Inagural Craft Night

Friday night I had 8 girlfriends over to do some crafting of some Petal Pushers. Oh. My. Goodness. Was it ever a fun night. Everyone came with a different color or fabric or idea of what they were making and I loved every minute of it.

 Susan, Molly, Casey & Kelsie worked in the kitchen

 While Lori, Kerri, Ellen and Jaime worked in the living room

 Kerri working away

 Jaime concentrating

 Molly's final product: black on black. Imagine that.

 Kerri's final artwork

 One of Ellen's two final flowers

 Casey and her perfect action shot

 Jaime's creative houndstooth and chiffon number (everyone wanted this one!)

Most of the girls stayed until midnight but the other half left at 2. IN THE MORNING. If you know me, you know that my bedtime is at 9pm. That's how much fun we were having. Girl talk. Girl laughs. Girl cries. One of the best nights I've had in a long, long time. Can't wait for the next craft night! Thanks for a fun night ladies!

My little lovies...

So we all know the McCulloch girls are expressive. We have the excited faces nailed down in this house. We pretend to be happy, sad, angry, scared, you name it and we play it out. But here's a new one:

 The cheerleader facials! Laney has gotten uber comfortable in the water in the last week. She's doing her floor routine in the above picture. She's started submerging her face and blowing bubbles, swimming, rolling...it's really quite scary. She's definitely our daredevil.

 And I just freaking love this little stinker...and her excited face:

 And her sad face:

 And of course her angry face:

 Saturday morning we had ballet and gymnastics. Laney started to get ants in her pants so I had to start snapping her picture to pass the time (and so as to not forget she's around while watching her big).

 And this morning I opened up my birthday package (sorry mom, I couldn't wait any longer) and the girls had a sweet little Valentine surprise: window clings. My mom occasionally sends these and they are SO amazing for a wintery day's activity! Plus, the lighting was fun to play around with.

I hear we're getting a massive snow/ice storm this week. Here's to hoping school isn't cancelled!!!

Ballet Princess...

This weekend we decided to try something new: Ballet. Izzy pronounces it as "bal-yay." So it appears it's French. Who knew? Anyway, we had to borrow both tap shoes and ballet shoes for our trial class (Izzy wanted to bring her own tap shoes, which are clear plastic dress-up heels...we had to leave those stipper shoes at home). I was a little worried that Izzy wouldn't like the class or maybe be too shy to participate (it took her about 3 classes of gymnastics to not cry all the way through). But my fears were quickly put to rest as soon as she got her loaner shoes on:

 These tap shoes transformed her instantly

 I wasn't allowed to be in the studio while class was in session; the parents had to watch through one-sided windows (which made taking pictures impossible). I did manage to snap a few pics when it was time to change out of the tap shoes and into the ballet shoes. The smile on her face tells you how much she was loving the class. Let's just say I've already signed up for the class and for the June recital (and the tights, leotard, required tutu and recital costume...if anyone has any hand-me-down tap and ballet shoes - hook a sista up!).

 We then raced to get to her gymnastics class (there are only 2 classes left in her session, hence the reason why I wanted to try out ballet).

 Like I've mentioned before, Izzy has become quite confident in her balance on the beam. Makes me proud.

 Today we left the house one time, and that was so Mike & I could go to the doctor. We both are suffering from sinus infections (since Christmas!) and this was our second trip to the doctor in as many weeks. Spent the rest of the day at home playing and snoozing.

 We took some costumes out of Izzy's closet (Belle and Dorothy) and brought them down to the playroom. Hours of fun. And please notice the clear plastic shoes (I've had to hot glue/repair these once already because she was in a mad panic that her tap shoes were broken) that she couldn't bare to part with when leaving for her ballet class. Thank goodness I won that battle.

And one more craft; I made a black chiffon flower pin to bring together my homemade pearl strands. This necklace totals about $6.50 total. Some may call me cheap - I call myself crafty!

PS-Happy Birthday Kim!!!! We love you!

An evening with friends...

Saturday evening Mike cooked up a delicious roast and we invited the Falciones and Molly over for dinner (and lots of beer and desserts!). Again, this post is picture heavy, as I was playing with both my camera and Molly's camera the entire evening. The kids probably thought they were celebrities with all the flashes going off! Anyway, these are in no particular order...just know that there was a dance party that happened and Izzy was in her ELEMENT. So much fun...thanks for a fun night guys! (The pictures are a combo of my camera and Molly's.)

 A little craft I made for Molly

 Izzy loves her Aunt Molly and it's quite evident the feeling is mutual