Almost 4 years old

Yesterday, we started Charlotte's birthday celebration almost a week early by taking her and one of her best buddies, Odie, to the Disney Live! show at TPAC.  The show was a combination of abbreviated versions of three princess fairy tales -- Snow White, Cinderella, and Beauty and the Beast.  Charlotte actively dislikes the Snow White story (she HATES the witchy queen), adores the Cinderella story, and really has had no exposure to Beauty and the Beast yet.  I wasn't sure how this would go, but we thought this show would be a great present for our theatrical little performer.

Since Kym (Odie's mom) and I would be taking the girls out to eat after the show, I decided we needed some birthday cupcakes to eat there.  I can make a box mix cupcake as well as anyone, but let's just say that my cupcake decorating skills are a little lacking.

We gave Charlotte a "jewel" bracelet to wear to the show (and then she insisted on adding all sorts of other fancy jewelry, including three sparkly hair bands that she insisted were elegant rings).  Then, she went into her model mode and posed for some photos.

Kym and I drove the girls downtown (just being downtown was a big treat for them -- the "Batman building" is always such an exciting landmark to spot) and finally figured out a place to park.  Immediately we spotted 4,000 other little princesses -- most decked out in their favorite princess dresses -- rushing into the theater with their parents.  Odie and Charlotte didn't seem to mind that they weren't dressed like princesses.  They just kept asking where the real princesses were.

When the show started, Charlotte went into a trance.  She didn't even suck her thumb for the longest time.  She handled the wicked queen in the Snow White vignette pretty well, though at one point she worriedly announced "I DON'T LIKE THIS!"  Poor Odie (age 4) was shaking like a leaf in Kym's lap.  When the Cinderella portion began, both girls cheered up (Odie was so relived that she laughed maniacally at the little mouse puppets) and visibly relaxed.  Intermission came in the middle of the Cinderella story.  I failed to get a shot of the girls together, but here is Charlotte enjoying a sucker that Odie brought her.

The rest of the Cinderella story went off without a hitch, but then Beauty and the Beast started.  Neither girl liked the Beast at the beginning of course, but they relaxed once the Beast started wooing Belle.  Then came the scary scene where Gaston is trying to kill the beast.  The special effects lighting was a little intense and we could hear little scared girls wailing all over the theater.  Our girls handled it pretty well, though.  When the show ended (with all three princesses and their princes coming out flanked by Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Goofy) the girls clapped wildly and cheered.  Odie announced that she wanted to go to another show like that again soon.  It was very sweet.

We herded the girls back to the car through a new crew of princess-seeking little ones rushing toward the theater for the second show.  I'm so glad we went to the matinee -- I'm not sure Charlotte would have handled all that drama so well as she was getting tired at the end of the day.

The outing ended with dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Brentwood.  Charlotte and Odie were a little wiggly and goofy at dinner, but we had a great time.  It felt like a vacation for both Kym and me to be out with only one child each.  After we stuffed ourselves with dinner, we ate the cupcakes that the girls had been begging for all afternoon long.  Is there anything better than a cupcake to a four-year-old?

Only five more days until my sweet girl officially turns four!

And then I considered leaving Peter at the Detroit Zoo . . .

Our last day in Michigan, we took a winter walk at the Detroit Zoo.  That is one really neat zoo!  We started in the penguin house, and the kids especially loved all of the interactive exhibits.

On the long walk to our next stop on the winter walk, we decided we needed a little break from the sub-freezing temperatures (with icky gusting winds) and stopped for some hot chocolate and crackers.  Peter found the salt shaker especially entertaining.  I would like to personally apologize to the workers at the Arctic Cafe for the salt Peter spread all over the place.

On our way to the polar bears, we stopped to play in some Inuit structures.

The kids loved the goofy polar bears.  One of the rolled in the dirt so long that he looked more like a  black bear by the time he was done.

A footprint!  A footprint!!

Inside, there was a place you could see the seals and polar bears swimming from underneath.  The polar bears were being shy, but the seals were having a blast showing off their swimming skills for us.  Since there was a display explaining how polar bears catch seals in the wild, we're assuming they didn't have access to each other in this tank??

Ooh!  Aah!

The polar passage was really cool.  We spent a long time in there warming up and letting the kids run around like crazies.

One of Charlotte's few still moments.  She loves the new hat NanaB knitted for her.

I can't get these two to pose for a picture together to save my life.

A random peacock ambled by and Peter decided to try and climb on.  NanaB grabbed him before Peter had a chance to do any damage.

We played hide and seek in this cool tree on the way back to the car.

Peter and I headed to the car (after carrying him kicking and screaming for about 18 miles, I was DONE) while Charlotte and NanaB checked out the butterfly house.  You can see a little white butterfly sitting next to Charlotte on the little wall there.  We can't wait to go back in warmer weather to see the rest of all the animals!

While Peter took an epic nap that afternoon, Charlotte and NanaB made princess cookies . . .

. . . and picked out some heirloom teacups for Charlotte to take back to Tennesee for a little birthday tea party (when NanaB and GrandDad visit for Charlotte's birthday in a couple of weeks).

And then Charlotte decided to do another modeling session.  Work it!

Oh my.

Charlotte finished up the afternoon by washing all of the play dishes 49 times each.  Thank goodness for grandmothers with high tolerances for messes in their beautiful homes!

Thank you for our fun winter weekend in Michigan, NanaB and GrandDad!  We can't wait to come back this summer for the third annual Camp NanaB.

More Michigan adventures

What little snow we found left in Michigan when we got there was quickly conquered by Charlotte (holding some little cones NanaB had bought for traffic control when the kids are out riding in the driveway).  Poor Petey was taking a marathon nap and didn't get to share in the snowy fun.

Sweet NanaB scooped some snow back onto the driveway so Charlotte could engage in her favorite activity -- shoveling snow.

Check out the snowman she made (and apparently transported to the lawn for display).

Once Petey woke up, he joined in on the fun with the cones.  He kept putting one on his head and saying his version of "happy birthday!"

Here is one of Charlotte's 49 tea parties she set up last weekend.  That girl has a serious obsession with tea parties.

For some reason, Petey got upset about something and just wanted to bury his face in GrandDad's shoulder.  It was ridiculously sweet (and a relief that he wanted someone other than me).

Poor GrandDad got roped into about 37 of the 49 tea parties.  He is such a good sport.

Dancing with scarves was a big hit with the kids!

Charlotte has some fancy scarf-dancing moves.

I like how in this photo, it looks like GrandDad is wearing the Mickey ears from Quinn's birthday balloon.

Dance, Petey, dance!

Double-fisting the scarves was the next big hit.

Before bed, we Skyped with Corey.  Charlotte decided she needed to read her daddy a bedtime story.

Who knew cones were so much fun as headgear?

Charlotte and Peter meet Big Blue

We took a whirlwind trip to Michigan last weekend for some snowy winter adventures.  The weather, however, did not cooperate, so we just had some cold adventures sans snow.  The highlight of the trip (in my opinion) was visiting the Big Blue Bus, which is the early literacy bookmobile that NanaB helped design.  It had just debuted a few days before we got there.

It wasn't out on the road visiting kids that day, so we got a private tour with NanaB.

It's very neat inside, with low shelves holding tons of great books.

NanaB gave Charlotte a private story time.  (Peter was too busy exploring the rest of the bus.)

How fun that NanaB was able to help design every aspect of the bus!

Peter just wanted to help drive it.

We finally got him to sit down and hear a quick story.

Charlotte and Peter could have spent all day playing on Big Blue, but we finally dragged them away (but not before Charlotte begged me to take her photo with her new favorite bookmobile).  We're so proud of our favorite librarian and her cool creation!

Strange Valentine's Day photo shoot

Last week, Charlotte and I were decorating the cookies we gave to her classmates in their Valentines and Corey came down to get a shot of the action.  Then, Charlotte decided to be the world's weirdest model and treat us to some of her favorite poses.  She was in quite an odd mood that night.  I ended up actually decorating most of the cookies myself because she just couldn't be bothered to pay attention.

Here she is, actually sprinkling some purple sugar on the pink heart-shaped sugar cookies.

And here she is showing you the cookie that she said had "frosting poop" on it.

And then the posing began.

She carefully held each pose until Corey snapped the photo.  Where does she learn this stuff?!?!?

Here are the finished products (for all seven classmates plus her teacher and aide).  I totally stole the basic idea from a magazine, but let Charlotte add the stickers on the baggies.  Needless to say, the photo of the example in the magazine looked quite a bit more sophisticated.  Oh well -- these worked!