Miss M is 6 pt 3

I dont recall the exact conversation that brought up Tiffany buying Miss M a hamster for her on her birthday while we were in Colorado in January. I just remember sitting at the table eating brunch in CO on our way back to Denver when I overheard Tiffany telling Miss M she would buy her a hamster and Andrew and I kind of staring at her.  We all laughed a good laugh and thought it would just end there.  It didn't just end there. Miss M asked Tiff every week when they could go look at the hamsters. I was very adamant about them looking at the hamsters before purchasing one b/c I hoped it would freak her out and she wouldn't want one any longer.  No such luck.  We knew they were going to buy one and the only rule about the hamster is that it's the responsibility of Miss M and Tiff and when Tiff moves out she's taking the hamster with her.

They went to "look" at hamsters one day and came home already buying one.  Miss M wanted to name her Graya b/c she's gray, obviously.  I told her she couldn't name her that so she changed it to Hampsta. I struck down that too.  She decided on Lilah.  No one can bring themselves to call the hamster Lilah.  No one even pays attention to the hamster. It sleeps 23.5 hours a day.  I just call it Hammie.  

Setting the hamsters living quarters up for the first time.

He was so scared and nervous upon arriving at our house.  And then less than an hour later we were having a party and the noise escalated to a new level.  We were sure she was going to die of a heart attack before being here one day.  

I made strawberry and vanilla cupcakes b/c Miss M has some made up phobia surrounding chocolate.

We had most of Miss M's favorite things as snacks. Chips, cheese popcorn, beef jerky, cinnamon apples, sour patch kids (those were for Will she informed us).  We had two families come over so we didn't go over the top on anything.

Kayleen and Gillian (our other babysitters) came over to celebrate and have cake and ice cream.  

She let her brother and sister and friends help her open birthday presents.  It was a whirlwind. I couldn't keep up but I was very happy and proud of her for not getting upset when others helped. She could have gotten upset about it but she didn't mind at all.  She was so happy all weekend for her birthday.  I think six is going to be a good year.

It has been documented before that the kids are obsessed with Ponies.  The makers of Ponies don't make boy pony things which irritates me to no end b/c they make most all boy things for girls.  Cynthia found Pony sweatshirts with wings and manes for each of the kids so they wouldn't be left out when Miss M was opening her presents.  They love them.  Willie loves Rainbow Dash so much that he's pretty excited to pretend to be Rainbow Dash.  And Cater loves Twilight Sparkle.  Whenever we play ponies Cater is always Twilight Sparkle and you never know which pony she's going to assign you.  

Miss M is 6 pt. 2

Miss M wanted a birthday party at home. She wanted to invite everyone she'd ever met in life.  I had to put an end to the madness.  Instead I sold her on a night downtown in a hotel with a pool.  She is still pretty easy to convince.  Thank goodness.  

Andrew and the younger two children took the car to the shop and then jumped on the green line to head to the office. Miss M and I were responsible for packing the bags and getting them downtown.  She wanted to color before we had to leave so I laid on the floor of the kitchen with her and we colored some random large picture she chose.  We had fun coloring and talking about everything.  

She wanted to wear her best city dress.  It's a hand-me-down from her best friend that she loves more than anything.  The day we chose to spend downtown in the city was the same day the city celebrates St. Patrick's Day.  It's the same day that six years ago we were heading to the hospital at 7am before the throngs of people came out to watch the river get dyed green and drink way too much green beer. So she wore her little green sparkle top hat barrette we found.

We managed to find food at Shake Shack, one of my favorites, before the people who drank too much green beer realized they needed a snack.

Willie got french fries and a root beer float.  I think we actually ordered him a hot dog but he won't eat a hot dog anymore. He just eats the fries and drink.  Since Andrew is a nice guy he ate it for him so it didn't go to waste.

This was our hotel pool.  It was amazing. It was like swimming with Daddy Warbucks from Annie.  Miss M, with her floaty on, managed to swim two lengths of the pool with her head in the water and breathing properly.  I did take her to her six year appointment this past week and asked the doctor about her ear tubes.  The doctor said she can see the tube is a little misplaced leaving a gap between the ear canal and the tube which is why she cries when she gets water in her ear.

Watching the iPad naked after swimming.  This is the life.

The kids got dressed up in their new clothes we had bought earlier in the afternoon while walking on Michigan Ave.  We walked the half mile to the movie theater and saw the Batman Lego movie. I looked at it like it was a good way to kill time but it actually ended up being an awesome movie. I would see it again with the kids if they wanted.  The kids crushed multiple rounds of slushy and popcorn.   It's amazing they didn't throw up a rainbow of blue and red slushy.

She was so excited on the morning of her birthday that she woke up way too early. It was also daylight saving time which made it worse.  The two of us went to the lobby where there was a Starbucks and had a croissant.  Our breakfast took about 10 minutes and then she wanted to do something else. So we walked to the mezzanine and sat in chairs and talked for another 10 minutes. Then we walked to the "gift shop" which was a small hotel convenience store and bought some random trinkets for her and her siblings.  I tried to stall her off by finding new chairs to sit in but she wasn't having it so we went and woke everyone up.

She loves a mirror.

Getting our car to head to lunch at Rainforest Cafe, per the request of the birthday girl, and then home.

Willie and Cater had never been to Rainforest Cafe before and they enjoyed the sensory overload.

The food isn't good but sometimes it's not about the food.

Miss M is 6 pt 1.

Turning six has gotten Miss M a little more into her hair.  She loves to have her hair dried and then curled with the flat iron.  

She then requests I take pictures of her hair so she can see it and admire it. The girl loves staring at herself in the mirror. She makes ridiculous faces and laughs at herself.

And then she gets on my phone and takes selfie...

after selfie...

after selfie...

after selfie...

This is only about 10% of the selfies she took in this 2 minute period.

It's no wonder I have minimal storage space left on my iPhone at any given time.

Girls trip to Breckenridge

An opportunity arose to go to Breckenridge with Miss M's best friend, A, and her mom for a few days.  A's mom had a work conference in Colorado and asked us to join her and enjoy some winter fun.  

The girls were so excited but they are always excited when they are together.  A is an only child and her and Miss M think/pretend/wish they were sisters.

Waiting for our plane to come in to take off for CO.

Once we finally reached the hotel, the girls quickly dumped out their backpacks and started working on their craft projects.

Cyn had to work early Thursday morning so I was responsible for getting two little girls off to ski school. It was cold and snowy but the girls were ready.

I managed to drop them off on time. I felt like my job was done for the day.

And then I remembered I needed to go back to the hotel and clean up the mess that was created the night before when Miss M threw up on me in the middle of the night.  It wasn't exactly the middle of the night. Thankfully it was only around 10:30pm when she threw up in the middle of our bed and we had to then change all the sheets, call the front desk for new ones, take a bath and find new pajamas. I think she had a case of altitude sickness. She doesn't do herself any favors by having a baseline of dehydrated.  I was going to go back to the room and throw away both of our pajamas and her blanket. Then I saw the laundry room was close and decided to not be lazy and wasteful and washed the girl's stuff.

After I completed the laundry I walked around the town of Breckenridge and bought the girls some new stuff.  After we ate lunch it was time to pick the girls up from ski school.

I knew it was important to eat immediately after ski school. They didn't eat much for breakfast and I am sure Miss M didn't eat anything for lunch.  The hotel had indoor/outdoor pools, arcade, putt putt area and more. They needed proper energy to complete all of the things they envisioned doing after ski school.

Miss M powered down the mountain on the first day.  Her teacher gave her a bunch of prizes b/c she bribed her down the hill.  The teacher recognized that Miss M was comfortable on her skis and took her and three other kids to the top of the mountain.  Her teacher then realized that Miss M was really nervous and didn't want to go down the mountain. She put edgie wedgies on her skis which is essentially a brace that screws into the top of each ski to keep them together. With the edgie wedgie kids only have to think about stopping and not worry about all the other stuff going on. The teacher then realized a quarter of the way down that she could ski down without the edgie wedgie and thus the bribes.  She did it and got a pair of sunglasses, a neck warmer and a thing to clip on her coat zipper.  She was all in.  Her teacher was awesome but unfortunately wasn't working the next day.

Similar sass? The picture with the bagel and cereal was taken almost a year to the date from the one on the right.

After dropping the girls off at ski school on day two I decided to get my lazy buns on the mountain. It was an awesome day with the sun shining but it was so cold.  I was looking for the girls and hoping to see them on the mountain. My ski school class was about to wrap up when we went into a yurt and I found my girl.  The yurt is a little hut halfway down the mountain to warm up in.  I walked in and yelled MaddieCat at her and she was confused for a few seconds b/c I was covered from head to toe and she didn't recognize me.

I was so happy.

Doesn't she make an adorable ski bunny.

This is what an afternoon looks like after skiing. PJ's and iPads for everyone.

All good things must come to an end. We were cutting it so close on the way home. Cyn almost missed the plane. It was almost me and the girls flying home together!

Cyn's next trip is San Diego. I better warm Andrew up on the idea of letting us go on another girls' trip before I book the tickets :)

Daddo gets a window view

Andrew finally moved from his claustrophobic associate office to a large partner office which includes huge windows! I think he's happy in his new setting.  He definitely has more space for all those files he seems to accumulate.  The day he was able to move to his new office we went downtown to check out his new environment.  The kids love going to his office. He has a huge white board with all of his deals mapped out that they love to write on and then subsequently erase. They also love running around in circles getting the attention of everyone they pass. 

His office even came with a schnazzy leather green couch. How can one resist such a couch? 

We then went to dinner to celebrate the occasion and fill our bellies. There's an Italian restaurant close to Andrew's office that has private booths where it's harder to disturb the other patrons. Thankfully they sat us in one of those booths so we could corral the children and not bother other people. The kids think the private booths are pretty fancy.