A Doctor "Who-loween"

Each day that I log into my computer I look up at my bookmarks bar and see the link to my blog... the one I used to update at least weekly.  I look at the the link, look at the name, and feel as though I have failed.  Failed because I haven't taken the time to update the blog for not only friends and family, but also for my girls with all of their cherished memories.  And, once I quit updating, I found it all too easy to continue with the pattern.

But, I don't like it.  I want to be able to share the fun memories my girls are creating.  I want to be able to chronicle their childhood.  After all, memories are fleeting.  But once something is written down, it becomes a part of "forever."  It becomes a permanent memory that our family can remember for years to come.  So, as my first post back in the blog world, I thought it fun to share Halloween, 2012.
 

 

As some may remember, my family enjoys the show Doctor Who.  As a matter of fact, last year I posted about the interest that the Butterfly had in the show one day when it was playing.  We called her the latest Whovian.  So this year, sometime in September, I asked the girls what they wanted to be for Halloween.  The Ladybug shared that she wanted to be Amy Pond from Doctor Who!  I chuckled at the thought of her becoming the Doctor's latest companion, red-headed no less.  I then asked, with a bit of humor, "What would you like to be little Butterfly?  The TARDIS (the Doctor's time machine)?"  Without hesitation, the Butterfly exclaimed, "YES!!!"  So, that is how it all started.

I soon spent some time trying to figure out how in the world I was going to create a TARDIS that could fit my three-year-old.  My first thought was a box, painted blue, with a hole in the top for her head.  But then I did an internet search and saw all sorts of creative outfits that had been created by women, and rather than boxes, they wore dresses.  Blue, swaying dresses that looked like the TARDIS.  I knew then that is what I wanted to create for the Butterfly.

 

For the Ladybug, I decided to create the one very distinctive Amy Pond outfit, that of the kissogram Police Officer.  Of course, the Ladybug loved the idea!  So, she and I went to the fabric store and searched for fabric for her and her sister's outfits.  We found the perfect fabric, a pattern that would work for both girls' outfits, and all of the trim that we needed to create the costumes.

The process began with the cutting of the pattern and pinning the fabric to it.  Finally the sewing began.  Each night I did a little bit more on the dresses, and at the end of each night the Butterfly would ask if her TARDIS dress was completed... yet.  She was so excited to watch the creation of her dress, each day asking the same question.

After a little while I had a partial dress that I wanted her to try on for me so that I could check the fit and see if there were any alterations I needed to make.  Of course she jumpred at the chance to put on the dress and model it for me.  The Butterfly smiled from ear to ear with joy as she walked around the house in her new, albeit unfinished, TARDIS dress.
 

 

  

It didn't take long though before I completed the dress and moved onto the Ladybug's costume.  She was also so excited as each piece came together.  She also loved the UPS guy because each day (at least it seemed that way), he would deliver another piece of her costume... police belt, white shirt, boots, etc.

 

 

Before we knew it, Halloween, "Who-loween" was here.  The girls eagerly dressed in their new costumes and joyfully bounced around the house, playing their Doctor Who roles.  Before long, daddy also emerged from the bedroom dressed as the Doctor himself, just the perfect person to take the girls trick-or-treating.  Below are some photos from the evening.  As you can see, the night was a complete success.  Who knew that dressing as a time maching and a traveling companion would bring such joy to two little girls.

 Enjoy!

~~Aloha!

Father's Day 2012

Happy Father's Day Daddy!!!!!

Oh how I wish we could say that to him in person, but we are thousands of miles apart right now.

The girls and I took off on an adventure to Florida while Daddy is still at home, taking care of business.  We all miss him terribly, and talk to him every day.  

In the mean time, the girls and I are thoroughly enjoying our vacation in sunny, and hot and HUMID Florida. The girls go swimming almost every single day, and are loving the opportunity to improve their swimming skills.

The girls love spending lots of time with their Nana F., as well as their cousin S.

While here we visited the zoo and an amazing children's museum with wonderful hands-on activities for the girls.

Despite the fact the the girls are having loads of fun, being away from Daddy on this special day is pretty hard on the girls and I.

So, we created a little video for Daddy that we are sure he will enjoy.  This is a Part 2 to a video that we created a few years ago before we had the Butterfly, and we thought Father's Day would be a great opportunity to update the video.


So, here it is Daddy... Enjoy!!!

(If there is no video above or you would like to view a high quality version, please visit this link at YouTube where I have the video uploaded.)


We love and miss you Daddy!


~~Aloha!

My Little Ballerina

The Ladybug is once again getting ready for her ballet recital.

She is so excited and eager to be on the big stage, performing for her family and all of her friends. She even loves the fact that she will be dancing on the very stage where the cast of the touring Broadway show, Mamma Mia performed. But, more than anything, she cannot wait to wear and dance in her beautiful ballet costume. In my eyes, it is the quintessential ballet costume with tutu. And looking at the Ladybug in the costume, she is the perfect ballerina.

The recital is tomorrow afternoon. The Ladybug is now in bed, dreaming about her special day. And here I am, on the couch, looking at photos of my beautiful daughter. Thinking about how blessed I am to have her in my life. Thinking about how amazing it is that we were brought together from two so very different cultures, as mother and daughter. And also thinking about how quickly my little girl is growing up and how I need to cherish every single moment.

I love you Ladybug.

Good luck at your ballet recital.

~~Aloha!

My Butterfly

The Butterfly and I have a very special bond.  She and I just... click!

Maybe it is her extremely "spicy" personality that I understand because I was much the same way at her age.

Maybe it is that she likes to tell me special secrets... "Mommy, I Love You!"

Or, maybe it is because she happens to be a mommy's girl.

Whatever the reason, we love hanging out together.

Tonight there was a dinner fundraiser for a student group from my school.  As it turned out, tonight was a perfect night for the two of us to enjoy an evening together, just mommy and daughter.

Every Wednesday night, the Ladybug heads on out to ballet class with daddy.  That leaves the Butterfly and I to spend every Wednesday evening together.  We usually eat dinner, cuddle together on the couch, read books, sing songs, play games, and many other fun things.  However, tonight I decided that I wanted to spend our time together out on the town.

We went to dinner where she and I had a blast together.  The Butterfly, who with her spit-fire attitude, is sometimes crabby when we go out.  But, not tonight (I do think that she is much better behaved without her sister around, she probably sees her as competition)!  With just the two of us there together, she had my undevided attention.  We laughed and giggled, told stories, talked about our day, and thoroughly enjoyed our time together.

In the grand scheme of things, this evening wasn't all that special to the outside observor.  We didn't do anything extraordinary.  We just went to dinner.  That's it, nothing else.

But the time together meant the world to us both.  I love this little girl so darned much.  I feel so blessed that she is my daughter, and evenings like tonight make me realize that fact even more.

Here is a photo from our evening out.  Nothing special, just a silly arm-length photo taken with my phone.  But look at the smile on the Butterfly's face.  She is smiling from ear to ear.  I think that says it all.

~~Aloha!

Wearing of the Green!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

to all of my friends and family!

The Ladybug is feeling a little under the weather today, so I opted use the baby Butterfly as my model. I told her it was a day to wear green... or else she would get pinched. She ran to her room, grabbed everything green she could find and brought it all out to show me and exclaimed, "I don't want to be pinched Mommy!" After a few different matching choices, she finally chose a cute top that states, "I Feel Pretty!" Nice choice little one!

Being a girl of two, going on three (or thirteen!), she is a girl who definitely knows what she wants. Now that her wardrobe was chosen, it was time to do her hair. She immediately brought me the squirt bottle, a comb, and a bunch of hair ties and asked me to, "Make me pretty, and don't forget the green!" In keeping with the green theme, I thought it would be fun if we could somehow create a shamrock on her head. Heck, why not... she is young and can pull it off, and she was in a good mood to boot! I could totally rock this one!

After parting her hair and creating three tiny braids, I twisted them into an adorable little shamrock and tied them together with a green flower bow. Perfect! The Butterfly ran to the mirror, looked at her new hairdo and squealed!

My little Chinese-Irish girl (Irish by osmosis on my side of the family!) is ready to take on the day.

Enjoy a wonderful St Patrick's Day everyone!

~~Aloha!

Language Development

The Butterfly just burst into the room and declared rather excitedly, 

"This is my 'piss'... this is my 'piss!!!'"

I looked at her terrified, not sure what to expect and hoping I wasn't going to have a mess to clean up here or in the other room (not to mention the fact that I was wondering where she heard and picked up that word...darned that pre-school!).

She held up her cute little purse and said,

"See mom... my piss!"

LOL!!!!!!!!

I laughed hysterically!

Gotta love the development of spoken language in toddlers.


~~Aloha!

Who's Valentine

Before my darling love became a mathematician, he was (is) an artist. He originally went to college to study art because of his love of various forms of art in high school. All it took was one very special math professor in college to show him the beauty of art in math, and the rest is history.

But, I digress. This Valentine's Day my love decided to create a special card for me that mixed his artistic talent with his whit and some sci-fi mixed in, and if you read the last post, you know we love ourselves a little sci-fi!. As a matter of fact, the girls love a little sci-fi as well, including the baby... you might remember this post!

Upon returning home last night I was given a very special card.

For those who are not familiar with the famous, English sci-fi series Doctor Who, this is the Doctor's tardis and it is what he travels time and space in (Yes, it is a silly little English phone box, but it is WAY bigger on the inside than you would expect!).

Upon opening the card, I saw this:

A paper version of my husband as the Doctor (bearing a sign that reads “Will you be my companion?”) and me as River Song, with my flaming red hair (“Hello sweetie!”).

Behind us is the TARDIS control panel that when opened is the following poem:

Fezzes are red,
The TARDIS is blue.
It’s unbelievably big,
Like my love for you.

So, I guess if you are not into the series this may not seem like a big deal, but for me (and us), this card is the best on yet!

Love you sweetie, smooches!

~~Aloha!

Yodagami

The sci-fi/math geek in me LOVES this.

Who does not love the backwards talking Jedi (no-one in my circle of friends anyway!)?

Then, to create him using origami...

Awesome this is!!!

~~Aloha!

Mood Lighting

I am not exactly sure what was happening at the exact moment this photo was taken, but the image makes me smile anyway. It was taken in December when we had lights on the front of our house. The Butterfly was standing at the door watching Daddy fiddle with the lights. The photo was taken with the camera on my phone, thus the less than stellar results and graininess of the image. Oh how I wish I would have had my good camera instead. Who knows, maybe I can try to capture it again, but this time with better results (though we have taken down our Christmas lights... hmmm, this may be more difficult than I first thought).

I love the innocence of the photo. Our little Butterfly ballerina.

~~Aloha!