Well On Her Way To Becoming a Japanese Teen

What better to do on the most frigid day of the year yet, but have the car serviced and wander the shops of Lehigh Valley. Laura needed a new pair of pants and a cell phone case, I wanted to reload on loose teas and German sugar, and Yuula would no doubt find something she wanted.



Before I could even get myself in the doors she had picked this nugget out. Nice product placement JCPenney. Eye level of a toddler never fails. But she still hasn't taken it off and she just went to bed.



We hit a kid's store where she felt the need to accessorize her outfit.



Her sass level was instantly exaggerated.



Over to Disney to stare at all the plush



Showing the big girls how to do style



Laura downloaded some app where you check into stores and get points towards a prizes. A cruise is 64million points. Today she got 30. I'm buying a bathing suit stat!



Yuula killed some butter chicken and rice pudding at Indian Spice

And it's only fitting that I shot the whole day in black and white because it only further accentuates the choices Laura made today in her purchases.

Yes those are florescent orange corduroys and a bright pink phone case. She must be going colorblind.

We visited Katie at YEA! on the way home. Good times catching up, even if the catchup was cluelessness.

Seeking Asylum In The Greater Lehigh

Surviving Sandy: Day Two

The blanket fort actually gave us that extra layer of warmth, recirculating our hot breath that first chilly morning to warm our toes and fingers worked like a charm. And it was fun to boot.

First thing on our minds was some warm breakfast and hot coffee. We weren't on the road long til we saw this doozy.

Wandered the wasteland til we found out the Lehigh Valley Mall was to open to the public at 1pm. Called the Trunks and rendezvoused accordingly.

The girls took advantage of the section cordoned off for the coming of Santa, til the big mean mall security guard scolded them and told them they'd get coal in their stockings.

The inevitable return to the icebox we call home happened a little early this night, as we intended to heat up our blanket enclosure by a little aerobic activity, creating a game where Laura pushes Yuula onto a pile of pillows and she rolls down into my lap and I throw her back to her mother. This went on for about 3 hours.

and dancing...

I thought, what better time to teach Laura the rules of backgammon

It didn't take long for her to start cheating with the help of her child. Have she no shame?

Some storm inspired arts & crafts took place

then she passed out

Dresses Down, Flowers Found

Another day off where it's just gonna rain all day. On good advice we came to take care of a few indoor errands that needed to be run on the weekend, but why not beat the crowds and save a Saturday. Indeed. Main goal: Girls need dresses. This is an intense and potentially drawn out situation. We better get going. Of course by the time we arrived at our only decent shopping mall everyone was hungry for lunch.

I no longer will eat anything but the tilapia trio.

Yuula found other uses for the menu.

Distractions continued when Laura spotted the Verizon store and remembered how much she wants/needs/covets a new phone. I kept Yuula distracted with my accessories.

Onto baby shops where finding a dress proved to be far more daunting than expected, but the girls were up for the challenge.

After relative success and failure in the Lehigh Valley we headed back up north to see above some flowerage. A quick rest stop at Unclaimed Freight to try out some couches gave us pause, but the rookie at DD gave us two coffees sans sugar so that got our goats. A switch to the sleepytime playlist gave Yuula a quick nap while coasted up to the Pocono Commons.

Then it was on.

She's a good helper.

Came home with a good mix of lovely petals and pearls. Plus Yuula got her dress(es) and in the 11th hour Laura found her outfit(s). But don't worry about me. I bought a new pair of shades.

I call them shades.

Then we danced.

Rainy Days On Wednesdays Always

Laura has Wednesdays off and somehow every Wednesday it seems to rain outside. Always. We're hoping to get a day to go on a little nature walk or maybe a family photo shoot before the snow falls and we are stuck. But we adapt and headed for indoors, mainly Babies 'R' Us, CiCi's pizza and the Lehigh Valley Mall. Yuula tried out a new style of merchandising, Laura & I invented a new game where we read out people's facebook statuses and then try and guess whose it is and we finally learned what one hand and one slice of pizza sounds like clapping. So, the rain don't stop us!








And we managed to pick up a few Christmas gifts right under her nose. Won't be able to do that next year.