Life Lately

What have we been up to?

Well, I got an award for being an awesome mother.

I kid.

I just got this beautiful certificate on Saturday at a brunch at church celebrating moms.

Since Mary is truly the supreme mother, I just thought this was so pretty.  

I joined a moms group at church that met weekly for the past 8 weeks.

It was a lovely experience and I met a lot of great women who are now new friends.  We all have little kiddos and our weekly discussions focused on juggling family and faith.  

After the brunch we headed to Newburgh to visit my pal Nicole and her fam.  Katie, Chip and Caroline came up too to hang out.   

Of course my kid bossed everyone around.

I made Nic pose for a picture, just like I always did at the Delta Gamma house.  

We prepped for the pose (I hollered orders.)

I'm posting the blurry pic simply to admire the thigh gap in this pic.

It's just the angle.  

Y'all know about my legs.  

Get ready...

And smile!

That Easter bunny banner is a big jump from our college days where the backdrop mostly included drunk people and a lot of bare mid riffs.  That was big in the late 90s.  

So were halter tops.

Nicole had a few.

That hooker.  

Kidding!

The only reason I didn't wear them was because they required a strapless brassiere.  The only thing worse than a regular brassiere is one without straps.

No thanks.  

We had a great overnight visit with Abby and Papi.  We arrived at G's bedtime and then wallowed and played in our pajamas all the next day, no showers allowed.  No one was really looking camera ready.  

I can't sign off without some more great poses.  Stephie and I worked the ticket desk at the Father-Daughter dance.

It was a masquerade ball.

Or we are green hornets.

xo

Snow

I'm sorry that I couldn't think of a a more original title for this post.  The snow is out of control.  Trinity had to snow blow us out again this morning after about a 7 inch snowfall last night.

I took these photos last weekend.

We suited up our girl.  

Thanks to the grandmothers, Genevieve was set.  YaYa took care of the snowsuit and Abby got a perfect toddler sized sled.  

We cruised the hood.

 Trinity pulled her in front of our house and down the street.  

I admit that this scene may be the only truly appropriate one for wearing my carnation pink boots.

I do wear them often, mostly when totally unnecessary.

This is the new smile.

She made a lot of snow angels.

Today she told us it was too cold to play in the snow and so we had to improvise.

There is a bouncy house hell located about 2 miles from our house.

Until today we had avoided it.

Due to the weather, Monkey Joe's was practically deserted when we arrived.

I discovered that this place is actually quite fun.

There were bouncy houses and slides everywhere.  G was in heaven.  

So was I.

Adults can only come in to "assist."  If by "assist" you mean "slide like crazy and jump when there's no referee in sight," then I totally assisted.  

Yes, I said referee.

That's what they call the disgruntled teenagers with whistles who keep everyone under control.

Oh, Monkey Joe, I like you. 

G agreed.

We will be returning, but probably only on weekdays during my school breaks.

Usually weekends at Monkey Joe's are bananas.

Oh, no I didn't!

I couldn't close without a pun.

A terrible one too.

Have a great week!

No Whining at the Winery!

Last Saturday we visited the Mallow Run Winery down in Bargersville for their winter concert series.

They had Craig and the Crawdads playing in honor of Mardi Gras.  

G loves a party.  

She was the only child in the joint, but it was so fun.  

She started by sidling up to a group that was celebrating a birthday.  The birthday girl was 82 and shared her cake with Genevieve.  

She was also given some beads by the crowd.

I assure you she did not participate in any lewd activities to earn those beads.  

Trinity and I shared a bottle of Riesling.

I love that stuff.  

The singer put on a tin vest and played a spoon on it.

Genevieve was fascinated.  

She was all like, "I played with spoons in Kindermusik!" 

Yes, Genevieve, but you will never be the leader of the band.  

I do love that song by Dan Fogelberg.

She was front and center the whole time dancing.  

She also consumed King cake.

Cake, cake, cake.

I have no idea why she likes it so much!

We were cackling about the aftermath.

She looks hung over.

 No wine was consumed by my baby.

Cake can do that to you.

I should know.

Our other big event this week was attending the Roncalli Fish Fry on Ash Wednesday.  

G was all smiles at dinner with my friend Lane and her family.

Her smile dissolved into a full blown fit in the center aisle at church a mere 15 minutes later.

She almost made it to Father Steve ON THE ALTAR before I caught her and drug her out of church as she cried and wailed "I STAY IN BIG CHURCH, MOMMA!!!!!"

Uh, no.

The looks of pity on the fellow parishioners' faces as we bid a hasty retreat will forever be ingrained in my memory of motherhood.  

No ashes for us on Ash Wednesday.

I think Jesus understands.  

Happy Valentine's Day

 T and I were engaged 5 years ago on February 13, 2010.

We then got married a brief 5 months later.

I love this picture that I took with the timer on my old little pink Canon Elph camera.  

Here's our little Valentine.  

She was excited to hand out her Minnie Mouse Valentine cards to all of her friends, along with mini packs of M&Ms.  

A Very Big Saturday

Our family went to Family Day at the Art Museum on Saturday.  The theme was Chinese New Year, and this year is the Year of the Sheep.

G started by playing with an interactive exhibit.

I love her little silhouette.  

We moved to the gallery area for Yoga with Kids.

My dear pal, Erin, taught the class.

It was funny to see her keeping all of these kiddos engaged.  

We started on our backs with hands on hearts and bellies.

G was all about the downward dog, since she is most familiar with that pose.

We do it a lot at home.  

She made a sheep puppet with her father. 

We rushed home for lunch and a most abbreviated nap so we could get to Margo's 4th birthday party.  

Jenny and Jason hosted it at Ella's Frozen Yogurt.

YaYa always takes G for fro yo, so she's quite adept at eating it.

Our gal was more than willing to help with present opening. 

This was my favorite.  She ran over to another dad thinking he was Trinity to show him her treat bag.

When she looked up and saw that this man was not indeed her father, the look of shock was priceless.  

This was my best photo of the birthday girl and her very excited party guest.  

The Frozen trend seems to be picking up even more speed.  I think every gift was embellished with Anna, Elsa, or Olaf.

Those Disney folks know what they're doing.

Disney Frozen on Ice is coming to Indy in September.

Guess what fool got an early code to buy tickets and spent a ridiculous amount of money so her kid could see burned out former youth ice skating/dancing champions lip sync to Let it Go?  

This one.

Yes, I now blog from the side of my garden tub.

It's the only way I can hide from G asking to watch Minnie's Bowtique on my computer.

Genevieve spent 2 nights with YaYa and Bob earlier during the school week.  

She was excited to have a quick visit with Aunt Katie.  

She saw Uncle Chip too.

She was super excited.  

She spent quality time with Finn. 

YaYa bought more stuff we don't need.  

Genevieve met Nadia, the new baby of one of YaYa's pals.

She wasn't so sure about the baby.  

We were jazzed about the matching hats my friend Kim made for us.  

On Saturday morning G pushed her high chair into our bedroom to eat her oatmeal and watch Curious George.

I was busy stuffing my face with an Egg White Delite.

I like those things. 

We followed that with a dance party to Jim Croce.

We had fun with the creepy Small World dolls that Genevieve pretty much ignores. 

As you can see, there is not much to share these days.

I have saved the best for last.

I reached Level 2 as a Nordstrom card member.

That's worth mentioning.

I don't really gain anything from this status.

I just lose more money at my happy place.