Our Annual Valentine's Day mini-vacation....

Yesterday Mr. Kolb and I took advantage of the girls' break from school, his light work load and the upcoming Valentine's Day and loaded up the Kolb party bus for our annual Valentine's Day mini-vacation. Taking the girls to stay at a local hotel for a fun night away has become one of our favorite family traditions. This year we selected the new Springhill Suites and were not disappointed. The room was perfect and we had the pool to ourselves for almost the entire time we used it. The past 24 hours have been spent....

checking in...

settling in....

posing as the most adorable luggage ever... trying to contain our excitement by holding on to each other....

perfecting the swimsuit model pose...

treading slowly together into the somewhat chilly pool...modeling sweet goggles...
jumping into the pool...
playing ball...

goofing around....

sucking down root beer...

enjoying each other's company...

chowing down Godfather's Pizza in the lobby...

being tossed around like rag dolls....

playing hotel in a hotel while sipping on hot chocolate...

checking out looking like world travelers...

pigging out at Red Lobster...

And wondering how I ever got so lucky... Happy Valentine's Day to you all.

Happy Birthday Nanny, Mom, Connie.....

Our lives have been very busy the past few days with school parties, conferences, teacher appreciation events, hot dog feeds and assorted other activities. The next few days look to be pretty full as well as we anticipate one of our favorite outings of the year: our annual Valentine's Day hotel stay. In addition to this mini vacation, I, personally, am looking forward to a rare night out on Saturday celebrating the impending nuptials of my good friend, Jes. The fun just never ends when you are a Kolb.

Because of our unusually full schedule, Jason's mom's birthday passed by yesterday without a shout out from our little birthday singing trio...

It would have been impossible for me to have hand selected a more wonderful, loving, thoughtful, caring and kind mother-in-law. Your patience and love are endless. Your ability to make anyone feel comfortable and welcome is a true gift. Your compassion for others is unequalled. Connie, you are a blessing to Jason, the girls and I. Happy Birthday and we love you.

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.