Princess Wishes

The highlight of Kaylen's first Spring Break was going to KC to see Disney Princess Wishes on Ice with my friend Amy, and her kiddos, Dalton and Kierstin. Kaylen is still a huge Disney Princess fan, and this was something she had been looking forward to for a long time! Each Disney Princess came out on the ice at some point and acted out parts of their stories. It was so much fun! I am so thankful that Amy invited us to go with them, and got us such amazing seats! We were three rows up from the ice! Kaylen and I don't get to spend a ton of time together by ourselves, so this was a special treat! Here we are after the show, waiting to see the Easter Bunny at Crown Center!



Remember the silverware from the Beauty and the Beast. When the handsome young prince refused to help the old beggar woman that stopped by his castle she turned him into the Beast and cast a spell on all the servants in the castle, turning them into enchanted, talking objects. We got to see Luminere, the candlestick, and the silverware skate with Belle. Can you imagine ice skating with a giant spoon, knife and fork on your back?

And of course it isn't "Disney" without Minnie and Mickey!

Here's my little princess, tiara and all, enjoying some Dippin' Dots during intermission!

Tinkerbell walked right below us on her way out, in between the differentPrincess' performances. She introduced each act of the show.

During Sleeping Beauty's act, this gigantic dragon came out onto the ice and fought the Prince. This was hands down, Dalton's favorite part of the show (I'm so glad there were pirates and dragons for the brothers who went with their little sisters!) Kaylen said that this was her favorite part as well, but I'm wondering if she just wanted to echo Dalton, because she looked absolutely terrified when it came onto the ice and had a death grip on my hand!

The show got even more intense when the dragon then spit fire onto the ice! The kids were beyond amazed and even Amy and I were like, "how'd they do that?"

It was so hard to get good pictures, because for one the skaters are moving really fast, and all those little white specks you see in the background are really the camera flashes from the people across the arena that are also trying to get an "action" shot! My camera couldn't figure what to focus on or rather to flash so I finally turned everything "automatic" off, and switched to manual and the pictures turned out a little better. (I don't have a fancy camera- yet- just a little Sony Cyber-shot.)

This picture of Ariel (which I zoomed in on in the second picture, ) gives you an idea of how close we were sitting! We could almost reach out and pop the bubbles you see in the close up!

Of course no Princess show would be complete without Cinderella and The Prince himself!

Towards the end of the show Cinderella's carriage came out on the ice!

The grand finale! The center of the carriage rose above the ice with Tinkerbell inside (look closely), and there were tons of fireworks! We were "oooohing" and "ahhhing" in time with the rest of the audience and were simply amazed! Leave it to Disney to do it right!

It was such a wonderful show and so fun for Kaylen and I to spend some 'one on one' time together! The funny thing is, I can almost guarantee that years from now, what Kaylen and Dalton will remember most, is that on the way home from lunch we got stuck in an underground parking garage traffic jam for almost thirty minutes! It was CrAzY! The fumes from all the cars idling, and the low ceilings just about did me in! People were honking their horns like dueling banjos and after much cajoling from the backseat, I finally joined in! Only I didn't just give a little "honk," I got creative and honked a tune. It goes a little something like this. . . honk. . . honk. . . hon-hon-honk. . . . HONK, HONK!

Fajitas, Margaritas, and a Deer! Oh My!

As I mentioned in my last post, I was looking forward to meeting up with my three favorite teacher friends from my past life, to enjoy a girls' night out, some Mexican food and a couple of Margaritas. We had such a fun night, closing down On the Border, albeit ten o'clock. (I know we're wild and crazy!)

My dear friend Mary and I rode together, and she graciously offered to drive her van, making her my DD by default. We had been on the highway on the way home, for just a few minutes when completely out of nowhere a GIGANTIC deer was suddenly in the middle of the road. Mary did an amazing job of keeping calm and breaking hard, but alas, hit the deer (in the headlights) head on. There was no way to avoid it. All I saw was a flash of brown fur, two big glowing eyes, and then the inside of my own eyelids as I not only closed my eyes, but also covered them with my hands like a little kid during the scary part of a movie. When I finally opened them I saw a snowstorm of fur raining down and poor, poor, Bambi flying through the air.

I think the next few seconds went something like this:

Mary: "Oh crap, I couldn't stop. I couldn't stop, I had to hit it. Did I do the right thing?"

Me: "It's o.k., it's o.k. Oh my gosh, you did a great job. We're o.k. Oh my gosh, do you think he's dead? Oh, please let him be dead!"

Mary: "Uhhhh. . . . ummm. . . . nope it's still moving it's head."

Me: "Shhhhhh!!!!!! Don't tell me that!"

So we get out of the car, and it is then that I realize how thankful I am that my legs and arms still work, nothing is broken, and neither of us have even a scratch to show for the last fifteen terrifying seconds of our lives! I wish I could say the same for Mary's van.



Notice the deer fur still stuck the the grill. Can we say road kill? Please say a little prayer for Mary, as we all know that having your car get way laid by a deer, is a big hassle, not to mention expensive!!

This was just another adventure on the highway with my dear, or should I say deer friend Mary! Thanks for keeping us safe girl!

It's beginning to look a lot like

EASTER! You would never guess by the weather outside that Easter is just days away, but it is and we are ready here at the Hart house! We had a lot of fun dying our eggs last weekend to get ready for the Easter bunny's arrival! As I was posting these pictures I realized another clue that Easter is indeed early this year - Kaylen is still wearing her flannel snowman pajamas while dying eggs just a few days before the big day!



Look closely at the expression of wonder on Kaylen's face as she fishes each egg out of it's cup of dye and sees that somehow the Easter Bunny has written each of our names on our Easter eggs! It's magic!! (see below)



The finished product!



How did he do that?

I saw this 'easter egg tree' advertised in the Pottery Barn catalog and fell in love with it. Alas, it was fifty bucks!! So Kaylen and I got a little crafty and whipped up one of our own. It was super easy and lots of fun, and as you can see below, turned out pretty darn cute if I do say so myself!

Kaylen and I are both very proud of how our version of the fifty dollar easter egg tree turned out, considering ours cost less than ten bucks! We found these adorable glittery eggs in sets of six for a dollar at the Dollar General store! The picture just does not do this project justice! It's very glittery and sparkly and so much fun!

Happy Easter!

Home Alone

Agggggggghhhhhhhh!!!!! I've been 'home alone' for two days! This is the first time in several years that I've had the house all to myself. Daddy took the girls out to Grandma's on his way to a conference and I headed to Olathe to have a girls night with some other TSC moms. It was a fun evening, and even though I got home a little later than I had planned, I got to sleep until almost TEN O'CLOCK this morning! It was so odd to wake up to a quiet house, and not have oatmeal to make, chocolate milk to mix, and meds to give. I have enjoyed these last couple of days by myself, cleaning, reading and catching up on some other blogs that I read. But now, I'm missing my babies and am ready to hear that car pull in the driveway!

We have a busy week coming up. Kaylen is on Spring Break and we have lots of fun plans. We aren't officially going anywhere, but we will get to catch up with some old friends in KC for play dates, and Kaylen gets to go to Disney Princess on Ice next week. She is really looking forward to that. I get to have another girls night out in the middle of the week, with my best teacher friends that I miss dearly! The four of us are going to plan our upcoming 'road trip' to Branson to visit our friend Audrey who moved there and do some serious outlet shopping while we're at it! (Two girls night outs in less than a week-what will I do?!) We also plan to just "veg" out with some movies, dye some easter eggs, and maybe hit the bowling alley again to see if we can improve on our scores from last time!

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Have a great weekend!

Conversations with Kaylen. . . Arguments with Avery

Kaylen from the backseat: Mommy I really want to get a cat. When can I get a cat?

Me: I don’t know honey, someday.

Avery: Moooooooo!

Kaylen: No, Avery. A cat, not a cow! But mom, Allison has a cat and he’s soooo soft and cuddly.

Me: Cats are a lot of work honey.

Kaylen: I know, but I would take care of it, and I’ve always, always wanted a cat.

Avery: Mooooooo!

Kaylen: No A-VA-REE-UH!!! (When Kaylen gets annoyed with lil' sis, she adds a couple of syllables to Avery’s name.) A CAT, not a cow!

Avery: Mooooooo!!

Kaylen: Fine Avery, if you want a cow so bad, go live with Grandpa. (Who raises cattle)

Avery: Meow?

Never say never

Apparently we misunderstood this part of Dr. Doom and Gloom's speech the night Avery was diagnosed with TSC, "She will most likely never walk. . . " Lately it seems Miss Avery is always walking (or running) away from me! This is the first time she has walked up stairs at the park by herself. You go sweetie pie!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I Dare You

to watch this without laughing. I've seen this video on the Ellen DeGeneres show twice now, and it still cracks me up. You will never say the name "Charlie" the same way again!

Think about it Thursday

One of my favorite morning talk shows is The View. When I first began my new career as a domestic engineer aka stay at home mommy, I would skip right past it because I thought it was kind of like Oprah for old ladies. Then they added some really fun gals, and got rid of the really annoying ones, and now I'm totally hooked. So yesterday they were talking about the latest American Idol scandal. Now I don't watch Idol, but apparently one of the guys that is doing really well on the show used to be a stripper. The View gals were discussing the fact that some people feel that they have to strip to pay the bills. Then one of them posed the question, "Would you take your top off for five million?" Think about it. Or if you're like me, you don't even have to think about it. It's a no-brainer, or a no boober as the case may be. Write me a check for five million and the girls are comin' out! Now this may come as a shock to some of you, and rightly so. I'm an extremely reserved, conservative, modest gal. But for five million dollars? Hello! Cue the music, dim the lights. . . My friend Bethany and I were discussing this, and she too is extremely modest, but seriously, five million dollars? We did discuss the possible scenarios and stipulations. Are we taking our tops off for the entire world to see, or just a few people? Under what circumstances are we unveiling the twin peaks? I don't know, but I'm not totally sure it matters! Five million bucks ladies! I know, I know. I wouldn't want Kaylen to "strip." And there's the whole dignity issue involved. . . but five million dollars buys a whole lot of physical, speech, and occupational therapy, spendy drugs imported from Canada, and cute outfits from Gymboree. So if you're reading this and your jaw is still on the floor, first of all pick it up. If this post has changed how you think about me, well then you didn't know me all that well to begin with, and oops, you're on the wrong blog! You should be on the G-rated version of "a day in the life with the Harts" found at http://www.carepages.com/!

Now this should get some discussion started! And it really puts a whole new spin on the thought of a girls weekend away with Lisa, huh Mary? Giggles! It's Thursday, think about it.

Conversations with Kaylen. . .

Kaylen: So mommy, what are you going to do today while I’m at school?

Me: Oh, you know, play with Avery, clean up this messy house.

Kaylen surveying the mess: Mommy if you get some of this mess cleaned up before I get home, I will give you a surprise!

Me: Wow! Thanks sweetie! I’m going to get it ALL cleaned up!

Kaylen looking doubtful: Mommy if you get ALL this mess cleaned up before I get home, I’ll give you two surprises!

Me: You’re on! What kind of surprise do you have in mind?

Kaylen who like her Daddy has NEVER kept a surprise dishes: Like five minutes of free time on the computer? Or maybe ten pennies out of my piggy bank? Did you know that ten pennies makes a dime?

Me as we arrive at school: Yup that’s right! O.k. you have a great day at school and work hard o.k.?

Kaylen: You have a good day too mommy. . . . (yelling back as she gets closer to the front door of school) GOOD LUCK CLEANING UP OUR MESSY HOUSE!!

That’s’ my girl. . . .

And about the hair, it's "Wacky Wednesday" at school today, so we came up with this cRaZy hairdo!

For Kate. . .

I have to say upfront, sorry for the lack of posts! The whole point of blogging is to keep everybody in the loop, and if you're like me, you don't keep going back to blogs that never update! I don't really have an excuse, o.k., well other than I was in Washington D.C. lobbying Congress for increased funding for TSC research. For a few days out of the year, I get to trade in my mommy uniform of velour jogging suits and put on a real suit and pretend to be really important. This year's trip was so much fun. The emotions are so contradictory. I'm there only because the love of my life, my sweet baby Avery Elizabeth, has tumors on her brain, her kidneys, her heart, her skin, and who knows where else. I'm there because a stupid @!^%#ing gene has wrecked absolute havoc on our lives, but. . . and there's always a but. It is one of the most amazing, empowering things I've ever done! Instead of getting beat up by this disease, I feel like we're kicking and scratching back. At the very least, we're making sure that our Congressman and Senators are aware that a disease as horrible as TSC even exists. At the same time, I got to hang out with some other "been there done that" mommies that I have come to know and love! Even though the reason we were in D.C. in the first place is very serious, we spent most of our time laughing, goofing, and enjoying a little break from our normal day to day routines. I was the night owl of the group and stayed out way too late every night! One night Amy and I hung out with some other TSC families until three o’clock in the morning!! I haven’t done that in a LoNg time! They have some great pictures of us with the Congressmen that we met with, and I have some great pictures of us celebrating our success with a few beverages, and getting up close to some of the famous sites in D.C., so for now you'll have to settle for the pics of the real VIPs in my life. . . two amazing TSC moms who inspire me to keep on keepin' on! Here I am with Laura, in front of the Supreme Court. I kept saying "I am the Law!" something I used to tell my students all the time -giggles!

If you don't recognize this guy, it's John Roberts the co-anchor of CNN's morning show.

(Laura, Amy, John Roberts, and me!)

Celebrate!