Dyar Girls Take On Their Parents

I was very excited to introduce Amelia (and Katherine) to the world of gymnastics this past weekend.  Amelia has taken gymnastics, but I don’t think she really got what it could be beyond walking across the beam.  We now live much closer to Athens and decided a visit to see the GymDawgs was in order.  I loved gymnastics growing up and I think I might have been more excited than the girls.  The Georgia GymDawgs regularly win National Championships and have a support behind them that I have not witnessed for a woman’s collegiate sport before.  There was so much energy in the building, it was great!

Without even knowing we were going, Amelia had announced the week before she wanted to be a Gymnastics Princess when she grew up.  [Normally she wants to be a Princess Mommy Teacher so this was a slight change.]  It timed out perfect for our trip to go see the gymnastics.

We of course dressed the girls in red & black to support daddy’s school.

  Our seats were a little high but you could see pretty well.  The girls were happy because we had popcorn.  In fact, that really is all Katherine cared about.

Amelia’s biggest takeaway – she now wants to be a gymnastics Princess Cheerleader.  She loved the cheerleaders.  Honestly, she has the perfect personality for it, and I would not be suprised if that is in her future.

Time for the meet to begin!  They had pyrotechnics and everything.

I had fun taking photos for about 5 minutes of the first couple of vaults and then realized I had not formatted the card before hand and it was full.  Ugh – bad mistake!  Least it meant that I could focus on watching and my kids.  I was very impressed with the level of gymnastics we saw – one of my favorite things was how much attitude, in a good way, the Dawgs had during their floor routines.  Very enjoyable afternoon.

Afterwards, I cleaned off enough space to prove the girls were at the UGA Arches with their daddy.

We then ended the night eating at The Grill so Chris could have one of his collegiate favorites – fries with Feta Dressing.

I look forward to being able to take the girls to Athens more often, especially to do fun things like see gymastics.  Who knows, maybe we’ll even get season tickets next year!

I got the lucky mom role of taking Amelia to see Annie this past weekend.  If you know Amelia, you know she will be on stage one day in some way.  She loves performing and is very outgoing.  She constantly makes up songs.  I just knew this was something she would enjoy.

In addition to knowing she would like a musical – it was at the Fox Theatre.  I love the Fox – Chris & I go there regularly for date night.  It is just beautiful and a fun place to see both concerts and musicals.  Amelia loved it because we were in a ‘castle’.  Even better, the castle had popcorn.

She does get skittish about ‘scary’ things, so we prepared by watching the movie.  That definitely helped.  The 1st 20 minutes of the show she was still tentative, on my lap, gasping at things… but then she relaxed and was just in awe and in love with the whole thing.

During she would say comments like: ‘those kids are good singers’, ‘men can dance and sing too mommy’, ‘nonni says that too!’ (in response to one character saying holy cow)

Afterwards she sang the same line of Tomorrow over and over again until her cousin plugged her ears with her fingers.

I think I had at least 3 people tell me that they could see her on stage one day.  I don’t disagree.  Anyone want to guess which character she wants to be on stage?  I thought Annie by the fact that she now takes one of our stuffed animal puppies around with her and calls it Sandy.  But no, she wants to be Ms. Hannigan.  Because she is silly, and she wants to be the silly lady on stage.

It was pretty magical seeing how she loved going and how she still talks about it and sings the music everyday.  I love introducing my girls to new experiences like this.

A couple other Amelia notes…

Here is a picture of Amelia at swim class – which she is loving.  She is finally putting her face in the water and I think by this summer she’ll be able to swim a lap of the pool.  As her coach said – ‘She is doing great, she loves it…. she loves talking about it.’ – No suprise there.

And here is Amelia eating what she claims is her favorite meal.  Noodles cooked in chicken & rice soup.  Nonni made this up one night and I had to duplicate it since she loved it so much.

I’ll end with one more funny story from Annie.  We were in the bathroom line afterwards – it was long everytime we went, being that this audience was mostly female… and Amelia was sayign she had to go bad, even though she hadn’t mentioned needing to go before line.  So I was saying she had to wait, until she said ‘but mommy, my bottom is starting to drip…’ – needless to say we got to go ahead of about 6 very nice and understanding ladies.  Least she told us!

We’ve started a tradition for the New Year – we go hide in the mountains.  I don’t know if we’ll do it every year, but we have for the last couple.  It is just a nice relaxing getaway after the hecticness of Christmas.  Don’t get me wrong – I love Christmas and all that comes with it – but afterwards it is nice to have a calm period before the storm of school and work starts again.

This year we made it a long weekend – up for 4 nights.  It was extra special because not only was there snow when we showed up on the first day, but we didn’t wake up on New Year’s Day to Katherine throwing up like last year.  That memory still makes me cringe.  This year she got strep but earlier in the week so she was already medicated.  She did keep us awake from 2 a.m. – 4 a.m. for some unknown reason (at once declaring ‘I’m awake!’) but that is still a big improvement.

We also explored more now that the girls are getting older and more able to hike… (well Chris still carries Katherine in a backpack but Amelia is a good little hiker when she wants to be.)

So not only did we do a great hike near the cabin with the snow, but we also did a hike at a place called Sunset Rocks.  We did not stay for Sunset because it was New Year’s Eve and we had a drive back to the cabin and girls to feed, but I can see doing that in the future.  Quite a few couples were heading up there to watch the sunset as we hiked down.

We also found a great playground in the Cashiers Village Green area along with some walking trails.

All in all it was a great getaway and we had a lovely time.

This was the same hike – sometimes snow, sometimes no snow.

Katherine likes to look at herself in the mirro while hiking.

Snow angels!  They didn’t listen when we said there wasn’t enough snow – and truly – does it matter?

Action shots to show you that Amelia’s snowball proved the pond was frozen over.

Katherine had to try too! (Thanks Grandpa Joe for keeping her from the edge.)

Doesn’t it look cold?

That is why we had this.  Mmm warmth.  We roasted hot dogs for lunch and made smores.  Truly a great meal.

I love the light coming in through the windows at the cabin so there are typically lots of photo shoots while we play.  Also, mark this down.  I got Amelia to wear jeans.  We explained in the mountains she had to wear pants and couldn’t always wear dresses.  I think she looks adorable in them!

The girls loved exploring sunset rocks – it was really pretty safe – fairly gradual – and I love watching them explore nature and the world around them.

A bunny visted while we were there – Amelia named her Pretty Snow White.  She wants to find another one to name Pretty Cinderella (or it might be Rapunzel.)

The sun rise on the 1st day of the year.  Yes we were up that early – however, I was okay with that when you see things like this.

Exploring a playground is a great way to start the year.  It was a great wooden one – my favorite kind!

I wanted a picture of me and my girls to start the year…. it didn’t come out quite like I expected with the girls not wanting to pose and such – however, I actually love these action shots that accompany it.  They represent the fun and silly times with my girls, and what better way to remember the 1st day of the year.

Finally, we thought we’d start taking a yearly photo – one to track both how the girls grow and the tree.  This marks January 1, 2012, when the girls are 4 1/2 and 2 1/2.

Happy New Year!

On one of the gorgeous days between Christmas and the New Year, we took some time to blow bubbles on the back porch.  Bubbles really are just magical for all ages I think.  Chris and I also had fun capturing the bubble play with my camera – I love the shots of the half burst bubble and bubble pieces falling away.

This next set is a series that must be enjoyed together.

I might just have to print that series out for her somehow.  Love it!

Bubble fun for everyone!

Christmas is really magically, especially when viewed through the eyes of my girls.  We had a great time this holiday season seeing lots of family.  It’s time to take down the tree now, which makes me sad – but just something to look forward to next year!

I did say lots of family, did I not?  The annual Christmas Eve party, the first time we have hosted.  I think the first time we’ve taken a group picture too!

Our family picture – taken at the end… I think we were all a bit tired by then.  I treasure these family photos since I’m actually in the picture.

Did you know that our elf Ryan knew Lena’s elf and they got our girls the same pjs to wear for Christmas Eve?  They both left it as presents their last morning with us. [Truly we did not know that each of us did that - it was a surprise for us too!]

Gotta love pictures of the cousins & best friends.

This picture was taken after Santa left his presents for the girls.  I snuck out onto the walkway and got it.

Both girls got these lighted magnifying glasses in their stockings from daddy - they are a big hit, one of the most played with items.

It’s not a party until Katherine decides to take her clothes off.  She is one of the children who would run around naked all the time if she could.  She is actually dancing for us there.

Some other favorite gifts…

Love this sweet photo of my girls on Christmas Day!  I hope everyone had a magical Christmas as well.

We made Amelia be our model the other morning because the light just was perfect, highlighting her amazing hazel eyes she got from daddy.  [Side note - I always thought my girls would have my brown eyes since we were taught brown was dominant... guess what? Both girls have hazel.  Brown/hazel but clearly hazel and not my eyes.  Guess I have a recessive hazel in there!]

It was hard to pick a favorite – but this one below just really captured my heart.

Thanks for being our model… I love watching you grow!