Nose for swimming

At swim class tonight the kids were given clown noses for V-day.

Maison certainly has a "nose" for swimming...

Jumping into Valentine's Day

Since Maison started school we have been experiencing a lot of firsts...

Yesterday we made Valentine's for Maison's class. My mom was here when we opened the boxes of Disney Princess cards to get started. When she saw that assembly was required she quickly bolted out the door. We let Maison choose the cards she wanted and I didn't think to read the small print. Punching out, folding, stuffing, and stickering is just too many intricate steps for a 2 year old so I decided to let Mais "sign" them while I assembled them. Most of the cards were completely covered with red crayon by the time they came back to me to write Maison on them and put them in their nicely assembled envelopes. School Valentine Lesson 1: Buy cards with 2 steps: signing and stuffing.

This morning was Maison's Valentine party at school. I had a really packed morning so I pulled into the parking lot when the party was starting. Of course, there was no where to park. Why do my conference calls always run long when I have somewhere to be? I rush into Maison's class so I don't miss any of the cute moments and NO ONE IS THERE! I am the ONLY parent that showed up = embarrassing...but I didn't care. I pulled out my camera and started capturing the memories I would cherish later.

About 15 minutes into the 30 minute party, Logan's mom who is an opthamologist came in long enough to monitor what her son was eating and then left. I can't exactly judge, since I brought Maison an arsenal of sugar free treats and watched closely to make sure she didn't swipe a fully loaded treat off someone else's plate.

Enjoying a sugar-free pink heart cookie:

Impromptu dance party on way to story time rug:

Dance party lead by Tes:

Aside: I have NO idea what this child's name is other than "Tes" which is what Ms. Heather calls him. Maison calls him something that sounds like "Teflon" but I'm pretty sure no one would name their child that.

After snack-time Ms. Heather read 2 Valentine's stories and then selected each child individually to go sit down for craft time. The child is selected based on how well they are behaving and as the child is selected the class sings "Maison, Maison, jump up down, jump up dooownn, jump up and dooowwwn." The child gets to jump and dance their way to the seat of their choice. Is there anything more amazing than each child having a scheduled amount of time to be the star? This was literally worth the embarrassment of being the only parent there. As soon as all the children had a seat the 30 minutes quoted party time was up, so I decided to politely leave. School Valentine Lesson 2: Confirm parents are attending the party not just allowed to attend.

Enjoying story time:

Sitting nicely so I'm selected next:

My turn! Maison, Maison jump up and down...

If you have a prop why not use it?

Unfortunately, they did not do the Valentine's cards while I was there so I had to wait until we got home to sit with Maison and go through her box. Apparently, buying cards that come with a gift (Maison's came with princess magnets) is not acceptable. Maison's box looked like trick or treating time. Considering she still can't digest sugar, I had to collect all the candy and treats off the cards before giving them to her. I literally have an entire bag of sweetarts, smarties, gummy hearts, rice krispie treats etc. This doesn't include all the stuff she was allowed to keep, Sponge Bob stickers, Abby Caddaby bubbles, temporary tattoos, etc. School Valentine Lesson 3: Even if your child can't have sugar, you are still expected to put together elaborate gift bags with toys and candy.

First School Valentine's Party was so much fun and we learned so much for next year!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!

Good Morning, Valentine!

Waiting on our Valentine to wake up:

Why are Pooh and friends sitting at the breakfast table?

Snoopy card, my favorite!

Open that!

I love the Princess and the Frog!

HVD!

That's Happy Valentine's Day! Apparently, I like titles that sound like acronyms for horrible diseases....maybe it's my way of getting your attention....

Maison is still on her valentine's high and it has nothing to do with eating her weight in chocolate since she is still not allowed to have sugar. I think it has more to do with every time someone walks through the door they have a new surprise for her.

Checking out HK's new HVD tee:

Tying one on ~ a million toys and I prefer to prance around in Daddy's old tie:

Helping Daddy with my new Phineas and Ferb figures:

Pre-VD

In celebration of tomorrow's Valentine's Day we took Maison to visit my family this afternoon. Of course a "valentine" has to be done up in Valentine's flare and I don't think you can top this adorable v-day dress that my mom bought Maison. It's about as valentinesy as you can get!

In full V-day flare (including my bow)...

A bow just weighs you down when you are chasing Daddy around the kitchen...

I love the great danes that live next door to Camp Gooey!

Watch out G'Daddy, here I come!

Adam and I as we were leaving for our pre-VD celebration at Roy's.

Happy Valentine's to all from our sweet little Valentine, Maison!

Don't be outdone on V-day

This year was Maison's first Valentine's, so of course it had to be bigger and better than ever.  Maison's valentine's experience actually started on Thursday when Maison's Nooey (my mom) brought her her first v-day gift...a Hello Kitty and a gorgeous sterling silver bracelet engraved with her name.  This isn't an ordinary bracelet you can just go buy at the store...no, Nooey, who loves all things British, had Maison a bracelet handmade from Carr's in the UK and shipped here.  She couldn't wait to give it to her on Valentine's day because SHE wanted to be the first to give Maison a v-day gift.

Shari made a 'pop call' on Saturday morning to visit which was perfect timing because Adam had ordered us mini-red velvet cakes and chocolate covered strawberries from Greene Kitchen Bakery.  Red velvet is our absolute fave and Green Kitchen is the best.  Once Shari saw that my mom had already given Maison her v-day gift she was not going to be out done.  Aunt Shari left and came back a few hours later with a couch full of clothes for Maison.  The "pink princess" will be quite the fashionista in her new duds...

      

On Valentine's I made our traditional pop-overs and we gave Maison her v-day gifts...

      

That night my mom graciously agreed to watch Maison so that Adam and I could finally go see Avatar and go out to dinner.  While she was at our house, she noticed all the new clothes that Aunt Shari had given Maison.  Who showed up Monday afternoon with a truck load of clothes?  Yep, that's right Nooey is making sure my child is as spoiled as humanly possible.  

So what have we learned on this very happy V-day....Maison has more clothes than I do and she is only 4 months old and Mommy and Daddy are cheap ;)

Miso Happy

Happy belated Valentine's day! Adam and I had the best Valentine's this year. We engaged in our usual 'weekend sabotage', or WS as I like to call it. WS is all the junk we eat over the weekend and all of the hours we spend NOT working out. Basically we undo all the good things we do during the week and over Valentine's weekend I think we undid about 3 months worth of good doing.

We started the weekend with dinner at Zorba's on Friday with Shari. Zorba's is a local Greek restaurant that has awesome food and BYOB so you totally cannot go wrong. I think I ate my weight in pita bread.

Saturday started with homemade popovers and v-day chocolates. Adam gave me a popover pan for Christmas because I love the popovers at the Zodiac Room at Neiman Marcus so much. It is worth eating there just for the popover. So since Christmas I have been perfecting my popover making...apparently it's all about having a good pan, right Adam?

Adam loves white chocolate and I was sick of giving him the same box from Godiva each year so I ordered him sweet slopes from chocolate.com. Sweet slopes are almond toffee, dipped in white chocolate, then the edge is dipped in dark chocolate and crushed pecans. I don't like white chocolate or nuts in candy and I thought they were awesome! It's a good thing because some how I ordered 2 boxes of 36. I don't know if I submitted the order twice or they screwed up and shipped it twice but we received 64 for them. I see a whole lot more WS in our future. Adam brought me all my favorites: Godiva peanut butter cups, chocolate covered strawberries, and truffles, beautiful red tulips and irises, a teddy bear, and a v-day balloon. I was so surprised!  

We tell each other every year that we are not getting real gifts just candy.  Against my better judgement, I got Adam Shawn White Snowboarding for the Wii and he got me W.  I must say he must love me a lot because he has never been the biggest George Bush fan and he knows that I love him and think he is one of our best president's ever so he bought me the DVD.  I may end up watching it by myself but at least he bought it.

Saturday night we had made plans to go out to dinner but realized it was a limited menu most of which I did not like so we ended up cancelling. Adam decided we would try to make sushi and butter fish at home. After a trip to the Asian market (yes, Plano has one), Central Market, and William Sonoma for a sushi knife, we were ready to get started. I had no idea so much effort went into making sushi. I see now why it costs so much. First, you have to make the rice which takes like an hour, then you have to aerate the rice which takes like 30 min for it to be cool enough to make sushi rolls, then you have to figure out how to pile in your fish and veggies and be able to roll the whole thing up with out it going everywhere and ensuring it is small enough to even fit in your mouth. Not an easy feat.

Since the sushi was going to take forever, Adam made edamame, dumplings, and miso butter fish that was awesome...almost as good as Roy's! By the time he finished the sushi I think were both already full but we ate it anyway. Here is our first attempt of a tuna avocado tower and spicy tuna avocado rolls.

         

I'm honestly still full and it's been almost a week!