Welcome Back Opry Mills!

Welcome back Opry Mills mall!!! It's been a LONG time since we've been able to visit the mall closest to our house, following the floods in 2010 (damage pictures here and here) and we never really realized how convenient that mall was until it was closed for nearly two years for rebuilding. It reopened two weeks ago tonight, and it was just too exciting not to head out there after work and be there for the grand re-opening.

Her Grandma and Grandpa had taken her to Rainforest Cafe once, right at a month before the floods, and I thought she would love going now that she's older. I called right as we left work and they said they didn't have a wait, so we rushed as fast as possible and were able to walk right in. Since then the mall has gotten SUPER busy and I know we wouldn't be that lucky, but I think a lot of people were staying away on opening day because they thought it would be crowded.We got a seat right by the fish tank and she loved that. She did not love the giant frog walking around. And when you see this picture he does look rather creepy.
A little less creepy but she's still crying. She was so tired from their class fieldtrip that day that she was positively whiny.
Every time the thunder/lightning started she'd cover her ears, and she also didn't like the animal noises.
She is certainly not a fan of storms, but I think on a normal day if she had had some good rest she would've enjoyed it more. It makes her "Smile and Be Happy" shirt all the more ironic.
However, once you are handed the bill at Rainforest you think "We'll wait a LONG time before we come back". Bless. And their food and is really not very good.
Brent and Lilli amused themselves while I did some shopping. She was also rather opinionated about what new underwear I needed.
The carousel was like a giant beacon to her in the middle of the food court so we had to stop. She didn't want to ride an animal and wanted a "car" and I was perfectly happy to prop my feet up for a minute.

And then the Disney store - she had never been in one since she really started liking princess stuff (I really don't count this visit in Chicago) and it really just overwhelmed her. About a minute after we walked in she was excited she needed to go potty, literally. It was like all her dreams coming true in one store.
We got her some cute princess flip flops and this little Rapunzel doll. If we had let her she would have brought home every toy in that place. She is hooked on the princesses! Every day she tells us when she's bigger she's going to go to Cinderella's castle.

So welcome back Opry Mills! I've already been back one time since then for Girls Night Out earlier this week. And since Lilli has become a mall addict I'm sure we'll be there really often.

Wordless Wednesday

Big Girl is loving her new-to-us itty bitty bicycle!!
It's just the right size for cruising up and down the street, and in another month or two the other little bicycle will probably work too!
Guess who dressed Lilli today since I was out at girls night out last night and didn't lay anything out for her?

Lilli's First Field Trip

About a week and a half ago, Lilli's daycare class went on their first field trip. Their winter unit of study had been hockey (don't ask me why...) so to end their series of lessons they got to walk down to the Gaylord Arena and see where the Nashville Predators play.

Hockey is not something that interests Brent and I at all. We've been to several games, but always on free tickets - either free corporate perks I've gotten (complete with awesome seats either in a suite or near celebs on the floor) or free as race perks from running the Fangtastic 5K. On the other hand, every little boy in her class seems to be obsessed and they were ALL wearing jerseys! This was quite possibly about the only occasion we didn't have an appropriate outfit for her!

The field trip was around lunch, so I signed up to chaperon. Quite a few of the parents went, and I was assigned Lilli and her best friend Katherine to be my kiddos. The two of them are stuck together like glue, every afternoon they want to come home together with me. It is nice that after 8 hours they're still not tired of each other! One of the parents had "connections" with the head of the Predators organization. I really can't say we've connected with a lot of the parents at her daycare, quite a few of them are just a little......"uppity". It's a very nice daycare and most of the other parents are incredibly well off and just not our laid back cup of tea. The parent "in charge" of this field trip kept us all waiting twenty minutes out in the lobby, and then another twenty minutes outside the Arena. Not fun with 16 3 yr olds running wild, missing their nap time.Hanging outside the Arena.
Once we finally got inside, it was another fifteen minutes before his "contact" found someone to give us a tour. He geared it towards the adults, probably because it seemed like he had just found out this was his assignment, and the kids were still wild. They finally got to go down to the ice and touch it, and stand on the edge - which is really all they wanted to do anyway.
They all filed in and out to stand on the ice. Thankfully none of them fell down!
After that they all got to sit on the Zamboni and have their picture made - except my child who was cold and tired and didn't want anything to do with the field trip at this point (honestly it was very boring and drug on way too long for their attention span). They all did get to hold some ice shaved off the rink.
And the (finally!) end of the tour they stood in front of the wall where press releases happen - except for Lilli who was crying and clinging to my leg. She was so tired (again I really don't understand why they did this during nap time - she is a child who still really needs her nap and most of the time takes a solid 2 hour nap). She then proceeded to cry the entire walk back to daycare and howled when I left.
So yes, first field trip had some ups and downs, but I'm pretty sure if it had been a princess field trip - or basically anything she's more interested in - that we all would have had a lot more fun!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Even though the calendar still says it's early, the temperatures this spring have really said otherwise. So last week we went ahead and got several things planted in our garden. Lilli has absolutely loved helping us get the garden started this year!We've played with a lot of earthworms already....
Last year at either Home Depot or Lowes we bought this little "My First Garden" raised garden bed. She was really to small to care about the plants last year, but this year she was very vocal about what she wanted to plant - peas and purple plants (she picked morning glories). She we went ahead and put it together and let her plant her own little garden.
We are going to have a LOT of peas. Good thing that's one of her favorite veggies! They're also doing a big fundraiser at her daycare to build some large raised bed garden on the roof of her daycare. The vegetables will be used to feed the kids at snack time and also used in the homeless food program the church there runs. (Once a week they serve lunch to homeless in downtown.) It's a pretty big deal and they're having all sorts of events, fundraiser, grants written and media about downtown's first "urban rooftop garden".
Watering our lettuce plants. Hopefully we can get some good lettuce before it gets too warm! We also planted some tomatoes, peppers, and kohlrabi along with some herbs.
Lots of warm evenings on the deck eating popsicles.
Last week she wanted to take her pink ball for Show and Tell.
Hanging out with Buzz Lightyear one night after dinner. He's pretty much on our front porch all the time now. He's really gone from being a skittish stray cat to letting us pick him up and not taking any issue with Lilli bugging him to death.
Lilli and I had a great Good Friday off from school and work but poor Brent had to work and bring home the bacon. Along with at least 75% of Nashville we met some friends at the zoo and had a fantastic day. Pictures to come!

5 Pins for Easter

I still can't believe Easter is just a couple of days away! Lilli's dress was bought on Zulily months ago, but I'm still not sure what I'm wearing. I ordered a dress a while back and I think it should arrive tomorrow, so that may be it! Otherwise Saturday will probably involve a trip to Macy's.

We don't do a ton of things for Easter, but I've pinned a lot of really adorable things on Pinterest. Here's my top 5 Easter Pins for this year:

This Easter Egg lunch is adorable:

Source: brandyscrafts.blogspot.com via Rachel on Pinterest

I actually made my own version of it today for Lilli's lunch. Hilarious. I took some pics of it to share later. I can only imagine the look on her teacher's face when they pulled that out of her lunchbox!

Source: bemyvalentin.com via Rachel on Pinterest

In the kitchen we've hung several small black frames perfect for Subway art. After St Patty's, I've replaced them all with various Easter ones I found on the Internet/Pinterest. Some are religious and some are straight bunny. I love being able to update my decor each month with something this simple and easy to do.

Source: eighteen25.blogspot.com via Rachel on Pinterest

Yesterday I sent Brent a text asking him to pick up 112 Peeps. He really didn't even question it. We ended up taking 10 to church Wednesday night and sending 20 more bags to school today. So cute and easy to do. And of course kids love all things candy and sugar!

Source: howdoesshe.com via Rachel on Pinterest

Next year I really want to do that and grow our own real Easter grass. I may still grow some this spring/summer for floral table arrangements.

Source: mybabyfaves.blogspot.com via Rachel on Pinterest

Such a cute little craft, we may try to make that this weekend!

Tomorrow is a holiday for Lilli and I, but poor Brent has to work. She and I have a play date scheduled for the zoo, so hopefully all the rain we had tonight will dry up and we'll enjoy an extra good Friday!

Happy Birthday Stewart!

A week ago Saturday Brent took Lilli to a birthday party for her school buddy Stewart. It was at Bounce U, the same jumpy place we had Lilli's party at. I think this is the first time she's gone to a party without me, but it was nice to get some down time at home with everyone else gone!We have actually been a lot better lately about not going to every single party we get invited to. Of the 4 parties we were invited to in March of her school friends this was the only one we went to. Two of the other three parties were on Sunday afternoons, which is practically impossible for us to pull off well, and the other one was way out in the suburbs. None of them were her close friends, so our new thing is to go to parties only if it's a) a close friend or b) if it sounds like a ton of fun.
She had a good time with her school friends and her best bud Katherine was there. They did the usual bouncing and then pizza and cake.
Since I wasn't there I'm not exactly sure what the theme behind hearts was for a 4 year old boy with a late March birthday. They are cute cupcakes and cake, though. I had bought him a Batman figurine, it's become my standard boy gift, and at school I was asking him if he liked Batman and he told me he already had all the Batman toys. I guess now he has two of them!
Lilli enjoying her cupcake!
I am getting very, very close to finally being done with our taxes! It takes me forever for all our itemizations, but without them we'd be paying a ton. It's very frustrating to be a hard working family with two incomes in this country. For all we pay in we make "too much" to even deduct any of Lilli's daycare this year - ridiculous. Now I'm just down to the business portion of our taxes and we should be done. Brent told me if I get us $4K back (which isn't going to happen) then we can travel anywhere we want in the world. We will be getting a small refund, and I guess only Lilli and I will be traveling the world since our passports have come in and Brent's is still floating around somewhere out in the postal service land! We'll be sure to send him a postcard though.

Busy, Busy

We have had one busy, busy weekend - there's a hint of one of the things we did!!

Tuesday is the last time Lilli actually got to bed on time, it's just been that crazy the last few days. All fun stuff though so we can't complain!

Tonight marked the first time we've ever gotten a semi-decent picture with the Easter Bunny and she actually participated in an Easter egg hunt at church tonight, something she would have no part of last year. Times are a changing!