Raising Beach Beauties

It was better...

I forgot to post this back in December. Little Maylinda had a HUGE 5th birthday party - her mom said they don't do a birthday every year but every five years it will be BIG. And it was WAS. Marley told me many times that day that this party was better than hers. It was a very sweet thing actually - not an upset or jealous "this is better" but a more excited "I'm so glad I get to come to this part - this is awesome" of a way.

Maylinda had asked for a circus mermaid princess theme. Her cake was a princess castle with a mermaid and circus animals.

There were pony rides.

Marley had this perma-grin on her face all day.

Yes, there was face painting.

And a fire / belly dancer.

And since the party was so close to Christmas, Santa was there to hand out balloon animals.

An island birthday is not complete without a pinata.

I got into a long conversation with one of the other mom's and didn't get any pictures of the magician. Who did pull a real rabbit out of his hat.

On all accounts, yes, it was a better party than ours and I'm very thankful to have a little girl that appreciated her own party and that of another. While she said it was "better", she was by no means upset by it. Maylinda's mommy is the mom that picks Marley & Maylinda up from school every day. When she picked the girls up from school that following Monday, their teacher told her that Maylinda really didn't have much to say about her party but that Marley talked about it ALL DAY NON-STOP. She couldn't get over all the fun events.

Marley & Maylinda....

Excuse me now while I go start my research on Marley's 6th birthday...need to look for camel & elephant rides...parachuting teddy bears out of the sky as favors....a 6' tower of chocolate stuffed cupcakes with a miniature Marley figurine on top that sings as you bite into the cake....see if I can fly in the Cirque de Soleil troop in from Vegas....lots to do before August!

Just hold tight...

I was sitting at the island in our kitchen working while the girls were outside playing. I heard Marley wimper but honestly didn't think much about it. With two little girls that like to fight, crying & whining are often heard coming from the deck. I didn't take notice until I heard Maya say, "Just hold tight! I'll be right back!". This got my attention and I looked outside to see Marley dangling from the roof of their playhouse. Maya came running into the house, grabbed a basket and ran back out for Marley to use to step down on. I happened to have camera next to me so I threw it in auto setting and snapped this picture:

It was so nice to see them working as a team and not beating the crap out of each other.

V-Day recap

Marley had a playdate the weekend before Valentine's Day. I loaded them up with Valentine's Day crafts.

Little sisters are a blast to have around when you  have a playdate.
 

Stu and I had five wedding on Valentine's Day - we were up at 5:30 so I whipped together a breakfast surprise for the girls.

And they woke up to Valentine's gifts from mom & dad.

I've been setting the bar way too high around here. Marley came upstairs and said "oh thank you mama!" when she say the presents. Then looked around the house and said, "what? You didn't decorate?". Real nice.

She didn't have to wear her uniform. Sassy girl.

Maya wore a special outfit too -her school puffy painted a white t-shirt and then we decorated the back of it. Her skirt was covered in skeleton keys so we decorated the back based on that. She did not want to pose for a picture.

Love was all around.

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Oh yes...we did. He even has angel wings. Stu and I have a contest going now. We will each take a turn to decorate him. February was my month - Stu will be in charge of March. Stay tuned...stay very tuned...

Mommy freaked out.

January 29th, Marley bit into the crusty shell of a French loaf bread and yelped "ouch"! Then she realized her bottom tooth was now loose. I may have yelled, jumped...freaked out as Marley then told everyone. I mean, come on! My baby's tooth was LOOSE! What?! I think my reaction was similar, if not more intense, then when she got the tooth...which holy crap, feels like it was just last month. Didn't she just get all her teeth? Now they are falling out??? It doesn't help that I'm a bit squeemish about body parts coming off. She loved to wiggle that tooth and freak me out even more.

I knew it would be coming out soon, so I got one last picture of her with ALL of her baby teeth still in tact.

And then this past Tuesday, the inevitable happened.

And that missing tooth's neighbor looks like it wants to escape too. She was the one that freaked out when she saw the photo above and wanted to know why the other tooth was so "ugly" - I told her it wasn't ugly, just crooked because his friend isn't there to support him anymore. I give the 2nd tooth til the end of the weekend before it falls out.

And you KNOW I was prepared for this moment. I purchased this little tooth fairy pillow on etsy ages ago.

It has her named stitched on it and a little pocket in the back for her to put her tooth in. She did not want to give up the tooth though, she wanted to keep it...but she also wanted a dollar from the tooth fairy. It was quite the internal struggle. I told her we could just give her a dollar for the tooth and let her keep it - and you know - just cut out the tooth fairy altogether. This didn't really safisfy her though because don't you know, "the tooth fairy dollars are MAGICAL". Ha! That cracked me up.

Weekend in St. John

The last weekend of January we had a very early morning wedding in St. John - we went over the day before and spent the night while the girls stayed on St. Thomas with a babysitter (yea! a night alone!) and then the sitter brought them over to St John for us the next day so we could have a fun family day/night in St. John. We waited until the last minute to book a room which meant the only room available that was not $500 for the night was at the eco resort, Concordia. Concordia is about 40 minutes from Cruz Bay. When you live on small island, 40 minutes in the car is what we consider a road trip. Anything longer than 20 minutes is REALLY FAR AWAY. We had to make a stop at the sugar mill ruins to get out and stretch our legs.

 

There were lots of places to run around, hide, jump out and scare each other...

I'm getting my color fixed soon. Red does not suit me (or what I had asked for!).

This photo is so funny - don't they look like they hear a sasquatch?

I love St. John. Wild asses all over that island.

The eco resort was very cool - a LOT of stairs though.

There was a 15 minute hiking path down to the beach.

This was not the beach. But the salt pond on the way to the beach.

No one had on proper shoes for the hike.

We made it to the beach but no one wanted to stay. That's what you get when the beach has been less than 5 minutes away your entire life. You hike for 15 minutes, get there and say, well...we made it, let's go back. Other than Maya being scared in the woods and wanting us the carry her the entire time, it was a lot of fun.

The next morning, I went to unplug my computer and almost pinched this little guy.

I had Maya catch and release him for me. Walking in the woods during the day with your entire family = scary. Lizards hiding in shadows = opportunity for bravery.

Our Saturday Mornings...

Are filled with dance parties.

Little bugger butt getting ready for ballet class. It's going...better...

She hates taking her tights off so we end up with extremely dirty knees for class. Who says there's no such thing as a tomboy ballerina?

Although she's really not a tomboy at all. She gets the dirty knees because she likes to crawl on the floor and act like a "little baby" as she calls it (in a baby voice).

Does this photo not make you want to belt out the lyrics to Elton John's "Rocket Man"?

 

Angelina Ballerina

The girls got tickets to see Angelina Ballerina On Stage! for Christmas. Daddy got them make-up kits so they could get all dolled up for the show. He even did their nails.

Unfortunately, he also did their make-up.

So we all took showers before the ballet.

The performance was at the Reichold Center which is a really amazing venue by the University. Stu and I had never been until the Jimmy Cliff concert last year. It's awesome. When I got the tickets, I ordered ones for the pavillion so we could get seats close to the stage. It's kind of a random selection when you order online and I was so happy to see were were 2nd row, center stage! I tried to get pictures of me and the girls before the concert. This photo cracks me up - this is my attempt at a photo of Maya and I together until Maya sees that her big sister is trying to get in the picture as well. Look at her face!

 

Here's an attempt with me & Marley...Marley has NO IDEA that her little sister is in the frame with us.

Marley is just about to find her...

 

And enter chaos...

A few threats of going home and finally the curtains were drawn and Angelina made her appearance...

Marley was very impressed. Maya kept asking why there were giant rats on the stage.

Marley Maya Ballerina

Ballet is pretty big around our house. I don't have the heart to tell the girls they will never be a prima ballerina. As a parent, you're not supposed to tell your kids they "can't" do something right? But you just don't see 6' tall prima ballerinas, you know? Of course, they could start a new type of ballet for giants. Then they could be the first ever giant prima ballerina. Viola! Problem solved.

Marley's ballet class was cancelled for a Thursday back in December and the make-up class was moved to a Saturday. This is the first time I have had a chance to sit in on one of her ballet classes.

Marley is about as flexible as her momma.

Check out Maya in the background trying to follow along.

So elegant and graceful...

Star of the show!

Now as you know, Maya has been dyyyying to take ballet classes. The one Ms. Helen (above) teaches were filled up. So we finally got her enrolled at the French Academy.

It's located downtown in a the historical part of town (just down the hill from that old house I fell in love with a few years ago...which is still for sale...)

Maya was sooooo excited to go to her first day of ballet. But she started to waiver on her excitement when she found out Marley wasn't coming with us. These girls do no get along the majority of the time but every once in awhile, Maya will show some dependency/love for her big sister. She really wanted Marley to come watch her. I told her that I would take her and that I would watch her...that got her excited again but she did still have some cold feet on the way there. Unfortunately, I learned once I got there that parents were not allowed in the room as it was too distracting for the kids. I waited in the small, mosquito infested waiting room and the teacher came out once to tell me she wasn't doing so well. She did not want to participate and Maya told her she did not like the music that was being played. She basically sat and watched the entire time and would not do as the teacher asked. After the class, Maya told me she was upset that I wasn't there to watch and that she did not like it. But she did want to go back the following Saturday. Last week, Stu took her to ballet and he sat in for the first five minutes before he snuck out. She did much better last week. I think it helped that she knew what to expect.

We were walking back to the car on her first day of ballet and I wanted to get pictures of her in her little get-up. But I knew she wasn't in a picture taking mood. I found a great little courtyard and asked her to wait for me while I took pictures of the pretend ballerinas. I then started snapping away at nothing while praising my pretend ballerinas for how pretty and graceful they were. Worked like a charm and she dove right in to our impromptu photo session:

Interpretive dance as its finest..

I must have taken 200 images.

She kills me with her cuteness.

Next Post: Angelina Ballerina....spoiler alert: we got to see her FOR REAL LIFE in concert!

Grandma Kat & Papa Joel's Visit

Man, am I behind in blogging. The next week and 1/2 is somewhat quiet around here so I hope to get back on the blogging bandwagon as I have some stuff to share. Before I go any further though, I want to share some photos of Grandma Kat & Papa Joel's visit from a few weeks ago.

I don't know who came up with the idea - it was either Papa Joel's or mine. If it was mine, I think I surprised the grandparents with it. But we had each girl go on different days to their condo and have their grandparents all to themselves for a full day. No sharing attention with their sister. I've always said that I have to amazing little girls, both such happy personalities and great senses of humor. But you put those two girls together and they happy smiles and easy laughs can fade quickly. They can be serious buttheads around each other. I really liked giving Papa Joel & Grandma Kat a taste of what we can see when the girls are not together!

Grandma Kat shared these photos with me:

On their last day, they joined us at Ayden's birthday party before heading for the airport. I'm not sure I have ever really taken a picture of Stu and his "mommy" before so I wanted to get one at the beach.

Marley debated about going to the airpor to say goodbye or not. I'm glad she didn't. She's always a mess saying goodbye to people at airports!

She gave Papa Joel a bit of the beach to take on the plane with him.

And thank you Grandma Kat for the great alphabet toy. The girls are STILL playing with it.

That's the mark of a good toy!