Mellow Yellow...

Last week was yellow day at school. The school calendar said so. The note on the door said so. The teachers reminded us the day before. Yet this Cupcake tried to convince me it was pink day. Since every other day is basically pink day around here I convinced her to wear yellow. Princess Belle wears yellow afterall...can't be that bad. Some yellow nail polish also helping the cause. (Note to Walt Disney - orange day is about 2.5 weeks away.... you need a orange wearing princess...stat.)

 

Here's my little sunshine warming up to yellow:

 

 

It also happened to be the first Chapel day. Parents and siblings can attend the weekly chapel service so Cutie Pie and I were in attendance. Here's Cupcake walking in. I don't think that's Charlie (more on him later) in front of her.

 

Here's her class...mostly yellow, one black shirt. Let's hope that's not Charlie.

 

Cutie Pie and I LOVED chapel and when it was all was said and done, yellow is a pretty cool color. I've got no less than 4 very attractive pieces of "art" to prove it. 

On the move

Did I mention that someone is on the move? After fighting it for months and picking her up everytime she tried to rock on all fours I finally decided to let her give it a go. She did just that....and suddenly she is here, there, everywhere! Pulling up, trying stairs, and into EVERYTHING! When I tell her "no" she smiles...and does it anyway. She is so curious that this new found freedom is all kinds of fun for Cutie Pie. Here she is trying to escape the camera catching her in the act:

 

What? I'm busy, Mom:

 

 

Gasp! You are still there?

 

Hahahaha.....

 

 I see you...I'll just go up these stairs, ok?

 

The 2nd day of school

What?

You mean you don't take pictures EVERY single day of school and post them to your blog?

Of course I won't be taking pictures every single day but I couldn't resist a little 2nd day of school photo shoot because Gigi made Cupcake a sweet little school outfit that we were so excited to wear the 2nd day of school. It has little fairies on the shirt so Cupcake had to have braids in her hair just like fairies do!

Day 2 of school - a success! She got to go to Spanish class too which is of particular interest/excitment right now. She loved telling her teacher that Gigi used to teach school but now she sews her clothes.

Thanks Gigi for making this sweet fairy outfit!

More New Hampshire....

Ok....last New Hampshire post and then we'll be back on track, I think.

 

Aside from the baby shower, we had a great weekend visiting Grandma and Grandpa in their mountain home. Cupcake had never been and loved the weather and all the fun that is to be had in the North Country. One day, she got to go to Uncle Dave and Aunt Andrea's Organic Farm. She decided she will be a gardener when she grows up. I think it's safe to say she had fun.

 

Here she is at the chicken coup. She fed them, took some eggs from their nest, and has learned a great chicken call.

 

 

They also harvested the carrot crop. Of course tasting while harvesting is half the fun...especially with Uncle Dave's incredible produce:

 

Raw sweet peas? Yes please! So sweet and so juicy it's almost hard to pick more than you eat!

 

She also loved the cupcakes Aunt Andrea made as well as getting to pick a bowl full of blueberries to eat from for the next few days. Aunt Andrea taught her how to pick a good blueberry and I had several myself to know she sure knows how to pick them fresh!

 

Cupcake also loved the Moose that greets us at the end of Grandpa and Grandma's driveway. Every time we would drive up she would ask us to slow down. We finally decided to take a picture so she could see him even when we came home!

 

Here's Cupcake swinging from a small tree in the front yard. It was just her size!

 

Cutie Pie was too young to harvest veggies, walk Grandpa's trails, or have cupcakes but where she lacked in adventure she made up in snuggles. Here she is with Aunt Elizabeth.

We so enjoyed our time in the North Country. Two weeks of family, fabulous weather, and great food made for a rude awaking when we returned home to 100+ degree weather. Just like that, summer was coming to a close....

Hooo's having a baby?

 

Not me!

 

We are so excited to be welcoming another niece to our family later this year! The Hub's sister Robyn and her Husband Carl are expecting their first in November. So after a few days in Boston we drove up to New Hampshire for a long weekend with family that included a baby shower. It was so so much fun to collaborate with the family to throw this special party. Though I have to admit that creative wise it made me nervous! Robyn is so talented and creative that I felt like I was designing a dress for Vera Wang. Here are so pictures from the sweet Owl themed day:

 

The mantle:

 

 

The cupcakes from a local bakery, Ugga Mugga. These were the best tasting and looking cupcakes I have ever eaten. Usually they look good, taste bad...or look ok but taste great. These were top in looks and taste. I'm craving one just thinking about it.

 

The food table:

 

Sweet Mom to be trying to determine what candy bar is in this diaper:

 

The pass down blanket!! This is the same blanket that the Hubs and his siblings came home from the hospital wearing. Then when I was pregnant with Cupcake it was passed to me. Both of our girls have come home from the hospital...and now it has been passed again. It was made by The Hub's Grandma.

 

Nana-to-be with Mom-to-be...ummm does it seem completely unfair to anyone else that I have two sister-in-laws who have had babies and both of them look fabulous while pregnant while I have to look like a whale? Seriously...she doesn't even look pregnant here.

 

While the women were Ohhh-ing, Aww-ing, and Oh-so-cute-ing....the men were drinking beer and playing bocce ball. Many generations represented here and yet somethings never change.

It was such a sweet day filled with love! That evening the family (and by family I mean 30 people) had a dinner to continue the joyous gathering. Ann cooked a fabulous meal for everyone to enjoy and I'm sure between the warm words, hugs, and great food that our newest family member, even in the womb, can sense the love that surrounds her. We were so glad to be there!

Crack Team does Boston

We spent the first two weeks of August in Boston. Early August here in Austin is dry, hot, and just plain miserable. I'm pretty sure it was over 100 degrees every single day we were gone. Boston on the other hand had it's hottest day land around 81 degrees. The weather alone was a treasured treat for us.

 

The weather however was just one small part! We saw lots of family, celebrated a niece to come later this year, ate fabulous food, visited museums, played in parks, road ferries, took the subway, watched the Olympics, and more....

 

We arrived at 1am on a Sunday night. Thank you flight delay. The hubs had to be at work at 8am. By them time we checked in, got our suite set up, and put the kids to bed we were climbing into bed at 3am. We barely appreciated our view:

 

The next morning the hubs got up, showered, and left for work without us even flinching. We were soooo tired. Then at 8:55 I glanced at the clock and remembered we had 5 minutes to get downstairs for the complementary breakfast. If I was not in a new city with children who I knew would wake up hungry I would have rolled right back over. But instead I jumped up and was luring everyone awake to moans and grumbles. We made it down for breakfast and then took a little walk to a nearby park to get a sense of our new surroundings. Check out Cupcake enjoying the view:

 

 

Later that day Grandma and Grandpa drove down from New Hampshire to spend a few days with us in Boston. Grandpa and the Hubs took Cupcake to the Science Museum one morning. She loved it! Here she is in a bee hive exhibit:

 

There was a park basically across from our hotel. It was a great space filler during Cutie Pie naps, waiting to go to dinner, etc. Cupcake loved these over sized swings:

 

 

After a few days we headed North to New Hampshire for a long weekend with family. I'll post separately about the weekend...look for that soon.

 

After the weekend we drove back to Boston for some family time in the city. Since the Hubs had gone into his Boston office the previous week it was nice for him to have some vacation time in Boston. We checked back into the same hotel...I'm sure they thought we were nuts.

 

We planned to ride a ferry one day. While we were waiting we walked by the Aquarium. They had an outside tank with these seals:

 

Cupcake loved watching them swim back and forth. Apparently they loved watching her too because one of them finally came right over to her and popped up above water. He said "Hello" literally, like a talking bird this seal chose to come up and say hi to Cupcake. I wish I had a picture of her face. Other kids moved closer too...we were all stunned. It was so cute. Here he is coming up for Hello:

 

 

One day for lunch we grabbed box lunches and sat right in the grass and watched all the boats come and go. Hello!!! Dreamy!!! There were no fire ants. The grass was soft. The breeze was cool. The boats were picturesque. I pinched myself twice...just to be sure. Then I took this picture. It really did happen, folks!

 

Cutie Pie won't remember this trip for many reasons not the least of which being that many mornings were spent like this:

 

Of course we had to see the Famous Swan Boats. Ever read Make Way for Duckling? Cupcake enjoyed feeding the ducks some of Cutie Pie's puffs. Naturally this created quite a following of ducks around our boat. We also got to see some ducklings that were about a month old. We had to buy the book as a Souvenir for our girls. Not our best shot....but we had to have a Swan Boat ride picture:

 

 

My Aunt Sheri had recommended the famous Mike's Pastry shop. Sweets? Us? YES PLEASE! We made the walk and it was so so yummy. Cookies, cupcakes, cannolis, oh my! My waist line is still recovering. Every bite was fabulous. We of course took some back to our hotel because it's a great idea to watch our nation's most fit (Michael Phelps and others) while shoving more cannoli in my mouth. Cupcake loved the sweet shop:

 

We ate at Legal Seafood. Every bite was fabulous. We went to the Children's Museum. We had Rachel Ray's recommend pizza, Santarpios. We ate awesome Italian food at Italian Express which was recently featured on Food Networks Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. We played at parks. We enjoyed the weather. We dreamed about going back as the girls get older and can appreciate the history of the city. It was a super fun end to our summer. We've spent the last two weeks re-adjusting to the heat that will be around for at least another month. Sigh. Thanks, Boston, for being a fun home away from home for 1/2 this month!

The first day of School

I can't believe my sweet Cupcake is in school. She is growing up so fast. Most of the summer when school was mentioned there wasn't much excitment around the idea. Then we went to Boston (post coming) for 2 weeks. While we were there we went to the top rated Children's Museum. One of the exhibits was a kindergarten readiness room. It was set up like a kindergarten classroom. It was one of Cupcake's favorite exhibits. Then a few weeks later we attended Meet the Teacher. She was nervous on the way but so excited after meeting her teachers that with one week to spare she was finally ready and enthused for school.

My Mother saved many books and with tattered edges and a loose spine one of my old favorites: "The First Day of School" survived my childhood and 2 decades of my Mom's class. We had been reading it off and on this summer and little did I know it would become the user manual for Cupcake's first day of school.

 

Just like Elizabeth (in the story) wore a dress....Cupcake wanted to wear a dress

 

 

She also has these new shoes...it's hard to see in the picture but they have a little shimmer to them. Pink and shimmer....perfect for my girl.

 

Big hugs from Mom....

 

Big Hugs from Dad....

 

 

And off to school we go! Ms. Karen (so appropriate don't you think?) was there to welcome Cupcake who was making a mad dash for her cubby hole. Elizabeth (book again) had a cubby hole so Cupcake was anxious to hang her backpack in her very own space. Then she gave a big hug to Cutie Pie and I and informed us that like the book it was time for us to go home. Geez. Gasp. Tear. We left though.

 

She came home from school talking non-stop. Her room is the Bears. She had music class today and got to play the drum with one stick. She can't remember which teacher is Ms. Karen and which teacher is Mrs. Q so she calls them both "teacher." She ate a snack shaped like bears. We should buy that snack. (ha!) She got to paint and some paint got on her hair. It was pink so she didn't tell the teacher because she didn't want them to wash out pink! She didn't get any on her dress. She was sad about this because book-Elizabeth gets paint on her new dress. She played with her Lily and Lillie friend on the playground since they are not in her class she loved this time with them. She missed me but she still wants to go back to school! She also said not to call Dad during nap because SHE will tell him about her day. :)

 

I am so thankful for a great first day! She survived. I survived. Maybe by this time next week I will be productive with my extra mornings instead of sitting around looking at old baby pictures of Cupcake and eating a few too many chocolate covered pretzels.



It has begun...

Cupcake,
I wonder what you are doing right now.
And if everyone is treating you kind.
I hope there is a special person.
A nice friend that you can find.

I wonder if your teachers know
Just how special you are to me.
And if the brightness of your heart
is something they can see.

I wonder if you are thinking about me,
And if you need a hug.
I already miss the sound of your voice,
and how you give my leg a tug.

I wonder if you could possibly understand
How hard it is for me to let you grow.
On this day know that my heart breaks
For this is the first step in letting my baby go...

 

 

First day of Preschool - 2012

Poem Author, Unknown

Show week back in June

This one is from the begining of June...show week at The Little Gym. I'm still playing a little catch up and found these gems. Cupcake took a dance class at The Little Gym this Spring. At the end of the season they did their ballet and tap preformance. Twelve or so 3 year old girls trying to tap together when most weeks only 5-6 girls showed up for class was...um....kinda like a crew of workers hammering a roof on. I'll spare you the video. The ballet piece however was better. Check out her end of season routine: After the routines the girls were ushered into the gym for a special awards ceremony. Cupcake's name was called first. From the moment she stood up I had the mother's instinct. I could tell by the way she stood up. I could tell by her first few steps. She was in a "mood." I knew we were in for something rare. You may have to watch the video twice to fully appreciate the hilariousness of it all. First - take note of how she, completely unpromoted holds her hands up after recieving her medal. If you listen closely you will hear her say "TA-DA." Next, watch how she brings those arms down, hugs herself with a level of pride, and then as she walks down the steps decides to enjoy this moment a bit more by taking a encore bow. Watch it again...and remind yourself of a few things:
1. She is 3
2. She tends to be shy in public
3. She was the first name called so had not witnessed anyone go before her
4. Her actions were unprompted or directed

When you have stopped laughing, help us with the question the hubs posed tonight as we were roaring through this again: WHERE DO THEY LEARN THIS?