You Dance a Dance Class

Last Thursday during Eliza's dance class, Miss Amanda began teaching the girls their routine for "show week." Getting a group of 3 and 4 year olds to anything in unison is truly a feat and Miss Amanda has the patience of a saint. Some of the girls were able to catch on and followed along, others were much more content to just do their own thing. As you might have guessed, my child was the one who was very content to just do whatever she felt moved to do. At one point , I am pretty sure I even saw her doing some John Travolta Saturday Night Fever moves! As I watched them, it made me think of a scene from the first season of Friends where the girls take a tap class . Eliza's approach to her routine was very "Phoebesque". I found the clip on YouTube but it wouldn't let me embed it. Here is the link if you're interested. http://youtu.be/ipsgYiyTpNc

Project Life: Week 12

Project Life: Week 12

March 19 -25, 2011

March 19, 2011: Eliza loves to play with her Uncle Richard and she especially loves it when he helps her build card houses.

March 20, 2011: This was the perfect day for Eliza to enjoy some time playing outside in her playhouse. (Thanks again Miss Pam and Miss Deidre . . . . this playhouse is a hit!)

March 21, 2011: Eliza is fascinated with the moon, so when her friends Greer, Harper and Sloane gave her a miniature moon model for her birthday she was so excited. Today she was teaching Coco about the phases of the moon.

March 22, 2011: No picture and I have no good reason for its absence.

March 23, 2011: Having a little I Pad time before bath and bed.

March 24, 2011: Eliza's favorite thing to do in gym is to do her bear crawl on these bars. She was actually going backwards in this picture. Therefore the crash that looks so immenent was indeed avoided.

March 25, 2011: I apparently forgot to take a picture of Daddy and Eliza movie night this week. The feature of the week was Beauty and the Beast.

Children's Festival

One of the things that I love best about living in Houston is the fact that there is always some kind of great event happening. Each each year during the spring, Houston hosts a plethora of festivals. . . . art, international, Greek etc. Today we took advantage of the incredible spring weather and headed downtown to the Children's Festival. This festival, which draws huge crowds, is held each year with the proceeds benefiting Child Advocates of Houston. This was our first trip to the festival but it won't be our last. Our first stop was the Ronald McDonald bounce house.

As we made our way from zone to zone, there were all kinds of great activities for kids. Eliza wanted to go to all the booths that had a prize wheel you could spin. She was all about spinning those wheels.

I think it might be law that you must have face painting at all carnivals and festivals and this one was no different. Eliza was very excited about having her face painted and she very quickly decided that she wanted one pink heart on her cheek.

After the face painting, we headed to the stage area so Eliza could see her "boyfriend" . . . . Diego. We didn't get any pictures of Dora and Diego because it was crazy crowded but she got to see them do the hokey pokey and the chicken dance. It was certainly a thrill for her.

As we were headed back to the gates to leave, we ran into Eliza's first love . . . . Elmo!

It was a great way to spend the day!

Birthday Party Fun

In January Eliza decided that she wanted a Scooby Doo party at The Little Gym. I loved the idea of having someone else do all of the prep work and clean up so I quickly gave her party wish the green light. Overall it was a lot of fun and Eliza was thrilled to see all of her friends (and family) there. The kids ran all over the gym during free play and then cam time for Eliza's favorite part - the parachute and the jump track. Special thanks to Aunt Mare and Uncle John - not only did they come all the way from Arizona for her party but they were on camera duty during the party. Thanks guys!

After running around and making a lot of noise - it was time for cake and presents.

The cupcakes were supposed to be Scooby Doo faces . . . . didn't quite get there but the kids didn't seem to care and they were very tasty.

It was a great day and Eliza had a blast.

Eliza Day

As a kid, birthdays in our house were always a big deal. Our parents went out of their way to make our birthdays special. I want to do the same for Eliza. Since her birthday always falls during Spring Break, it was the perfect opportunity to devote the entire day to doing super fun and super cool things for her.

We started our day we her favorite breakfast - pancakes with butter and syrup and a yogurt smoothie. After we got ready, we headed out to the nail salon for Eliza's first mani - pedi that only included the painting part. I I told her she could pick any color she wanted and was prepared for some wild colors but she picked two lovely shades of pink.

The ladies at the salon were very sweet to her and even put cute little flowers on her big toes. She loved all the attention, but didn't quite get the part about letting the paint dry. There were several touch up jobs needed.

Her favorite part of the mani - pedi was the aquarium and the giant fish. She was pretty obsessed.

After the nail salon, we headed to Build a Bear. One of her friends had given her a gift certificate and she couldn't wait to go and pick out her newest friend. I thought for sure she want the pink bear but she surprised me and picked a dog. She was giddy with excitement as she watched them put the stuffing in her dog.

She decided that her dog was a girl and her name was Coco. She also decided that Coco needed bows and a dress.

After we finished at Build a Bear, we met Stephen for lunch at a yummy burger place near our house. After lunch, we headed home for presents and ice cream and cake. She had a few presents from us but the majority of the loot came from Eliza's grandparents. She is a very lucky little girl to have so many people who love her.

The remainder of the afternoon was spent in the hot tub playing with her Dad. All in all I think she had a great day.

Project Life: Week 11

Project Life: Week 11

March 12 - 18, 2011

March 12, 2011: Eliza had a Scooby Doo themed birthday party at The Little Gym. She had a great time at the party and LOVED being the center of attention.

March 13, 2011: Eliza had the best time hanging out with her Uncle John and Aunt Mare, however I was never able to get a good shot of all three of them. This was the best I got.

March 14, 2011: Since we were on Spring Break this week, Eliza was able to attend a make up dance class on Monday. Since this class is during the day, it is not an option for us but Eliza enjoyed all the attention she got in this class.

March 15, 2011: HAPPY 3rd BIRTHDAY ELIZA!

March 16, 2011: After her 3 year check up at the pediatrician's office we headed to Old Navy to do a little shopping. Eliza was more interested in playing with the mannequins than shopping. It was not easy getting her away from her "friends".

March 17, 2011: Eliza celebrated St. Patrick's day by wearing the new nightgown that her Aunt Kristen gave her. She calls it her Monkey Hula dress. She also felt the need to wear her tap shoes for St. Patty's Day. Perhaps she was trying to do some Irish clogging.



March 18, 2011: This was the day Eliza had been waiting for! Stephen told her that once she turned 3 that they could have a Daddy - Eliza movie night once a week. They watched 101 Dalmatians in the man cave and mommy was not allowed to come in . . . . unless I was bringing them pop corn and soda!

**Just in case you are wondering - I didn't forget about Project Life weeks 9 and 10 but I was tired of playing catch up and I decided to just skip them for now and get back on track. I will at some point go back and do those weeks**

March 15th

March 15, 2008

March 15, 2009


March 15, 2010

March 15, 2011

Project Life: Week 8

Project Life: Week 8

February 19 -25, 2011

February 19, 2011: Eliza knows how to rock a pair of sun glasses and how to make her mommy laugh.




February 20, 2011: Eliza and her Daddy playing Barbies with Princess Arora and Prince Phillip. Whenever you play Barbies with Eliza, she always gets to be the girl and whoever is playing with her has to be the boy. This also means that her Barbie gets to sleep in bed in the castle and your Barbie is relegated to the floor.


February 21, 2011: Somebody was in a pretty good mood considering it was Monday.

February 22, 2011: Eliza and her Dad were practicing their Hook 'Em Horns. I never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would have a child who was a UT fan!





February 23, 2011: I don't exactly remember what was happening in this picture, but once again Eliza was on the move! It has become quite a difficult task to get a quality picture of Eliza. She is always moving and wiggling and never wants to look at the camera.


February 24, 2011: Dinner at our favorite place . . . . . Chick - Fil - A.





February 25, 2011: Go Texan Day! I was so proud of myself when I found her a western shirt at a resale store for only $1. However Eliza was not impressed with my mad shopping skills or the fact that she was wearing a boy shirt. She reminded me many times that she was indeed a girl and not a boy!

Project Life: Week 7

Project Life: Week 7
February 12 - 18, 2011

February 12, 2011: Even though Eliza had a flu shot she still came down with the flu and we had one very sick little girl on our hands. Fortunately she spent the majority of the day sleeping, which is just what her little body needed.

February 13, 2011: Eliza was on the road to recovery but she still felt puny and asked if she could stay in her jammies all day. That was definitely a request that I had no problem honoring.

February 14, 2011: Even though Eliza was feeling much better, she was not released to go back to school until Tuesday. She missed out on her Valentine's party at school but the three of us had a very fun lunch at

Chick - Fil - A. After lunch Eliza and I came home and had movie time.

February 15, 2011: Eliza was back to feeling good and was ready to resume her routine of playing the cupcake game on the I Pad before going to bed.

February 16, 2011: It is all about dancing these days. Eliza pretends to be a ballerina and dances as she watches TV.

February 17, 2011: I was trying to get Eliza ready for dance class and she was much more interested in running around the living room than getting dressed.

February 18, 2011: There is no picture for this day because I attended the funeral of a former student who died a few days prior at the age of 16. I was too sad for picture taking.