Jr. Princess's Scary Card

Today Jr. Princess made this super cool, scary card at school with her crafty teacher Mr. J. When you open and shut the card its mouth opens and shuts, too.

Today Starshine had a great time at Grand Slam and there were bumper cars and I won some prizes and loved the activities it was a blast.

(It was school conferences, so Starshine went with Ycare on a fun trip.)

Tonight, we finished up by practicing for the talent show. It was a little difficult working on the "grand finale" because I am super sore from falling on the stairs yesterday with Starshine. We're tough, though - the show must go on!

A Christmas Carol and Fun Food Day

Last night Starshine and I went to see "A Christmas Carol" at the Guthrie. It was a great performance, though definitely scarier than I would have thought. I am super surprised she didn't end up in our room with a "I had a scary dream" excuse last night. We drove a family that just moved here from Milwaukee - what a small world. When I told them we were from Racine, the mom commented, "Oh, Racine is going downhill - good thing you got out of there." Sorry fellow Racinians! We had a lot of fun, though I didn't realize we wouldn't get home until almost 11! Starshine was shocked that she was up that late - and thank goodness she is taking a nap this afternoon.
Scarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry!!! The play was pretty scarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry!!!!!

Today we decided to finally drive down to Coastal Seafood today. They are supposed to be the best place for fresh seafood in the area. Ironically, it is right by our old apartment and we had never been there. Of course, back then I still didn't like seafood and our budget was tighter :).

So tonight is Mahi Mahi, which I've never had before. M&M Dad is pretty excited about the new challenge. The girls were not impressed with the smell, but liked all the cool fish in the display.

Jr. Princess especially liked the look of the spikey one (crab legs), though she has already proclaimed that she will not be eating dinner.

Then it was off to Midtown Global Market for lunch, since it was so close. I am still impressed with the girls' great attitude towards trying new foods. Though even I thought the African beef curry was way too spicey, and don't blame them for focusing on the rice.
We finshed off lunch by dancing to the live music by the tables. (I tried to take video, but I'm having technical difficulties tonight).

The market had all different kinds of foods.

School Fun Night

Last night was a fun PTA night at Starshine's school. First, we went to the book fair where Jr. Princess picked out a Christmas present for Starshine. (I'm not sure she's going to be able to keep the secret until Christmas). Then it was off to the spaghetti dinner, where they both ate a ton. Finally, Kung Fu Panda was playing in the gym. This initially was a disaster because you could not see it on the wall because the lights were partially on, and you couldn't hear it because no one would tell there kids not to run around the gym and make all kinds of shoe stomping, shreiking noise. (Except me, of course, Starshine was mortified I wouldn't let her run around and disturb other people.) They finally wised up and moved it to the library, where it was much more enjoyable. Jr. Princess loves hanging around with the big kids...

No comments from Starshine today - she's off at school as I enjoy a fabulous day all to myself at home. Wish me luck. The last time I tried to take a me day, Jr. Princess got sick and it definitely did not turn out the way I had hoped.

Jr. Princess and I are going to see a Christmas Carol tonight, so I'm sure she'll have lots to say about that tomorrow.

Hugs, Kisses and High Fives for Dad

The girls have had a calm evening of dinner, homework, sticker projects, and their new favorite show, The Smurfs.

So, here is a goodnight message for M&M Dad - we mis you!

Don't you love the summer dress? She picked out her own clothes after an accident and this is what she picked. I'm cold just looking at her!

I love you and I miss you miss you good bye.

Science Museum Fun

Today's fun family outing was to the Science Museum. We started out with the Omni Theater Movie about the Great Lakes, which was cool because the girls love bald eagles, and in the movie you saw some footage of babies in a nest.

The main purpose of the trip was all about me because the special exhibit was "CSI: the experience", where you get to solve a crime based on evidence you find. I am a total crime show/crime novel nut, so this was a lot of fun. Starshine didn't understand the concept, at first, until I explained it was a lot like Scooby Doo, and then she was totally onboard.

On the way out of the exhibit, we were invited into a short play about a bug detective solving crime, and Starshine got to be onstage as a Mud Dauper Wasp. You'll be happy to know, she did not kill the Bee. The best part was when the guy pulled her onstage he commented on her fabulous sparkly headband. It was "headband day" after we found some awesome ones in the dollar section of Target (yup - one dollar!). I'm pretty sure you'll see that headband soon as a part of her Sharpay costume.

Finally, we stopped at our favorite St. Paul candy store for a treat. The girls tried rock candy for the first time (yum), and M&M Dad and I enjoyed our favorite, Chicago Mix popcorn.

The only sad part was when M&M Dad and the girls went to the apple orchard, because it is the last day of the season :(. Now we have to go back to boring old supermarket fruit for another year... Though the owner did say "see you next year," which is fantastic because there are always rumors about her selling out to land developers and retiring, which would be a big loss to our neighborhood.

I loved that I got to be in the show.

Teapot videos

I got an awesome new Flip video recorder in the mail today. It seems super easy to take video and put it on the computer, and I can't wait to learn all of the editing features. Though the coolest part is I got it for free for posting 15 reviews on Angie's List ( I love a good deal).

The girls were excited to record more videos - they are definitely two little hams. Jr. Princess decided to share "I'm a little teapot."

Here is the good one...


And the one that went horribly wrong (hee hee).

So be very afraid - I'm bring my new flip camera to Thanksgiving and the talent show!

Hoping for snow!

I am hoping for snow... No, not because of sledding, or other fun things, but because it will cover up the mud outside.

I picked up Jr. Princess from school to day as they were filing in from outside time. I watched a steady stream of cute little dainty princesses in their pink, sparkling clean coats file in and then.... my little dirt bomb.

Seriously - she will find any spec of dirt, anywhere, and roll around in it.

I did have a small giggle to myself as I thought about Grandpa L. I am pretty sure he would not let me get in his car if I came from school covered in mud :).

I hope you like my part in the show. (Starshine has been practicing for the talent show).

Latest artwork

Since the girls love a good art project, I thought we should occasionally post some of their school creations:

Here is Starshine's watercolor from school
and a lovely self-portrait by Jr. Princess. That is her name at the bottom of the picture (which is against Starshine's internet safety rules), but I figure the average creepy internet stalker is not going to be able to decipher it :).

More of Junior Princess's Writing

After Starshine finished responding to all of your wonderful comments, Jr. Princess wanted in on the action, so she decided to write my name on the blog (yeah).

It is so cute how much the girls are enjoying this.

Note to Auntie - we started practicing our talent show acts tonight. We are going to be fabulous!

High School Musical 3

I took the girls to High School Musical 3 this morning. I happened to have 3 movie tickets from work, and M&M Dad was thrilled to get some time to himself vs. paying $5 to join us in girly fun. We loved it.

While I was napping in the afternoon, Starshine wanted to dress up like Sharpey, so she asked Dad if she could put on make-up. Apparently, this means coloring on her face with markers! I laughed so hard I almost peed my pants when she showed me :). Thank goodness for washable markers.

She bought the High School Musical 3 CD at Target last week (Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa M's Halloween gift card), and now is planning which song she will sing at Auntie's talent show this Thanksgiving. I guess we'll have to pack the markers to complete her costume!

Also - thank you to Grandma and Grandpa L for the fun kids book. We particularily enjoyed the one about forest fires.

I can't wait to see you at Thanksgiving.

A Night in the Starlab

Tonight we went to Starshine's school for family night in the Starlab. Essentially it's an inflatable dome with a projector inside, and her science teacher taught us all about constellations. He did a wonderful job - even Jr. Princess was mesmerized for the 1/2 hour. Starshine loved when they did this in science class earlier in the week. She came home that night and talked endlessly about the stars she had learned about.

Too bad it was cloudy tonight because we couldn't go outside and apply our new found learnings in the parking lot. M&M Dad promised to show her the real Orien on garbage night. Why on garbage night you may ask? Because that's when Grandpa M used to teach him about astronomy - while carrying the garbage to the curb. Ahh tradition...

I love the starlab.

This One's for M&M Dad

Jr. Princess is having fun writing on the computer these days. She's getting good at her own name, too, but we can't put that on the blog for Internet safety reasons, so this one's for Dad!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

The girls has an awesome time trick-or-treating. Auntie very nicely stayed at the house and gave out candy while Dad, Uncle and I went around the neighborhood with the girls. Jr. Princess ran full speed up and down all the driveways like she was in a race.


On Saturday Auntie, the girls and I went to see a free screening of Madagascar 2. Everyone enjoyed the movie, though I think the girls were most excited about the fact that I also has a free soda and popcorn coupon for each of us. Uncle and M&M Dad had fun at two of the local art museums while we were gone. We then had rousing game of soccer in the back yard, and even made caramel apples. Auntie and Uncle got an awesome kit at Target, but we definitely learned next year we'll just buy Kraft caramels because this caramel tasted more like playdough.

We have enjoyed having so many visitors over the last few weeks.

It was fun trick or treating.

Starshine on the Monkey Bars

I took the girls to the park this morning to give M&M Dad some time to rake the leaves and mow the lawn one last time. Starshine wanted you guys to see how awesome she is at the monkey bars...

This is a great example of why I LOVE my new phone. I was able to take this video with it and then email it to our blog while sitting on the park bench... how cool is that!

It was my first time at that park.