Our little tapper/ballerina performed in her third recital yesterday.
Each time she becomes more confident & more graceful.
As I was spraying up stray hairs, resecurring bobby pins and retouching lip liner & sparkly gloss, she kept saying, “C’mon, I need to go backstage!”
{sorry for the teeny tiny picture…I snagged it off Facebook [thanks, Julianne!] and can’t get it sized any bigger, but you get an idea of how darling she looked}
She’s so proud of her trophies. The first one broke 4 hours after she got it, was repaired and is now broken again. The second one crashed and burned last week, but so far this one is still standing. We’ll get the other two patched up and display all three {high} up away from little 4-year old boy hands.
She may be proud of her plastic trophies, but we’re even more proud of the tiny dancer she’s become.
Here’s to many more toe taps, shuffle steps, jazz hands, grand jetés, pliés, chassés, pas de bourrées and hopefully trophies that stay in one piece.
I was just marking some things on the calendar and realized that we have all sorts of good stuff already lined up for the rest of 2011.
T-ball starting tomorrow. Easter. Birthday parties. Baby showers. End-of-the-school-year celebrations. Dance recital. Summer camps. A trip east to Myrtle Beach. Yosemite. Back-to-school. Blog Sugar. Fall goodness. And then the holidays all over again.
As much as I love having lots of things on the calendar, I love to be home almost as much. I really do love my Mondays & Wednesdays around the house getting caught up so that we can have fun on the weekends. Laundry, cleaning, organizing, sitting out in the patio having breakfast and lunch with Holden. I am happier when the house is in order and I am caught up on the laundry ~ yes, I am that mom. I know that chores and cleaning can wait ’til tomorrow, but I just cannot let our little nest get too out of control. That is when I get irritable and all around unhappy.
It’s daily that I try to find the balance between {having fun} and {taking care of business}.
A busy calendar vs. productive days at home.
I am content with both, but one cannot take place without the other.
Checking into your {hotel} and finding this on the dresser:
Sitting out overlooking a full Lake Hodges, flipping through months of Coastal Living mags and sipping wine while Gramma and the kids are at the park.
Putting the Sea World passes to good use:
{if a wedgie prevents your child from ending up in the dolphin tank, I’m all for it}
Spring Break means meeting up with dear friends from back in the day and realizing that you could stay up all night chatting:
{OK, so some cell phone pics are better than others…..}
Spring Break means visiting your {almost} 102-year old great great cousin at the old folks home and forgetting the camera {shame on me!}. The kids blew bubbles in the dining room while the residents looked on, laughed and waited for lunch to be served.
I overheard two little ladies exchanging thoughts and information…one asked, “How long have you lived here?” The other answered, “Forever and two days!” then laughed a little as if she knew there was nothing she could do about it but make the best of it all.
{Pardon me while I go off on a little tangent}
When Elliott was only about 2 months old, Jay accepted a job in San Jose. It was a new chapter we were excited about, but at the same time leaving San Diego was hard. We wanted to share all our favorite things about America’s Finest City with our new daughter, but soon found ourselves creating new memories in the Bay Area.
Moving from SD was the LAST thing I wanted to do after just having Elliott, but it’s what came to us and with no regrets we made the most out of 3 years in Nor Cal. Now, after two and a half years back in So Cal, we’re knocking that out, too. But it’s always good to go back to visit and reminisce.
{OK, we’re back on track}
Spring Break in San Diego also means grabbing Happy Meals and sushi and heading to the very park that you rollerbladed by a million times back in the day {15+ years ago to be exact}…
Spring Break means doing a drive-by of the {beachy slum} apartment you used to rent and finding out that it’s getting a facelift NOW {rather than 15+ years ago!}
Haines Street
Spring Break means stopping at Mr. Frostie for a chocolate dipped cone {the same one mommy went to 30+ years ago!}…
Double-frosty fistin’ it…
And while in Pacific Beach, we drove by the little townhouse that I lived in until I was almost 8 years old…
Wanna know something cah-razy about this little townhouse? Per zillow.com it was valued at almost a million dollars a few years ago!
It does have a gorgeous view of SD bay, coastline, downtown skyline and beyond.
Location, location, location! View, view, view!
Hard to believe that is where I came home from the hospital to…
Spring Break means watching your kids b-line it to the pool and find that they’ve remembered {how to swim} from last summer. Still not water safe by any means, but didn’t forget what they learned 8 months ago.
*****
Spring Break is just a little halfway over and already it has been more than I ever imagined.
Getting together with friends that you haven’t seen in {YEARS!} like it’s nothing. Just meeting up at the same hole-in-the-wall, bellying up to the same place at the bar and getting caught up. Pure and simple. That’s how all friendships should be.
Taking your children back to where you lived and showing them where you went to elementary school, for me, is such a treat. Spending a couple hours at the “beach park” beats Shamu any day!
These things that we did with Elliott and Holden are a mere drop in the San Diego bucket. But the older they get, the more fun it is to show them {my town}.
Although it has been {forever and 2 days} since our address was in SD, it feels just like {yesterday} when you meet up with good friends and return to the places where beautiful memories were made.
And that’s just the way it should be!
Off to see what fun we can have during the rest of Spring Break…
Holden’s masterpiece from Art Night is serving as the anchor…I made a quick paper bunting out of some polka dot card stock with this template. I just punched a couple holes in the top of each flag, strung twine through, then secured them in back with a small piece of tape.
I picked up some crystal candle holders at Dollar Tree and spray painted them orange. The idea came from here, but I decided to keep them a little more simple and streamlined with just a glass vase and small candle holder instead of the jars. First, spray paint with your color preference and then use some E6000 to marry the two. My kind of craft…wham, bam, you’re done.
When I originally saw this idea, I wanted to make them for Elliott’s party, but thought they would be fun in the meantime on the mantel to hold jelly beans and possibly some Cadbury mini eggs for Easter. They are so easy to make and can be tailored to any holiday or season…these will also make an appearance at Halloween!
It still needs something, but I’m not sure what…some good ‘ol jelly beans or chocolate eggs for a start and then maybe some daffodils in the vase…we’ll see!
Cannot believe next week is Spring Break! Where has this school year gone?
SPRING, I was perusing through The Oprah Magazine this weekend and came across her fashion must-haves for this rapidly approaching season.
Normally I am not searching for the latest trends…if I see something and I like it (and I can afford it), I pick it up. I hate to say, though, that I am one of those people that wear black year round. I love color and most of my wardrobe is solid pieces that I try to spice up with a cute necklace or a scarf here and there, but black is my “safe” color.
Lately I’m trying to be a little more “up” on the hip trends, but also reminding myself that I am rapidly approaching a milestone birthday which has a number that rhymes with “door”.
I figured these trends were safe if they were coming from Oprah!
So, let’s check it out, shall we?
Sequined Tank:
{DG2 for HSN}
Easy Blazer:
(more of a flowy fit rather than fitted)
{The Oprah Magazine}
Jersey Dresses:
{Old Navy}
Utility Jacket:
(I love denim because it goes with everything ~ except MORE denim!)
{Gap}
Straw, Resin or Wood Bangles:
{Charles Winston ~ Amazon}
{Marley London ~ Etsy}
{Nvie Designs ~ Amazon}
Spicy Palette:
{The Oprah Magazine}
I also learned that scarves are still “in” for Spring. I do love a cute little scarf to spruce up the average tee or wife beater!
How darling is this:
It almost screams “Spring!” to me. Sweet, sassy, ruffly.
{Bellarina}
So, I have 12 days to see what I can find to support my new style conscious attitude.
Happy shopping!
(After all, Spring Shopping sounds much more fun than Spring Cleaning.)
