March

We attended a cousin’s birthday party.  The crowd was mostly adults so my little three added some great chaos to the group.  They were thrilled to play outside together on the swing sets and investigate someone else’s toys.  They ate dinner surprisingly well (but then again, they love a taco bar) and A ate her weight in chips and sour cream.  L was a good helper while her cousin opened a truckload of presents while A and E explored toys elsewhere.  So much fun.

I attended a really good seminar on building metabolism.  The information was great.  Putting it into action has been lacking.  Despite repeated starts, I’m struggling to recommit to clean eating and a rigorous training schedule.  I’ve GOT to get back on track.  But so far the score is me: 0, chocolate: 47.

L’s school hosted “moms and muffins” (which I missed because I was sick and not thinking straight) and “dads and donuts”.  Since Husband was out of town, I went with her and we renamed it “moms and donuts”.  We arrived at the school, she picked out her donut and we settled in at her desk to read books for twenty minutes before schools.  It was pretty delightful to have the one-on-one time with her.

I attended a workshop for water aerobics instructors and had a fantastic time.  I’ve been teaching it for three years but because there is very little training available, I’ve mostly made it all up on my own.  So the training was fantastic.  A lot of it was confirmation that what I’ve been doing is good.  But I found a lot of material to help me improve it.  It was a ton of fun and definitely challenging.

That evening, my mom and L picked me up at the end of training and we headed south to join my brother and his kids for a quick pizza picnic. Then we got to go see my oldest niece perform as The Cat in Suessical the Musical.  It was an elementary school production and quite impressive for their age.  They had some great vocal talent and I loved watching my beautiful, amazing niece onstage.  L was thrilled to be with her cousins and so impressed that her cousin was the star of the show.  She eagerly gave her the bouquet of flowers and the stuffed animal Cat in the Hat we had brought at the end of the show.

The girls had a day off of school so we made it an adventure.  I took the girls to the Disney store, arriving just before they opened.  It was our first time being there for the opening ceremony and the girls got to be part of it.  They watched as the employees set up the special gate and made the announcements.  Then they watched through the windows as Tinkerbell (as a projection) flit around the store until the discovered the giant key coming their way.  The three of them held it together to insert in into the lock that dropped the ropes and official opened the store.  Then they were given a small replica of the key as a keepsake.  They were so delighted and then spent an hour playing in the store looking, repeated collecting favorites and restaging the displays and watching clips in their animation pavilion.  Eventually, I convinced them it was time to go and I took the girls for haircuts (as we do about every six months).  They love “Cookie Cutters” because of the play area, the individual tvs and especially for the little pink car/fire engine/airplane chairs they get to sit in.  Unfortunately, the store we usually go to was booked so I went to another location.  L was first and her turned out great.  They did a lot more layering so it looks a lot shorter which was a shock but overall she was pleased.  E and A ended up in chairs at the same time so my attention was divided (my first mistake).  I realized that the stylist was cutting A’s hair differently than I wanted (more “bob” than “a-line”) and while I was talking to her, the stylist cutting E’s hair went MUCH shorter than I had anticipated, claiming it was because her hair was so curly it bounced up tighter.  After a few days of letting it settle, I really like it.  Especially because A’s fits her personality and E’s is so much easier to style.  But it was a pretty big shock.

And one of my very favorite events of the year: the scrapbook expo!  This eagerly anticipated event is a girls weekend event with my mom and sisters and even invited one of my scrapbooking cousins this year.  We met Thursday night for pedicures and absolutely loved starting our weekend off with something so thoroughly relaxing.  We got to be pampered as we chatting and got caught up.  We continued with dinner and Chili’s and then piled into a hotel room together where we talked, flipping channels and snacked on the pile of favorite treats we had all brought.  On Friday morning we woke up earlyish for breakfast and then spent the whooooollllleeeeeeee day at the expo.  It was wonderful.  We staked out a table in the digital lounge so we could have power for our laptops.  My mom, one of my sisters and I were on our laptops while another sister and cousin spread out their paper projects.  We occasionally wandered the booths, stopping at favorites from previous years (purses and jewelry as well as scrap materials).  We piled treats into the middle of the table and had a fantastic time, sharing our projects with each other, talking and getting a lot done.  We stayed almost to midnight before heading back to the hotel to crash.  We slept in the next morning and barely made it to breakfast.  Then we lingered at the hotel for a little while before heading back to our families.  Already looking forward to next year.

oh.  and I survived another trip to the dentist.  yayyyy