Small Things Are Big Things

July 14, 2011 by: Kara Noel Lawson

Inside the Outdoors

I hadn’t! (though my friend Michele from Fun OC Parks has!!)

Till we were invited on this awesome ‘Feathers and Fur Sunset Hike’ in Silverado Canyon…

I may or may not have told Eli a mountain lion would eat him if he wandered off the trail. Whatever works! (pictured in the Trucker Lid and Tall Ships tee)

First you get to pet and see all sorts of animals in a casual classroom type setting…

As you can see the Naturalist, Marie brought out non-lame animals. I think there was a chinchilla, bunny, red tailed hawk and owl (all pictured above). I wouldn’t really know though because Cy was suffering from his first case of diaper rash. I took him outside to air out because he was screaming while sitting down. Poor guy. I do know the kiddos LOVED it because they chatted about petting the animals all evening.

Our hike leader, (is that what they’re called?) Yarib, was AWESOME. He was very knowledgeable about the natural-y things along the trail and kept the kiddos captivated the whole time. No easy feat, in the hot weather with ump-teen city kiddos in tow! Our favorite thing was making our ears into Coyote Ears to hear better along the trail…

The lighting at sunset was a-mazing for photography! And the canyon itself is just beautiful. It’s hard to believe you are in the middle of Orange County.

We did quite a bit of hiking but don’t be discouraged because it is SUPER family friendly. The kiddos didn’t tire out and my giant preggo self did just fine. There are a few slippery slopes so I would recommend hiking/tennis shoes (no flip flops) to be safe. And water. We brought ours in Hot Hubby’s camel backpack and it was perfect.

The hike ended at the top of a hill in a lookout type area and the kind folks at Inside the Outdoors had the cutest activity set out. Lil’ kiddos got to reach inside the bags and guess if it was Feathers or Fur (the theme of the hike), Big kiddos got to guess the animal the feathers/fur were from. The large card under the bag had a picture of the animal. Too cute!

Then we all gathered for a story about the canyon (camp memories anyone???). Marie told the story of Juan Flores, a bandit who hung out in Silverado Canyon AND happened to leave treasure hidden somewhere. Needless to say the story was a huge hit for Eli. A metal detector may be in this child’s future! Cora Jane was playing with rocks.

The Inside the Outdoors staff was super friendly and you can tell they actually like what they’re doing. A big thank you to Stephanie, Marie and Yarib for showing our family such a good time!

Dear Fellow Wives/Moms,

You should really make your family do this!! Some hubbys (ahem) might hem and haw a bit about heading out to trek around the canyon with small kiddos. And I will admit it is sometimes a pain to get all the wee ones ready. BUT I promise everyone will have a good time and your hubby will even tell you how awesome it was on the ride home (ahem).

Smooches,

Details:

The Sunset Hikes cost $5 per person (or $25 per family) 7-8:30pm. The next one is ‘Trails and Tails’ on Saturday, July 23rd. (I’m hosting a bridal shower that morning but we hope to go in the evening!!)

For a Summer calendar of events go to their site (you have to actually click on the words ‘calendar of events’. And bookmark the Inside the Outdoors’ main site for loads of other programs… like their Summer Day Camps!! (5 day week, for ages 6-11, 9-2pm ONLY $195!!)

P.S.

If you go to the Rancho Sonado location, it’s kinda easy to miss off the main road. The Inside the Outdoors folks will send you a map but you have to keep an eye out for the small white mailbox with ‘Rancho Sonado’ on it. It’s pictured at the top of this post!

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Follow Inside the Outdoors on Facebook here.

Follow Inside the Outdoors on Twitter here.

They have a You Tube Channel too.

July 11, 2011 by: Kara Noel Lawson

Discounts4Fun

The kind folks from Discounts4Fun gave us tickets for the Pirate’s Dinner Adventure!!

(Everybody knows we LOVE pirates!)

I mentioned Discounts4Fun a couple of weeks ago so I hope you checked them out. They offer A-mazing discounts on all sorts of local fun activities (you have to enter the coupon code RAPIDS2 to get listed discounts.) Pirate’s Dinner Adventure in Buena Park is one of the many places they offer discounts for!

SO FUN!!

Hot Hubby and I went there on a date night years ago and the show has changed a bit but it’s still great! Lots of crowd involvement. This time we were on the red pirate’s team. Cora Jane thought it was too loud and first but Eli was in heaven!

Dinner was good! (Pork or chicken for the adults and sliders for the kiddos)

It was a lot of food with a yummy apple cobbler-like dessert. I ate it all.

Here we are taking the pirate oath.

(When do you think my kiddos will notice and or refuse my outfit matching obsession??)

After the show Eli got to meet “our” pirate. And no one stopped us from looking at all the rad pirate stuff…

We are so thankful to Discounts4Fun for giving us the tickets and we can’t wait to buy some tickets for Wild Rivers!!

July 6, 2011 by: Kara Noel Lawson

The Hospital Stay

Hello friends!

We had Cy’s follow-up appointment and EVERY test was clear. And this child had every test under the sun done. Eight pages worth of lab paperwork. I’m so relieved!

Truly.

Your prayers and well wishes were felt and thankfully it was God’s will for our happy baby to be healthy and strong! (Now can you start praying for me to have a painless delivery for #4… and that I lose all my baby weight… maybe that we would win this year’s Ocean Institute Home Raffle too? {wink})

Here’s what went down…

Monday night we noticed a HUGE sore on Cy’s mouth (you couldn’t miss it). This pic is zoomed in from that night. It’s not great but you can see it is half the width of this mouth and comes to the center of his lip on the outside. On the inside it reached all the way to the base of his lip. It was really thick and rough… kinda looked like a piece of wet cardboard you could peel off.

It was gross.

I’m not sure I would share a better pic if I had one!

I took him in Tuesday morning and I was thinking they would prescribe a cream or something.

Nope.

More like, “His oxygen isn’t low enough for an ambulance but you need to head down to the hospital right now. We are going to admit him into CHOC because of his oxygen level combined with the unexplained sores, and his enlarged organs and his low weight percentile.”

“HUH?? I’ve got library books to return and we are going to Wild Rivers today.”

Nope.

So, I’m calling Hot Hubby ~~hysterical~~ slightly thrown off balance. It didn’t help I had recently read Same Kind of Different as Me, when the healthy wife is diagnosed with cancer and dies like the next day.

Anyhoo, Hot Hubby met us at the doctor’s office and whisks Cy to the hospital and I take the big kiddos home to pack them up and farm them out to some of our most awesome friends. While driving to drop off the big kids Cora Jane saw Cy’s car seat was gone and exclaimed, “Oh no, Cy is gone!!!” I started to sob thinking I was going to have to explain how her baby brother died of some crazy disease. Isn’t it nuts how our brains can take circumstances to the worst place in seconds??

I have to say CHOC at Mission was great! They were so kind during check-in and they had stuffed animals (the bear & duck in the pic below) and a new blanket waiting in Cy’s crib (he got to take them home too!).

We had to do an IV just in case he needed medicine fast. That was a horrible ordeal. The nurse blew a vein and then couldn’t draw the blood she needed. Gives me chills just thinking back to his sad lil’ face! Babies are so tiny and have no clue why they are being hurt. I just ache for families who have to go through this kind of thing often.

Cy hated the IV.

(you can see the sore in this pic and it’s already a lot smaller… starting to split in half a bit)

He was back to his sweet self in minutes…

But he didn’t trust the nurses again…

Did I mention we were in quarantine? (Just to add to the drama.)

Here is a great shot of the senior pastor staff from our church after they came to pray over Cy.

We are so thankful for our family. And by saying family I’m not just talking about our blood relatives. We consider most of our friends to be just as close, and in most cases, even closer, then our actual family. Not to mention our church family! If you aren’t going to a church where the lead pastor (or some other leadership-ish person) will dress up in the above get-up and do a hospital visit, you should find a new one. Or just come to mine :).

We tried to look at the bright side of the hospital stay!

~The lovely view…

~Cy learned to use a sippy cup! He was awesome with a straw, which is great for restaurants but not so great for around the house. (They gave us this NUK one, for those of you who may have the same struggle!)

~Cy got birthday presents! Since we were admitted during his actual birthday (BOO) the sweet CHOC nurses spoiled him with gifties. We don’t usually give our kiddos presents till they can remember them (sad but true). And he was spoiled ~~rotten~~ sweet with dinosaur toys, an elmo doll and a sit & stand!

~We got 3 days of quality one-on-one time with Cy. Something he has never had in his whole life. And he is RAD!!

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The big kiddos didn’t miss us at all. Here are just a few of the text pix we got from our friends…

July 6, 2011 by: Kara Noel Lawson

MOMday Morning winner for June

Thanks to all who entered MOMday Morning!!

June’s winner is Kristie from Kristie’s Notes!

Her favorite Lid color is Pretty Pink…

It’s Pretty Cute, don’t ya think??

July 2, 2011 by: Kara Noel Lawson

Make a Flag Canvas with your Little One’s Fingerprints

I asked my friends for fun 4th of July crafts and my friend Monica shared this sweet canvas she made with her daughter last year.

Adorable!!!

It’s perfectly imperfect, don’t you think??

(both pix above from Monica)

Earlier that week I had been in Joanns and picked up one of those super tiny canvases (I think it’s 3.5” x 2.5”) just because it was cute.

Total impulse purchase… but it was only $1.99 so I don’t feel bad.

Then fate brought me Monica’s canvas… or that’s what I’d like to think!!

I modified Monica’s larger canvas and used Cy’s finger prints to make a lil’ flag. I had intended to use his whole finger to make the stripes but uncurling 1-year-old’s finger, even with the help of Hot Hubby, was impossible!

The flag is little and so darn sweet looking. I can’t wait to pull it out every 4th of July and remember how tiny Cy’s little fingers were.

July 1, 2011 by: Kara Noel Lawson

Festive Ribbon Flag

I saw this craft in Family Fun magazine, fell in love and made it (with some modifications). I think it would be perfect for the front door, sliding glass door or where ever!

You’ll need:

7/8-inch wide grosgrain ribbon in red, white, and blue

12-inch-long strip of wood (I used a paint stirrer)

1/8 yard of white fabric OR lace OR silver pom-poms

13 pennies OR 13 buttons

Hot glue gun (or tacky glue)

Lighter

Scissors

Instructions (copied word for word from the Family Fun site with my additions in bold and underlined)

1. Cut four red and three white 14-inch-long strips, and three red and three white 24-inch-long strips.

2. Cut seven blue 10-1/2-inch-long strips.

3. Run lighter lightly across one end of the the blue ribbon to keep from fraying.

4. Use tacky glue or hot glue to adhere the blue ribbons to the shorter red and white lengths, overlapping the ends a half inch with the burned blue end on the top.

5. Glue all 13 ribbons to a 12-inch-long strip of wood, such as a ruler or paint stirrer, then cover the wood with blue ribbon. Be sure to match up the overlapping blue line so it runs straight across.

Tip: I found the a 12 inch piece of wood was just a bit too short even as I overlapped the 13 ribbons. I used a 5 gallon paint stirrer. It’s thicker and leaves about 6” on either side of the width of the flag. I might cut it down eventually but the extra weight and length makes secure mounting!

6. Trim the bottom ribbon ends evenly and run the lighter across to keep from fraying.

7. For the circle of stars, glue 13 silver pom-poms to the field of blue. Nothing against pom-poms but I was looking for less of a kiddo decoration. I happened to have exactly 13 little white flowers left over from my 4th of July wreath making. (Was that God ordained or what??) Again here is the tutorial I used for the twisted flowers. I also think squares (or a wad) of vintage lace would be really cute! Very Betsy Ross-ish, right?

8. Glue a button to the back of each end for weight. I thought pennies were a lil’ more appropriate for this craft. (And cheaper!!!) Don’t you agree?

One more VERY EASY craft coming tomorrow. It’s cute and little and drool-worthy!

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Cy update:

The nurse called today about the test results. She said levels of certain things were a little high or a little low but not to worry over the weekend. I’m super happy about that! Prayer works!!

But I also think, REALLY??? So we were stuck in the hospital for 3 days for nothing?? Doctors appointment on Wednesday should tell more.

June 29, 2011 by: Kara Noel Lawson

How to make a 4th of July Wreath

I love a lil’ something something on my front door.

Who doesn’t?

Make these wreaths for the 4th of July in a jiff!

(Pictures are a little fuzzy because they are from my phone. I was too lazy to get couldn’t find the good camera so had to make due.)

You’ll Need (for two wreaths):

~2 – 12” wreath forms

~3/4 yard of red fabric

~1/2 yard of blue fabric (you may need more if you use bigger wreaths)

~1/8 yard of white fabric

~About 12” of red, white OR blue ribbon for hanging. (I did white)

~Hot glue gun

1. Rip your blue fabric (the long way) into 2 inch strips.

2. Use your hot glue gun to secure one end to the wreath. Then wrap fabric around the wreath slightly overlapping each layer. When a strip runs out hot glue the end and repeat the same thing with the new strip starting where you left off. Cover the whole wreath.

Tip: I bought the straw wreath forms because they were cheaper than the Styrofoam ones. Just leave the plastic wrapper on to prevent straw from getting everywhere!

(how much do you {heart} my rug??)

3. To make the flowers I found this easy-peazy tutorial in a google search over at My Sparkle. The only thing I would add is the more you twist the flatter your flower will be. Since I wanted some “meat” on the back for easier mounting on the wreath, I twisted less on every other turn or so. Gluing often kept the bigger flowers from falling apart. I did 7 small flowers with 1” strips (per the suggestion of the tutorial), and 7 big red flowers with 4” strips. Tear the strips on the long side of the fabric and stop when you like the size of the flower. You really can’t mess these things up because of their messy look but the more I did the better it got!

Tip: Leave a bit of extra fabric length to create leaf shapes for added fun-ness in the final wreath.

4. Arrange your flowers and secure with hot glue.

This part killed me! For some reason I thought a perfect arrangement would save the economy or something. After many tweets and days of different patterns sitting on the counter with double stick tape I ending up winging it, and this is what I came up with. I love that they are slightly different from each other!

5. Hot glue the ribbon to the back at the desired length for hanging.

6. Admire the awesomeness!!

Here is what one looks like on the door. Hot Hubby still needs to add another nail to our other door for the second one. It will get done by 4th of July…maybe. Right now it’s on my mantel and I’m OK with that.

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Cy update:

The nurse called today to tell me the Dr would call later with test results. He didn’t call. Which makes me think it’s bad news. Like he didn’t have time to for the long conversation of the horrible disease Cy may have. Or that that test results were super strange so he is having to research some crazy unknown thing. I know it’s totally unfounded but it’s the way moms think, right????

June 28, 2011 by: Kara Noel Lawson

Red, White and Blue on Y-O-U!

Can you believe 4th of July is only 6 days away?? Time to share some of the 4th of July things I’ve been a-brewin’ the past couple of weeks! I’ll start with a fun family activity!

We had SO MUCH fun BOOing at Halloween I thought I would put a 4th of July spin on the idea and here’s what I came up with…

Red, White & Blue on YOU!!

I bought loads of American Flag magnets (I got mine from www.flagsoncars.com) then we snuck around the neighborhood and parking lots and stuck them on cars with this little note:

I was just at the 99 cent store today and they had 3 American flags for 99 cents! That would be super fun to pass along… or maybe a 4th of July wreath or cupcakes with lil’ flags on top or red white and blue candy or… you get the idea.

Feel free to copy my note and modify it with what you are gifting. (I know I should have made the note non-specific to my giftie in an adorable poem… maybe next year!) Let’s make this a “thing” together!

Eli thought we should be disguised as bushes to “flag” people, so… (washable markers)

Cora Jane decided she wanted to be a kitty cat that hides in the bushes and she wanted her daddy to be a kitty too.

That girl has Hot Hubby wrapped around her little finger! (yes, the whole fam-damily got in on the face painting action!)

You should practice hiding in bushes every time a car goes by…

Be super sneaky and run a lot… (Eli’s face in this pic is priceless)

Tomorrow I’ll share a tutorial for this awesome wreath…

June 24, 2011 by: Kara Noel Lawson

InstaFriday–An Emotional Week

I’m doing a quick InstaFriday,over at Life Rearranged!

This has been an emotional week…

Hot Hubby’s dad passed away suddenly so we drove up north (San Francisco area) for the memorial. The memorial was great and the whole trip was an awesome chance to reconnect with some amazing family members! Cora Jane picked these wild flowers and we used them as the main arrangement for the beautiful outdoor service.

A road trip isn’t truly a Road Trip unless you got to In-N-Out Burger.

My order?

Hamburger – fried mustard – grilled onions – no spread – no ketchup/mustard instead – no pickles – yes lettuce & tomato

On the way home I did a Foursquare check-in at every pit stop, hoping to be mayor of something. I’m still not. Boo.

Since we were in the midst of a long 8 hour drive home on Father’s Day we celebrated on Monday. We did our traditional donut cake, had an awesome day at the beach (Salt Creek) then dinner at Miguel’s Cocina in Point Loma (can you say white sauce???). AND we got to spend the evening with with family I had never met. Fun fun fun!!

Monday night we noticed a HUGE sore on Cy’s lip (I mentioned it a bit in the post below) our doctor decided to admit him to the hospital asap. They were worried the sores were indicators of something more. To say I was a basket case would be a grotesque understatement. We saw a lot of great doctors (including an infectious disease one) at CHOC in Mission. Three days and two nights later the first batch of blood tests are clear and the tummy sonogram is clear. YAY! Now we are waiting for another batch of blood tests to come back (clear!!) – we’ll know by later next week. (A more specific post coming soon.)

I took this belly picture on the way out the door after showering at our house. I think it might be the first belly shot I have taken this time around and I’m 27 weeks!! Poor 4th baby. Yay I’m starting the 3rd trimester. In case you are wondering our bathroom is fully decked out with all thing In-N-Out Burger. We are hard core!

Today was our first full day home and boy did I have A LOT to do – Eli’s Lids orders to fill, errands to run, past-due library books to return, furniture to spray paint and a ~~crap load~~ lot of laundry. Life as usual. Praise the LORD!!

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Stay tuned for the winner of June’s MOMday Morning, some great OC Summer activities AND those kick a&$ 4th of July crafts I have been dying to share!!