"Grape Expectations"

also:
"It's been grape knowing you."
and:
"Grape job, Mom! You vine-ally finished it."
finally:
"The grape Thanksgiving caper, 2008."

I think you get the gist of it. I just spent an hour (!!!!!!) cutting up two ginormously huge bunches of grapes for R's preschool party tomorrow:

Gaaaaah.
You may remember I bravely volunteered myself for napkins for Halloween. This time, I was the first to sign up, and for some inexplicable reason, I snatched up grapes. Basically, I was thinking of taking grapes to an adult party, where most of the attendees aren't at mortal risk of swallowing one and choking on it. About 10 minutes later, it hit me that I would actually have to quarter these babies up for them to be presentable for the toddler set. Chop, chop! I think I better stick with paper goods.
Also, I have not started packing yet for our 8 day trip to Florida. We leave tomorrow after we pick up R from school. Egads! And yet, here I am, blogging and posting pictures of cut-up fruit instead....which is just riveting blog content, really.
I hope you all have a wonderful, festive Thanksgiving. I know I have many blessings and gifts for which I consider myself extremely thankful. I am signing off for the next week or so, but will be back with loads of pics and a post-feast update. Grapes not included. Hugs to all, y'all.

Happy, happy birthday to...baby Quinn and Jane!

What a great weekend! We celebrated two very special b-days this weekend. Baby Quinn turned one on Friday, so we went to her par-tay on Saturday (many, many pics to follow). Jane's birthday is today, and she had a really fun group over to her casa for a potluck craft night tonight. Everyone brought yummy food and drinks, and Jane set up a very festive and creative holiday decorating station, where you could make your own ornaments, decorate wreaths, or glue miniature plastic babies onto antlers. Guess which one Reese and Papa Mike decided to do? I'm a dummy and didn't think to take pics of the kitschy masterpiece.
Here are a few pics of the b-day girl, our dear friend (and loyal reader!), Jane! With Papa and Reesie, of course.
Hey, Jane, happy birthday!

Cheese! Reese decided to "celebrate" by giving Jane a full on, open mouth kiss. Score! And yes, she has finished her antibiotics....and I don't know why blogger is insisting on listing that weird link thing between this comment and the picture. Baaah.
href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjob_imO-Fj1XQMhIJ6eJliuYshyphenhyphenIyST_E2of52vkYnxyjOQeGUW8N3B5b56C_giCnO7XTQr226ACOyliPPX4jlt9toTRRDnImyqXWkIVn2HTgDCQqhSXAyCcFlZPr-9I8hrEQo7QipyLU/s1600-h/IMG_1717.JPG">
I seemed to remember to take many more pics at Baby Q's shindig. Here's the girl of the day with her pretty Mama.

Lots going on while Quinn opened her gifts. I'm mainly including this because Reese was, um, "helping" Q open her gifts.

More like supervising, very, very closely.

Robbin holding sweet Nico.

One of R's many kisses to Q.

Q, posing so sweetly.

Reese, moving in for some sugar. I am noticing a pattern here....birthday = exuberant Reese kisses.

Nico, resting so peacefully.

The "kid table," and Reese eating in a very ladylike manner.

Digging into the cupcakes (they were beautiful and I guess I didn't get a pic??)...very carefully....

But oh-so-cute!

Did I mention C-U-T-E??! Reese told me today that Quinn is a cutie-cutie-cutie.

Hey, Reese, I heard the cupcake tastes better if you can shove it as far as possible into your mouth!

Kellen, the sweet big bro, enjoying his sis's party.

We love you, Jane and Quinn! Happy birthday!

Pretty in pink

Miss Thang got a new chaqueta from the grands. It has "fur" around the hood, attached mittens, sparkly things on it, and is (naturally) pink. Big time!
Reese, receiving the present:


What on earth are these? They actually came in handy last night and this morning, as it has been quite cold, at least by Texas standards.

And as she studies herself in the mirror...

...oooh...

...aaah...

The coat definitely gets the seal of approval!



You can file the next image in the category of "Things You Never Really Cared to See or Know About": mac and cheese pizza. Yes, I typed that correctly, mac and cheese pizza.

R saw it at the Sunset Valley Farmer's Market today and had to have it. Gross! But she didn't seem to think so...

Old friends, new friends

I need to start this post by clarifying that in no way, shape or form are the friends I am referencing "old"; that just refers to the fact we've known each other for awhile. Okay, got that out of the way.
Last night I had a fun evening out with my friend, Liz. She is joining the AMOA Board of Advisors group with which I am involved and I am so excited she will be on it! She's going to be a great addition and is already thinking of great ideas. We went to the welcome meeting, then went on a quick tour of the exhibition of Salgado's photos and Damian Priour's Texas Chair Project, which is awesome. I say this not only because I know and love Damian, and not only because my dad has a piece in the exhibition. It is awesome because it is such a cool concept and really just took off. Damian is a sculptor (state sculptor of Texas, yo) who loves and collects chairs. He had the idea to create 88 small chair sculptures out of his preferred medium, limestone and glass. He then boxed up these chairs and sent them to Texas artists who admired and respected. The caveat was also a request: to keep the chair he sent them, he asked for them to send them their own artistic interpretation of a chair, and it had to fit into the original box (this aspect some artists, um, stretched). AMOA agreed they would do an exhibit if 50 chairs came back. Well, 80 chairs were returned and are currently on exhibit! It is fascinating to seee how different artists interpreted the chair in many different media: sculpture, paintings, photography, video, even sawdust. I know I am kind of going on about it, but I cannot recommend it highly enough. Such fun!
So after the exhibit tour, Liz and I hit SoCo for some impromptu shopping (I proudly knocked a few more names on the Christmas list, whew!) and yummy dinner at South Congress Cafe. It was wonderful to relax, have a lovely meal and great girl talk. Such a fun evening!
This morning, my friend Becca came over with her precious kiddos for a playdate. We hadn't seen each other since the UT ADPi days! It was great to catch up, as much as her daughter Emmylou and Reese would allow us to. They really played together well, but they are 2 after all. Actually, 2 and a half, which I am learning is an important distinction.
Here are the sweet girls snacking on muffins.

More snacking.

Emmylou pushing R around on the bike.

Miller, being cute, sweet and never even making a peep. What a good baby!

Under the crib antics. I can't be sure what they were, as I was not really invited or allowed in.

You know, just hanging out, biking and phoning.

Posing, or at least the best I got, next to Miller.

Goodbye hugs! Reese was so excited to make a new friend.

She called me in the front room: "Mom, come here! I'm looking for Emmylou. Emmy-loooooooooou, where are yooooooooou?"

Come back and play anytime, y'all! (Also, Becca, did you notice I got the link thing to work?? I must have been doing it wrong. Thanks for the explanation, I am now officially coming to you with my blogging questions!)

Dr. Reese and the dinosaurs

Despite prolonged ailing health, we have managed to squeeze in some fun lately. Quite a bit, actually! Yesterday, Shannon and Ainsley invited us out to their ranch for a playdate. We had a ball! We played outside and inside, us moms were actually able to maintain a (somewhat) decent adult conversation, and we had an awesome lunch of jambalaya stuffed chicken breasts. Thanks, ladies!
Shannon has a super fancy camera, so the first few pics are excellent quality. You'll be able to tell when we switch to images captured by my oh-so-fancy cell phone.
Reese got to wear fairy wings, always a hit.

And she really seemed to enjoy beading. Plus, it takes a loooong time. HEB beads, we're coming to find you!

Engrossed....

Dr. Reese checking up on her patient. She listened to A's heart, then my tummy, then she announced she was going to "listen to our bottoms." Really, I never have any idea what she's going to say. And I also wonder what she says at school or to the sitter. Anyway, we re-directed that examination and she settled on A's toes.

That concludes the high quality photography. So here is A, so well-behaved in her chair at the table, obliging me when I asked for a smile.

Reese, fulfilling the same request. Sigh.

Today, Mom and I went to Christmas Affair, an annual Junior League christmas shopping extravaganza. We always go to the Thursday morning preview and usually knock out a good chunk of our shopping. I don't know if it was the faltering economy or what, but this year it was noticeably less crowded. And I only bought two little stocking stuffers for David. If Christmas Affair is any indicator, sales are definitely going to be slower this season.
After C.A., we picked R up from school (another perfect day, yippee!), and popped into Amy's for milkshakes all around. Then we went to the Dinoland exhibit. I could kick myself for not bringing R to this sooner--it's walking distance from our house and the girl had an absolute ball!
Sitting in the butterfly chairs outside the exhibit....


"I can fly!"

She enjoyed running, running, running all over the actual exhibit itself....

...only pausing occasionally to look at some of the dinosaurs themselves...

...and then it was back to more running. And a lot of me yelling, "Watch where you are going, Reese! Look in front of you!" She tends to look to the sides and behind her rather than straight ahead.

And now, she is napping away. Ah, peace and quiet.....back to that Christmas list....

A bunch of sicko's

So, Mommy was down for the count for a little while too. I think I finally got that cold that everyone else has had and cannot seem to get rid of (namely, Reese). It's been a miserable sniffly few days for both of us. We've been pretty puny and pathetic but we are bouncing back. I'm still, ahem, taking a break from working out for the most part (cough cough and all) (also, not necessarily good because I am heading to FL in a week and that means bathing suits), but today we were back to the normally daily biz. Or at least Reese went to school, and had a great day! Yea! And I whipped up a delicious tortilla soup in the slow cooker. I love my crock pot in an unhealthy Stepford kind of way. Anyway, as we were waiting for the home cooked meal, R practiced her photography. Let me tell you, Oswalds, I am practically giving this one away. Clearly, she's got the artistic eye and all. Obv!

Then, as I was cleaning up the kitchen after dinner, I gave Reese her mac and cheese. Because she ate approximately zero percent of the soup I cooked. Anyway, I look over and she is shuttling mac and cheese between her bowl and an ice tray (????). No, really: "????" We have an automatic ice maker. We don't use these--they've been stored away after I got over my desire to cook, puree and freeze my own organic baby food after doing it all of one time. However, if you are curious: an ice cube tray size serving is perfecto for babies, hence the ice cube trays. So, she told me this is the way Peter Pan likes to eat it. I snatched away the rest of the bowl and put it up, but lo and behold Reese/Peter was eating it out of the little ice cube slots. Um, okaaay.

Here's "Peter" with a tell-tale mac and cheese face

Showing the doll how to play the "pin-yo"

Rather forcefully showing the doll how to play

Cutie in a hat


So, I think I'm mainly back from the sickly pity party. Which is a good thing. That is, unless we get the stomach virus (blech) or the chicken pox, which is apparently going around R's classroom (GAAAAAAAAAH). I just assume that we're going to get everything that is going around now that she's in school. But somehow we avoided the hoof-and-mouth, oops, I mean, hand-foot-and-mouth virus when it swept through the 2's at school. Whew.
Oh, another good thing (maybe?): I was reading the Oprah interview with Brad Pitt today and apparently, the first Brangelina spawn, Shiloh, will only answer to the names Peter or John. Intrigued, I read on. Brad said it was "a Peter Pan thing." Huh....sounds vaguely familiar....very interesting....
So to conclude the post, I will end with some mildly related trivia: Angelina Jolie and I share the *exact* same birthdate. Month, year, day, we are exactly the same age. Do with that what you will! Goodnight, all!