A Fairy of a Different Sort

About a week ago, Sarah dropped a large brick paver on her big toe.  7 days, lots of tears and countless accidental bumps followed by blood curdling screams later, her toenail looks like it's about to fall off.  She is a little fearful about this, so to ease her fear and lighten the mood, I told her I wasn't sure, but there might be a Toenail Fairy.  A little gross I know, but it brought instant giggles and I am certain now that if it falls off, it's going straight under her pillow. 

So, if you were the Toenail Fairy, what would you leave under her pillow?

My Fair Ladies

Yesterday we spent the afternoon and evening at the Fair.  We ate the obligatory junk food that somehow always smells better than it tastes...saw a fun magic show and checked out the animals.  Here's a picture of each of my "Fair" ladies...

It only cost $4 for her to ride this blue dragon!

Sarah got to hold this cute bunny for free!

The main reason we went to the Fair was to see Hannah's art. 

Her Giraffe was selected last year to be hung at the Fair. 
Isn't he cute?

A Note to my Kids

Dear Sweet Kids of Mine, 

I love you more than anything, but today is Saturday.  That means that the Cobb Family Complaint Department is officially closed.  If you are convinced that life isn't fair and you don't like what's for breakfast, don't want to make your bed, can't find your favorite article of clothing, or don't like your seat in the car, please deal with it....QUIETLY! 

Please address all inquiries regarding how many more bites you have to eat, when that article of clothing might be clean, if you can watch cartoons, or why you have to take a nap to our Saturday relief staff.  His name is Daddy. 

Should you need a referee for a fight with your sister, be aware that 24 hour advanced, written notice is required.  Please plan accordingly.  You may be required to postpone your fight.

The Complaint Department will re-open first thing tomorrow morning to manage all crisis related to Sunday morning grooming.

Thanks for your understanding.

With all my love,

Mommy
Chief Compaint Officer
Cobb Family Complaint Department

P.S.   I am keenly aware that without the three of you, I would be miserably unemployed.  And, don't forget that while the Complaint Department is closed on Saturdays, the snuggling, game playing, book reading and ice cream eating departments remain open for business. 

Sand Art, Surfing and Stereotypes

In all of our summer travels, we never made it to the beach.  This is very unlike us.  So, today we made a quick day trek to Pismo.  The girls kept saying "we don't want to go"?  What!?!  Who's kids are these?  All we had to do was round the corner and see the water for them to warm up to the idea.  As soon as we hit the beach, they got busy creating this sand man.  Isn't he cute?

Being the good little pirates that they are, they gathered up all sorts of beach "treasures" and buried them here.

Triple "X" marks the spot.  We try our best to keep it "G" rated around here, but when you've got three pirates, three "X's" are only natural.

The waves weren't all that great for surfing, but hey, when you drive all that way and don't get to go all that often, you take what you can get.  So, Rob donned his wetsuit and made a beeline for the surf.

I snapped this picture of him just after a couple of tourists asked if they could take a picture with him.  I watched from a distance as he posed with a lady who wanted a picture with a "real" California surfer, all the while laughing to myself and thinking of all the fun ways I could tease him.  He's such a rock star.  He can't help it.

When I finished said teasing, he told me he asked the lady where they were from expecting her to name some far off, exotic land, but instead her reply was "Bakersfield".  I wonder if they were dissapointed to find out that their "real" California surfer lived in nearby Wasco? 

What a fabulous and funny reminder of one of life's greatest surprises!  People aren't always who we think they are and my stereotypes are often wrong.  We got a great laugh out of it.  I imagine they did too.

Happy Birthday Our Not-So-Little Girls!

Ever since they were...well...little, we have been calling Grace and Sarah the "little girls".  They're growing up fast.  In fact, they just turned 5.  But since I am still my parent's little girl, I am not too worried that they will outgrow the title anytime soon.  No matter how big they get, they will in fact always be our "little girls".

We celebrated their 5th Birthday all day last Saturday as grandmas, grandpas, aunts, uncles and cousins came to share in their excitement.  We ate hot dogs, hamburgers and cupcakes and cooled off in the pool next door.  I think they had a great day.  Here area  few pictures.

Hannah made them special Birthday Girl shirts.  She wrapped them up and snuck them in to the girl's clothes organizer for Friday.  The girls knew they would have a surprise in their organizer and that when they got to "Friday", it would be their birthday.  Whenever someone asked them when their birthday was, they would say, "at the bottom of our oganizer".  They loved their custom birthday shirts.

Gifts!!

Sarah's bending Pizza Papa's ear.  She's probably asking for money for her new wallet.  I swear I didn't teach her that.

Cameron wondering what's with all this girl stuff?

Preparation for the Big 5!

Grace and Sarah are turning 5 tomorrow and we have been busy this morning making all the necessary preparations. First we baked "G" and "S" cookies for them to share with their buddies at pre-school.

Then we baked brownies to take to a friend's house tomorrow night...and while they were baking, we pushed the dining room table and chairs aside, cranked the music up and had a wild dance party!

Look out "So You Think You Can Dance".  You aint seen nothin' yet.  More to come after we celebrate their big day.

Pre-school Funnies

Grace and Sarah's pre-school is about as low tech and old fashioned as they come. I mean that in the best way. I think pre-school should be all about singing, playing, eating snacks, making friends and doing messy crafts and that's exactly what they do at Kiddie Kollege. The best I can tell, they've been doing it that way for a lot of years and the ladies there have a good thing going.

So as Sarah was telling me about her day and how much fun she had singing, she said "Yeah Mom and Mrs. White has these really big CDs". Oh yeah baby...I remember those big black vinyl "CDs". Sooo funny!