Parading the 4th

We just got back from the Plano Fourth of July parade.  I haven't been since I was a child and either it's changed quite a bit in the last 30 years or I don't recall it being completely lame and full of political advertisements.

"I'm bored, where's the all the floats and hoopla I was promised?"

To Maison it is all the same, she doesn't care if a politician or Ronald McDonald is handing her a flag to wave or throwing her candy; she thinks it's fantastic.

"There's Ronald McDonald!!!  I have no clue who he is but Mommy was pretty excited to see him.  YEA!!!"

It was not a complete lost cause.  Maison thought it was fab and I saw just about the best float ever...the one for the Plano Republican Women's Club.  I called my mom on the way home and told her I found a club that we had to join.  To which she informed me that she was part of the club in the early 80s when we first moved to Plano.  I should have known...some things never change!

The fam will be here in a few hours for our annual pool party so I'm off to decorate.  I think we'll actually get to swim this time since it's forecasted to be about 125!  Besides as Texans like to say, "it's not too bad in the shade" or "there's a nice breeze."  

HAPPY 4th of July!!!

No Pool for the Pool Party

Adam and I hosted our annual Memorial Day Pool Party on Sunday this year.  You know you are getting old when you need a day to recover from the festivities before you can go back to work....especially considering how hard we know I work it means I'm really old.  And as happens every year since the neighbors tree grew big enough to shade almost our entire pool, the water was too cold to get in.  Every year I set out the towels and the sunscreen and rarely does anyone make it in past there knees.

Partaking in the towels but not the pool:

And, as usual, this is the ONLY picture of our party.  No pics of the tent decorated with red, white, and blue star lights.  No pics of the Chinese lanterns, pin wheels, bunting, flags, or pom-pom ceiling and door decorates.  For some reason, every year I set out the camera and no one ever takes a single picture.  The one above came off Adam's phone.

  

I think it's time we start new traditions for Memorial Day...don't wear your swim suit and don't bring your camera and maybe we will luck out with warm enough water to swim in and some fab pics of all the swimming...

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!

Whirling with Mothers

We have had a whirlwind mother's day weekend.  Friday night we did dinner with our whole fam at Mercury Grill, Saturday Adam took Mais and me to brunch at La Duni, Saturday afternoon we went boating with Lisa, Jon, and Jayden, Saturday night to a dinner party at Shari's, and this morning to a brunch at Camp Gooey.  Wow, I'm tired just typing all of that but it was really one of the best weekends we've had...

Nooey with her babies:

Mommy with her baby:

Maison with her baby (aka the bubble machine):

Nannie receiving her gift from Noo and G:

A restored picture of Nannie's father:

Noo got Chanel sunglasses from Shari so she would be stylin on her trip to England:

Noo opening her Kindle Fire from Mommy, Daddy, and Mais so she would be entertained on her flights:

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!

Muffins with Mom

This morning was the mother's day brunch at Maison's school.  It was the first school mother's day brunch I've attended as a mom.  As soon as we walked in Maison's classroom she ran to get the gift she had made me.  She was so excited that Mommy got to stay for a little while that she barely noticed that she was allowed to have a cinnamon roll.  

We've been taking Maison to a new specialist who does not believe Maison has a sugar intolerance.  He confirmed she has a dairy allergy.  So we gain back fruit and natural sugar (processed sugar on special occasions) but we lost dairy.  Losing milk has proven to be easy.  Losing cheese and yogurt...not so much.  She literally cries for 'sprinkle cheese'.  We pretty much avoid all situations where cheese could be involved when Maison is with us to avoid the melt-down.  So far, so good...besides she's just thrilled to be able to eat strawberries.

As you can tell there isn't much to report from the mother's day brunch.  When Maison and I arrived we were only the 2nd family to arrive so really nothing interesting happened.  I usually have a pretty flexible schedule at work but unfortunately had an 8:30 meeting that I couldn't get out of and thus couldn't stay very long at the party but long enough to see Mais eat her first cinnamon roll and to do some of her "work" (what they call the Montessori materials)...

Maison's gift for Mommy:

Maison checking out a cinnamon roll for the 1st time!

Showing Mommy how to build a block tower from thick to thin:

Nueve Cinco

The reasons you celebrate Cinco de Mayo in Texas:

1. A reason to drink margaritas 

(though you don't need a reason)

2.  Mexico won their independence from France 

(actually any country winning a war against France is worth celebrating)

3.  Cinco is usually the second digit in the temperature and Nueve is the first

Current temp in P-L-A-N-O:

Cinco-ing at Chuy's

Normally my parents have a Cinco Celebration but given Cinco de Mayo and Derby Day fell on the same day this year they decided not to host their annual event.  Since we are good Texicans we didn't want to miss out on a Cinco celebration even though we were scheduled to be at Shari's Derby party this afternoon.  So as soon as Chuy's opened at 11am we claimed out spot on the patio.

HAPPY CINCO DE MAYO!

No hop in your step

The first thing I think of on Easter Sunday is not Easter baskets or egg hunts, but going to have Easter dinner at Camp Gooey's!  Despite the horrible weather and Maison not feeling well we wouldn't miss it.  Maison was greeted by oodles of presents and another Easter basket so I thought she would start to feel better but she just really isn't herself today...definitely missing the usual hop in her step.

"Look at that!  Mickey Bowling."  

Checking out my Easter basket from Nooey & G'Daddy

"Can I open this?"

HAPPY EASTER!

Multi-media Easter Bunny

The Easter Bunny left Maison with all kinds of non-sugary goodies: Books, DVDs, coloring books, stickers, playdoh, silly putty, and all kinds of fun things.

Minnie Mouse waiting on Maison to wake up.

"Oh my gosh...look at this!"

Checking out a Max and Ruby coloring book...

"The Easter Bunny knows I need glasses to see my new movies!"

Reading Dr. Seuss:

The Easter Bunny certainly has gone multi-media. I remembered when he just brought candy and toys...boy have times changed!

Empty Handed

We took Maison to the neighborhood egg hunt this afternoon.

What better way to wait for the egg hunt to start than a visit with the Easter Bunny?

Lined up and ready to go!

Mommy explaining you didn't need to open each egg before getting another one.

Now they got the hang of it!

"Look, Mommy...I got one!"

A basket full of eggs!

We opened all the eggs and every one had candy in it. James was very happy because he got all of Maison's candy and she went home completely empty handed, literally! The neighborhood asked that the kids turn in the empty eggs so she didn't even get to keep those to play with. I got her all dressed up for this???

Sick on St. Patrick's Day

It's not unusual to be sick on St. Patrick's Day though usually it's a self-induced illness. After 2 days of breathing treatments Maison was feeling much better so we decided to take her out to eat in celebration of St. Patrick's Day. I don't know what looks more green our outfits or our skin tones from illness and lack of sleep...

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!

The 12th day is here

The 12th day of Christmas is here which unfortunately means it's time to take down the Christmas decorations. As I started to take the ornaments off the Santa tree Maison started redecorating it. In her defense, she is my child. Then she started shouting, "Mommy, Christmas tree is broken." Yes, my dear, it is. It just looks sad and lonely when it's not covered in beautiful twinkling lights and sparkly goodness. It's VERY DIFFICULT to explain to a 2 year old not to worry, we will put the trees up again next year.

So just for Maison, pictures of some of the Christmas 2011 decorations she can look at anytime:

The silver tree or as Maison called it "Mommy's tree". She said "night, night Angel" when she went to bed each night.

The Santa Tree (aka Maison's tree):

The mantle:

The Holly:

The pictures don't include the Hello Kitty tree in Maison's play room, the tree in our bedroom, or the outside decorations. Shh, don't tell my mom but I had already started taking down the other 2 trees when I took these pictures. My mother thinks it's a sacrilege to touch the decorations until after the 12th day and I couldn't agree more. With a toddler on my heels, it took me weeks to get it all put out, so I figured it would take me weeks to get it all put away and thought I'd get a little bit of a head start this year. Don't worry Noo, we're "burning" the outside lights tonight. Happy 12th Day of Christmas, Y'all!