Daddy and Daughter Dance and a great Fundraising idea!

The girls' school has this wonderful fundraising method that takes the place of selling candy and
wrapping paper. It's called Great Gatherings. Maybe this is something everyone has heard of with school age children, but this was a first for me!

The idea is that teachers/ parents/ families of the kids that attend the school offer a "gathering" and set a price to attend. The host donates their time and any financial outlay for the event. All the proceeds then go to the school. Gatherings include anything from a group hike, kite-boarding lessons,  to mother- daughter tea, wine & canvas, beer & brats, and sushi & sake evenings (this last one we just hosted!) Some are adults only, some kids only, and some are for the entire fam.

In November, there was a big bash for parents only. You bought tickets for $25 and got your pick of whatever food you wanted from 4 food trucks and the opportunity to sign up for a Great Gathering or ten of them. This is such a great idea for providing creative opportunities for families to get to know one another and to decrease any financial outlay for the school in order to raise funds.

One of the Great Gatherings we signed up for was the Daddy Daughter Dance. It was for K-3rd graders and their Dad (or any other special male guest, i.e. Grandpa or Uncle). L & S had so much fun getting ready for their big night. We borrowed some fancy dresses from cousin Luna and curled their hair and even put on some colored lip gloss and eye shadow, fancy!!  It was a bit of a battle to convince them not to wear their dress-up 'high heels' (I won in the end). They had a blast making special tiaras and wands, eating fabulous cupcakes, drinking pink lemonade and of course, lots and lots of dancing.

Dad and Grandpa were fantastic dates! I couldn't help but volunteer for the event so I could take pictures:)

Saint Valentine

So I know I have A LOT of catching up to do (which I will do in successive posts); but I figure I might as well start with the most recent!

Thursday morning we said goodbye to Grandpa Treiber who stayed with us for 2 weeks. It was great to have him here and the girls loved having another person to play with and harass (just a little)!

We were sad to see him go and I spent a good chunk of the day trying to explain that Grandpa wasn't upstairs or on a walk, and that he was on plane on his way back to mom and dad's homeland! So, it was a good thing that we had a few things to keep us busy! With so much going on I almost completely forgot about heart day (even though people can go a bit overboard with the "holiday") so we had to get creative.

Lucy left, Stella- right admiring her "handy" work

 The girls' first time with finger paint was quite entertaining. Stella was pretty grossed out by all the "gunk" on her hands at first, but quickly summoned her inner Picasso. Lucy was all about it from the second I squirted the stuff out of the tube.

Next we got the cook books out and paged through until we found something tasty (it was actually more like going through webpages, based on the ingredients we had). We selected the not-very-unique, but very tasty, red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. I received some lovely cupcake cards from my mamasita that I used to place quotes on top for the hubs. I also attempted to rearrange the cheetah lounge into a "restaurant" so that Dave and I could have dinner up there. We hustled to get everything done, but we did and then the waiting began!

Dave got home from work with wine and steaks in tow and we got to work getting dinner together. We delayed feeding the girls until we were ready so we could eat at the same time (just on different floors- is that bad??) The girls still use their high chairs and they love to be strapped in anyway, so they strapped themselves in, they got some good dinner eats, and the extra special treat of dining-room-table entertainment of Elmo and Super Grover as Dave and I booked it up the the Cheetah club for our own meals. We had a solid hour. It was great!!

XOXO

Hug and Kisses... it was Valentine's Day last week and were able to time it just right so we had napping kids for the first half of our early dinner! We were able to have the appetizer and champagne while the ladies were still sleeping and then they joined us for dinner. We had a "love apple" appetizer... corny term for stuffed cherry tomatoes; then a chicken scallopine and chocolate mousse for dessert.. all courtesy of our lovely paper, the Baltimore Sun. It was deliciouso!

There also happened to be a very appropriate "first" for the girls this week. They learned to love one another (particularly one's sister) with a hug and kiss. We have been trying to promote peaceful playing, but who are we kidding, we have 19 month old twins:) Nevertheless, if one is upset.. her sister will wander over and give a big hug along with a slightly drool-laden kiss.

And a couple more bonus shots that illustrate that great things can indeed come in a 'little' box and while we all may have an 'outer' beast... its the inner beauty that shines through!