Sock Hop

We finally attended Westfield Elementary’s Sock Hop last night. We had never gone because we don’t have 50s attire and because I didn’t really want to be bothered to go and scrounge some up. But Claire & Alaina were both talking about it this week and were very excited to attend. So I sent out emails to other church ladies with girls and I was graciously offered 3 different sets of poodle skirts. The ones from Susie fit perfectly so those are the ones I used. And, I whipped up their scarves which I think added a lot to the outfits. Yea me!

I could not have imagined the level of cuteness I was about to encounter!!!  Claire & Alaina had many friends there and had tons of fun running around, dancing in circles with other girls, and jumping furiously. (Both complained of cramps 30 minutes after starting to dance. I told them to not jump around so much.)

It was really an awesome Mom moment; I was completely happy watching them have fun with their friends. A few times I tried to intrude and have fun with them as I am used to doing with my clingy children. But I saw that I was not needed and my babies are evolving into independent little girls and I could not have been happier.

The absolute best moment was watching the 2 of them do a spectacular job with a line dance. It’s really popular – the Cha-Cha Slide – but I had no idea they knew how to do it! Thank you Miss Mooney, Gym Teacher!

So now I’m going to sew some poodle skirts to get ready for next year!

   

First Things First

Kevin came home last night and told me about the Tae Kwon Do class he takes (sometimes) over lunch. If he has meetings that go long he misses it, but he tries to make the classes which are x2 week. Well, yesterday he learned stick fighting which he's never done before. He really enjoyed learning something new, and it infused him with some much-needed energy and excitement.

Also cool: the guy who developed the stick-fighting technique he was learning is coming to Cedar Rapids to do a seminar. Usually the closest he comes is Chicago and that involves more travel and hotels etc., so this is a big deal and Kevin wants to go. I told him, of course, do it. The 2-day cost is $190 or so but that's probably and Sat & Sun, so he'll only go on Sat and pay half that.

So Kevin is all excited about stick-fighting and I'm happy to see him happy, and then we go about our evening, put the girls in bed, do this and that, then go to bed ourselves. The lights are out and we're getting sleepy, then Kevin says: Oh, I also got a good review at work today. His boss thinks he's awesome, he sees problems and fixes them without being asked, he does great work, everyone loves him, his boss is trying to get him an "adjustment" (not "raise") but probably won't go through because Aegon has no raises this year, but it's nice that he works for someone who thinks so highly of him.

But stick-fighting was the topic of the day.

**Edited: No stick-fighting seminar in Cedar Rapids. Bummer.

14 Layer Cake

I am SO going to make this cake for our 13th anniversary in May. (Next special occasion.) I adore Bakerella.
http://bakerella.blogspot.com/2009/02/fourteen-for-fourteenth.html

V Day

Happy Valentine’s Day, all!

Here’s what I made for Kevin. I only got the idea on Tues and started on Wed, of course with the inability to work on it in the evenings while he was home. I finished it this morning while I let him sleep in and I’ll give it to him as soon and his eyes can focus. I hope he likes it!

 

 

Kevin’s Birthday

For the second time in our relationship, I have come up with a gift on my own for Kevin that he likes. All by myself! From my brain! Yes, that is amazing.

I found the website http://www.thinkgeek.com and chose this t-shirt for him: (and then teased him that it came from a website with that name)

In very small letters underneath the kanji it says “Serenity” and “Blue Sun” is a company from the short-lived but totally fantastic tv show “Firefly” which spawned the movie “Serenity”. I totally recommend every one of you watch all 14 or so episodes. Kevin and I watched 3 episodes a night until they were done and then we wished there were more. So we watched the movie again. And we wished there were more again.

If they didn’t cost so much I would have ordered one for myself. That’s how good the show is.

Disney World - Epcot

I have to admit, I wasn’t looking forward to Epcot. I remember being a bit bored there before and I wasn’t sure the girls would have a great experience.

There are lots of interactive games there and the girls did have a lot of fun. But since the girls don’t do any roller coasters (not even small kiddie ones yet) we didn’t get to do the one inside the Epcot ball.

And here are the girls at the resort. We stayed at Port Orleans Riverside and it was very nice. We took a boat ride to Downtown Disney one night and had fun running around, spending a big of money, and playing in the Lego store.

One more random picture: I finally tried my first arcade DDR in the resort arcade room. It was very fun and I realized, as I continued through the first song and on to the second round, that I picked an incredibly easy song the first time. I was out in about 3 seconds on the second song.

Disney World – Animal Kingdom

The third day we went to Animal Kingdom. It was great weather and we saw awesome animals on the safari.

Girls playing on the Dinosaur Playground:

For once I’m not holding Bryn, so I make the most of it:

We saw the visually incredible Finding Nemo show; not only was it great to look at, but the music was Broadway caliber. To me, worth the price of admission.

Disney World – Getting There

Well, we are back and recuperating from our Disney World vacation. Let me share with you!

We will start at the Quad Cities airport. We arrived Saturday at 9:30am and waited patiently for our flight. It was announced, we boarded, and all was happy. Do you see how happy we look here?

Well, some fiendish person announced that there was mechanical difficulty, no biggie, and the airport mechanic will simply replace the module. Alas, The airport mechanic was not able to fix the problem, so we were asked to deplane. The airline would fly up their own mechanic on the next flight from Atlanta. Poo.

So, we left the airplane and the girls continue to run around and amuse themselves. We were now booked on a 5:45pm flight. At 5:30pm we saw the luggage cart being pulled up to the airplane. No can fix. It was announced some lucky people would be going to Atlanta, then Orlando on a flight leaving momentarily. Some others would be bumped to the next day and going at 6:00am in the morning. Oh please, not us, I thought.

Yes, us. Alaina started crying immediately “Why us? Why did this have to happen to us?” I tried to hold everything together while Kevin waited in a long line for hotel vouchers, dinner vouchers, free round-trip vouchers, describe our luggage so they could fetch it for us, and rebook us. We waited. And waited. And waited.

Kevin, in his wisdom, realized that after the day we had getting up at 4:00am the next morning would ruin us. So he booked us on a 12:30pm flight instead. Good man. He also had us bumped up to First Class. Ah, wonderful man. First Class:

I told the girls we would pretend Saturday never happened. Our vacation would begin Sunday morning.

Disney World - Hollywood Studios & Magic Kingdom

Monday we woke up, met our friends, Bill, Carrie, Grant, & Camryn Borchardt at breakfast and got ready for fun at Hollywood Studios. We were there twice, but I'm putting all the pictures together. Our favorite ride was the 3-D Buzz Shooting Game.
Tuesday was Magic Kingdom.

Rides:

Princesses:

Cinderella's Castle changed colors while we were waiting for the fireworks show. The girls loved it and shouted in glee every time there was a change.