January's almost over, which means we are about six weeks away from the first day of spring...which means it should warm up in about four months. December is a great month because there is the excitement of Christmas to carry us through, and it seems like I barely notice the cold. January tends to be busy, but the cold is definitely more noticeable. By the end of the month, it is easy to be going stir-crazy, trying to think of an activity, anything, to get us out of the house and having fun. And fun we have had this month!
Last weekend, Claire and I went to NYC for another girls' weekend to celebrate our birthdays. We left on Friday on the Megabus. We were especially excited because Claire's college friend Emma was able to come, too! It was great to see her after so long. We got in late Friday night and ordered some yummy Mexican food. Saturday morning we went to see the Pinkalicious musical. It was very cute!
Despite the fact that she looks absolutely miserable in this picture, she really did have fun at the show.
After the musical we met Shea and Logan at Max Brenner for lunch. It was a very cool restaurant with very good food! Claire, of course, ordered the mac and cheese.
Little did she know, it came with a super-cool syringe full of tomato sauce for squirting. Clearly, that wasn't entertaining at all...
My goofy girl, who can never just smile for a picture anymore! She was probably thinking the same thing I was..."$10.78 for 2 cookies? Only in NY!" Good thing they were muy delicioso!
We did some quick shopping in Union Square and then Claire got some bad news. She was devastated when she found out that Shea was leaving later that day for Florida. As in, she cried for the rest of the day about it. We were actually lucky that we were able to see Shea that weekend! If there hadn't been a huge snow storm earlier in the week, her original flight would have been canceled and she would have already been in Florida when we got there.
While Aunt Patti and I dropped Shea and Logan off at the airport in Newark, Claire stayed back with Emma and Adam and played. The fort was actually Adam's idea...I don't know who had more fun in it, Adam or Claire!
My little rockstar, ready to go out for dinner! This night we ate at Sandro's and it was so good. Adam thought he ordered a $400 bottle of wine by mistake. Luckily, he did not. We did, however, eat two appetizers, entrees, dessert, free cookies, a bottle of wine and free shots of peach grappa. It was a fantastic evening, and Claire was great at the restaurant....for the most part! On Sunday we had breakfast at Claire's favorite restaurant, The Barking Dog. Blueberry pancakes, naturally. Then we did some more shopping and we went out for dinner at Le Steak, a great French restaurant.
We rode the Amtrak home, which was something we've never done before! It was a great way to get home, and it was nice to not have to do all of the driving for once. Claire was great on the train. She watched her movies, ate lunch, and played Angry Birds on the ipod. Oh, and we got to visit the bathroom six times in five hours. I think she just liked walking up to the front of the car.
Jack was very excited to have his best friend Claire back at home. They got to work the next day, building this when Daddy and I weren't looking. I'm not sure exactly what it was, but they were very excited about it!
My future Strongman, moving a chair across the living room like nobody's business.
Finally, a real smile!
Playing with her new stamp set from Aunt Barbara, Uncle Thomas, Natalie and Ryland.
Aunt Patti's birthday present to Claire (as if our trip to NYC wasn't enough!) was tickets to Disney on Ice, Mickey and Minnie's Magical Journey. We went yesterday to Blue Cross Arena in Rochester to see it. It was a very good show, and I don't know who liked it more, Claire or Jack! Jack sat for the entire show, which shocked me. I had visions driving up of us taking turns walking him around out in the hallway, but he just sat on our laps and watched the whole thing, with the exception of a ten-minute stretch near the end. Poor Claire was very scared when Ursula from The Little Mermaid came out. That stupid Ursula, she scared my baby at last year's Princesses on Ice show, too!
We had such good seats!
Jack, blowing kisses to "Mick Mou" at the end. The only time Jack talked during the show was to ask where "Mick Mou" went in between acts!
Claire was such a good girl with the souvenirs, and only asked for one thing. She got to bring some of her birthday money to spend on anything she wanted. She chose the light-up Tinkerbell wings! I've already had to hot glue the daisy back on them, and today I noticed that the silver ribbon curly-cues are coming off, so I'll have to fix them tomorrow, but they are very cute. Every little girl needs some light-up fairy wings for her spring wardrobe! After the show we went to Macaroni Grill for dinner. It was a very fun family day!
Today we had a snow day. Actually, it was a "cold" day, with wind chills near -20. We've been waiting all winter for a snow day and we were very excited to spend the day together. Poor Daddy had to work, so it was just Claire, Jack and me. These kiddos are too funny, because they love to sit next to each other for meals. Their chairs are set at the table across from each other, but they will often rearrange them to be on the same side. It cracks me up to watch little Jack muscle that big chair around the room to the other end of the table. I also often think about how it won't be long before they won't even want to sit at the same table, or when they are next to each other I will hear, "He's touching me!!!!!" "She's looking at me!!!!" Maybe this won't actually happen...
And now, for your viewing pleasure...the many silly faces of Claire Elizabeth Dunham
Jack likes to get in on the action if I say, "Make a funny face!" He does this exact face every time.
I'm not usually a very crafty mom when it comes to doing projects with my kids. I've decided that they deserve better, so I'm going to bring it. It started with reorganizing some things in the kitchen to create this little craft cabinet, full of things to give us inspiration for doing fun projects. Hopefully the drawer will soon be filled with less bibs and more ideas from Family Fun magazine pages!
Next, we busted out the paints...
I've been promising Claire that she could paint this bird house since about September. We finally got around to it today.
Aww, look at my babies working together!
My little tease, who was trying not to look at the camera when I said his name!
The newest member of The Blue Man Group
The finished product! Just waiting on something to seal it (I haven't quite figured out what yet) and some bird food.
After making a huge mess painting, I had to put the kids in the tub to get all of the paint off. I decided to be a real overachiever and add some shampoo bubbles. Poor Jack has never experienced a bubble bath before, so he was quite terrified. It took a little time for him to settle in and understand that the bubbles were not dangerous!
There's a whole lotta winter left, time to think of some new fun ideas!
