Wordless Wednesday {on Tuesday instead}

Gwen - This One's For You!

My niece, Gwen, loves High School Musical

(and of course, so do I)

So when we had the chance to see this 'show' at Disneyland

I was all over it!

The girls were like, 'haaay!'

The boys were like 'what sup?'

And then they closed with Jazz Hands for Bob

Wow. 

Can it get any better?

She wanted to do it... I swear!

She saw that others had gone on stage before, so when the time came,

 she ran over to the stairs

But once she was up there, I think she realized there were more people watching than just Mom and Dad

Maybe it was the fact that she didn't know the song

Or maybe the whole thing was just lamer than she thought it would be

Or maybe she just felt a little awkward

Regardless of what ever happened, it's okay Pookie

You don't always have to sing and dance

Enough with the Hate... On to the Love!

It's a pretty well known fact that I love Pop Music. Okay, let's be honest, 'love' is an understatement. I'm kind of obsessed with it. Much to the chagrin of my husband, I love Britney Spears. In her 'prime', she was fabulous. I love her dancing, love her over produced songs, and I love the fact that we share the same birthday. But I will say, I don't love how she's gone... um... shall we say... 'downhill'. (although I did go see her Circus concert when it came through and I actually thought it was fabulous)

I also love 'Boy Bands'. I love N*SYNC, Backstreet... yeah... my heart still skips a beat when I hear 'I Want You Back' or 'Quit Playing Games With My Heart'. Anyway, I know that I'm now on the verge of being totally and completely pathetic for  admitting this (or maybe to some I already am), so why stop here, I might as well confess my latest love.

Justin Bieber

Ahh yes... another newcomer to fancy. But I will admit that it's a bit creepy how much older I am than he. So let's just get one thing straight. I don't LOVE HIM, I love HIS SONGS. They're catchy and cute, and oh, so easy to sing along to. In fact, Claire can already sing along to 'Baby' (although her rendition of the Ting Ting's 'That's Not My Name' ranks higher on the uber cute list).

Anyway, get yourselves out to Target, buy his albums (they're under $8 a piece - awesome) and tell everyone you're buying them for your niece's 8th birthday when in reality you're just going to burn her a copy (granted, you're going to burn all the songs onto one disk vs having two, and that's super thoughtful) because that's what I'm doing. And maybe you can even start a rigorous 'song learning training' with your niece so that you can take her the Justin Bieber concert this summer since chances are there's no-one else who would even dream of going with you.

I've heard that we make our own destiny... 

so I'm sure as heck going to try and make that concert a part of mine. 

If you like Kate Gosselin - Don't read this post

I'm a big fan of 'Dancing With The Stars'. 

I'm not a big fan of Kate Gosselin.

Seriously... WHY is she even on this show? Why is she on ANY show?! I used to be a fan of 'Jon & Kate Plus 8'... back when Jon was still working a desk job and Kate still worked at the hospital on Saturdays... my how things have changed since then. It's pathetic, and it's sad. Even though Jon is looking a little less than stellar these days, I still like him more than Kate. 

I think a prime example of Kate's awfulness can best be witnessed on this past Monday's DWTS. Tony Dovolani (her 'partner') has always been known as this 'great guy'. He's super kind, happy, and so supportive of his partners... and has been this way for many seasons.

So when Tony basically 'quits' because of Kate... um... yeah... something MUST be up. That's so unlike Tony - and the drama that unfolded... well... that's so Kate: always demeaning, always condescending, and always playing the 'victim'. 

And to find out that she's STILL on the show for another week... bleck... I instantly feel sick to my stomach. 

Can anyone honestly give me a good reason to 'like' that woman?

Personally, I find her as revolting as that stupid hair cut she donned.

(and don't get me started on how much her extensions cost!)

Best Thing I Ever Ate - Ice Cream

Have you seen that show on the Food Network called 'Best Thing I Ever Ate'? If you haven't, then basically all this show does, is have different 'foodies' on there that talk about their favorite things to eat. They have different 'categories' for each episode, and some times I like it, sometimes I don't. I guess it just depends on what their eating... and who's eating it. (some of those people really bug me)

Anyway, if I were to do an episode on ice cream, I would have more than one flavor. I can't help it. I love many different ones. An old standby is Mint Chocolate Chip from Baskin Robbins. I tell you, I haven't found a better one. I LOVE the 'flecks' of chocolate vs the 'chunks' that some other brands use. Ask Bob... if it has chunks, I won't eat it. 

Well, I just happened to stumble upon a new flavor at Baskin Robbins that I completely adore. It takes me back to when I was first married and living in Connecticut. There's a restaurant/ice cream chain that is really popular back there - Friendly's. Anyway, in stores you can buy Friendly's Watermelon Roll. It was heavenly. A watermelon and lemon (? I think...) sherbet that was shaped like a slice of watermelon, and it had little chocolate 'seeds' on the inside. I thought I had discovered and tasted some magical food from the gods... it really was that good. 

So, imagine my delight when Bob brought home 'Watermelon Ice' from Baskin Robbins. (Unfortunately, he had made the detrimental mistake of only bringing himself a scoop of that  wonderful goodness, but fortunately we were able to work through it and now we have an 'understanding'). This watermelon sherbet comes complete with the chocolate seeds, and makes me super happy when it enters my mouth. 

So what are you waiting for? 

GO GET SOME!!!

Holy Butterflies Batman - this is harder than I thought!

So I was going for this:

And I ended up with this:

And I settled with this:

Yeah... this was WAY harder than I thought it would be.

A friend of mine is the best 'thrower of parties' EVER and for her daughter's 3rd birthday she wants to do a 'Mad Hatter Tea Party' complete with super cool cupcakes. (yes, I'm wildly jealous as I cannot for the life of me think of what I'm going to do for Claire's party and it's only a couple of weeks away...) So to prepare for her party, she decided to turn it into a 'Moms Night Out' event with some of our mom friends. I actually love that kind of stuff so we decided to gather all our cupcake decorating tools and have a 'practice night' before the real event. So I went to Barnes & Noble and found this super cool cupcake book and in it, was the directions for these Monarch Butterflies. They made it sound SO easy - just melt some chocolate in ziplock bags, add some tape on the corner to reinforce the bag, snip a small hole, and then 'outline' your butterflies. (you can see the pattern I was trying to 'trace' in the background of my photos). So just to be on the safe side, I decided to give it a try today, before we have the 'practice night', which again is before the real 'event'.

Yeah... SO HARD! First, the melting of the chocolate is tricky. The first time I didn't melt it enough, the second time the bag was so hot it kind of burned my hands, but it hardened quickly.... totally stressed me out. 

I guess it's back to the drawing board. Or maybe I can find an easier animal...