The Full Monty
Next on our Candlelight Pavillion series was The Full Monty! I'd seen the movie years ago and enjoyed it. Our normal table is front and center. This is usually great for most shows. I like being able to see clearly. But, for the Full Monty, front and center may have been a little TOO close... those were really small G-strings they were wearing ;-)

Having said that, the food was great! the show was very funny! and an evening with my mom is always enjoyed.

Zoo trip!
I love this time of year. For the most part, the days are warm and clear and the nights are cool. It was one of those perfect days this past weekend so we hit the zoo. So fun!

As always, first stop Stinkingoes!!!

And, G always has to have her picture done with this guy

We were able to snag a front table at the giraffe burger place and watch them for awhile. Super fun since there's a brand new baby giraffe.... ahhhhh! Oh, and don't worry the don't serve giraffe burgers there... its not even really called giraffe burger, that's just what we call it.

While my favs are always the giraffes and the zebras, Bobby is fascinated by the chimps. They are pretty great. I was surprised to see that one of the foods they were eating was whole bell peppers, it seemed like they were a treat for them.

As soon as we got there Georgie asked about riding the carousel which she loves! We saved it for later in the day. When we bought the ticket G was pretty insistent that she wanted to ride by herself. She's done it before so it really wasn't too big of a deal. She chose the giraffe!

See how happy she looks??

Ummm, yeah. Not sure exactly what happened but after I got her up on her giraffe, I went and found a spot on a bench. The carousel came around and I looked up to wave at G and found that she was in tears!!! What the heck??? I immediately ran over to the exit where I was told by the snippy worker I couldn't stand there. I explained my dd was in tears to which she responded in a witchy voice "what do you want me to do? stop the carousel?" I told her "Yes, that's EXACTLY what I want you to do!" Seriously, what did she think? I was just going to sit there and watch my kid spin around on the carousel for the next 3-4 mins while my kid cried hysterically. Some people are so dumb.

The reason for her tears? Moments after I walked away, she'd decided that riding by herself wasn't such a good idea; she wanted mommy. Poor thing. Just when I started to think the separation anxiety issues were a thing of the past, they pop up again. After a few minutes of hugs she calmed down and was ready to move on with her day. Unfortunately, she didn't want to take another spin at the carousel, even with mommy. Bummer. It had been a long day and she was tired. I'm hoping it was more about that than other stuff. Probably her age has something to do with it.

Anyway, at that point we moved on to Georgie's favorite part of the zoo: the petting area. G could happily spend her day brushing and stroking the goats and sheep. She talks to them, makes friends with them and vigilantly follows them from place to place attending to their imagined needs :-)

Other than the blip with the carousel, it was a really, really nice day.

Mother's Day
It was a very nice day. Georgie woke me up as late as she could stand it... which was about 7:30. She then showered me with drawings and cards she'd made over the last couple days.

There was this little beauty that she made at school:

 This one that she made with daddy:

 all the hearts and letters are homemade pop ups :-)

 Who knows when she made this one... it may have been from her stack of typical daily creations

Apparantly she made this one Mother's Day morning while I was sleeping! Love, love, love the stick fingers. There were more drawings and cards as well filled with lovely little pictures and words of love!!! This is the best part of Mother's Day without a doubt.  Bobby did a great job! I love my Brighton heart locket necklace. So pretty.

Came downstairs to find these pretty tulips, a gift from Casey :-)

After that I was off to a nice breakfast at the Mission Inn with Georgie and my mom. It was blazing hot that day. Seriously, incredibly hot for mid May in this area. But, no matter, the Mission Inn was still a treat as always.

Georgie, along with every other child I've ever seen, loves to sit on this cannon that sits in front of the hotel. We had to wait our turn for the opportunity. Totally worth it in G's opinion I'm sure.

After that, it was time to come home and take a bit of a rest. We spent dinner with Bobby's mom and his brother's family. No pix but a nice time.

Overall, a great Mother's Day for me :-)

Disney on Ice: Treasure Trove
This was a great show! I think the best one we've seen so far. Georgie loved it and even more so since she got to go with a friend. Again, she didn't want to wear a princess dress... is this a stage she's done with?? Not sure. She still loves wearing her tiaras though. My sweet little princess.

Cinderella Ballet
Georgie and I have enjoyed the Nutcracker performances the last few years so when I saw they were going to be doing a version of Cinderella it was an easy call. It was a great, kid-friendly performance. The costumes and dancing were wonderful! At intermission Georgie mentioned to me that she'd noticed that there was no talking. I thought it was funny because she's seen the Nutcracker at least three times but I guess she never put it together before that ballet would mean just dance and music.

The stepfamily was hilarious! Stepmother was danced by a man, something I thought obvious but from listening to the comments of many audience members after the performance, it wasn't universally understood. Funny.

 Georgie's favorites were the birds and mice. They were awfully cute!

 Hitting one of her own ballet poses I guess :-)

Mommy and Me
This is the rest of the mommy and me pictures. I'm kind of so-so on the mommy part but the pix of little "me" are awesome!

Sunny Yellow
I'm biased, I think Georgie looks beautiful in every color... but yellow really is one of her best :-)

On being a mom
I've been a mom for a long time; over 24 years. Twenty four Mothers Days later and I feel even more fortunate to be a mom than I did the first time I celebrated. It hasn't always been easy. In fact, there have been days over the last 24 years or so that I didn't feel fortunate at all. Moms know what I mean; parents know what I mean. Parenting can be tough and heartbreaking and exhausting and frustrating and scary. But, given the choice of experiencing those painful emotions or never being given the opportunity, its an easy call. Being a mom has been totally worth it, all the not-so-great days and every single tear.

Over the years I've made lots of mistakes, learned much and, even though far from perfect, I feel I have a better handle on things with Georgie than I did the first two times around. Georgie is the recipient, or possibly in some cases the victim :-) of my experience. Of course, being the parent to an adult child is a very different proposition. I've never done that before so I continue to stumble through the best I can. I suppose I'll be more prepared for that the second time around also.

One of the moms at Georgie's preschool is a professional photographer and was doing a mommy/daughter shoot. She took many pix of Georgie and me together but, strangely enough, the one below was my favorite. It spoke to me I guess. There's that quote about a mother holding her child's hand for awhile, but their hearts forever. I don't know about the heart part, that will have to be seen... but the hand part? Thankfully, I have that covered for now.

Random Stuff
Georgie usually doesn't express her creativity through drawing but recently she did. I loved her princess. Super cute!

My mom made Georgie this adorable knitted skirt and vest. I was pretty impressed and Georgiana was thrilled to death to wear it. So cute!

A few days ago I had a work meeting that ended at one of those awkward times: you know, too late to drive all the way back to my office and get much done; probably too early to call it a day... tough call, tough call... to heck with it! I think I'll pick up the kid early and take her to lunch :-)  Georgie's really into In-N-Out these days so off we went to get a plain grilled cheese and fries extra, extra, extra well done. Yum! After that I asked her if she wanted me to give her a mani/pedi. Silly question really because the answer is always a huge yes! She requested "rainbow nails" which I didn't think was going to be possible until I noticed that we actually had a rainbow polish set in our mani box. Ta-duh! Georgiana was as happy as can be with her pretty nails and piggies. It really doesn't seem to take much to make her happy.