Father Daughter Dancing

Like all primary teachers and small children in the country, we celebrated Dr. Seuss Day.  

My school hosted its annual Father Daughter Dance.  Genevieve loves any chance to wear a dress.  The photo session that ensued was nothing short of dramatic.  

She pondered a pose here.  

Miss Muffett in this one.

Demure face tilt

She is about to jump off the toilet here.

Duckface?

Oh, please has she been looking at Instagram?

The pretend look away, only this is real.  

The corsage nearly sent her over the edge.  

 My 3 favorites here.

I really like that lamb too. 

Genevieve and I took  Kate to Zootopia last Saturday.  

That movie was darling.

I missed the fabulous BMV sloth scene because that was when they had to go to the bathroom.  

I'm on my two week Spring Break as of today.

I'm so thrilled.  

Magazine Covers

A couple of weeks ago I went to a Grease sing along with my friends because that's what grown women do.  They also dress in costumes.  Lindsay, Dani, Marinda, Yvette and I had a big time!

We had dinner at Bazbeaux Pizza before the movie and no one looked at us at all.  Marinda made us compete in the costume contest as the Lincoln 5.  

Then she told the audience we are teachers.

We won a prize.  

That following morning G and I went to the Fashion Mall.  The mall was having a camp fair and Genevieve had her face painted.  

Genevieve even made the cover of Indy's Child magazine.  She's famous, you know.  This picture is proof that good lighting is key for a cover shoot.  I know because I have graced many a magazine cover.  

My dear mother dumped off a box of goodies from storage the last time she visited.  I found this beaut.  I did this in Disney World when I was like in 3rd Grade.  I was looking for love.  I had a photo album inside.  I was in Teen Beat because they regularly featured 9 year olds.  

That phone is awesome.  

I look awesome in the reflection.

My nostrils are in full effect!  

Genevieve had her first informal eye appointment with Dr. Allison.  She was fairly cooperative with the best optometrist we know!

We used our IMA membership to go and sniff orchids too. 

My large blow holes came in handy for sniffing. 

Spring is so desperately trying to spring.  We are more than ready!  

Valentine's Day and Some Presidents

Sister Katie was in town last weekend for Tiny's baby shower.  Allison, Meghan and Trinity joined the 3 coolest siblings ever for dinner.  

February 10th was a major mail day.

Wellie sent some little heart cakes to show her love.

Abby and Papi sent the best card ever with toddler Disney princesses on it.  

Aunt Shirl sent a new outfit.  Our girl loves clothes.

YaYa and Bob bought this little swan sweater that was perfect for party day at school on Friday.  

My dear mother bought a hot glue gun and some tulle at Hobby Lobby and made these two 1st grade teachers super fashionable for their party.  I tied my heart scarf like an ascot because I really wanted to turn on the fanciness.  

On Saturday Abby and Papi arrived with more gifts.  

Cupcaking immediately commenced.  

Trinity and I are big spenders.  Actually Robby and Meghan are.  They went to stay at the swanky 21C Hotel in Louisville and eat at Proof on Main.  We went to stay at their casa in Carmel.  That's right, we left G with T's parents and spent a romantic evening in the lovely Northern suburb that is Carmel.  We went to see Hail, Caesar!  which I really enjoyed.  Then we had a super romantic dinner at Red Robin.  We ended the night in Robeghan's upstairs living room which is equipped with HBO, current issues of People magazine, and a tiny refrigerator that holds Blood Orange San Pelligrinos.  I was in heaven.  

The next morning we enjoyed an early breakfast at Cafe Patachou and then came home so Patsy and Eddie could get on the road to brave the winter storm that was coming.  

They were playing the Disney Princess Cupcake game and G cried when she saw us and told us to go away.  It's nice to be missed.  

I had the day off of school to celebrate the Day of Presidents.  I saw on the morning news that Conner Prairie was hosting all kinds of events for the holiday and encouraging children to come dressed as their favorite president.  

I delivered on that one.

Thanks to YaYa and Bob's recent trip with Caroline to Springfield, Illinois, I am the proud owner of a Lincoln hat and beard.  They are replicas, don't get too excited.  

This was G doing her best impression of the tall man before he gave The Gettysburg Address.  So stoic.  Bob took us to Gettysburg on a not so fun family vacation back in the mid 80s.  I memorized the address then.  Why?  Because that is what cool 3rd graders do.  Or at least ones who score in the 90th percentile on ISTEP.  Boom!  I was practically a child prodigy.  

Here she is impersonating Lincoln before NEVER.  Did he ever smile?  History does not show it.  

We met Mrs. Fillmore.  Her husband was kind of a forgettable president.  I didn't mention that.  I thought it might be construed as rude.  

Face in a Hole!

Here is G swirling her victory flag after she totally swept the costume contest.  I was shocked that there were hundreds of children there and only mine was in costume.  Again, you're welcome G for having such an awesome mother.  

Face in a Hole!

You didn't think I would take just one, did you?

I have bragged on my childhood intelligence substantially in this post.  I usually have to have some self-deprecating comment or photo.

I give you...

something to haunt you in your sleep.

Those bushy brows really do the trick.  I'm basically a man.  

Happy Birthday, George Washington.

I'm old Abe.  

Bed Bugs!!!!!

Not really.

After my long hiatus, I figured I had better grab some attention with a catchy title.

My puter was not allowing me to download photos.  It kept claiming some nonsense about being full because I have like 10,000 photos downloaded.  

I may start calling this thing Hal.  

I did nothing and then today it let me download 30 pictures.

So here I am.

Back to bed bugs.  A child in my gaggle of 26 babies did have bed bugs.  My first instinct was to climb up on one of the $5 IKEA stools that my babies sit in for guided reading groups.  Then I realized that I might be too hefty for such light Scandinavian hardware.  So I did the next best thing.  I screamed for Avery, our darling custodian.  He assured me that my room would be "disinfected" which in school terms means "We will spray your room with Lysol and vacuum."

He then handed me a roll of plastic trash bags and told me to bag it up.

My bestie Marinda found this to be hysterical.  She came out into the hallway to document this, as she is a part time photojournalist.

Now getting 26 six year olds who can sometimes struggle with zipping their pants to put their coats, hats, mittens and backpacks into a large plastic trash bag is much like herding cats.

Ironically, I led a herd of shorthairs and longhairs across the Rockies back in 2009 without losing one, so the kids were in good hands.  

Step 1:  hold the bag and DO NOT ENTER MY CLASSROOM UNTIL ALL IS BAGGED.

Step 2:  Open bag.

This was a challenge because this is even hard for me.

 Step 3:  Now stuff and twist

 Here is a shot of the nonsense in action.  

Now is there any scientific proof that generic plastic bags stifle the spread of mattress lovin' parasites?  Probably not.  

But I felt better.  

We survived!  

2 weeks later and no problems.

I pray that will continue!

Back at the ranch G has still been posing by our back door.  

We went for a nature walk in Robby's hood and G insisted we play hide and seek.  She found her uncle and father rather quickly.

G had her first play date with Kate.

Kate is her BFF from daycare.

We took them to a little boy's birthday party who is in their class.

Gus is too cute!

G became intoxicated on apple juice.  I never gave her juice and Kate kept heading to the cooler and getting more juice boxes for the two of them.  I pray this is not an early indication of their future high school antics!