Birthday Kitchen!

It's a good thing Mila can't read yet.... because I'm spilling her birthday secret on my blog.

Ever since Sophia was in preschool last year, and there was a play kitchen there, Mila has consistently LOVED play kitchens. She went to it every day when we picked up her big sister.

Now they have an ugly old one at the gym, and she makes a b-line for it each morning---

I thought about getting her one for Christmas last year... (or telling Santa), but we were in Utah, and it was too big to fit in the car, so we thought we'd wait 'till later and say Santa left it in our garage (like he did Sophia's bike) because we weren't here, but then we never did.

SO--- with her birthday just a month away... I ordered her this pink retro one from costco... doesn't it look an awful lot like the Pottery Barn option? With a less-cute ad of course.

Costco set- $150 including shipping and handling.- PB- $750 for the whole set. Holy Moly. Couldn't I get a new REAL oven for that? maybe not--- no idea.

I kept thinking I would do something cute and crafty like those homemade kitchens out of side-tables with cute fabric, or a doctored up ikea one, but this seems MUCH easier.... and I think I need to shorten my list of projects these days.

Anyway--- I'm so excited.

mmm-- I give up--- there is no clever title for this very random post.

When I first had Sophia, and I was a new stay-at-home-mom with hours of nursing to do, I was an AVID Kelly and Regis fan. I wonder when it stopped--- probably as soon as Sophia hit 2 and I felt like I wouldn't DESTROY her reading potential by letting her watch a show or two (or 10... I was pregnant). Funny how literacy in your second child takes a back seat. Mila's first words were "I Know You" from the sleeping beauty song. We started her good and young.

Anyway--- I miss my morning show. And my friend Kelly. (I have this problem where stars that I think I identify with feel like REAL friends to me. I worry if I ever run into them in the real world. I think I'd be super weird.) So it was fun to me when my friend, Katie, sent me this link to a clip from the show, and I got to catch a little bit of my old friends. Katie's dad's company was showcased for their new toy, check it out HERE if your kids like light sabers. Or fighting. (what?! never.) If you fast forward, their toy is the last one showcased. Pretty cool-- they went to the New York toy fair, and their toy was picked up as one of the best toys of the year. Here's their site.

Oh no. Sophia just hollered "MOM! Why did you throw my beautiful turtle away?!"

-"What? Well get him out, I didn't mean to!"

Tell me I'm not the only one who throws the preschool crafts out the same day. Busted.

Oh and one more thing. SARAH comes to my house--- TOday. For the first time. Well the first time to this house, married and with a baby and all. She's my best-friend from college and was and always will be a woman I ASPIRE to be. I can't wait to soak her up. And let our two little families just HANG... and eat. What does it say about me that I enjoy my friends based on how much they enjoy eating. She taught me to eat my ice cream with milk and cereal on it-- a staple of my life since college. You'd better not let me down with a post-baby diet Sarah.

Bikes? Help.

Does anyone know much about bikes? We've said for years that we should get them for Christmas. And I think this just might be the year.... only problem: we're the blind leading the blind on what-to-look-for-when-in-search-of-family-bikes. Of course what I really want is the Madsen bike above since it's... ummm --- beautiful.

Look at it. The perfect blue. The orange fender. Mmmmm. The huge trash can to tote my girls around in. I la la la love it. Except that it's $1300

SO--- if I were trying to make a more educated decision on what bikes we should get and we're looking primarily for:

- Beach cruisers (what? It's only 2 hours away, you never know when we'll cruise over... )

- OK so maybe we just want to pretend we live somewhere cool enough for a beach cruiser, but whatever... we've got 5 or 6 months of ride-outside-without-dying-of-heat-stroke weather ahead of us and and endless desert-scape to explore.

- uh... that's about it. We're looking for beach cruisers. Did I mention that?

So can we get the under-$200 ones we see online or at Costco (Schwin?). Or will they fall apart like our Walmart Trampoline? (Ross was jumping the other day and a spring shot off and hit the neighbor's house WHILE the neighbor was outside. oops.)

On my Christmas List

The watch. Not the gorgeous, perfectly blond long hair, or big lips and model-smile, or tiny post-two-baby frame of this beautiful girl at the Baby Naming from last weekend. No I keep a reasonable list. The watch.

And get this--- it's by Swatch Watch. Like the brand we knew when we were 9. Which means it's like 120 bucks. I LOVE it.

Now we'll just wait and see if :

a: Santa brings it

b: It looks nearly as cute on a wrist that's twice as big.