The Princess and her Daddy

Get out your tissues.

She spins and she sways 

To whatever song plays

Without a care in the world

And I'm sitting here wearing 

the weight of the world

on my shoulders

It's been a long day

And there's still work to do

She's pulling at me

Saying "Dad, I need you

There's a ball at the castle

And I've been invited

And I need to practice my dancing

Oh, please, Daddy, please?"

So I will dance with Cinderella

While she is here in my arms

'Cause I know something the prince never knew

Oh, I will dance with Cinderella

I don't want to miss even one song

'Cause all too soon the clock will strike midnight 

And she'll be gone...

She says he's a nice guy and I'd be impressed

She wants to know if I approve of the dress

She says, "Dad, the prom is just one week away

And I need to practice my dancing

Oh, please, Daddy. please?"

So I will dance with Cinderella

While she is here in my arms

'Cause I know something the prince never knew

Oh, I will dance with Cinderella

I don't want to miss even one song

'Cause all too soon the clock will strike midnight

And she'll be gone...

Well, she came home today with a ring on her hand

Just glowing and telling us all they had planned

She says, "Dad, the wedding's still six months away

But I need to practice my dancing

Oh, please, Daddy, please?"

So I will dance with Cinderella

While she is here in my arms

'Cause I know something the prince never knew

Oh, I will dance with Cinderella 

I don't want to miss even one song

'Cause all too soon the clock will strike midnight

And she'll be gone. 

Lyrics from the song Cinderella by Steven Curtis Chapman

I warned you.  Try to keep going when that song comes on your ipod when you are trying to workout.  Just try to catch your breath through the sobbing.  

Randomness

I have a big flower pot in my garage that I planted bulbs in this fall.   The directions said to keep it in "cold storage" and covered with newspapers until we didn't have to worry about frost threats anymore.  I noticed the newspapers were all wonky and went to take a look and the plants are emerging.  They are about a foot high. I don't know what to do since we woke up this morning to about a quarter inch of snow.  I don't think they should be outside, but they are not getting sun in the garage.  I will be so bummed if all my bulbs get ruined.

Hailey and I got our Easter decorations out last night.  I have to admit that I was not really feeling the decorating.  It seems like our house is constantly cluttered and chaotic enough without adding seasonal decor to the mix.  We aren't even going to be in town for Easter so why get everything out?  But I pushed through those feelings and did it for the kids.  They love the decorations.  I remember how much I used to love it too.

I told myself I have to lose two more pounds before I can download some songs I am wanting.   The scale seems to be stuck and it is beyond frustrating. 

I have been doing great on my organizing tasks lately.  Not that you could tell by looking at my house.  It is more the stuff that is tucked away but you just know is there in a disorganized, messy pile.  I went through all the photos on my computer and burned copies to DVDs and combined folders and deleted a bunch of stuff.  I am working on organizing the kids school papers.  I found an idea on Pinterest that rocked my world.  It is funny how things snowball.  One little bit of organizing makes you feel so good that you tend to do more. 

This Sunday starts the week of H-E-double hockey sticks before the musical.  Of course it seems like we have a million things going on in the evenings.  An informational meeting about transitioning to first grade (seriously is this year going by fast!!!), Evan has baseball tryouts, Spencer has an eye appointment, all of that on top of the usual evening events and homework - UGH!  Time to get on my Single Mom Super Cape!

I told you this was going to be random!

Memory Lane

Hailey and her daddy are going to the Father Daughter Dance at school on Friday night.  To say that she is excited is an understatement.  She wakes up every morning and asks me how many more days until the dance. 

 

We have her dress, shoes, tights and even a real tiara for her to wear.  (The theme of the dance this year is Princess Ball.)  The only thing she was lacking was a sweater or something to wear with the dress - it's sleeveless and the weather isn't supposed to be much warmer this weekend.

 

But alas, a sweater isn't very princess like...why not make her a little fur stole to wear?  Oh, me and my big ideas...

 

First I had to make myself a pattern with a little help from my princess/pin girl.

 

 

 

Once I got the pattern figured out it was really very easy.  It turned out super cute and I am thrilled with it.   Plus for the first time I got to sew snaps on to something.

 



Of course, since I never have any confidence in my sewing abilities I always go overboard on my fabric.  I figure if I mess up I will have extra instead of having to go back to the store.  So I have enough left over fake fur to make at least two, maybe three more stoles.  I am thinking I should just make them and sell them on Etsy or something. 

I have to admit that I am pretty excited about the dance as well.  It brings back memories of the Father and Daughter banquets that my dad took my sister and I to at the Elks Lodge.   I remember hardly being able to concentrate in school because I was so excited to get home and take a bath and put on my fancy dress.  My mom would put my hair in hot rollers so it would have pretty curl instead of the pin straight hang down look that I usually wore.

My nostalgia got the better of me and I went through my old scrapbooks and found some photos.  The quality is really bad due to how old these gems are and the fact that I can't figure out how to scan so I just took a picture of a picture. 

I don't know which one of these is older.  It appears I am wearing the same dress.  I think in the first one my look of unhappiness may be due to those hideous shoes I am wearing.  They look like white loafers.

This one is my favorite.  We are wearing cute sandals, we are carrying purses, we are wearing ribbon barrettes and my dad looks like he just came from a mafia hit.  You gotta love the eighties!

I still don't know what is up with my grouchy face!

I remember I loved that pink dress.   I think I got it at The Cradle Shop which was the most expensive kids store in town back in the day.

Same dresses different year.  I told you I loved that thing.  I think this was the first banquet where I had my ears pierced.  I don't know about my dad's suit.  I really like the sport coat and wish Trent had one like it to wear, but with the pants it may be a little too much.

The year of the afro.  Apparently we had discovered the power of the permanent.  Sister gets to wear the pink dress and I get a new pink polka dotted number.

Oh those awkward teenage years!  Mouths full of braces and a hideous green bubble dress that I LOVED at the time.  The balance just seems off.  Sister looks like she is going to the one room school house and I look like I am going to prom.  In all honesty, sister's dress was probably more appropriate.   Look at those hair bows.  I will tell you what though, I would kill for my collarbone to stick out like that now!  I wish I had that sportcoat of my dad's and shirt and tie - it would match Hailey's ensemble perfectly.  Can you tell I have no idea what Trent is going to wear?

Just think, twenty years from now, Hailey will be looking back at her pictures from the Father Daughter dances and laughing at her hair and dresses (or her dad's clothes) and remembering with fondness how special those nights were.

State or bust!

Spencer participated in his fourth Destination Imagination competition on Saturday.  This group has been together for all of their years in elementary school.  It is a little bittersweet because although they can participate in DI while in middle school or high school, most likely they will not stay together as a group.  They are a great group of kids that all get along and work together very well. 

When the presentation started I kept trying to get his attention to tell him to smile.  Finally he started to smirk a little.  I know it must be intimidating to get up in front of a room full of people not to mention other people who are actually judging you. 

I think their favorite part of the whole presentation was the end where they whipped off their shirts and were costume clad for the "Harlem Shake".  I am just going to come right out and say it  - I don't get the Harlem Shake at all.  What is the deal with it?

Spencer is wearing the costume that he wore when he was in "Cinderella" - five or six years ago, I can't remember.   It used to be a tunic on him and now is a too small shirt.  Time goes by way too fast!

Tired and nervous, waiting for the results.  Their expectations were high this year because last year they got to go to the state competition.

They got third place in their category and will go to state again this year.  I hope they can tweak the kinks out of their presentation and maybe place at state this year.  That would be a great memory to leave their elementary school years with.

Way to go Gooey!  All of your hard work on Saturday afternoons has paid off!  We are very proud of you!

Little bird

Our pediatrician prescribed an antibiotic to get rid of Evan's strep throat.  I don't know why the pharmacy included a syringe to measure out the medicine, but they did.

I told Evan that I could get out a little medicine cup if he wanted to take it that way.  He decided he liked using the syringe.  It made him feel like he was being fed like a little baby bird.

Flippy

A couple of mornings ago while I was "soft brushing" Hailey's hair before school she told me that she wanted her hair to look flippy.  I didn't know what she meant so I asked her if she knew someone with flippy hair so I could understand what she meant by it.  She told me that flippy meant that it was curly, but not curly all over just where it was flippy.  I asked her if she could draw a picture and about a minute before we had to leave for the bus, she brought me this. 

 

OK - now I see the flippy hair!

 

I dug my old big barreled curling iron out of the linen closet and plugged it in the next morning.   She was a little nervous because she had a bad experience once with the straight iron.  In my defense, it is harder than it looks to curl or straighten someone's hair other than your own and since she NEVER lets me do it, I don't have much practice.   We made it through some flippy curls without incident. 

 

I am thrilled about this latest interest in her hair.  It is amazing what a difference even a few half baked curls do for her overall hair do.   The curls probably don't last through her bus ride, but we are easing our way into it.  The minute the hot iron touches an ear or I pull too hard this whole thing will be over.  Fingers crossed...

Ballerina girl

I can't believe I have been meaning to post these photos for almost a week now.  I don't know how time gets away from me.  Most days I feel like I get nothing accomplished, but I don't sit down until the kids are in bed.  Where in the world is that time going?

 

Hailey is taking a ballet class.  Like a real ballet class.  We called the dance classes she took last spring ballet, but it really wasn't.  Mostly it was just a bunch of girls running around and shaking their booties to Justin Bieber songs.   So in this class where they are actually learning ballet moves - first position, second position, plies and whatever other names I don't know because I was never in a ballet class - Hailey doesn't understand why it is not like the old class used to be.  She thinks this class is hard.

 

Last Thursday was parent watch day and she was kind of nervous about it.  She didn't really want any grownups watching her because she didn't think she was very good at it.   I reassured her that I didn't care if she was the worst in the class as long as she was having fun and trying her best.

 



 

It was funny because she saw I had my camera out and I could see her mind working to make it a point to get as far away from my lens as she could.  Stinker. 

 

She didn't know the power of the zoom.

After the class she was dying to see the pictures I took, so don't think I was torturing her by getting her dance moves on a memory card.

I swear her favorite part of the class was pulling out her hair ribbon and having one of the "big girls" come over and put it back in for her.   She loves her some big girls.

This was my favorite part.  I don't know what they called it but their little legs went out to the side in time to the music and it was great.  She did awesome.  I don't know why she thought she was so bad at ballet.

"Does she still have that camera out?"

During the freeze dance portion of the program is when the true dancing Hailey made her appearance.

 

She also liked the part where they got to play with musical instruments.

Rocking their "babies".   This was a really cute dance as well.

Back to the corner for the end of class. 

 

I certainly don't think that she will be a prima ballerina or that she has any desire to be.  I just know that at this point in her life, she loves to dance.  I think it will be a good thing for her to learn a bit of gracefulness with a few ballet steps and movements.   When this class is done if she doesn't feel like ballet is her thing, we will move on to another type of dance she likes more.