Eleventh Post of Christmas

Today we went to see Santa at the mall. We actually went to the mall for another purpose and used Santa as a "bribe" as in "if you're good and if we have time, we can go see Santa!"..."Yay!" they all screamed, even Jack. But once we got up to the "North Pole" they were placing ten foot tall nutcrackers by the entrance and hanging a sign that said "Be Back in 1 Hour"

"Oh well, I guess its closed" I rolled my eyes and sighed. But Zoe ran to the exit and said, "No Mommy, look we can get in this way!" just as she and Athena wiggled past an 18 year old elf and caught sight of the big man himself. "Please" I said when I caught up "Just one picture before you go on break?" the elf shrugged okay. A Christmas miracle.

But it didn't really matter because Athena was already talking to Santa. I have no idea what she was saying, I was negotiating with the elf and couldn't hear her, she made a bee line straight for him and told him something that was very urgent apparently, he nodded in agreement and I have no idea what he agreed to.

Zoe was hesitant, not as immediately familiar as Athena, but still not terrified. But Jack wanted no part of it. He clung to Mimi like a chimpanzee and all at once got hot. Mimi whispered soothing things like "Don't worry, you don't have sit on Santa's lap." Ummm, yea, you do.

See Mimi has the fear, she remembers all to clearly her total petrification of the man in red. I had to speak with Santa alone many a year, because she refused and she wasn't going to force Jack to go through her childhood horrors. But I was.

And Jack hated it. Poor baby. But its an awesome picture.

Twelfth Post of Christmas

There are so many Christmassy things going on right now I don't even know where to begin. And there's even more on the schedule, practically every day. So I'm going to post the Twelve Posts of Christmas leading up to the big day...just twelve days away, by the way.

On the twelfth post of Christmas, I give you Zoe and Jack's preschool Christmas concert. It was 41 minutes of total cutenesss that I will not forget, attended by close to 800 people and throngs of papparazzi.

Mimi came down for the event and Athena attached herself to her.
Isn't this a lovely picture...I could fill a book
with the beautiful pictures I have of Mimi and the babes.

Zoe and her BFF, Aubs, got ready for their stage debut.
We left them in their classrooms and then went to find our seats.
Zoe did a darling and remarkable job singing and signing the song "Mary, Did you know."
Then Jack appeared as an angel stomping and
jumping to the tune of "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies" wearing one of his sisters old turtle necks. It was so, so fun and he ended it with a great "ta da" move
of arms outstreched and jazz hands that had me in tears.
Can I just take one moment to point out the other children on stage.
See that sweet little thing to the left of Jack, that is a normal sized 2 and 1/2 year old,
and my humungo baby next to her. Normal size...Humungo.

I had to elbow a few paparazzi to get close enough for this money shot. Unfortunately, Jack's out of focus, but check out that little guy to the right, he is totally rocking this look.
Zoe and her latest boyfriend, Vinny.

After the performances we collected our little ones, fighting the the throngs of people all trying to snap pictures and find their children. The kids did so great, and were so beautiful, this was a proud, special Momma moment for me.

Back at home, I tried to bribe them with candy canes to sit, just for one second, not make a face, don't touch your sister and look at me...look at me! But, this is what I got. Chris thinks this should be our Christmas card picture as it captures the pure chaos we call home.
Ah, the magic of the season!

A Whole Lotta Punkins

I believe if you have little ones you are required each fall to traipse through a pumpkin patch at least once, sometimes more. It's an annual photo op...even if you can't get all your kids in the same picture.

I still remember baby Athena's first pumpkin patch trip in Kentucky like it was yesterday.

Even though Bakersfield does not have fall, per se, and in October it's still 90+ degrees in the shade, we go and traipsed around the dry brittle vines in the baking sun.

Check out poor Jack's flushed, hot cheeks.

The day after Zoe's birthday, while we still had our Jen and Stu around, we went to the mega pumpkin patch/Fall festival Family Farm thingy with the whole crew.

They had a hay ride, and a big, bouncy pillow, face painting and a corn maze, as well as a massive pumpkin patch that kind of looked like like they just dumped a bunch of pumpkins on the ground to make it look like they grew on the vines.

***

And then, later that week, Athena had a school, field trip to a different pumpkin patch with her class. I volunteered to drive and we were paired up with her best boy -uhhh- friend, Wyatt.

Wyatt is, apparently, the Macaroni to her Cheese. She luhhhhhves him.

So, um notice a certain closeness here?

So, yea...uh...hmmm. They held hands the entire, frickin' time, I kid you not. Actually, it was more like both Athena's hands on one of Wyatt's but he didn't seem to mind.
Luckily he comes from an excellent family.

****
So with all those pumpkins gathered it was time to get them carved. Our total take this year was seven pumpkins, too many to carve all of them and, in fact, a couple were just too small. We picked the biggest three to cut open and painted the rest.

Athena had no problem digging out the guts this year.

Jack wanted no part of it. "Yucky" he said.

And the end result! A funny face, a "scary" face and a pirate. Just in time for Halloween.

Zoe's 5th Birthday Extravaganza

No birthday goes unnoticed in this house, and especially not a 5th birthday. The fifth birthday symbolizes so much. It seems as if Zoe has grown overnight, no longer my sweet, chubby little baby, Zoe's a full on kid now.

The morning began with tears, mine. I cried all through her "Happy Birthday" wake up song then reached in for my first five year old Zoe hug and kiss. After waking her up at the crack of dawn with singing, we had a birthday breakfast of "Yia Yia" cake and presents, as is our tradition.

Everyone loves birthday breakfasts, especially Jack! He thought it was a great way to start the day.

With her new purple swede boots, from fellow boot lover Auntie Mimi, and her birthday outfit, off she went to school!

For dinner, my birthday princess requested a "brinner" of eggs, toast and bacon and
then chocolate chocolate cake with scads of sprinkles.

The next day, Zoe's Daddy (who prefers to give experiences over "stuff") took her to Disney on Ice for her special birthday present from him. Just the two of them, a Daddy Date. As luck would have it, Disney on Ice this year was Toy Story 3!! Zoe's favorite movie series - she drank it in and got a Jessie hat as a momento.

***

Then it was Saturday, the day of Zoe's birthday party! We've been planning her Sock Hop party for months. I can't even remember when we had the idea first. I think it was during one of the umpteenth times we watch Grease over the last year.

It made me feel a little bit old that Zoe asked "What is it?" when I showed her the prototype of her handmade birthday invitation. "It's a record, sweetie!" I answered. "What's a record?" she asked. It made me feel even older when I explained to Zoe's BFF's 27-year-old Mom that we were have a Sock Hop because Zoe loves the movie Grease. "What's Grease?" she asked me.

Yiayia and I made adorable poodles skirts and shirts for Zoe's Sock Hop 5th birthday party. That was the whole reason to have a Sock Hop, you know, poodle skirts. Yiayia cut and pinned and sewed, I traced appliques and glued ribbon and sparkles. It was a labor of love and I think they came out special and amazing and about ten times less than what we would have paid in a costume shop.

Seriously, how cute is this?

and The Dude was simply dreamy as a little Greaser.

So much of the success of the party goes to my fellow lunatics, especially the "Soda Jerks," who gamely played along and made my Sock Hop vision complete. Chris and Stu even got haircuts for the occasion.

Guest began to arrive, poses were struck, pictures were taken and the dancing begun. Many of our little friends came wearing their own bought or found or Momma-sewn poodle skirts.

We had a little "photo booth" in the nook of our great room so that pictures could be taken as our guests arrived, real 45 records hung from the ceiling, on the walls and made a
"Happy Birthday" sign on the fireplace, pink and black balloons and steamers were everywhere.

Zoe's Soda Shop was soon opened, with a customized menu (a la Jen) and pink and black flag sign. The soda jerks got to work making chocolate and vanilla shakes, root beer floats, sliders, pigs in a blanket and shoe string fries. My dream of little girls in poodle skirts belly up to our kitchen counter, drinking from vintage Coca Cola glasses with tons of whipped cream and a cherry on top was complete.

There was a moment of regret soon after the realization of this dream - thirteen five year olds pumped up on caffeine and sugar began to jump on my couches in the living room like a bunch of wild monkeys. So, time for some organized activities...

starting with the limbo...

and then musical chairs, hosted by those silly Soda Jerks...

and finally chocolate chocolate birthday cake and presents!

It was all worth it for this moment...when Zoe laughed and smiled, and actually blew out her candles, basking in the attention...which she has never, ever done before.

It was such a fantastic day, such a fun three days really, a great celebration with family as well as friends. Thank you to Mom, Mimi, Chris, Jen and Stuart for making it so much fun!

***
When I asked my little five year old what her favorite part of her birthday was, she said "Disney on Ice!" When I asked her what her favorite birthday ever was, she said "When Daddy took me to Disneyland!" Oh, well, I guess her Daddy's always going to be first with this little Daddy's girl.

Next year, she says she wants a Haunted House...already thinking...

In Her Own Words

The only thing you can count on with a family of three small children is unpredictability. Rarely does anything go as planned, but also rarely does everything go awry. Unfortunately we had one of those times the weekend of Stephanie and Kevin's long awaited wedding. I spent about a week being heartbroken by the turn of events but that was soon overshadowed by the big picture...

...the perfect wedding of the most beautiful couple, inside and out, who are deeply in love and at the brink of a wonderful life that I so look forward to watching unfold.

There were a few hiccups for us during the weekend - four incidents of throwing up, dead car battery three times, a closed road in the canyon that led to the church - but none for Stephanie and Kevin, everything went beautifully, and for that I am so thankful. Athena had an amazing time and as luck would have it bought a journal that weekend (with her own hard earned allowance) and wrote about all of it. Here's Athena's story of the wedding weekend, through her eyes and in her words (only slightly edited)...

I am in a hotel now while my Mom yells at Zoe and I just got this at Target. I love it so much. That I an writing in it all day.

We are going to Downtown Disney. It is very exciting. I can't wait. We are almost there and now we are. I can't wait. We had lots of fun. We went to the Rainforest Cafe. We went to Build A Bear Workshop. We went to Halloween Disney. We princess shop. At Rainforest Cafe I had Macaroni and Cheese for lunch. At Build A Bear Workshop I got a beautiful dress for Cinderbear. At Halloween Disney all we did is look...that's all. At the princess shop a lady put sparkles in my hair and a button. Then it was time to go home. I was very sad and then my brother went to sleep.

Then we went to the BBQ and I met a baby boy. He is the baby that I am going down the aisle with. Rex, he is so sweet. Rex was chasing us up and down the stairs. I spied on Rex.

Zoe couldn't find Stephanie. Then we found her and Zoe was happy, Stephanie read this to me.

And tomorrow is the wedding. I can't wait. I can't wait to be a flower girl. I guess it is going to be fun. My Mom read this to me. I have a dress for me and shoes and a purse and a crown. The purse have makeup and candy in it.

We are going to the wedding. I can't wait. Zoe is not feeling good. So I wish she feel better. So she can hold Jack's hand and I can hold Rex hand. If Zoe does not I have to hold both boys hands. I just got my hair did. A lady put my crown in my hair and I just got a hug from Stephanie It was a big hug. But, I like it.

I just got dressed with the big girls. I felt like a princess. I got my picture taken . We rode in a big truck. I was dancing in it.

I walked down the aisle. I had lots of fun. We are going to get our picture taken. We are listening to music the music says in love, in love, in love, in love, in love. Everyone is taking pictures even Jack. Jack is giving candy to everyone.

I had fun. I danced with Mark. There was a chocolate fountain. I rode in a taxi. My Mom got sick in a taxi.

All in all it was a lovely time with our wonderful family. Athena had a blast, and as for the rest of us, well the memories of the rough parts are fading quickly replaced with the lasting images of a lovely, beautiful wedding. We will all remember it always, but it will be especially in grained in the memory of our Princess Athena.