Annie

It started a month or so ago when Cupcake was sick.

Anyone with a toddler knows the joy of trying to get an active toddler who happens to be sick to "rest." So, on the rare occasions when she's been sick I've actually allowed the normally unacceptable....hours of t.v. It's perfect because it's such a rare treat that she'll lay on the couch to not miss a second of t.v. However, we don't have cable. We don't care for the most part but there isn't much that is appropriate for 2 year olds on the 4 channels we do get. Enter Annie. Yep the 1982 version. I LLLLOOOVVEED it when I was young so I figured it must be child appropriate. While I'm not entirely condoning it is appropriate for a 2 year old, it was a great sick day fix and I figured the random inappropriate moments would soon be forgotten.

Could I have been more wrong? She IS my daughter after all. That was just a sick day that would soon be forgotten...it was the start of a love affair. Cupcake asks to watch Annie almost daily. She pleads, she acts it out, she is sooooooo happy when I allow watching 20 minutes here and 20 minutes there. It is uncanny how much she LLLLLOOOOOVVVVEEEEESSS it. It's like I'm looking at me. I'd also be lying if I said I wasn't happy to watch it. If there was going to be a movie we have to watch, sing, act out, and talk about all the time....I'm glad it's an old favorite.

Remember this scene:



How could you forget? It grabs you from the opening moment. It grabbed me. I have distinct memories of acting it out.....over, over, and over again. If a good friend was over and only a REALLY good friend I would occasionally even offer to be Molly while the good friend was Annie if that would mean I could have someone else to act it out with.

It grabbed her too. She noticed the detail...the emotion....and I'm pretty impressed that at 2 years old my precious cupcake does a fabulous version of the opening song. Notice the emotion...notice that she holds the note....notice that when she rolls to the side she breaks into a smile because she sees Mommy watching her, beaming ear to ear, proud of her little cupcake, and ready to pass the torch to the newest "Annie."



That's not her only song. She'll sing lots of them. Often. Loudly. I don't care. I love her and love that we share at least one favorite movie :).

Easter novel ahead...

We had a busy but really special Easter weekend!

Gigi, Papa, AND Callie came to town for Friday and Saturday. (Callie would have stayed the whole weekend, she knows who loves her most...but Gigi and Papa had "other" plans.) Needless to say Cupcake and her buddy were inseparable when we were at the house.


On Saturday we went to our neighborhood Easter festival. It was minutes from our house and so much fun!! We got there right at the start and off to the side was a bounce house for littler kids. I'm still not a fan and still 99% of the time we won't be putting our peanut in them. BUT there were only 2 other little kids in there with a strict mom near by and it was Easter. Since I knew I would be saying no to lots (candy, candy, and more candy) I figured a yes in there was a good thing. Needless to say....she loved every minute of her bouncing.



Thank you local neighborhood association for having more than just bounce houses! It was easy to move on because next up was an egg hunt. With her Elmo basket in hand, thanks to Aunt Sheri, she was ready for eggs.
After the egg hunt Gigi and Papa had bought tickets for Cupcake to have a pony ride. Dude is a 10 year old miniature pony who was sweet natured and hopefully small enough for the grandma's to read the blog and not panic. (Apparently we caused a stir by letting cupcake on the longhorn a few weeks back).


There were also some tickets for a train ride and when we asked Cupcake who should ride with her on the train she yelled "GIGI." Papa was a great sport and was secretly happy because it would have been hard to get his long legs in those tiny train cars. He instead ran in the ridiculous heat of summer...err Spring....to several different spots on the train route to yell, cheer, and wave at cupcake. She LOVED having a fan base on her choo choo. No need to have a photo of where her parents were...in the shade, under the tree, kissing, and not waving.


We had some lunch and of course since Gigi and Papa had extra tickets on hand we did another round at the train and another ride on Dude. For those of you who are tried and true blog stalkers and actually reading along not scrolling through pictures: yes there is something in my belly and no it is not a 6 pack of beer. That something will make it's debut in October and I'll post more on that soon. In the meantime there's at least some of you who aren't reading this and probably looking at pictures thinking I've let myself go. Is that the joy of the first half of second trimesters. I'm sure it will be obvious soon enough.


Easter Sunday was the first holiday we've had with just our family, at our house, and able to attend our church...since we've been married. Eep! We really enjoyed it. As much as we love all of the support and attention we've had from family over the years it's also really nice to have some of our own traditions and be able to attend our church on a holiday. Of course we then don't have a photo taker on hand..... so here's the few shots we got in our Easter church clothes: (click for larger views)


We rounded out the day with a potluck with friends, long naps, and pizza buffet. It was fabulous!!

Special note for those wondering if I'm actually wearing a Mother-daughter Easter outfit. Yes! Gasp! The horror! I know! Didn't that trend go out in 1988? Probably. But here's the deal...for the past few weeks Cupcake has noticed what I am wearing and wants to "match." By match she usually just means similar colors which is all we really have going on here too. She thinks I'm pretty, have good fashion sense, have awesome shoes (she tries them on daily) and she wants to copy. I'm not delusional. In a matter of years, on her own accord, she is going to decide I am a tool, out of fashion, and old. Even Anna Wintor's (fashion guru of the world and editor of Vogue) daughter hold this opinion of her Mom so I'm not above it. So, for now, I'm enjoying it and I refuse to put any thoughts in her head that mark me as less than the fashionable hip mom that she's sure I am :).

Aunt Charlotte comes to visit

I'm back tracking but I didn't want to forget to post about Aunt Charlotte's visit! Charlotte and Justin spent their spring break on a road trip from Kentucky to be here with us. It was SO fun to see them. They cooked us an amazing dinner one night, we hit the outlet malls, we ventured downtown so they could try some of our favorite airstream trailer dinner spots, got pedicures, shopped boutiques, played wii, talked basketball (March madness was kicking off), and had a GREAT week. It was so nice to have family here to visit us.

I can't forget to mention that Cupcake's highlight was that Aunt Charlotte got up much earlier than any student should have to function to come visit our gym class. For weeks following it wasn't the same with just Mommy there. Thanks again for coming to gym Aunt Charlotte!



We enjoyed meeting Justin and look forward to seeing them again in a little over a month!


Thanks again for spending your spring break with us!!!

96, I believe

Last week was Cupcake's great grandmother's 96th (I think that's right) birthday. We figured a little singing from the youngest member of the family to the oldest was appropriate. Of course when you are the youngest it might take a little oatmeal to get you started and you might confuse the word "you" with "me" in the song. But where she lacks precision she makes up in total cuteness. Don't you agree?:



Happy Birthday Great Grandmother!!!

You've gotta see it....

to believe it!!!!

Today (gasp! I'm posting something only hours old) we went to the Cedar Park Festival. Although it was in the 90's (gasp! it's only April people) and very windy, we are the Crack Team....we can have fun in spite of a few weather hiccups.

There is something about festivals that say Summer is coming. Really at 90 degrees we probably didn't need to go to a festival for that feeling but let's put that aside for now. We eat healthy as very often as possible and I always say that we eat healthy so we can enjoy the exceptions. Festivals are one of the exceptions. So summer is coming and bring on the roasted corn, sno cones, and funnel cakes! But we have a new favorite: Potato swirls. These guys had a drill that they peeled a raw potato with. They took the long peel and fried it for a fresh potato/french fry/chip thing. We drizzled some ketchup on top and devoured it. Notice that there is hardly a swirl left on the plate before I dared take a picture...any earlier and I would have missed my share of the swirl. See cupcake's face....she's in love.


They also had a fun train and cupcake loves a choo choo. We managed to get a closed eye picture and a slightly bumpy video. Fun was more the priority today than perfect pictures so bear with us. We're in the green car in the video...it's fast!





Finally, the rides, the fun, the games with junk prizes! We opted out of the games with junk prizes...thankfully cupcake wasn't too disappointed. We did get to pet a mini pony and our cupcake continues to be quite the animal lover:


Then she was really hoping for a chance on the inflatable slide. She begged...she pleaded....we walked by and (thank you Jesus, people who have been sued, or common sense) the rules were ages 5 and up. We explained this to cupcake and went on our merry way over to see some gymnastic demonstrations and a real live longhorn (not taking place together, just in the same direction).

At the gymnastic mats girls in glittery outfits with fake curly hair were doing all kinds of tricks. Cupcake watched for a few minutes and took off toward the mats yelling "My TuRN." We again had to explain that this was not for her participation but for us to watch. Talk about squashing my adventure seeking, thrilling taking girl.

She agreed to go look at the Longhorn. Upon walking up I had a moment of regret in this decision as I noticed some older kids getting their photo made on these giant beasts. Of course Cupcake wanted to "ride the cow." Of course we again had to explain it was for older kids. We walked over to another one who was laying in the sun for a rest hoping a closer look would be a good 2nd. Nope. She pointed back and said "My turn, please!!! By myself!!!" So we decided to do what every good parent would do and let someone else be the bad guy. We walked over to the lady in charge to have her explain that Cupcake could not do this. Apparently she hasn't been sued yet. She agreed to let her. I then was relying on hope that Cupcake would rethink it when we got closer and she realized that Mommy wasn't even tall enough to lift her onto this thing. Nope. I guess she'd be shot down enough for one festival.

You've got to see it to believe it! Our Texas girl rides her first longhorn (click picture for larger view):

She loved it. She wanted to do it again when she got off but we opted for a funnel cake and that was a fair trade. Smart girl. So with sugar in our bellies we're home. Summer is coming. But hopefully not too hot too soon!

Cousins...

I'm still on the birthday weekend...

We were so excited that my Brudder and Sissy-in-law were brave enough, strong enough, or just plain sleep deprived enough to agree to bring their then 2 week old baby and Pac-man to Cupcake's birthday party. Of course they stayed for the weekend too. When they arrived we were within 1/2 hour of party start time. Cupcake took one look at her precious cousin baby K and wanted to hold her. Knowing that the doorbell could ring any moment which could result in baby K then being pushed off I decided that we could NOT hold her before the party. I explained this to cupcake and thankfully the doorbell did ring soon enough to distract all desires of holding baby K.

Flash forward to post party, post nap, and my little elephant who never forgets was right back on the pursuit of holding baby K in her arms. Aunt Amazing was again brave enough, strong enough , or just plain sleep deprived enough to let her. Little did I know that it would be the HIGHLIGHT of her day. I expected she may last 2 minutes. She lasted more like 20.

Look at the look of love in cupcakes eyes:




We kissed the baby:
When the cameras came out we smiled EAR TO EAR:



I think she's in love. This wasn't the only time she held baby K and she hasn't stopped talking about it....even three weeks later. How sweet for these girls to have each other! Luckily Cupcake also gave myself and baby K's Uncle Awesome (the hubs) some snuggle time too. Ohhh we love her! She is just a doll!