Visitors from the West and Birthday Celebrations!

This post is a little out of order. I realized that I never "blogged" about my mom and sister coming to visit last week-end. It is always VERY nice to have people come and visit us, and this was no exception.
The first night they were here, we went to Concord's town Christmas festival to see their tree lighting. It's such a historic town - arguably one of the most historic in our country. We had a tour of the Colonial Inn (est. 1716 - still running as a hotel and restaurant) and Grace had her face painted in the "Thoreau Room."

The next couple of days, we had a great time just hanging out and doing lots of Christmas shopping in the tiny towns around here. Santa toured our town and Grace got to tell him face-to-face what she wants for Christmas (after not sitting on his lap at the festival.) He told her to keep her room clean. Her room is always clean - I asked "did he say anything about your playroom?"

Grace stuck like glue to her Aunt Em. They are soul mates of sorts. They are so similar. Sometimes I slip and call Grace "Emily" because she reminds me of my little sister when we were all very young. Sometimes I feel like I've just added 2 more sisters to my family rather than 2 daughters/nieces. We do make a tight bunch though and it is so fun to be together, but so hard to be apart too. Grace has had an especially hard time this week without "Em" and can't wait until we can go see everyone again in a few weeks...

We also did some early birthday celebrating. I turned 31 today - no particularly important number to celebrate, but any time you pass the milestone of adding a year to your life, it is significant (and I can't believe I'm "freakin' 31".) My mom and Emily did tend the kids while David and I went out to dinner by ourselves (only for the 3rd time since Hattie was born), so that was really nice. Then, we also had a family party the next night.

Tonight for my real birthday, David and Grace (and Hattie) made things really special. After opening all my gifts for me, Grace chose to have a candle-light salmon dinner (what 3 year old chooses salmon and salad over cheese ravioli?!) and helped her daddy get it ready. They also made me a birthday cake - I think the first David has ever made. He tried very hard to make frosting, but I stepped in to help when I saw the lumpy chocolate soup he was whisking around in the bowl trying to convince himself it would eventually spread with a knife. But as we said - it was the best cake ever because it had the most important ingredient - LOVE. Sounds cheesy? Wait until you eat a piece of cake made by your darling little blonde girl and your husband who has taken her birthday shopping for you and has helped her make a salmon dinner for you (also made raspberry waffles this morning.) You'll be able to write a hallmark card about it too.

A Star is Born

Grace had her big stage debut Friday night. She and her friends from dance class performed a tap dance number to the song "Frosty the Snowman" at the local junior high school auditorium. She is in a class that does both ballet and tap, but since they have only been dancing for 4 months, they chose one medium for the first recital. She will do a ballet and a tap number at the big spring recital.

I have to say I am not a good stage mom. I get way too frazzled about things and there is so much to do and worry about and remember to bring. We wish that Aunt Em would have been able to come and be our make up artist! I haven't applied (or owned) blue eyeshadow since 1988, nor black eyeliner for that matter, but we did get it put on and even had the best rosy cheeks because I found this really cool lipstick wand thingy at the drugstore.

After much preparation, practice, and primping, Grace proudly went onstage first to do a dress rehearsal and then to do the real thing. Her dance partner got scared and decided to sit down on the stage for the first half of the song. They were supposed to clap hands together, but Grace was a trooper and just pretended that her partner was participating. She was a great actress and just went with the flow. She was also very serious in trying to remember her steps. Her dance teacher (also the studio owner) was in front of the stage helping them along and Grace was sternly focused on her to make sure she was doing the right things. No fake smile for her... she was too busy concentrating, but the smile after she was done was completely genuine and she was so proud of herself. We are so proud of her too. I really couldn't believe that she was so fearless about the stage and so intense about her dance steps. Also, for a kid who won't have her hair done to save her life, she was surprisingly excited about having her hair and makeup done (and her make up refreshed many times) for the performance.

As tradition stands, it is proper to give a dancer some flowers after they perform. Many kids were getting them at the recital, but we had left ours in the car so that we could give them to her later. She was SOOO excited to receive 3 little pink roses as a tribute to her performance. She wants to keep them forever, so they are now drying in her bedroom.
I am just so excited to have a little girl who I can do these kinds of things with and who is so beautiful and smart and talented and kind. (Sorry folks - I have to brag here...) She is so amazing and teaches me so many things about how you should be and how you should look at life. Gracie - you are my star.

A Year in Review

With 2006 coming to a close I thought that I would make a little video montage of the happenings of 2006. It has been a good year to us and we will soon have our top 10 items of the year as well. This was going to be a small project, but in process it morphed into something a little larger than intended. For now enjoy the 15+ minutes of pictures and good tunes. If you were lucky enough to be in the video congrats. Otherwise, I guess you need to spend more time with us!