Date night

Last Tuesday night, I had a date...

...and the husband was the one to suggest it.

See...he was reading the newspaper as he is apt to do on a Sunday afternoon, when he handed it to me.

It was an article about a broadcast of the NYC ballet's production of the Nutcracker to a local movie theater.

It was decided...

I was going to the ballet...

with my girlie girl and junior ballerina.

So the girlie girl decided it was a girlie date and we should do girlie things.

We got dressed up.

(one member of our party dressed in a "leotard" (onsie) and tights...and needed to be convinced to put a dress on top.)

We went to dinner at the mall food court.

We went to the show.

That was followed by post movie discussion over dessert.

The ballet was wonderful.  

We were fortunate to have seats that the arm rest folded up (to make a jumbo cuddle seat)

and that the seat part folded up to make an excellent dance floor.

She danced for a good part of the show and a big smile never left her face.

When we got home, my little ballerina danced with her brother giving him big thumbs up to tell him,

"hey it's time to pick me up for the big jump."

She also decided that it will be a new tradition.

We HAVE to go to see that again.

Next year girlie...it's a once a year thing.

But she doesn't quite buy that one despite it being the honest truth. 

I have been...

Late fall was a busy time around here and therefore, I have not had the time, forethought, or just plain old energy to write anything here.

I have been

• Planting Garlic (over 100 bulbs) You can never have enough garlic.  My mom helped plant garlic, and SHALLOTS in the days before Thanksgiving.  She kept calling them onions...no leaks...
• Teaching Knitting (they all "got it" by the last day)
• Knitting (I don't have pictures of the top secret projects I'm going to be working on until early morning Christmas due to a camera issue.)
• Reading Harry Potter (W. is hooked)
• Scouting out fencing classes (W's physical therapist recommended it as a sport for him)
• Researching phonics curriculum (anyone know of a computer (non handwriting) based phonics/reading curriculum for a 1st grader?)
• Preparing for Christmas
• Teaching about Advent
• Working (when a kid gets sick on my caseload, I have to make up the session which means less work on the day I work and more on other days...aka bummer.)
• Trying to keep a crazy 3 year old (who fights naps like a pro) in line (She thinks she should be starting Kindergarten...I think she's too young, but she's finished most of the preschool type things already...) She keeps telling people "I'm starting Kindergarten soon!"  Please little girlie...stay little for a bit longer!
• Trying to get a certain little boy to eat...it's a never ending struggle, but if he doesn't eat as soon as he wakes up he gets really grumpy...and mean...his idea of breakfast time is no sooner than 10 am (after waking at 6 am) and eating just a clementine orange.  Another trick we figured out is to give him a bedtime snack of protein and carbs...it seems to make wake up a little more peaceful.
• Figuring out the whole winter-chicken-water issue...it's been evolving over the years, and I hope to get it perfected this year.
• Searching for the battery charger for the camera...I have a feeling the kindergarten wannabe hid it on me.  I finally broke down and bought one.  The camera store wanted $53 for it...I walked away...Amazon had it for just $10...I'm all for local stores, but that was where I draw the line in the sand.  
• Just being...I think that is important sometimes too...

I hope you are all enjoying the buildup to Christmas...Please weigh in on any of the questions/craziness above.