33 posts tagged “daughter”
I have been neglecting my blog for the summer, but after catching up on some of my favorite bloggers in my 'hood, I see I'm not the only one. It is late, so I won't say too much right now. Just expect to see many posts as I catch you all up with my summer!
I will share this one photo I took of my daughter during one of our family trips:
I noticed that Brianna was starting to get freckles on her nose and cheeks a few months ago. I just love them, and I think they add a bit of innocence and charm to her face! She seems curious about them too. Everytime I remark that I see some new ones, she runs to the mirror and closely inspects her face!
By the way, thanks to a fellow Pampered Chef consultant that I met in Toronto, I now know how to zoom in REALLY close up with my camera! She had the same one at the conference, so I got some great pointers. I guess it pays to read the whole freakin' manual!
On June 15th, Brianna turned 5 years old! Forgive the late blog entry... you will soon be inundated with entries as I get caught up over the last 2 months!
She was hoping for a Barbie Mariposa doll, or some My Little Ponies, but we decided on something much more fun! We looked at a few ride-on jeeps, and chose this one on account of the lower price tag. Rather than decorate it with the included flame decals, we bought some cool skater stickers to make it more appealing to a mature 5-year-old girl!
The twins gave her some I-Spy books since she likes them so much!
Mike would like the manufacturer to know that their estimated 15 minute assembly time is off by about AN HOUR!
Just like last year, Brianna was given the choice of where to have her birthday dinner. And, just like last year, she chose Choo Choo's Restaurant. She likes the toy trains they give the kids to play with at the table, and everyone loves the train that circles the restaurant on a track near the ceiling! There was about 15 of us there -- friends and family -- and we all had a great meal and yummy desserts.
My major regret of the night: we forgot to sing Happy Birthday to Brianna when she got her ice cream! To make up for it, Mike and I sang to her as we tucked her into bed for the night.
Despite the fact that it was not at all what she expected, she sure does love to bomb around in her new wheels! There's even enough room for a friend to hop in!
I made Brianna a sandwich -- to her specifications, I might add -- and she just couldn't eat the whole thing. She gave me her trademark SIGH and declared, "I'm feeling full, Mom."
My usual response is to ask her to eat 3 - 5 more bites (I decide on the fly), but this time I asked her to eat half of what was left. Not understanding "half", Brianna asked me to clarify.
I pointed to the centre of the piece and said, "Eat all the way to the middle of the piece. Then, you will have eaten half of it."
This is what was left after she triumphantly declared that she had eaten all the way to the middle:
Notice how you can see the middle of the sandwich? She just couldn't understand why I laughed so hard and just had to take a picture!
Brianna had fun spinning and twirling... and I had fun playing with the camera!
I call this one "The Helicopter"!!
I went into Brianna's room this afternoon, and this is what I found:
A little Mad Hatter party! Absolutely adorable!
I like the way Good Luck Bear's legs are tucked under the 'table'!
I have wanted to get Brianna's ears pierced for some time now, but she has been resistant to the idea for fear that it will hurt about as bad as having a limb amputated with a dull knife (not her exact words, but the way she would go on about it....).
There is a spa place in the mall that I go to quite often, and I had taken Bree in a few times to look at all the lovely earrings they have to choose from. She had decided a while ago that she would like to have pearl earrings (her birthstone), and was getting rather agreeable about the whole thing once her good friend had hers done.
So, a while back we wandered past the spa place, and she decided she was ready. This was it! We walked in, they sat her down, got the earrings ready, cleaned her ears, and marked the spots with a felt. Mike knelt down in front of her and held her hands, but once the ladies had the guns near her ears... TRAUMA! She started to cry and put her hands to her ears... major breakdown. After much negotiation (including giving her the lollipop reward to suck on during the piercing), Mike tried a last resort.... He asked if she would get it done if HE had his ear pierced. Um.... what? She seemed OK with that, so he sat down and had his ear pierced. He used to have an earring in his ear, but took it out a few years ago and let the hole grow over. Would you believe she STILL wouldn't have it done? She screamed so bad, that the ladies at the store flat out refused to push her into it. So, we were out $100 for her earrings (of course they were one of the most expensive pairs) and Mike's earring too, but nothing else to show for it.
We put the little earring box on her dresser (along with a ziploc bag containing the lollipop that I refused to let her finish) and there they sat until last Friday. We wandered past the same spa place, where a young lady about Brianna's age sat at the same seat to get her ears pierced. A nervous looking Dad (and an indifferent looking brother) stood nearby. I knew this moment would make or break the whole earring issue, so I encouraged Brianna to step right up there and watch the young girl go through this rite of passage. Mike was trying to get us moving along -- sure that the young girl would scream and scar Bree for life -- but I stood my ground. I was willing to cross that bridge if we came to it. Thankfully, there was not even a tear! The girl jumped when the guns clicked, but we all started to clap and cheer, so she sort of looked around in a daze.
That was it. Brianna was ready! We talked about it during the week, and there was no going back this time. Friday came (the same day as the International Day Parade) and we took another trip to the mall. She ran right into the spa place and handed her wee box of earrings to the very same lady she traumatized a couple months earlier. "I'm getting my ears pierced, and I'm SURE this time!"
Prepping her virgin ears. Is that a look of determination, or what?
All ready to go... but waiting for the second lady to finish waxing someone's brows. They do both ears at the same time (not like when I was a kid), so we had to wait a couple minutes for both ladies to be ready. Brianna is eyeing up the very lollipop she had been saving on her dresser all this time.
Here we go! I held her hands, and the lady in green told her she could close her eyes if she wanted. She did.
"That hurt a little bit!" She was crying, but we were so proud of her that she did her best to hold it back. It didn't help that one of the guns got caught on one of the earrings, so it pulled a little as it came away. She certainly deserved that lollipop!
My beautiful girl! She was still crying here, but doing her very best to smile for the camera. What a trooper! The ladies at the spa were so proud of her that they gave her a second lollipop to take home!
Phew! I think I'll take the twins in to get their ears done sooner, rather than later... I don't want to go through all this again!
Brianna goes to a fantasic Montessori school here in Langley (appropriately named Langley Montessori School), and Friday was the annual International Day Parade (last year's parade can be seen here) . Throughout the week, the students learned about countries around the world by sharing where their own family (or ancestry) is from. Mike's heritage is Scottish, so we sent Bree to school with a bunch of paraphenalia we have collected over the years -- a quaich, chanter, some books, a bagpipe CD and Mike's kilt. Brianna was very proud to stand in front of her class and show the items to her friends.
Brianna wore the tartan dress we bought her from Scotland (Blackwatch tartan). The photo on the left is when she realized she had forgotten her beloved Nessie on a shelf in her classroom. Tears started a-flowin'....
Reuinted and it feels so good!
After the parade, the kids helped themselves to a yummy buffet of all sorts of dishes from around the world -- samosas, shepherd's pie, alu gobi, fajitas, latkes, etc.
Mike wore his kilt outfit again this year... and even received applause from some of the parents when he entered the school!
Today, I took Brianna to a real, pointe shoes, tutus, men in tights, no talking or singing ballet: The Nutcracker. I have been to many musicals in the past (The Phantom of the Opera, Evita, Show Boat, Les Miserables, and more), but this was my first ballet. This one was performed by the Moscow Classical Ballet troupe, and they did an excellent job! The tickets were part of her Christmas gift this year, and I was so excited to give them to her!
I made sure to prep Brianna to be sure she knew what to expect. Up until now, her only exposure to the story was by watching "Barbie In The Nutcracker", which is not quite the same. I showed her clips from You Tube before I even bought the tickets, because I thought she should have the chance to decide if it was for her. She was all for it, so I went on-line and managed to get fantastic seats: Row 7, centre stage! We could see everything so clearly! Thankfully the theatre had booster seats for the kids... it made things so much easier!
We went to the matinee, so there was a lot of kids there... It was so sweet to see little girls all dressed up, some wearing glittering plastic tiaras, some with fancy ballet slippers... all with stars in their eyes!
Brianna was hilarious at intermission. I told her we should go to the restroom, but she said she didn't have to go. Too bad... we're going! We were in and out in no time (the line was well out the door by the time we got out!), and headed into the lobby to get a snack. Those lines were incredible! After a few minutes of waiting, the 10 minute bell sounded, and Brianna imediately started to panic. "What if they start without us??" I assured her that we had plenty of time. 5 minutes later, the 5 minute warning sounded. Hoo boy! I swear, she was on the verge of tears!
Snacks in hand (actually, they were hidden in my purse), we were back in our seats with a couple of minutes to spare!
The show was great, but I was a little disappointed that there was not a live orchestra... I've never been to a show without one, and I had wanted to show it to Brianna. We discovered that "Peter Pan" will be presented in April. Brianna is big into Tinkerbell right now, so I may look into that!
Brianna had a great time carving our pumpkins this year! We went to the pumpkin patch with her class and she took FOR-EV-ER to find just the right one! Three small gourds in-hand, we made our way home to scrape off the 10 pounds of mud all over our boots, pants and coats!
Scraping out the guts, and carving out the faces! I managed to clean out two of the pumpkins in no time flat, but I made sure to leave the last one for Brianna! I used a sharp knife to start her on her way, and she used her child-safe knife to saw the pieces out.
The finished products! Brianna decided what the jack-o-lanterns should look like, and I drew them free-hand the best I could. First, she wanted a "Sad Clown", then "Moon and Bats", and then a "Scary, Rrawr!" face. My artistic skills are something to be desired -- I know -- but she thought they were great, and that's all that matters!
All lit up on the big night! The photo on the right shows a rock that says "Stay Away". It has a motion sensor on it so when people walk up to the door, the letters flash and a very loud, spooky "BWAH-HA-HA-HA" laugh comes out of it. I put it out every year, and at least a couple kids freak out!
hee hee hee!
Just to prove it's not all sunshine and roses...
