Anna's Ballet Performance

Anna had her first ballet performance on December 11. She was so excited to perform and did beautifully.  Take note of her sincere and graceful bow at the end.

(She's the second girl from the right side.)

Anna's Evening Out

We took Anna to see The Nutcracker for the first time on Sunday. Up until now, she wasn't old enough to fully appreciate it (especially given the steep ticket prices). This year, she's taking ballet so she has an appreciation for dance and she's old enough to sit still for 2+ hours. The performance was to begin at 7:30pm so we left Jack with a babysitter and went to dinner first. It was cold and rainy Sunday afternoon, so we opted to eat close to the theater. We stumbled upon a sushi place that looked good and all Anna cared about was eating shrimp, so we were good. 

She'd never used chopsticks before and, after only a quick tutorial, she went to town! It was amazing. 

Family picture before leaving the restaurant

The orchestra for The Nutcracker

Beautiful scenery! It's hard to tell from the picture, but that's a multi-layered scenery.



We had a grand time and are looking forward to doing it again next year.

The Long Thanksgiving Weekend

We had a nice, long and relaxing Thanksgiving weekend this year. We filled our days with a nice mix of fun stuff and a little (ok, more than a little) of nothing. Here are some pictures of our adventures.

Boredom ensued Wednesday morning, so Anna and I tortured Banjo with some dress-up play.  Here he is sporting a Disney Princess crown and a definitive "F*&^ You" face.

Then, Aurora (otherwise known as Sleeping Beauty) took her shot at 8 seconds on the back of a bucking, (not quite) elderly tabby cat. She lasted way longer than 8 seconds. I think Banjo finally got up to stretch and she fell off about 13 minutes later. 

Adding insult to injury: the purple hairpiece. Don't call the SPCA on us just yet. It might look like cruel and unusual punishment, but Banjo will endure just about anything to be allowed to lay on Anna's soft and cozy bed. He's a good sport and in respect of his dignity, I'm not posting the picture of him in the pink, sequined pill box hat.

We took the family to see Puss in Boots on Wednesday.  

On Thanksgiving morning, I ran the Turkey Trot 5K with 12,000 of my closest friends. It was so crowded that I had to wait in line to get to the start line and again to cross the finish line. A little anti-climatic with all of the waiting around but fun anyway. I had a good, strong run and really enjoyed the race.

Friday was me and Kevin's 11th wedding anniversary. We took the kids with us for a nice dinner out at our local Italian restaurant. The kids behaved beautifully!

In the background of this picture is one of the restaurant patrons that my children wooed with their impeccable manners and cuteness. She came over to congratulate us on our great kids before she left. 

Then, on Saturday, we visited a Holiday Train. It was a great start to the Holiday season. 

She's Crafty

I don't care what they write about me on the bathroom wall, I'm just not crafty. I'd love to be crafty and I think that I have a decent eye for what is cute, but when it comes to actually creating something cute, I'm usually hopeless. 

Thanks to Pinterest, I've been inspired to try a few things lately. This is the product of my latest crafty mood.  

Scarecrow Crunch for Thanksgiving teacher gifts

All of this project is courtesy of Pinterest. I found the recipe for the Scarecrow Crunch here. The Thanksgiving Printables here. The containers are courtesy of Dollar Tree and the stickers were some stickers that my kids had in their craft box. Voila!

Evolution of a Halloween Costume

Let's revisit where we left off earlier in the week (in terms of Jack's Halloween costume)...

Suddenly, on Monday--Halloween afternoon--about 3pm, after systematically rejecting his Spiderman costume time and time again, Jack sighed a large, exasperated sigh and (of his own free will) said, "Ok, I'm ready to put on my costume". I was shocked. SHOCKED. I just figured that he had to arrive at the idea on his own terms, and as the clock was ticking quickly toward the time to go trick or treating and to our neighborhood block party, he admitted defeat and put his costume on. I snapped several pictures because I was unsure how long he'd actually keep it on (and yes, that's a potty in our living room. Potty training strips you of all house pride).

Turns out, he kept it on, up until about 5pm...approximately 30 minutes before we were heading out to start the festivities. Panic ensued. Mama headed to his bedroom to scour for anything that might do in a pinch for an "eleventh-hour" costume.

Enter, the cutest handyman that you ever saw. He totally embraced his costume too. It was adorable.

Why, oh why, I ask you...didn't I think of this sooner? It would've saved us all much pain and suffering.

Halloween Party Day at School

The kids had their Halloween parties at school yesterday. Jack has been proclaiming that he was going to be "Robot-Spiderman" for Halloween. Your guess is as good as mine as to whom exactly "Robot-Spiderman" is--perhaps a hybrid superhero of sorts. He's shown no interest in the second-hand Spiderman costume that I got for him, so no one was really sure how he'd react to actually dressing up in it for his school party and costume parade. When the time came to get dressed yesterday, he balked so we grabbed his favorite Spiderman t-shirt out of the dirty laundry and threw it on. 

Anna, however, embraced her ladybug costume. I think that she looks just like Ladybug Girl from the Ladybug Girl series of children's books, (that Anna loves) but don't you dare call her "Ladybug Girl." She is quite insistent that she is just a ladybug. Your garden-variety ladybug, as it were. 

Pseudo-Spiderman and ladybug pretending to be affectionate toward one another for the camera

(This is almost more scary than the next picture)

Positively the scariest plain-clothed Spiderman and winged insect that you've ever seen

 

We've got a weekend full of Halloween festivities ahead. Stay tuned for more adventures of ladybug and pseudo-Spidey.

2011 Run to Cure HD 5K

The whole family came to town this weekend to participate in the 2011 Run to Cure HD (Huntington's Disease) this morning. Everyone had committed to walking the race, but, as I was signing up for it, I realized that I spend an average of 5 days a week at the gym. If that's not enough preparation to run a 5K, then I'm doing something wrong. I kicked my running into high gear at the gym and was pleasantly surprised to find that my efforts had been paying off, because running 5K was totally doable for me. 

I did well during the race today--felt energized and strong throughout. My Anna ran a fair amount of the race too, from what I hear. She was back with the walkers but I saw her along the route. I mean, how could you miss her in that bright purpley-pink outfit? She was the cutest 4 year old running the race to be sure. 

Now, I'm setting my sights on the Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot. I've done that race in the past and there's really nothing like running a race early in the morning on Thanksgiving Day and then promptly negating all those calories burned on one dinner roll. 

In case you're interested, these were a few standout tunes in my running playlist that helped propel me toward the finish line. 

The Most High-Maintenance, Low-Maintenance Person I Know

I'm what I call "high-maintenance, low-maintenance". This means that it takes a fair amount of maintenance to maintain my low-maintenance routine. Make sense? No? Sorry. My boy-child was up early this morning and my coffee hasn't kicked in yet.

Let me start over. I've not been a big facial-care person for many years. Don't get me wrong, I never, ever, ever do anything like go to bed with makeup on. I diligently wash and moisturize (even with sunscreen in the morning) my face, but that's about it. We buy Cetaphil cleanser and moisturizer in bulk at Costco and that's that as far as my cleansing routine.

My hair is a different story, however. In order to look half-way put together, I've got to do a lot to my hair. One product that has changed my life (or at least my hair) is Big Shampoo by Lush. I also swear by The Big Tease, also by Lush. Kevin has discovered these products as well, so now we blow through them both at an alarming rate. This means that I make a pilgrimage to the Lush counter at Macy's fairly often to re-stock our Lush hair products. One thing that I love about Lush is that they freely and generously hand out samples every time you purchase something.

So, last week, I went to Macy's to buy our Big Shampoo, since we were getting alarmingly low on the stuff. The lady working the Lush counter asked me what my skin care routine was, as I was purchasing the shampoo. I dismissively told her that I just use Cetaphil. She said that she'd throw in a sample of some facial cleanser, toner and moisturizer for me to try. I thanked her, but totally blew her off thinking, "Ha. I'm going to continue to take care of my facial needs at my neighborhood Costco, but feel free to load me up with freebies".

That night, finding myself with an extra few minutes at shower time, I decided to try the stuff that she gave me. First I used the cleanser in the shower. "Hmmm. This smells nice and wow, my skin feels really soft and not squeaky at all". Then, I used the toner and moisturizer. Cheese and crackers, y'all! My pores literally vanished before my eyes! I hadn't considered my pores since high school, but after using this stuff, my skin looked like it had been air-brushed to perfection. I was floored. I continued to use all of the products that she gave me over the weekend and achieved the same results each time. I was sold (and hooked). Then, I began to get panicky about what I'd do when my samples ran out. You better believe that I sped to Macy's yesterday morning, after dropping the kids off at school to buy one of everything that she gave me last week. In case you care, here's the stuff that I'm now addicted to.

Angels on Bare Skin

Eau Roma Water

Imperialis Moisturizer

I also learned yesterday, that for every 5 containers that you return (empty) to Lush, you receive a free facial mask. If I'd only known that (instead of tossing them into the recycling bin) we would have a fridge full of facial masks by now.

A beautiful day for a birthday

Kevin's birthday was Sunday and we celebrated outside since we also received our first cool front of the season. The weather was delightful so we watched the Texans football game outside.

The whole family, decked out in our Texans gear for the game

Anna had to be convinced to wear her Texans shirt. She's a die-hard Dolphins fan ("Dolphins are the nicest animals") but, since it was Daddy's birthday, she agreed to wear his team colors. We had to do some significant "zuzshing" to make it acceptable and properly fancy. 

After the Texans game, the kids (and Kevin) played some football of their own. Kevin wiped the field with those kids. It was pathetic, really. Kevin said that if the NFL was made up of 2 to 5 year olds, he'd be a first round draft pick. 

Feeling Patriotic in honor of Sept 11

American Gothic

American Cheese

When it rains, it pours...

Except, you know, when it doesn't rain. At all. Like for the past 11 months. This drought and this heat have thoroughly pissed me off. Welcome, September. Please be good to us.

So, about that "when it rains, it pours"-thing: over the past 6 days, we've received a deluge of mishaps. We've had 2 cars either in the shop or otherwise in disrepair (one, leaving us stranded 150 miles from home); 2 large limbs fall from a neighbor's tree, onto our house. The first, trapping our pet sitter's car in our driveway and doing some damage to our house. The second limb took out our rickety fence, that we prayed would blow away during Hurricane Ike, but somehow managed to remain unscathed then. This limb, however, took that fence down for the count. Then, today, on our 32nd (ish) day of triple digit temps, the kids and I came home to find our air conditioner not working. No problem, says Jenny, I'll just call our trusty ac man to come and fix us right up.

Oh, but no. Trusty ac guy was on his way out of town for the long holiday weekend. Luckily, I was able to grab the latest copy of our neighborhood newspaper and called the first air conditioning company listed in the ads section. The owner came, installed a new thermostat and we're up and running again.

Seriously though, what else can break around here? I'm thinking we're about due a major plumbing malfunction. Probably of the backed-up-sewer-variety, ya think?

First Day of School: Part 2

Today was Jack's first day of school. He's graduated to the Ladybug class where the big learning curve is potty training. Have someone else potty train my kid? Absolutely.

Taking the first day of school totally seriously

Dropping off in the Ladybug class. "Cheeeeeeze--now scram, mom."

"No, seriously, mom...the door's that way."

First Day of School

Anna started the Fall semester at her Preschool today. This time next year--Kindergarten. Someone hold me.

Jack starts school tomorrow and I will be enjoying some time to myself. Look out, Target, I'm coming for you.

Summer in the City

...back of my neck getting dirt and gritty, for sure.

This has been the stupidest Summer weather on record here in Texas. It's so hot and dry and miserable that we've had to get reeeeaaaally creative with activities. Here's a photo pictorial of some of the things that we've done:

We practically had the zoo to ourselves this week. I mean, who else is dumb enough to go to the zoo in 110 degree weather? Even the animals of the African Forest were like, "this sucks".

There's been a considerable amount of dress-up play. These are Anna's new butterfly wings. This is a serious contender for Halloween Costume. (I'm not sure about that thing around her waist. That was her doing and I don't understand it's purpose--that's for her to know, apparently)

Feeling optimistic, I bought Anna a new coat. She had to try it on and wear it around the house a little. Her brother had to try his new coat on too. They made me itchy, just watching them.

One morning, they got the idea to nap in our front window. Whatever. It occupied them for about 30 minutes, so that worked for me too.

In other news, there's still no word on Boo. Thank you all for your sweet words and kind thoughts and prayers.

And then there were 4

Our cat, Boo went missing Friday night. We haven't seen him since. Everyone has said, "Oh, he'll come home! Cats do this kind of thing all the time". But, not my Boo. I'm not in a place yet to write about how special he is to me. I've been weepy and just generally mopey since Saturday morning, when I first knew something was wrong. Every time we pass the "Have You Seen Boo?" poster that I put up at the entrance to our neighborhood, I tear up and make my kids uncomfortable with mommy's drippy nose and ugly-cry face.

I've gone over every potential scenario involving his disappearance--some rose-colored but most not. I can only hope that he's in no pain, where ever he is and that he knows that he is loved and missed.

We're Homicidal Maniacs

Meet Indigo

Poor Indigo is our latest victim. He's the successor to the dearly departed Plex, DJ Lance and Puffy. Instead of going to the nice fish store and getting an expert opinion on what fish was best for us, then following the instructions to the letter only to have every fish croak within a few days or weeks, this time, Anna and I went to PetsMart and spent $2.99 on the least-infected-looking Beta that they had. Alas, he has been christened Indigo (Indie for short) and we love him already. Here's hoping that he sticks around until the end of the week.

You can almost see the homicidal tendencies in her eyes.

Jack-ism of the day

(have I ever even done a "Jack-ism" before? How exciting!)

Backstory:

Anna got sent home from school today for having a fever of 103. Luckily, I was able to get her in to see her pediatrician later in the afternoon but, this also meant taking Jack along with us. Most parents know this commandment of parenthood: "Thou shall not take a HEALTHY child into a pediatrician's office, unwarranted". But, sometimes you've just gotta strap on your holster of hand sanitizer and trudge on into the pediatrician's office, with sick and healthy kids in tow. So, our pediatrician walked into the exam room and greeted Anna with a sentiment something like, "Hi Anna! So, are you feeling not-so-great today?" then she looked over at Jack and said, "Hi, Jack!". At this point, Jack walked directly up to her, with his hands folded politely behind his back and said this, as clear as day:

"I would like a dinosaur. I would like it to be pink or purple."

The doctor and I just looked at each other and laughed because it was so out-of-left-field and totally hilarious.

Picnic in the Park

Unfortunately, we discovered the spring concert series, at our fancy downtown park a little late and only made the last show of the series, but 3 out of the 4 of us thoroughly enjoyed it. Wonder if you can guess which grumpypants didn't enjoy it?

A Public Service Announcement

If you're at, say, a library storytime for toddlers and your toddler is loudly and disruptively temper-tantruming and just generally making a gigantic, annoying scene, kindly leave. JUST LEAVE. And leave with the quickness. Good Lord. Even the super sweet childrens' librarian was giving you and your child "the Ojo".

You made my already bad mood that much worse.

Disclaimer: it was not my toddler temper-tantruming and making a scene this time. I promise. Because, if it was, we would've been out of there before the tantrum was allowed to get into full-swing.

What's for dinner, Mommy?

Tofu, udon noodles and edamame!

Are you for real, lady?

Why are you so mean?

Oh okay, I'll try it

Hmmmm. Sweet, yet savory. Good texture....

I like it!

Jack went on to eat 2 giant helpings of tofu, as well as most of his other food. Success!

Recipe here: Sweet Gingery Tofu

By the way: this marinade would be awesome for salmon, pork, chicken--anything!