Island Princess Party

Last Tuesday Barbie's new movie, Barbie as the Island Princess, came out and of course we had to buy it on the first day. The girls and I sat down and read the book over the last few days before it was released. They were really good during the whole book even though it took a couple of hours to read! I guess if it's Barbie then they're into it! So Tuesday I got up to Toys R Us not long after they opened and picked up the movie for us to watch as a family that night. I decided to make it into something more than just a movie night, we had our own Island Party! I moved the coffee table out of the living room, laid down some grass mats Greg and I bought at the beach several years ago and put out the decorations from Trinity's luau birthday party three years ago, so it looked like we were on an island beach! I cooked ham (because we couldn't find a way to cook a whole pig) and had fresh pineapple for dinner. For desert we tried something totally different; I bought a real coconut from the store! The girls thought it was pretty cool to look at the coconut and hear the milk "shake" inside of it! I was so excited for this new experience for all of us! I read the directions for the "easy open coconut" and was ready to pour out the milk and get that thing open for us to eat. After about 20 minutes of trying to poke out the eyes we finally got the milk out (it didn't really look like milk, more like merky water) and got started cutting on the "prescored line". I can't tell you how much time and energy I spent on this...no wonder Tom Hanks went crazy on that movie trying to get one open! Greg finally got a screwdriver and a hammer and broke into it. We started digging into the meat of the coconut to find not that sweet stuff you put on or in desert, but more like a nut...duh it's a coconut! We were all really surprised and fairly dissapointed to actually taste a fresh coconut and it's milk, but were really glad to have had the experience together!

Here are a couple of pictures from our island party.

Words don't do it justice!

Awesome, incredible, amazing, beautiful, creative, original, magical...none of those words are enough to describe The Lion King musical! Greg and I went to see the Lion King last night as the final installment in The Dallas Summer Musicals this year (Greg gave me Season Tix last year for Christmas) and won't forget the performance any time soon! The actors did such an amazing job! They made it so easy to look past the people playing the parts, even though their faces were easily seen, and just see the animals they were playing! Even the grass and plants were people in costume! The talent in this show was beyond anything I've ever seen, and we've seen some pretty amazing talent this season! If you have the opportunity to see this musical this year, or at any other point in your life I highly recommend it! It is well worth the price of a ticket, even if you're not into musicals!

Check out their website! Click on the "Scrapbook" link on the left and you'll see some of the majesty of the costumes on stage:
http://disney.go.com/theatre/thelionking/

Thanks Greg for a wonderful Christmas gift that kept giving!

It's a miracle!

Okay, so that might be a little strong of a word, but it was awfully strange! On the way home from dance class this morning Emory told me she wanted to put on pants when we got home! Yes, that's EMORY wanting to wear PANTS! In case you don't know, I have spent the past 6-8 months struggling with her over clothes because she won't wear anything that doesn't spin. Do you know how hard it is to find dresses and/or skirts that "spin"? When she says spin, she means like a poodle skirt- ALL the way out! Well, something got her fired up for pants, and it wasnt the weather because it's HOT! I was so surprised that I had to take a picture of her in them.

What you can't tell in this picture is she is wearing a pink heart necklace because it matches the pink heart on her "Nini shirt" (it says "I love my auntie" and she wore it to a party for Nicci) and she had on sparkly silver shoes until I made her take them off to lay down for quiet time. So she hasn't completely lost her inner diva just because she's in pants! Oh, and the jeans are sparkly jeans:)

The beginnigs of a team

Not that they act like a "team", but Greg hopes to be able to send them to the same college on full scholarship:) Trinity finally decided to shoot hoops with Emory yesterday afternoon since Emory seems to enjoy it so much. Trinity did really well and shot from quite a ways back most of the time (we need to raise the goal), she would raise her own challenge level each time she would make one.

Here are a couple of pictures for you to enjoy. Notice Emory is in a DIFFERENT ballet outfit, quite the diva:)

Emory stood on the porch to throw the ball, she thought that was pretty cool!

Trinity's first shot of the afternoon was ALL NET!

Talking already...

If anyone can help me slow down time I would greatly appreciate it! Addison is starting to talk up a storm! She is saying, "uh-oh" anytime she drops something, she says, "sissy" when she sees Emory or Trinity, she says, "hha Dada" when she sees Greg...of course she isn't saying 'mama' yet though.

Her teeth finally came in last Thursday, but they are still really little. They don't seem to bothering her anymore though, so we are all thankful for that!

She is all over the place with her "crawling" and has been caught up on her hands and knees rocking several times. She has pulled up to standing twice! I am so not ready for this! Right now she thinks dog food is a delicacy! She goes right to the bowls when I put her down, hoping to beat me to them or find a piece on the floor. YUCK!

I have tried to savor every single second of every single stage of her life since I felt like Trinity and Emory have grown up and I don't remember anything, but the moments are still gone in the blink of an eye! I love using this blog as a type of diary to track the moments as they happen and hope one day the girls will be able to read them.

To quote a good friend, "They're only little for a little while."

Got the pictures loaded...finally

Trinity and Emory cheering on the Mean Green

I bet he never thought he'd have so many cheerleaders loving on him at once

Emory wearing the teddy bear's Ariel wig

Trinity wearing the teddy bear's Ariel wig

Mommy's little Princess

GO MEAN GREEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yesterday was the first home game for our North Texas Mean Green for this season! NONE of our friends made it to the game (seems a little like last year) for one reason or another, so it wasn't as much fun as games in the past, but we still enjoyed our day. Greg couldn't wait to get up there to tail-gate with the other Go Mean Greeners, so he headed up about the time I was laying the girls down for naps. Once they woke up and I got everyone ready we headed up to join him. The girls were precious, all three in their cheerleading outfits! We had a blast listening to Beerman, playing in the Jr. Mean Green Fun zone and visiting with the other alum and actives from Delta Sig. The game was fun, but unfortunately the outcome wasn't. We will still head back up for the next game and hope some of our friends actually make it!

I took some pictures, but for some reason I can't get them to pull up on the computer...I will post them later.

What a week!

Greg went out of town most of the week for his annual Regional Conference for work and the girls and I were fortunate enough to have my sister stay with us! We were on the go the whole time and had a blast doing so!

In between all of our activities Nicci and I managed to completely re-do our bedroom...completely behind Greg's back! I'd been planning it for weeks so I was really excited for the time to finally get here! Unfortunately I was planning on finishing up the shopping on Tuesday while Trinity and Emory were at school and Greg was at work, but Greg ended up staying home sick. I didn't get any of the shopping done on Tuesday and I was only able to get a little done on Wednesday before Emory's dance class, so unfortunately I'm not completely finished with the room, but the hard work is done! We got all new bedding, wall art, shelves, window treatments and painted the walls and base board! I still have to get night stands and lamps and paint the doors and door frames...but I think I did pretty well! Of course I did manage to break the bed in the process of moving it across the room by myself, so we'll have to do something about that too.

It has turned out pretty good and Greg was completely surprised so MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

Thanks for your help Nicci!

Trinity's dinner Adventure

Last Sunday Trinity decided we should go out to eat dinner instead of staying here and keeping it simple. Greg casually asked her, "if we were to go out to eat, where would you want to go?". And there begins our Sunday evening adventure.

Trinity started by saying, "I want to go to that restaurant where the doors look like a barn, you know where they have those metal crosses on them. It's by Northpark mall." We thought and thought and came up completely blank, so we followed with the obvious questions:
mom and dad: What did you eat when we went there?
Trinity: Maybe soup, yeah probably soup. (for those of you who don't know, that's what she gets at almost every restaurant)
Mom and Dad: What did we get to eat?
Trinity: I have no idea
Mom and Dad: Who all was with us?
Trinity: We haven't been there since before Addison was born.
Mom and Dad: Was it just us, or was someone else with us?
Trinity: It was just us...or maybe Pappy and Gommy were with us...
Trinity: They had those things on the window and a roof that goes like this (showing us a flat roof with her hands) Here, let me draw you a picture...
Trinity: It might have been a restaurant where you go through and serve yourself, or maybe it wasn't...um, it either was or it wasn't

By now we have brainstormed on every single restaurant we have ever been to and asked her questions about each of them, and ever question has been shot down. We're completely lost and feel so helpless.

The questions continued, I guess in an effort to prove her wrong, because it just HAD to be one of the restaurants we had already asked about.

Mom and Dad: It was by Northpark?
Trinity: Yeah, you just drive down the street to Northpark, and it's just right there.
Mom and Dad: Um, okay, was it in a building all by itself, or were there other stores there with it? (of course a five year old wouldn't understand the term strip-center)
Trinity: I think it was in a strit-center thing (um...never mind, she is once again proving us wrong on her intelligence)

So at this point we are completely intrigued and decide to go out to eat after all. We get everyone cleaned up, grab Trinity's drawing and jump in the car for Trinity to take us to this restaurant. We drove to every single restaurant we could think of we had ever been to that she doesn't know by name. We ended up coming up on Northpark from the back side, so we circle around the mall and when we're pulling up to Northwest Highway, she yells, "There it is!!! It's right there! It's there in front of us!" So we look up and in front of us is a grocery store. After we tell her that I got a sinking feeling in my stomach...next to the grocery store is none other than Cheesecake Factory. Granted this is probably my favorite restaurant, but not exactly what we were planning on for this impromptu dinner. We drive through the parking lot and discuss this as an option, but there are no parking spots open and the line is out the door!

So now comes the hard part of breaking Trinity's heart (and my sudden craving for Cheesecake Factory's Orange Chicken), we decided it just wasn't the night to go there. Not only was their line long and their prices high, but we have never gotten out of there in under two and a half hours and there was no way Addison was going to sit for that!

So we ended up at one of many Mexican restaurants in the area with a sulking five year old, and still got home in time for baths and bed.

What a fun adventure that was! I can't wait to go on another! I also can't wait to go to Cheesecake Factory (Mmmmm...I'm suddenly craving their Orange Chicken again!)!