Here Be Giggles

One day when Jeana wasn't home, the girls and I had fun with the webcam.  Warning: it may make you laugh.

From D.I. to Dream Kitchen

A few months ago “Mrs. Claus” was reading this blog and saw how to turn an old wood entertainment cabinet into a play kitchen. She fell in love with the idea and knew Mallory and Eva would love it too. She knew they already had a little play kitchen and really didn’t have room for a bigger one. Plus, it would be a lot of work. So it didn’t really make sense to make one. But common sense rarely stops “Mrs. Claus” from doing anything. She told herself that if on one of her random trips to the D.I. she came across an ideal entertainment cabinet at the right price she would know it was meant to be and she would buy it. And sure enough, on one of those trips she came across this one. It was $15, so it was meant to be.

Before

She didn’t know how she would get it to her “workshop” since her “sleigh” wasn’t big enough and Mallory and Eva were with her. Luckily, a friend let her borrow their “sleigh” and she was able to pick it up that night.

When she brought it into the “workshop” and “Santa” saw it, he gave her the biggest roll-of-the-eyes she has ever seen from him. All he could think about was how heavy it was and how big it was and if it was going to fit in the girls’ play area.

So, after nights and nights of hard work and with borrowing power tools from elf-like friends, “Mrs. Claus” was able to turn the old entertainment cabinet into this:

After

“Mrs. Claus” was right the girls loved it.

Here Comes Suzy Snowflake

I began teaching my daughters dance. I figured I knew enough about dance to teach them. It has really worked out great. My niece Julianne even joined the class. We have class once a week in our basement. We have a 30 minute dance class followed by 30 minutes of play time. It has been fun for all of us. For Christmas I taught them a dance to "Suzy Snowflake."
My girls were good sports about performing it twice on Christmas Eve for both sides of the family. I would love to post the video of their performance, but blogger is being dumb and won't upload it.

Computer Genius

There is a fine line between genius and lunatic and during finals week Stephen was leaning more towards the lunatic side. But all his hard and crazy work paid off. He got straight A’s. I am so proud of him. He definitely earned every one of those A’s.

Merry, Merry!!!

To Know Him is to Love Him

The best decision I ever made was to marry Stephen. And the best day of my life was my wedding day. I can remember when I told my mom Stephen and I wanted to get married. She told me later that she went home and cried all night long. I remember her calling me and telling me how sad she was about our decision. See, she didn't know Stephen. She had only met him a few times before our announcement. It made me sad to think I was causing my mom distress. For a moment the thought crossed my mind, "Okay, I don't need to marry him, but I need to figure out a way to get him in my family." Then it occurred to me that to know Stephen is to love him. My mom just needed a chance to get to know him and she too would love him. Sure enough, he wooed her too. It wasn't long before she was hugging him good-night after family parties and just giving me a "see ya later" wave out the door. Stephen is a wonderful man full of kindness, humor, optimism, intelligence and integrity, just to name a few of his qualities. I love him and if you know him I bet you secretly have a little crush on him too.

Happy Birthday Stephen!

Happy Halloween

This year for Halloween Mally wanted to be the Swan Princess. I thought that was such a cute idea, so I was glad to try to create the costume. She made a beautiful swan. None of these pictures do her cuteness justice. Eva was our little princess. She insists upon wearing her Aurora dress year round, so it was an easy and fitting costume for her. She loves to wear what she calls her “blong” wig (that’s 2 year-old talk for long and blond).

We had a Halloween/birthday party for my sister-in-law and step father. I’m the bear, my mom’s the penguin, and Stephen is the “mild mannered reporter” Clark Kent. He is wearing his Superman suit under his disguise. Later in the week Stephen shaved his head and with a painted curl of hair on his forehead went to school as Charlie Brown. He was one of the few in holiday attire at the school.

Mally waddling around the school at the Halloween parade.