State Fair

Isabella went to the  AZ state Fair on Friday with all her preschool friends. She had a blast and I am finding out she is for sure a roller coaster girl.

Milking a cow....mooooo!


First bumper cars!!


One of many rides...



Best way to end the day!!

Our conversations

My day between 12 and 1pm!

We are leaving her preschool…Bella tries to get in the front passenger seat, I had no idea what she was doing, so I picked her up and tried to put her in her car seat. And yes, I am in a hurry…
The water works begin.…with a bit of kicking and screaming.

Bella: I want to go in the front and then climb to the back.

Me: That is not safe, you don’t climb all over the car seat.

Bella: Tries to swing at me and screams NO!

Me: Picked her up and sat her on a little planter, very calmly said, “When you are ready to get in the car without screaming, let me know. Then, I look the other way.

Bella: Screaming & Crying, but stays seated :)

Thank God it was not a 120 degrees outside but it was still hot, noon in October in AZ with me wearing jeans and a black shirt, it was hot! I turned the car on so I can turn the a/c on while she is screaming.

Bella: "Don’t leave without me!" Screaming, crying

Me: "I am not leaving without you, are you ready to get in the car the right way?"

Bella: "Yes" Tantrum over.

Me: Picked her up and strapped her in the car seat…

I think I won!

Keep in mind that I had just been told that she hit one of her friends today…

Me: We do not hit, hitting is not nice, it is not okay, you have to be nice to your friends. If someone hits you, then you walk away and tell the teacher. If you keep hitting, then you won’t be able to go to preschool.

Bella: It’s so hot, I’m sweaty, let’s go.

In one ear and out the other…so true!

We get home and it’s time to get dressed for the Little Gym…

Me: Please come put your pants on

Bella: Runs away…

Me: Please come put your pants on, I’m not going to ask you again

Bella: No, no, no, you have to say “Ma’am, please come put your pants on”

Me: I had to hide my chuckle and I ask, “Who taught you that?”

Bella: Danny (Danny is one of her imaginary friends)

Me: Bella please come put your pants on, we are running late

Bella: But you have to say, “Ma’am, please come put your pants on”

Me: “Ma’am, please come put your pants on”….and she comes happily to put her pants on.

She wins!

I guess you have to learn to pick your battles but did I just do that????

So back in the car we go, she has her bag of grapes, I’m putting her in the carseat and she spits at me!!

Me: Did you just spit at me?

Bella: Yeah, it was a seed.

Me: You do not spit like that, that is not good manners, that is disgusting and very gross, please don’t do that again.

Bella: I just don’t want the seed to go in my belly because then it will grow!

Me: Gotta hide my chuckle again and stay serious, “Next time, please put the seed back in the bag. Do you understand?"

And off we go.....

Pumpkin Patch

I absolutely love this time of year! October is my favorite month and Halloween is my favorite holiday. It's fun and there is no stress, well maybe just a little...but definetely not like Christmas.
This past Sunday, we visited a Pumpkin Patch at Tolmachoff Farms and had a blast. Too bad we (adults) could not complete the puzzle to the corn maze...we'll try again next year.

In the corn....


The big tractor...

Riding the train...

This was a lot of fun and quite the workout!


Almost time to pick out our pumpkin....

Stay tuned...We are visiting the Botanical Gardens and attending a Halloween party this upcoming Saturday!

C is for Chocolate Chip Cookie!

Another project inspired by No Time For Flashcards...
For detailed instructions on this project, visit their website,
http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/2009/08/recipe-for-cookies.html

We added real chocolate chips to our cookie and Bella had a lot of fun doing this!! I am appreciating times like this even more now that she is in preschool, the days are flying by!

Our conversation today...

While we were driving to the her class at the Little Gym...

Bella: Mama, why did you paint your eyes today?

Mama: I dunno, I want to look pretty for work.

Bella: I want to look pretty too, can I paint my face? Iwant glitter on my eyes.

Mama: Maybe when you are a little older.

Bella: But I am big girl...

She is not even 3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Some influence from Tia Gina, she'll be so proud.

Chore Chart

I finally had time to come up with a chore list for Isabella. Her chore list includes:

1) Cleaning her princess table

2) Emptying out the bathroom trash

3) Cleaning the bathroom mirrors

4) Water and food for the pets

5) Help with the bathrooms

6) Help put away laundry

7) Putting things away

8) Emptying out the dishwasher

9) Putting clothes in her hampter

Most days, she is receptive to the idea of being mama's helper. Other days, she says, "I am busy" or "You do it!". She is earning stickers for each chore she accomplishes or when she is being helpful. So far the stickers have been enough. My next step will be to give her quarters when she has a lot of stickers on her chore chart. She alreadyemptied out the bathroom trash pretty much unsupervised! We were so proud!

You can make your own Kids' Chore Chart at:

www.goalforit.com

Preschool

We have been talking about it for months and it is finally here! Jelly Belly's first day of preschool. What a big girl! Here we go!!

First pic taken...It really helped to go to the open house on Friday! She walked right in and started playing!

Ginny and Bella....MINE!!

Bella and her new teacher:

Deciding which preschool Jelly Belly would attend was a tough one to make. We visited and toured a few. We decided to go with Angele's Preschool Program. It was the only preschool that let us visit for an entire morning so Isabella had a chance to participate while I sat back. I love the fact that is only three times a week, three hours a day. The day we visited, they transferred cocoons to the buttefly tent and she absolutelty loved it. She still talks about it. Angele's preschool is an in-home preschool very close to our house. We will love this since she has to be there at 8:30 a.m. She is attending with her good friend Ginny and a few other kids she knows from the Rancho Santa Fe Mommy-Coop that we belong to. I am sure this will ease the transition to being away from home or grandma's house. There were no tears today! When I picked her up she was happy to see me and right away took out her first project from her backpack. She also took me outside to show me the finger painting she had done. She came home with a Clifford book she checked out from Angele's library. Her face was full of chocolate from her fudsicle. She said she helped clean up, played with play-do and a jump rope and that it was a lot of fun. I feel very comfortable with her new teacher and I am looking forward to her new world of learning without mommy. Let's hope for the same on Wednesday!

Art Project

Here's is a fun and super easy art project! I had a bag full of those foamy things that are used for packaging, I don't even know what to call them....She loved touching and playing with them since she had never seen them before. Great for texture...then she painted them. We used finger paints and acrylics.

We waited for them to dry a bit before gluing them on a piece of foam paper.

The finished project!! It is now hanging on her playroom's wall!

The letter F

F is for Feather! Isabella is getting really good at recognizing sounds. The feathers kept her entertained and we had a lot of fun playing with them afterwards.

Today, I let her pick which letter she wanted to do. Turned out to be a great choice. Earlier we had visited "As You Wish", Pottery Painting Place and painted a frog.

F is for feather, frog, five, four, fingers, fox, funny, fork......

For detailed instructions on how to make this project, check out one of my favorite sites:

Our trip

We are back in Arizona and adjusting to the heat! Jelly belly had a lot of fun in Costa Rica. I am so glad she is becoming an international traveler at such a young age. She surprised us when she compared Costa Rica to the Bahamas, it was a great geography lesson for all of us. Jelly Belly got to spend time with "Tita" (my mother-in-law), Tia Diana and her cousins. She also felt the warmth of extended family, picked up a few Spanish words, visited the beach and a volcano we could not see. We survived our flights, our layovers, car trips and everything else. Giving her new toys was a huge success, she now loves Polly Pockets. They kept her very busy when there was nothing to do at the airport and long car rides. Highly recommend them! There was a lot of C-A-N-D-Y, fruit snacks, gum and movies, and she even tried soda for the first time! Flexibility is the key to a great vacation! I can only wish that someday she will eat Costa Rican food because it is delicious and very similar to what I grew up eating in Nicaragua.

One of our very first pics that was taken on a very long drive to the beach:

Here is the beach we visited and the beautiful sunset we saw:

Here she is with Santi, they got along instantly and so well considering the language barrier.... "I love candy" is something they will both remember!

Here she is holding a crab, not scared at all:

Spent lots of time with daddy:

Hung with the cousins, Andrew and Adrian:

Visited Tito...which raised some tough questions we will soon address:

Where is the volcano?? It's supposed to be behind them...

We couldn't see the lagoon...

Here she is feeding a squirrel:

MOO MOO, she saw cows everywhere including outside of Tita's house:

She was ready to come home and see her Grandmee & Grandpee and of course the puppies. She missed her toys, her room, her crib, but she overall she did great. Now it's time for routine! We are still unpacking. We have reviewed our rules and we are getting ready for her first day of school on Monday. Trying to get her up and ready by 8:30 a.m. will be quite the challenge.

Off to Costa Rica

We are all packed up and headed to Costa Rica tomorrow morning. The house is clean, the house is quiet. And I am exhausted. Isabella fell asleep not too long ago, which means we will have a cranky jelly belly when I wake her up at 6:30am. I just spent I don't know how long looking for her baby, with no luck. I hope we find it tomorrow morning. Here is the calendar (or as jelly belly would say, "we gotta do our chart") where we have been tracking our days. My MIL just got a computer which means I may be able to blog while we are away. And we are off....

Mak Diva

We are leaving to Costa Rica this Thursday and what am I doing? Blogging....aaaahhh it's my new addiction, good thing it has not replaced Facebook. Now I need more time! This is Makenzie aka Mak Diva, my husband's God daughter (so technically mine too). I have known her since she was 3 I think! And now she is the bestest, greatest babysitter. She comes over and Jelly belly does not need a thing from me. I packed, and cleaned and cleaned, yes I am a bit obssesed, but I must clean before I go out of town. Today Isabella made her do all kinds of silly things...getting in her crib was just one of them. Jelly belly loves her, and pretty soon Mak diva will be old enough to babysit! I'm counting down... Mak Diva may soon get blue hair and jelly belly has already put her request in for pink hair!! Yikes, we are in trouble!

Summer Fun

This past Saturday we celebrated Gaby's birthday at a splash park. We had only been to a splash park another time and she would not get wet. I sure was glad that she warmed up to all the splashing because it was super HOT!

These 2 will be friends forever....

Jelly belly now knows who Hannah Montana is...yikes!
Splash!

When will she stop covering her ears?? I hope she doesn't cover them when her bday comes around! Check out the cakes made by my friend Maria....yummy! And thanks for the eggless cupcakes!