The 12 Dates of Christmas (Part II)

What a holiday season it has been! I can't believe tomorrow is Christmas (and I REALLY can't believe my shopping is done and holiday cards are out.) Below is the second half of my alleged
"12 Dates of Christmas."

Date #7: Christmas Tree Shopping! Ok, so we actually have a perfectly sized artificial tree at home. But still, the girls and I still had fun perusing trees, purchasing  a nice big wreath, and then having an excuse to make some fancy hot chocolate at home (since we had spent all of 12 minutes in the cold.). Later that day, I attended the Exultate holiday concert (but I won't consider that a Christmas date since I went by myself.) Still, I look forward to it every holiday season. It was a beautiful concert and a wonderful musical experience.

Date #8: Cookie Baking Date! With Azure's help, we made a LOT of cookies last week. We distributed them to Cece's dance teachers, the childcare providers at the gym, our mail carrier. and the garbage man. I'm extremely proud that we didn't eat them all ourselves. And I'm very proud of Rosie for not bopping Cece on the head with that rolling pin.

Date #9: Lady Date! Our monthly lady date was a small one, but a good one. One snowy romantic evening last week, Emily and I went to Bonfire on Grand Avenue. It was fantastic. We chatted and caught up with each other, shared food, and enjoyed the falling snow outside. Can't wait to get the next ladies night on the books!

Date #10: Bestie Palooza! Sarah and Will hiked all they way from Chicago to pay our little old selves a visit this past weekend. We stayed BUSY! There was a trip to Good Times Park, a play date with other littles,  a maternity photo shoot, dinner out with kids (Chipotle), dinner without kids (Crave. Thank you Joe for watching the kids!) We also attempted to play in the snow and succeeded in eating all of the yummy food while catching up. Thank you so much for visiting us!

Date #11: Children's Museum at the MOA. I'm thrilled that there's another Children's Museum location where I can use my membership card (and is extremely close to our house!) They have a very cool storybook exhibit there right now which Cece keeps talking about returning to.

Date #12: Look at Christmas Lights! The girls and I managed a drive through our neighborhood to look at Christmas lights. I had wanted to do this with Christmas tunes and hot chocolate. Christmas tunes we had, however, we had just been at the gym, so they happily settled for protein shakes as their beverage instead of hot chocolate and were plenty content. For a whole 20 minutes ; )

Well, as you can see, it's Christmas Eve and I'm off to bed so that Santa has a chance to get here. I wish you joy and peace as well as fun and good food with family and friends tomorrow!

Merry Christmas!

Summertime!

Summer is just about half over and none have it has been blogged! (This was due to major technological failure at our house. Our hard drive crashed at the beginning of summer and we just recently have a working computer again.)

Anyways, we are into July. The living has been good and time has been flying like never before.

(This photo of us dining in our backyard is from at least a month and a half ago now. This was also right before a mad stomach bug hit our family. If there's 48 hours of my life that I would never want to relive, it would be those.)

I posted before about how we started off the summer with a 5K. I will mention it again, because I really want the world to know that for nearly a half hour, I might have appeared to be a fitness enthusiast, or even a runner.

Post, 5K, the girls and I left for Chicago for a week. My mom was in Minnesota and able to travel with us to Chicago. Here were are taking a pit stop in Wisconsin Dells. 

 And here they are shopping at Mariano's and making a giant spectacle.

Of course we had to visit Auntie Robbyn at the bakery. We had a lovely lunch date and got to see some of the cake decorating in action.

 

We had a grad party to attend! My bestie just completed her bachelor's degree. Naturally this called for a get-together with a cake. And we even got a rare photo of just the two of us together without holding kids!

 We got out to Chinatown to visit Grandma and some Yuens! Thanks for the dim sum and for a great visit!

Had to include a pic of some spectacular peonies cut from my mom's yard. Peonies forever and ever. 

Now that we're back in Minnesota, we have been spending summer days perfecting Rosie's table manners.

And here we are on on of our morning walks on the weekends before Joe heads to work. (This is my favorite. We grab a to-go mug of coffee and stroll the neighborhood while it's early, quiet and peaceful. One of my favorite parts of summer.)

Here is Cece with her own snack that she harvested. I was a little in my planting this year, but our loyal strawberries came back with no effort on my part. That's my kind of crop.

We've made a few zoo trips with friends this summer, both to the MN Zoo and Como Zoo. The girls always have a blast. Except when I ask them to pose for a photo.

Father's Day came which I spent with the father of my children. Who is an alright guy, I guess. (Just kidding. He is a bearded rockstar and I love him.)

We took the girls to Chutes and Ladders park in Bloomington (it was super hot that day and we were not prepared. Fortunately, they sold ice cream there.) And we had dinner that night at Red Lobster as a nod to my pop who I hope managed to get his hands on some crab legs in heaven that day.) Hope everyone had a great day celebrating all the fantastic papas out there!

In June, I got quite lucky and Joe shooed me out of the house multiple times to go hang out with girlfriends. Which I did and loved. It's easy to get caught up doing only mom activities in the summer, but it's dang good to be an adult and have a cocktail on a patio.

I'm not the only one who has been out and about and having a blast lately. Joe recently took Cece on an awesome dad-daughter date. They went rock climbing at Verticle Endeavors, grabbed lunch, and then saw Inside Out. She refers to Joe as her "best buddy" all the time and it's pretty much the sweetest. 

So many park visits. Glad the swings have not grown old yet.

C's preschool teacher said that practicing scissor skills (along with general art-making) would be great for us to do over the summer. So she and I built this city on rock and roll a town one day. No big deal.

(Just a few more of my favorite phone pics this summer.)

The days have been going by so quickly, and sometimes I'm worried that we're not squeezing every last drop of fun out of summer. (The days can easily get sucked up by just meal-making, cleaning up, and nap times.) But if we can get out of the house for just a bit everyday, see friends now and then, and just have fun together, then I think we are doing OK! Everyday is a "girls' day" for us, and I'm trying to make sure these fleeting summer days feel special. At least parts of the day, haha.

Thanks for reading and catching up with us! Hope your summer is filled to the brim with fun and sun : )

Frozen on Ice!

Sometimes life is amazing and you get to put on your favorite Frozen attire, attend an Elsa and Anna convention with your best gal pals, see an amazing ice show, and bring home all sorts of cool souvenirs.

 

Oh, and I think Cece had fun too ; )

 

 

On Sunday Cece and I met up with Andrea and Michaela and Rachel Jamie for the lady date to top all lady dates at the Target Center to see Frozen on Ice.

 

 If there's one thing I can appreciate besides a fine wine or cheese, it's a good ice show! I am always dazzled by these grandiose productions that involve gorgeous costumes, elaborate scenery, and not to mention finely-choreographed skating.

 

I spent most of the time watching the show and making sure Cece didn't bop anyone in the head with her newly-acquired snowflake wand. I think Cece got really caught up in the frenzy and at one point shouted "I love you, Hans!" (WHAT?) So here are just a few pictures; they don't really do the production justice:

 

 

Thanks again to the Olsons for inviting us to such an awesome show! We will never forget it!

January

Typically January is a tough month. As a stay-at-home parent, I usually bundle up, hunker down, resort to indoor activities, inhale large portions of hearty comfort, and wish that I lived some place where the air doesn't hurt my face.

 

 

 

I am going on record to say that this January has not been bad. Frightfully cold for a few days, sure. However,  it's actually been enjoyable for various reasons, especially last week.

 

 

To start off the week, we scheduled a couple of play dates. We went to open skate with Cece's homegirl Michaela and then invited ourselves over to the Olsons for hours of fun, food, and even face painting. It was such a fun day and it is awesomely documented here. I actually talked so much that I lost my voice for a few days. Whoops.

 

 

( Cece used my phone as a mirror as she turned her face into art.)

 

 

 

(Had to include a picture of Rosie proudly standing on her own. Can you believe it???)

 

 

We also had Penny over, yay! Cece and I were just living it up with our best gal pals and loving it.

 

 

Three weeks into January and I'm very happy with how active we have been as a family. Joe and I have been consistently going to the gym and I've even been back to Zumba. But what's really worth mentioning is that in addition to taking Cece skating, we've been able to take her rock climbing. She has been anxious to grow taller and try it for herself. So we purchased a tiny harness for Cece and now she's a girl on fire.

 

Joe and I were practically bursting with pride when she climbed her first wall with no fear. (Although she did announce to me her concern that her hands were dirty once she was almost at the top.) We've been able to take her climbing at REI with us and also to Vertical Endeavors in St. Paul. She keeps asking when she can go again and I'm thrilled that she likes it so much so far. It's just a great way for her to learn that in addition to being a princess, she is strong and very capable of doing challenging things.

 

(Cece is the munchkin on the right. Apparently these little ladies had a captive audience!)

 

 

 

Lastly, this January I became a sales consultant for Jamberry Nails because I love my stylin' manis and pedis so much. I enjoy these for many reasons, but mainly because I can easily apply these at home while drinking wine.  My Facebook launch party is currently going on right now, so let me know if you'd like an invite! My site is here if you want to check them out. They're just fun. And that concludes my sales pitch for today ; )

 

So there you go! January in a blog post for you from Mrs. Brightside. Hope 2015 is treating you real nice thus far!