What's Wrong with Cinderella?

Funny enough we had this exact discussion on Christmas day as the girls' sat entranced in front of the TV, watching the digitally remastered DVD of said movie.

Reading this article today brought home some interesting points.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

 

Rock On

You make the rockin' world go round.........

Part I

Part II

More Random Thoughts

It's happening again-- too long between posts and my memory is failing me.

Random thoughts:

• Sydney named one of her babies "Swims-a-lot"
• Leah thought a good holiday gift for Alison would be a pack of princess panties
• Sydney puts on sunglasses and a bandana and tells me not to worry, it's just her in a "mask"
• Sadly, Sydney also put an animal in a box recently and told me "it's dead"-- perhaps the nearly disposable fish aren't a good idea?
• While enjoying some music Leah told me to "not rock out"
• Scott is now officially Eric from the Little Mermaid
• Our dear cat, Paddy is forever "Luk-a-feerr" or Lucifer from Cinderella
• Sydney often makes Leah pretend to be Prince Phillip from Sleeping Beauty
• For their birthday they got walkie talkies which Sydney rejected immediately as a toy "for boys"
• She then changed her mind and decided she liked her "waakie-hockey" and she and Leah stood in different rooms screaming "Sisssy??? Can you hear me????" since of course there were no batteries in it
• Many birthday gifts were opened to the phrase "OH MY GOODNESS!!!". They're three going on thirty
• This story relayed by my mom the other day about Scott's records:
  "GramE, squares have all sides EQUAL!"
• Leah told my mom that she was "going to Tucker High with her notebook and pencils! That's REALLY school!"
• They're really in to what they call "holiday music" right now. Faves are Rockin Around the Christmas Tree, Mr. Grinch and the Dreidel Song.
• Favorite NON holiday songs are "We Want the Funk" by Parliment and "Fat Bottom Girls" by Queen. I'm really not kidding, video evidence to follow.

There's No Place Like Home...........

Yay! Uncle Keith (my little brother) got in last night for Christmas. He'll likely pop by after the girls wake up from their nap.

Christy should also get in this weekend, as well as Ted, Daniel and Summer. I wish I had more time off this week but I have to go back to put in some hours on Wednesday and Thursday.

This morning we had a fun playdate with Lyle, Lucy, Bill and the twins at the Little Jumping Bean. We all forgot that school is out for everyone-- the place was insane. Leah & Sydney decided the slide was the thing to do and went up and down for about 45 minute straight (we got our $20 bucks worth of play for sure). They were a sweaty mess by the time we left at noon and are now out cold.

Tonight is the last night of Hanukkah AND Scott's birthday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SCOTT!!!!!

More Holiday Fun

Click here for an album of pics that Ellis took on the 1st night of Hanukkah.

These are a few of my favorites. Not sure why Leah is pulling such a pouty face but it's funny.

Ballet Last Week

You know it's that time of year. Since last posting I've attended two holiday parties, hosted one holiday get together and managed to squeak in shopping during the hours my mom has been watching the kids.

Last weekend was the open house for ballet-- below is a link to an album of pics:

Ballet Class

Crissey was here and got to watch it with us. What a riot. All the kids were simply adorable and I don't know what hit me but I nearly burst in to tears when they did their little butterfly dance-- they laid on the ground as catepillars and then turned in to butterflies and basically ran around the room.

Sunday Funny

Sydney looked at me in all honesty tonight and said "Happy Kwaanza, Mommy." I said "huh?" and then they both repeated "Happy Kwaanza Mommy!"

Sydney then proceeded to ask me what exactly Kwaanza was and I think I answered correctly.

Uh, and apparently Nathan and Brody celebrate it? Perhaps one of their parents can confirm or deny this one (I'm going with deny).

Nice to see the multi-cultural love going on in our house. Speaking of-- we desparately need to get our tree together while simultaneously dusting off the menorah. Five days til Hanukkah, 15 til Christmas. EEEK!

Birthday Photo Album here

Leah & Sydney's Third Birthday

And I think I mentioned that you can view Ellis' photos here using IE7, a Mac of Firefox as your browser.

Baaah Humbug

Not sure if you can see it in this photo but check out Leah's dubious expression! In the end our photo session with Santa @ Northlake Mall turned out just fine.... but I caught this moment as the poor photgrapher tried to wrangle a smile out of them! 

Such Cultured Kids

Since Leah has refused to nap she's hanging with me on the couch watching Oprah on Tivo.

Today's guest is the international singing sensation Il Divo.

I gotta say these guys are CHEEEESSSEEEEY.

But Leah took one look and said "is this opera? I like opera-- do you like opera mama?"

Got to give her credit for knowing what this is trying to be.

We're Three!

It's official: Leah & Sydney are three! Leah announced on her birthday morning that "all the kids at pre-school" are three and that she can "do everything a big kid can do." Almost totally true!

We had a great birthday WEEK starting with DeeDee arriving last Thursday. She got to watch the girls' dance class on Saturday morning and then come with us to Lyle's birthday party at The Little Jumping Bean

Photos of everything and some video clips are coming soon. Photo above courtesy of Ellis Vener

Ellis' web gallery is here--- it will only work if you are running IE7 or using a Mac

Their party day was Sunday and our theme was Under the Sea-- lots of bright tropical colors and lots of fish-themed items from the goody bags to the crafts and decorations. We hosted a big group and luckily the weather was good enough that some of the big kids played out back for a while before it got dark.

And the presents-- we owe everyone thank-you notes but we spaced the presents out over the past four days and each gift has been greeted with exclamations like "Oh my goodness!" and "I always wanted that!" even if they'd never seen one before. Right now the hit item is the Princess dresses (thanks Faith).

A big milestone-- they got rid of the pacifiers. The night of their party they were pretty distracted with all the new toys so I just hid the box full of nuks and told them that the Nuk Fairy had taken them away! I can't lie-- they would cry for a few minutes, then I'd come in the room and they'd just start talking and talking like nothing was wrong, until the door closed again. It's got to be hard, they lost their main coping mechanism for falling asleep. As I speak Leah is refusing to nap actually...................but they can do it.

DeeDee told them to think "happy thoughts" to help fall asleep.

Tuesday at school they had a party with cupcakes and hats.... the school took cute pics of them which was sweet.

FYI Sydney wished on her cake last night for a "shark, a dolphin and a fish." That's my girl!