fit for princesses…and princes too!

I had a chance, thanks to MomCentral and Feld Entertainment, to treat four of my favorite princesses to Disney Princesses on Ice.

l. to r. Abby, Holly, Abby's friends Danielle and Taylor- all super fans of the Disney Princesses

And, what I’m just now getting around to telling you all about this great offer? But I have an excuse, no matter how lame it might seem. There was that jury duty gig that kept me busy and drained day after day and then Holly and Hazel moving out of the Big Top and then when I should have come straight home this past Wednesday night and blogged about I was distracted by the birth of my best friend’s very first grandchild.

You have to admit he is a delightful distraction. Sorry, but I just had to be there when he was born in the early hours of Thursday morning.

But I digress…What I’m supposed to be doing is sharing with you all a great offer to see the show yourself if you live in the Bay Area and it isn’t too late. The show continues at the Oracle Oakland Arena through October 18 and then will open in San Jose at the HP Pavillion October 21 through the 25th and then moves on to Sacramento’s Arco Arena October 28 through November 1. See? It’s not to late for you too to catch some Disney Princess Magic! And Lucky for you I have a coupon code to share. Purchase a 4-pack of tickets for only $44 by logging onto www.ticketmaster.com and entering the coupon code: MOM.** It is an amazing, delightful show featuring some of the Disney Princess favorites. Oh and the guys selling concessions in the stands are pretty friendly, cute and happen to work for the Disney Ice Show. I learned this thanks to my girls’ smiling and flirting with them.

Thanks again MomCentral, Feld Entertainment and, of course, the Disney Princesses for a great night of good, clean fun with my girls!

today at school…

…anyone care to guess what book Daniel read at school today?

Meanwhile, at the high school, Zoë is making her fortune in the stock market in Econ while Abby is making hers panhandling in the student quad during lunch.

I couldn’t be prouder.

picture thoughts

• I can just imagine what y’all are thinking: Good God, is she going to put up yet another blog post about that wedding?
• As a matter of fact, yes I am.
• But you are rewarded with this picture of my five beautiful children with the Pacific Ocean in the background.
• Lucky you!
• I look at this picture and I can’t help but reflect on how lucky I am to have five beautiful, healthy, happy children.
• How the heck did that happen?
• Then I take a moment to feel gratitude for being so blessed.
• I look at Daniel and I feel just as proud as he looks. He was the cutest and best little ring bearer ever!
• My sister in law told me that at the rehearsal he took it upon himself to go up to the wedding coordinator and introduce himself. As he shook her hand he looked up and said, “Hi. My name is Daniel and I am in the wedding.”
• The bride was gorgeous but next to her, my girls were the prettiest ladies there.
• Jodie looks so much like my mother as a young woman it gives me chills.
• I have to say while looking at Jodie in this picture, that I don’t ever recall giving her permission to grow up.
• Holly just glows. Young love does that to a girl. So does a pretty dress.
• I look at Zoë and find myself hissing, “Stop slouching!”
• I did the same thing when I was her age.
• As always, Abby strikes a figure flattering, pretty pose. She really needs to teach me that.
• I like this shot so much of my kids I am thinking that this will likely be the Big Top Christmas card. I know last year it was just the kids and folks complained that next year Bill and I should be in the picture but this shot is perfect. Get over it people. Trust me, we haven’t changed too much except to get older.
• Which brings me to one more thought…
• Why must time fly by so damn quickly and our children grow up so fast. Really, why?

be jealous

Yes, those are really Abby’s eyelashes. Yes, they are naturally that long. Yes, they are naturally that curly.

Um, no, she doesn’t get them from her mama.

a Disney secret revealed!

Did you know that while riding the Mark Twain if you ask one of the cast members if you could get your riverboat pilot’s license you will.

And then you get to pilot the Mark Twain…even if you aren’t as cute and vivacious as Abby and Taylor are. You even get a license suitable for framing or for mounting in the  the family scrapbook next to the fabulous picture of you piloting the Mark Twain.

It was a fun week, an exhausting week, a great week. The circus act is now home (AT LAST!) under the Big Top and ready to celebrate the next big event. Hint, it is tomorrow and it isn’t the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11 landing on the moon.

play it again: a little girl’s prayer answered

Working and trying to catch up on a few summer projects here under the Big Top means there is no time for blogging but I do have this from a year ago…Enjoy!

Once upon a time in a land far, far away called San Jose lived a little princess named Holly. More than anything in the whole wide world Holly wanted a baby sister for her very own. She knew exactly what she had to do. She had to pray and ask the good Lord for a baby sister. Yes, her mommy and daddy tried to suggest that sometimes even when we ask God to give us something His answer may not be what we had in mind but she was not going to be deterred from getting her heart’s desire so pray she did everyday until…

She got a baby sister and then…

she got another baby sister and then…

along came another baby sister!

What a lucky princess Holly was! If pressed she will admit that she is so lucky to be surrounded by sisters (and a little brother) but I would bet that she would also have to agree with the old saying of “be careful what you pray for”. As for me, well, I’m glad that she prayed for a baby sister.

and the celebrating continues…

Sure The Bewbfest accolades are great but they are nothing compared to the latest and real achievements here under the Big Top.

Holly (the correct way to spell my child’s name and I would know since I signed the birth certificate) has completed the course work, the hours and all the operations to receive her cosmetology diploma! At last! Congratulations my sweet girl…now get out there and take the State Boards already so you can make the world prettier.

But wait, that’s not all…

Abby passed the written exam for her California learner’s permit and is raring to go and get behind the wheel and drive! The added bonus is that she took a great license photo.

Congratulations to my girls! Mommy~Dearest is so proud of you both.

identically different

Intimate moments are rare these days with my #3 daughter. It’s the age, I know. It’s her personality, I understand too well. So when we are trapped together alone in the mom-car I give thanks to the heavens up above for every slow-moving car ahead of us and for every single blessed traffic light that turns red as as we approach it. Time alone with her is precious because these days she is so terribly busy.

This week she is busy preparing to head out on another trip to the Shonto reservation. I have to confess that her first visit she really surprised me. Not only did she work her butt off all year just to earn a spot on this annual mission trip, my beautiful, perfectly coiffed daughter proved to be a workhorse with little complaint while working her butt off in the dust and dirt on the reservation where her high school youth group works every summer. Yes, she is there because some of her closest friends are there…but not all of them. If it were just about the company of her closest friends she could always just hang out here with those who choose not to go to dig ditches, pour concrete, fix shanty roofs and take tepid showers at a dusty campsite.

Don’t tell her that I figured out that she has a tender heart. Just tell her that I think she is the most beautiful fifteen year old blonde haired, green eyed, curly lashed girl that I know.

But back to the mom-car…

There we were, trapped in the mom-car en route to Target. Of course I took the long way. I could have taken the freeway but miss all those stop lights and the chance of a slow-moving freight train…are you kidding me?

Abby talked of many things…Senior Citizen Proms complete with elderly prom queens and teen princesses, inflatable mattresses for camping and her one on one meeting with the youth pastor before they headed off to the reservation. This is where he digs deep into the why-do-you-want-to-go-to-Shonto-and who-are-you-really? It seems that White John gets Abby as well as I do as she shared with me some (not all, God mom!) of what they discussed.

No, I’m not going to tell you what she shared…are you kidding me?

She is a hard person to figure out completely so my hat’s off to White John as from what she shared he aptly described Abby and her sisters. He doesn’t know her and her family that well because he forgot that she has a little brother. Still he described the obvious similarities yet distinct differences in these four girls of mine. It’s nice to know that I’m not the only one who notices. People have always remarked to me how my children look so much alike it is as if I have cloned them. Yet all I want, and, I imagine my children want it too, is for people to see what sets them apart, what makes them so different, yet so necessary in this circus that is our family.

:::sigh::::

How in the world did I end up with such beautiful children?

Looking at them, whether it is all of them or just a couple of them, it is amazing how much alike yet so completely, totally different they are from one another. Kind of like black and white. I marvel over this truth every day…and I cherish it too.

Yeah, they all look alike, as if I have cloned my children, but thank goodness they are all so completely different. It wouldn’t be a circus otherwise.

daily Hazel #150

mmmm…Gma’s spaghetti is good on the inside and on the outside!

9 month checkup Hazel weighs in  a little over 20 lbs and 29½ inches long/tall. She has an ultrasound to evaluate something that she has had for several months scheduled this Friday but today we are focusing on how much the girl loves my spaghetti. That’s a good thing since according to her Auntie Abby I “make it ALL the time!”

thank goodness this is now

Remember the “good ol’ days” when we breathlessly waited to be asked by some dreamy guy to the high school formal only to end up sitting at home because no one asked us or we dated the kid who couldn’t go to dances because it was against his religion?

Thank goodness that was then and this is now when a girl can say forget the boy, I’m going with my best friends and having some fun!

Then again, maybe there never was such a silly rule.

I’m glad my girls got gorgeous, went with their besties to their Winter Formal and had so much fun.