Princess A is a Finalist, Please Vote!

Princess A's drawing is one of the finalist for the “Strong and Happy” Drawing Contest on 5 Minutes for Mom.com and sponsored by YoplaitKids

Please vote for #11. Be Helfy (Healthy)!

Jumping Birthday Party

The girls attended a birthday party of Princess A's friends at a jump place.

The little girl is a friend of Princess A's but she was sweet enough to invite Princess G too!
Princess A and the birthday girls were in the same kindergarten class for the first 2 months and this year they are in the same first grade classroom.

As you can see the girls were having a blast!

The girls had so much fun going down the slide over and over together.

We had never been to this party jump place before. Last year Princess A had her birthday party a Jump place. In some ways this place was better, the area was smaller so the kids did not have enough room to run and therefore run into each other (happen at least once each time we attended birthday parties at the other place.) Also the inflatables were a little smaller so the kids were not going as fast. The drawbacks are that the attendant did not watch the kids on the inflatables. Kids were going down backwards, climbing where they were not suppose to and other things. I watched my girls so they did not do those things but no one else stopped the other kids.

Usually at a jump place the party package allows 20 kids and charges more for each additional child. The parties are always better if you limit the total number of kids to about 12. That way ono one is spending a lot of time waiting and because of that there are less crashes.

The girls both got so warm they wanted to take off the extra shirt they wore under their dresses.

All of the kids played for an hour before it was time for cupcakes!

After cupcakes the birthday girls opened up her gifts.

I love this picture of my girls while they watched the gift opening.

I hope they stay this close all of their lives.

The kids all played some more and then it was time to go home. Princess G now wants to have her party here. We will have to see, for right now I am just concentrating on Princess A's Birthday Tea Party in March!

Girls Scout Cookie Orders!

Here are the girls last week having a quick snack (Amish Friendship bread) before heading out to collect cookie orders.

Last year as a Daisy, Princess A's troop decided not sell Girl Scout Cookies.

This year we are selling girls scout cookies but are not requiring a minimum amount sold.

Princess A wants to sell 1,000 cookies. I was just hoping for 12 so she would earn the badge. Princess A then decided she would like to sell 1,000 but 150 would be good so she can earn the small stuffed Panda. We turned in our pre-orders and her total was 86 boxes. She will still have a chance to sell some more cookies at a booth outside a store but as we have almost the last day I doubt we will sell many. In our area the troops enter a lottery for booth times and most of the ones her troop received we can't attend. Who has kids selling cookies until 8pm in the dark?
We took one of the few daytime slots. I hope for her sake we sell at least 64 boxes but I doubt especially since she has to split the sales with another brownie so they really would need to sell 124 boxes in 2 hours.

There is always next year. I was impressed we sold 86, as we have little family in the area and there are a lot of girl scouts in our neighborhood.

If you did not get to order any cookies don't worry you can still get some this year. In our area (western Washington) the booth sales start around February 28.

Wordless Wednesday: Parfaits

Princess A's drawing is one of the finalist for the “Strong and Happy” Drawing Contest on 5 Minutes for Mom.com and sponsored by YoplaitKids
Please vote for #11. Be Helfy (Healthy)!

Out to Dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory

I forgot to post out pictures from the dinner we had after the Tacoma Art Museum. We went and had dinner at the old Spaghetti Factory. The last time we went Princess G was just a baby (I remember her being in her car seat in the restaurant.) I think we stopped by two other times to eat but the wait was always to long for the girls.

(Don't you love their little baskets? They were mine and my sister's when we were little. the girls each put a stuffed animal in them, a seahorse and lamb.)

Princess A does not like sauces in general, so we ordered her plain spaghetti with a meatball on the side. She loved the plain pasta but not the meatball so Princess G ate it instead. I got my old favorite, tortellini with Alfredo sauce as did my darling husband.

Of course the girls loved the bowls of ice creams, we all ordered the spumoni.

I just love ice cream in a metal bowl with a metal spoon. It just taste better! Maybe I should try and find some metal ice cream dishes.

I miss going to the Old Spaghetti Factory. I first visited the one in Boston with my Alaskan roommate freshman year. Whenever her family was in a town with an Old Spaghetti Factory they always had to eat there. I remember having to take the T and walking for a while but it was so worth it. When I returned from college I introduced my family to the restaurant and my husband and I ate there all the time. We actually had Princess A's first birthday party at an Old Spaghetti Factory. When we told Princess A that she told us she did not remember but she is sure she had fun. I am not sure why we stopped going though it is probably because the restaurant was on the way home when we visited Seattle and we lived in Tumwater and now it is out of the way.

The girls loved the food, well parts of it. Princess A loved the plain pasta and tortellini without sauce and Princess G loved the meatball and tortellini with sauce. Of course both of them loved the bread and the ice cream. The food was so yummy we will have to try and make more of an effort to eat there.

Princess and the Frog Movie

Daddy took all of his girls to go see the Princess and the Frog movie. The girls brought their Tiana dolls they received for Christmas. They were so excited when we told them they could bring their dolls as we don't usually let they bring dolls or stuffed animals outside of our house.

We loved the movie. It was just so much fun! The music was lively and stuck in your head, in a good way. We requested the soundtrack from the library and have been listening to all of the songs over and over. We will probably buy the soundtrack or at least download a few from itunes.
Daddy and his girls!
The girls love when Daddy takes us because he always buys them a popcorn and lemonade to share.

After the movie, which the girls wanted to see again as we left the theater, we went to our favorite Pho restaurant. I sometimes thing the girls like the lime wedges and fresh mint leaves more than the soup.

It was a wonderful day, we loved the movie and had a very yummy lunch.

The girls can't wait for the Princess and the Frog to come out on DVD as Daddy has already told them he will buy it for them.

General Mills Reduce Sugar in Kid Cereals

We eat a lot of General Mills cereals so I was very happy to hear their announcement. "General Mills announced a commitment to further reduce sugar in cereals advertised to kids under 12 to single digit grams of sugar per serving." We have breakfast every morning but in general my girls don't have kid cereals for breakfast instead they have them as snacks or dessert. Now that they will have less sugar they will be having them for breakfast more often. Princess A loves taking Lucky Charms to school in her lunch and Princess G has been snacking on Trix in the afternoon. I try to limit the girls sugar intake so that when they do have sugar they get enjoy it and really taste it. Now with less sugar I will feel better about letting the girls eat these kid cereals more often. Here is a link to a $1 coupon for one of four General Mills cereals.

I was sent coupons for four free General Mill cereals through MyBlogSparks to facilitate this review and was not compensated in any other way.

Fairy Tea Party and Lincoln Logs

The girls wanted to have a fairy tea party.

(I had just purchased some plastic tongs to use as sugar tongs for the sugar cubes.)

I made some Sleepy time tea and since every tea party needs snacks they also each had a plate of Smarties candy.

I picked some plastic tongs to use as sugar tongs (for sugar cubes). The tongs are much to big for the sugar cubes but the girls still liked using it.

My cute little fairy princess!

After the tea party they wanted to get out the Lincoln logs and 'make some creations!'

Since I was taking the pictures the girls wanted to make a movie. Princess A was so proud of her creation too! Usually she wants me to help her a bit but this time she wanted to do it herself. In fact the girls asked me to go upstairs and come back when they were done. They wanted to surprise me. When I did come down Princess A accidentally knocked down part of her creations. She asked me to not look until she fixed it. One it was done they both yelled surprise!

Princess A wanted to make a movie too!

School Presentation

Wednesday Princess A did a presentation at school. She wanted to wear her fancy flower girls dress for her poem. She was last because the presentation started just when Princess G gets out of school. I had asked her teacher to put her last in case I was late. I ended up picking Princess G up from school 20 minutes early so we had plenty of time, and in fact we got seats in the front row. Finally it was Princess A turn. She introduced herself and then explained her drawing which was inspired by the poem.
Then she recited her poem:

Chicken Soup with Rice--January

In January it’s so nice,
While slipping on the sliding ice,
To sip hot chicken soup with rice.
Sipping once, sipping twice,
Sipping chicken soup with rice.
--Maurice Sendak

Princess A did great, she made eye contact with audience, did not talk too fast and used a nice clear voice. After everyone was done we got to stay and visit for a few minutes. I took another picture of her in front of her drawing of slipping on ice while drinking soup.

Princess G had to give her sister a big hug. Princess G did well waiting for all of the poems. We were in the front so she started waving to all of the other students while wait for Princess A.

Princess A has a student teacher in her class and starting Monday she will be teaching the class for six weeks. Princess A had been worried about the change though it took a while to figure out what was upsetting her. Ever since school started again, after Christmas break, Princess A has been complaining she felt nauseous after school. It was not everyday at first but seemed to become a more regular occurrence the last week or so. I could not figure out what was the problem. I kept asking her what was wrong or if she was worried about something. She kept saying nothing was wrong. I got more subtle with her and started discussing it more with her teacher too.

Here is Princess A' teacher, she just loves her. I think Princess A was most upset that she would not get to see her all day. Princess A loves her teacher and likes knowing what is going to happen. Together with her teacher we thought that the changes in class might be what was upsetting her. Her teacher talked with the whole class yesterday about the changes and how everything would work. It did the trick. Princess A happily announced yesterday, when I picked up from school, "I don't feel nauseous at all!" Hopefully the next six weeks will go well.

Art in the Mall

Princess A Photograph won at her school and was sent on to the District competition for the PTA Reflection contest. Over the weekend all of the artwork that was not chosen for the state competition was displayed at the mall.

Princess A entered a picture of a tree in our backyard. This year I let her use my camera, last year she used her Fisher Price camera. I am so proud of her, getting to District two years in a row!Princess A was so proud to show her Daddy that her photograph was being displayed.To celebrate we all went out for Japanese food. We picked out bento boxes but instead of the usual teriyaki chicken we tried the katsu (no sure how to spell it). The girls loved it. Of course Princess G ate all of the dumplings and the girls ate all of the miso soup.

It was a fun day and I really am just so proud of my little artist!

Adventures of Meno Review

We received Adventures of Meno Big Fun and Wet Friend books last month and Princess G has been enjoying them. She has been asking Princess A to read them over and over. The stories are very sweet and the illustrations are simple and cute. I love that at the end of the both books they have a glossary and the first book has a Meno song. Just so cute. I did laugh out loud the first time I read the page with David Hasselhoff in Wet Friend. We really enjoyed the first two books in the series and can't wait for the next two when they come out in April.

The Adventure Of Meno books can be purchased at Borders.com for $9.99 each.
You can also try to win this set of books and a oh so cute Meno blanket (I so wish I could win the Wishi blanket) at Catch the Drift with Mama Snow.

Wordless Wednesday: Dressed as Twins

Princess G picked out this outfit and got her big sister to wear it too.

They then happily told everyone all day that they were "dressed as twin, but we were not born together so we are not real twins."

Be Helfy! (Be Healthy)

Princess A (age 6) drew a picture of herself being helfy (healthy) by eating yummy yogurt.

Her drawing is an entry for the “Strong and Happy” Drawing Contest on 5 Minutes for Mom.com and sponsored by YoplaitKids.

Today is the last day to enter!

Princess G (age 4) wanted to draw a picture too!

As only one drawing can be entered this picture is not for the contest. Princess G wanted me to post it with her sister's and I did not have the heart to tell her her picture could not be entered too.

Tacoma Art Museum

We took the girls to the Tacoma Art Museum and they loved it.
Princess A was so excited to see what other artist have created, especially the paintings.
Photographs are not allowed in the actual museum but let me tell you it was wonderful. The museum is not very big but it was the perfect size for the girls. We saw all of the exhibits (we missed a few in the drawers but saw all of the ones out) in about 45 to 50 minutes. I loved the glass and the impressionist paintings the most. I love the Renoir of two girls. I have seen other ones of the same subjects but not this particular painting. Princess A loved "Ballet in the Park" by Everett Shinn. I tried finding a poster of it to hang in her room but no such luck.
After the main part of the museum we went to the hands on art room. The girls had a blast and we were creating art for over an hour! Princess G started with making a collage.

Princess A made a drawing with oil pastels and then added some umbrellas she cut out as a collage.

While Princess G still worked on a second collage with Daddy Princess A tried basket weaving.

She wanted to take the weaving home but since that part had to stay in the room I cut two pieces on paper in such a way so she could weave them together.

Next we found some water color crayons (you draw with the crayon and then blend the colors with water using either a paint brush or sponge).

Princess G wanted to try the watercolor crayons too.

While they were drawing/painting I found the paper bead kit. I made some beads by rolling paper and used them for a bracelet for Princess G. Princess A made her own beads for a bracelet after she finished the drawing/painting.

We all had so much fun and I can't wait for us to go back. The museum was the perfect introduction os an art museum for the girls since it is not too big and they get to make their own art at the end.

Every Third Thursday has free admission so check it out if you are in the area.