A Pine in the Mouth

 That's not a typo.  A pine in the mouth.  As in pine mouth syndrome.  Never heard of it?  Neither had we until we were struck with this bizarre temporary (thank goodness) condition.  All because I had to get fancy when I made Sunday dinner. 

I try to make a nice family meal every Sunday.  It is usually the only home cooked meal 'The Hubs' gets all week (don't feel bad for him, he eats plenty of steak and lobster at business dinners) and sometimes the only time we sit down as a family to eat.  So, a few weeks ago, I decided to make a nice Italian pasta dish and I decided to make pesto...with pine nuts.  It was delicious.  'The Boy' didn't think so.  He didn't even try it.  Thank goodness.

Two days later, I started to have a foul, smokey, bitter taste in my every time I ate.  I thought I had an abscess and ran to the dentist.  I was all prepared for hours of intense drilling but...not the case.  I had pine mouth.  I called 'The Hubs' and asked if everything tasted awful to him and he said, yes but he thought what he ate was bad.

I did a ton of research and found out that pine mouth is a new phenomenon in the last two years.  It's caused by eating Chinese pine nuts that may or may not be from an inedible species of pine trees. What?  Why can you by inedible food at Super Target?!!!! 

To make a long story short, our mouths tasted like a chimney every time we ate for a week.  The only way we could mask the taste was to cover our food with hot sauce.  We ate a lot of Mexican food that week.  Including delicious taco pizza.  Thanks, Jessica, for the recipe.  It was so yummy and so easy to make. The littles loved helping.

A little how to...

1. Spread refried beans over pizza dough.  Top with ground turkey.  I seasoned mine with taco seasoning because we need things to get pretty hot.

2. Bake in the oven until it's done.  ( I'm so great with directions.)

3. Top with your favorite taco toppings.  Take a picture of the tiny foot next to said toppings.

4. Let oldest child get creative.  Give baby a bag of lettuce to play with.

5. Enjoy!

6. Cover in hot sauce if you have pine mouth.  Correct ratio is 2 parts hot sauce to 1 part pizza.

The pizza was yummy and didn't taste like chimney for even one second.  We'll try it again with less hot sauce now that we have fully recovered.  And we will never eat pine nuts again!

Beautiful Day

 The weather has been all over the place, lately.  One day, we were freezing at the park and bundling babies up in fleece blankets and the next, we were in the 90's, prancing around So Cal in tank tops in November.  So unpredictable is our fall weather.  We just happened to have an absolutely perfect fall day when our Daddy was home.  So, we made the most of it and spent the day outside.  'The Boy' ran all over the yard playing the way boys do and 'Munchkin' went for her very first ride in a swing.

My family.  See the broom in the corner.  That's what I was doing before I dropped everything and captured this memory.

Not so sure about this....

 ...yikes!

 With trains in hand, as always.

 She loved it!

 Whee!

 Our patio cover.  Love!

 Just relaxing.

We rented Toy Story 3 and cuddled up on the couch together for the night.  I love my littles.

We're Back

 Not in a creepy, poltergeist way.  Just back at Disneyland, our second home.   I told you we'd be back and we'll be back again and again because this place is really starting to grow on me.  I could possibly turn into a Disney freak...wearing commemorative pins on a ribbon around my neck and everything.

No, really.  'The Hubs' has been away for work lately and I have to entertain these kids somehow.  He was in Pennsylvania, training at the corporate offices when I was accompanied by the littles grandparents on what turned out to be the most amazing Disney day.  Mainly because we were with the grandparents who spoil love the heck out of their grandkids.

He asked to hold his baby sister and then made this face the whole time (30 seconds) that he was holding her.

 Ridin' on the tram.  We always count how many rides we went on during the day to make sure it was worth it.  'The Boy' thinks this is a ride so, I started counting it as one.  One down...

 Walking with Pop to Autopia.  Such a cute pair.  Too bad 'The Boy' insisted on driving with me. 

 Such a patient Pop.  He let 'The Boy' play with his hat and give him a new hair do and stood in line for his favorite ride for a least a half an hour.

 "I want the green one!"  His favorite color.  We have always been able to get it.  I don't know what we'll do the day that doesn't work out.

 I love his little head just peeking out.  Someday he'll be taller than Dumbo.  I don't want to think about it.

I have always wanted to see the Celebrate parade and we have only seen it in passing.  This time, (mainly because 'The Hubs', who has no patience, wasn't there) we did it.  We sat on the curb and waited for a half an hour like I did when I was a kid. 

Enjoying an ice cream sandwich before the parade.  Courtesy of Gigi and Pop. 

 Waiting....

 ...and waiting...

 ...and finally, it's time to Celebrate!

 I don't think that I have ever been so close to the parade action in my life!  It was so much fun and worth camping out in the hot sun for a half an hour.  I think I loved it more than the kids did.  I always wanted to be in a Disney parade.  I auditioned for one right out of high school.  Hercules, I believe.  They only needed a few dancers and I didn't make it. That was before they had 20 different parades in a day.  Too bad I can't move like I used to. 

 Minnie Mouse loved our girl.

She tried to love 'The Boy', too but he was a little shy.

 A girl after my own heart!  I have never seen 'Munchkin' so excited and happy in her whole life.  The dancers loved her and she couldn't get enough of them either.

 He came out from under his buh-buhs for a bit to play the drum.

 After the parade, we hit the rides again.  A few in Fantasyland and then we hit up Toontown where Gigi and I took 'The Boy' on the Go-Go Gadget roller coaster.  I swear to you, Gigi and I were nervous the whole time in line.  That's how much we hate roller coasters.  It was totally fun, though and had the line not been so long, I would have gone right back on it.

We visited Minnie's house... 

 ...watched her dish washer...

 ...and her oven bake a cake.  But she wasn't home so instead...

We went to see the mouse!

I can never seem to get everyone to look at the same time. 

We stayed and ate dinner at Downtown Disney and shopped for some souvenirs.  Then we went back into the park to get a seat for the fireworks.  'The Boy' fell asleep halfway through but 'Munchkin' loved them and stopped a feeding to watch the show.

 It was absolutely the perfect Disney day!

Absolutely perfect.

Halloween

Our Halloween was a little biter sweet this year.  Our Daddy had to travel to Pennsylvania for work and left on a jet plane the morning of.  It is so sad doing a holiday without your other half, sending texts and emailing pictures as the night went on so he wouldn't miss a thing.  Never again!

Lucky for us, my brother and his girlfriend paid us a visit and made up for our missing Daddy.  It was the perfect night.  We had such a whirlwind of a week and I wanted a mellow night which is exactly what we got.  I turned off my porch light and headed over to Gigi and Pop's for the evening.

 Opening his Halloween gift from Gigi.  Since when do we get presents for Halloween?  Since always!

 He got a new train and as far as he was concerned, we could have ended the night right then and there and he would have been happy.

 'Munchkin' got a new toy, too.

 We ate a delicious dinner of mummy dogs...

 ...and the traditional Halloween chili.  And by ate I mean that the grownups ate while 'The Boy' chugged his new train around the table.

 Hey, little ladybug!

 Every race car driver needs a buh-buhs lanket.

 He wasn't sure whether to use the pumpkin or the gift bag.

 With Gigi and Pop.

 Off we go... in sandals with socks because he forgot his sneakers at Mimi's.

 Walking with Uncle Mikey and Gigi, who is wearing a witch hat that looks like a construction cone from this angle.

 Me and my bud.  Not the best picture but at least I am in one.

We trick-or-treated down one side of the street and when we got to the end, 'The Boy' said, "I go back to Gigi's now".  We kept going.  For a long time. And we walked far.  With no stroller because I didn't think we would go too far.  And he asked to go back to Gigi's the whole time.  He was so excited when we got back and my arm was completely numb from carry my sleeping babe.

 The candy stash.  It looks bigger than it is. 

We had a nice night, me and my littles.  We missed you, Daddy!  Happy Halloween.