While Mommy's away...

...the kids will play!

As always, I had to travel to Tucson for the summer ACTEAZ Conference. The original plan was for Chris and Madelyn to join me, but when we saw the weather forecast full of thunderstorms in Tucson, we were concerned that it would be no fun for them to be stuck in the room all weekend. Unfortunately, the weather forecast wasn't even close to accurate, and I was sad they didn't end up coming down with me. But...there's always a silver lining! :)

Chris was a brave dad and hosted a play date with four of Madelyn's dance friends, and a couple of their siblings. All the parents brought something, which made it a fairly simple date to plan. But nonetheless, he was chosen as "Dad of the Year" when I demonstrated FaceTime to a group of teachers at one of my sessions. If you're not familiar with FaceTime, it's similar to Skype where you can have a video conference with someone. When Chris answered the call, the teachers were impressed to see several little kids there.

No play date would be complete without a little dancing...

WOW!

some crafts and games...

...and of course, some outside fun!

I love Delaney's face in this picture! :)

Can you say, "Haircut, please."

To top off the afternoon, everyone got to make their own pizza....

Yummy!

A special thanks to all the parents who helped Chris pull this off! And especially to Amy for taking pictures so I could feel like I was a part of it, too. :)

We hope to get the girls together again soon!

  

Dance Recital 2012

We hurried home from our vacation to make Madelyn’s dance rehearsal and recital. We got home on Friday around 3:30 pm, and brought everything into the house just in time to get Madelyn over to Nadine for a quick hairstyle. Thanks, Nadine! You made this a stress-free process for me! ;)

Then it was off to dress rehearsal, where Madelyn got to practice all her dances in her costumes. She had a great time hanging out with her little dance friends, and watching the “big” girls do their dance routines.

This summer she had three dances: a ballet dance to “My Berry Best Friend,” a tap dance to “Strawberry Shortcake,” and also a ballet dance with Daddy, to the song “Butterfly Fly Away.”

Madelyn’s dance teacher decided to try something new this year. She actually convinced some of the ever-so-gracious dads to do a dance all on their own! I know…crazy!

We won’t have any of the actual video footage from the recital for several weeks, but here’s a sneak peek at the Daddy’s doing their routine….

During the first run-through, Chris thought it would be funny if all the guys walked off the stage since Jearel (the Dad at the front of the stage) couldn’t see what they were doing behind him. This was hilarious!

   

Then they all came back together and got down to business. I think it’s fairly obvious that Chris missed a couple practices while he was basking in the California sun, but he did well all things considered. The boys rocked the house the afternoon of the show and were just about perfect! I’ll be sure to post all the dance routines when we get the DVD so stay tuned... :)

 

  

Goodbye, Oceanside

We were extremely sad for our trip to come to an end. We had a wonderful time with the Schoens! Hopefully we'll all be back soon!

CHEERS to a fantastic vacation!

Jeff and Madelyn ended the trip the same way they started it. :)

 

This is how we roll...

I just had to share this video of Madelyn singing one of her favorite songs, Firework, by Katy Perry as we drove from Carlsbad Village back to our beach house in Oceanside. (Yes, this was our second trip!) Although this video doesn’t really do justice to her usual performance in the backseat, it is funny nonetheless. She is such a ham. She loves to sing, even when she doesn’t know all the words.

____________________________________________________


Happy 4th of July (just a little late)!

  

When the jellyfish stings...

...Mommy takes a break.

This is the first trip where I've encountered a jellyfish. And it wasn't one I really want to remember. Chris, Madelyn, and I were enjoying some family time playing in the ocean, when I felt some "seaweed" get caught on the back of my leg. This normally freaks me out, but since I had a hold of Madelyn's hand, I didn't want to lose my grip, so instead, I just shook my leg to try to get it off of me. What I saw next was a HUGE jellyfish floating in front of me. After my eyeballs popped out of my head, I told Chris to get Madelyn out of the water "right now!"

We had been swinging her above the waves, so this was a fairly simple task. We got her out of the water pretty quickly, at which point I realized both of my legs were burning. Chris got a glimpse of the jellyfish, too, and knew where this was headed.

He stayed with Madelyn and Jacob down at the beach while I went upstairs to Google my next actions.

By the time I got upstairs the pain had gotten a little worse, but Jeff and Michelle quickly helped me figure out what to do. Windex ended up being the perfect solution (literally) to help ease the sting. After about an hour, the swelling and welts had gone down and the pain was minimal. Of course, Jeff also made me a strawberry lemonade/vodka drink, and that may have helped. ;)

It didn't take too long before Madelyn wanted to come upstairs, too. And bless her sweet little heart, the first words out of her mouth when she saw my legs were, "I'm sorry I took you out so far, Mommy." I wanted to cry. I reassured her that we were all having fun and that sometimes this happens. It broke my heart that she felt responsible, but then I felt good knowing how sympathetic she was to others. That's a great quality, one in which I am so proud of her for sharing with me. Sweet, sweet girl. I am so happy the jellyfish got me and not her.

Jeff also made Madelyn a non-alcoholic version of the strawberry lemonade drink. :)

   

More Beach Fun

We were so blessed to have such beautiful weather! We spent several days just hanging out on the beach, building sand castles. Matt also enjoyed an afternoon of surf lessons with a friend.

  

"Skip to My Lou"

I couldn’t resist capturing a quick clip of Madelyn skipping along our walk. This is literally how she made her way around the town. Everywhere we went. Everywhere.

San Diego Zoo

When we travel to California in the summer, we try to squeeze in one "event." This summer we chose the San Diego Zoo. I had been to this zoo many, many (many) years ago, and remember it being such a beautiful place. This was Chris and Madelyn’s first trip to this zoo, and it was a big hit! If you’ve ever been there you know it requires you to be quite fit as you wind your way up and down all the steep hills. Fortunately, we all were feeling ready for the challenge!

When we arrived I realized this is the first "theme park" where I did not search for a great Internet deal. I couldn't believe it. I am always on top of it when it comes to finding a smoking deal. Oh well. Life was just too hectic, and I didn't make it a priority. The zoo did have a package deal where we got a few "extras" included if we upgraded our tickets. We figured since we were already paying an arm and a leg, we might as well add fingers and toes. ;)

We enjoyed the bus tour around the zoo. This gave us a great idea where things were, and allowed us to identify the places we didn't want to miss. It also gave us the chance to see some of the animals from "behind the scenes." 

Herb Wall Garden (I loved this!)

What would a visit to a theme park be without some face painting. I am sure all of you are well aware that this is something Madelyn would trade her parents in for... not sure why it's so appealing to her because she always wants to take it off a couple hours after it's on, but it's her favorite thing. 

We loved that she chose to have a flamingo painted on her forehead. Some of the options included FULL face painting, and I was prepared to put my foot down on that, but fortunately, I didn't have to say anything. I've never been a huge fan of those pink, strange-looking birds, but they're on my list now. 

Before

After

After Madelyn got her face painted, we could hardly wait to get to the polar bears. We saw a glimpse of them behinds the scenes on the bus tour, so we couldn't wait to see them up close and personal. 

When we got there, Chris and I were excited to see some of the exhibits before we got to the bears. I think that's one of my favorite parts of this zoo... the descriptions and facts are amazing. Madelyn even liked for us to read some of the information to her. 

The polar bears themselves weren't actually that exciting....

Sydney, the Koala Bear!

A Real Koala

Another favorite of Madelyn's is the Sky Ride. And boy, this particular ride was FAST! We are accustomed to the Wildlife World Zoo, where it's a fairly small ride, and pretty slow. Of course, the faster, the better, as far as Madelyn is concerned!  So off we went! On to the petting zoo (and some other exhibits)...

By this time, we've had a really long day, but we haven't yet seen the Panda Bears, a MUST at the San Diego Zoo, as we were told. When we were on the Sky Ride (both the first and second time) we noticed how incredibly long the wait was to see them. 

We waited until after dinner time, right during one of the dragon shows, and found that the line was quite short. YAY! Funny enough, as we got up to the pandas, we saw one eating some bamboo, and one sleeping in a tree. And then... nothing. Chris and I both giggled as we exclaimed, "Is that it?" The sweet employee working the exit of this exhibit laughed at us. I am sure our expressions were the same as everyone else who waited in line. Although, thankfully, we didn't have to wait too long. I know pandas are rare, and we do feel lucky to have seen them. We just expected more.

Before we got to either of the actual pandas, they had us pose for a family picture in front of a green screen. The guy told Madelyn to hold her hands in a particular fashion because she would be holding a panda bear in the picture. She was SO excited! I mean, she was SO excited that she didn't really care about seeing the real pandas after that. She just wanted to get to the picture booth! 

Much to her disappointment, when we go the picture, I said, "Look! You're holding a panda bear!" To which Madelyn quickly replied with a scowl on her face, "I thought I was going to hold a REAL panda!" Oops. I sometimes forget how literal little children can be. ;)

After the pandas, we made our way to the elephant exhibit. This was fantastic! Madelyn wanted to "ride" on every one of the animals. And she is quite the photo nut because I was hoping to get a picture of just me with the elephant, but NOPE. Not a chance. 

Thank goodness for the People Movers!

My Monkeys!

Oh, the stories I could tell about the gorillas....

It was getting pretty late in the evening after we spent a long time observing the silly gorillas. It was hard to pull ourselves away from their harry antics. We told Madelyn she'd have to choose two more animals to visit before we had to leave, and as we made our way around to the sign which directed us to the animals, we told her to read it and decide where she wanted to go. She chose the hippos. Chris and I couldn't have been more disappointed. I'm not sure why, but we had no interest. Fortunately for all of us, however, we let Madelyn have her way (for the eighteenth time this trip) and went to see the hippos. 

Best decision ever! As it turned out, the hippo exhibit was our favorite! These huge animals were probably the most entertaining of the whole day!

Lastly, Madelyn let me pick, and I chose (as always) the giraffes! I knew there was a baby giraffe to see, and I certainly didn't want to miss her! The giraffes were another great addition to our day. 

Although we were all exhausted by the day's end, we were so glad we chose this as our adventure for the summer of 2012, and we will certainly come back at some point in the future!