Eastering and Brunching and SO! MUCH! MORE!

You'd never know from the volume of pictures you're about to be hit with (I apologize in advance) that my parents were here for only about 27 hours. We fit SO MUCH IN, I'm still not really sure how the kites and soccer and four-square and shopping and EATING and even some Jurassic Park were all done yesterday. Especially because the day actually felt pretty relaxed and everyone was in bed early at the end of it. I suspect a small tear in the space time continuum. I hope everyone enjoyed their extra hours as much as we did.

The day began early - SUPER early for Papa and Gigi, as they left their house in Houston at 5 a.m. to make it to Claire's 9:30 a.m. soccer game.

But they made it! And they brought bagels and we were all very excited. Especially Cora who pretended to be chilly just so she could get extra PapaGigi snuggles.

Our little soccer star was thrilled as well- she was terribly anxious they might miss it, and then she wanted so badly to score a goal for them I think she overthought her four close calls, but she still loved the game and was delighted they were there. Claire remains an aggressive and enthusiastic player and we will definitely be signing up for soccer again in the fall.-

After soccer we stopped at my new studio so my parents and James and the kids could see it. They loved it (it's such a cool space) and we practiced some yoga and barre and Landon immediately climbed up a rope in the gym area to touch the ceiling. He's like a monkey. A really long, strong monkey who can do unassisted back handsprings. Tumbling class is to him as soccer is to Claire. Perfectly suited to each of their personalities.

After everyone worked up a sweat, including James who never turns down a photo-opportunity with The Brick he just carries around with him at all times, we went home to eat the world's greatest chicken salad that Papa and Gigi had brought with them from Kingwood (Chelsea Deli, it's an institution and it is AMAZING; my parents ate there when they went house-hunting for my childhood home back in 1988 and it remains in the same place, serving the same food today. The best hostess gift in the world is a tub of that stuff) and I served my homemade double-layer carrot cake with cream cheese icing. It's almost as good as that chicken salad. My dad turned 61 on Thursday, so we added some candles and a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday to You.

Cora went down for her nap, and after a game of war with Claire (she's like me; we love a good card game), my mom and I felt like this was an excellent opportunity to sneak away and do some shopping. My dad attempted to lie down, but the kids put an end to that, and soon they were off in search of a kite. Fort Worth is surprisingly windy and it seemed just the thing to do.

My mom and I had our usual success at TJ Maxx. We grew up with our Easter Bunny always putting new swim suits in our Easter basket and I've carried on the tradition with our kids. Swim suits are fun in a way that normal clothes are not, even when you're little, and they need suits every year anyway (and in Texas, Eastertime is about when we start swimming). Making it an official Easter Item means I can spend a little more and add accessories like coordinating glasses, flip flops, and cover-ups. So my mom picked out some swimsuits for me to try on, including one that was so complicated it needed an instruction sheet, and bought me two. They're super cute and I would never have picked them up. My mom makes me push my fashion envelope. James is very appreciative.

Kids' Easter Swim Suits

My dad called to say that after driving all around Fort Worth they'd finally found kites and were now at our nearby park to fly them. Mom and I stopped there and saw Claire running with abandon, flying her first ever kite.

It was an awesome day for it. My dad got me one too. It had Nemo on it. I immediately got him stuck in a tree.

Cora woke up and we decided she and James should come fly their kites (Papa bought kites for all) while my parents went back to the house to prep their Easter egg hunt. They stuffed and hid all the eggs while Cora discovered that she LOVES flying kites.

We got home, somehow still only in the mid-afternoon of the same day, for the kids to start their hunt! My parents are excellent egg-hiders and it took a while for each kid to find their 12.

Once everyone found theirs, The Opening began! Candy and DOLLARS were found!

Cora's still not really sure what dollars are, but she LOVES them.

I made my favorite meal for dinner- salmon, roasted potato medley, and kale salad with farro and lemon miso dressing. And more cake, of course. Mom and Dad played four-square with the kids while I cooked.

Dinner was fab, if I do say so myself, and we tucked the girls in bed and let Landon stay up to watch some of Jurassic Park with us. He loved it and I'd forgotten how very good that first movie was. It had been a long time since I'd seen it.

[Side note: You guys, I posted this on facebook last week, but one of my favorite things about my increasingly giant and Bieber-like Landon is that he still LOVES a matching PJ set. It's hard to find them in his (giant) size these days, so when I found three sets and put them on his bed last Tuesday, he was DELIGHTED. I took a picture and he ripped off his sheets so I could capture the way his shorts complemented the shark on his shirt. Delighted. I was telling my mom this story and Landon burst into the living room just before bedtime with his PJ's he'd pulled from his hamper just so he could show my dad each set.

He makes my heart squeeze.]

We sent Landon to bed (in Claire's trundle) at 9 and found a wide-awake Cora and a fast-asleep Claire. My parents went to bed at the same time (they'd been up since 4 am) and I suddenly remembered it was Easter and went to assemble the baskets! Last year I had the flu on Easter and have basically no memories of the holiday at all (sob) because I spent it delirious and feverish in bed and on the couch while James did everything and kept the kids out of the house as much as possible.

BUT NOT THIS YEAR!

I watched all the basket-searching (we hide the baskets. Do other bunnies hide the baskets? My dad always did but James never admits to having any memories of his childhood whatsoever).

I watched the basket openings.

I watched all the basket delighting. Did you know that Claire has ALWAYS WANTED a sunglass holder?! It's true.

My other favorite thing about Landon, besides his love of a coordinated pajama, is how delighted he is by gifts. All gifts. Even everyone else's gifts.

He took Cora on a tour of her own Easter Basket and worked so hard to get her to fall in love with her towel as much as the thought she should.

She was distracted by new maxi dresses and princess gloves.

Our Easter Bunny uses Easter as an excuse to add in a couple fun spring/summer outfits in addition to the swim suits. Each kid got their 6 bottoms/6 tops for everyday summer play clothes once we realized winter was ending in mid-February and everyone had grown too much to wear anything from last year, but who can resist a bonus boho-chic romper for their boho-chic little girl?

This bunny cannot.

Cora got a new nightgown and everyone got sunglasses. Pictures were taken.

After the revelry and eating of peeps, we changed for church (or changed again; my children get dressed IMMEDIATELY upon waking up, always, and are deeply uncomfortable with the suggestion they remain in their pajamas, so the girls already had on potential Easter dresses, only to drop them in favor of NEW Easter dresses in their baskets which is good because Claire has grown like 12 inches in the last few months and everything she owns is too short).

Fancy family!

Church was lovely. It's a beautiful old church and I love some brass and handbells on Easter Sunday.

We ate brunch at Blue Mesa because we ate there when my parents visited in December and they loved it so much they politely demanded to go again. It is the best and they even took call-ahead reservations so we got to sit right down when we arrived! I've never eaten out on Easter Sunday and this was a big success.

After our delicious meal, we said goodbye to PapaGigi and they headed back to Houston.

Cora went down for her nap, James took the big kids out on a long run, and I've been sitting on the couch ever since. Currently on episode 4 of Spring Baking Championship and thinking about eating the last leftover piece of carrot cake before anyone else gets home. I hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend!

Bumble Bees and Dinners (Not Together)

It's Wednesday, which seems impossible because I was so convinced yesterday was Thursday, but let's go back and talk about Monday. It was a full day- it started with a canceled Orangetheory class because I was super tired from cramming all my other Orangetheory classes into my two non-sick non-vacation weeks, and continued with work, extra work, a race home with stop at Kroger for a few extra dinner supplies, then home for to start the dinner we forgot to start in the crock pot that morning. Our Monday nanny, Ashley took Claire to the school to prep for her big first grade performance, and I followed with Landon and Cora ten minutes later, with fingers crossed that my improvised crock pot dinner would work.

When I first got home I found Cora in a Rapunzel dress, and as I cleaned up the kitchen from my frantic dinner-making I called out for her to "get dressed! It's time to go to Claire's school!" "Okay!" she announced cheerfully a few moments later, "I ready to go!".

And so she was. Not quite what I intended, but it's important to wear proper attire to an evening theater show.

The performance was the finale of our PTA meeting and I got to start the PTA meeting by announcing the results of our Nominating Committee meeting from the last Monday night. When I was finished with the microphone, Cora yelled out from her row, "Good job Mom!!". She's the best.

serious appreciator of the arts

With the PTA business concluded, our fabulous new music teacher stepped out to introduce our crew of first grade ants, lady bugs, and bumble bees.

Claire was thrilled. She loves a performance.

And I love a Clairebear bumble bee.

Halloween 2011

Their spring-themed songs and poems were earnest and adorable as elementary school performances should be.

We reunited in the library afterward. Cora does NOT like to be separated and takes her reunions very seriously, and Claire just loves a good hug.

Landon was there too, but did not think he needed to be in any pictures. He accidentally (I assume) yelled out "Nay" when I was up for nomination as Parliamentarian next year, something that initially turned his face pink but he later found to be hilarious. James got home at 7:30 and I played him all the video my old and overburdened iPhone was able to record. We ate, watched the new season premiere of Better Call Saul (loooove that show; it's a small comfort to me now that the crazy good Big Little lies is over), went to bed way too late, and started Tuesday/Thursday anew. I still don't really believe today is Wednesday, but my menu (also calendars, my phone, logic, etc.) all claim this is true. So moving on to food! We've had some good things.

Monday: Creamy Chicken Enchilada Chili (one of my very favorite crock pot recipes; I use half the amount of cream cheese and it is perfect), avocado, cheese, lime juice, and chips on top. We had a crazy Monday and neither James nor I remembered to start the crock pot, but I had 10 minutes between getting home and heading to Claire's performance, so I put everything, including the frozen chicken breasts, in my Dutch oven, brought it to a boil, covered it and put it in the oven on 350 for about 1.5 hours. Turned out perfectly, so that's a backup cooking method should you need one!

Tuesday: Chicken Rollatini with Prosciutto, Angel Hair Pasta with Herbs, Salad. So freaking delicious; I love this recipe.

Wednesday: Roasted Pork Tenderloin (marinate tenderloin in Soyaki, roast in 450 degree oven for ~ 30 mins until internal temperature reaches 145 degrees; let rest for 10-15 minutes while you cook the rice) and Fried Rice (scramble some egg, set aside, heat pan and add TJ's Fried Rice or cooked white rice (or both, like I did tonight), add assorted frozen or fresh veggies, add soyaki and/or soy sauce, when everything is warm, add back in the egg).

Thursday: Beef Taquitos (another one I make up: Brown ground beef, add taco seasoning and simmer, add a few ounces of cream cheese, stir until all combined and delicious; fill whole wheat tortillas with spoonful of beef and roll up, placing seam-side down in pan; repeat until pan is full. Bake at 375 for 15-20 minutes until a bit crisp.), served with black refried beans, avocado, tomato, cheese, black olives to eat on side/top of taquitos.

Friday: Pizza! From Costco because it has been a looooong week and there is Easter prep to be done.

Saturday: My parents will be here, so we're going with the BEST Salmon, the BEST Salad, roasted potatoes (I mean, they're good, just olive oil and salt, but I don't know that they're the BEST), but this carrot cake I'm serving for dessert is.

A Nice Little Weekend

So! After reconsidering all my life choices, I settled right back into the routine- work, barre, dinner, friends, kids, James, reading, a tiny bit of sleeping, work, etc. I realized that not only was 5 years a milestone that gave me cause for reflection, it's also just the longest I've ever done anything except for competitive swimming, marriage, and being a parent. College 3.5 years. Law school 3 years. Big law 3.5 years. SEC 5 years. Same with locale- Austin 3.5 years, Chicago 3 years, Austin 3.5 years, Fort Worth 5 years. It's good to reflect, reconsider, and re-commit (or not), and it certainly makes for some interesting thought trails and conversations along the way. Thank you, truly, to those who lent their thoughts to mine.

Yesterday was the 4-year anniversary of the swim school. Another big milestone- after Big Oil, investment banking, getting his MBA, and working at Dell, James has never done anything for 4 years either. He celebrated with cookies at the pool for all his students, as he's done every year. Now that Cora is a student she also gets a cookie and she found this very pleasing.

We went out for a date night on Friday to celebrate. Also, we just needed a date night. Tara came over and we headed to Americado, a new restaurant that opened up close by. It has an odd set-up, we ended up having to order parts of our meal in 4 different places, but it was amazing and we will definitely be back.

As always, we ordered everything and I made James take a picture with me. He loves that.

But I had blow-dried my hair for the first time in maybe a month (at least) and I knew it needed to be documented. The girls were so shocked and delighted to see "all my hair" when it was time for us to go. I need to act like a grown up more often. It's just, after swimming and having wet hair my whole life, I find spending 15-20 minutes on it utterly unreasonable. And my likes living in a half-wet ball on my head. I'm sure of it.

The chilaquiles were my favorite, the enchiladas verdes were James's favorite, the guacamole and crispy salty house made chips were both our favorite, but the frozen cucumber margarita was a mountaintop moment.

I love frozen margaritas and actively dislike when they're on the rocks. If a restaurant doesn't have frozen margaritas I'll just order water and vow to stop at a bakery on the way home to eat lots of cookies to make up for my loss. But I also love cucumber margaritas. And they're always on the rocks. It's a Sophie's choice situation. But now, Americado has combined cucumber, tequila, and some Elsa Frozen magic to create a cucumber margarita that is perfection. It will be my drink of summer.

On Saturday we started with errands and exercising (the former for me, the latter for James; I wanted to keep my blow-dried hair for another day so I canceled my Orangetheory class, which seemed very logical at the time) and then Claire's soccer game. She's really loving the sport and is increasingly aware and responsive to whats happening all over the field instead of just her little part of it. It's fun to watch. Even if they still lose pretty much all of the time.

She's aggressive and I love it.

Cora was dressed for the occasion, of course and always.

Landon came to spectate as well.

And when Cora powered over to where we were seated, filled with the devastating news that her goldfish had been dropped from the bleachers,

it was Landon who rushed over to help. He makes me crazy on occasion, but when it comes to his sisters (and really, most other things), he's the best.

Even if watching soccer is sometimes still the worst.

James headed off to swim and I took the kids to lunch and then the TCU bookstore after the game.

We drive through the middle of TCU multiple times every day and yet I've still never actually been on campus. I need to fix that. But the bookstore worked for now. The kids found it delightful. Cora read up on the Moana story. She watched the movie on Friday night when the big kids had friends over and Cora was all alone. I sat on the couch with her and when Moana sails off to restore the heart of tafiti Cora turned to me and said "Don't worry mom, she is going to find her lost pig. She is going to *find him*."

So apparently Cora believes the whole of Moana is about Moana losing Pua and scouring the ocean for him. At the end, when Moana sails back up to the island and finds a happy Pua, Cora squealed, "See! She found him!" Happily ever after indeed.

The rest of the weekend involved a housewarming party for me, a birthday party for the family, an Easter egg hunt for Landon, and another birthday party for the fam. Good times all around, with triple servings of cake (just for me) and plenty of time for catching up on the sleep I missed when I read the latest JR Ward (The Chosen in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series; good, still annoyingly scattered, but good) and the latest Patricia Briggs (Silence Fallen in the Mercy Thompson series; loved it a surprising amount! felt fresh and new after several books that felt slow. that's my excuse for reading until 3:30 a.m. to finish it on a morning I was signed into a pre-work Orangetheory class).

Cora wore a different princess dress to every event and then spent most of one birthday party pretend talking on the phone.

Sorry not sorry you guys, she's a busy girl with a full week ahead.

Playing Princesses and Teaching Barre

I meant to write about our busy and lovely weekend on Sunday night, when it would make sense to write about a weekend, but I went to bed early with a *blinding* headache and then I taught my first barre class at the new studio yesterday after work and that both revved me up and wiped me out and just when I was going to open my laptop the library finally saw fit to lend me Devil in Spring (spin-off from Lisa Kleypas's Wallflowers series; this one features Sebastian and Evie's son and if you know those names you already know you want to read it) so I had to read it cover-to-cover before falling asleep sometime around 3 a.m.

So here we are, it's Tuesday (I actually typed Wednesday and had to delete... my 4 hours of sleep are showing) and I can tell you our weekend was super busy -- 2 soccer games! toddler birthday party! grocery shopping! 17 loads of laundry! Casa Manana Children's Play! School movie night! Two extra Orangetheory workouts because I was too sick to use my credits when I was supposed to! Having friends over to swim Sunday night! Still not ever eating out! (not sure that one gets an exclamation mark). But it was lovely. We somehow did all the things and yet never felt rushed... I even had several hours to sit down and write up a new barre series for my new class and rework my music. It was completely lovely and strangely unphotographed, though I did get this one of Cora at her first-ever toddler friend birthday party.

She's been invited to classmate's parties in the past, but she always pretends like she has never heard the kids' name before when I ask if she wants to go, so I've just rsvp'd no. Cora is VERY into her work and much less into her peers, but lately that's been changing and when she screamed in joy when she saw V's Beauty and the Beast party invitation I knew we were going. She slept with the invitation every night, couldn't wait to go, and then played by herself for at least half the party but still seemed to generally have an excellent time.

I should note that she was the only one in a princess dress and she absolutely did not notice. This is just regular Saturday attire around here.

On Sunday while James was swimming and after I'd snapped at everyone for not putting things away after I'd asked them to, I decided we should pack lunches and go out in search of a new park. Each kid packed their own - Landon helped Cora, but it was all on her orders, and the results were adorable and quite well-rounded. I had a Jimmy John's sandwich I'd picked up on the way home (cheater) from Orangetheory. We all filled our water bottles and off we went.

I saw a speck of green on my GPS fairly nearby so we drove towards that to investigate and found the most adorable little park tucked among the houses on a street very close to us! I had no idea! It was a huge hit and I'm so glad we got out of the house. I can't be justifiably frustrated at anyone for leaving things on the floor if we are no longer on my floor. Everyone was winning.

Even this random teenager we picked up while we were there.

My first barre class was on Monday after work and it went great! I was a little nervous- it'd been 2 months since I'd taught and the set-up of the room is different than I'm used to, but as always I LOVED it once I got going. There's really nothing I enjoy more than yelling a count over my music and making everyone's muscles shake. So fun.

My rainbow confetti pants didn't arrive in time, so I wore my surprise outfit from James when I first taught at my last new studio and wowed everyone in my neon orange cone pants and Sweaty Band. Still freaking love those things- I can't believe I spent so many years buying and giving away headbands that wouldn't stay. These don't move no matter what I do.

Speaking of something I love, I added a "Referrals" tab at the top of the page. As I wrote in there, I don't generally do marketing posts and don't allow any ads, and I have no intention of changing that, but every now and then something I love happens to be connected to a referral page or affiliate program and I'll go ahead and link to that when it's something I'd be writing about anyway. Sweaty Bands falls in this category. I bought 6 at full price before actually reaching out to them just to see if they offered an instructor discount before I went and bought 4 more (I like options... and glitter). So the few things I've linked up with that way are on that page, just in case you ever wonder to yourself "what was that headband LL loved?"

Now I need a recommendation for you. James and I have a super formal event coming up in April - the 100th anniversary of my old law firm. Their normal annual parties are a black-tie blowout event, so this one is going to be insane. I've turned to Rent the Runway yet again, so I can pretend to be fancy and then mail everything back right after, and after much debate, picked this dress, which reminded me of a mermaid and made me happy:

For those who like a full picture, I got these shoes on clearance ($25 with a coupon!) and am renting these earrings again. I can't wait.

But the fabulous backless nature of my dress is going to require an undergarment I've never worn before- the elusive backless adhesive bra. Just the name sounds absurd and impossible, but if you have ever used one with any success, can you let me know the brand? Target sells them and I've heard decent things, so I may go there, but if you have any tips for maximum stickiness or other pointers for use, let me know! I'm a 32D and I plan to do a lot of dancing. It also highly unlikely I'll need one again in the next 5 years, so one that isn't very expensive and I can guilt-free throw away at the end of the night would be fantastic. Also fantastic? These earrings I get to borrow again:

bling!

Boob-wrangling aside, possibly literally, I'm super pumped for another fancy Cinderella kind of night!