Judgement Day, 2010

On the way to the mall to see Santa I turned to the back seat and reminded the kids that it was judgement day. I explained, when Santa asks "Have you been good?" will you answer Yes or No? If you answer Yes, and Santa saw you being bad, then you will have lied to Santa. If you answer No, Santa might not bring you everything you wanted.

William states "I'm going to tell Santa that Mary Grace has been naughty and that she keeps on kissing me!". A few seconds later, Mary Grace says "William! If you don't tell Santa that, I'll never ever kiss you again!".

William, of course, responded with "OK".

We got a good laugh out of that. So, on the Big Man's lap, the kids responded to the question "Have you been good?" with "We've been mostly good". That was a reasonable answer I thought. Future politicians?

We're all looking to Santa's visit this year and scrambling to get ready in time. Feeling the pressure of a short December as a result of our vacation to Arizona.

Look at my cool new sneekers!

William has been saying some very funny stuff lately. Notable:

William: Daddy, look at my new sneakers!
Daddy: Wow, where did those come from?
William: From a box.
--
William: Abby Shadow (our "cat") is curious about humanoids.
--
William: Mommy, I was using a permanent marker and I didn't get any on me! None at all! Well, I did get some on me..

First sledding of the season and a tired little boy.

This morning the kids were very excited to go out and play in the freshly fallen snow. I had some chores to do outside as our vacation precluded me from finishing my winterizing, so it worked out perfectly.

The kids made a mess of the driveway trying to shovel the snow, and I put away the deck furniture, emptied the lawnmower of gas and took out the snow blower. Mary Grace quickly tired of the snow as she usually does; I think she just goes out for a little while so she can earn her cup of hot cocoa!

William wanted to go sledding, so I dragged him in the sled down to BF-Joe's house and back. On the way back he remarked that he wanted to go down the hill at Cobbs Hill Park. Since we were already bundled up, I loaded the sleds into the car and off we went.

The sledding wasn't great and we only stayed for 1/2 hour, but we had the place to ourselves and unlike last year, William didn't require me to tow him back up every time. Tummy sledding yielded the best results in the un-frozen ground and few inches of snow.

Tonight, the little angel showed his exhaustion by first getting into bed without my prompting, them falling asleep while I read a Christmas book all about Santa and the North Pole. Sometimes that boy can be a challenge, but other times he's the most wonderful and precious thing in the whole world!

Love you William.

Farewell Arizona

On the eve of our departure, I wanted to note some of the highlights for future memories, so here goes.

William's nightly ritual of falling asleep in front of the TV. I think he fell asleep on every person's lap at least once, and tonight the final night, he fell asleep next to Mary Grace on the floor watching Happy Feet. He seemed to really enjoy going to sleep in this way, but sadly, it won't continue once we return home.

Mary Grace's "thing" was playing with Nate. He teased her daily, and the loved every minute of it. She asked me to help her hide her lovie and blankie one afternoon because she didn't want Nate to get it. They played and played and wrestled and teased and played some more. It was wonderful to see.

The kids loved seeing all the pretty Christmas lights in the desert, and they also loved echoing Anne's early observation "that snowman looks silly in the desert", and applying that to everything; "Christmas lights look silly in the desert!"

They got to play with Jon's huge Lego collection, dominos, Uno, checkers, hot wheels racetrack, Connect-4 and finally Monopoly. Monopoly was a bust, but Uno was a big winner.

We saw beautiful sunsets every evening, swam in toasty hot tubs, shopped, ate out and saw beautiful sights. But for the last few days, Mary Grace has been telling us that she wanted to go home because she missed school. She's drawn some beautiful pictures of her getting on the school bus and I think she got a little Teary-eyed wishing she was back home.

One last long day of travel tomorrow and we'll be back to snow and cold and home. Hold on kids, here we go!

Williams first car ride

Another night where William fell asleep on the couch before 8:00pm. The little angel just can't seem to adjust to Arizona time. So there he sleeps on the couch with his blue blankie wrapped around him as the rest of the family plays and talks all around him.

Today we went to the McCormick Stillman Train Park for a carousel ride, a miniature train ride and some ice cream. We played legos for a long time this morning while Mommy went shopping.

The day before Thanksgiving we went to a local kid play park called Crackerjack. We started playing miniature golf, then progressed to young kids go carts and indoor games.

first car ride

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year, we decided to spend our Thanksgiving in Arizona. So far the trip has been great; fine weather, lots of fun activities, and cactai. We're looking forward to a trip to an old west town, the Phoenix Zoo, and Ikea!

William and BFF Joe

Nobody has bonded more with William than our neighbor Joe. He's the guy that William wants to play with all the time, and William is Joe's go-to guy as well.

This week he got to go to the Sandbox (local indoor playground) with Joe and had a fantastic time. They have a fantastic time whenever they're together.

Oh, and William has yet to master Joe's name. He still calls him "Jophes", instead of "Joseph". What's in a name though?

Hope they stay close always!

We had a nice Halloween weekend. On Saturday afternoon, we went to Strong Museum for their trick-or-treating event. Lots of costumes, halloween activities, prizes, etc. Then we went to Jines for dinner (kids in costume).

Sunday afternoon was kind of low-key, but we did get a leaf maze raked into the backyard. It's one of the kids favorite activities. I rake paths in the leaves and the kids run through trying to get the best time.

Sunday evening we had a neighborhood pre-trick-or-treating pizza party with all the usual suspects (all the kids under 8 in the neighborhood) and the parents. The magical beer wagon makes an appearance and we all head out for candy gathering together.

This year, unlike past years, the weather turned sour and we got graupeledupon. That led to a general consensus that it would be best to abandon trick or treating, so after about an hour, we threw in the towel.

Heading into the house, Mary Grace started crying somewhat hysterically, complaining that she couldn't feel her hands! Yeah, it was THAT cold. So we put the poor thing on the heat duct and let her warm up, and all was good.

After a little inventory effort Mary Grace decided she wanted to go out for another round, so at 7:45, we went back out into the cold rain. We got 3 houses in when she stumbled, fell out of her rain boot and with a soaking wet foot, demanded to be carried back home. Looking back, it was quite entertaining :)

Here's some data to slow down your computers




Oh, also, William claims that he was throwing up out of his butt today. I guess he was feeling left out of the stomach bug loop. :)

No fun being a parent sometimes

Tonight, Anne and I drew a line in the sand on Mary Grace's refusal to eat vegetables. We had a roasted turkey breast with mashed potatoes and gravy and steamed carrots with butter. Mary Grace refused to eat anything except for the turkey.

So we told her no desert (homemade cinnamon buns; her favorite) unless she ate 3 tastes of a carrot or mashed potatoes. She refused. So we bartered down to 1 taste of carrot or potato. No way. So no desert.

She was very upset when the three of us sat down to desert and she started complaining about her tummy hurting. I figured it was some sort of a plot to get a cinnamon bun, but we held firm.

So she went to be hungry, but with the expectation that she would get cinnamon buns for breakfast. We felt terrible, but it gets worse...

At 10:30pm we heard her coughing and went to check on her and she was throwing up.

So not only did we hold back her favorite desert from her, but we ignored her complaints that her tummy hurt when it turns out that it very likely really did hurt.

:(

Slugger

Forgive me, Lisenas. I'm not a big baseball fan and I never played baseball except for family picnics. I'll try to encourage William as best I can, but I'll need your help to have him carry on in the tradition of Nate and Jon! :)

Here's a few pics of a little practice we had in the yard. We had a lot of fun!

Daddy is a jerk.

Anne conveyed this story to me yesterday.

She was driving with the kids in the back seat, going to Midtown. Somehow she ended up in the wrong lane and was having trouble getting over to the right because one car was essentially pacing her.

She she mutters "come on, I have to get over, J E R K". (spelled out)

Imagine the angelic voices coming from the back seat.

"Mommy what does J E R K spell?" - Mary Grace
"Oh nevermind..." - Mommy
"J E R K spells Jerk! Mommy what does jerk mean?" - Mary Grace
"Eh, um. Jerk means silly..." - Mommy
"Oh, so Daddy is a jerk!" - Mary Grace
"Well..." - Mommy

I wasn't even there!

Final Fling at Seabreeze Amusement Park

This year, as in past years, Chris Lori and Sarah came to visit for the Seabreeze Final Fling weekend. It's the weekend after Labor Day where the park reopens for one last time, mostly for season pass holders and their friends and family.

Arriving at around 2, we made our way immediately to the Tilt-A-Whirl, Mary Grace's favorite ride. William hasn't been very interested in this one but decided to give it a go since we had special guests. Here's a few good shots from the designated non-rider, Anne.




The rest of the day was filled with lots of exciting rides, patient kids as the others rode adult rides, fun at the park and lazy river and unhappy kids who may be outgrowing the kiddy car ride.



I will always remember the first time we put Mary Grace on that ride and the excitement on her little face. Same goes for William, but seeing them ride together is just priceless :)

The best part of the day (for William) was when he wanted to play the spray the water into the fish-mouth game. You know where you have a squirt gun that shoots water into a little hole, and whomever's fish gets to the top first wins? Well William was so determined and focused that he won! We were all so proud of him, and he even got to pick out his own prize; a blue stuffed-animal clown fish.

Daddy's Macaroni and cheese...

Anne was busy reorganizing Mary Grace's room tonight and William comes into the kitchen where I was cooking, saying he's hungry. Mary Grace chimes in "I'm hungry too".

I respond "how about macaroni and cheese?"

"Yeah!"

So I make it up. Elbows, 2 slices american cheese, milk and butter. Same recipe as Anne uses (minus a Jessica Sienfeld sneaky vege addition).

William eats about half, then states "This is the worst macaroni and cheese EVER!" We all chuckled over that as he ate a slice of my homemade bread instead.

Thankfully, Mary Grace ate hers up.

First day of Kindergarten for Mary Grace

We've been prepping Mary Grace all summer about going into Kindergarten and she's been very excited for it. This week it finally happened!

Her first day of school was September 7, and the bus was to arrive at 7:44am. She had already gone into school to meet her teacher and see her new classroom the week before school. Uniforms were all purchased, supplies all delivered, lunch and snacks packed. All that remained was sending my baby girl away on a bus.

Mary Grace, of course, approached school with no apprehension or fear. Just a great big smile and hugs for William. It probably helped that she knew that her a few of her neighbor friends would also be riding the bus, but for the first time she did remarkably well.

In fact, we could barely keep her off the bus!




Just to make Mom feel better, Anne followed the bus to school and took this nice photo as proof that she did in fact arrive at school. Whew!



Once Mary Grace got in she had a great first day of school and even got back on the bus and came home. Bonus!

Niagara Falls; the conclusion

After a fun and very full day, we packed everything up in the car, including a big bonus; our niece/cousin Sarah took up our offer to come stay for the weekend! It was a little cramped in the back seat with Sarah sandwiched between the two kids seats, but off we were. For about 5 minutes.

We had just started the movie (Babe, on the iPad), when we heard an odd noise coming from the back seat, following by Sarah SCREAMING "OH MY GOD, HE's THROWING UP!". Poor William was hurling all over himself. Emergency pull over into a parking lot and two more hurls leading to a little boy COVERED in stinky yuck.

Anne jumps to the rescue, removing William from the seat and getting his clothes off. I called for reinforcements (Chris and Lori) and we headed back to Chris and Lori's to start the cleanup effort. Bath, laundry, seat hose-down and car cleanup behind us, we set off again just over an hour later. William slept on my lap in the back seat all the way home.

Thankfully, whatever made him sick was not longlasting, as he woke the next morning perfectly healthy. It was a beautiful weekend for us and we took advantage of a few Rochester institutions; Saturday afternoon we spent at the pool at Midtown and Sunday afternoon at Strong Museum. Both were loads of fun for all involved. Sadly, Monday was Sarah's return trip back to Buffalo. Anne met Chris half way in Batavia where they had dinner.

The kids are looking forward to our upcoming overnight guests next weekend for Seabreeze Friends and Family day as well as the Clothesline Art festival at the MAG.

Finally, tomorrow is an ultra-exciting day, Mary Grace's first day of kindergarten! She'll be riding the school bus for the first time ever. Blog forthcoming.

We finally went to Niagara Falls!

I've been trying to motivate the family to go on a daytrip to Niagara Falls all summer long. Checking out the calendar I noticed that there are just a few weeks left of summer so I scheduled a day off and announced my intentions. So on Friday, August 27, off we went.

We had a brainstorm to invite Sarah along for the fun and were psyched when she said yes. So after about an hour and a half drive to Buffalo, then the falls, we arrived.

Our first stop was Goat Island for a great view of the American falls. We took photos from two vantage points, then headed back towards the car for lunch.



After lunch, we proceeded to the Maid Of The Mist! After watching it ferrying people towards the falls, we were all very excited for the ride. At only $15ish or adults, it was a steal. Kids 5 and under are free, too!



The approach to the American Falls gave a great view and we took advantage of the photo opportunities. Then we proceeded towards the Canadian Falls, where the mist was so thick that we all got soaked! It was the best part of the ride though. I'll always remember Sarah and I screaming "I'm on top of the world" with our hands up in the air. LOL.



Even the kids enjoyed it, although William cinched up his raincoat as tight as he could to keep from getting wet. This from my boy who takes every single opportunity to get wet and play with water when at home. Towards the end of the boat ride, he asks me "When are we going to see Niagara Falls?". "This is it, silly!".



After we disembarked, Sarah and I climbed the steps on a path that leads right up to the edge of the falls, where we got even wetter than we did on the boat. Luckily we still had our raincoats from the boat ride on! Sarah remarked that the enjoyed that part of the experience more than the boat. You must do it, if you go. Here's Sarah getting soaked!



So the major stops visited and dinnertime approaching, we decided to head back to Buffalo for dinner with Grandpa.

Next post about the rest of the evening and weekend.

Boy got ink.

Turn your back on a 4 year old boy coloring with markers for one second and this is what you get!

First harvest

A big part of the end of winter and the beginning of spring is a Saturday afternoon of planting seeds with the kids. This year we planted a multitude of flowers and vegetables, but as always, tomatoes are king.

We planted 10 salvaged seeds from a pack of organic seeds we bought in 2008. I wasn't sure they would be viable, but up they came and slowly they grew. While my brothers family was enjoying July tomatoes, ours were still small and green.

In early August, we got a few, but then they all went crazy! Here's a picture of the first harvest, most which went into 10 jars of salsa which we'll enjoy all winter long.





The shopping cart is what the kids harvested into. :)

At the Rock Wall playground

One of the things we haven't done a lot of this summer is go to the playground. So to correct this situation, we piled up the kids into the wagon and headed off to what the kids call "The Rock Wall Playground".

It's actually two playgrounds at a school down near Berkely and Milburn streets. I can never remember the name of the school though. :)

We arrived an instantly made a new friend, a very nice little girl whose name escapes me. After playing on the slide, the "submarine", the monkey bars, and the swings, we headed over to the little kids playground where you can see Mary Grace sitting on the Rock wall. (Nate, you were at this playground with us a few years ago!)

Want to buy some kettle corn?!

This weekend, we leveraged the additional traffic in the neighborhood for some old-fashioned entrepreneur-ism in the form of a kettle corn stand. "50¢ Kettle Corn" reads the sign that Mary Grace made all by herself!

The kids had a great time manning the stand (Mary Grace dressed in her Arial princess costume) while Anne and I observed from the front porch. Most of our customers were neighbors, but some were friendly strangers, like the guy that gave Mary Grace a $1 tip, or the folks who bought 3 bags (exhausting all our inventory and forcing Daddy back to the kitchen to make more).

Mary Grace was the sales person and accounts receivable and William was in product fulfillment and the treasurer.

They made over $11, of which the majority was spent the next day at the Park Avenue Festival on jewelry and kids inflatable "rides".

What a fun Park Ave Fest weekend we had!

Slip-sliding fun

Here's a little fun that I missed as a result of being on the clock...

We got the kids a Slip-n-slide and they struggled to make a go of it in our yard. Anne decided (wisely) to take it to her mom's house where there's a nice big hill in the yard. Toss in the introduction of the term "mighty fine push" and we're good to go!

Slip-n-slid + downhill+ two under the age of 5 + one fun-loving teenager =




Do you love the part where mommy over-reacts to the incidental contact? :)

An awesome summer afternoon at Seabreeze

This afternoon was a perfect storm of summer fun. Afternoon off from work, family visiting from Arizona, friends visiting from NJ, perfect weather, and a trip to Seabreeze amusement park.

We've been building the kids up for a ride on the log flume, and we all decided today would be the big day. But first, we headed to the water park for some splashing around.

After starting at the worlds slowest water slide, we moved on to the spray park (with a slightly less lethargic water slide), then on to the wave pool. We all had fun in the wave pool, but I think William enjoyed relaxing in the surf with cousin Nate the most (lots of whales in the next shot too!)



Next, it was time for the log flume. Daddy and William in the front and Mary Grace and Nate in the back. Up the hill we go and as we cross the top I hear from behind me "I don't want to go". LOL, too late now!. So down we go to a screaming 5 year old. Once we get to the bottom, both kids agree that they definitely don't like the Log Flume and will not be on that ride ever again!

We met up with NJ friends at this point and took a few first-time rides on the Lazy River.



Lazy River, being a complete opposite of the Log Flume was the kids favorite. We rode twice in a row (not counting a potty break), and they wanted to try again! Alas, there was much more amusement park to enjoy.

We move on to the kid rides, and rode the Teacups, the little cars, airplanes, boats, Carousel, etc. I got to go on a few grown up rides too with cousin-Nate. Woohoo, finally! Thanks Nate!

The fun continued with a drive out to Lyons to have dinner with the rest of the family from Arizona, where the kids kept telling everyone how much they enjoyed the Lazy River.

As we drove home, I commented, on what a perfect summer day it was.

Surprising response from William

Last night I was getting ice cream out for everyone when I dropped a zippy cup on the floor.

Since William was right there I asked him if he would pick it up for me.

His response?

Ey-ey Captain!

It caught me off guard because I've never heard him reply to a question with a quote like that. He probably heard it on Sponge Bob Squarepants and integrated it into his vocabulary.

Now things are going to get really interesting!

Daddy, I look like a queen

No, it wasn't Mary Grace saying that. It was William.

We've been encouraging the kids to get dressed by themselves and it's been working out well. Last night, William picked out his pajamas. He choose the puppy pjs that are a year old now and he's outgrown them. But that's what he wanted to wear, so that's what he got.

So when he noticed that the tops were a little too short to cover his belly button, he started pulling them down. This led to the collar getting stretched downwards.

He looked down, and observing that he could see the top of his chest, he noted "Aww, I look like a queen". It took a few seconds to sink in, but I'm pretty sure he was referring to this queen, from the Strong Museum Royal Ball this past spring. Note how her top got pulled down, likely because her belly button was showing.

What my kids are made of

Last night I was telling William the nursery tale about what little boys are girls are made of. My memory was failing me and all I could come up with was:

Frogs and snails and puppy dog tails.

"What is Mary Grace made of?"

Mary Grace is made of sugar and spice and everything nice!

No, Daddy. Mary Grace is made of apple juice and I'm made of salami.

Apparently, William remembered that Anne told him and Mary Grace about what she craved (and ate in excess) during pregnancy. :)

Lead-up to a dance recital

The kids have been taking dance lessons since the fall. They love their instructor "Miss Kim" and while Mary Grace has taken a big interest, William's interest has been lackluster.

About mid-winder, Mary Grace stated that she doesn't need to go to dance class anymore because she knows all the moves now. Luckily, we convinced her that there was a lot of new stuff to learn and that she should continue on.

We're now heading towards their first dance recital, and this weekend we had their pictures taken in their costumes. It was adorable to see all the kids in Mary Grace's class all made up. Here's a few photos we took ourselves when we got home. Hope you love them as much as we do!

Skinny dipping

This afternoon I set up a little pool in the yard for the kids. Upon seeing this, William instantly stripped down to his birthday suit and jumped in. He ended up putting on swimming trunks at Mom's insistence, but both Mary Grace and William stripped down immediately after swimming time.

They spent the rest of the afternoon playing naked and we just finished a naked dinner. It's the first naked dinner since last summer and it was well planned since we had homemade sauce (which inevitably gets on the kids clothes).

Tomorrow will be the Memorial Day parade followed by Memorial Day celebration at Midtown (including lots of frolicking at the pool)

Loving summer with a 4 and 5 year old! (and my wonderful wife!).

Stick and Stone collectors

When the kids were really young and we used to go for walks in the neighborhood in the stroller, or even in the wagon. This inevitably led to collecting of sticks that we found laying on the ground (sadly, it was originally my idea to collect sticks).

Mary Grace took this a step further and collected leaves and nuts.

William, being a boy was more interested in collecting rocks. He would get very attached to them and cry if we didn't keep them.

Recently, Anne found Williams "buddy" (a teddy bear backpack with an optional leash) that we had put away over a year ago, and in going through it, she found a nice big baby rock in the pocket. :)

Little phrases of the moment

We've noticed that both kids have little signature phrases that they like to say. A few that come to mind right now are:

William: "What'cha say?" He says that both when he didn't hear you and when he wants to confirm that the thing he's doing is ok.

William: parent name! parent name! parent name! parent name! parent name! He'll repeatedly and continually call out either Mommy! or Daddy! until you respond. We're trying to work with him on this, encouraging to just ask the question but so far it's not taking.

Mary Grace: "I don't mind". Used for any situation she's flexible on. For example, eating frozen french fries rather than homemade.

Mary Grace: "I need to tell Mommy if I can have a treat". She confuses ask/tell. She'll tell you a question and ask you a statement.

William is making great strides

William's efforts are finally paying off as he makes great strides in everything he tries. He knows all his letters, can put together puzzles, tries almost any food offered to him, and knows right from wrong (although he seems to prefer to do wrong lol).

I'm noticing that Mary Grace seems to be becoming a little more independent. Tonight I noticed her in her playhouse in the yard working on an activity while the rest of the family was sitting on the back porch.

Both kids are looking forward to a wonderful summer full a dance recital, cousins visiting from Arizona, swimming at Midtown and going on rides at Seabreeze. I sure hope it's everything their little hearts desire!

Here's a photo of the kids at their family birthday party in March.

Naughty girls

Tonight we had Mary Grace's BFF (and her family) over for play and dinner. All seemed to go pretty well and at one point the girls locked themselves in Mary Grace's room and CLEANED UP. Weird, I know.

A little silence goes by and both girls come downstairs with a powerful coconut smell. Our guest is nearly naked and covered in a red balm of some sort. All the parents rush over and ask what happened. Mary Grace, sensing impending discipline answers "I don't remember". When pressed harder for an answer, she sticks with her first instinct and repeats "I really don't remember!"

We finally get to the truth; they were in the bathroom playing with Avon Kids Bath Body Paint and our guest thought it would be fun to apply it to herself. Liberally.

Lucky for us, she was heading home for a bath shortly anyway. :)

I love you

I noticed that when I tell Mary Grace that I love her, she doesn't respond that she loves me. Now, I know that she does love me, but all the same, it IS nice to hear! (And I have observed her telling Mommy that she loves her.)

I mentioned it to Anne one night and she queried Mary Grace about it. Mary Grace responded that she doesn't say it because she's shy. In other words, she loves me so much that she's embarrassed to say it. I'm ok with that.

Anne later suggested that rather than saying "I love you" to me, Mary Grace could say "me too" in response to me telling her that I love her. So now, every night, I tell Mary Grace I love her and she responds with "me too". I'm cool with that too.

However, yesterday, I got this card in my email, which I'll treasure for a while, I think.

Brothers and Sisters

Mary Grace:

Mommy, did I tell you that William hurt me 90 times today, and he just kicked me with his foot.

He was hitting me with his feet like this (pushes her foot into his forehead, bumping his head into the wall. No tears.)

He hurt my nose when he was climbing on me.

I don't remember what else he did.

Mary Grace explaining the toilet seat rule to William

"William - When you finish going to the bathroom, you have to put the toilet seat down because it's more comfortable that way for me and mommy. You and daddy have a different kind of coo-coo so we can't stand up."

I asked her afterwards who was responsible for changing the position of the toilet seat and got an immediate "William is". Apparently, the brainwashing has already begun :)

Mary Grace meets the queen at Strong Museum's Royal Ball

We had a fantastic time at the Royal Ball at the Strong Museum last weekend. There were so many activities that we stayed for an unprecedented 3+ hours. Here's one of my favorite moments:

There was a line of little princesses waiting to meet her royal majesty, the Queen. Of course we got in line. As we were waiting we noticed that the little girls were curtsying and I didn't know if Mary Grace knew how. Unfortunately, Daddy didn't know how either. So I explained it to her as best I could based on observation. Then came the big moment



By the way, while we were waiting in line, William asked if he could go see the Spider Man exhibit that was just down the hall. I didn't see the harm, so told him to make sure he can see me (and thus, I could see him). As I was trying to explain curtsying, I lost sight of him and he was MIA for a good 5 minutes while we waited in line.

Here are a few photos from the afternoon as well

Princess Mary Grace and Prince William on the royal (Lego) throne.



At the royal hair salon, getting a french braid



The prince enjoying a snack after making his own crown.

She wants to take the bus next year?!

We're faced with a dilemma. Mary Grace will be starting kindergarten next year, which is every day from 8-2:15. William will still be in 3-day pre-K. That means a lot of travelling back and forth to school.

So we asked Mary Grace if she wanted to take the school bus, fully expecting the answer would be No. What a surprise that she said yes! We've still got to work out the details, but that may be an answer to our problems!

Now we have to try to get the parents to be ok with putting our little girl onto a bus. Right now that's not sitting well with me. :(

Mary Grace's fashion sense

Over the last year or so, Mary Grace has become more and more restrictive with her clothing choices. At first, it was certain colors that she refused to wear. Then she refused to wear jeans. Lately it has degraded to her only wanting to wear dresses. Today she wants to wear an "Eastery" dress while decorating Easter eggs.

So when I overheard this little gem, I had to blog it.

We were all discussing William going to Joe's boy-only birthday party, and since Anne would be working, who would be taking care of Mary Grace. We discussed several options, including neighbors, friends, etc., then Anne said "Maybe Mary Grace can just come to work with me". The first words out of my girl's mouth upon hearing this were "Ohh, what would I wear?!".

Classic girly-girl.

What is Wine?

Sorry for the microblog, but better that than nothing...

William just pulled out the wine VacuVin and asked what it was. I told him and Mary Grace asked , what is wine? I told her it was grape juice that goes through a process that makes it alcohol. She then asked what alcohol was. It's like beer, and if you drink too much of it, it makes you goofy. And she said, "goofy...like silly?" and I said yeah, and she said, "oh, is that how Daddy got to be so silly?" I said, yep, that's how!

Birthday party post coming next.

There are no laser guns in fashion show!

Need I say more?

Words that Mary Grace can write.

She can write her name, she loves to write the word LOVE and she can write Mama and Didi!

William is showing interest in letters now, and has started writing letters out too.

One of MG's early performances.

Before becoming America's favorite ballerina, rock star and fashion model, Mary Grace had humble beginnings in a small city in Western New York. Shown here is a video clip taken right after her 5 year old birthday party where she demonstrates her budding skills in a spontaneous song/dance performance. Note her advanced dancing, rhythm and spontaneous song writing skills, in their earliest recorded form. Who knew that she would grow up to be America's sweetheart?

Mary Grace's birthday party

For her 5th birthday (!), Mary Grace decided on a Barbie themed party. She had all her girlfriends from school, play dates and the neighborhood over for 2 hours in the afternoon. A total of 15 under 8 for two hours means LOTS of fun!

The kids started with coloring pages and tattoos while we waited for everyone to arrive. We moved on to "pin the pony on Barbie" and "the jellybean game" (guessing how many jellybeans were under a cup using only yes/no questions). After that, we all sang Happy Birthday to Mary Grace and had cake and ice cream back in the dining room.

We did a little Barbie Saves The Nutcracker on TV while we got prepared for gifts, then opened some wonderful presents! That took us to 3:00pm, and we gave out gift bags to all the girls and said our good-byes.

I think Mary Grace didn't stop smiling the whole time, she LOVED it.

William had about 10 crying fits because he wanted it to be his birthday too. It was a good lesson for us and the other parents :) He'll get his moment in the spotlight in two months.

So, just like that, my baby girl is 5. People always tell you how quickly it goes by, but you never really get it until it happens to you. I've got to learn to live in the moment more.

So tonight, I read to Mary Grace for half an hour at bedtime and was rewarded with a nice long snuggle.

	Sharing some kettle corn before the party
	The birthday cake, made by Mommy!
	Getting ready to sing Happy Birthday and blow out the candles
	Posing with one of her favorite presents! My daughter, the rocker!

A dead car battery and a funny answer to a question.

Anne was leaving for the gym tonight and discovered that the battery in the CR-V was dead. A little investigation revealed that a dome-light was left on... for days! Recounting the last time she drove it, she realized that it wasn't even night-time, so how did the dome-lights get turned on?

An innocent question to the kids "Were either of you playing with the lights in the car?" Both kids replied "No". Then, she asks William "Are you sure you weren't playing with the lights in the car?"

"No Mommy, I wasn't playing with them... I just turned them on!"

Valentines for mommy

Tonight at KidTown, the kids made Valentines for their mommy. Mary Grace was very proud of hers and ran to show me at pickup time. She wrote LOVE in it, all by herself and signed it (MG).

William, not to be outdone, wrote "I love you Mommy". At least that what I knew he intended to write; it was actually a bunch of lines and circles. When he asked "What did I write?", and I responded with "I love you Mommy!", his face lit up as he asked "REALLY?!". My response, yup, that what I see and that's what mommy will see.

They ran into the house, so proud to give them to Mommy. Love those two...

Kids who already think they know more than parents.

Last night I was getting ready to read a book to William. I opened the book and started reading. He said "no daddy, you missed a page". I said, "nope, this is the first page". So he takes the book from me and starts flipping it around, checking all the pages, trying to pry the cover of the book in half to create a second page, then returns to flipping it all over the place. Finally, he puts the book down and goes into his cuddle/sleep position. I start to get up and he says, "Aren't you going to read the book to me?" This time, he didn't complain about skipping the first page. Passive admission of defeat. :)

Next, I go to read to Mary Grace. She picks a Leap Frog colors book. On the first page, there's a picture of Leap the frog. I ask what's his name? Mary Grace says she doesn't know. I told her it's Leap. She responds that "No, his name isn't Leap". We go back and forth a few times until Mommy walks in. I pick up the book and ask her "What's his name?" She responds "Leap!" I say "See, Mary Grace?" Her response... Change the subject. Again, passive admission of defeat!

My favorite is that Mary Grace thinks "uf" is a word. A sentence that starts with "If" is apparently pronounced actually "uf". We've told her repeatedly and she keeps using it.

ecarG yraM

Part of being a parent is the pride and fun of going through your children's never ending flow of artwork. Some of the better pieces I take to work and hang on my cube wall so I can look at it from time to time with glowing pride. We also hang it on the fridge and the walls in the kitchen.

Anne, Mary Grace and I were going through some of her recent artwork (all very good) and noticed one that she signed (yes, she writes her name now), but we didn't recognize what she wrote. We kept looking and realized that it was her name, except the letter were written from right to left, rather than left to right!

We explained the mistake, and got her normal response to situations where we try to explain what she did wrong... No, she did it right and we were wrong!

Regardless, we're quite proud of the writing and artistic talents of our little angel.

Not to leave out William, he has been bringing home a lot of big wonderful paintings too, and we're going to set up a wall in his bedroom to display his artistic talents!

Lets stay up late and eat kettle corn!

Tonight I suggested that we stay up late and eat kettle corn and watch TV. The four of us huddled together on the couch and chomped away while watching kid-friendly YouTube videos. Then William started snoring. Mary Grace decided to take this opportunity to peel the Elmers glue off of his hand. Then Mommy put him to bed. A few minutes later, the night owl said "I'm tired, I want to go to sleep too...". And so ended a day that started with Music Class at Kidtown, haircuts for William and Daddy and a new craft table in the basement.

PS - Kettle corn = 2 tbsp oil, 1/3 cup popcorn, 1/4 cup sugar. All ingredients in kettle, turn heat on, then pop away.

The need to match

Every night when Mary Grace is getting ready for bed, she has to pick out which pajamas to wear. The inevitable question is "which pajamas is William wearing". The answer to this question determines which pajamas Mary Grace wears. For example, William was wearing his new "Cars" pajamas, meaning Mary Grace had to wear her Dora.

I measured Mary Grace last night and she grew about 1/4 inch since October. We were talking about her current height compared to the first measurement we took and I was informed that she's going to be taller than me soon.