Rotunda Rocks, Sweet N Sassy, Dinner, Birthday Party Etc.

Friday, CHH and I went to Rotunda Rocks at Jordan's school. We love this once a month half an hour performance of the pre-K and K girls singing various songs. Always really cute and spirited.

Saturday after ballet, I took the girls to Sweet N Sassy for haircuts. I also let them get their toes painted. They loved it! Both girls were showing people all weekend their toes. Side note: Jordan is not allowed to wear finger nail polish to her school so that is why we stuck with the toes.

Princess Katelyn getting her hair cut. This place is so neat. She was watching "Shrek" while getting her hair cut.

Jordan watching "Shrek" as well.

The girls love their glitter stars they get on their face when finished.

Afterwards they went to the play area at the mall to play for a bit. This is a new play area at our mall.

Saturday night, we went to eat at one of Jordan's school friend's homes. It is true with what I have heard -- many of your children's friend's parents become your friends. Our weekends are more and more full with activities of Jordan's classmates which is great fun.

All the kids were at one house with babysitters having a blast while the parent's went to another home for a wonderful dinner. It was fun and yummy. The kids of course had a blast.

Sunday, Jordan woke up early and wanted to play with her china tea set. Grandma Cruella gave this to her for Christmas. It is perfect.

Jordan has a book called "A Bargain for Francis" -- Frances and Thelma are friends--most of the time. Thelma always seems to get Frances into trouble. When she tricks Frances into buying her tea set, it''s the last straw. The tea set described in this book is a china one that is white with blue flowers.

Unbelievably my Mom gave Jordan this tea set at Christmas which is exactly like the story she has been reading lately. Jordan was thrilled and played "tea party" Sunday morning. She did only set up three spots though and hid the fourth cup and saucer away. She said she didn't want Katelyn to join in because she was afraid her sister would break the tea cup and saucer.

More later on this but lets just say Jordan is practising her cartwheels all the time lately.

Not to be out done by her sister, Katelyn set up her own tea set with her musical tea set she got for her birthday. She had a blast playing with it as well.

Lunch time, we were off to a birthday party at Jordan's classmate's house. Jordan's friend has a little brother who is close in age to Katelyn so it works out well for playdates. Anyhow it was the little brother's birthday party. It was fun! Jordan and her classmate.

Katelyn loves this dinosaur at her friend's house.

Another one of Jordan's classmates read Katelyn a story. Katelyn loved this.

Katelyn at one point disappeared and showed back up dressed as Cinderella or a version of her.

Eating cake and celebrating the birthday.

Jordan and another classmate.

Katelyn and her Daddy.

After the party, we went back home where Jordan wanted to work on her school project. I have to say I was very impressed by my little girl (like I usually am). Jordan has a project due in a week that's theme is the celebration of the kids' 100th day at school. For the project, each kid is suppose to bring a collection of 100 items (something that will fit in their book bag). The collection is to be divided by 10's and placed into a colored bag where the other kids cannot see the collection. Jordan is then suppose to come up with 3 clues as to what is in her bag and the kids in her class spend the week guessing what is in each kid's bag.

Well I told Jordan I though barrettes or buttons would be good items to take and she liked my barrette idea. Sunday afternoon, she got all of her clips, dumped them into a pile and then sorted them by colors. She then picked 10 barrettes of each color (not enough colors so two sets were flowers and rainbows) and put them in a zip lock bag. She had 10 zip locks bags at the end and put them in a lunch bag. Her project is ready to go for a week from now - yeah!

What impressed me was she wanted to do this project all on her own. She told me she was busy doing her work - funny. She was so diligent sorting the colors and then counting out 10 from each pile. When she put them in the lunch bag, she counted by 10's - 10, 20, 30, etc.

Her teacher has told us Jordan is excellent at math (not surprising to me with her Grandpa being a CPA, her Daddy being an accounting/tax man, her other Grandpa a doctor, her great-Uncle also a CPA, another Great-Uncle a doctor, etc. -- math runs in our family!). It was neat for me to watch her from the kitchen and see she really did understand what she was doing plus she had fun doing her project. Can I only hope they will all be fun for her?! Ha.

Putting them in the various piles.

Jordan practising her sword skills. Jordan use to say she wanted to be a "super ballerina" when she grew up. Well my little girl has changed her mind; she now wants to be a "Musketeer." She got the movie "Barbie and the Three Musketeers" for Christmas. She loves the movie and now is practicing (seriously) all the time.

One of the characters, Corinne, is the sword fighting musketeer. She will do a series of cartwheels with her sword and then sword fight with someone hence Jordan practising her cartwheels all the time lately. She has really gotten good at them.

This weekend, Jordan told me she had to have a sword. I scored big time. I found foam swords at Target in the dollar section - yeah Mommy - while shopping. I bought Katelyn and her both swords and they had a blast on Sunday sword fighting. They were running all over the house screaming, chasing each other and having sword battles. Jordan kept trying to teach Katelyn cartwheels as well but I put a stop to that. Katelyn kept landing on her head and scaring me.

Jordan doing cartwheels over her sister with her sword.

Ramblings of a Crazed Tired Mom

So late this afternoon, I decided I wanted to have a huge cry -- I didn't though. You know that feeling where you just want to sit down and cry your eyes out for no reason. I'm tired and feeling a bit overwhelmed right now. Also I feel guilty over everything.

I feel guilty at work because no matter what you do there is always more to do. I never seem to reach that satisfied feeling that "wow I accomplished something" because as soon as we finish something, it is forgotten, and people are asking for the next thing. Last year was my busiest year ever -- we hired a new trustee for our DC plans, we acquired a couple of companies and merged their employees into our plans and moved their assets, we combined a 401(k) and profit sharing plan together, we split off some of the assets from that plan and formed a new Safe Harbor 401(k) plan, etc. Huge projects from a benefit's aspect.

We worked like dogs all year long. December was awful -- nights up until 1 AM, 3 AM working on documents. I kept thinking if I could just get to January. Well, here is January and it still keeps coming. Late nights again working on things. Feeling guilty because I could be working 24/7. Yes, I wanted to sit down and cry.

I have two young children, 5 and 3 years old, that need me. When we get home, my awesome husband is making the dinner, I'm setting the table, taking laundry out of the dryer, and putting another load in (side note: how come the laundry just seems to be never ending! Every time I think I got it all done, I look in the basket and more has magically appeared). My kids are talking to me 90 miles a minute and wanting Mommy and Daddy time which they deserve. Guilt again. I'm doing necessary chores to get ready for the night/day and my kids just want to be with me. Dinner, bath, stories, bed -- same routine most nights except for swimming nights and gymnastic nights.

After they go to bed, I continue to clean up around my house. I read the perfect thing the other day by Jenny McCarthy -- when I read it, I thought she nailed it. She said "Here we are in this Rosie the Riveter picture of independent women showing up in the workplace, which is great- but what the hell were we thinking? Now we're working AND cleaning the house, and still doing laundry."

I want to be all for everyone and sometimes feel like I'm not doing so. Guilt again.

Well last night something made me happy and I thought about it today when I wanted to cry. When we put Katelyn to bed, she always does the same thing -- you will hear her shout out "Mommy I love you" and I will try to be quiet so she can go to sleep. After receiving no response, she will then shout it out over and over -- never giving up -- until I respond "I love you too." Katelyn then will say "Daddy I love you" and the same process will happen for CHH. Our Katelyn is a staller to say the least :)

Anyhow last night I heard her say "Mommy, come lay down with me." Well feeling guilty about having not much time with her in the evenings, I thought about it and went in and layed down by her on the bed. I loved it! We talked for a good 5 minutes or more. She was adorable. She was snuggled up against me with my arm around her. I asked her about school that day and what did she do. She said "I threw the ball to Ms. Leah and she threw it back to me. I caught it." Katelyn's favorite toy after 3 years is still a ball! I then asked her what else she did and she told me about throwing a ball with Ms. Jessica as well. It was great holding her and having this one on one conversation with my baby. I thought about it off and on all day today while at work.

So today, late afternoon, as stated -- I just wanted to sit down and cry. I know I'm tired. I can't even clean out my emails at work or clean my office because there is just too much to do. At home, I need to clean and put things away -- much housework.

Feeling kind of down/tired, I met CHH at home, dropped the girls off and went to a Princess Alexa board meeting tonight. As always, Wow! What a pick me up for me. I love Crys and Zack. They are great, good people. As I sat at this board meeting looking around the room at the board members, I felt happy. I laughed. Zack is a character and always makes me laugh. Crys makes me grin. Another lady, Kristi, also makes me smile with her witty comments. I looked at the ladies and gentlemen in the room and thought about what a great group of people they are. All different sorts from different walks of life but all people with interesting lives and wonderful personalities. People who genuinely care about others and making other people's lives better.

I felt good and no longer needed to sit down and have a big cry.

PS My friend in Arkansas, if you happen to read this, I delivered your dresses tonight to the foundation and again, thank you!! As always, the foundation is always thrilled/excited to receive dress up clothes for the children.

PSS I saw the dress-up closet at Children's Medical Center tonight. It is so awesome and I'm so glad kids are getting their dress-up clothes and making their days a little brighter.

PSSS See -- Ramblings :)

San Antonio Weekend

CHH had a tax meeting in San Antonio this weekend so we went with him to have some good quality family time and fun. We had a great time.

We left Friday night after I got off work. The drive went well because the girls fell asleep about two hours outside of San Antonio so that made the trip quicker for them. Of course when we checked in, they were wide awake. Jordan wanted to watch her IPod and Katelyn layed on her to watch too. So cute.

The next day, CHH went to his meeting and I got the girls ready to go out.

Jordan wanted breakfast at the hotel so we ate there. Katelyn is so funny having to help her sister pour the milk for Jordan's cereal. She always wants to do what her big sis is doing!

After breakfast, we walked along the Riverwalk. Jordan was very concerned that Katelyn was going to fall in the river; she kept expressing this to me. I, actually, texted CHH to tell him what we were doing and told him about Jordan's worries. CHH texted me back "Me too!" -- he was worried Katelyn would fall in and he wasn't even there. Katelyn's family knows her well - ha!

The girls wanted to go on a boat ride so we did. All my times I have been to San Antonio I have never done this. It was fun and interesting. Guess what Jordan is telling the man? He asked her if she helps me around the house and she told him "no" that I was the maid! Apparently she does listen to my commentary; poor girl.

My babies on the boat. They loved it.

Katelyn at the Disney store in the Riverwalk Mall. She loves alligators/crocodiles.

CHH got out of his meeting and joined us. Guess what we found walking around?! A magic shop. CHH was happy to go in.

Daddy and his girls watching a trick. The girls are so funny. They love magic. They are always trying to make a coin disappear like their Daddy does. Jordan's friends now have even begun to ask CHH to do tricks for them.

The girls won't remember this but I still wanted to take them to the Alamo. Jordan loved hearing the story of when she was smaller and calling it "Elmo".

CHH telling Jordan what happened at the Alamo. Jordan was very sad about the men dying.

The girls loved this well inside the Alamo.

CHH gave them money to throw in the well. Later I saw Jordan stop walking, bow her head and saw her lips move. I asked her what she was doing and she told me she was talking to God (Can you believe that?). She said she made the wrong wish and was asking God if he could change it for her. I wonder what she wished for.

The medical facility in the Alamo was interesting. Jordan's reflection can be seen in this picture.

After leaving the Alamo, we saw this Cinderella carriage ride. Jordan has always wanted to take a ride in the Cinderella carriage so we did this time. Katelyn and her were so excited to do so.

Back at the hotel, the girls wanted to play with Play-Doh. There was not a balcony for them to play on and I didn't want to make a mess in the room so I put them in the bathtub. It was perfect and they had so much fun. It was a mess when they were done!

Aunt Kara arrived Saturday afternoon. I wonder how it feels to be a welled loved Aunt! The girls were so excited to see her. They adore their Aunt Kara.

Kara and I took the girls to the Rain Forest Cafe on the Riverwalk for dinner. CHH joined us briefly before having to run off to another meeting.

As stated before, Katelyn gets scared when it rains and thunders. Rain Forest cafe has a "rain storm" about every 20 minutes. Even though it was not real, poor Katelyn got so upset.

Real tears.

Gobs of chocolate brownie, ice cream and fudge sauce made everything better!

Aunt Kara picked this dessert for everyone. Good pick!

Back to the mall after dinner. We stopped at a shoe store and then went to see the movie "The Alamo" at the IMAX in the mall. Jordan cracked me up trying on shoes while I was doing the same. She is so girly.

Aunt Kara having fun in the store as well.

A model of the battle at the Alamo. I was fascinated after seeing the movie. I forgot my Texas history!

Night, night time.

Sunday, we had a relaxing morning and breakfast.

Checking out! Jordan said to me "Mommy, when I'm a Mama I'm going to bring my kids here. I love San Antonio!" It was a great weekend with my family.