Abby's Birthday

We met Abby and Papi down in Santa Claus, Indiana on the first Saturday of December.

Abby is the Queen of Christmas.

She loves it.

She is also a December baby.

For her special day, everything had to revolve around Baby Jesus and Santa Claus.  

We started by first mailing our Christmas cards, then it was off to see the man in red.

There were technical difficulties and we had to wait for a little bit to see him.  

She has remained consistent with her wish for a Rapunzel dress.  Luckily for me, one of Santa's elves lives in Colorado and peddles her wares on Etsy for a small fortune.

The birthday girl loved it!

Abby and G wrote a letter to Santa reinforcing the desire for a Rapunzel dress.

At this point I checked Etsy for shipping dates.

We communicated with an Elf on the computer.  

G loved all of the Christmas events as much as Abby. 

She was more than happy to help sing a song to her grandmother and help eat the cake.   

Cheers to another year!

Thanksgiving 2015

Thanksgiving this year was a great deal of fun.  It was Abby and Papi's year for Thanksgiving.  We ate lunch at The Broken Egg Cafe.  I tried to get a decent picture before the meal.

Abby's eyes closed, G looking cute.

G's eyes closed, Abby looking cute.

All eyes open!

This one of the 3 of us is a framer.

Genevieve played a lot and ate very little.

She played with Aunt Shirley.

There was a lot of snuggling with Papi.

G dictated her wish list to Abby, her personal scribe.

Genevieve made gingerbread girls with Abby and Shirl.  Never one to miss a festive opportunity, Abby provided a chef hat and apron.  

We stayed two nights and went to Aunt Katie's house on Saturday. My skanky college BFF, Nicole, came with her husband and two girls.  

Caroline is about 8 months older than Genevieve.

They got crazy eating chicken nuggets.

This picture reminded me of some ridiculous nights out at the bars in college.  Nicole would get tipsy, do a backbend, and then ask to leave.  I was basically always getting slightly tipsy and asking to go sleep in my twin bed in the cold dorm at Delta Gamma.  

Li'l Caroline, G, Big Caroline, and Madelyn snarfed down the cookies that we made earlier.  

My crew rocked out the Nordstrom Christmas party on Sunday evening.  

The band was awesome.  As they were playing I just posed in front of them.  They kept playing and snuck up behind me.

It was pretty amazing!

Number of gifts purchased:  5

Number of gifts purchased for myself:  2

Number of cupcakes consumed:  3

It was a great weekend.  

Parties and Parties!

We celebrated Chip's 40th birthday last weekend.  Naturally, I put on two of my prom dresses.  

Just because I felt like it.

Then I had my mother take pictures.

Totally normal behavior.

I love this evolution of trying to get a good shot of these three goons.

Take 1: My kid is hollering about wanting to be in the picture.

Take 2:  Katie speaks sternly to Caroline and my kid really thinks she is in the picture.

Take 3:  Birthday boy, wife, and daughter all looking at the camera.  My kid thinks she is their 2nd child.  

I took these as my mom took ones that totally cropped G out of the picture.

You have to admire her enthusiasm, though.

On Sunday these lovelies celebrated Tiny and her tiny baby bump.

Cinda, Katie, Amanda, Kirby, Jaymee, and Mel have been besties since IU.

They hosted a gender reveal party for Amanda and Thomas.

The gang's all here.  The party can start.

And it's a GIRL!!!!

They were so thrilled and so were all of the guests.

I was in charge of the cake.  We double checked the sonogram picture to confirm that my bakery had gotten it right.  Thank the sweet Lord I didn't mess that up!  

G stayed a bit later to hang with the wonder twins, Quinn and Mack.  

It was a most festive weekend.  Now on to the holidays!  

Little Excitement

Trinity captured what most weekend afternoons look like for me now.  Grading papers, planning lessons, and folding laundry are just a few of my favorite things!

Genevieve attended a 2nd birthday party last Saturday for our friend Spencer.  I was her chauffeur.  

We went to see the Peanuts movie and it was adorable.  

It was 3D and she wasn't so sure about the glasses.  She did pretty well, but we left about 15 minutes before the movie ended because she was getting antsy.  Did Charlie Brown ever talk to the little red haired girl?  I guess I'll just have to deal with that cliffhanger.  

I went to dinner that evening with Meghan, Allison, and Jamie to celebrate birthdays.  Jamie was served wine in an Olivia Pope style  wine glass.  I hate those things on Scandal.  They are like soup bowls on crystal straws.  The stems are ridiculous.  Since Jamie was already wearing a cashmere sweater, she gave us her best Olivia Pope.  She was only missing ill fitting pants and popcorn.  

Trinity went to New Orleans with his boss for a work conference and this is the only photo I received.  

Heavens.

Genevieve and I went to craft at the Art Museum.  

 Sweet T returned home from NOLA with treats.  Cafe Du Monde coffee (for him), Leah's pralines for me, and beads and a book for Lady Genevieve.

Halloween 2015

This past week was Red Ribbon Week at school.  On Thursday we had pajama day.  Woot!  My friend Dani's class had read enough books for our assistant principal to kiss a pig!  At the last minute they invited my class out to witness the fun.

After Mr. Sponsel finished his smooch, I got a little piggy loving.  

It was furry and adorable.

It also reminded me why I don't dine on swine. 

My sweet firsties went nanners!

Such  fun.  

On Friday Genevieve had pajama day at her school.

I'm so glad my job allows me to do the same ridiculous things that 3 year olds do.  

She was jazzed about her new pajamas from Abby.

My friend Karen read a spooky story on Friday afternoon, right before our fall party.

We played candy corn math games.

We graphed bats and pumpkins.

Then we had a fabulous soiree.  I have some fabulous parents who basically did the whole thing.  I walked around eating cookies and asking my students if they liked my fascinator.  They were not shocked by my headgear.  I have to remind myself that sometimes my loud prints and gilded shoes can be distracting!  

Speaking of prints, I almost paired this leopard top with a floral skirt.

No joke.

But then I thought they might all get dizzy and throw up and ain't nobody got time for that.  That's what candy is for.

On Halloween we went to Tim and Jamie's to trick or treat with Charlotte and Liam.  

Liam was Antman, whoever that is.

Charlotte was Fern from Charlotte's Web, one of my favorite books!  

Genevieve was a flash.

She ran like a bandit in her cheap a** plastic "glass slippers."  She had some serious blisters, but kept running...

until she didn't.

Thank God for Tim's wagon.

She rolled back for snuggle time with Georgia.  

We have so many full sized candy bars that I will be eating a candy bar a day for like a month.  You know I'll do it, too.