Beauty and the Beast!

2/27/2012 12:09:00 AM Edit This 0 Comments »
We are so blessed to live in the beautiful Pacific Northwest and within a ferry ride of Seattle. Tonight I had the pleasure of taking Lexie to her first Broadway musical right here at the spectacular Paramount theatre in Seattle. 

Naturally my princess needed to dress like a princess and as close to Belle as she could get without me letting her wear THE yellow gown. That would have been too much even for Lexie. Funny thing is I didn't think we could go because the tickets where just too expensive to justify....until the last minute. Someone couldn't go and put them on Craig's List. I was more than willing to help them out - at less that half the asking price. It made the day all the sweeter!
Here is a picture from their website and our seats were dead center on the 4th row of the mezzanine.
This is stunning theatre and the whole experience was just lovely.
Lexie managed to curtsy every few steps and still get to our seats in plenty of time. Here is the opening curtain. Unfortunately this was the only picture I got before I was told no pictures were allowed.
The venue was stunning, the cast was terrific and the sets were whimsical and creative. Of course the costumes where a big hit with my fashion princess. A fantastic evening as an extra special treat for my extra special girl.
We didn't leave the theatre until after 9:00 but Lexie surprised me by staying awake the whole way home.
I sent her up to her room to get in her jammies as soon as we got home at about 10:40. I just let the dog out and went to her room to find this....
 My Sleeping Beauty.
I guess we went to the wrong play.
Sweet dreams Sleeping Beauty!

My Helpful Valentine

2/20/2012 09:23:00 PM Edit This 1 Comment »
What a difference a year makes! Not sure if any of you remember last year's homemade Valentine extravaganza (I'm sure even less of you care) but after that week long project, I was sure I'd never tackle another homemade Valentine project again. I'm glad my memory is short and my daughter is persistent and most of all this project was much simpler. I did most of the cutting but Lexie glued...
and wrote everything and put them all together.
This time around Lexie was a HUGE help and she had a ball.
She was very proud of herself and I was too. What was great about this project was not only that she could do a large part of the work but that the hand says "I love you" in sign language which they are learning in school. Too cute!
For the kids they got one of those packages you smash and a heart shaped balloon pops out and the teachers each got a candy rose. Best part of all......we were done in about 2 hours!!!
Before this little project we went to another Asian cultural event to celebrate the Chinese new year. A play called "Monkey Magic." It was 7 Asian folk tales told by a mischievous monkey and the whole cast was kids 9-15 years old.
The kids did a great job and the traditional Chinese instruments were a wonderful touch. Overall a terrific way to support the arts and celebrate Lexie's heritage. She also got to wear her very grown up dress (thank you Samantha for the hand-me-down) which added to her excitement.
Where she gets these poses is beyond me but I hope she gets them out of her system soon! But I don't have to worry too much since this is the look that greeted me on Valentines morning after I gave her a bear in the box. I think she was being Little Pink Ridding Hood but I'm never really sure with her.
Then when I went to get her dressed after my shower only to be greeted by Princess Lexie and her baby taking a walk....
I'm just so glad to have my little girl for a few more years! Then this weekend we laid low since we both have been hit with nasty colds. I decided to put together this shelf unit I bought for her play room several weeks ago but never found the time to assemble. With my little helper it was up in no time.
What you thought being a princess was all play and no work? Not around this castle!
She learned from the best "Handy Mommy" as she calls me when I pull my tools out....which I'll have to admit isn't very often.
Now if I can just find the time to catch up on the blog for the second half of last year. I can't believe how far behind I am but the new job has sucked every extra second I had from June until....oops gotta go!

Asia Pacific New Year

2/12/2012 12:05:00 AM Edit This 0 Comments »
Lexie has been talking about being Asian a lot recently so when I heard about the Asia Pacific New Year Event at the Tacoma Dome I thought what a great chance to be exposed to a number of  Asian cultures. Was it ever. There was over 7 hours of traditional dances and songs from Korea, China, Vietnam, Taiwan, Japan, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Philippians, Samoa, Tahiti, Hawaii, Tonga, New Zealand, Lao, India and even a Mongolian dance. Their featured country was Fiji so we were treated to about an hour of their dances and songs then the rest of the countries got about a half an hour each.
This was the Fiji men's dance group. Lexie wanted to know why the men had grass skirts and not the women.
Lexie liked this group of young girls dancing a traditional Chinese scarf dance. It was hard to keep Lexie from running up on stage to join them.
Of course there were booths with traditional food. Lexie and I tried the fresh coconut milk. What she's holding is a coconut cut down, sealed then cooled. After you finished the drink they would slice it open so you could eat the meat right out of the center. It wasn't to our taste but it was a great experience. And it was also surprisingly heavy. Lexie didn't carry it for long:-)
Next we had the chance to watch some these beautiful dancers from Thailand. Of course Lexie liked the bling. She couldn't figure out how they kept their "hats" on.
Another great performer was this 11 year old girl playing a traditional Korean instrument that I'm afraid I didn't catch the name of. She was very poised and confident for her age.
A short while later it was time to participate in some of the activities they had going on. First stop was Japan and learning a little origami...
This lady was very patient with Lexie (and eventually me) until we had this lovely flower to show for our efforts. Lexie put it in her hair like so many of the other ladies she saw today.
Then it was off to China to determine what sign we were born under and have our names and signs written in Chinese by this lovely lady in traditional dress. Lexie is the year of the goat by the way and I am an ox.....Lexie thought that was funny so she called me a stinky ox all day. I don't think she got the concept and I am not stinky.
Korea was our next stop to make lotus blossom lanterns. Lexie picked the colors and well...picked the colors. She didn't want to get all sticky from the paste/glue they had. But it turned out well!
The great outdoors were calling Lexie at this point. We had to go ride the range just for a little while....yup, they had pony rides and she just HAD to have one. It must be the Kazakh blood in her!
In the lobby they had this amazing dragon puppet that I talked Lexie into getting near enough to snap this picture. She was a little nervous around it. I thought it was beautiful.
We had to catch some more dances like these terrific Korean drummers.... 

and these young Cambodian dancers...
and this charming singing group from the Korea.
Throughout the day Lexie keep wanting to get her face painted. So finally towards the end of the day we managed to slip in to have this wonderful artist from Okinawa create a masterpiece on her face.
And a masterpiece it was....
By this time I was ready to go but Lexie wanted to watch a few more dances (and I think show off her flower.) So we saw this youth group from the Philippines dance the Payo and we called it a night.
 Here she is with some of our treasures when we got home. Lexie wanted to show how much our lotus blossom looked like the flower on her face.
And we got this Indian Saree, which Lexie has wanted ever since she saw a show about a little Indian Princess and her Saree. You'll notice she picked her favorite color....
We also got delicate origami earrings for me and a hair bow for Lexie as well as some Japanese place mats and chopsticks which Lexie wanted to use for dinner tonight. Everything was $5 or less believe it or not and there was no admission to get into the event. A great day in my book and in my pocketbook too!
But my favorite treasure (besides the memories) was our names and birth signs written in Chinese. Clearly Lexie liked them too. Actually she like calling me a stinky ox. Funny girl!
The whole day was filled with a sense of pride in ones culture and a sense of community between all the Asian nations represented there today. Lexie and I both enjoyed the event and I hope it gave her a better connection to her Asian heritage.
I sure love my Asian Girl.

Choo-Choo Soul

2/10/2012 10:45:00 PM Edit This 0 Comments »
Tonight Lexie and I along with her best dance buddy Olivia and her mom had the pleasure of going to see Choo -Choo Soul with Genevieve (and DC too.) It was surprisingly good and she and Olivia had a blast. Here they are waiting for the show to begin...
 Lexie wanted to wear this outfit because DC wears fingerless gloves on the show. Too funny.
 We didn't have to wait more than 10 minutes but they asked at least 4 times "when is it going to start?"
 During the show Genevieve came out in the audience and at one point she noticed Lexie and even gave her a hug. So after the show when they came out to sign autographs and take pictures with the kids she notice Lexie right off and gave her another hug. Lexie of course told her about her missing tooth....like she could miss the gaping hole in the front of her mouth?
 I have to say they were both very sweet with the all kids and seemed to genuinely enjoy them. I would recommend the show to anyone with kids 3 to 10 or even older.
Lexie just loved it and I love anyone who makes my girl happy!
Fun times!!!

Toothless in Seattle

2/09/2012 11:51:00 AM Edit This 0 Comments »
It's official, we are toothless in Seattle. Lexie lost her first tooth last night while simply sitting in church school. She was so excited....
We stopped by the store on the way home and of course she had to show every stranger she met.
 Once we got home she got really silly.
 What a goof ball. She asked how long it would take for her adult tooth to grow in. I explained it could take a while (since I didn't want to have to count down the days.) She thought about that for a minute and then she said "once it grows in then I'll be an adult - right Mommy?" Oh sure Lexie. Here are the car keys and a credit card.....NOT!!
Finally she calmed down enough to take her shower. Once she was out, Lexie was very concerned about where to put the tooth so it wouldn't get lost. We decided to put the tooth in a jewelry box.
 As I was getting her ready for bed she then said "tell the story with pictures, please Mommy!" So here is the story of her first tooth being placed under her pillow to await the tooth fairy and all her magic.
 The famous placing it under her heart pillow...
 Then my favorite part - snuggling under the covers and getting ready to close her eyes and GO TO SLEEP!!
All of this prep must have worked because the tooth fairy did in fact come and left her two gold coins (the new dollar coins that are goldish I should say.)
Her smile is defiantly different...
but so happy!!
This morning as we were getting ready, Lexie informed me that the tooth fairy makes necklaces for her daughters and granddaughters out of the teeth.....And she makes cell phones for the boys. I didn't even know what to say to that. I mean teeth cell phones?
I wonder how long all this tooth talk is going to go on?
Regardless, I LOVE my toothless princess!!