Princesses read Pinkalicious

Trying to figure out the Kazoo

A WARM December night

Record-high temperatures this one day in December so we did what (apparently) everyone else in Cincinnati decided to do: We grabbed our Buy One Get One Free coupons and headed to the Festival of Lights at the Zoo. It was a madhouse. People everywhere.


Clearly, it was safest to ride on some shoulders.






Sarah and Charlotte each got their own Gingerbread Man to eat. As always, Charlotte called them "Gingerbread Ladies." (That's what she calls them when we play Candy Land.)

Night time at the zoo is mostly just walking around looking at lights. The girls wanted desperately to ride the train, so we merrily stood in line for AN HOUR to take a 7-minute train ride in the dark. We did see a Zebra. And lots of ducks. And a few plastic penguins.


Charlotte looked so cute with her jacket tied around her waist.

As we were leaving the zoo, Sarah broke free from me and ran to a person in a Penguin costume and said, "Hi Penguin!" and got a big hug. It was soooo cute.

After the zoo, we headed over to Graeter's for ice cream, which we ate out outside. In December.


Sarah ordered "Pink!" ice cream. I think her new book "Pinkalicious" is rubbing off on her.

Christmas Day

Christmas morning started EARLY with Sarah bounding out of bed at 6:30 to go look for Daddy. I'm pretty certain she had forgot it was Christmas because she was stunned at the sight of the presents under the tree.

She had to be persuaded by Daddy to go wake up a sleepy head Charlotte, and then of course I was obliged to drag my tired bum up too. I can't remember the last time I was up that early. :-)

One of the first things Sarah opened was her Apron set...

...Which was quickly followed by Charlotte opening her Chef's outfit. These girls do love to pretend to cook.

Charlotte yawns through an obligatory perusal of one of her new books (The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear). The girls ended up getting quite a few new books! So far the most loved is Pinkalicious.

Sarah the Baker makes cookies!

Michael and his new Lands End turtlenecks. Um, I think I get him something from Lands End every year! (Borrring!)

Chef Charlotte is in the house!

Apparently, so is Dr. Charlotte...

Eventually Grandma and Grandpa arrived. Sarah's face here says, "Charlotte get off me!!!"

Grandma got sucked into trying to take a baby doll out of packaging. The way they package things these days....

There's me and new salt and pepper shakers that I've needed for years that Mom has been saying she'll get me for years! Finally, I have them.

There's my handsome husband all cleaned up. Behind him and in the kitchen you can see some of the new paint we're working on in the kitchen and family room. (We're not done yet! Stay tuned.).


I agonized over what to get my Mom for Christmas. Fortunately she loves her "Grandma bag."

There's Dr. Charlotte again. When she looked at her reflection wearing these "glasses" she said, "I look like Grandma."

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve started out relatively smooth. A little housework, a little food prep. A little leaky roof.

Yep, our roof began leaking.

Fortuntely we got it fixed (ka-ching!) and no major disasters (hooray!)

Grandma Linda and Bob came over and the girls opened their gifts from them. A very calm and pleasant evening!

Scrambled Eggs

A week or so ago, I overheard Charlotte in the kitchen telling Sarah, "Sure, I'll make you some scrambled eggs..."

I hurried myself into the kitchen and was told to "Get out, get out!" I insisted I stay, but I would not interfere and would only help if asked.

I was not asked to help until it came time to actually cook the eggs in the microwave and I had to tell Charlotte how many minutes.

I'm beginning to think I'm dispensable.

And here they are enjoying those eggs!

Piano "Recital"

Charlotte's piano teacher, Miss Jenna, had a Christmas party/Recital for her students. Each kid was to learn a Christmas song and play it for the group (all the other students and their parents). Charlotte's song was Jingle Bells. She has only been taking lessons for about 2 months and Jingle Bells may have just been a notch too hard. So the plan was for her to do a duet of Jingle Bells with Miss Jenna. Just before the recital, however, Charlotte informed Jenna and us that she didn't want to play Jingle Bells. She wanted to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

I hadn't brought her piano book (just the Jingle Bells sheet music), but that didn't deter her. On her way up to play, she just picked up someone else's book that was laying on the floor.

Charlotte was very confident playing her song. And although she made a few mistakes, she played through and was very, very proud of herself.

She did an awesome job for only taking lessons a shortwhile! WE are very proud of her too.




Taking a bow.


With Miss Jenna

Tumbling with Sarah

I took my camera to tumbling class last week so I could capture what me and Sarah do. She LOVES her tumbling class.

First we start off with bells...




Then we do Warm Up by running and walking in a circle. Usually Sarah runs RIGHT beside me and/or wants me to hold her hand. This particular day she ventured out and was running all by herself!


This day, Miss Lindsay brought out the scarves! The kids pretended the scarves were bats!




Then it was time to explore the gym. Here she is doing the classic "Log Roll."


Working with Miss Lindsay on the Skill of the Week.





Practicing jumping off...


Ahh, the Balance Beam.


The parallel bars is one of her favorite things to play on.


Taking a break in the Doughnut.


This, THIS, is Sarah's favorite - the Uneven Bars! She can touch her toes to the bar (I just wasn't able to capture it on film).




Then it's Bubble Time - Everyone loves Bubbles!!!!


Then it's time for Balls. This day they practiced throwing the ball through the Doughnut.




At the end they all line up and get a stamp on their hand!

It's a great 45 minutes for Sarah and me!