Tucson Botanical Gardens

I've been wanting to check out the Botanical Gardens here in Tucson for quite some time. With Nonnie and Poppie in town, I knew Nonnie would be an eager one to join us on this trip. Nothing says relaxing like walking through a beautiful garden with a toddler. :) Syd loved all of the fountains and had to stop to throw pennies and make a wish into each one.

We headed over to the Butterfly Garden where you walk into a waiting room prior to entering the garden to ensure no butterflies get loose. The second we walked into the garden the butterflies were crossing our paths and flying in front of our faces. It was pretty exciting and Sydney couldn't help but scream as each one dove in front of her.

What at first was thrilling and fun, quickly turned into downright frightening to Sydney. No matter where she turned there were huge butterflies flying past her face. I found it quite amusing and tried to show her how I wanted to hold them. She didn't find my enthusiasm or stalling to leave very humorous at all.

We left the Butterfly Garden and started roaming the other areas. The flowers were absolutely beautiful and and the smells were intoxicating with vibrant colors around every corner. Syd wanted her picture in front of all of them.

More wishes in the fountain. I think this was for "purple and pink presents" for her birthday.

Sydney and her Nonnie

Peek-A-Boo

Making food for Nonnie and I in the Ocatillo House

Butterfly Kisses

The Coloring of the Easter Eggs (and floor)

Chris and his dad headed out to play golf, so I enlisted Nonnie to help Syd and I color Easter eggs! Luckily Mrs. Aichinger was just in town and reminded me how to decorate the eggs with paraffin. So I was excited to run out and get all the tools I needed for the process. One metal pie tin to place over your burner to evenly distribute the heat. The smaller tart tin to hold the paraffin wax. Pencil with an eraser to hold the pin to dip into the wax and then just your creativity to create any design you can imagine on the eggs.

I was so consumed with ensuring everything went correctly and making sure I had all the necessary items, I completely forgot to think of any cute or artsy designs. Apparently winging it isn't my strong suit. I did a lot of polka dots (or coc-a-nuts as Sydney likes to call them) and weird squiggles or lines. Next year I'll knock your socks off. :)

Syd was the master stirrer and egg dunker. I stayed out of the line of fire by decorating the eggs with the wax. Poor Nonnie was in charge of ensuring Syd left the eggs in the colors long enough and that the eggs didn't get broken.

All went well until the VERY last egg was coming out of the blue dye. Syd went to reach to put it into the carton and SPLASH the dye flew all over Nonnie, Sydney, the countertop, the chair and the floor. I think we got it all out of everything except the floor. The grout and a few of the travertine have a lovely blue cast to them. I should just use a little sharpie to write "Easter 2010" near it. Syd had a blast and that's all that matters. Tiles can be replaced, memories can't.

Our finished Easter Eggs

A Whole Lot of Evans'

It's been an exciting few days over here. Chris's parents drove to see us from Palm Springs for a few days. Sydney goes absolutely bonkers when she sees them. They even surprised her with an Ariel barbie doll that actually goes in the water. Coolest thing ever and Syd insists on napping with Ariel every day.

Snugglin' up with her Nonnie and Poppie

As if having Nonnie and Poppie here wasn't enough. Poppie's brother, Clint stopped by on their way to Palm Springs. Not very often we have Chris's family here so it was a lot of fun catching up with Uncle Clint and his wife Doreen. Makes us miss Michelle and Lisa that much more!

Bad Kitty

So the dreaded day finally came. Sydney's been picking up the kitty cats a lot lately, especially Gray. I was working and I heard her scream bloody murder in the next room. I ran in there and found her holding her left cheek and blood on her face. :( She picked up Cy and he wasn't having it, so he bit her on the cheek. We headed to the doctor and got a prescription for the nastiest antibiotic on the market. The doc was pretty impressed that he didn't bite her very hard, just scratched her with his teeth. He doesn't mean to be a jerk, he just has a bit of a dark side. Apparently he wasn't loved enough before we got him. Nonetheless, I patched her face up and made some Kale Chips.

Kale torn into small pieces, 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar to 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil. Toss the kale until just moistened, not dripping. Place it on a baking sheet and sprinkle with sea salt. Pop it in a 400 degree oven until crispy, about 15 mins or so....and you have healthy chips!

Bubbles are cheeky!

Let's Go Cubbies!!

I was able to head to a Cubbies game with my family this week. Chris unfortunately had to miss the game since he was flying back home from Chicago. Was odd being out and not having Syd with me. I'm used to worrying about her every second. This time I could just sit, enjoy the men scratch that, I mean enjoy the game and the beer.

The Aichingers flew in from Chi-town to see the Cubbies and hang out with the McKennas.

Yep, no idea what inning it is or who won, but I had fun!!

Jason received the sloppy McKenna gene from our grandma. Please note the huge mustard stain on his shirt and Betsy's "are you serious?" look since they had only been at the game approximately 2 mins when it happened.

Donut Lover

Sydney loves donuts. Yeah I know, what kid doesn't, but it's cute. We go grocery shopping and she stands in the cart holding onto the front as we zip through the aisles. I push the cart directly up to the table piled high with donuts and she grabs her bag. Sometimes chocolate, this time powdered sugar. She can barely contain herself as we check out and get into the car. She insists that she has to have them right at that moment because she can't possibly make it home without them. We say no and then we compromise by allowing her to hold them on the ride home.

This morning she busted out her donuts and than ran off for a few moments. I said "hey Syd, I'm gonna eat one of your donuts" and oh my gosh you would've thought I burned her favorite stuffed animal "NOOOOOO!" as she came running into the room to snatch them from me. "Mommy, I'm so sad for you" that's what she says every time we do something she doesn't like. She sat on the couch and went back to eating her donuts by herself. A few mins later she ended up saying she wanted to share, which was cute. Especially since I knew how much they meant to her.

4th Street Fair

We decided to head down to the 4th Street Fair with Jay, Bets, Sea and Joseph. We've been having such beautiful weather, but for some reason every time we head to the 4th Street Fair it's always smokin hot and jam packed with people. This was no different.

First stop was the Ferris Wheel. Fearing that I'd scare the hell out of the kids when we would get to the top position on the Ferris Wheel, I didn't offer up to go with them. Luckily Betsy was was ok with going. Here they are loading into their cage.

And they're off! Please notice Betsy letting out a little scream :)

Here we have Jay screaming to Betsy to "Swing the cage!!" Yeah, I think we can all guess her response to that.

Syd spotted people with corn on the cob and had to have it. She loved it so much, she wouldn't even give me a bite :(

After walking around for over an hour with my potty trained girl, we had a silhouette done of her and then searched high and low for face painters. So we stand in the long line and the lady walks up from her break and Syd says "I gotta go tinkle" Sigh. I was able to convince Sydney that she could hold it just a few more minutes while getting her rainbow with hearts on her face.

She sat so good for the lady!

Seamus got his dragon although it looks an awful lot like a snake in this photo, so maybe he changed his mind and I never saw the end result. We were in full on "looking for a potty" mode!

Syd's rainbow and hearts. Please note the adorable rhinestones...that made her scream when it was time to remove them. Very pretty, but oh so totally not practical.

Long day of shopping, street fair and then grocery shopping is enough to knock this girl out for a two and a half hour nap! WOOHOO!

Finally, a Haircut!

I've been waiting a long time for this. Why didn't I do it sooner you ask? Yeah, I don't have a good answer for that. While staring at Sydney during her last gymnastics class, I decided it was time to cut a few inches off. Syd joined her dad for a haircut on Saturday. It was baby steps. At first she sat in the waiting area while Chris had his hair cut. Then she sat with me next to him to watch. After that I think I threw in a few bribes of "I'll give you a huge present if you sit in the chair and get your hair cut." Luckily that one worked. Granted I need to replace that gift in her Easter basket, but I'm ok with that.

Here she is just before her time to shine in the seat.

Woohoo, she's having fun!



Moments after this picture was taken, she had endured ten minutes of having to keep her chin tucked in and she was straight up done with it. She lost her cool and she lost it fast. We scrambled and I ended up having to hold her (read as pin her down) so that we could get her sides trimmed. Phew, stressful, but it's done! Now she likes to look at herself in the mirror and says she wants it cut again.



After that adventure, we headed over to Rillito Nursery to pick out some flowers, trees and plants for the garden. Perfect place to get her new haircut photo!



Making a goofy face while pickin at the flowers.



Taking a moment to stop and smell the flowers.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

One of my favorite holidays, yet I look around and I don't have a single decoration up! It's sad, really. I promised Syd that if she ate her lunch today at school (which she never does) that I'd take her to the store to buy some crafts to do tonight for St. Patrick's Day! She was all excited, so that's always a good start.

We dressed her up in her St. Paddy's day attire. Sadly enough, we didn't have a thing for her to wear, soooooo I busted out her outfit from last year! The shirt fit perfectly and the old full length leggings just looked more like capri leggings. No one knows except me (and my mom since she bought the outfit last year and I guess all of you now). The additional accessory this year is a St. Patrick's Day table runner that my mom brought for Sydney a few weeks ago to place under her castle she got for Christmas. Except she insists that it's a blanket. She refused to sleep with any other blankets at night other than this one for several days until I hid it on her. I finally brought it out this morning and she wrapped herself up in it like a cute little shawl. Creative one she is!

Key to the Zoo and a Train Ride!

It's a good thing we have a membership to the Zoo, because Sydney asks to go all the time. "I go special place? Zoo?" So we were lucky enough that Jay and Betsy were free, so we all headed to the zoo so the kids could run around together.

Sydney showing off the new Zoo Key to the apes that Auntie Betsy and Uncle Jay bought her

Watching the sleepy lion. They were holding hands, they're so cute together. "Seamus is my cousin" is what she always tells me. Sydney kept saying "C'mon Seamus, let's go" and he refused to leave the lions.

She finally got him to leave the window from the Lion's Den to watch the Otters lay in the sun.

The little squirt was too chicken to feed the Giraffe, so she made me do it. Never fails, I always get licked.

I've seen these boxes all over the zoo since we started coming here and had no idea how on earth you'd get them to work. Jay and Bets bought both Seamus and Sydney a Zoo Key and you just place the key into these boxes and it tells you all about the animals and such. She LOVES it! Although they kept inserting the key into the Spanish option.

Watching the Polar Bear swim down at eye level.

Highlight of the trip is always feeding the duckies and fish. The ducks weren't all that interested though since you can see there were a few other dozen kids before us that had the same idea. The water is covered in food! Someone needs to notify Jay that the kids are supposed to feed the ducks, not the adults. Looks like he's getting ready to nail one in the head (and he did)!

Elephant rides!

Sydney's been drooling over the train that runs around the zoo for quite some time. Seamus happens to be a train lover and they even have a pass for it! So, we lucked out and the train pulled up just as we were exiting the zoo. "All Aboaaard!!!"

Bye Dads!!

Not sure if you can tell by the look on her face, but she really liked the train :)