Raising Beach Beauties

V-Day recap

Marley had a playdate the weekend before Valentine's Day. I loaded them up with Valentine's Day crafts.

Little sisters are a blast to have around when you  have a playdate.
 

Stu and I had five wedding on Valentine's Day - we were up at 5:30 so I whipped together a breakfast surprise for the girls.

And they woke up to Valentine's gifts from mom & dad.

I've been setting the bar way too high around here. Marley came upstairs and said "oh thank you mama!" when she say the presents. Then looked around the house and said, "what? You didn't decorate?". Real nice.

She didn't have to wear her uniform. Sassy girl.

Maya wore a special outfit too -her school puffy painted a white t-shirt and then we decorated the back of it. Her skirt was covered in skeleton keys so we decorated the back based on that. She did not want to pose for a picture.

Love was all around.

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Oh yes...we did. He even has angel wings. Stu and I have a contest going now. We will each take a turn to decorate him. February was my month - Stu will be in charge of March. Stay tuned...stay very tuned...

Mommy freaked out.

January 29th, Marley bit into the crusty shell of a French loaf bread and yelped "ouch"! Then she realized her bottom tooth was now loose. I may have yelled, jumped...freaked out as Marley then told everyone. I mean, come on! My baby's tooth was LOOSE! What?! I think my reaction was similar, if not more intense, then when she got the tooth...which holy crap, feels like it was just last month. Didn't she just get all her teeth? Now they are falling out??? It doesn't help that I'm a bit squeemish about body parts coming off. She loved to wiggle that tooth and freak me out even more.

I knew it would be coming out soon, so I got one last picture of her with ALL of her baby teeth still in tact.

And then this past Tuesday, the inevitable happened.

And that missing tooth's neighbor looks like it wants to escape too. She was the one that freaked out when she saw the photo above and wanted to know why the other tooth was so "ugly" - I told her it wasn't ugly, just crooked because his friend isn't there to support him anymore. I give the 2nd tooth til the end of the weekend before it falls out.

And you KNOW I was prepared for this moment. I purchased this little tooth fairy pillow on etsy ages ago.

It has her named stitched on it and a little pocket in the back for her to put her tooth in. She did not want to give up the tooth though, she wanted to keep it...but she also wanted a dollar from the tooth fairy. It was quite the internal struggle. I told her we could just give her a dollar for the tooth and let her keep it - and you know - just cut out the tooth fairy altogether. This didn't really safisfy her though because don't you know, "the tooth fairy dollars are MAGICAL". Ha! That cracked me up.

Weekend in St. John

The last weekend of January we had a very early morning wedding in St. John - we went over the day before and spent the night while the girls stayed on St. Thomas with a babysitter (yea! a night alone!) and then the sitter brought them over to St John for us the next day so we could have a fun family day/night in St. John. We waited until the last minute to book a room which meant the only room available that was not $500 for the night was at the eco resort, Concordia. Concordia is about 40 minutes from Cruz Bay. When you live on small island, 40 minutes in the car is what we consider a road trip. Anything longer than 20 minutes is REALLY FAR AWAY. We had to make a stop at the sugar mill ruins to get out and stretch our legs.

 

There were lots of places to run around, hide, jump out and scare each other...

I'm getting my color fixed soon. Red does not suit me (or what I had asked for!).

This photo is so funny - don't they look like they hear a sasquatch?

I love St. John. Wild asses all over that island.

The eco resort was very cool - a LOT of stairs though.

There was a 15 minute hiking path down to the beach.

This was not the beach. But the salt pond on the way to the beach.

No one had on proper shoes for the hike.

We made it to the beach but no one wanted to stay. That's what you get when the beach has been less than 5 minutes away your entire life. You hike for 15 minutes, get there and say, well...we made it, let's go back. Other than Maya being scared in the woods and wanting us the carry her the entire time, it was a lot of fun.

The next morning, I went to unplug my computer and almost pinched this little guy.

I had Maya catch and release him for me. Walking in the woods during the day with your entire family = scary. Lizards hiding in shadows = opportunity for bravery.

Our Saturday Mornings...

Are filled with dance parties.

Little bugger butt getting ready for ballet class. It's going...better...

She hates taking her tights off so we end up with extremely dirty knees for class. Who says there's no such thing as a tomboy ballerina?

Although she's really not a tomboy at all. She gets the dirty knees because she likes to crawl on the floor and act like a "little baby" as she calls it (in a baby voice).

Does this photo not make you want to belt out the lyrics to Elton John's "Rocket Man"?

 

Angelina Ballerina

The girls got tickets to see Angelina Ballerina On Stage! for Christmas. Daddy got them make-up kits so they could get all dolled up for the show. He even did their nails.

Unfortunately, he also did their make-up.

So we all took showers before the ballet.

The performance was at the Reichold Center which is a really amazing venue by the University. Stu and I had never been until the Jimmy Cliff concert last year. It's awesome. When I got the tickets, I ordered ones for the pavillion so we could get seats close to the stage. It's kind of a random selection when you order online and I was so happy to see were were 2nd row, center stage! I tried to get pictures of me and the girls before the concert. This photo cracks me up - this is my attempt at a photo of Maya and I together until Maya sees that her big sister is trying to get in the picture as well. Look at her face!

 

Here's an attempt with me & Marley...Marley has NO IDEA that her little sister is in the frame with us.

Marley is just about to find her...

 

And enter chaos...

A few threats of going home and finally the curtains were drawn and Angelina made her appearance...

Marley was very impressed. Maya kept asking why there were giant rats on the stage.

Marley Maya Ballerina

Ballet is pretty big around our house. I don't have the heart to tell the girls they will never be a prima ballerina. As a parent, you're not supposed to tell your kids they "can't" do something right? But you just don't see 6' tall prima ballerinas, you know? Of course, they could start a new type of ballet for giants. Then they could be the first ever giant prima ballerina. Viola! Problem solved.

Marley's ballet class was cancelled for a Thursday back in December and the make-up class was moved to a Saturday. This is the first time I have had a chance to sit in on one of her ballet classes.

Marley is about as flexible as her momma.

Check out Maya in the background trying to follow along.

So elegant and graceful...

Star of the show!

Now as you know, Maya has been dyyyying to take ballet classes. The one Ms. Helen (above) teaches were filled up. So we finally got her enrolled at the French Academy.

It's located downtown in a the historical part of town (just down the hill from that old house I fell in love with a few years ago...which is still for sale...)

Maya was sooooo excited to go to her first day of ballet. But she started to waiver on her excitement when she found out Marley wasn't coming with us. These girls do no get along the majority of the time but every once in awhile, Maya will show some dependency/love for her big sister. She really wanted Marley to come watch her. I told her that I would take her and that I would watch her...that got her excited again but she did still have some cold feet on the way there. Unfortunately, I learned once I got there that parents were not allowed in the room as it was too distracting for the kids. I waited in the small, mosquito infested waiting room and the teacher came out once to tell me she wasn't doing so well. She did not want to participate and Maya told her she did not like the music that was being played. She basically sat and watched the entire time and would not do as the teacher asked. After the class, Maya told me she was upset that I wasn't there to watch and that she did not like it. But she did want to go back the following Saturday. Last week, Stu took her to ballet and he sat in for the first five minutes before he snuck out. She did much better last week. I think it helped that she knew what to expect.

We were walking back to the car on her first day of ballet and I wanted to get pictures of her in her little get-up. But I knew she wasn't in a picture taking mood. I found a great little courtyard and asked her to wait for me while I took pictures of the pretend ballerinas. I then started snapping away at nothing while praising my pretend ballerinas for how pretty and graceful they were. Worked like a charm and she dove right in to our impromptu photo session:

Interpretive dance as its finest..

I must have taken 200 images.

She kills me with her cuteness.

Next Post: Angelina Ballerina....spoiler alert: we got to see her FOR REAL LIFE in concert!

Grandma Kat & Papa Joel's Visit

Man, am I behind in blogging. The next week and 1/2 is somewhat quiet around here so I hope to get back on the blogging bandwagon as I have some stuff to share. Before I go any further though, I want to share some photos of Grandma Kat & Papa Joel's visit from a few weeks ago.

I don't know who came up with the idea - it was either Papa Joel's or mine. If it was mine, I think I surprised the grandparents with it. But we had each girl go on different days to their condo and have their grandparents all to themselves for a full day. No sharing attention with their sister. I've always said that I have to amazing little girls, both such happy personalities and great senses of humor. But you put those two girls together and they happy smiles and easy laughs can fade quickly. They can be serious buttheads around each other. I really liked giving Papa Joel & Grandma Kat a taste of what we can see when the girls are not together!

Grandma Kat shared these photos with me:

On their last day, they joined us at Ayden's birthday party before heading for the airport. I'm not sure I have ever really taken a picture of Stu and his "mommy" before so I wanted to get one at the beach.

Marley debated about going to the airpor to say goodbye or not. I'm glad she didn't. She's always a mess saying goodbye to people at airports!

She gave Papa Joel a bit of the beach to take on the plane with him.

And thank you Grandma Kat for the great alphabet toy. The girls are STILL playing with it.

That's the mark of a good toy!

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Maya and I went up to Indiana for a very last minute trip to wish Grandpa a happy birthday earlier this month. I mean...very last minute. I think we bought our tickets on Tuesday and flew out on Friday. I couldn't have been happier to go. I have been craving some stateside time. I get rock fever quiet often, so the trip was definitely needed.

Maya got to go by default. Marley was the last kid to take a solo trip to Indy so it was Maya's turn. Plus, with Marley in school now, real school, not just pre-school or daycare, we didn't want her to miss any school days. Maya did a very good job travelling solo with mommy but she did cry when Stu left us at the airport. She didn't know why daddy and Marley couldn't come. A few tears and she quickly got over it.

Of course, the first thing I wanted to do in Indy was visit Target but Aunt Jennifer & Uncle Ray invited us to the Children's Museum the next day. It was a toss up...Target...Family Time...Target...Family Time...but I figured Target could wait.

The famous carosel at the museum:

Maya loved playing with her cousin Trey.

One of the highlights of the trip for me? Dinner at Pizza King. I love Pizza King pizza. Arni's and Pizza King are a tie for me when it comes to fabulous pizza.

It's not a Pizza King without a Pac-Man or Ms. Pac-Man

We took a long drive up north to see my grandmother. Passing through the Indiana windmills. So very Dutch.

We stopped at my Aunt Gloria's before picking grandma up for lunch. She had this awesome picture of my mom and her siblings...circa 1909? =)

Aunt Gloria's 9 month old Great Dane puppy tried to eat Maya.

When we moved to the islands, I couldn't get over how BIG the sky looked here. I think I forgot out big Indiana's sky is as well...

My grandma's farm:

Maya had an awesome time with her cousins (mainly Trey):

I didn't do so well on my resolutions in Indiana. No working out. I did "ok" on the food front (it's hard to eat healthy when there are so many options there not available here!) and the worst offense? My "no thinking of a new dog" went out the window while I was packing for our trip. I asked Stu, "would you kill me if I brought home a boxer puppy" and his surprising response was no. Boxers are the best and I love my parents dog Bruce:

I insanely drove to Noblesville, bought a 10 weeks old Bruce mini-me, told them I would be back the next day to pick her up and drove 1/2 way back to my parents house, turned around and hung my head in shame and told them I changed my mind. Just not ready yet. I called Stu on the way back to my parents and you could hear the sigh of relief from the other end as he told me he wasn't ready yet either and that he was so glad I had come to that conclusion myself. He didn't want to be the bad guy telling me we couldn't get another dog (he's kind of already put his foot down on the whole third kid thing). So we shall wait...and I'll try a little hard on my resolution.

Maya got to sleep with me every night. Well, me and PopBelly, who I still love to cuddle with whenever I'm home (I think his 30th birthday may be coming up soon...).

It was a great visit and I can't wait to go back again this summer...more family members in tow next time and welcoming a new member of the family when we get there...(my sister's baby, not a puppy...but maybe one or two of those too....)

I rock at Kindergarden.

My kids are going to do well in school with a mother that has some control issues.

Marley came home from school on Tuesday with an assignment. Each kid was to chose an animal and build a diorama. My first thought, YES!, this is my kind of project. Until I saw the due date. FRIDAY. That meant we had three days to build a diorama. WHAT? I told Stu, "you can't order something off etsy.com in three days!".

We had three weddings on Wednesday and I had an appointment from 9am to 1pm on Thursday at the hair salon. You may think my pony tail and no make-up beauty is effortless but no, it takes hours at the salon. By time I got home, did three hours of emails for work and then picked up the kids, it wasn't until 6pm last night that we remembered the diorama...due Friday. CRAP.

I have no idea where the plastic fish bowl came from but it was found in the garage. The little stuffed goldfish was something I got at Target for 47 cents on my recent trip to Indiana (it's filled with catnip) and I used a blue sharpie to add "water" to the bowl. I tried to show Marley how to cut out greenery for the fish to swim around in and when I cut out an example she said, "let's just use yours". Ok.  I found an old cupcake toy and drew a fish on it for fish food.

To really seal the deal on her A, we made a quick poster for it this morning:

The glitter on it wasn't even dry when we got her to school. She wasn't allowed to touch it as I drilled her on fun facts about goldfish to share with her class.

Report cards come out in a few weeks - can't wait to see how I did!