We had a house full of little girls after school today. Annabelle’s friend Olivia from her class came over and the Johnson girls joined us too. There was lots of dress up and games and giggling.

 

 

Later that evening we watched my friend, Kristen on television which was pretty exciting:

 

The topic was big banning which she is opposed to but she was brought on to discuss the placement of a controversial book in an AP classroom in our district. She was put in a bad spot she maintained her composure and she did a great job.

Don’t file the missing persons report quite yet. We’re here! We have been missing in action this weekend.

 

We had a long break from school and we have yet to unpack all the new gifts and toys from Christmas. We took this weekend to get rid of the old and bring in the new. We gutted closets and rooms and it felt great. We did escape for a nice dinner with a friend from B’s school on Friday, we had lunch with Sarah and family on Saturday and then we rooted on the Broncos on Sunday from our basement. I guess we weren’t really out of the loop, but with all the cleaning and sorting and furniture moving it felt a little non-social.

 

So, Annabelle decided she wanted a reading nook in her room. I said ok because I thought for sure B would say no way. He liked the idea so there was no backing out. She moved her lower bed to the corner, B installed a cool light under her bed for reading, and I found some curtains to make it even more private. I thought it was a super nutty idea, but as it’s coming together and she is now 6 1/2 (the 1/2 means everything), I can see how much she wants and will enjoy her own private space.

 

the girls love to paint pottery. b installed some shelves to show off their creations. The shelves are already full and Gwyneth is already asking to go back again. Lets add this to her list of obsessions.

We cleaned out all the bookshelves and consolidated the girls’ books. They are all organized in their buckets and very easy to find. (My favorite is the “Loose Tooth” bucket. Who knew we had so many books about losing teeth????). It was hard for me to gather up the baby books to give away. Oh, how I love books. It was time though and I’m quite happy with the new Meyer Girl Library.

 

Gwyneth has decided that her room is babyish. She doesn’t want ladybugs anymore. She wants princesses. I’ll be sad to see this go. I told her she had to give me until she was 6 1/2 to get my head around this.

 

Annabelle played Little Mermaid in our bathtub.

Cleaning out closets.

Developing some “Madison” habits with her crust. Her cousin would be so proud.

 

Happy, happy new year! Already off to a bang!

Orange fever today at school. Everyone was encouraged to wear Bronco gear to show their playoff pride.

 

I made the girls shirts and Gwyneth loved having hers personalized. Annabelle informed me that she is far too old to have her name on her clothes and that is just not cool. Well, there it is. It happened. I knew this day would come, but painful none the less.

 

 

Us Meyer gals love a theme, so we found fancy nail polish and Bronco fingernail tattoos. I’m not quite sure this was worth the effort. It took about 30 minutes per daughter on a school night which I assure we don’t have an extra 30 minutes EVER on a school night. They sure did love those nails though and I just hope they last until the big game on Sunday.

 

Annabelle can not stop doing cartwheels. She does cartwheels nonstop. Try having a conversation with her. She’ll answer your questions mid cartwheel. She has even perfected the one handed cartwheel. She has asked me to teach her to do a “no-handed cartwheel”.

 

We may have to consult a doctor. Or an exorcist. Or perhaps just get her back in some gymnastics classes.

 

The girls received gift certificates to the Disney store from B’s parents for Christmas. Gwyneth could not wait to spend hers. It was actually pretty impressive to watch them shop together.

 

Gwyneth picked out her Anna costume and Olaf and she was WAY over budget. Annabelle picked out a Jasmine costume and an Ariel light up ball and was WAY under budget. I struggled with the split because it really didn’t seem fair for Gwyneth to spend 80% of their combined gift. Annabelle shocked me. She said she was happy with what she picked out and she was happy that Gwyneth was getting what she wanted and she didn’t care if Gwyneth needed to spend some of her money.

 

Keep in mind, Annabelle has learned all about money this year at school so she knows she is giving up future gifts (ok, maybe that is the economist in me that explained that bit to her). It still didn’t feel fair, but Gwyneth had a huge smile on her face and Annabelle assured me that she was getting exactly what she wanted and she was happy to share the rest of her gift card with Gwyneth. Sometimes it really sucks being the mom and getting a lesson from the kids. Maybe I’ll be a little nicer to Annabelle the next time she yells at Gwyneth to get out of her room. Probably not. But I promise to try.

 

Last day of break — WOOOOO HOOOOOOOOO! Oh wait, I mean oh man, it’s the last day of break. Nope, I was right the first time. I gotta be honest, these girls need to get their booties back to school. Woo hoo!!!

 

I have really, really enjoyed having my girls home and we have had a lot of fun. Today they decided they missed their routine, they missed their friends, they missed their teachers, and they can’t be in the same room without poking each other, spitting their tongues out at each other, mimicking each other, and thoroughly annoying each other. Who would have thought 17 days off of school together would have been too much for them? Mind boggling….

 

We jammed as many practical errands into the day as possible and then managed to have a little fun. Both girls got haircuts in the morning. Annabelle got a trim; Gwyneth got 3 inches cut off. Gwyneth went on to cry that it was all my fault that she had to get so much hair cut off and she now has a boy haircut. Check out the dramatic change to her hair below. (insert sarcastic eye roll)

 

Annabelle went to the dentist, , we went to the grocery store, we went for lunch, we painted pottery, we made a book of our Christmas cards, and we set our menu for the week. We may or may have not read for 17 hours to fulfill our holiday break reading requirements. Sure we read everyday on break, but did we throw a reading Hail Mary and get completely caught up today….I’ll never tell….

 

 

We arrived home just in time to ring in the new year. It’s been quite an adventurous year and a rather challenging one. We’ve made so many changes and I have to say I’m pretty glad to have this year behind us. I’m expecting only good things ahead.

 

How can it not be a great year? I’m going to spend it with these peeps:

 

Toasting with sparkling apple cider!

 

 

My dear friend, Kristy delivered this fabulous gift for us to enjoy the New Year. The girls could hardly wait to crack open this bottle of sparkling cider!!

 

 

We decided to make the evening as lazy and easy as possible. We’ve been traveling and we’re tired and we just wanted to enjoy a night with our girls and friends. We called the evening a slumber party and everyone showed up in pj’s which was SO. FLIPPIN’. COMFY! We had snacks and drinks and everyone brought more snacks and drinks and we ordered pizza. We played charades and even the kiddos got in on the fun. I love playing charades and I can’t decide if I enjoy acting out the clues or laughing at my insanely goofy friends trying to act out the clues (imagine B acting out the movie “Ghost”….if you didn’t choke on your coffee you are not using your imagination to it’s utmost ability!).

 

Thanks to our super fun friends for giving up their night on the town to hang out with us homebodies. We had a blast and good things are in store for us in 2014!

 

 

 

We spent our last day in Chicago eating fabulously and exploring the Kohl’s Children’s museum. The cousins had so much fun playing together. We had delicious Dunkin Donuts and  Chicago style pizza and lots of family time. It was a really great trip!

 

We said goodbye to Poppy and Melissa and the Drake after breakfast. YaYa met us downtown and of course we had to explore the American Girl store. The girls each picked out a small souvenir to take home with us; they each got a poncho for their doll.

 

After some quick shopping we met Casey and Joe for lunch. It was so great to see them. We were out earlier this year for their wedding, but it had been a while since the girls had been able to join us.

 

We headed back to YaYa’s house for much needed relaxing and play time for the girls. They love YaYa’s basement because she still has so many of Madison’s old toys down there.