Mama has been so busy lately. She’s not even really sure why. But luckily Mama has friends on hand who have taken some pretty rockin’ pics of her little family. The latest was on an excursion to the playground. Let us count the ways playgrounds are super cool:

1. Sand
True: The Sippy Cup used to hate sand. But then she wised up and realized there’s this really fun playground place that kids LOVE to hand out in. It’s called a sandbox. But sometimes its not just kids who hang out in the Sandbox. Sometimes Mamas do too. Maybe that’s why they’re so awesome. (The sandboxes we mean. Mamas are always awesome. Duh.)

2. Slides
And then there’s slides. Slides are kind of the opposite of sandboxes. Mostly slides are for adults AND kids to go on together. But they are still super fun.

And sometimes kids are even allowed to go on them by themselves. That is when they are the funnest.

3. Swings
We’ve seen alot of swings on this blog so none today. But everyone can tell how much the Sippy Cup likes swings cause it’s the first playground-related word she’s said.

4. Trains!
Now, not every playground has trains. Just special ones. But when they do its hard not to just look cute and smile as you go for a ride. (Even if it is an imaginary ride cause the train is an imaginary train and doesn’t ACTUALLY move.)

Have a good weekend! Maybe if you’re good there will even be a playground in your future.

This week I’m doing something a bit new and different and reviewing a book. I mean, I’m pretty sure I’ve overloaded y’all on cuteness anyway so why not go a bit of the intellectual route for – oh – say – thirty seconds. Let me know how you like it!

I’ve been reading and I’m ready to start a school food revolution!

Um, “What’s that?” you say: “Fiona isn’t even out of diapers. Why do you care about school food?”

Well, the past few weeks I have gotten back in touch with my Health Counselor roots of 2006-2008. (Yes – I have lived alot of career lives.) I started reading Amy Kalafa’s Lunch Wars and found myself getting all worked up about the state of food in schools and how one day Fiona will be in those schools and how if I don’t do something now then when she gets to those schools the food will be total processed crap and she will eat it because that’s what kids do and then she will be tired and get fat and develop all kinds of medical issues that she really wouldn’t have if she just ate normal food and didn’t buy into the “Standard American Diet” so I really should get cracking on finding out how to fix it all!

Luckily Amy came to the rescue through her book with all kinds of things to do to help improve school food so I didn’t feel totally forelorn. Some things are so obvious (in a good way) that I couldn’t help but laugh at myself. Like when I was shocked that some schools actually cook their food on site and try out recipes. (For some reason I really thought that food had to be shipped into schools from places afar.) Or like when she pointed out that even though she sent her kids to school with healthy lunches they still managed to find a way to buy the processed yuck that was in the cafeteria. (Um yeah. That may have been me. Sorry Mum!)

So now I’m a-thinking. What should I do to get started on making sure we have good food in our home and good food everywhere Fiona may happen to go in the next, say, eighteen years? Thoughts?

And if you want to read more about Lunch Wars check out the Lunch Wars Book Club page on BlogHer.

Love, Mama

Full Disclosure: This was a paid review for BlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed are my own.

The Little Miss has been waking up early lately. Like really early. But I made the most amazing discovery this weekend: She has a snooze button!

If she wakes up early I just lie her back down and give a few shhhs for good measure and she (generally) falls right back asleep for 15 minutes. Or a half hour. Or sometimes even 45 minutes! It’s kind of like a miracle. And I hope it lasts. Even though it probably won’t cause she’s a kid and kids are all about the phases.

In fact, just by writing this post I am pretty much ensuring that it will never happen again.

So forget you read this please. We’ll pretend it didn’t happen.

(But for now I’m happy to say that I am loving my little snooze button! Mama is so much happier when she has had her sleep.)

Happy Snoozing & Happy Monday!

Love, Mama

{this moment} – A Friday ritual from Soule Mama. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

As we were frolicking in the sunshine this weekend we couldn’t help but notice the fruit-full bounty that is growing on the fruit trees in our back yard. See – we are really lucky as San Franciscans to have a big ole patch of green behind our house. Our place may only have 800 square feet of living space but the garden out back more than makes up for the usual San Franciscan “coziness”.

We had fun getting up close and personal with Mr. Apple Tree.

And picked an apple and pear to check out how our “crop” is doing.

While they look mighty pretty and are well on their way to yumminess, we think they have a bit longer to go to get full of ripe deliciousness.

But Fiona didn’t want Mr. Apple and Mrs. Pear to have been picked in vain so she took it upon herself to make them feel right at home.

Hello Mr. Apple. Hello Mrs. Pear. You are my friends now. I will help you to ripen in the sun. And then I will eat you. Ha ha!