Daddy-Daughter Dance

The base put on a daddy-daughter dance yesterday so of course I RSVP'd for Phil and the girls. Claire and Maddie were really excited about going to a ball with their daddy, especially when they heard that there would be cupcakes and roses there. They put on their new Valentine's day dresses, got their hair done by Mommy, had spaghetti and meatballs at home and then went out for their date with Daddy. They all looked so cute!


Claire told me that I could snuggle with her blankie and watch "Mommy shows" on TV while they were gone.

Each girl came home with a goody bag full of chocolates, a charm bracelet, a piggy bank (courtesy of the local bank), a mini heart-shaped balloon, and one long-stemmed rose. To say they had a good time would definitely be an understatement. Maddie was in tears because she didn't want to go to bed (she didn't want the evening to end!) and Claire just kept gushing that it was the best day ever (she also had a Valentine's Day party at her school, which may have contributed to the greatness of the day). And I got to watch a DVR'd episode of Private Practice without Phil rolling his eyes at me! Fun evening for all!

Last Hurrah

We got the fam' all decked out for the Superbowl ...in our Chicago Bears get-up! We know, we know: the Bears were definitely NOT in the Superbowl this year. But being eternally optimistic Bears fans (is there any other kind of Bears fan???) we're hopeful for next year!

Escape to Dallas

We had a nice little trip to Dallas even though we hadn't done any planning at all. We visited the Dallas World Aquarium, which is really more like a jungle/zoo/aquarium-type of thing. Very neat.

We had dinner with my Uncle Brian, Aunt Cyndi, and their son Grant:

We did lots and lots of shopping: Grapevine Mills, The Galleria, Ikea, Target, Costco, Target again, Grapevine Mills again... We now know that our girls are HUGE fans of malls with carousels and they love to eat at the Rain Forest Cafe. They think it's fun to pretend to cook in the mocked-up kitchens at Ikea. And they highly recommend the play area at the Galleria mall.

Click on any of the above photos to see a few more from our Dallas trip!

Have I mentioned that I dislike camping?

I am no pioneer woman. Let us just be clear on that. And I don't like camping. Camping is cold and uncomfortable. But when the power went out last week after our ice storm, we camped out in our cold house for two days. The girls have always wanted to go "camping" in the backyard, so I convinced them that we were having an indoor camping adventure. They thought it was GREAT! They carried their flashlights around with them and got to sleep in sleeping bags (with various other covers stacked on top to keep them warm). On the first night we had them in the hallway snuggled on one twin mattress while we slept in Colin's room on the blow-up bed. On the second night we all crammed into Colin's room together.

Click the photo above to see more of our camping adventure and some cool ice storm pics!

Even though we did all we could to keep the heat in our house, it got cold pretty quickly. We tried to make heat by boiling pots of water on the stove (which is gas, thank goodness). And running the shower on hot (gas water heater too). Both helped a little, but when we couldn't get the house up past 57 degrees on day 2 I was ready to throw in the towel. Pioneer women had fireplaces in their houses to keep them warm!

I'm glad we bugged out when we did. Here's what the time line looked like:
Thursday 4:35pm: power out due to the ice storm
Friday: Brrrrr
Saturday afternoon: run away to Dallas for Mommy's type of camping - in a nice hotel!
Sunday: enjoy the comfort of heat in hotel; sight-seeing and then dinner with my uncle Brian's family
Monday: Got ready to check out - decided to stay and shop
Tuesday: Packed up to check out - decided to stay and shop
Wednesday: Learned the power was finally back. Checked out, shopped a little more and then came home.