My Little Artist

I never get tired of my kids' art shows. I have saved many of my oldest daughter's artwork and catalogued it by years. The youngest is no different and I have already started saving many of her fine pieces of work, including these. Love the use of color and imagination.

Basketball Begins

It’s been a season of learning new things.  B just started basketball and is having a wonderful time.  She’s even been the leading scorer at a couple games and I can’t believe the hustle she shows.  So proud of this little girl!

Go #25!

The Floyd

During the Christmas break, B was charged with “the Floyd” from her teacher.  Floyd is a small, stuffed black lab that has exciting adventures.  Kids are tasked with taking “the Floyd” everywhere they go, then writing about Floyd’s adventures.  Not all of the adventures that Floyd enjoyed could be written down in the notebook, but here are a few of the more interesting pictures.

Floyd was enjoying a Wee-Heavy Stout over the holidays - shhh!

Visiting Santa

Love this picture of B with Santa.  What’s better than sharing your Christmas list with Santa, then enjoying an ice cream at Mitchell’s?!

I wonder what they're talking about?

Learning to Ski

I think it’s important to learn to ski at an early age, if possible.  I learned at 34 (1 month before my 35th birthday to be exact) and would never recommend that.  For starters, I understand our hospitalization insurance too well and I don’t have the lower center of gravity that a small kid has.  When you hit the ground, it hurts…a lot.

Kids, on the other hand, are fearless and learn so much faster.  Meg started ski lessons at 7 and has also enjoyed snowboarding (especially being in class with Lil Wayne's kid) and cross country skiing.  Our schedules finally eased up enough, and Mother Nature cooperated with a nice blanket of snow. 

Love this pic of B.  I’m more pizza slice, and she’s totally French fries on her skis!

Learning to Ice Skate

I signed Bridget up for her first ice skating lesson.  We live in the snow belt where winter sports are big.  Meg learned to ice skate at 5 and I even learned to ice skate with her.  They have this neat little event for the kids called Friday Night Skate and Meg grew up loving this evening with her friends.  I figured it was time for B to learn to skate as well and, in the next year or two, she would also be enjoying FNS.

                                                                  
It was so cute watching her skate out there pushing the cone for balance.  By the end of the first lesson, she had shed the cone and was (timidly) forward skating end to end.  So proud of my little doodlebug!

Another Halloween Race in the Bag

I love our little tradition of running a Halloween race in costume.  B and I have been doing this since our first race in 2010 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with me pushing B throug a hilly 10k race.  This year, we ran the Brecksville 5k Trick or Trot race and B was amazing.  We both made our costumes this year - she was Batman (Batgirl!) and I was Robin (oh, the irony, I know).  Best of all, she scored her first PR by besting her previous 5k time by 2 minutes!  So next year, the goal is to break 39:xx!

Growing Up in the Jogging Stroller

The jogging stroller was the best investment we've made.  It has logged in thousands of miles carting B places and races and many adventures.

Below shows her growing up, beginning in 2007 and ending with a Memorial Day race in May 2013.  She eventually became too big and too heavy for me to push, but what a wonderful journey we've had!

Top left: October 2007 in DC at my Marine Corps Marathon.  Top right: August 2008 in Cleveland.
Bottom left: August 2009 in Oregon at Voodoo Donuts.  Bottom right: October 2010 in New Mexico after our Day of the Dead 10k race.

To Left: at the Girls with Sole race in June 2010.  Top right: in Savannah, GA in 2011 at a 5k halloween race.
Bottom left: falling asleep after one of my runs in the Metroparks in 2012.  Bottom right: at our last race in May 2013 in Cleveland.

Bridging to Brownies

My little girl is growing way too fast.  As parent, how many times do we say that? The same day we returned from our Hawaii trip, Bridget had her Daisy ceremony where she "bridged" over to Brownies.  Such a sweet ceremony and so neat to see this mean something to her.

First Day and Last Day of First Grade

Time is flying way too fast.  I can't believe I have a soon-to-be second grader and a soon-to-be junior in college.  You can see her face is looking just a little bit older.  Thank goodness she's still a kid so I can keep smothering her!

My Little Keith Haring

I love kids art shows.  I'm not a fan of having to bring everything home and put it on display (who is, really?). But this year, I just loved B's version of Keith Haring's Blue Dog.  It's a keeper and will be part of our art collection.

First Day of First Grade

Megan began her first day of her sophomore year on the same day that Bridget began her first day of first grade.  My little girls are growing way too fast!

Below is Bridget on her first day of first grade (left) and Megan on her first day of first grade (right, vintage).

A Day in Salt Lake City

Salt Lake City? Yep, Utah.  Love that place.  In order to knock out Idaho, and to keep our travel expenses under budget, we flew in to Salt Lake City. Had our flight not been delayed, we had planned on seeing the Mormon Tabernacle Choir perform.  It's kind of a big deal to see the Choir and their Thursday evening practice is open to the public.  Both Greg and I were pretty pumped about this, but we just couldn't get United to share in our excitement...go figure.

The next morning, before making our trek to Burley, Idaho, we managed to kill a few hours at Discovery Gateway, the kids museum in SLC.  What a wonderful place! Best of all, Bridget got to be treated to her kind of fun, rather than boring old adult fun.

Had to drag her out of the place...but we had packet pick-up and she had a 1-mile race to run!

Kindergarten Graduation

On June 4, 2013, my little girl graduated from Kindergarten.  As you can see, we were all super proud of her!

Beautiful Weather Deserves Beautiful Flowers

Disney on Ice wth My Little Princess

Since both Bridget and I had the day off Monday in honor of the Martin Luther King holiday, we were lucky enough to sneak in the final afternoon performance of Disney on Ice: Rockin Ever After. So much fun!

One of my pet peeves, though, was looking around and seeing so many parents on Facebook DURING the performance. Come on, parents! It's one and a half hours. You get a break called Intermission, if you have pressing correspondence. But don't light up my area with your need to read someone's status update when we have a talented and exciting performance to view instead. Ariel, Merida, Rapunzel and Belle, as well as your children, would appreciate your undivided attention.

Seriously, isn't ice skating just beautiful to watch?! We both dressed up, faced the bitter cold and terrible downtown Cleveland winds head on, and made a fun afternoon out of our day!

UPDATE ON THE SOUP: I substituted a 3-bean can mix and it was amazing! This may have been one of the best bowls of chili I've had. And it was perfect for these freezing temps. Yum!

Megan and Bridget: Their 2012 Holiday Interview

Last year, I started chronicling brief interviews between my two daughters to preserve memories...and to give us something to laugh about years from now.

1. What one word best desribes you right now?
BRIDGET: Love.
MEGAN: Fun.

2. What is your favorite thing about your sister?
BRIDGET: Her messing around with me.
MEGAN: Our Mitchell's ice cream trips.

3. What is your favorite thing to do with your family?
BRIDGET: Spending time with each other and watching Christmas movies.
MEGAN: Traveling and experiencing new places.

4. What is your favorite holiday candy?
BRIDGET: Candy corn.
MEGAN: Angie's buckeyes and Mom's potato candy.

5. What do you want to be when you grow up?
BRIDGET: A Veterinarian (age 5).
MEGAN: Why does everyone keep asking me this? Can't I just be the Sonic girl on roller skates?! (age 19)

I had only prepared 5 questions. However, Bridget was enjoying these questions so she and Megan came up with a few more!

6. What is your favorite animal?
BRIDGET: Dolphin.
MEGAN: Dolphin.

7. What is your favorite place that we have traveled to or visited?
BRIDGET: Arizona.
MEGAN: Spain - Barcelona, Madrid and Seville.

8. What is playing in your iPod right now?
BRIDGET: Taylor Swift, Carly Rae Jepsen's Call Me Maybe, Justin Bieber, and Luke Bryan.
MEGAN: Lumineers, Hoodie Allen, Taylor Swift, and Mumford & Sons.

9. What is your favorite thing to do?
BRIDGET: Go to the park, get ice cream, go swimming, spending time with my family.
MEGAN: Sitting, checking social networks.

10. What is your favorite stuffed animal?
BRIDGET: Holly, my new Christmas dog.
MEGAN: Eeyore (her only stuffed animal that she's had since age 3).

11. What is your favorite ice cream?
BRIDGET: Mitchell's Coffee ice cream with dinosaur sprinkles.
MEGAN: Moosetracks!

Love my girls and I loved how excited they both were to answer these questions (and to humor their mom).

xoxo,
Mom

The Wonders of the Season

Bridget snuggled under the tree to enjoy the lights. But after a long day of playing with all that Santa brought her, she fell asleep under the tree. So sweet.

Yesterday, we also enjoyed a nice afternoon with my family. Even managed to snap another picture under the Easton Christmas tree. Another wonderful holiday season this year!

I'm a Big Girl Now - Can't You See!

Lately, Bridget has been enjoying wearing my coat, scarf and heels. The minute I come in the front door from work, she will change right away into my stuff. I have to say, she wears it well.

Funny story about the coat. I am a loyal Banana Republic and JCrew shopper. I rarely bother with other stores because I know these two have consistent sizing and good quality clothes that I can wear to work and on the weekends. I bought the coat a few years ago and couldn't remember if it was 4, 5 or 6 years ago. Greg and I went out Saturday night with a group of friends and popped into Crop for a drink. A girl came up to me and said, "I have that same coat - Banana Republic 2007!" Yes! Gotta love what a small world it is and this fun stranger answered my question or how old my coat is!

24 Days of Christmas

Since Megan was very little, I have always done various versions of the 24 Days of Christmas. During the lean years, most days included free activities and one or two Hershey kisses and mini Reese cups. Along the way, I've added little ticket items like a find-a-word puzzle book, magazine, and other little dollar store finds. The first year I included Bridget in the mix, she received a mini Reese cup on day 2 and, from that point forward, she thought Reese cups were called "2s". And each year, I've made sure that we open each day's little gift or activity together as a family or it included a family activity or charitable event.

This year was the most challenging since Megan is away at college. Thank goodness for technology. The deal I made between the girls is that each day they could only open each item if they opened their items together while on FaceTime or Skype. Wow, it's been so much fun. We log on around dinner time. The girls can talk to each other and open their day's activity or gift while I'm fixing dinner. It really is like we're all together.

So here's how the first week has played out:

Day 1 - A mini polar bear that, when put in water, expands up to 600% over 10 days.
Day 2 - One Reese christmas tree.
Day 3 - A washcloth that pops up full-size while in the bathtub.
Day 4 - Make hot chocolate with each other.
Day 5 - Santa bubble gum tape (Meg's all-time favorite)
Day 6 - Make paper snowflakes together.

Tonight's activity was so much fun watching my two wonderful daughters making snowflakes. One is 19 and one is 5 and yet they couldn't seem closer. Love my girls.

I hope your December is just as magical and filled with close friends and family.