Calling All Princesses: A Documentary

Good evening, folks! This is Sidney, Gretchen's youngest sister and I am visiting the Kelly's for a few days in the bustling metropolis of Woodbury, Minnesota. I've never been here during Winter before and I'll probably never be back in Winter ever again. While the snow is very pretty, zero degrees Farenheit makes me cranky. Also, it makes my hair frizzy.

Today we may or may not have experienced a minor bout of cabin fever:

So, we decided to engage in one of our favorite indoor past times - baking! Callie, the third 'Field' sister, introduced us to this fantastic baking blog called Baked Perfection and we decided to tap into the deliciousness that is the Sugar Cookie Cupcake. We cannot recommend these enough... with or without the princess theme.

The final product. But first, let's enjoy the process...

We had to add food coloring to the batter in order to make it princess pink, naturally.

Four different princess toppers to choose from!

Maggie was helping mom make the frosting and added a cup of powdered sugar while the mixer was mixing. Doh!

Gretchen busted out the frosting tips for the ultimate frosting experience.

The girls each got to decorate their own cupcake.

This is Maggie's.
And this is Maya's.

Aren't they beauuuuuutiful?!

As is she.

As is she.

As is Bellsy.

Olympian

A couple weeks ago, 2008 Olympian gymnast Alicia Sacramone visited our gym. The 2011 Visa Championships are being held in St. Paul this August and our gym sold a certain number of tickets to get her to visit. The kids were super excited for her to come.

She gave a brief little talk, answered questions and then signed autographs (or leotards in the case of many of the girls - including ours).

Maya still talks about her. Now, when she's doing routines in the living room, her name is usually changed to Alicia. : )

Vacation photos

We had an awesome vacation. Grandma and grandpa met us down in Orlando. We stayed at the Loews Royal Pacific hotel which is a Universal property and was right by the parks. They even had a water taxi that took us back in forth when we didn't want to do the 5 min. walk. We sent 2 days at SeaWorld, and 3 days between Universal Studios and Universals Islands of Adventure. Fun was had by all. Check it out...

Jaws!!!!!

Shrek and Donkey

Curious George and the man with the yellow hat

This was the coolest place ever. It had all these foam balls and the whole place was filled with ball shooters, vaccum tubes, slides, etc. We had a blast there!

At the entrance to Universal Studios

SeaWorld

Hi Shamu!

Feeding the sea lions. Maya wouldn't touch the fish but Maggie tossed them right in.

Another Shamu

Woody the Woodpecker at Universal Studios.

My dad saw these two lovly ladies and just HAD to get a picture. : )

Rrrrrrroar!

New Cat in the Hat t-shirts from grandma and grandpa.

Hello from the land of Harry Potter and the Hogwarts Express!

....another....Shamu

Cool "inside the tank" viewing area.

Daddy had to get in there too!

It was an awesome trip. Can't wait to do it again.

Dishwashers

Last Saturday we declared that the girls were to be on dish duty. They were thrilled and overjoyed to be able to get into the sink and wash all the dishes. They ASKED to have dish duty every Saturday night and we happily said "sure thing!" Well, we totally forgot yesterday, but Maya reminded us this afternoon that she and sissy were up for dish duty tonight!

Maya was on washing duty, Maggie loaded the dishwasher "so that it would be loaded properly". Her words, not mine.

Dad and I helped clear the table a little bit...Daddy was putting away an extra turkey burger and apparently he dropped it on the floor where our little furry garbage disposal was there lickety split and tried to inhale it in one bite.

Maya actually does a pretty good job "washing", except for the fact that we end up with a significant amount of water on the floor afterwards. (Notice the stream coming off the corner of the sponge.)

Mags did a great job loading the dishwasher "properly".

Afterwards, Maggie was actually mad that there weren't more dishes to wash and that she didn't get to do them. (We only had hamburgers tonight...not many dishes). I told her next weekend I'd make a bigger meal with lots of dishes!

Cooking 101

Baby its cold outside! So you can't go outside, you bake! I've really been trying not to bake so much, because I end up eating the results and that doesn't lend itself to taking links off the chain (5 links off so far!!!) but sometimes you've just gotta do it!

Last week we made "Princess Puffs" which are basically colored merangue(sp?) with sprinkles...but oh so good and really not terribly bad for you since they're pretty much just egg whites. : ) Good for me!


Today we had a banner day. After making melon jello with canned fruit, I discovered a pie crust in the fridge that we never used at Christmas, so Maya got out the cinnamon and sugar and a snowman cookie cutter and went to town making pie crust cookies. Yummm!

Then Maya announced that she wanted to make her own thing...so we got out a bowl, spoon, measuring cup and she went to town.

Check out the finished product! Ingredients were as follows:

small piece of cookie

banana cut into pieces

water

chocolate chips

rice

Nutella

Then she made a "treat" for Bella. It was made of water, honey nut cheerios and banana. She thought it was grrrreat!

Little Girl Talk

This is a part of the random coversation that took place on the way home from the gym today. Lily was coming over for lunch and a play date. Gotta love 4 year old conversations!

M: Daddy doesn't know how to play barbies. He always just says, "Hey, do you wanna be friends?"
L: Yah.
M: Boys have penises.
L: Yah, my brother has a penis.
M: Jacob has a penis too...cuz he's a boy.
L: My cousins, Tyler and Jacob have penises too.
M: My Jacob is not a baby. When he comes to Minnesota next he'll be big right mom? And he'll be able to talk right?
Me: Maybe.
L: My Jacob is not a baby. Tyler and Jacob are not babies.
M: It's not nice to say shut up.
L: I know.
M: Your sister says shut up all the time right? It's not a bad word, but its not polite right?
L: Yah. Do you wanna play mom and dad when we get to your house?
M: No. Lets just play barbies.
L: No, do you wanna play upstairs in your room or downstairs?
M: Downstairs.
L: Ok, lets just have a little alone time.
M: Yah, there's no big girls so we can just have some little girl time.
L: Yah!
M: Let's just play together.
L: Ok.

Lbs

Time to get back to it. The lbs have been adding up and now they're to the point that I can't take it any more and they must come back down. : ) Aaron and Maggie made me a weight loss chain. I know...it looks daunting...35 links equalling the 35 lbs I'm trying to lose. So far after 1 week, 3 links have already come off - a great start! Yeah for me! I've been working out and eating much, much healthier so...so far so good! I'm announcing it to everyone so you all can keep me accountable. I'll try to post pics every once in a while to document the shortening of the chain. I'll be back in those skinny jeans that have been collecting dust in the back of the closet in no time!