Date Night

This past Saturday was lots of fun! Phil and Sydney Frances got all dressed up for Daddy-Daughter Date Night. Rush and I made sure they got going ok and then we took off on a little adventure of our own. Sydney Frances looked so pretty in her "princess dress". At first, I felt like it was a little tacky, but I ended up just loving it. She was so sweet and excited all day. She sat really still and I curled her hair a little with a curling iron. She loved seeing her little curls. After she put on her dress, she twirled and danced around the house. Phil looked so handsome in his suit, too. Phil gave SF a pretty rose corsage. (See side story on this later...)She loved it, and Phil said she refused to take off her sweater at the dance because she was afraid it would mess up her "flowers". They got to eat Chick-fil-a and do lots of dancing. SF learned the Chicken Dance, the Macarena, and the Cha-Cha Slide (or whatever it is called...). Phil danced right along with her. The only tiny snag in the night was when the Chick-fil-a cow decided to visit. This is kind of like me and public spaces. We have covered Fran's dislike of "pretend animals" on more than one occasion. Phil said she was able to move on after a little while, though. I must say, the text I got from Phil about the cow being there made me laugh out loud at McDonald's. McDonald's you say? Yes. McDonald's. I told Rush he could choose any restaurant for our dinner date. He chose McDonald's. I am sure it had nothing to do with the fact that the current toy in a Happy Meal just happens to be a Transformer. After our dinner, Rush and I headed to Walmart and Target in search of the perfect Star Wars toy. Rush had some money he had saved up that was burning a hole in his pocket. After MUCH deliberation, he finally decided what he would spend his money on. After that, we went and had some frozen yogurt at Chill. I loved getting to hang out with Rush by myself, and Phil felt the same about SF. We really should do it more often. Some fun and funny pictures from the night:

Is there anything about these pictures that makes you think SF likes to have her picture taken? Just wondering if you noticed... :-)

Of course, I like to show the real side of things... it can't be all smiles. There was a minor meltdown on how the corsage would be arranged on her wrist.

**Corsage side story** Phil and I talked about corsages before the day of the dance. Phil was going to order one at a local florist, but I told him not to do that because I had seen some corsages at Walmart, so I would just get one with a small flower in it for her because she probably wouldn't wear it long. As I type that it feels just so "rednecky" to say I would get the corsage at Walmart... whatever... I was trying to simplify. You know... Mama knows best and all that jazz. So, unfortunately, I waited until the day of the dance to go buy one. Guess what? The boxes I saw at Walmart did not actually have flowers in them. It was only the little wrist part with some fake leaves and these tacky little pearl thingies. I also didn't really see any pretty flowers except a dozen roses... which we didn't need. So, I drove up to Winn Dixie. They had some flowers that were a little brown around the edges, but there were enough pretty ones left that I could see a couple of sweetheart roses I was planning to use. So, I bought the almost dead flowers at Winn Dixie. Then, I drove back to Walmart to buy the little empty corsage box. I needed the wrist part. Anyway, when I went back to Walmart I saw some pretty little roses that were basically in front of my face the first time I went. I was sweating by this point. So, rather than using the almost dead flowers from Winn Dixie, I bought a corsage box and the flowers I missed the first time. I did not have time to return to Winn Dixie, so I had that "bouquet", too. When I got home, the new flowers from Walmart wouldn't fit into the corsage holder. So, I ended up using the ones from Winn Dixie. But before I did that, I cut the tacky leaves and pearly thingies off the wrist corsage band. So basically I paid $4.98 for a piece of silver elastic. Holy crap.
So to sum all this up:

1. I was totally wrong on so many levels, and she wore the flowers ALL NIGHT.
2. After buying half dead flowers, missed- them- the- first- time Walmart flowers, and tacky wrist thing, I could have just bought her a dozen roses and been done for the day.
3. I really kind of hate corsages and always have. I hated them for high school dances. Especially those really enormous mums for homecoming.
4. Phil will order from the florist next year.


The end. That is the end of my SA. I hope you liked my SA.

(This is how my fourth graders end their writings. No matter how hard I try to teach them other ways to end it. They also have no clue what essay means. It just kinda makes me laugh every time, so I thought I would give it a go here.)

P.S. Now I have two things to look forward to in February next year. Kate Kate's birthday and our fun little date night. February is redeeming itself.

February

That's the only title I could come up with for this post. I think I am in a funk. I don't use the word funk on a regular basis, but I just can't think of anything else. That's why I am going to make myself some dessert. This is it.

Guess what? I am the only person in my house that likes these. Is it wrong that I will be preparing a dessert that no one likes but me? I think not. Mama deserves a little treat.

I pretty much don't like February. It's cold, rainy, dismal, and thankfully... short. I have never been a big Valentine's Day person. When my favorite niece,Kate, was born on February 3, 2010, it gave me an excuse to try to like February. So for the last couple of years, I have been enjoying at least the beginning of the month. This year?

She could have ended this little note with... "because I vomited all over the kitchen floor last night when I walked in the back door." See... it's February. So we didn't get to do our only fun February thing. Turned out to be a pretty mild "virus", but it still kept us away from our family and friends. :-(

We missed this..

And this...

Ok.. I will try to be a smidge cheerier. We did do a little craft that I saw in the kids' High Five magazine. I'm pretty sure that makes me a good mother. Actually, Frannie saw it and planned the whole deal. She even reminded me about the supplies she would need at the grocery store.

They were very simple. I used a die cut for the hearts and bought some popsicle sticks. We already had googly eyes.

True to form, Fran's were symmetrical and had very neat little smiles. Rush's were alien heart-shaped hand puppets that had between three and six eyes each. I love how they each put their own little spin on the same activity. :-)

I'll leave you with a picture of two seriously happy kids. I think it goes without saying at this point that I do NOT enjoy public toys. Who am I kidding? I don't like public spaces. Period. But when you have two little ones, you are generally in public spaces quite a bit. So, they went to a birthday party at a local public jumpy place. They ran wild and jumped and screamed with the other 322 kids from the five birthday parties happening in the place. We only left with one black eye. (Yes, really, Fran got elbowed in the cheekbone/eye socket.) So on the way out, Rush asked if they could please ride in the little jeep thing. You know the one where you put in quarters and it kind of shakes and bucks and make some noises? Well, my kids had never been in one. I know.. pretty sure that cancels out the crafty thing from earlier. I should have let them do this before now. I just imagine all the germs that are all over those things. I think it may be because I am around kids all day that I feel this way. I know how nasty they are. Anyway. I figured I might as well win Mother of the Year while we were there at the already public jumpy place. I popped those two quarters in and out came this...

Pure joy.

Fran and Phil go to their dance tomorrow night. I can't wait to for her to get dressed up. She is SO excited! Rush and I are going on a date, too. I told him he could choose the restaurant for our dinner. He chose McDonald's. I promise to be back with some sweet Daddy/Daughter pictures... hopefully by the end of the weekend. I promise to leave my sarcastic bone at home when I post that one. You caught me at the end of a week that had too many days in it. :-)