PINKALICIOUS PARTY!!!

If you have a little girl chances are you are familiar with the book Pinkalicious. Well, today we hosted a Pinkalicious themed party. In all honesty I validated this party as practice. In a few weeks I will be helping with my niece's Pinkalicious b-day party, and that my friends will be something else (If you have ever been to an event hosted by my sis you know what I am talking about). Not that we ever need a reason to party at my house, anyways back to today.

Look, pink threw-up in my house.



The girls all showed up looking darling in head to toe pink. We started off with tiara decorating, to be fair I had pirate hats for the little brothers to festoon.


Out back was water play, some played with squirt toys, others stationed themselves at the water table, and still others took a refreshing dip in the pool...




....seriously, there were 7 happy little kids crammed in there at one point. Thank heaven the sea monkeys are still young enough to appreciate backyard fun on a tight budget.

The kids decorated pink cupcakes, or rather created a collective sprinkle explosion.




This is what I learned from my practice party:

1-10 kids actually fit in my house so I can continue to host random parties (hooray)
2-I need to take more/better pictures
3-Three year olds don't care that much about decorations (but I do, in fact I left them up in spite of Mark's disapproval)
4-The backyard is surprisingly more fun than I thought it was

Now to prepare for my niece Tabitha's Pinkalicious part II.....

Movin On Up!

Last Thursday we celebrated all the kids in Madeline's pre-K school. They each 'graduated' from their respective class and will be moving up a 'grade' in the coming school year. Madeline ended her 2's class with honors and we expect the same of her when she begins the 3's class this fall.

(Madeline is 1st row, 4th in from left if you don't count the kid being held)



She loves her pals Casey and Abby, notice the sweet hand-holding!


Each class presented a thoroughly rehearsed performance. Madeline's class did a choreographed song and dance about moving up to the 3's class.


It was flawless, perfection even, not one child was out of sync.

Our awesome teacher Miss Mindy troubleshooted any miss-steps in the performance by having the children wear sunglasses. The reasoning here is that sunglasses are distracting to the audience on account of viewers not being able to get past how darn cool the kids look. The woman is genius, we love our Miss Mindy and and can't thank her enough for everything she taught Madeline this past school year (sniff).



BTW, notice the similarity between her blue dress and these , versatility people, it's what I do.

Not quite but cute nonetheless

About a year ago I made this dress for my niece, it was one of those "OMG it's So CUTE" moments when I finished it.


I really loved it and always intended to make one for Madeline. Honestly if I was 7 years younger I would make one for myself in a heartbeat, I'd exchange the Hello Kitty beater for one more 'mature'. Maybe a dark gray one with some crochet detail and a yellow/dusty plum tulle skirt. Yes, I have thought this through and yes, I really would have worn this, and you would have secretly wanted one of your own.
Back to the point.
OK, this dress did not turn out exactly how I planned but it's darn cute and now I know what to change the next time I attempt this.


While perusing the local Target I spotted this pink tie-dye beater in the girls section. Tie-dye is one of those things that I love but would never be comfortable wearing myself, thus I dress my kids in as much tie-dye as possible. The beater part is spot on for this project but I don't think I used enough tulle for the skirt, it should be poofier no? I also need to add elastic at the seam where it attaches to the beater, it's not going to fit Mad's tush for much longer.

The back:


That day Madeline's preschool class gave us a performance, they were stirring soup for Shabbat.. in a pot.. to keep it hot. They stood in front of the school stirring their pots. Very, very cute, they all forgot to sing the song so thankfully there was a cd playing in the background to cue us in on their motivation. Kudos to the teachers, it was a dramatic improvement from the last class performance which was basically the teachers desperately trying to maintain the kids in the same area.


Over the course of the day the dress stretched and grew progressively longer, definitely should have put elastic in there. I will find a reason to re-make this soon, it's such a pretty concept. On the plus side, I now know how to make a very simple mermaid costume.
And on a totally unrelated note, Max is cute.

Just Like June

This dress is a result of my laziness, in the afternoons I have been known to let Madeline watch her Little Einsteins DVDs repeatedly. Because of this she has developed an obsession with everything Rocket, namely June and her pretty purple dancing dress. Anywhoodle, I was thinking it would be really fun to make Madeline a pretty purple dancing dress of her very own. Naturally I took some creative liberty to change the dress a bit and add some pattern. We can't have Madeline and June looking like Frick and Frack!


Check out the top model pose, Tyra would call her "fierce" and praise her for the direct yet coy gaze, though Tyra would probably advise her to have the teddy bear tattoo removed.


Now the action sequence:


and...

Wheee! Looks like fun eh? Makes me wish I had a pretty purple dancing dress and giant couch to throw myself on as well.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MR. MAX!!!

On May 1st our little Mr. Moo turned one whole year old. Undoubtedly that past year went by way to fast. Max is starting to say mama, dada, up, and bye. He is silly and always smiling, he cracks himself up clapping, is almost walking, and is my darling boy. We had a family party with a robot theme, this is the unbustible pinata.

I really thought I was clever and had left some weak seams when making Robotra (named by cousin Rex). Robotra was unconquerable. Bless them, the children all gave him a good whacking, eventually the bat was passed to uncle Dale. Much to our surprise uncle Dale was no match for Robotra. We intervened when it started to get ugly and peeled some duct tape back, Dale then thrashed the candy bot. Yes, yes, I now know that duct tape and pinatas should not be mixed.
On to presents, the kids all pitched in and helped Max open his gifts,

Such a cutie!
Robot cake for Max!
he got a kick out of the song...

...we lopped off the robot head for Max to 'enjoy'
Honestly it was a bit disappointing, he smooshed it up real good but hardly ate a bite. He is so much like Mark, look at the 'mess' after the hunk of the cake was removed from his tray.
Not kidding, he was probably the cleanest kid there.
So Happy Birthday Mr. Maxy Moodles, we love you Doodley Doo!

The Notorius Whiskey Row 1/2 Marathon

This race is brutal, and callous, and nearly sadistic, ...and me, along with a handful of other crazies, love it. The out and back course begins at 5300 feet, runners are challenged by steep rolling hills the entire way. At the turnaround you will have reached 6400 feet but with all the ups and downs runners climb way over a vertical mile. Whiskey Row is a mean combination of insane hills and altitude, hat's off to those who complete the full marathon, the 1/2 is enough for me ...for now. My love affair with Whiskey Row began in 2005, a friend and I decided to train for a 1/2 and picked this race as our goal. I have now done this race 4 years, would have been 5 but baby Max was born race weekend last year so that didn't work out!
So over the weekend some girlfriends and I headed up to Prescott, some of us were new to the race and others were returning suckers. My sister Alys, who is expecting, came to cheer us on, hold our stuff, and capture our glory on camera. (Thanks A!)
As to be expected the race was no different this this year than any year previous, I was trained and mentally ready to give it every ounce of energy possible.
Alys got this shot of me about 30 feet from the finish. As you can see by my face I am DONE! See how crazy tight my calf is, can you feel the burn..
Whooeee was I spent!
Here we are with the post race glow,
We all did great and will probably all be back.
RESULTS!!!
From left to right: Emily, this was her first race ever! And she did it in 2:30, holy crap girl! Me: This year was not a Whiskey Row PR for me but still a decent time, I know I gave it everything. Lori, she knocked nearly 30 minutes off her last Whiskey Row time, another 'holy crap girl' is in order. Glenda, she rocked the equally mean 10K course, would have done the 1/2 but she is smart and taking time off to heal an owie.

That dang race is relentless and so, so fun!