Girls' Night Out - Mom & Daughter Time!

Last night my nearly 11-year-old (gasp, it pains me to say that!) and I had a special treat! The two of us went downtown to the beautiful Eastman Theater (my camera phone does not do it justice... And this is my daughter's "I'm SUPER excited face!") to watch an a cappella concert put on by the YellowJackets, Pentatonix and Delilah -- all groups that we enjoyed watching on the NBC show, "The Sing Off." We have been huge fans of this show during it's first three seasons -- it's a show that our whole family can watch together and enjoy. We were fortunate to have found out about a local concert that the YellowJackets were having to benefit their Kenya project. My husband had to work and my 5-year-old adamantly declined my repeated offer to take her to the concert. Grandpa and Gramby were available to watch her, so my eldest daughter and I decided to go on our own! The tickets were for general admission and I had gone downtown on Friday to pick our tickets up so that we wouldn't have to wait in line for them. We dropped my little one off early and headed downtown prepared to wait out in the cold! We were arrived 90 minutes early and were able to wait inside behind about 40 - 50 people who had arrived ahead of us. We had already decided that we were going to head right up front toward the stage -- my daughter want to see everyone up close! We were thrilled to get seats in the 5th row! It was a fantastic concert -- wonderful music, a performance with a group of elementary students who have been working with the YellowJackets, and even a surprise wedding proposal for one of the singers from Delilah -- my daughter thought that was about the coolest, most romantic thing ever!







Whether we were watching these groups on the Sing Off or in person last night, we have always been amazed at the talent of these singers -- the amazing things they can do with their voices! We kept reminding ourselves that there was no band performing with them! Unbelievable! I'm glad that my girl appreciated the talent and hard work of these performers. She admired the beauty in the historic theater, and she was wonderfully fun company to hang out with for the evening! It was a special night for my girl and I, and although it was a school night, I took a little extra time after the concert (and after we got out of the parking garage...) to put on the local "24 hours of Christmas music" radio station and I drove her up and down Main Street to see all of the beautiful lights decorating the city for the holidays.

It was a wonderful evening and something my sweet girl and I will probably never forget!

"I Have a Question..."

The other night the 4 of us went to a special dinner for my dad -- he is the new Commander of our local Sail and Power Squadron this year, so this was their change of watch dinner/ceremony and he was all dressed up in his uniform and had to give a speech. It was pretty long and there were a number of speeches and different parts of the ceremony. My nearly 11-year-old was an angel, her 5-year-old sister was getting pretty wiggly, but still remarkably good, all things considered! Anyway, they had a rep from the Coast Guard there who spoke and then took questions at the end. My littlest girlie whispered to me, "I have a question for the guy!" and I said, "Really? What is your question?" And she said, "What's a sea horse?" Which totally cracked me up at that moment -- we refrained from asking, but I was impressed that it was a question about marine life and not kitties or rainbows or something!

I try so hard to write down these funny little things that my girls say -- to share with them and their children and to fondly remember when they were little! (I have a sweet picture that I took of the girls and their grandpa in his uniform, alas I am still having problems with my camera -- I can take pictures, I just can't get them off the camera!! Hoping Santa will help me resolve that issue!) :)

Thanksgiving Name Tag / Napkin Ring Craft

I miss you, dear blog -- Girl Scout cookie season seems to have taken over my life... It's coming to a close, and then I can hopefully get back in the swing of things! In the meantime, we had a lovely Thanksgiving with my mother-in-law (Grammy) and her sister (Cici) coming out to visit us for the long weekend. We had a great holiday with them, Grandpa & Gramby and my grandmother who recently turned 90.

The girls dressed in their little pioneer outfits (pioneer, pilgrim -- close enough to them, apparently!), everyone said the food was delicious, and the company was wonderful! We tried to make a turkey centerpiece craft with the girls but I was missing an essential item -- we'll work on finishing that up and then I'll post it in case anyone else is interested for next year. And hey, I'll have mine all ready to go for next year, myself! I did put the girls in charge of name tags which were very simple, but very cute. Just squares of construction paper with each person's name printed on them and cute foam Thanksgiving stickers stuck on each. We punched a hole in each, slipped a piece of twine through the hole and then tied it with bow around each person's napkin. Very simple, very cute, very festive!

I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving -- it really is my favorite holiday -- all about family togetherness, the calm before the Christmas rush!

Me & Strawberry...

While I was making dinner just now, my little girl was watching me and she said, "Mommy, Strawberry Shortcake can do all of the things that you can do! She can cook, she can drive, she can pour herself water, and she can decorate her home!" She said it with such admiration that I am going to take it as a compliment! Maybe Strawberry can step in for one of these nights when I am too tired to make dinner! :)

Catching Up

Life's been pretty busy around here, as I am sure it is for everyone! We had a wonderful Halloween -- I'd love to share pictures, however my beloved camera is not working! I can see the pictures on my camera, but cannot upload them to my computer! I am going to try to take the memory card to the store and see if they can put the pictures on a cd for me. New camera is first on my Christmas list this year! This year we celebrated Halloween with a trip to the Genesee Country Village for some fun activities and trick-or-treating. It was a beautiful autumn day -- great weather -- and we spent a lovely day with our friends and their daughters. My family voted unanimously that we will be doing that again next year! On Halloween, we all went over and had dinner at our friends' home and then headed out to trick-or-treat in their neighborhood. We usually trick-or-treat in our own neighborhood, but last year our friends joined us and we decided to alternate every other year. It's fun to go with a group like that -- the kids had a good time with their little friends and it was nice to see the decorations in another neighborhood. We came across one family whose son is now too old to trick-or-treat and so they were all bundled up, sitting in lawn chairs in the front yard with a roaring fire in their outdoor fire pit. They had a table set up and in addition to candy for the kids, they were offering donut holes and hot cider to all who passed by!

This past weekend was all about cookies -- I helped to unload the big tractor trailer with all of the cookies for our town's Girl Scout troops, then we loaded up the cookies for my Daisy troop, and then unloaded them at our house. All four of us worked to bring the cookies in -- even my little 5-year-old! (Although, she would only carry the "Lemonade" cookies, because those were her favorites!) I spent Friday night and part of Saturday sorting cookies, then Sunday I had my Daisy troop meeting and the parents came to pick up their girls' cookies. Then we were off to pick up my 10-year-old's cookies! On Sunday, my youngest thought I should make some Snickerdoodles... I suggested that we save that for another day when we were not already so overrun with cookies!! And what did we do as a project at my Daisy meeting? Why the "Pilgrim Hat Cookies", of course!! ;)

Today's big excitement at our house was the installation of a new boiler -- woo hoo! It cost a small fortune -- I feel like taking a picture of it and putting it on this year's Christmas card -- and we scrimped and saved for it, but it will be worth it to know that our old boiler is not going to give out on us this winter! We've limped along the past two winter's and had to have the old one repaired, spur of the moment when we've found ourselves without heat! The installer showed up at 7:30 this morning and was banging away on something in the basement -- my little one, who is not a fan of noise, said, "Tell him to stop doing that!" And I said, "Honey, we are paying him to do that!" Oh. My husband was off today and when I got home from work, my little girlie came down to the basement to show off the new boiler -- she showed me how shiny and clean it is, where the new "clock" (pressure gauge?) is -- she's very excited!

Now we can move on to the next big exciting thing -- Thanksgiving and a visit from Grammy & Cici (my mother-in-law and her sister)!! We are very excited to have them join us for Thanksgiving for the first time! The decorations are up and I am already looking through recipes to decide on the perfect menu.

Are you getting ready for the holidays? What are you planning for this great, family holiday?