You say its your birthday! na na na na na it's my birthday too! yeah! na na na na na

Thanks be to The Beatles for the song lyrics in the title of this blog post. Okay, so Eric had a birthday, but it actually wasn't my birthday too. I just love singing that song from the movie 16 Candles, ya know, in that scene where Farmer Ted (Anthony Michael Hall) sings it to Samantha (Molly Ringwald) on her b-day when they're at the dance, sitting in the car in the shop classroom. Classic!

Anyway, Vegas is a great place to be when you have a birthday. Lots to do of course!
This year, we decided that it was high time we rode the zipline on Fremont Street. The Sister Wives on TLC have done it for heaven's sake, it was our turn!!

So we hopped on the Moti, and rode to Chipotle for lunch, (yum-o) and then headed downtown.

It was a really nice day. Vegas is so nice in the winter right before Spring. Then Spring comes, and it brings the wind with it, then it ain't so nice...but we're not there yet so we are enjoying it!

The zipline is so much fun and if you're lucky, the guy that straps you onto the zipline will spin you as he shoves you off the top of the scaffolding!

We're finally at the top! Feeling a bit nervous but ready! 

This is what it looks like just before you take off....

Eric looks all sorts of calm and collected...

My hair was in my face the whole time because I was spinning the whole way down...next time we do it, (this Saturday in fact)  I won't ask to be spun! It was fun but I couldn't see anything due to spinning and the hair-in-my-face.

They take your pic right when you get off the ride with all your gear on still...

 Afterwards, we came home and took the kids to Thrifty's Ice Cream. Anyone who grew up in Vegas should remember Thrifty's Ice Cream. Back in the good ol' days, we used to be able to go there and get .25 cent cones back, and their ice cream scooper scooped the ice cream in a tall cylinder shape! My fav as a kid was bubblegum. The ice cream was blue with pink gum, and they still had it and it still tasted just like when i was a kid. Ahh the sweet memories! And now my kids can have the memories! And they even had a great sugar free flavor, score!

Then we came home and I cooked Eric's requested b-day dinner, which was breakfast for dinner..the great thing about that, is that if you do french toast, then you can stick a candle in it and there's no need for a cake because it's just as sweet!

 

I wanted to make it extra good since, ya know, it was "b-day french toast" so I went onto trusty Pinterest and found Martha Stewart's recipe. You KNOW that if it was HER'S, it was going to be fantastical. I've actually always kinda thought I made up that word, but spell checker knew how to spell it, so turns out I'm not that original!

Here is the recipe in case you'd like to try it's goodness.  It calls for cognac, but wouldn't ya know it, I was fresh out! Unfortunately, I'm not an old man who loves my liquor so hence, I didn't have any cognac laying around. I have a hunch it was just as good without it too :) Find recipe here.

Happy Birthday to my old man! Who, when I load my purse up with so much "stuff" that I know I'm going to "need" at sometime or another, and then my purse gets too heavy for me to want to carry it, so he carries it for me and even has his pic taken with it, well, that there's a good man!

  A 'murse' suits him well...

What's the deal-eo

Yesterday was Valentine's Day. I saw a few "I love you's" to loved ones on FB, but I also saw alot of "Down with Valentine's day and anyone who likes it is terrible person!!" Since when did a holiday that celebrates love become such a hated holiday? Why were people focusing so much on being so against taking an opportunity to say I Love You to someone and instead, trying to justify it if they did in fact do something nice for their spouse or heaven forbid, their children?!?! I couldn't believe people's comments on one of my friend's FB page about how they refused to do anything special for their kids. No love notes, no heart shaped PB&J's in their lunch box, no special treat, or even a fun home made valentine to give to their kids classmates. Now granted, when I was a kid,  all we did in school was pass out those paper valentine's that you fold in half and there was no candy taped to it, just a "to and from" written on the inside and that was fun and exciting in and of itself. We would make paper holders to hold all the valentine's in and we didn't expect anything grander than that. Times have definitely changed, due to commercialization and probably due to Pinterest and the feeling women have these days that if they aren't always doing something on Pinterest, then they're less of a woman, but can I just tell you how much fun my daughter and I had picking out what Valentine we wanted to make together, to pass out to her classmates! We kept it simple and she told me after school everyone loved hers because it was goldfish. And who doesn't like goldfish?!?! My hubby for one, but what does he know?!?! :) Allie got a few good old fashioned "just paper valentine's that had 'to and from' with no candy attached" and she loved those just as much as anything else! The pattern I was seeing yesterday was it's terrible if you enjoy and heaven forbid, want to celebrate Valentine's Day. Well, I disagree. Of course you shouldn't wait until Feb 14th to tell someone you love them, it should be done everyday and whenever you want to say it, but what harm can come from making a day special for the people you love and enjoying the time you have with them because life is too short to get caught up in the wrong perspective!  I even sent Chase to school with Valentine's for his classmates (small cups of play-doh) and his teachers, and even his bus drivers. I love opportunity's to tell someone that I wouldn't normally have the opportunity to say to often, that I appreciate them and all they do for my kids. Chase's bus drivers are wonderful and they love Chase. His teachers at school are wonderful and they love Chase. The thing is, Chase has NO IDEA about holidays, he is totally clueless to all of that, but just because his autism stands in the way of that, doesn't mean I'm not going to let that stop him from having a normal healthy experience with the holidays.

 

 Thursday night, Eric took me out to Bambino's, a great Italian place, and we enjoyed the ambiance of it all.  And Chase came home with this paper from school.

 I imagine Chase's teacher probably told him what to write, but I still love it so much.

And Eric beautified our downstairs bathroom and I LURVE how it turned out!

It's a small half bath and I love that he put a ribbon on the door :) He's so talented and creative.
And he's the one that gets to help Allie with her fractions, and actually remembers math "stuff" thankfully!

 

And gets to take her to daddy/daughter dances at school....

Chase loves choc chip cookies....and milkshakes!

 

He also loves his sister..

Salli Malli just wants to sleep through it all...

This is my Valentine + the 2 kids that are three pics above, and I was proud to celebrate "the day of Love" with them.

Christmas 2012

Wow, we really need to get new family pictures taken, it's been since 2008! But it's so hard with Chase because he really doesn't like to "smile for the camera" so usually he has a look on his face like, "ugh, what are you people doing to me!" And he squirms, and squeals, and drops to the floor, and tries to run away, and, ya know, basically acts like a toddler. My perpetual toddler that boy that I love so!! So, needless to say, we've pretty much avoided fam pics since 2008, but I'm always saying to my hubs"One of these days Eric! One of these days, when it comes to getting fam pics taken, it will happen I tell you, it will!" And Eric then proceeds to say "Okay, dear, whatever you say."
And then it never happens....

But we did get some snapshots of Christmas that I guess will just have to be sufficient for now, until we can get family pictures done once again and hopefully before 'you know what freezes over' :)

Every year at the Ethel M Chocolate Factory, they decorate the cactus botanical garden with lights and you can walk around and look at everything. It really is gorgeous at night! And it's freeeeeeeeee. To our pleasant surprise, Chase actually cared about what he was looking at this year. Last year he wasn't interested but this year when we were leaving, he put up a fuss! Love it!

Blurry pic, but you get the idea...

Salli Malli

Christmas Eve PJ's..

Chase checkin out his new Hulk that talks to him and smashes stuff

What I wouldn't give for a fireplace! Chase wanted to warm his hands by the "fire" on Christmas morn.

Have you ever been to the Bellagio Conservatory at Christmas time?? It's the best thing to do in Vegas that's freeeeeeeee.

 Here's some pics of the conservatory from Christmas time

The tallest Christmas tree you ever did see indoors!

Huge hanging snowflakes

This was Allie's favorite part!

Allie loving Christmas morn. With her magicians thumb on!

Allie participated in her 2nd piano recital earlier in the month. She played A Whole New World from Aladdin and did superbly!!! Pictured here with her piano teacher.

At our annual Solomon Christmas party at my house, my parents brought us a box from their store room, and little did they know, the box was filled with "old school" glasses from the 50's 60's and 70's. Eric found the perfect glasses that made him look like Bill Lumbergh from Office Space, I went for the classic Howard Stern look and Allie sported Ozzie Osbourne

Rudolph's nose really does glow

Christmas morn breakfast!

Christmas this year was great because we could see the progression in Chase from last year. It seems each year, he gets a little more interested in Christmas. This year, after opening a present, he'd investigate it to see what it was all about. He enjoyed the places we went, and the people we saw. He doesn't have to say it for us to know it. Autism is such a tricky thing. You could have 2 kids with autism in a room, and they could be polar opposites from each other but still have one thing in common, autism. They have enough of the "symptoms" to be label with autism, but that could be about it. Chase would be none the wiser if we gave him no presents for Christmas. (We would never do that of course, that's just mean!) But those things mean nothing to him. He would never get jealous of Allie and what she was given. Or if she had more presents than him. He doesn't understand what's going on, he's just happy to be there and we're happy and blessed to have him in our family.

Love this kid like cray-zeeeeee

All Chase wants for Christmas may be his 2 front teeth...

11, juu-ichi, elf, once, onze, XI, wa’maH wa’, minque, Oh the many ways to say 11!

Eric and I celebrated 11 years last Saturday. I don't know why but it feels like it's been much longer than 11?!

In 11 years, there's been 16 moves, 2 countries, 4 states, 2 kids, 2 cats, 8 vehicles, and one mortgage later, here we are. I'm sure there's more moves to come in the future, more cats, maybe a dog, more vehicles, not more kids but eventually grand-kids, and always a mortgage.

To celebrate, we of course saw a show, it's Vegas ya know!!!

We went and saw Nathan Burton's comedy/magic show at the Planet Hollywood Casino. He was a winner of America's Got Talent in the past, actually, quite a few years ago, anyway, it was a great show. I had 2 free tickets to it so we decided to cash them in and go on our anniversary. It was hilarious. Eric never cares for magicians but even he thought it was good! Then we went to Macaroni Grill because they sent me a free dessert coupon for our anniversary, and how could I possibly pass that up?? The lemon passion cake was to-die-for. Plus, I could eat Mac Grill's bread for the rest of my life, and nothing else, and I would be just fine :) I recently found a recipe on Pintrest that claims to taste just like it. We shall see!

Our 11th anniversary pic :)

Halloween 2012

Ok, as I've said many many many times before, I am no professional picture taker. As I see all these cute pictures surfacing of people's kids in their costumes on Halloween, I realized I didn't even get one of just Allie and Chase standing up together in their costumes. I love seeing siblings standing together, costumes donned, holding each other in a loving embrace, and the picture taker capturing the perfect snap with superb lighting and no red eye. Okay, that's bit dramatic, but this is the best I could do....

Allie is Elphaba from Wicked and she's supposed to have green skin but when we put the green face make-up on her face, it started burning so we had to wipe it off. It didn't burn when we had it on her arms but she couldn't just have green arms and not a green face! I mean, really?!?!
I LOVE LOVE LOVE Halloween in Las Vegas. The weather is always nice and no one ever has to wear a coat over their costume. Once again, perfect trick or treating weather.
Chase lasted longer this year trick or treating than in years past.  He does well, but has to be reminded at every single door to say "trick or treat" and then say "thank you". He even tried to walk into a few people's houses, which is kind of cute when a toddler does it, but I'm thinking not so cute when a 7 and a half year old attempts it.
We only had one issue of teenagers getting out of control and cussing, so Eric and I got after them and they denied the dropping of a few f-bombs and then crossed the street to get away from us old people that scolded them. Why teenagers are out trick or treating is a question I'd like to ask their parents!

Eric promised me that next year will be the year that we will finally all dress up as a family with a theme. This year we were all supposed to be "Robin Hood" themed but it turned out to just be me and the Chase man that did it.

The kiddos with my mami!

Allie suggested that next year, we all be donuts. Eric loved the idea, me, well, not so much....we'll see.

Oh and BTW, today marks 11 years for me and the Mister. Happy Anniversary to my hubbs who is right now with Allie pulling weeds out of side walks and painting over graffiti as part of the "Clean up North Las Vegas Service Day Project" our Stake is doing today. My hubs is always willing to help and serve and I love him for that!