What a day!

As I laid with Maisie in bed tonight she said to me, “Mama, today was an awesome, spectacular day and I had so much fun with you.”  My heart leapt and I’m so happy that my little girl totally enjoyed her final day of being four years old and I can only hope that she has many, many more awesome, spectacular days and hopefully I’ll get to share many of them with her.

I will say that we did have a pretty awesome day and boy was it filled with activities.  This morning Maisie and I attended a kids cooking class at a local Italian Restaurant.  Our friends Ilene & Michael took their daughter April to one of the classes many months ago and raved about it so it’s been something that I’ve wanted to do with Maisie and finally we got a date that worked for us. 

When we first arrived they gave each child a Toque chef’s hat which they all decorated while snacking on veggies & dip and watching the movie, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.

Love this sweet face!

Lately it seems that each time I go to take a picture of Maisie, she throws out her hips and strikes a pose, got to love the attitude.

Once everyone arrived and got settled the chef called all the children to the front where he demonstrated how to make pizza dough and then how to make a calzone.

After the demonstration everyone returned to their table where all the ingredients were laid out and each child and adult was able to make their own calzone. 

Maisie and I with our ready for the oven calzones.  Maisie chose to stuff hers with ricotta, mozzarella, parmesan, mushrooms, zucchini, spinach, roasted chicken & pepperoni.  I chose ricotta, mozzarella, parmesan, spinach and roasted garlic.  We both chose to pass on a myriad of other offerings including sausage, sundried tomatoes and I can’t even remember what else.  There were a lot of choices and anything that they didn’t have out, if you asked for it and they had it, they got it for you.

While we waited for our calzones to bake the movie which they had paused during the demonstration was started again and they served their house salad, Caesar salad and fresh baked bread with butter.  By the time the cooked calzones came out Maisie and I were already quite full but we gave them a try along with some delicious marinara & meat sauce.

Needless to say, we had a lot to take home with us as you can see from the above picture, we barely mad a dent in the giant calzones.  Then they brought out three kinds of fresh baked cookies to finish off the meal.  Those too got packed up and were brought home.  We both really enjoyed the cooking class, the food was good and when they next change what they’re making and if the day works with our schedule we’ll most likely do it again.  

Thankfully Maisie has no recollection of the night-terror she had last night which kept her up for almost three hours but it did all catch up with her because by the end of the cooking class Maisie was completely knackered, so much so that she was slurring her words trying to stay awake.  So we headed home and crawled into bed together and Maisie took a rare but much needed nap which was good otherwise she wouldn’t have made it through our afternoon activities.

This afternoon we met up with Lisa, Doug & Briana and Kathy, Matt & Chani for our annual trip to Cagle’s Dairy and the maize maze.  This is our third year doing the maize maze and the girls have grown up so much from the little munchkins they were two years ago and even from last year.  We had a perfect day for being out with bright sunny skies and warm weather, oh so different from the frigid temps last year where we were all bundled up in jackets.  This year the girls knew what was going on and didn’t want to hang out too long taking pictures as they were anxious to get into the maze.

And they were off and running…

Every once in a while they would stop and allow the adults to catch up with them.

The annual Dads & Daughters on the bridge picture.   

After we completed the maze all the little girls said that they were hungry so the Dads took the girls to the bouncing pillows while the Moms stood in the queue to get food.  After we all filled our tummies there were more things to do.

Briana, Maisie and Eammon doing a bit of dancing.

Eammon having fun with the girls.

The annual Moms and daughters picture. 

Maisie & Bri

Bri & Chani

Eammon, Maisie and I

Doug, Lisa & Bri

Matt, Kathy & Chani

Eammon & Doug…never trust those two!!    

Maisie doesn’t always want to be near animals or ride the ponies but this year all three girls enjoyed a pony ride.

Next we queued up to take a hayride to the bonfires and while we waited Maisie decided to strike a pose.

Maisie & Bri shared a moment.

Chani, Bri and Maisie were being silly at the entrance to the tunnel. 

Doug made Maisie laugh.

On the hayride to the bonfire.

The girls had fun roasting and eating marshmallows.

And they enjoyed eating them too!

Next we visited the pumpkin patch. 

It was the end of the day and we had been at the dairy for a couple of hours so trying to get pictures of all three girls was like trying to herd cats.  They were having fun though and posing for pictures wasn’t high on their list of things to do.

But we kept trying, without success, to get all the girls to look in the same direction at the same time…

Almost but not quite.  Still three adorable little girls.

 Even at the end of the day the girls were still full of energy.

The moon shining on our sweet little girls.  It was a good day at the dairy and it was fun to realize that we’ve done this three years running and the girls still have so much fun.  We look forward to next year when we continue this tradition.

Tomorrow my girl will be five!!  I hope that it’s another awesome, spectacular day for her and I love that we’ll get to spend the entire day together.

Birthday girl high tea

Today I took my birthday girl out for a Mom & Daughter high tea.

Maisie started with a cup of chocolate rooibos tea (with lots of honey) and tomato soup.

Followed by tea sandwiches, pastries, scones & lemon curd.  Maisie enjoyed her first tea and our girl time together.  Now she’s “patiently” waiting for K & A to get home from school so that she can play with her friends.

Let the celebrating begin

How is it that in just three days my little sweetie girl will be five years old??   Each year I say that I can’t believe that another year has passed and that Maisie is another year older, I’m just not ready for her to grow up and for me, time is passing too quickly.  Starting today with her class party and ending on Sunday with her actual birthday and her big party, we have a four days of special activities and celebrating planned, it should be great fun!

Today Maisie celebrated her birthday at school with her classmates.  I couldn’t be at her school party as I had three plumbers in the house replacing our two water heaters with a tankless unit but Maisie said that she all her classmates enjoyed the cupcakes, juice boxes and goodie bags that I brought in for her party.  When I dropped everything off this morning her teacher Miss Lisa was just finishing up the first mid-term report cards so we had a quick little parent/teacher discussion and she gave me Maisie’s report card. 

I am so proud of my girl for how well she is doing in school but even more so for what Miss Lisa told me which was, that if they didn’t know that Maisie was 1.5 - 2+ years younger than her classmates, they never would have guessed as her maturity level, behavior, concentration and academics are right there with the older children. 

I finally got my act together and arranged to have our old water heaters replaced.  Both units were still working  but were well beyond their anticipated life expectancy and I was having nightmares that one or the other would soon fail and then mess that we would have! Especially scary was that the electric water heater which was upstairs was over 18 years old and if it failed and leaked, there would go our dining room and master bedroom ceilings and who knows what as far as furnishings and wood floors.  The gas unit was on the first floor in the laundry room and by removing it I was able to turn the new freezer into the space where the water tank was formerly, allowing us so much more space.

Look how small the tankless unit is and this one unit will replace both of the old tanks. 

Here is the plumber finishing the hook ups and it wasn’t long before we had nice hot water again and my fears of a leaking tank are now a thing of the past.  I’m hoping too that we enjoy some energy savings by not continuously heating two huge tanks of water.  

We had to temporarily move Maisie’s kitchen so that the plumbers could get the electric tank down the stairs and out of the house but that didn’t stop Maisie and A from cooking up lots of food.  Once the plumbers finished we moved everything back to where it belonged and Maisie, K & A did a great job of cleaning up and K did an awesome job of organizing everything in the kitchen and finding just the right spot so that everything can now be easily found.  Thanks K you did great!!

Maisie and I both have been suffering with colds this past week and she was one tired bear tonight so we climbed in bed just after 6:30, she read a book to me and then she was fast asleep just minutes after 7.  She’s had some rough nights as she’s been so congested and wakes when she can’t breathe well so I’m hoping that it’s eased up somewhat and that she sleeps through the night.  We have so many fun activities planned over the next three days and I want her to be able to fully enjoy each and every one. 

October Best Meet

Maisie and her teammates headed out to Cartersville, Georgia this afternoon to compete in the October Best Meet hosted by the Cartersville Twisters, their first away meet!  I really didn’t know how Maisie would do as she missed a week of practice as well as the September meet when we were away on our cruise and then she missed an additional practice when she was sick, being in a strange gym and also her overall not being quite herself lately but she, as well as all the other girls on her team brought their best and had a wonderful meet.

Here’s my sassy little gymnast, full of attitude.

Maisie this morning with her hair sticky with gel so that I could fix her buns.

My little cutie with her buns and wearing the bows that I made for all the girls.

Maisie, Gracie & Tia before the meet.

Caroline, Taylor, Maisie, Gracie & Tia.

Teammates Aspen, Caroline, Tia, Maisie, Gracie & Mara.

The gym was not set up well for taking a video but I did my best so it's not great angles and it's wiggly and jiggly...it is-what-it-is but it's my girl. Also no flash photography is allowed during meets so I don't have any still pictures from the meet.

Waiting for the medal ceremony to begin.

Vault final:  1st ~ Maisie, Joint 2nd ~ Savannah & Taylor, 4th ~ Caroline.

Bars final:  Joint 1st ~ Aspen & Savannah, 3rd ~ Maisie, 4th ~ Caroline.

Beam final:  1st ~ Caroline, Joint 2nd ~ Aspen & Savannah, Joint 4th ~ Taylor & Maisie.

Floor final:  1st ~ Taylor, 2nd ~ Aspen, 3rd ~ Maisie, 4th ~ Savannah.

All Around winners: 1st ~ Maisie, 2nd ~ Aspen, 3rd ~ Savannah, 4th ~ Taylor.

Maisie with her four event medals and All Around trophy.  Congratulations Maisie and all the North Metro Level 2 girls on a great meet and doing your best!

After the meet everyone was hungry so Gracie & her Mom Dawn and Maisie and I continued the fun and girl time and ate lots of good food together.  At the end of the day Maisie and Gracie didn’t want to go home and were begging to go to each others home for play dates and sleepovers…so very cute these little girls!

Maisie once again had a blast at the meet, loved competing and being there with her teammates and is looking forward to her third and final meet of the season mid-November.  Next year we’ll have to plan our travel schedule better so that she doesn’t miss any meets and also so that we’re not away, as we’ll be this year, for state meet in December.

K’s musical

Tonight Maisie and I went to watch K in her school production of Cinderella Kids.   I haven’t been to an elementary school musical in decades, probably not since I was in elementary school but tonight I sat there grinning ear-to-ear watching K and all the other students have so much fun performing.

A and Maisie playing with her Leapster while waiting for the show to begin.

Anne, A & Maisie

They didn’t allow videos or pictures to be taken during the show because of copyrights and whatnot  but K had fun and sang her little heart out.  Here’s K looking beautiful with some of the other chorus members.

After the show Maisie couldn’t wait to get to her friend and give her a big hug.

K, Maisie & A behind the beautiful Cinderella’s coach which Steve made!

K, Maisie & A, three little cutie-patooties.

The three Musketeers!

I forgot that I took this picture yesterday morning and I love what Maisie choose to wear to school.  It all matches and fits in with her uniform requirements of any color plaid skirt and monogrammed polo shirt but it’s her personality. 

(Tiff, I know that you know what book she’s reading as she carries it with all.the.time!!!  She’s one funny little girl.)  

Maisie and some school friends

When Maisie arrived at school this morning, her friend Olivia handed her and her classmate Maya birthday presents.  Maya turned 7 last Saturday and Maisie will turn 5 on the 17th.  This is Maisie’s first My little Pony and she enjoyed playing with it between school and gymnastics.  Maisie also wrote a very cute thank you note which she’ll give to Olivia tomorrow.

While I had my cell phone out, another of Maisie’s classmates Rose, asked that I take a picture of her with Maisie.  Maisie and all her classmates are so cute together and they all get along amazingly well.  I’m so happy that Maisie loves her classmates and being at school, she looks forward to going each morning and that makes for easy starts to our days.

Keeping busy

I can’t believe that over a week has passed since my last post, the days just seem to be flying by and nary a picture taken.  Maisie had a busy first week back at school after our cruise and thankfully we kept up with all her school work and home work as she had tests every.single.day last week.  Mondays test was English where she had to mark sentences with the noun, verb, article, adverbs and adjectives as well as choosing correct word pairs for synonyms and antonyms.  Tuesday was a phonics test where she had to know all the blends and special sounds.  Wednesday she had two tests, a science test on the weather and the seasons and also a math test.  Thankfully Thursday she ended her week with her weekly spelling test.  Every week there’s at least four test, phonics, English, math and spelling and then there’s social studies, science and other various tests thrown in, I’m just amazed.   I’m telling you, I don’t remember all these tests in first grade and I can tell you that I certainly didn’t know what a noun, verb, article, synonym, antonym or anything else of the sort was at that age.  Maisie though is loving school, finding it all easy-peasy and passing her tests with flying colors and just looks forward to being there everyday with her friends and learning new things...Gotta love it!

While Maisie was busy with school and gymnastics I kept myself busy cooking.  After a week of eating three meals a day on the ship I just craved home-cooked, healthy, comfort food so I pulled some of our favorite recipes, shopped for all the ingredients and cooked my little heart out.  I made Summer Shrimp Salad,  Mulligatawny Soup, Red Curry Soup, Roasted & Curried Veggie Soup, Cioppino, Tom Kha Gai, Hearty Beef Curry and a new recipe which I have yet to photograph and post but Eammon just loved it, Scallops, Mushrooms, Broccoli and Udon.  We ate some of everything and I froze a lot.  I love having a stocked freezer especially on those nights when Maisie and I don’t get back from the gym until 7PM and we need a meal in a hurry.  I’m also preparing meals for Eammon to have in December when Maisie and I are away in Aruba for two weeks.

Maisie’s been a little run-down lately and I think that she may be going through a growth spurt.  In the afternoons she’s been falling asleep in the car and some days she has a voracious, insatiable appetite.  That didn’t stop her though because after a busy week Maisie was super excited to spend time with her friends over the weekend.  Saturday Maisie spent most of the day playing with K & A and on Sunday, Maisie and I got together with Ilene, Michael & April for lunch.  Maisie had never been to Benihana or any such place before and though she really wasn’t 100% herself she really enjoyed watching the chef and as always, loved being with and playing with April. 

This week we also have a lot going on.  Maisie has her usual activities and I’m trying to get everything organized and all the decisions made as we’re having our roof, 7 skylights and gutters replaced.  I’ve been so indecisive as to which shingles I like and what color, I just need to make my decision and let the work begin.  I did finally decide on the sky lights and so those are now ordered and will take a couple of weeks to come in so at least it’s a start.  Another big project is that both our water heaters need to be replaced so after lots of estimates I now need to choose and get the plumber hired and have that work done but honestly I’ve just found it all overwhelming and I don’t look forward to having workers in and around the house. 

I did manage to get one little project finished, I made hair bows for all the girls on Maisie’s gymnastics team.  They’re not fancy like my friend Kathy makes but they match the girl’s leotards and to put on their little buns, they should look adorable.  Maisie is super excited as this Saturday is her second meet and it’s the girl’s first away meet so we’ll see how they do in a different gym. 

Guess I should get back to my projects and off the computer.  Going to try and take some Maisie pictures this week…yep, gotta try.