A Few of My Favorite Things

Messy hair. Saturday mornings. Fluffy pettiskirts. Pink fingernails. You.

All my love forever.

Mommy

First Dance Class

Now that Anna is three, I was finally able to enroll her in dance classes this fall!

Very soon after I enrolled her, MawMaw and I took Anna shopping for her dance basics: black leotard, pink tights, pink ballet shoes, black tap shoes and a dance bag. She liked the "buh-lay" shoes, but was immediately enamored with the "noisy shoes" and could not wait to put them on. So it was no surprise that she chose them for her pictures when given the choice. . .

Here she is proudly modeling her new gear and her sweet little bun before her very first class today. I was able to get her to wear the bow for the pictures, but she only agreed because I promised she could take it out when we were done. Sadly, I think her bow-head days are numbered. . .

There is a huge windowed wall with a viewing area into the studio. The blinds were open today, so Daddy, MawMaw and I were able to watch the whole class. Anna was a great listener, and tried everything that was asked of her by her new teacher "Miss Amy".

She was the youngest in her class by a good year and the only new student, so she has some catching up to do. But I have to say she did really well considering!

I think it really helped, too, that her little friend Peyton is in her class. Anna was very much looking forward to seeing her, and kept asking over and over if she was going to be there. The admiration is apparently mutual, because I heard that Peyton was doing the same thing to her mommy :)

At the end of class, everyone got a sticker for being good. Anna is a sticker fiend in general, so she was very proud of her green, glittery happy face.

But not nearly as proud as we were of her!

For Ava

I've been following the blog of the very talented photographer Sheye Rosemeyer for several years, and was so deeply touched by the story of her Beauty Full daughter Ava. I wanted to do a tea party for Ava last year, but never made the time. This year I did, and I'm so very glad I did.

Beauty Full friends.

Beauty Full laughter.

Beauty Full afternoon.

Beauty Full life.

If you are interested, you can read more about Ava on Sheye's blog & Ava's Memorial Site, and more about Ava's Tea Party here.

Note: All pictures were processed with "Toy Camera" & "Fairy Floss" from Sheye's Eye Candy Actions for Photoshop (The Beauty Full Set).

Let's Play Pretend

I had been telling Anna that she was going to have a tea party all week long. And it rained. All week long. Every day when she'd get home from school, she would ask if she was going to have her tea party, and I'd have to tell her no.

But on Friday - finally!


So MawMaw helped me cover her from head to toe in bug spray (the rain had the mosquitoes out in full force) and lug all of our goodies to our tea party spot. And she was so excited, it definitely made it worth all the trouble and all the waiting.


I thought it was kind of neat because Anna's tea party guest "Abby" was a bear that I bought for her while I was pregnant, and the tea set was a gift that I received for her from our neighbors while I was pregnant as well.


Abby's dress and tiara are even the same dress and tiara that Anna wore for her princess party this year.

We brought some yummy cupcakes with pink icing (does any other color exist in the eyes of a 3-year old girl?!)

Anna had a really good time eating the icing off the cupcakesAnd she washed it down with some pink lemonade, poured all by herself from her pretty teapot. She was really sweet about filling both her own cup and Abby's cup every time.


But I'm pretty sure there was an ulterior motive, because every time she'd finish drinking her lemonade, she'd empty Abby's cup into hers and polish that one off too!

Eventually, we got run off by the mosquitoes, but it was so much fun while it lasted. Anna talked about it all weekend long and keeps asking when we're going to do it again.

Maybe next time we do it, we'll do it with a REAL friend instead of a bear - although I'm thinking a REAL friend wouldn't be quite so passive about Anna licking the icing off their cupcake or swiping their lemonade. Bears are generous like that ;)

Tea for Two

More coming soon. . .