Mother/Daughter Reunion

The Little Miss and I enjoyed a fun mother/daughter weekend trip to Seattle with two of my closest girlfriends from high school. It has been 20 years (yikes!) since Amy, Rebecca and I graduated but we all quickly connected and our girls had a wonderful time. We had the weekend scheduled before we realized our 20 year class reunion fell at the same time so we celebrated in our own way. I must say my friends still look gorgeous and are even more lovely on the inside. Not to mention that they are both terrific moms with two of the sweetest four year-olds (the girls' birthdays are just a day a part).

Amy, Rebecca and I with our girls enjoying Pikes Market

The girls got along wonderfully and had a great time being silly!

Our 2nd cupcake stop of the weekend, Cupcakes Royale was the best!

We also took the girls (and their dolls) to dinner at the American Girl store, a big hit with all of them but most especially our own Little Miss. She was beaming as she shared a pretend drink with her own AG Rebekah doll. A vastly different celebration than those at our actual 20 year reunion were having, but one that I wouldn't have traded for the world.

Pet Parade 2012

We celebrated the 4th of July in Central Oregon and the Little Miss and Yours Truly got to walk in the 63rd annual Pet Parade, Bend's longest standing tradition. My family is originally from the area so it is exciting to think of how many pet parades the generations before us have been a part of. We borrowed my aunt and uncle's one year-old toy poodle (Bandit) and the Little Miss had a blast walking him in the parade. It was extra fun because our good friend Emma was also in the parade with her grandpa and his new German Shepherd puppy. The Little Miss enjoyed waving at all of the onlookers, she wasn't shy at all! It is hard to tell from the pictures but downtown Bend was literally packed with people and their animals, too many to even begin counting. What a great way to celebrate the 4th of July!

Waiting for the parade to start

Festive girls

Waving at the crowd

Our favorite onlookers (plus Daddy who was taking the pictures)

We did it!

Leaping Leprechauns

Yours Truly is a tad behind on blog posts being that this one should have been posted at the end of May (I would say it is because we have been busy enjoying the sunny, summer days but truth be told we have had mostly chilly, wet days the past few weeks. Oh summer, where art thou?)

The Little Miss had her first official stage performance as part of her ballet school's Spring Show. The theme was international dance and our girl's class pretended to be Irish "Leprechauns" (no, they were not Oregon Ducks regardless of the colors). This mama got teary eyed watching our (formerly) shy girl up on the big stage with a packed audience in the house. She loved every minute of it.

I didn't get any pictures from the actual performance itself but you can see a couple of her at the dress rehearsal the day before. Joani also sent a sweet one of our girl and her favorite fan, Allison, with one of her many bouquets of flowers after the show. I dare say we may have (at least) a few more ballet performances in the years to come.