All I Do is Win

This week I took a group of 5th graders to perform for a teacher conference. I thought they did a great job! We did three songs, but this was my favorite.

Thank you to my amazing husband, who mixed the music for me, so that I could use it with the kiddos.

Lawyered S1:E2

Wesley to Matt, after seeing a commercial for a Belle doll, "Daddy, I just saw Belle on the T.B. (tv)"

Matt:"Uh-huh"

Wesley " She is sad, she needs me to go the store and get her"

Matt "Oh Yeah?"

Wesley " Yeah, she needs someone to make her tea, We can go get her and I will make her some."

Never once did Wesley say she "wanted" Belle, or cry or pitch a fit for her. This was a calm, rational conversation on why we should go get this doll immediately.

Lawyered.

Happy Birthday Baby

I'm a day late, sorry. But, we we were just so busy celebrating, cause my "baby" is THREE!!

I cannot be cliche enough to express how fast she is growing up or how much I love this girl. She is so smart and so funny. Her personality delights me daily.

We woke her up at 7am, sleepy head was not interested in starting her birthday early. But when she saw her new princess tent, she perked up!

Then we had to have "cupcakes" which were really blueberry muffins, with 3 candles.

I hope she had a great day. Her actual party will be this Sunday and I will post the fun here next week!

I love you like whoa

I love my dog. As I know all pet owners love their animals. But these friends LOVE their pets like whoa.

Is that a feret on your chin or are you just happy to see me?

Sorry Travis, you take a backseat to giant hamster, he's the favored son in our home.

Don't let the fact that Fluffy died stop you from taking him to Penny's for family portrait day.

Yes Tobey, I give you my heart.

This gives the game "Peep Eye, Playing Possum" a whole new meaning

Last but not least....................................

I can KICK! and STRETCH! and KICK! (Sally O'Malley voice inserted here)

Halloween 2011, my "faborit"

Halloween is my favorite holiday. I love the costumes, the candy, the fall decor, the cooler weather (not cold, cooler)...all of it. And it just gets better when you have kids, the festivals, parties and joys of trick or treating are so much more fun through their eyes. And let me tell you, my love of a good costume has certainly worn off on Wee. She loves dress up any ol' day of the week, but when you inform her she gets to leave the house in costume, her thoughts can best be expressed in song "A whole new world....a new fantastic point of view...."(Jasmine, circa 1992)

We had four Halloween activities planned. And you better believe Wesley needed a separate costume for each one. Recycling outfits may work for the Duchess Kate, but not Wesley Elizabeth.

Event One, 10.26.11, School Carnival, Fairy Princess

It took her a second to warm up, the gym was very loud and crowded. But once she heard music, it was on.

She even sat still for her first face painting.

(please notice the marshmallow man, and his Dad the ghostbuster behind us, love it!!)

Event Two, 10.29.11, Zoo Boo, Princess Tiana

Must get our tiara on straight before we head out.

This picture makes me think it may be time for a camera upgrade.....but she's still cute.

Loving on the wolf, who Wesley decided was a fox, no matter what we said.

Event Three, 10.31.11, School party, Princess Aurora, aka Sleeping Beuaty

 I was at work during this party, so I only got one pic after school. But at least she smiled and looked at me this time.

Event Four, 10.31.11, the big show...Halloween trick or treats

All the way home I talked up trick or treating, and what we would do and see. This, apparently, impressed on Wesley this was a big deal, therefore it deserved yet another costume change. Did it matter that I needed to put groceries away, drop off a house warming present, get dinner fixed, get our candy out and get changed...no, we needed a new costume. And so we left the princess world behind for ballet.

She was so proud.

Look at her trick or treating all by herself! Such a big girl.

During trick or treating we hit a rough patch of sidewalk and the tights took the brunt of it. Oh well!

I loved it all. Even with rude adult, yes adult, trick or treaters, and two missing pumpkins from our fall display, Halloween is still my "faborit" holiday, and may be Wesley's too. Just don't ask her what she was for Halloween, you may get a blog entry in response : )

Road Trip part 2:: The Aquarium

The Georgia Aquarium is AH-MAZING. That is pretty much all I can say. But I will elaborate since this is a blog, sorry.

The layout is great because you don't have to do the exhibits in any certain order, read:: you don't get stuck behind that guy that reads every plaque and won't let anyone else in to see. When you go into the aquarium you are in a big open space and all around you are themed "rooms" to go explore as you wish.

We choose the touch tanks first. This area had low open tanks that everyone could just reach into and touch whatever happened to swim by. I thought my 2 almost 3 year old would LOVE this, turns out it just scared her. In her defense, the first tank was sting rays and sharks (tiny cute sharks). She warmed up to the idea by the time we got to the anemone tank, apparently squiggly pink things are always okay.

Then we headed to the amazon. River fish are big! This is the part that had the albino gators. They were so neat, the reason I have zero pictures is because my child was terrified of them. Turns out she knows Washburns never like gators.

 

 

Our next area was for the sea life that enjoyed the cold. Artic crabs, Octopi, Beluga Whales, and Penguins!!

 These freaked me right out, but Wesley loved the way the carefully kept eating the "marshmallows" (some kind of white sea tubey thing)

 I love this picture, but I think we were frustrating that poor octopus. She really thought she was going to get us at any moment.

Wesley could have stayed in the whale room all day. She adores them. By the end of the day we had been 4 times and she knew all four of their names.

This was such a sweet moment. Wesley just got up next to the little sleepy penguin and was talking directly to him. He just kept blinking at us like "Seriously, I am so tired."

I have no pictures from our next area because they weren't allowed. We had tickets to the dolphin show. I thought Wesley would love a dolphin show. Not so much. It was like a play with a ship, a sea monster and a prince. The dolphins save the day of course, but only after lots of thunder, lightning and fire. She was terrified. She wanted to leave the entire time (30 mins) and it wasn't allowed. She had to make it through. I tried bribing, soothing, threatening, feeding....it didn't matter, she wanted out. We did make it through and after it was over she said she loved it, through tears. She even picked a dolphin as her one treat at the end of the day. She will tell you that was her favorite thing she saw at the aquarium.


Back to the fish. Big fish. Length of a school bus big. Meet the whale shark. My favorite of the day.

Too cool. And, as it turns out, super sweet. The whale shark is very docile, mainly because their throat is the diameter of a ping pong ball, so that's the biggest size fish they can eat. His much smaller cousin, the tiger shark, can dislocate his jaw when he eats, which makes him one of the deadliest.

  

The final exhibit was the tropical waters/coral reef sea life. The first hallway was really dark so that you can see the phosphorescent jelly fish. I hate jelly fish, but you could not help seeing these particular jelly fish as beautiful.

 

We wrapped up our day relaxing in front of this:

Not bad, eh?

I have left so much out, these were just the high points. To say the least, I highly recommend this as a destination for all ages. And Atlanta is only 6 hours away. It was a very easy road trip and I thought it was wonderful, I hope the other road trippers felt the same way. I sure enjoyed their company!

Road trip part 1: Shopping and Sleeping-ish

Me, Mom and Wee hit the road Tuesday morning for a little Fall break road trip. Our only plan was the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta on Wednesday, everything in between was just gravy. Mom and I have been having official "road trips" every year since 2005, but this was Wes's first go. Needless to say things were a bit different with an almost 3 yr old in tow.

First big difference, you do not "make good time" when a certain somebody has to potty every hour and a half...... Second difference, conversation is really hard when the kid in back is wanting someones attention at all times. But that's okay, the trip was for her and we had an iPad chocked full of princess movies.

So our first adventure was the outlet mall in Leeds, AL. This was Wes's first real experience with reasonably priced retail and I thought she took it very well. She ended up with a new fall wardrobe, fall boots, and a fairy costume. Mom stocked up on audio books and stocking stuffers, I found...glasses(outlet shopping fail). In all fairness we did really need new glasses.

Wesley especially loved entertaining the young ones at the play area. Meet the three year old girl version of Charlie Chaplin. Once she figured out falling over made people laugh it was on.

 

Then we attempted a few planks.

The last one is my favorite, love that arabesque.She gave up on planking and decided just to sit pretty. I came up with several captions for this, but none are appropriate. Think Austin Powers.

We headed out for dinner next, but not before we had our new boots on!

After dinner we powered through rain, construction and darkness to make it to Atlanta to check into our hotel. Mom and I couldn't wait to get some rest. Wesley immediately changed into her new fairy costume and politely asked if we would turn on the "Pointer Sisters" so that she could have a dance party.

We finally all fell asleep around 11pm. But have no fear we did not oversleep the next day. Wesley was up and ready to go at 7am EST, because she knew we were headed to the aquarium! She had on her clothes and make up before I even had my contacts in!

We headed to the aquarium soon after and our story continues there........