so far. We even dropped him off with a friend the other day while J had a dr. appt. I come back to the car and she is crying hysterically, "My baby brother!" Like I said, emotional.

One life lesson I am constantly relearning is that there are few relationships that quality time can't fix. Be it with a student, your spouse, your dog, or your child. So I looked up some fun places to go online and J chose Amazing Jake's, an indoor pizza buffet with rides and arcade games. We dropped M off with my friend Lindsey (thanks again!) and headed out for hours of toddler directed fun.

She opted for food first and ate her ice cream cones and cookies and pizza and red punch while watching a movie. Pretty much her ideal meal.

Then we rode the rides. I let her lead the way the whole time and off to the tea cups we went.

The girl was a natural. She hopped in, had her hands on the wheel, and was spinning that tea cup before my 6 foot frame could squish into it completely. My stomach started whirling just as fast so I let her be in charge of the spinning. Despite my best intentions of letting her do whatever she wanted, I had to cap the tea cups at 4 rides because I didn't want to embarrass myself by revealing my buffet conquests all over the floor.

And since a former student happened to be running the ride, it would have been double embarrassing.

Of course we had to ride the pink horse as well. And the train, but she wasn't interested in the go carts. Probably because she didn't see any pink or purple ones.

J also thoroughly enjoyed pressing all the buttons on the arcade games.

Friends, J lived my 8-year-old dream. My mother was never apt to spend money for games when Oriental Trader trinkets were peddled for $20 of tokens for $0.50 of  late night foot piercing toys. While I completely understand that now, my 8-year-old self dreamed about finding a machine with an unattended credit that I could play. J found two. Whether it was from a day care group member who swiped his card and walked away or by activating the game fail safe with the appropriate sequence of button pressing, she managed to get a free racing game. She was bored after one minute of steering wheel spinning and moved one. Ten minutes later she was at the stool in front of Wheel of Fortune and demanding I replace her perch at Deal or No Deal. When I realized that Deal or No Deal was actually going for real and not sputtering noise and sounds as a lure, I started actually playing it.

And I sort of won the jackpot.

Seriously, it was spewing tickets like it had just finished a ride on the teacups. Then J started yanking on the tickets and jammed the machine. Being the stickler for fairness that I am, I contacted an attendant who gave us the remaining 60 tickets, plus the tickets that spewed out when the game reset.

And what did J choose with her bounty? A purple dumdum. A whopping 2 tickets out of our 200. She passed on the glitter bracelets, the sticky hands, and pretty much anything I steered her towards. She finally settled on a purple butterfly ring, then had a moment of buyers remorse when she saw the pink flip flop ring so we got them both and cashed out the rest in candy.

I consider the excursion a complete success because the next morning she asks, "Can M go to Lindsey's house?"