We started at Starbucks—a very expensive choice made by me but happily accepted by four non-coffee frappuccino-slurping girls. I really need to curb my caffeine habit.

Then we took Bug to gymnastics (Ballet was out for the week) and afterwards Toby took all of us to dinner on the pier in Balboa. The good thing about not seeing Toby for a whole week is that when he does see us, he doesn’t mind if there are FIVE rowdy girls instead of just two. It was a real circus.

We took Bug’s good friend “Boo” from the neighborhood. We may have been trying to show off how cool the ocean is. She was happy to oblige us and be impressed.

And the nieces. They miss their mom so much that whenever I suggested we take a picture of them together for her, they cuddled together like two little chicks and didn’t even whack each other, which is often their habit.

Us on the pier. I really need to try and be in more pictures.

The light was really cool as the sun was setting because there was this heavy fog bank that blocked the rays that would normally blind you. So we got to take interesting unusual pictures we normally couldn’t see.

Long shadows on the walk back to the car…

And more getting-along-nieces shots. Where did Rapunzel get such pretty lips? Not my side of the family.

Of course Pouty McPouterson had to join the party.

Thankfully the fun wasn’t hampered. “Don’t get wet!” I threatened in vain. Words to the wind, words to the wind…

Pretty pier.

Boo is properly excited.

It’s too bad I have my point-and-shoot camera set up to take super vertical shots and I cut off Super Chic’s face but I still love this photo. It really is a “slice of life.” A super narrow skinny slice. Super Chic is handing me shells to keep forever but of course I put them in some pocket and they are probably lost in the washing machine now. I love Rapunzel’s cackle.

More slices.

I love this shot of Boo playing jumprope with a piece of kelp. She wasn’t afraid of the slimy kelp at all. That’s my kinda kid.

The next day we initiated Boo into our traditional breakfast of doughnuts on lifeguard tower number five.

Patriotic sprinkles were enjoyed.

Tradition!

And then they were off to the sea. There really was no stopping them.

Catching a few rides in the morning soup.

This kid was unstoppable. She’s never had a boogie board before because technically she doesn’t know how to swim yet. But really, she can swim. She’s in the water more than she’s out and she’s not afraid to get her face wet at all. If she had her way, we would have been at the ocean all day and all night for probably the rest of the year. She never gets cold and she never gets tired. She borrowed a board this year and she may have found her life’s calling. I think I know what I’m getting her for her birthday this year: her own board.

Deb and Eric stopped by for a quick visit. I love my old beach friends.

By the way, Deb is on twitter now! One of these days I’ll get her to put up her own website. She really needs one. She has such amazing art.

We stopped by her house for a quick chat and I snuck in a few more photos of her art-filled house. She calls it a mess. I call it beautiful.

Rapunzel was looking particularly pretty and blue-eyed next to this stunning painting. Not sure which is prettier.

And then back to the beach! This time with sunblock.

Woooo-eeeeee! Boo took to the waves like a natural.

Bug stuck to the sand, much to my relief. I took a book to read but I couldn’t get much reading done because I was constantly looking up to count off my chicks. One, two, three, four. Phew. They’re all still alive. Then back to reading.

Which by the way, is a very good book Did you know Journey Mama wrote it? She’s such beautiful writer.

It’s just as much of a pleasure to read as her blog. She has a way with details…I’m completely engrossed in the story and quite attached to all of the characters. I’m not done yet but when I am, I’m going to have her do a guest post and maybe even a give away. I really think you all would enjoy reading it too. It’s a keeper. Of course I’m personally invested because it’s set in Northern California which is near and dear to my heart.

But back to Southern California and the waves…

I think it’s safe to say, a good time was had.

This Saturday was Bug’s first dance recital. It was so awesome. Her performance itself was not awesome at all but we weren’t expecting much. She got up there on stage and smiled and looked cute in her adorable costume and that’s all we could ask for. That’s her teacher above. I love her so much. I’m really sad that she’s going to be Sleeping Beauty for Disney Tokyo in Japan and won’t be teaching ballet anymore. But it was really cool while it lasted. Bug is going to miss her.

Anyway, you want to see her performance right? It should load below if the internet is cooperating with me.

Yeah, stupid me. I didn’t make sure my camera was in focus before I started filming and then half the time I wasn’t even paying attention to the camera and let it list off to the side. I’m sorry about that. But you’ll have to forgive me. I was going bananas because my little itty bitty girl was up on stage!!! Oh, it was so cute. I may have cried a little bit.

I wasn’t even supposed to be filming. This is contraband footage you’re looking at. Although, between you and me, every single parent there was filming with their iphones and spy cameras. The theatre didn’t want us to film because they sell a super expensive dvd of the whole production at the end but Toby and I weren’t about to shell out money to the man.

That is until we sat through the entire production and had our socks blown off by how good it was. The little girls were so cute and the big girls were so amazing. I fell in love with dance all over again. And I’ve never even danced (outside of that one class I took in college where I kicked everyone accidentally.)

As soon as the curtain fell, Toby beelined it for the dvd sales desk. He was sold. Which is really cool because before this recital he was talking about having Bug drop out of ballet. He just never really thought it was that important. And since he is the one who pays for her to have gymnastics and ballet lessons (it’s part of our co-parenting deal), that’s kind of a bad thing for Bug and I who happen to LOVE ballet. Toby won’t admit it but I think he has ideas that Bug is going to be in the Olympics or something (not gonna happen thanks to my genes unfortunately) and he’s pretty competitive when it comes to how Bug does in sports. He’s a little hard on her. Before you worry though, don’t. I’m really easy on her so it evens out. She needs a little chiding here and there.

So anyway, ballet lessons have not been chopped from the budget! Whoooeeeeeee!!! All thanks to the most wonderful ballet recital production ever. I wish I had filmed the whole thing but it would have been too big of a file to put up here anyway and then I’d really get busted by the theatre company.

Disneyland was so awesome. It wasn’t crowded, it wasn’t too hot. We got to do everything we wanted to do. Our tickets were free (thanks to a friend who works there who signed us in, SCORE!). Our packed lunch was delicious…I couldn’t have asked for a better day! It was just great! Toby and I didn’t even really squabble that much which was really really awesome since I thought Disneyland was pretty much everything Toby hates about everything and I was dreading his ongoing commentary. He was on his best behavior all day and so was Bug!

We got a bit of a late start but it was fine! Because Disneyland wasn’t crowded! I don’t think I’ve ever been on a better day. If you’re thinking of visiting, I cannot recommend an odd Thursday AFTER spring break enough. Guess how long the wait was for Pirates of the Caribbean? Five minutes. Small World? Ten. That NEVER happens! At least not to me.

Obligatory family portrait taken by a total stranger. He didn’t even cut off our heads!

We met Ariel right off. Bug was enthralled.

Then we hit the teacups. This is my favorite photo of the whole day.

And I was there too! It’s kinda nice having Toby around to take photos of me. I get tired of taking the hand-held self-portraits sometimes.

We kinda sprung Matterhorn on Bug which was not really very smart. Prepping a kid for a roller coaster is tricky. You have to tell them how scary it is so they aren’t traumatized but you have to tell them in such a way that you don’t scare them into not going. Bug was pretty brave but Matterhorn was a little too dark and fast for her. Thankfully she seemed to get over it pretty quick and it didn’t scare her off roller coasters for good. Of course we praised her to high heaven for being so brave so maybe that helped.

Toby had fun challenging himself with my camera. (Shot while twisting. He had the camera strap wrapped around his wrist about eight times, don’t worry.)

Next up was the underwater Finding Nemo submarine ride. This is my least favorite ride up there next to the Haunted Mansion and Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. Dark, claustrophobic and it takes forever to load and unload. I wasn’t terribly impressed with the new Nemo features but Bug seemed to like it. Except for the pretend crash and all the electricity sparking. I think she’s taken our “Don’t play with the electrical cords” sermons to heart.

Meh. We promised we’d take her to Catalina and show her some real fish on a glass-bottomed boat.

It looks pretty from the top though.

Autopia was a huge hit. I’d talked it up before we got there and Bug couldn’t wait to drive a car. She was pumped.

Unfortunately the steering wheel in our car was useless so she ended up letting Toby drive and just enjoying the scenery.

We wished we had bumpers like these cars (especially after my recent bank-parking-lot incident).

We waited 45 minutes to see the princesses. Normally I would think that was ridiculously stupid but then I had Bug and she reprogrammed my brain. We love princesses now and I am eating all my words one by one with salt. I’m so glad Aurora was there, Bug’s favorite princess. Bug was so shy. It was kinda like how I acted when I finally met Dooce in person.

By the time we got to Snow White and Jasmine she’d lost her timidity. She loved the princesses and I think they loved her right back. It was really sweet.

Then Toby bought her her own crown. I had stupidly stepped on her old pink plastic one a while back and she’s been mourning it for months now. As you know, Bug loves her crowns—sharp, hard, plastic crowns jammed right down on her ears. It was kind of nice that that was all she wanted. I was prepared to shell out major bucks for souvenir crap but she didn’t seem that into the merchandise. Good thing too ’cause it looked kinda cheap for the dollars they were asking.

Then we hit Small World. I thought for sure Toby would rather die than go on this ride since he suffers from earworms that will last up to a week. But he was a trouper and really enjoyed himself by taking photos in challenging lighting situations. Who knew Disneyland was such fun for photographers?! Also, my camera rocks. I’m so glad I bought it. (Thank you, again.)

(Toby pretending to be in awe.)

Tick tock, what an awesome clock.

I just thought these balloons were pretty. No other reason.

We didn’t do much in Adventureland/Frontierland. They were preparing for the premiere of the latest Pirates movie and a lot of stuff was blocked off. Bug wanted to go see the singing plastic flowers in the Tiki Room but I promised Bug we’d do that next time.

But we did ride Pirates of the Caribbean! Five-minute wait!!! Bug wasn’t scared at all. She’s braver than I was at five.

Then we passed by Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, my favorite ride of all time. I just figured she’d be too short for it but she wasn’t!!! Then I had to talk her into going. It took a lot of negotiating.

We pretty much just walked past it and gave up. She wasn’t into it and you know how stubborn Bug can be once she makes up her mind.

We wasted some time at Toon Town, which she loved but we hated. And then right before the park closed, she changed her mind and we ended up going on Big Thunder at dusk!! I have no photos but that seriously made my day. And! She liked it. Best. Day. Ever.

The rest was cake.

Then we called it a day and took our tired selves home. I can’t wait to go back.

I’m sure you are all on the edges of your seats wondering how the gardening went. It went great! We planted strawberries. Or at least I think they are strawberries. That’s what the package said. They’re bare root strawberries. (Now that I find a link for them, I see we did not plant them properly. They’re doomed.) They looked pretty dead to me but my mom kept saying, “You’d be surprised!” I really hope she’s right because I don’t want to grow dead roots for months. Wouldn’t that be a letdown?

See? Dead. Or at least deadish. I don’t see any sign of life in these gnarled rooty things. I really hope my mom is right. She is the one with the green thumb after all.

This weekend when we went out to visit Toby, Bug was telling him all about our planting experience and she kept going on and on about planting the strawberries’ hula skirts in the ground. We both were very puzzled until I finally figured out that the “hula skirts” were the strawberry roots—which they do kind of look like. Like zombie hula skirts from the dead!!!! Aaaaack! Anyway, I’m pessimistically optimistic. We’ll see.

Even if they don’t grow, it sure was fun planting. I’m really liking this American Dream backyard experience I’m living. I feel like a Norman Rockwell painting sometimes. I love digging and fixing it up. I love standing in it and listening to the birds. I love sending my kid out to play for hours on end and hearing her laughing and making up complicated games with the neighborhood kids. I know I’ve gone on and on about how fun it is to have a dog to play with in the backyard. I really hate this town I live in but if I could transport my backyard to the beach, I’d live there forever!

Of course Bug loves it just as much as I do. Maybe even more.

In other news, we had a really great weekend at the beach. I’m sure those of you who are tuned into the Toby-Brenda-Separation-Saga are thoroughly confused over our relationship. I can’t really go into it but I’d just say that we are still good friends and that we both hope this makes things easier for Bug. We see Toby every weekend and often we still do things together as a family.

This weekend we went miniature golfing. Can I just say that miniature golfing is the most boring game ever?!! Oh my goodness, I thought I was going to curl up and die right there on the astroturf.

I wanted to climb inside one of the little boarded up houses and take a nap. Bug and I were both very disappointed that you can’t go inside the little houses. Why do they build them then? Just to frustrate you? That’s what I think.

Toby and I had a long discussion about how a homeless person could probably break into one of these and live there for years without anyone ever finding out. I think that sounds like a good book I’d like to read. Anyone?

Anyway, it was good family time. Toby’s mom came. We haven’t seen her much lately (she’s in assisted living now) and it was good to just hang out with her and let her know we still care about her. I think she really enjoyed herself.

Then we hit the park which was way way way more fun than golfing and it was FREEEEE! Parks are the best, especially the ones with really good swings. Now that Bug can pump, it has made my whole park-going experience about a thousand times more fun.

Now I get to swing too!

And act like a crazy idiot. But that’s really nothing new.

By the way, the crazy blurring was just Toby playing with my camera. Who says that thing was a waste of money now? Not me!

I love my camera.

It’s just so fun and awesome. For work and for play. Thank you, internet, for helping me buy it.

I heart you.

p.s. Marilyn interviewed me! Everything you probably already know and more!

The day after the crazy princess party birthday bash, Toby took Bug to the snow and this time he took my point-and-shoot waterproof camera with him. I’m so glad he did because he never takes pictures of the fun stuff they do together. You know how it is, the shoemakers kids never have shoes sort of thing and I’m left wondering what they did all day.

It looks like they had a lot of fun! AND Toby can take hand-held self portraits too! He must have picked that up from me.

They rode the tram up the giant mountain from Palm Springs. It’s beautiful up there.

Great views…

And snow everywhere!!! This is Bug’s first real experience with snow. We saw a small patch when we visited Washington DC in the spring but this was real snow all over the place. Toby said that Bug kept exclaiming over and over, “It looks like Christmas!” I guess that’s what happens when you learn about snow from television.

I love seeing her have a good time. It makes missing her not quite so terrible.

I’m one of those commuters now. I took this shot on our way to Toby’s on Christmas Eve. Holiday traffic is the pits. Good thing when you’re driving west, there’s usually a sunset to watch while you sit.

Bug spent Christmas Eve with Toby having spaghetti dinner. I spent Christmas Eve with my friend Deb down the street. She and her husband Eric always take care of me. They didn’t even mind me crashing their intimate evening. I love them.

While Deb cooked up something gluten free (and no she didn’t mind that I chopped off her head when I took this photo), her husband Erik played guitar and I tried to sing a few Mazzy Star songs. Tried being the key word. I love to sing but sometimes the melodies elude me.

Nothing like Mazzy to kick the holiday blues!

The next morning I was up bright and early and shivering on my old porch waiting to be let in. I somehow lost my key during the move and don’t feel it’s proper to ask for another one. I didn’t want to miss the early morning present opening so shiver away I did! Who knew they’d sleep in until NINE! My kid never sleeps past six when she’s with me. It must be all that late night Harry Potter watching.

Yes, Toby lets her watch Harry Potter much to my chagrin. I was so steamed about it when it first happened but apparently she loves it. They both do. I don’t even know which movie it is, it’s not the first one. I bought it on sale years ago and then left it behind when I moved out. Now it’s the only “kid” movie Toby owns and they watch it religiously every time Bug spends the night. I’ve since made a point to leave behind a few other movies but I guess it’s their thing they like to do together now so I’m not going to mess with that.

Anyway when they finally rolled out of bed, they let me in and the present opening commenced!

Woo hoo! Pink stuff for the pink obsessed kid! Thank you, Grandma—who doesn’t even celebrate Christmas but somehow populated half of our tree with festively wrapped presents. Gotta love my mom!

And lots of other fun stuff. This kid is not deprived.

Some Nutcracker viewing…I can’t wait until Bug gets to see this in real life. Toby says he’s going to take her next year. I really hope he keeps his word on that.

And of course lots of hugs.

Then we were off to the bible conference I attend with my family every year. Which is really just a great excuse to stay in a really nice hotel! Just kidding. It’s more than the hotel of course. But the hotel part is really fun.

Especially the pillow fighting and bed jumping part!

Yesterday we didn’t have anything scheduled to do. This hasn’t happened in a while so I decided to live on the edge and ask Bug what she wanted to do. Go to the mall! she exclaimed excitedly, like going to the mall is equal with Disneyland or something.

What is she a teenager already? What kind of kid wants to go to the mall when they are four? She’s crazy. Thankfully, I realize that going to the mall does not require spending money so I was open to the idea. Sure, we could walk around and look at things, maybe spring for lunch at the forbidden McDonalds and if I’m feeling super generous, I’ll let her ride the carousel for a buck. Not a bad day’s entertainment really.

Then we found out that Toby was shooting some store fronts at the mall too. Hot dog! We could have a Take Your Daughter to Work Day. We hardly ever get to follow Toby around on his shoots because they are usually in super luxury homes with rugs you can’t walk on and breakable objects every where. Besides we don’t like to get in his way. At least I don’t.

However, Toby was happy to have us come with him. Mall shoots can be tricky for him. Even though he wears a big press pass, has a super official looking camera and all the security guards on his side, he still worries that the shopping mall customers are going to get weirded out by him taking pictures of them. He doesn’t actually take photos of the customers. He photoshops them out on the computer afterwards but there will always be some woman who thinks he’s taking a photo of her and it causes problems. So having your wife and kid along can cut down on the weirdo perviness factor.

Also, he just loves his little princess. She has him wrapped around her little finger. You think I spoil her? Well Toby is even worse.

He bought her a stupid ten dollar balloon. TEN DOLLARS! I know! What a rip off. It better light up, glow in the dark and serve you a hamburger in my opinion. Well, it does light up. And it is super big and supposedly un-poppable which is a total lie since the outer clear balloon popped and scared the crap out of us as soon as we got into my steaming hot car to go home.

Ugh. I hate that balloon. It’s so big and constantly in my face. She has bopped me in the head on purpose and not on purpose about a thousand times. I feel like having a punching match with that balloon. I might have to take an exacto knife to it in the night and say the fairies stole it.

But it made her happy and it made Toby happy and it was strangely photogenic in the mall which made me happy. Which is sort of the same way I feel about that silly pink puffy skirt that she’s been wearing for a month straight now.

I hate it and I desperately want to wash it but it does look cute in photos, I have to admit. It also gets us special treatment. You should hear the things people say to her when we’re out and about. Her pinkness this and her highness that and, oh look at the pretty princess etc etc etc…No wonder she doesn’t want to wear anything else. She’s getting used to this and she really does believe she is a princess. Which makes me the evil non-stepmother who makes her wear ugly non-pink clothes, clean her room and who also won’t buy her expensive balloons that don’t even come with a coupon for a free hamburger!

* * * * * * * *

In other news, I’ve been writing away over on my review blog and I’ve been terrible about touting my posts here. Please go check them out because seriously, I get to give $100 away a week! This week I’m writing about my early bird secrets! Do you have any? Comment and win some mulah!

Don’t you love Bug’s expression?

It wasn’t very exciting though because we were close to home and I called my trusty Triple T insurance guy who came right out after he smoked three cigarettes and drank a cup of coffee. I only had to wait thirty minutes.* Not bad for a tow truck guy. He didn’t even have to tow us! He pulled out the super-mini, fancy-dancy Audi car jack thingy from the trunk, jacked up the car, pulled off the lug nut caps and fixed our tire right there on the spot. Without even reading the manual!!!

It was so hott. I love a man who will rescue his wife in distress.

Then we drove our car to the tire place with the dinky little spare tire. It was so cute next to the other big fat tires. I almost want to keep it. Except I can’t drive on the freeway with it and this spoiled my big plans to visit a friend in San Diego today. Blasted tire! Literally.

This is me waiting in the tire store waiting room. (It’s my 7days photo.) The dog’s name is Beamer.

What’s funny is I was just thinking to myself, probably yesterday or the day before, that I need to learn how to change a tire. I know it’s not that hard. I was even going to ask Toby to teach me. So I guess it was providential that the tire blew out today. I watched Toby carefully and except for the part about not stripping the lug nuts and being careful with the not-very-strong allen wrench, I feel pretty confident I could do it next time.

*I could be exaggerating.

We had such a nice Valentine’s Day. We’re not really into chocolate and roses in this family. We don’t even go for jewelry or electronics but we do have one tradition that I love love love. And that is that the girls get to pick out their own flowers from the flower stand that I used to work at so long ago. I love that little flower stand.

Bug knew exactly what she wanted. She bee-lined it for the sunflowers and completely ignored any of my suggestions. She didn’t want pink roses or any fancy lilies that smell good. She wanted a yellow sunflower, a pink gerber daisy and some green button mums. Nothing else would do. (The picture on the right is of her holding a bouquet for her Grandma Pat who we visited the next day.)

Maybe she had been planning out that bouquet for months as we stroller by this particular flower stand quite frequently. I’m always telling her that we can’t buy flowers today but we will on Valentine’s Day so she has been looking forward to this for a very long time.

Valentine’s Day did not disappoint. It is so fun to pick out your own flowers! I’d trade a thousand boring grocery store pre-made bouquets for my own simple handpicked bundle of hydrangeas, peach roses, ranunculus and lavender sprigs. But I think what really made our day was the silly red sequined plastic heart that Toby bought Bug for a $1.75. That silly heart made her so happy.

I thought that was the end of our Valentine festivities but Toby suggested a little family outing after we finished up with the flowers. Flowers and an adventure? Bring it on! We quickly put our flowers in a watering can on our patio and then piled into the van for a little trip to the beach. Not just any beach though. We were off to the beach of BIG WAVES!

Maybe you’ve heard of The Wedge. It’s a pretty famous surf spot where the waves come in and then bounce off the jetty over top the waves that are still coming in. That probably doesn’t make sense but just imagine two waves crossing each other and the mayhem of water and power that that can create. It can get pretty exciting, especially after a storm. People die there all the time surfing in the dangerous conditions.

It turned out that the waves weren’t very big on Valentine’s Day but it was still a fun place to spend some family time. Bug could have cared less about the waves. She just wanted to climb all over the jetty rocks and play in the sand. We could have dropped her off in a sandbox in Anaheim and she probably would have been just as happy. But that’s okay. Family time together is always good no matter where it is and hey, I got to watch the body boarders and skim-boarders. That was fun for me.

Anytime with Toby is special time.

We even squeezed in a sunset. Not a bad Valentine’s Day at all.

I guess they had fun at the party. I had a nice time staying home and blowing my nose.

I sent Toby off with my camera and his little pink-bomb princess. It nearly broke my heart to watch them walk off down the alley hand in hand without me. But I really needed to stay home and not spread my germs. I’m sure Bug is a germ-carrier but at least I didn’t have to be dripping with snot and obvious about it. Not that kid parties in the wintertime aren’t great big germ wonderlands anyway…

From what I hear, Bug was smitten with the birthday girl’s dad. Silly kid. I hope the dad didn’t mind all her hugs and kisses. She also told me all about the Princess Bounce House and declared that we should get a bounce house for her birthday party that is coming up in January.

“Where should we put it?” I asked, wondering to myself where indeed we would put a bounce house since we have no yard. In the alley?

“In the street.” she replied nonchalantly.

I guess I could look into that. Do you think the city would let me blockade the alley next to our house for a kid’s birthday party? I wonder what kind of permit that would require. Wait a minute, I thought this was supposed to be the small party year?!! As in low key. I don’t think a block party would fit that description.