The Addams Family
Pre-show dinner was chili burgers and fries from Tommy Burger. Yum!

After that it was off to the show. What a hoot!! From the moment the orchestra struck up with theme music "duh-duh-duh-duh! (snap, snap) duh-duh-duh-duh! (snap, snap)" I thought, this is going to be fun!!! I was totally right. Both my mom and I laughed and laughed. Just as the song promised they were creepy, kooky and all together ooky.
Fun night!

Funny thing is, the next day I decided to read some reviews of the show and it was almost universally panned. Mom and I were both shocked. Oh well, I guess we like a little low brow entertainment :-)

Father's Day
G loves her daddy to the core of her being. They have a wonderful relationship. After we met in China, G clung to Bobby and actually rejected me. With lots of work on all our parts G and I have formed a fantastic bond. But, in her eyes, I have a feeling there will never be anyone like Daddy.

I had something on Sunday night so we celebrated Father's Day on Saturday instead. It ended up being just the three of us (what I've begun to refer to as "the little family"). Casey came home from school later and Brett was out of town. So, we went to one of our current fav's, Le Rendez Vous. This place is so odd. Its located down a residential street in a rather sketchy area of town. Its been there for decades and, although never crowded, somehow manages to stay in business. I don't get it. But, the food is really good and we enjoy it. Our waiter took a pic of the three of us inside the restaurant but I looked AWFUL so here's one of just Bobby and G. They always look great!

G drew one of her famous stick figure creations. I think its so cute that she signed her full name (because otherwise Bobby wouldn't have known who it was from, right?). She did manage to get three of her four names in the right order which was impressive. For awhile there she'd always put her middle after her last. She never includes her chinese middle although she knows how to spell and write it. I'm sure the use of her many names will change over the years.

I thought this little tshirt was perfect for Miss G. The moms of the little boys in G's class have all told me that their sons have crushes on G. Apparently they argue somewhat about who is going to get to "marry" her and when they play she is the princess (big shocker there) and they bicker about who will be her prince. I'm actually not too thrilled by this game. I guess its normal preschool stuff but still. What 3-4 yr old needs to be thinking about marriage??? Anyway, with a bit of coaching, when asked who she will pick to marry she now explains that she already has a prince, "Prince Daddy". That should work for awhile :-)
 
Happy Father's Day to a great Daddy!!!

Preschool Carnival
I'm a bit behind on my blogging. We've been super busy lately and I've been working a lot which means no time or energy for late night posting. But, I'm going to try to catch up!!

A few weeks ago, G finished her first year of preschool. Its amazing to think about how much she has grown in the last 9 mos or so both socially and physically. When she started in September my main desire was that she would gain confidence. Boy has she! Georgie had such a great year and loved her school, teacher and friends so much that its hard to believe how terrified I was to drop her off that first day.

The official preschool year ended with a cute little carnival. This was a highly anticipated day in G's world and she enjoyed herself tremendously.

They had activity stations where the kids could play a little game or whatever (fishing, horseshoe toss, etc) and then choose a prize from a bucket. G was very careful to work her way through each activity and then carefully choose a single prize. It was an on-your-honor system so many of the children were a bit enthusiastic with their prize acquisition. This did not occur to G. She played each game once and took only one prize. Quite the rule follower this one :-)

The cookie decorating was a big hit with Georgie. By the time she was done "decorating" you truthfully could not even see the cookie. Apparently her restraint goes out the window when it comes to sweets!
Georgie was so excited when the director put the red ribboned medal over her head. She absolutely beamed with pride!!! so cute!!
The school hired a face painter for the event. I was thrilled to see it was the same woman we'd encountered at chick fil a awhile back on a family night. She continues to be the most amazing face painter I've ever seen. She created this mermaid on G's arm in about minute and half. She's also super nice. I've been thinking about hiring her for G's birthday party (yes, I know that's still 6 mos away but its never too early to start planning!)
End of year photo with G's teacher. Mrs Davis LOVES Georgie and the feeling is quite mutual. All of the teachers at the school are very nice but I think Mrs Davis provided the perfect first year experience.
After school let out some of moms and kids from G's class headed to Farrell's for a little get together. Yes, Farrell's... its BACK! I've gotten to know the other mom's a bit and am happy to say that they're a great group. I'm not sure whether we'll have any of the same kids in G's class next year but I hope so. Super nice families.

Trying to get a squirrely group of 4 yr olds to pose for a pic isn't so easy. But, we had good success on the silly face picture!

G won't have to wait too long to get back to her buddies. After a few weeks vacation she will be back for summer school.

Zoo Day!
Fun trip to the zoo recently. It was a perfectly beautiful, warm but not hot, day in so cal. G loves the zoo! It was a great day.

G always runs to visit the "stinkingoes" first. She wanted mommy in the picture with her this time. Notice that she has her leg up, her impression of the birds :-)
Our traditional photo with the gorilla statue! Georgie was so happy to make it down this part of the play structure. She's tried a few times but always asked for help because she got scared. This time, sweet success!!! And, of course, no Crowell trip to anywhere would be complete without at least one of these in front of something G finds impressive ;-)

Show time
We've caught a few shows recently. First, Martin Short last weekend. It was mostly his SNL characters done live. Not a laugh riot but a pleasantly funny performance.

Then, this last weekend my mom treated me to a showing of the Dinner Detective as my birthday gift. It was done at one of the local hotels which was nice and convenient. The show itself was so, so silly but in a fun way. I really enjoyed it and the food was tasty. Happy birthday to me :-)

Sesame Street Live
I mentioned to a friend that we were going to see the new Elmo show this past weekend and he expressed surprise. Why? I wondered. Apparantly Sesame Street is considered by some to be too juvenile for a 4.5 yr old. Ummm, nope. G is still a little girl. I don't have any intention of impeding her progress but I have no desire for her to grow up too quickly either. Anyway, having said that, G still likes Sesame Street and gentle things of that sort. And, I'm happy for it.

As usual, G was excited about going to see a show and she loved the little Elmo set I found for her. They had a cute pre-show thing that allowed for tons of photo ops and activities for the little ones. We were happily surprised to run into one of her little friends from preschool there which made it even more fun for G. She immediately grabbed her little hand so they could explore the Play Zone area together. So cute!

During the show she danced and sang and really had a good time. We ended up sitting in the front so she had lots of character interaction which was awesome. The show itself, Elmo Makes Music, was one of the best children's shows I've seen. They did different kinds of music like rap and disco. The disco portion was particularly funny featuring Bert dressed in a white 3-piece suit a la John Travolta from Saturday Night Fever. Hysterical. G didn't catch any of those references of course but the parents certainly did :-)

Glamour Shots with G
Georgie loved doing this! She was in heaven. I tried to look like I wasn't in pain. Not sure if I was successful. I did actual Glamour Shots with my mom once about 15 or 20 yrs ago and we had lots of fun. These were done at a place called Attraction Studio in West Covina. It was a fun, albeit somewhat pricey, addition to our Mother's Day weekend a few weeks ago.


This one is my favorite of the group

Street smart

Perfect in pink!