Mother's Day Magic

For Mother's Day my wonderful Mom took Addy and I to Disneyland!! How great of a Mother's Day is that? We were at the happiest place on earth to celebrate. We had a wonderful 6 day trip. We got to spend lots of time at the parks and spent one day at the beach too. For the most part (return flight cancelled and delayed at the airport an extra few hours) the travel was good, Addy did well and outside of a little too much sun and sunscreen - we had a GREAT trip!



We are still unpacking and recovering - but I wanted to get a few pics up!


We did the princess breakfast the first morning - what a fabulous event. Great food, all the pretty little ones in their princess costumes, and all the princesses . . . it was magical. Addy continued to talk about it the entire trip. Clearly it was a highlight for her.

Another highlight for me was that Addy was tall enough to tackle a few more rides. She was able to do the Matterhorn and Splash Mountain (two of my all time favorite rides). And was she scared of either of them? Heck no. This girl is a thrill seeker. As soon as we completed the huge drop on Splash Mountain Addy said "lets go on this again". And she giggled (not kidding) through all of the Matterhorn. :) Man, I love this kid! Here we are on Splash:

We saw lots of characters. We did the autograph book thing, and that went okay. We had to keep it away from Addy because she wanted to scribble over every signature! But, she seemed to enjoy getting the signatures.


(We saw a ton of characters and some multiple times, I will spare everyone all the pictures.)

But I have to share these. Addy really wanted a doll at the park one day and so we picked out this super cute Minnie Mouse doll. She was hooked. At breakfast one morning at Goofy's Kitchen, Addy was treated to a visit of hugs and snuggles from Minnie herself. How cute is this??


I am always amazed at the thoughtfulness, caring and joy of the characters. They are so wonderful with the kids and even the adults. They are patient and kind every time. It must be so hot and frustrating at times and it never shows.

I always love the landscapes at Disney parks. Just sitting and looking around is a joy. Soon we'll have flowers like this here:


The babies have arrived and there were about 5 disney staff watching that these guys got a safe crossing. No fear there, I think the whole park stopped to get a shot and cheer them on their way.

One evening we headed back for a relaxing tea party at the room. Mom did a great job putting together a wonderful tea party.

We got to see a couple of parades. I LOVE parades. The anticipation, the build-up and the delivery is always worth it.


We had wonderful weather. Sunny and warm!

Addy had a wonderful princess bed to sleep in each night. And she made sure her babies were just as cozy as she was.

Grandma to the rescue. I can't do tea cups.

We got a chance to hit the hotel pool.

My oh my! I forgot what a beach outside of Washington looks like. Beautiful! Brown sand, blue/green waters and blue sky. Not a shade of gray in sight. Amazing. (I still love our beaches better - really!) But it was really nice!




Thanks Mom for such a fun-filled week! Addy and I had the best time and made so many great memories we won't forget.

Only 2 More

Can you believe it? I am on the edge of my seat to see how this wild ride ends. I have some many questions - who has the answers? Anyone?

Are you brave?

This is the worst thing to ask me when I am sitting in your chair to get my hair cut. You know what the answer is going to be. Oh, yeah! I am not one of those people that comes back front the salon and says things like, "wow, look I got three inches cut off" and you can't even notice, or "I really went dark on the highlights, crazy huh?", and people are thinking what is the difference. Nope. Not me.

So here was what my hair probably looked like at 11:30 today:

And here I am at 2:30, trying to do a self-portrait. Yeah, I have brown hair now. Not just brown - dark brown. My stylist convinced me to close my eyes and so I didn't see anything from the time she started washing out the color and a few highlights to the time the cut was totally done. Amazing.


I really like it because it is so different. At least people won't miss the fact I tried something different.! They will notice, as soon as they realize its me! Wow, I can't believe I would describe my hair as dark chocolate brown. :)

I like it. A lot. I think. It is like a reinvention. Me, only . . . darker!

Something New

Addy had her first soccer practice this week. It was really fun, although Addy struggled with all the new people and activity. She was painfully shy and quick to get frustrated. I am encouraged that she will grow in these areas in the next few weeks. It was a humbling experience for Scott and I as we tried to be patient, help, empathize and push all at the same time. :)

We are doing the class with our good friends and their kids Logan and Rhema. I think Addy's main issue was at the beginning of class they all got separated into different groups and she spent a lot of time wishing she was in the group with her friends. Hard life lessons at 3! There were some pretty cute moments too. Here are some pics of the practice:


Here is the agility course video:

Hello Old Friend

After all of my complaining that what I really learned last year during the "Year of the Gardener" is that I hate gardening . . .

I admit to a sense of joy as I said hello to an old friend today. We've been together more then ten years now. That is probably like a gazillion pots.

And another old friend was right there with me today. This lovely was a gift from my parents a couple of years ago. Looking beautiful - you can't see it, but it has the most delicate candy pink blossoms.

We started on the in-need-of-much-help yard today. What a brilliant day - it was 70!! Um, in heaven here!!!

Yards of topsoil. My back is hurting tonight! And a bunch of dead azaleas we didn't get out at the end of last year. I don't know what happened but last year all of our azaleas got diseased and died.

Remember this front bed from last year. I ripped out all the day lilies (my personal ugly bush, although I still have them all over my yard) and yet another dead azalea. All winter this front walkway bed was U.G.L.Y. Laying it out here:

More beds to fill with top soil. I believe a couple of hours ago Scott told me his body is on the verge of collapse. :) We are going to be sore tomorrow.

Another hole from another azalea that got put to rest today.

All planted and getting watered. Casualties today thanks to Addy: 2 toys dropped on the new plants, 1 shovel dropped, 3 crushings by tennis shoe, 3 smashings when Addy turned the hose on full blast, and 1 pretzel rod left in the top soil during a temper tantrum. All around I say a pretty good showing. I still have some flowers left. :)


And of course Addy decided to add some photography flair for the day:




Tonight Addy decided it was a must to throw the fancy party of the year. She got all dressed up in her fancy clothes. On this first 70 degree day of the season fancy clothes included tights, bloomers, skirt, boots, scarf, hat and (missing in the picture) mittens. When we went to get a warm-day ice cream - yup, she was in her fancy outfit, mittens and all.

Oh, and a very fancy necklace too!!

Art

Do you like the beautiful art work?

Scott and I say thank you. That's right, these masterpieces were created by Scott and I. Addy is all about being the teacher and creating art projects for us to complete. She gets out the supplies, cuts the paper just so, trims up ribbon and then leads us in making art projects.

The 7000 pieces of tape used to secure the art to the wall is all Addy.

Addy+Tape=Love affair of a lifetime

Throw in some scissors and the girl might faint with joy!

Is it here yet?

It all started with an e-mail from Micheal's. Dying for spring to come, I see the "lowest prices of the season" and click . . . the light bulb clicks on. After a quick trip, we start on the front porch.

Spring flowers and a new star. :) Then Addy decided to do some photography while I pulled out dead plants and attempted to whip the yard into some type of shape.

Her ground breaking series featuring Ya-ya:




She did all the posing herself. Then she took about 100 photos and dropped the camera four times. I was sweating by the time she was done. Trying not to follow her around and keep a hand under the camera. We all survived and she got this shot of our neighbor's flowers.

And then I couldn't wait a minute longer to "bring on spring". Using my new lovely ribbon and paper (all on sale). Hello, lovely!


My house is very "fall" all the time. So, I attempted to add some spring in hopes it would bring more sunshine.

Addy added her own spring art to the mix:



Addy woke up this morning and told me that she liked our "springling house" now. :)