Gals About Town

We have been running around town lots lately.  My Aunt Cindi gave us tickets to see Peewinkle's Puppet Show last weekend at the Indiana State Museum.

G was giddy with excitement.  

She was mesmerized by the puppetry!

She loved it so much she demanded her own puppet, also known as a string puzzle for her mother.  

We brunched at The Garden Table.  We toasted with milk and the Gals Who Brunch champagne cocktail.

Sweet T had a Bloody Mary and manned the camera.

Our waiter tried showed Little Miss some balancing tricks.

This weekend Katie, Caroline, and mother came to visit for a night.  Katie did some damage in Tory Burch while the cousins iPadded.

Robby invited us over for a special 3D showing of Moana.  

In typical brother fashion, he purchased a DVD for the 3D TV that my dad gave him and a family set of 3D glasses.

G loved on Baby Robby.

Katie and Caroline bought popcorn at the movie theater before we left the mall.

The whole crew loved it!

On Sunday Mother treated us to a Beef and Boards experience.  We saw Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat, which is sister's favorite because she is a nerd and cheesy as hell.

It is bright and flashy and catchy.

I loved it as a kid.

Two other kids really loved it too.

Genevieve gave the whole experience a double high 5!

Li'l Robby

Last Sunday Li'l Robby was baptized!

We had a lovely morning as a family giving the baby some Jesus.

Trinity and I posed with our precious godson.

That's right, now I'm Godmother times two!

The joy of being the middle child means both older sister and younger brother think I'm the bee's knees.  

At least that's what I tell myself.  

Now Genevieve did not handle having her mother on the altar with the priest very well.

Shocking.

Even though I had explained to her that her father and I would be going up front and holding the baby beforehand, hearing it and actually seeing it are apparently two very different animals.

We were introduced at the beginning of mass and she climbed over the back of a pew into YaYa's arms while wailing "Mama!  Mama!" like she was 18 months old.

Embarrassing.

I ignored her and pretended that I didn't know who she was.

Thankfully the priest called the children to go to "tiny church" and she missed the baptism part.

I think we might have had a scene worthy of Sally Field if she had witnessed that!  

This precious babe did not make a peep during the entire mass, even when he was doused with the holy water.  

We ended the celebration with vittles and cake at Robby's house.  

The cake was decorated with Robert Mattew,

a common typo in the baking business.

Except it wasn't typed, it was written in icing.

Mother was thrilled.

Abby and Papi and 65 degrees

Abby and Papi came to visit over the long Presidents Day weekend.

The weather was great and we had fun going out to eat.  

We dined in Fountain Square, which is quickly becoming my favorite area in town.

Papi ordered some serious appetizers.

Abby was the queen of the visit because she brought Shine to match G's Shimmer.

3 cheers and a toast to Shimmer and Shine.

I slurped my hard cider to join in the merriment.

We were able to get outside and stroll around too in the beautiful weather.

Our girl was glowing from seeing her grandparents.

January and Most of February

This is just a mix of random happenings in our world.  January and most of February have flown by.

I got G's big girl bed set up.

Actually Trinity did after I practically had to arm wrestle him to get him to do it.

My school children continue to be just delightful.

I have been so thrilled to be back in the classroom again after so many years doing various other things.

My 2nd year back has brought me another darling group.

I snapped a picture of flowers that I received from a student a couple of weeks ago.  

Another teacher took this picture of 4 of my babies walking down the hall holding hands.

Firsties are the best!

We have brunched at Yolk.

G continues with her "work."  

I can barely tear her away from her constant writing and drawing to get her to eat.

That's a Medieval Times cup.

Awesome.

She constantly writes me notes that say Love, Genevieve and hearts all over them.  She writes MB MBMBMB all over them, which stands for Momma Betsy.  As if she has another mother somewhere and she has to be specific?

Katie turned 40 last weekend.

She surprised G by going to her Super Snack Day at school.

G was beside herself with joy.

Katie met G's bestie, Lungel.

They posed in the kissing booth.

I rounded up all of Katie's skanks for dinner at Harry and Izzy's.

I provided the cupcakes.

Duh.

Trinity took us to Scotty's for dinner for Valentine's Day.

G had to take her work on the road on Valentine's Day morning.  We buzzed through Starbucks for teacher gift cards and G filled out the cards before we rolled on.

G is still Lord of the Dance.

I sit and giggle while I take pictures that showcase her prominent rear end.

That's all I have for now!

Princess Tea

 This Saturday was a very special one for the girls.  Mother took them to a Princess Tea at The Cake Bakeshop.  

It was a very small event with about 10 little girls in attendance.

I was the biggest girl there, aside from my equally ginormous mother. 

We were served hot chocolate and chocolate chip scones as soon as we were seated. 

I was pleased.

I do love chocolate.

We had place cards with our names on them, preceded by "Princess."

It was ridiculous.

They were thrilled.

After we dined on scones, Cinderella arrived.

She read a story, and sang some songs.

This Cinderella did not come from the same Fairy Tale Forest as our precious Rapunzel from G's birthday.

This one was sweet, but looked like she might have been on a bender the night before.

My brother said she looked like Amy Winehouse.

I must agree.

G was clutching the autographed picture that she received from Cindy.  

She was lovely, kind, and G was completed enthralled with her performance.

After those activities, we got down to the business of cookie decorating.

Genevieve was serious.

She squeezed out enough buttercream to decorate an elopement cake.

I like icing, but gross.

Caroline was a bit more dignified throughout the experience.  She did not go nanners with the cookie pearls, and tried to be patient when Genevieve's sing along with Cinderella sounded more like a bad karaoke audition.

Cinderella's voice was pretty, if you could hear it over my daughter screeching, " a dream is a wish your heart makes..."

All of us received a dusting of magical and edible shimmer dust.  

I wore the tar out of some MAC shimmer eyeshadow at IU.

Thankfully, I shimmer, not glitter, these days.

I also swirl out a decent B in buttercream.

It was a beautiful and memorable morning, for sure.

We met Robeghan and Li'l Robby for lunch.  

He fell asleep right in the middle of lunch.  

He is insanely cute and sweet.  

2017 Is Off To a Great Start!

Genevieve was serious about our New Year's Eve celebration.

She wore a skirt with sequins and Rapunzel heels.

She asked me to take a picture of her, and this was the face she gave me.

Good heavens.

We lasted until about 10:30 at Tim and Jamie's.

She partied hard.  

We also visited the Art Museum recently, where she was also very serious about appreciating art.

We received a bag for children with crayons and a clipboard with paper.  It was kind of like a kid kit, if you were Kristy, Dawn, or Claudia and also a member of The Babysitter's Club.

Genevieve worked on her sketching, as she calls it.

I love this picture.

We celebrated Uncle Robby's 36th birthday by meeting for lunch last weekend at The Irish Lion in Bloomington.

He was all smiles with his two nieces.

We also celebrated Caroline's 10th birthday, which was the week before.  I brought the cake, because that's my thing.

It was amazing.

Caroline was excited to open gifts.

My nose and mouth are profiled nicely here.

Mouth breathing, as always.

After a hearty lunch, I drove back to Indy with Meghan and baby Robby.

Mom took G home with her and Trinity, Chip, Katie, Robby, Caroline, and Dad went to the IU/Illinois game.

Bob bought pants for the children.  

Trinity was quite thrilled with his first IU basketball experience.  

I can't believe January is half over already.