Update on our Cinderella fan letter

Remember this post where I confessed to becoming a fan girl for Cinderella?  Well, we received our letter back.  It is actually a full color large postcard.  One side has a picture of Cinderella and all her princess friends and the other side has a special message from Cinderella.

Bean was thrilled to receive this.  She even sat her Daddy down and explained who each princess in the picture was.  He now knows more about the Disney Princesses than I'm sure he ever wanted to know.

Glowstick Bath

Awhile back I ran across a blog post by The Zinnia Patch sharing her idea of putting glowsticks in the bath tub. I knew Bean would love this.

So one night last week I filled up a tub for her nightly bath and decided I would surprise her with the glowsticks.  Bean has started objecting to bath time.  She knows it's the beginning of the end of the day and she isn't ready to stop playing each night so now she balks at taking a bath.

While she was still playing I snuck into the bathroom and started the bath.  I turned out all the lights and the light from the glowsticks were enough to light up the room nicely.

Sure enough though when I went to get Bean, she started squawking that she didn't need a bath.  Once I told her I had a surprise for her, she was singing a different tune.

This is what she saw when she went into the bathroom.

Here's a picture with the tub light on so you can see it better.

She really loved playing with the glowsticks in the tub.  In fact, I had to make her get out.  That's definitely a change from the usual. She has already asked twice for another glowstick bath.  You can get a tube of these sticks for $1 at most craft stores.  It's a fun change of pace activity if you have a child that doesn't want to take their bath.

Book Advent Calendar - Update 1

We've made it to December 7th and Bean still loves this idea.  Mommy still hasn't picked up the remaining books that we need to get all the way to the 24th.  Hey, I'll try to do it after my Procrastinators Anonymous meeting tonight.

Here are the book selections for December 2nd through the 5th.

December 2nd:  All I Want for Christmas

December 3rd:  Merry Christmas, Curious George

December 4th: The Christmas Story

December 5th:  The Littlest Christmas Elf

Are you using a fun way to count down the days 'til Christmas?

THE Question.

So on the way home from daycare tonight, Bean pipes up from the back seat and asks 

"Mommy, where do you get babies from?"

She's 3.  I thought I'd have a few more years to practice my delivery, to get my lines right, hit my mark.  

Needless to say I was dumbfounded.  All I could think of was "oh, all sorts of places".   

Finally, she said "no, they come from Jesus".  

Oh yeah.  That's right.  Jesus.  I forgot.

Finding our Christmas Tree

On Sunday, we went out in search for our Christmas tree.  I wanted to go to the beloved Christmas tree farm that we've been to a couple of times.  I mean, they have bunnies.  Bunnies in Santa hats.  What more could you want in a tree farm?

Hubz did not want to go to the tree farm.  He evidently hates bunnies or Santa hats or something.  He wanted to go to Home Depot because it's closer.

Home Depot?  What kind of holiday memories can we make at Home Depot?  "Oh hurry!  I can't wait to get to Aisle 5!!!"

Nobody says that.  Aisle 5 is not Christmas-magical.  It's just the same dang Aisle 5 that's there all year long.  You know what I mean?

I wanted to go to a place where we could make beautiful, loving family memories that Hubz and I will be able to remember when we are old and grey and peeing ourselves in our rocking chairs.  You can't get that at Home Depot.

Hubz evidently hates family memories, too, cause Home Depot won out.

Bean ran all over looking at one tree and then the next.  She was having a ball.  "Make this one stand up, Daddy!"  "I wanna see this one, Daddy!"  "We have to get a really big tree, Mommy."  She was hard to keep up with.

Mommy ultimately chose the tree.   I think by that time they all looked the same to Bean and Hubz was too scared to say anything after my parking lot meltdown over family memories and pee-stained rocking chairs.

We even picked out a smaller tree for Bean.  We did this last year at the tree farm and she loved being able to decorate a tree her own size.  That one only cost $5 though. See, another "pro" for the tree farm.

I will say that I think I need to remember that we can make memories anywhere.  We don't have to go to any special place to create them.  It just really adds to the scenery.  The love and the time together is still there.  I know Bean had fun and I will always remember that.

So...that's all good and well but since Hubz messed up my "scenery", his picture is going up.

Here he is being manly by trying to get the tree on top of the car.  Work it!

Here's Bean taking a break from all the action and sneaking a sip or twelve from Daddy's Dr. Pepper.

Oh, look!  Hubz is still fighting with that tree.  If we had gone to the tree farm, the guys there would have put it up on the car for him. Hmmmm....

Our Advent Calendar - Bookworm Style.

I ran across this idea of a book advent calendar last year on several other blogs and thought it was brilliant.

We have a basket that holds 24 gift wrapped Christmas-themed books.  Well, there WILL be 24 books in it soon.  This is one advantage to having a kid that can't count yet - you can go right along after you realize you miscounted and didn't get enough books to make 24.

Don't tell her.  She loves this idea and is so excited about it.  Santa's helper will just sneak a few more in one night.

But here's our little basket of books.  She will open one book each night before Christmas.  (Sorry for the picture quality.  Once I showed it to her, Bean was too excited to wait so I could get a better picture.)  Preplanning is my not strong suit.

Last night Bean opened the first book.  She can choose whichever book from the box that she wants each night.  She has become an Olympic-style unwrapping fiend.

The book that marked December 1st was Gingerbread Mouse.

I can't vouch for the story yet as Hubz was the one to read it at bedtime.  I will try to share a picture of each night's book as we move along towards Christmas.

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow.

We shared awhile back that Bean had decided to entertain herself by cutting her own hair.  I've been trying to let the side grow where she decided to chop a chunk off.  The waiting has been so long.  I've also tried and tried to get this haircut for awhile but the schedules never matched up.  (Sorry!)

So this past Black Friday, I stopped by my SIL's shop and she did the honors.

We went from this:

To this:

And the result is this:

And the only one that cried was me.