Wizard of Oz

I think Regan happens to be one very lucky little 5 year old; and I happen to be one very lucky mommy. Not only has she been to see Annie , but yesterday, her and I went to see the Wizard of Oz playing at the Children's Theater. 

 Looking at this glass blown piece of art never gets old to me. Regan's not quite as mesmerized as I am...yet.

 I like to think she's just too excited for what lies ahead than to pay attention to anything around her. She is a girl with a newfound love for theater. I was a bit nervous, thinking this show would frighten her (nasty looking witch, crazy eyed monkeys, tornados, etc). But instead, she sat in anticipation of each song and act, jumping in reaction to various scenes but overall, completely loving each and every second. She won't admit it, but I'm quite certain her favorite character was the Lion. She giggled and laughed (as did the rest of the crowd), to his silly antics. 

Thanks for spending the evening with me, Regan! 

And for those of you who think Sidney was left out...stay tuned, she gets a chance for a mommy/daughter date in just a couple of weeks as we head out for the newest Elmo Live show. 

Christmas break

With Regan off from school, we've been fortunate to spend a lot of extra time hanging out, playing and going on adventures. Last week, after some arts and crafts (thank you Ashley AND Grandma Sheri for buying paper puppets...the girls think they are fantastic!)

 we ventured over to a playland which included giant inflatable slides and bounce houses (yes, that is plural on both of them). 

 

The girls climbed and slid to their hearts desire and then....

napped the afternoon away. A successful day I must say. 

Doggie Do

Regan received a new game for Christmas: Doggie Do. When she initially saw and subsequently asked for this game, I thought to myself "I do not need to be cleaning up dog poop!". However, after seeing an ad myself, I knew it was a game that would create some major belly laughs. I would highly recommend this one. 

Squeeze the handle of the leash...

 laugh and laugh as the gassy puppy lets loose of his problems....

And then scoop up the dirty mess until you have 3 turds on your shovel! 

Thanks Grandma Jan for the lovely game; the girls think it's wonderful and frankly, I could listen to their laughs all night long!

Christmas 2011 re-cap

It was a wonderful Christmas, spent in New Ulm following a morning full of Santa presents. The temps climbed into the 40s (although the wind seemed to pick right up as well), but that didn't stop us from burning energy at a local park on Christmas Eve morning. 

We opted for a little "boot skating" or "poop skating" in Sidneys' vocabulary. 

 Regan begged the entire 30 minutes on the ice for skates....little did she know they were under Grandma Jan's tree just waiting for her :) 

 Presents, presents and presents galore, with a little time on Papa's lap to watch a new movie (Dolphin Tale). 

Sidney played tea party over and over while the rest of us opened presents on Christmas morning at Gma/pa Friederich's house. 

 And then it was on to the Ahlness' house where Sidney hammed it up taking photo after photo for whoever asked her. She happens to look a LOT like Hunter did at that same age, so much so that Regan still confuses old photos of Hunter for Sidney. 

 All three of us were thrilled to see Nala at Christmas. I just wish I could've wrapped her up and taken her home! 

And look, Sidney got close to Shane....well you can see by the look on her face that she's pretty apprehensive about the whole photo op with him. 

Merry Christmas to everyone and thank you for all the wonderful gifts and the time spent as a family!

Merry Christmas 2011!

Extending a very Merry Christmas to you and your family! 

Santa came!

Santa made his appearance overnight; the girls were ecstatic! They opened games, toys, puzzles and more. Sidney's new prized possessions are a double stroller for her dolls along with her gumball machine. We're running out of change already. 

 Regan (let's face it, I am just as excited) loves her new Wii and Just Dance games. However, her face while opening the gift from Sidney is sweet. She had asked for hand sanitizer to hang from her backpack. After opening her present she said "Oh, just what I wanted!". 

Ryan looked at me and said "only your daughter would say that about getting hand sanitizer"!

That's my girl :) 

Sweet Sidney

Last night was the girls' last gymnastics class for this session. Sidney simply adores gymnastics, more so than any activity she's been a part of. She cannot wait to return next session. 

However, last night, she was dragging. Her class ended and as we went to watch the last few minutes of Regan's class, Sidney was not a happy camper. She whined, she complained, nothing was going her way. We were in a side waiting room, though full of other parents, and her whines were escalating. I commented "oh Sidney, I think you're getting tired". She quickly responded, in her adorable 3 year old whine "I'm not tired, I'm just crabby!". 

The roomful of parents erupted with laughter. That's our sweet Sidney! 

Ta-da!

Twas the night before Christmas

Regan wrote a note to Santa tonight and Sidney carefully placed plenty of sweets for the jolly fella

 and he was clearly hungry because he left just a crummy mess on the plate! 

Kindergarten winter party 2011

I do my best to volunteer at Regan's school as often as possible. Even when it means I have to take some time away from work. She squeals with delight when I walk through the door and her friends are so adorable as they yell "Regan's mom is here!". Today was her Winter Party; and without parent involvement, the classroom just couldn't handle the amount of activity. 

She made cookies, played bean bag games...

 M&M bingo and snowman crafts. 

And of course read stories before the bell rang. I'm so fortunate to have spent time with her today; I realize there will come a time when she groans at my presence in her class. 

But until then, I will soak up the love. 

The girls will be viewing these tomorrow....they've always enjoyed watching Santa's messages to them:

Regan:   http://www.portablenorthpole.tv/watch/gHqwPaH830SZlj_dzCQBguQ

Sidney:   http://www.portablenorthpole.tv/watch/gm92PtPFxHEiurYMobopd4w

Sneak peek

Regan is working hard on perfecting a tap dance for the winter show coming up in January....click HERE for a sneak peek of her in action.

Questions

Today, as we talked about friends/family who are expecting babies, Regan asked about the timing of how babies are born "how do they know when to come out?, they don't have calendars in there". Yes, she actually said that. And no, she's not referring to us, there is no baby in my tummy!

And then she asked me this: "mommy, how does the baby get into a mommy's tummy?". 

oh brother....

Como Zoo

Knowing the temps were going to be record highs today, and knowing we hadn't seen the zoo animals in a while, I took the girls over to Como this morning to check things out. We've been to the zoo countless times. And never have we seen the animals so full of energy. Apparently they are just as excited for this gorgeous weather as we are! 

Penguins were swimming around, coming up to the window to say 'hi' and scaring the dickens out of Sidney as she wasn't expecting their faces to hit eye level. 

A big pickle in the polar bear's pool; taken just for Aunt Cindy!

 This guy put on quite a show. He jumped into the water over and over, playing with various toys, pushing them against the glass and jumping on top of them. It was incredible! Click HERE for a video.

 The lions, while calm, were wide awake and Regan commented "he's looking at me mom" and in my head I thought "and thinking you'd be a good lunch!". (yes, I go to the dark place sometimes)

 This guy scared me. He was pacing back and forth, and Regan said he was just "thinking" while he paced, but his roars told me otherwise. I started praying. Seriously. 

The chimps were playing in t-shirts, peek-a-boo, putting them on, taking them off, rolling around as they got caught up in them. Simply adorable.  

The sign of a successful zoo trip: 

Just girls

The girls and I hit up Como (Conservatory AND Zoo) on this glorious 44 degree December day! 

A visit to Santa

We were a little slow on the annual visit to Santa this year. Our week nights are full and our weekends are chaotic. But the girls really wanted to visit Santa, for fear he wouldn't know what to bring them. Oh yea, and then there was the incident where they ventured into our spare bedroom defying my warnings to "not go in there!" and proceeded to raid their Christmas presents. Yes, it happened. At age 3 and 5, they snooped at their Christmas presents, which somehow later disappeared as "Santa came and picked up everything he had dropped off already". So our recent visit with Santa was also to apologize for snooping and beg that he stop back on Christmas because Regan really really really wants a Wii and Sidney is begging for a gumball machine.

Look how cute they sat as they begged the jolly man to please bring back our presents!

Cookie baking

We started the preparations for Santa's cookies this weekend. The girls made cut out cookies, nearly all on their own. It was so much fun to watch them roll, cut and create their delicious treats :)

American Girls

Grandma Sheri promised the girls American Girl Dolls this Christmas. Then she decided it would be fun to take them shopping; fully intending to wrap up the dolls and place them under the tree. That idea doesn't last long with two cute little girls who are very very VERY good at begging and a Grandma who is not so good at standing her ground :)

So tonight we went shopping.

And for Regan, who really has absolutely no interest in shopping, she sure was enjoying herself.

THANK YOU GRANDMA SHERI! The girls are in their glory tonight.

Holidazzle 2011

We brought the girls downtown on Sunday evening to watch the Holidazzle Parade light up the streets. We found a perfect spot on the curb with a light pole behind so the kiddos could hang out and chat before the start of the parade. The balmy 28 degree weather helped draw a full crowd but packing people in like sardines on a street curb creates a bit of a wind barrier.

The girls "ooed" and "ahhed" as each float went past with bright lights and music. And of course they were extra excited to see Santa bring up the rear of the parade!

Welcome home mommy!

I spent 24 hours away from the girls at a "Girls' night" with my college girlfriends. This was a big deal. It was my very first time away from the girls overnight. Regan is nearly 6 and Sidney is 3. I have never been away from them overnight (I did spend 2 nights away from Regan while giving birth to Sidney....but apparently that only counts in my book because everyone told me "that doesn't count").

So I had a fantastic time with some amazing friends shopping, wine tasting, dinner out and a night out.

My homecoming was simply the best! As I worked on opening the door, I could hear screaming inside "mooommmmyyy!" and then I barely made it inside the door and was tackled by these two beauties. Boy did I feel loved :) Regan had tears in her eyes as she climbed up on my lap not wanting to let go.

I love these girls!

Gingerbread house

....err, I mean Rice Krispie house! Regan's been begging to build a gingerbread kit. It's an activity she enjoys so I agreed. But when Sidney picked out a Rice Krispie house, I didn't argue a minute, hoping this is a little more edible.

The girls were so into it!, decorating and chit chatying away the evening.

Regan liked tasting our creations most.

Yep, less than 10 minutes after finishing building their house, the girls devoured what looked good and tossed the remainder.

Disney on Ice with Grandma Jan

What do you buy the grandchildren that have every toy imaginable and then some?...tickets to see Disney on Ice! Thanks Grandma Jan for taking the girls to see all the characters last night. It was Sidney's first experience, and by the look on her face, you can see just how much fun she was having!

Rapunzle stole the show and got a lot of laughs from the audience when she bonked Flynn on the head with her fry pan, just like the movie!

Snacks at intermission are always a must, although I think they might have cost more than the tickets themselves.

All 9 Disney princesses made an appearance at the end of the show, and it made the girls' night. Both of them repeatedly would yell: "mom look!, it's ______". I think Grandma Jan and I had more fun watching Regan and Sidney's expressions than watching the show. A child's excitement is priceless!

And a quiet ride home is worth a million dollars :)

THANKS AGAIN GRANDMA JAN!

IT WAS A GREAT TIME!