And the Oscar goes to...

Nothing is sweeter than little girls dressed in pink and dancing. Both Isabelle and Olivia loved going to their dance classes the past year at Boni's School of Dance. Isabelle spent an hour at ballet and jazz and although she didn't know anyone in her class was always happy and cheerful to go get her groove on after school. She really thinks it is fun to perform and loves the costumes and lights and being on stage. Olivia spent her dance time in a Tots and Tutus class where two teachers sang songs, played games and encouraged tiny 2 turning 3 year olds to move their bodies to the beat. Saying Livi loved this hour each week would be a major understatement. She was THRILLED every week to go to class and loved nothing more than wearing her tutu and ballet slippers.

After many hours spent (and even more dollars spent) the girls performed in the The Oscar Goes To... dance recital. The venue was a huge outdoor theater where John Mayer was a few nights later and was two nights and dress rehearsals long. The girls looked especially mini up on the big stage but neither one was stage fright and both danced their hearts out. Isabelle performed a Grease Medley while Olivia danced to Zip-a-dee-doo-dah. Grammie, Tara and Alex came to support the future stars and both girls felt beautiful, fancy and special.

As a mother, I personally have a soft spot for watching my girls dance and thankfully they share the enthusiasm. Fortunately for all, I see many more years of dance in this family's future!

Sweet and Sixty

Wow! My mom turned 60 years old and we are all a little depressed about it. Sixty sounds pretty old, but we all know my mom is far from old. We couldn't let this day pass though without a big celebration so we got to work on plans. My dad had to do a lot of lying which he hated, but we pulled off a huge surprise party. First, my mom's best friend and sister Grammie Glo flew into town to surprise her from Arizona. This could have been the party all on its own, but we kept going. While Grandma and Grandpa headed to the airport thrilled to pick up Gloria, Tara, Alee and I got busy turning my parents backyard into a Sweet and Sixty buffet. My mom has always loved sweets and we made sure we had all of her favorites. We hung lit lanterns all over the backyard and filled the area with about 50 of her good friends just in time to yell SURPRISE as she rounded the corner. She truly was surprised and even backtracked around the corner briefly in shock. It was a fun and sweet night and my mom is definitely worth the work. She is the best grandma, mom, mother-in-law and friend and we are so grateful to be a part of her life. Happy Birthday Mom! Here is to 60 more years....or maybe just 40.

April Showers...

Wow, I am behind in life. I can't keep up! April seems like a long time ago and it was. I had a few random pictures that I wanted to document though. It seems that when we weren't at school, dance, soccer, piano, traveling or church we spent our time doing the usual. Playing with Leo, dressing up, hiding and seeking and just having fun. (I am pretty sure despite my title though that we didn't enjoy many rain storms.) It is amazing how much the girls grow and change in just a few short months. The clock just refuses to stand still.

A dream is a wish your heart makes

We have decided that as long as our girls are small, there is no more fun family vacation than a trip to Disneyland/World. This year the Easter Bunny brought us tickets to California so we skipped a week of school in late April/early May and found our way to the Happiest Place on Earth for a week of magic.

I am not sure which of the four of us was most excited to get to Magic Kingdom but we made quick time of it. We left Houston just after 8am and walked thru the big Disney gates before noon. From that moment on we spent multiple fabulous days enjoying all things Disney. We ate churros, pretzels, popcorn, corndogs, tacos, frozen lemonades, more churros and drank lots of soda. We rode ride after ride after ride and enjoyed the short lines of mid-week crowds. We saw Princesses galore stopping to take a photo with Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Tiana, Ariel, Jasmine, Snow White, Belle, Merida, etc. And received pages and pages of autographs of everyone from Peter Pan to The Mad Hatter and Alice. We watched parade after parade and danced with street performers and animals.


Olivia was particularly fun this trip because she knew all of the stories and was so excited to see all of her favorite characters. She was close enough to 40" that we could sneak her on a few big rides and after Splash Mountain she screamed That was awesome and I am never going on it again! We stayed at the amazing Disneyland Hotel so thankfully we were close enough to run home for a nap and a couple days we did just that. On those days we were able to stay up late for Fantasmic and also Wonder of Color. One super tiring day you could have found all four of us crashed asleep for a mid-day nap at the hotel which I am pretty sure has never happened before in 7 years.

Isabelle was finally tall enough for ALL of the rides so she braved the new Matterhorn as well as California Screaming. We dined with the princesses one afternoon and had Disney Magic Makeovers at the famous Bibbity Bobbity Boutique another. Olivia picked the Princess Makeover of course while Isabelle chose the Disney Popstar instead. They both felt so beautiful all day long and strutted their stuff for all to admire the rest of the day.

Tara was already out West for a business trip so we convinced her to stop by Southern California before making her way back home. We love the odds of 3 adults to 2 children and were happy to have Aunt Tary join us for a few days of fun. Sadly all good things come to an end as we've learned before and before we knew it, it was time to head out of Fantasyland and back to reality. (A lot less magical.) We had missed as much as school as we could get away with and Ben needed to get back to work to fund our future trips, so we made our way back to John Wayne Airport and were back home sooner than we liked.


Every single day since we have been home the girls have mentioned the trip in some form. Olivia asks me what my favorite ride is at Disneyland or Isabelle reminds us of something we did while at Disney. The girls "play" Disneyland often and pack their real suitcases full of their real clothes atleast weekly. We are so grateful that we have the means to make these special memories and already are tossing around ideas for our next trip to The Happiest Place on Earth!

You are never too old to wish upon a star. - Walt Disney