Lily's Big Day...

After weeks of anticipation, Lily's big day of dance had finally arrived. Luckily Jason was free and was able to chauffeur his little starlet to the studio...Deciding her hot pink tutu may be overkill for her first day on the scene, Lily carefully selected a more demure and understated leotard with pants ensemble and settled in for introductions and directions...
With the formalities out of the way, it was time to pull out the glittered, rattle eggs and bust a move...

Without hesitation or shyness, Lily quickly made a new friend. I believe it was the colorful skirt Lauren wore that drew Lily to her...
Sashaying was the next order of business and Lily showed them how it was done...

Every once in awhile, she gave Jason and I a quick look just to make sure we were still paying attention and were witnessing her awesomeness...

Leaps followed the sashay practice and though Lily could jump over that fake mud puddle with the best of them, the graceful leaping may need some fine tuning...

Check me out Miss Becky, I totally rock...

Lily was a model student. She took turns, volunteered to be a helper and most importantly, listened closely to instruction...

Finally it was time to break out the true ballet moves~the circle arms...

Fortunately Lily has practiced this particular move most of her life and was an old pro...

And was pretty stellar at twirling as well, if I do, as a completely unbiased mama, say so myself...

Stretching, not so much. I guess we will work a little bit on the fine art of stretching...

Class dismissed and this, my friends, is the face of a blissed out, satisfied, beautiful little dancer...
And for those of you who thought this day could not get any better, well, you would be wrong. When we got home, there was a bright red, perfectly round, juicy tomato grown by Miss Thang, herself, waiting to be plucked off the vine. Today was the stuff dreams are made of with a cherry tomato on top.

The Wonderful World Of Lily....

Lily's life is quite a whirlwind of interesting activities and "conbersations". Recently Grace discovered Lily had been using her deodorant. Grace informed Lily this was not OK and told her, "Lily, you need to leave my deodorant alone." Lily very solemnly replied, "OK Grace. I promise I will leave your deodorant alone. I pinky swear we will not this conbersation again." As we all know, pinky swears are the most meaningful oaths a 3 year old can utter and Lily has upheld her word. Thankfully, Grace's deodorant has been safe since that "conbersation".

Just the other day we were driving aimlessly trying to find a place to dine. Suddenly out of the backseat, Lily pipes up, "But I can't get a dip it (fried) egg there." I asked her, "Where?" to which she responded, "IHOP." When I told her that yes she could get a dip it egg at IHOP, she informed me, "No, you can't Mom. They have all you can eat pancakes. I saw it on TV." It then occurred to me that IHOP had been advertising their "All You Can Eat Pancakes" special and Lily must have interpreted that as "if you come here, all you can eat is pancakes." I wonder if business has declined for them as this ad campaign is obviously incredibly misleading.

Other big Lily-related news...

*Last Thursday, she became the proud new owner of an inside tomato plant. She is a tomato fiend and watches the "Topsy Turvy Tomato Planter" infomercial with the focus usually only reserved for Spongebob viewing. While strolling though Hy-Vee early last week, Jason noticed indoor tomato plants and Lily immediately began to covet them. When we returned for our 2nd weekly visit, the plants were on sale and it seemed like fate. She has been faithfully checking on her plant each day and is eagerly anticipating her first crop. *Wednesday is a day Lily has been looking forward to for the past month. It will be her first of four dance classes. She is so excited and has already decided that her hot pink tutu is the only reasonable attire. I think I may be even more excited than she is. Dancing is something that she has been interested in pursuing for some time now and we happened to find this class that sounds perfect for her. If her skill level matches her interest level, she is going to have to figure out a way to combine her two great loves~dancing and cowboy girling.

*And finally, Saturday is another big day for Lil. She has been invited to her good friend, Emily's birthday party. This may officially mark her entrance into big girl hood. She thoughtfully pick out the perfect gift and I'm sure the remainder of the week will be a countdown to the fiesta.

Clearly, it's Lily's world and we all just live in it.

Happy Birthday Mommy!

We just returned home following our big family date~The Tooth Fairy (really cute movie, by the way) and dinner at Cherry Creek. We had a fabulous time (Ella said this was the best day ever) but were glad to make it home in time to wish my mommy, Mrs. Vickie Lynn Hopp Carter a happy birthday! The world became a much better place 50 something years ago. You are a wonderful mom, an awesome grandma, a so-so Sequence player, a slightly confused word pronouncer, an interesting dancer and one of my most favorite people in the whole world. We love you very much!

Dear Mom, I have searched and searched for the perfect quote to end this posting and was unable to find a single one that seemed even the least bit suitable. I wish I had the words to express my gratitude to you and my love for you but I'm not sure it is possible. Without your guidance, love and support, my life would be indescribably different. As a baby girl, a little girl and a teenage girl, I did not appreciate and frequently raged against the very characteristics that I now try to model with my own daughters. As each day goes by and as my girls progress through their babyhood, little girlhood and soon into their teenagehood, I understand more and more the sacrifice, joy, grief, pride, fear, strength and love that truly goes into being a mom. Never could I have understood the depth of emotion that comes with being a mother. Thank you for always loving me, never giving up on me, for keeping your sense of humor and for instilling in me the knowledge that no matter how grown up and independent I am, I will always need and can always count on my mom

Glitz and Glamour....

As I was looking back through some of my photos, I realized I had neglected to post about the girls' big night out at the Glitz and Glamour Gala. Obviously I didn't want you all to miss out on the excitement and so although this wonderfully chaotic and disorganized but oh so thrilling and glamorous event took place almost two weeks ago, please enjoy the stroll down the red carpet and the peek behind the velvet rope...

Our first stop (after an extremely long wait to get in, receive an autograph from Mrs. South Dakota and get our name tags) was nails. As usual, Grace took the opportunity to multitask, get pampered while people watching....

Ella was slightly more willing to show her excitement with the whole fabulousness of it all....

Another wait was in store for our incredibly patient glamazons.... And then it was time for hair. Again, it wasn't hard to tell if Ella was enjoying herself or not...
But by this point, even Grace was getting into the groove of things...
Once hair and make-up has been taken care of, the only reasonable place to head next was the photo booth. Ella channeled her inner diva and made thoughtful use of the accessories wall....

Well, all the girls did for that matter and with some coaxing, they had some fun...
After facing the paparazzi, the moment Ella had been waiting for since receiving her "Glitz and Glamour" invitation had arrived~time to walk the red carpet. She posed....
She paused, took a deep breath and with the pomp and circumstance of an actress stepping out of her limo at the Academy Awards, she walked...
You could see the amazement and wonder on her face as she entered the big dance party. What I wouldn't give to be able to put myself so fully into the moment.

The girls joined the throngs of tweens and pre-tweens on the dance floor....
It didn't take Ella long before she realized that just standing around looking awkward and staring at all the other girls rocking out was not what she came to do... She went out in search of her own corner of the dance floor...

And brought the noise and the funk with her....
Finally, after seeing all the fun Ella was having, the other girls decided to join in the fun and let their hair down...

Before we knew it, the disco ball had stopped spinning, the decibel level had come back down somewhere near the normal range (not that I would know because my hearing had been severely compromised) and the time had come to wish Mrs. South Dakota farewell.

The girls departed feeling both glitzy and glamorous. Mission accomplished.

Dreams...

Just like Martin Luther King Jr., I also had a dream. Albeit, my dream was more of the home improvement, materialistic variety vs. the inspirational, humanitarian, world improvement variety but I had a dream nonetheless. Since Lily graduated from her crib, I have longed for a lovely, matching bedroom set to grace her room. Obviously she didn't express this as a dream of her own but as her mother, I know for sure she wanted this as well. Jason, of course, didn't know how badly he wanted this dream to come true either but come true it did, this Saturday. Kolb Construction was temporarily turned into Kolb Furniture Delivery and Assembly. Upon seeing the trailer loaded with furniture in our driveway, our wonderful neighbor hollered over an offer of help which we declined and started the hard work. Bed, dressers, bookshelf and nightstands~the things my dreams are made of. Lily was thrilled and immediately offered her assistance with the assembly....

See, clearly she wanted this...Her most exciting discovery came when the bed was in place and she realized it was much higher than her previous bed and she could easily crawl under it and utilize it as another hiding spot... After hours of carrying, assembling, arranging and rearranging, Lily was feeling right at home and told us over and over, "Thank you for my new room. I love it." which made my aching back completely worth it.

Grace and Ella also benefited from the furniture fairy as Grace became the proud new owner of the nightstand she has been desiring and a mirror. Ella inherited the dresser that had been in Lily's room. These new items necessitated rearranging their rooms as well. I recall as a little girl, loving to rearrange my room and how excited and novel it all seemed and hoped for positive reactions. And, my girls didn't disappoint. They were so stoked and are in love with their new environments. However, they would not sign the waiver to allow me to publish photos because they want real life reveals rather than technological reveals and so you will all just have to come over if you want to see the finished products.

Following our oh so successful Saturday, it seemed impossible to top the happiness level at our humble abode but we are a home filled with overachievers and knew we could do it. Following church and a thrilling Vikings win, it was time for the eagerly anticipated annual Kolb Aquatic Extravaganza. We arrived, the girls hopped in the pool and that was that. Ella and Lily swam like fishes and enjoyed themselves immensely but threw in the towel long before Grace. Good old Stoneface got out of the pool for about 15 minutes for a quick pizza break and didn't resurface until we were forced to drag her out of the depths, fingers shriveled and palms blistered from the rope that spans the pool. Such a terrific event that the girls (and all the Kolb kids and grandkids alike, for that matter) look forward to all year long. Thank you to John and Connie for your thoughtfulness and generosity. You are responsible for the following smiles and memories....

Today the girls and I tossed around the idea of going to a movie but opted to wait until our head honcho could join us and decided on a couple of activities he is less inclined to enjoy~shopping and a visit to the pet store. Our first stop was lunch at the food court in the mall and the wishing well....Although I didn't inquire, my best guess is their wishes had something to do with the final stop of the day, the pet store.

Sadly, the "Buy Me A Puppy At The Pet Store" dream didn't come to fruition, but we did bring home our very own brand new mini-critter, a lovely beta fish who has been dubbed Lloyd (because what else would you name a fish?).

And so, after another fantastic weekend, it's back to the real world tomorrow. School, volleyball, cleaning and sweet dreams....