Yay!

I can't believe that neither Jim nor I have posted yet that the Conservation District designation for our neighborhood PASSED!

Of course, since our block wasn't included in the initial coverage (too many rentals a couple years ago to get enough support) we now have to get ourselves amended on. Hopefully that won't be too much of an ordeal.

And I'm afraid we are about to lose our bragging rights as probably the last block in Vickery Place without a teardown, seeing as the crappy little duplex a couple houses down finally got out of probate and is being advertised as a great lot and not as a great house. Please let them build something that at least slightly looks like it belongs here and not in some shiny Dallas suburb.

Fun day

What a fun day today. Let's see...

Grace started swim lessons this week. I was a little concerned because the teacher she had last year is still laid up from a car wreck he had back in March, which we didn't find out about until last week. But she seems to still like it even without Coach Bonner. And I caught the last 5 minutes of class today to see her jump into the pool and swim to the other side (with a helping hand, but with no goggles). I think she'll be doing great by the end of the summer.

We then went to visit Nicole and kids in Rockwall. Long drive, but well worth it because the kids have a blast going over there. Plus I get to catch up with Nicole, and we order pizza for lunch!

The house next door to us (the duplex rental on the corner) has been bought and we've finally seen some activity over there after it being a ghost town for the past year. And during dinner tonight we started hearing some loud banging in the house. Jim went over to see what was going on and discovered that they are gutting the interior of the house and are turning it into a single-family home. Yay! Though it will probably put our house to shame when they are done with it.

And tonight I got to go see one of my favorite authors, Sarah Bird, do a reading at Barnes & Nobel. Her new book just came out, which I can't wait to read now after hearing her talk about it. I also got to meet Will Clarke - a guy who Jim worked with at a previous job who wrote the awesome book Lord Vishnu's Love Handles, which I recommend anyone who likes weird, exciting, funny fiction to read.

Big thanks to my husband for letting me sneak out tonight on my own for a couple hours. Helps keep mommy sane.

Update

Well, I hate going for so long without posting, so let me just write a few things here.

As you can tell from Kathy and Elisa's blogs, we all had a great time at the beach last week. Both my kids were in heaven getting to spend so much time with their cousins. And while I always love seeing Kathy's kids, it was especially nice to see the Ohio clan since it had been 18 months since I'd seen them - amazing how much the boys could change in that period of time. And as far as I know I don't think anyone was ready to strangle anyone else after a week of eight adults and eight kids together in one house.

We're getting back in the swing of things here at home finally. Grace is in school two days a week. We're going to be doing lots of fun activities with our church group on Thursday mornings (zoo, fire station visits, museums, etc.). And we are starting to get playdates set up with friends we don't see as much as we'd like during the regular school year.

But our big excitement today was that Alex peed on the potty TWICE. Totally his choice - he went into the bathroom, put the Blue's Clues seat on the toilet and started trying to get up on it. I had to call Kathy to get some advice on potty training a boy (hey, I didn't grow up with a penis so I'm not sure what to do with it, and she's already lived through two boys getting out of diapers). I'm hitting Target this weekend to see if I can find a step that can raise the little man up high enough to actually be able to stand and pee in the toilet, mainly because I'm worried about getting peed in the face while trying to teach him to point his business down (the curse of our small downstairs bathroom is that I have to position myself on the floor directly in front of the potty to wait out the learning curve). But he was so proud of himself, and the cheering from me and Grace just made him smile even more.

Dance recital pics

Marley, Victoria and Grace before the show. Marley was her little partner that she held hands with and hugged during the dance (seen in the moblog pic from rehearsal to the right if I haven't snapped another one lately).

Jim doesn't like this picture because it looks too much like a Glamourshots pose (probably due to the abundance of makeup on my child). But I like it because she had refused my help in putting on her ballet shoes, which she had never done before.

Grace loved wearing that makeup though. We went to dinner that night at Cafe Madrid, and at the end of the meal she said "Mommy, do I still have lipstick on?" I told her there was a little; she felt so beautiful that she left her hair up in the bun with flowers the rest of the day.

Proud mama with my little dancer. 

Alex shoving mac and cheese into his mouth before we went to our seats. Trying to get a nap in before arriving there by noon didn't leave much time for feeding the boy lunch. 

Big Day

Grace had her first dance recital today. What a fun time. They never even practiced on a stage (dress rehearsal was at the dance studio), but she did great nonetheless and didn't freak out at all. She did get a little mixed up and ended up on the wrong side of the stage for the end of the routine, but she kept dancing the whole time. And there is nothing cuter than a bunch of 4-year olds with those tutus that stick straight out trying to do some semblance of ballet.

Grace felt very special getting her bouquet of flowers and ballet slippers charm afterward (thank you to Gramma for picking those up as I realized I'd run out of time to get the errands done).

And a BIG thank you to Mom, Dad, Grandma Lu and Kim for coming to the show. Grace was so happy that we were all there. And a REALLY big thank you to Luella for sticking around at the house afterward for a game of Candyland, two rounds of Pretty Pretty Princess, and the "cute Puss in Boots part" of Shrek 2.

Hopefully I'll get some pictures posted tomorrow if I remember to bring the camera upstairs. And we'll have the video ready to show Grandma and PawPaw when you guys get back in town.