A Magical Morning

It all started with these two.  Mother and Kathy have been dear friends since high school, about 50 years now.  

Then they had these three.  They had boys too, but they are not pictured.  

Katie and Kirby were practically incarcerated in high school due to their shenanigans, and Kathy and my mother had to lean on each other the most during those times!

They didn't have to worry about me.  I was too busy telling my friends not to drink wine coolers.  

We all grew up and only had girls. Little boys are not pictured because they don't exist.  

Caroline and Peri are in 3rd grade, Phoebe is in kindergarten, and Genevieve is working on maintaining her status in the 3 year old class.  She has the propensity to end her days on yellow or red, as she has great difficulty listening and following directions.  

Kirby treated us to a magical morning at The Cake Bakeshop.  We had a private party where we decorated cupcakes with one of their pastry chefs, who studied in Paris.

Oui, oui!

Miss Allison described the process.  I did my best Lady Edith impression.  My ability to laugh at myself has been my saving grace.  Otherwise I would have terrible self esteem.  Look at that posture, those bedroom eyes.  I really missed my calling with modeling.  

Genevieve took it all very seriously.  

 She was a very good listener.  She would have been on green for the skills she showed that morning.  

That little speck on her face is left over paint from our face painting.  

Miss Allison explained that they add a bit of sparkle to every dessert with edible glitter.  After she glittered our cupcakes, we got some on our faces.  

YaYa was excited.  

So was Caroline.  

Genevieve made a wish.  I think she thought she might be able to fly like Tinkerbell.  

I became incredibly excited about looking like an IU junior again. Sparkling and glitter makeup was all the rage in college.  

Make it rain, Allison.

Make it rain.

Can I get a witness?

Hallelujah!

 The girls sat in front of the glass window and watched this magical man in pink make chocolate cake.  It was so similar to our birthday parties at Noble Roman's in the 80s when we watched them fling pizzas in the window.  The only difference was we didn't go roller skating afterwards.  Ha! 

It was a fabulous experience.  If you have not been to this lovely establishment, you should go.  You feel like you are in London, not Indianapolis.  

This is probably the only time my toddler will sit on a white couch.  

Thank you to sweet Kirby for inviting us.

We've come a long way since we used to squabble in high school and college!  

Holiday Happenings

My dear friends from across the globe visited Indy!

Melissa and Alexander are childhood pals who would come and visit their grandparents in TH each summer.  Their parents are Hautians and their momma is one of YaYa's besties.

Miss lives in Singapore and Alexander is in Hong Kong.  I had not seen them in eons.  

Melissa entertained us at dinner with her grade school crafting skills.  

I only post this picture ( she may kill me) because she is one of my most loyal readers and rarely makes an appearance due to distance!

I think she still looks lovely!

This one is better.  This is proof that teaching firsties and then dining out that night don't mix.

I look like I'm hung over.

Hung over from educating and enlightening children all day!  

I was actually trusted to babysit Alexander and his younger brother  Trevor.  Mind you, Alexander is 32 and I'm 36.  So my prime babysitting days for him involved a very responsible 12 year old and a precocious 8 year old.  Our mothers' judgement might be called into question here.  Alas, everyone survived.  I have always been an old soul.  At 12 I was really 45.  Now I'm about 70 at heart.

We dined with cousin Molly and her precious Louise.  I was invited to this family affair.  I do love this crew.  

My little crew engaged in some face painting this week.  This was not face paint but I figured it would come off fairly easily.

Not so. 3 days later I was still picking that shellac off of G's face.

We rode the Polar Bear Express on Sunday evening.

I love the ticket man here.

He was emphatic that he was not "the conductor!"  That job is very prestigious in Polar Bear Express land. 

The dueling cousins sparred most of the trip!

Good times.

G has a serious case of peanut butter and jealous regarding Cousin Caroline.  She thinks YaYa and Bob only belong to her.  My futile attempts to explain that Caroline had them first and they can share have been met with shrieks and screams.  

This too shall pass!  

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.