School Photos

Yes, I am a photographer. But yes, I'm still going to be a sucker for school photos! Grace had her spring portaits taken last month and we got her CD of images back this week.

Just thought I'd share with you her three proofs:





My favorite of the three:


And a class photo with her teachers and friends...



(All Photos by: Crawford Photography Services, Inc.)

Boy is she growing up fast! She's currently napping, and I'm hoping napping some of her sickness away. She woke up yesterday morning around 4am with a tucky cough and a fever that landed us in the peds office before noon. After a negative flu and RSV test it was determined she has the croup and was put on steroids for three days. Thankfully last night her fever broke arond 11:30pm and she woke up this morning feeling much better. She was sad that she couldn't go to school, but she gets to spend the day with me instead! :)

Top 50 Award

Last month Scott was awarded with a Top 50 Entrepreneurs of 2012 award through Triangle Business Leader.

You can read a little about it here.

Congrats Scott!

She {hearts} Candy Cottages

Today is my first post over at She {Heart} It!

And its a giveaway! You can enter to win a Candy Cottage.

Go check it out the She {Hearts} It website and enter to win!

Good times!

One afternoon I opened up a package and there was a sheet of bubble wrap. Grace loves bubble wrap. She carried it to her trampoline and began jumping on it. It was so funny!

Wine and Design at Pocosin Arts

Wine and Design seems to be a big hit that is sweeping across atleast NC. Our local arts program, Pocosin Arts, hosted a Wine and Design but instead of painting on canvas like the one I've done before, we painted a silk scarf. So much fun!

My almost final project:

I did fill in the rest of the white area with navy blue. :)

Practice run

Grace got to try on her ballet costume for her upcoming recital in May during class week before last. I'd say I've have one of the cutest ballerinas. Ever. :)

NYC Day 3

Our last day in NYC started off with something I've always wanted to do! A carriage ride in Central Park! :)

It was early and it was Sunday so there weren't any stores open once we got off our carriage ride. We decided to head to Rockefeller Center. On our way there, walking down Madison Ave., we passed St. Patrick's Cathedral. The church first opened in 1879 and is open for visitors, so we went in during mass. I'd have to say its probably the most beautiful church I've ever seen. When we were there it was the 39th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision granting abortion on demand in our society, so that seemed to be the focus of their preachings.

We then went to Rockefeller Center where we spent some time in a gift shop and discussed the idea of going ice skating. We were beginning to get limited on our time so we decided not to but did go and check out out ice rink.

Also in Rockefeller center we went to the NBC Studios. We were going to take a tour of the studio, but the wait was too long and the tour was too long for what time we had left. We decided to go back near our Hotel and check out Madame Tussauds Wax Museum.

We stopped to take a photo at one of the cheesy touristy photo ops in the museum:

There are wax museums in other parts of the World and from what I could gather the molds rotate between all of the museums. In the wax museum you will find A-list celebrities, sports legends, political heavyweights and historical icons, reliving times, events and moments that made the world talk about them. Supposedly each wax figure is of true size to its person.

John Wayne:

Jackie Kennedy Onassis

The Beatles

George Clooney

A glimpse into the future? ;)

I think this one was Scott's favorite. Donald Trump, and he could pretend to ring the stock market bell.

We concluded our trip by visiting the Casino/Racetrack in Queens! So much fun! And as Grace loves to say, "Where we go next?"

Out of the mouth of Grace

Tuesday night while in the tub Grace was playing with her tub toys. I guess she was pretending to play with her friends from school too. I heard her say, "Dear God, thank you for our friends and thank you for the bible. Amen. See Camden, that's how you say your prayers." Guess she's teaching her friends how to pray! Maybe she'll end up being a teacher like her mommy!

(an instagram photo I grabbed of Grace playing in the tub)

She was sitting on the bathroom counter as I was brushing her hair after bathtime. Grace grabbed my deodorant and took the top off. I told her to put the lid back on but she touched the actual deodorant with her fingertip about the same time. I told her we dont touch that part with our fingers that its only to be put under our armpits and she replied, "Why not? It'll make me taller."

Just a little while later we were sitting on the couch after Scott got home from work. A throw pillow fell off the couch and Grace proceeded to hang over the couch to pick it up. Scott said, "I'll help." Grace said, "It's okay, girls are stronger than boys." :) 

NYC: Day 2

Day 2 of our NYC vacation started off by waking up to snow covering the ground and still falling! After a quick breakfast we made a trip to the Empire State building.

We bought the Fast Pass and go to be able to pass a main line and get to the observation deck without having to wait in a long line. It also included some simulator-ride, the NYSkyRide, where Kevin Bacon flew you around on a helicopter ride through the city. I'd recommend skipping that part. Miss Motion Sickness here had to keep my eyes closed most of the time because it was a very bumpy ride and the screen was hard to focus on because it was moving so fast.

Once at the observation (main) deck on the 86th floor, It was freezing... and doing more sleeting that high up than snowing. We couldn't see very far either due to the fog from the snow, but it was still an amazing view to see the city dusted with snow!

After that we ventured to SoHo for some lunch and shopping. We ate at a DELICIOUS Mexican restaurant, Dos Caminos and I had the fish tacos. SO GOOD! The shopping was fun. I dont think I bought a thing in SoHo but there sure were a lot of pretty things.

I decided to save my money for Chinatown and some knock-off pocketbooks! I'm not ashamed! :)

{Blessings}

This video is sideways, and I'm not sure how to fix it, sorry, but I did want to share. I've tried a lot of times to record this and finally had success with it last night.



Thank you Jesus..
For our Food, For our Food
And our many blessings.
And our many blessings.
Amen, Amen!

The sound may not match up with her lips, sorry about that too. Not sure why it's doing that either.

Birthdays

As I'm in the process of planning for Grace's THIRD birthday party (yes I did just say THIRD), I realized that I never posted photos from her 2nd Birthday Party on our blog. So I figured since I'm not a full year behind yet, why not go ahead and post them? :)

Grace went through a Toy Story phase. She isn't really into Toy Story much anymore. I can't remember the last time she watched one of the Toy Story movies. But there for a while she was all about Woody and Jessy! I'm not a huge fan of things being plastered with a certain character, especially birthday parties, so we decided to go with a cowgirl-ish theme and throw a little bit of Jessie in as we could.



Jessie Invitation: Etsy Shop - 3boysstationary, I can't find their shop on etsy anymore. :(

Cake: Idea found here, Cake made by- Your Perfect Cake out of Greenville, NC
Happy Birthday Banner: Esty shop- Cardboard Sheek
Circle Toy Story Character Tags tied to bags: Esty shop - Little Things Creations
Favor Buckets consisted of more character items: bubbles, mini frisbees, stickers, & a pack of toy story gummies

Grace's cousin Lilley is 5 months older than her. Lilley had a pink barnyard theme party for her birthday and we were able to borrow lots of things from her like the wooden baskets, hay bales & metal buckets.

To go along with our horse theme, we have some friends that have horses and they were SO kind to let us borrow one for the afternoon, along with a donkey. We set them up on the lot across the street and the children got to ride on the horse and pet the donkey.

Daddy with his Cowgirls...

Such a fun party! I think we're going to go back to water/fish theme for her 3rd birthday, but I'm sure that could change within the next few weeks, we'll see.

Playdate

Scott spent one February, Saturday morning working at his office in Raleigh and needed one of his employees to work with him so her daughter spent the day with Grace and I. We started off the day downtown at the Marbles IMAX theater and saw Barbie in a Mermaid Tale 2. After the show they put together a Barbie Bash that consisted of different stations where the kids could do mermaid / surfer crafts and activities.

Grace making a surfboard:


A balance activity:


Making necklaces like the one Barbie wore in the movie.



After the Barbie Bash we went over to the Museum. The girls even got to play in the outside area because the weather was so gorgeous!



The Splash! exhibit has a fun water feature at The Lighthouse, but you have to be prepared to get wet. Here children can test what floats and what sinks. Its a good thing they have aprons and hand-dryers!



Upstairs in the museum is the Ideaworks exhibit. The girls had a blast here in the "GoZone" building their own cars and racing them down the track.





There is another exhibit upstairs of the museum called Moneypalooza. This area is available to teach the importance of saving and smart spending.



I thought our morning at the museum would cover the time Scott needed to get some things done but I soon had to find more things for us girls to do. We ventured to McDonald's for lunch and some fun in the play area there, then I treated the girls to having their fingers painted. No full out manicures, just simple finger painting. Grace has never had her fingernails painted so this was definitely a first for her.





We had so much fun with Alyssa and the girls played so well together!