Six in Texas

One of Hayden's birthday gifts was tickets to see Six in Fort Worth -- with us! She and my girls were completely surprised -- they had no idea that Susan and I have been planning this for the last few months. And yes, the show was on Valentine's night and Susan's birthday, but she gave up her own celebration so we could have our special night together.

Our flight on Saturday morning was canceled, but fortunately we were re-booked on a flight that arrived just two hours later. On the way home from the airport, we stopped at Altar'd State (CC's favorite store -- so girly!) to get a necklace for Susan, when lo and behold, CC spotted the perfect dress to wear to next week's school dance. And shockingly, Sweet Pea saw a dress she liked! This is the child who lives in leggings and hoodies. I would have been less surprised if Little Man had asked for a dress. I happily shelled out the cash!

Then it was off to the house to change before dinner. Dane and Jon joined us for Tex-Mex at everyone's favorite place: Lupe Tortilla. After eating ourselves silly and toasting to Susan's birthday, the boys headed home and the girls headed to the theater. One of my favorite memories of the weekend is all of us belting out the soundtrack in the car. Everyone was so excited -- Six is one of our favorite musicals!

We'd each dressed in the colors of a different queen: CC was Catherine Howard (pink); Sweet Pea was Anne of Cleves (red); Hayden was Anne Boleyn (green); Susan was Catherine Parr (blue); and I was Catherine of Aragon (gold). No love for Jane Seymour, apparently. 

The theater was gorgeous! Susan and I sat behind the three girls, and we had a great view of the stage. The show was amazing, and our only complaints were that Susan sat next to a very smelly man, and I sat next to a woman who sang along to every song. Grrr.

After dinner, we celebrated Susan's birthday (one day late). She opened her cards and gifts, and just as she was needling Jon about not getting her a birthday cake this year, he magically unveiled a cookie cake from her favorite bakery. Her expression was priceless! 

The rest of the visit was shopping, eating, seeing Hayden swim at a meet, the girls giving themselves facial masks, and watching movies at the house. The girls enlisted Dane in playing their own version of Headbandz, and Susan and I loved hearing their giggles from downstairs.

Don't worry -- Little Man had a great weekend, too! He and MJ played tennis, met Grandpa and Grandma for lunch, and watched tons of Olympic coverage. MJ was supposed to leave Monday morning for a business trip, so Pepere came to town to hang out with Little Man. He took him go-carting and to Barnes & Noble, which Little Man loved. And at the last minute, MJ's trip was canceled, so it's the best of both worlds -- we got Pepere and we keep MJ for the week. Hooray!

Happy Valentine's Day!

We're off in different directions today -- the girls and I on an adventure, while MJ and Little Man have a boys' weekend. "We're probably going to watch a bunch of movies that you wouldn't approve of," Little Man informed me.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Charcuterie Stadium

In honor of the big game, Sweet Pea got it in her head that she wanted to create a charcuterie stadium. She'd seen an idea online and decided to make her own version. She holed up in the garage for most of the day, enlisting Joni's support, and I'm surprised the two of them didn't freeze solid.

Over the course of the afternoon, several episodes of Stranger Things, and almost all the cardboard from our recycling bin, they came up with this. I was pretty impressed!

They filled it with an assortment of meats, cheeses, fruits, veggies, and chips. The "field" was guacamole, with slivers of string cheese for the yard lines. And that was our dinner for the Superbowl!

Real Snow!

Holy cow -- less than one week after our ice/sleet storm, we got socked with 11 inches of real, actual snow! We couldn't believe it. When we woke up on Saturday, there was two inches on the ground and huge clumps of flakes were still coming down. It didn't stop until after we went to bed that night! 

Once there was about 4 inches, we went across the street to our neighbor's backyard, which has a big hill. Little Man didn't want to come, but the girls and MJ and I had a lot of fun. Little Man waited until later in the day, when he convinced Sweet Pea to let him bury her.

The next day the sun came out, and a lot of snow melted. But we still had 8-10 inches in most of the backyard, which stays shady all day. Amber was unhappy with the snow, and would only go outside when required, and only as quickly as absolutely necessary. But with a lot of encouragement, she finally came out and had a few cases of the zoomies in the snow. 

Direct link to video: https://youtu.be/DzXE8Sjv5sM

This was a snowfall for the ages! Definitely the most snow we've seen since MJ and I moved here in 2008. And I fear the kids may never go back to school!

Snow! (sort of)

Like a large chunk of the country, we are experiencing a severe winter storm. The kids are disappointed that we aren't getting tons of snow, but let's be realistic -- most years here go by without even a snowflake. So they were thrilled to wake up this morning to see our driveway and street covered in white!

It's actually sleet, not snow. And I'm glad, because we were supposed to get freezing rain, and sleet is much less dangerous than freezing rain. But it's just snow-adjacent enough that we could go out and enjoy it for a bit!

And my personal favorite picture, after Sweet Pea attempted to push CC on the sled:

Once we were done outside, Sweet Pea decided to try a pull-apart garlic bread recipe. It was delicious. She's very proud of herself! As long as we have power, I feel strongly that there's more baking in our immediate future.

Now we just have to pray to keep our power. We have batteries, flashlights, canned goods, plenty of water and lots of blankets. Fingers crossed ...

One Year

 Where there is deep grief, there was great love.

On the anniversary of my mom's death, naturally, I had to be with my dad. I went to visit him and it was really nice to spend some quiet time together. We sat and talked for long periods, cooked dinner together, ate at several restaurants that my mom enjoyed, watched a pretty bad movie, went to Mass and to visit her grave, and met up with a friend of his for hot chocolate. We planned to go for a hike as well, but ran out of time, so instead we visited a Civil War site that was interesting and well maintained. We'll save the hike for my next visit.

I'm not eloquent enough to put the enormity of my feelings into words. But I think of my mom a hundred times a day. I hardly ever talk about her, not because I don't miss her terribly or feel her absence keenly, but because it's impossible to keep my composure. I think she would be happy if she saw how we were doing: the grandkids are happy and healthy; we all continue to stay close and spend a lot of time together; my dad is active and social, and visits us often. I feel her presence around me all the time, because she's such a part of who I am. We were so blessed to have had her.

Cirque in New York

Last summer, Sweet Pea was invited to join an adult cirque company here, as they prepared a show to perform in New York at the Association of Performing Arts Professionals conference. This past weekend was the trip, and Sweet Pea did great!

Leading up to the trip, there was only one rehearsal. It was a bit nerve-wracking, but I had been warned that professionals don't need as many rehearsals as students are used to having. And the other performers in the group lived across the US; they only all came to town once to rehearse together before we all met in New York.

Sweet Pea was the only child in the show, and in fact, she was the only child we saw all weekend out of thousands of performers in hundreds of shows. She was a little shy with everyone else, but the other cast members were very kind and gentle with her.

We arrived at noon on Saturday, and all had a nice lunch together at a deli (Sweet Pea had a burger, and immediately declared that she loved NY delis). After lunch, we had about an hour to ourselves before the first rehearsal. She and I walked around midtown, and were thrilled to see that the Rockefeller Christmas tree was still up! We also walked through FAO Schwartz, which was packed but fun, and she picked out a few miniature Jellycat stuffies for Little Man and CC.

Rehearsal that evening was rough. It was in an empty studio, so the apparatuses weren't available. Sweet Pea was dropped several times, and there were a lot of last-minute changes to choreography, costumes, and timing. She left feeling very nervous -- the performances were the next day! But we ended on a high note: grabbing some New York pizza for dinner ("It was bussin!") and getting to bed early.

Early the next day they did a tech rehearsal in the theater where their performances would be. It went much better, and they had the chance to get on the lyra, trapeze, and rope. I sat in the audience to record the show, and prayed hard that she could clear her mind of distractions and remember all her notes. The show went great! She came off the stage afterwards with a big smile of relief. 

Here's a video of her major scenes:

Direct link to video: https://youtu.be/CLnWUq-OLls

We had a few hours before the next show, so we took off to walk though Times Square, get lunch at a different deli, stop by Magnolia Bakery for dessert (the banana pudding was delish!), and visit the top of the Rockefeller Center for some amazing views of New York. (She loved that the elevator to the observation deck was on floor SIX SEVEN!)

The final show again went very well. Afterwards, we packed up and headed to the airport. Sweet Pea had a window seat, and got some great nighttime views of the city as the plane took off. We got home late but happy, and I let Sweet Pea sleep in a few hours before going to school the next day. It was an exhausting but incredible trip. So many performers would give anything to have such an opportunity! I'm so proud of her hard work, which led to this invitation. She loves cirque, and it's wonderful to see her rewarded like this.