Princesses at the Castle
Almost 2 yrs ago, a friend told me about this cute event conducted annually at the Kimberly Crest House in Redlands. It sounded so fun and just perfect for my princess loving girl. Although I called right away the tickets were already sold out. Last year I didn't even try to get tix because we had a prior commitment for the day it was scheduled. Ugh. Finally, this year we were able to go! For even more fun we invited two of G's little friends (and moms) to come along.

What a fun day!!!

There were girls dressed in princess and fairy clothes and a special visit with Snow White. The grounds of the home are very pretty and large. G had great fun playing games, listening to princess stories, having her face painted and getting beautifully twisted balloons. After the  fun and games the girls entered the home in groups where they made their way through the historic rooms which had been decorated with all sorts of princessy stuff. Once they made it to the front door each girl was announced and then came G's turn... "Introducing Princess Georgiana from the house of Crowell" (of course both names were mispronounced but whatevs) At that point one of the house princesses took G's little hand and led her down the steps to the applause of her loyal subjects (you know, me and all the the other mamarazzi that were waiting at the bottom frantically snapping photos).

So cute!

It was really quite warm that day but I don't think G cared. As long as she's sporting a princess dress, its all good to her. According to G, being announced and walking down the steps was the best part of her day. She really felt special.

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As soon as we arrived, G found her first photo op!

G was the only girl I saw who was dressed as Snowy. The girls' clothing choices ran the full gamut including simple sundresses, fancier Easter style dresses, elaborate full length ball gowns and Disney princess style dresses like G wore.

 A princess on her throne :-)

This pond area was really pretty and G spent a good amount of time being entertained by the turtles, frogs and fish there.

 Proof of my presence at the event, LOL

 Finally the big moment arrived, the introduction of Princess Georgiana!

There was a raffle and amazingly, we won! It was just an inexpensive dress up trunk and some plastic jewelry but G was THRILLED beyond belief. I never win anything so it was kind of fun for me too :-)

 At the end of the event we were able to snag a photo with all the Kimberly Crest princesses. Fun!

As much fun as dress up and everything was, I'm pretty sure that to G the best part of the day was hanging out with her friends!

I think we'll definitely have to sign up for this one next year!

American Idiot
I love Green Day. Just to be clear when I say I "love Green Day" I mean that I really, REALLY love their music! So when I heard that there was going to be a musical using their songs I was super excited. I was finally able to score some pretty decent tix--ended up having to go midweek in order to do so--and invited Brett hoping for a little mom/son time.

Brett ended up finding us a persian place in Glendale, Raffi's, for a pre-show dinner. I'd never eaten persian food before but WOW it was great! We had cherry rice which, as its name would lead one to believe, was rice with cherries in it. When it arrived at the table I was a bit surprised by how pink it was. Let me just say, G would LOVE to eat rice that was pink :-)  We paired it with some super tasty shish kebob and rose water ice cream! I'd never even heard of rose water ice cream before. Amazingly, it tasted exactly how a rose smells. Fascinating.

With lots of yummy food in our tummies, we headed off to the Ahmanson. It had been years since I'd been to the music center. Our seats turned out to be great, first row of the mezzanine. The show was not what I was expecting. It was a true rock opera, very edgy. I really liked it and enjoyed the music but Brett didn't really. Bummer. Sigh.

Choo Choo Soul
came up on our children's series at the local theater. We've seen them twice before: HERE and HERE. Again, G loved it!  Over the 1 hr show she did lots of dancing and jumping. She was a bit disappointed that they didn't come out to greet the kids and take pix after the show like they did last time. Probably it just would have taken too long. I'm not sure we would have seen them again if it hadn't come up on our series but I'm glad we did. They're always tons of fun!

Princess and Pirate night
at Chick Fil A. This was a great one! They had Belle, Jack Sparrow (unlike last year G had no fear of the him, yeah!), a balloon guy (the same fantastic guy we had at G's birthday party actually), ladies doing princess hairstyles for the girls and a treasure hunt!! Oh my word it was fun but oh, so crowded. Friends Terry, Fernando and Cora joined us which made for even more fun. G was in heaven. We got there just before the 5pm start time and didn't roll out until around 7:30pm. What a super fun and inexpensive outing it was.

Billy Elliot
After being in LA on Friday (Natural History Museum) and Saturday (Chinatown for dim sum and shopping with friends--fun, fun!) I drove back into LA Sunday night for our next Pantages show, Billy Elliot. It was all super fun but it was a LOT of driving into LA. Anyway, the show...I saw the movie years ago but didn't remember too much of the story other than it was about a ballet dancing boy. I'm just going to say it; it was fantastic!!! The 13 yr old boy who played the main character, Billy, was nothing short of amazing. Truly awesome.

For convenience, we did a pre-show dinner at Delphines which is just across the street from the theater. Again, food was great! Another great night with my mom :-)

Museum of Natural History
It was supposed to rain like God had been talking to Noah :-) but we'd planned to go to the museum and we were going to go! As it turned out, it did rain and it was a bit wet, but whatevs. I'd never been to the museum but I had a feeling G would enjoy it. She's been studying dinos at school and was filled with facts about them she wanted to share  She was especially excited about seeing the T-Rex and explained to me that they had REALLY big heads and little tiny brains and two fingers on each hand!

It being the last day of spring break for most in our area the museum was really, really crowded. But the great thing about museums is that there are really no lines to stand in so, other than the noise level, it was all good. We were able to meet friends Paula and Sophie there which made G really happy. She loves to have a friend along :-)

Being at the museum was kind of weird because, and I know this seems obvious and a bit odd but, everything was dead. G asked me about it several times "are those dead mama?" and "why are they dead?"

She crashed hard on the way home which was good because we hit gobs of traffic and it took a long time. But, she was pleasantly refreshed by the time we reached our door and just in time to pick up daddy for dinner!

G sporting real antlers as a tiara!

 G and S loved this polar bear but it is rather sad that this exquisite animal is now a photo prop

 These dino skeletons are in the main lobby. They are huge and very impressive.

EASTER!
The big morning had finally arrived! G woke up a bit early and then around 7am we said we could go downstairs and see if the bunny had paid his visit. It was G's idea to cover her eyes so she could be surprised :-)

She didn't immediately go to her basket because she was distracted at the bottom of the stairs by an egg she say laying on the ground. If you look just behind the porcelain garden seat you can see another egg. She wouldn't find that one for quite awhile.

 Finally! She caught sight of her basket of goodies!

This was the first year that the bunny placed the eggs out of sight. G had to hunt a bit. Once she got the idea that they could be in drawers and under things she got pretty careful with her search.

With all eggs discovered, G began the long and drawn out process of inspecting, sorting, and comparing the contents of her booty. This took awhile :-)

With the egg hunt portion of our day complete, we got up and got ready to go to brunch. I messed up and didn't make a ressie for Mission Inn in time (major bummer) so we ended up going to Coco Palm. Really nice view and gounds but the food was mediocre at best and I thought overpriced for what it offered. You'd think a place that served cuban food would at least have decent ceviche, but no. Anyway, the four of us (Casey was at school) still had a very pleasant morning.

After that we came home, put on our jammies and spent the rest of the day doing almost nothing!!! G drew, we did some shrinky dinks and watched a movie and that was about it.

I think, except for the brunch ressie and the absence of Casey, we'll do it exactly the same way next year!

It's getting Egg-citing...
G was happily dragged away from the fun fireman birthday party when I reminded her that we would be decorating eggs as soon as we got home! Her general aptitude for craftiness combined with her love of any celebration or holiday really added to the excitement over egg coloring. Each egg was dunked multiple times to see what would happen. Then she put them into her spinner with some drops of another color and spun them all around. I think a few of them got even more dunking after that :-)

Lets just say she really, really enjoyed herself!

 Once complete she was awful darn proud of herself!

It was just before bath and everything was prepped and ready... eggs colored and carrots and custom card created and left for Mr E. Bunny

With G fast asleep, the bunny was free to visit. Obviously he left the basket and managed to have time to nibble on the carrots.

Can't wait til morning!

Fireman Birthday Party
Now that G is in preschool, it seems that we're on the birthday party circuit. Nearly every weekend brings another birthday party (or two or three). No matter the theme or how grand or simple, G always loves them! This weekend's party was for James who was turning 4. He had what I thought was a great theme for a little boy; fireman. They had a jumper but the big entertainment was a visit by the Upland Fire Dept. They let the kids get in the truck, try out the headphones and then, the big thrill was using the fire hose. So cute!

Here's G checking out the cab of the truck with one of her little buddies. As you can see she's holding his hand. G loves to hold hands with all her little friends. Its so stinking cute.

Each of the kids got a chance to work the fire hose. They were supposed to be aiming at the curb of the street but most of them seemed to zap the truck parked in the driveway of the house across the street. I'm sure the owner was thrilled... NOT!

 Gratuitous photo ops around the fire truck.

 Another great pose from G. It seems more cowgirl than firegirl but whatever.

Super fun!

Mom and Son date night
After a big day with G and a quick nap, I was on to a big night with Brett. Last year I saw Rock of Ages at the Pantages with my mom and just loved it!! So funny. All the 80s references were such a crack up, I thought Bobby would enjoy it. When it came up on our California Theatre subscription I was super excited for us to go. I planned a pre-show dinner. We were set!!!

Screeeeeeeech!!! That's the sound of my big plans hitting the skids when I found out that Bobby had to work. Bummer. OK, next plan... Brett as replacement :-)

It turned out to be a great night. We did a yummy dinner at Flemings and then hit the show. Yes, some of the extremely funny to me 80s references were somewhat lost on him but overall he really enjoyed the show and it was nice to spend some quality time with Brett. Its very rare that we get to do that and something I'd like to try to make more time for in the future.

Easter Bunny Choo Choo
Since Georgie had the day off from school it seemed like the perfect time to make what has become our annual pilgrammage to Irvine Regional Park for their Easter Eggstravaganza! G loves this place. I do too actually. Its low key. It was a work day (well you know for everyone who wasn't playing hooky that is ;-) so my mom joined me in lieu of Bobby. It was great! G played some silly games, we rode the train to nowhere, participated in the egg hunt, visited with the bunny, and then called it a day.

G loves playing these little carnival games. What she lacks in skill she makes up for with enthusiasm. As you can see that ring is going nowhere near the bunny's ears but, whateves! you still get a prize.

This made G's third visit with the bunny this year. She never tires of this activity. This one was a bit different in that it talked to the kids... or rather "she" talked to the kids. Interesting.

No visit would be complete without a ride on the train. No peacock sightings this time (perhaps its too cold for them??) but still quite pleasant.

G had a grand ole time at the egg hunt. The have it broken down by ages. G was still in the 2-4 group. I suppose next year she should move up to the 5-7 group. Sigh.

Anyway, having done the Eggstravaganza we moved onto lunch at Miguel's in Corona. Yum!!!