Mallinger Moments

Swim Star for a Day!

2011-07-18T20:51:00.000-05:00

This little fish goes by alot of names (and Crazy Blonde is not one of her favorites....) but for this moment, she is a Nitro Swim Star and Graduate of the Nitro 1 program! This week on the Nitro Facebook page you can see our cutie in the New Graduates section! There are quite a few, so we are highlighting her HERE!!!

Nitro is an awesome swim school right down the street from our house - lucky us! Per Mia's recount of her accomplishments - she completed the backstroke and free style across the entire length of the big pool behind her in this picture. She also did a "flip over with paddle kicks!"

Now on to the exciting world of traveling bobs, butterfly, breast stroke and MORE in Nitro 2!! We are so proud of this girl!

She can't wait to show off her moves at the beach in a couple of weeks!

A girl and her horse

2011-07-17T21:18:00.000-05:00

I've been looking at all the great pictures that we've been taking over the summer and these keep coming up as some of my favorites!

This is not my daughter's horse, but it was over the week that she spent at Town's Mill Equestrian in Georgetown. This is Willow and my daughter LOVES this horse! Her first horse love, Ruse, passed away during the school year and she was not only sad, but also really worried that she wouldn't find another horse to bond with like she did with Ruse. Thank goodness Willow was a great match and helped her feel at ease right away! During the week at Towns Mill she spends alot of time with the horses and really learns what its like to care for them. Although she will probably never be a barrel racer, she always looks forward to this summer camp and I'm happy that she's been able to have this amazing experience with these beautiful animals!

Way to go Daddy!!

2011-04-05T10:37:00.000-05:00

I gotta take a moment and do a BIG OLE SHOUT OUT to my hubby!! He's been workin' his patooty off for the last month with several over night code merge projects and long weekends. He's a developer and a down right genius with the zeros and ones!

Stock Image courtesy: www.123RF.com

It was a sacrifice for a project that he committed to, and HE delivered! Tonight he will be attending a congratulatory work dinner in thanks of his (and the teams) efforts! A job well done and all his hard work paid off! WAY TO GO Daddy Daniel!!

Since this past weekend was his first "weekend off" I dragged the fam to Peter Pan's Mini Golf


An Austin Tradition since 1946

Now being an Austinite, I have been to Peter Pan many times - with my parents, popular spot for first dates, later with my now husband and now with my kids. However, this was my kids' first visit! Wouldn't ya know, Mia walked away with 2 random lucky hole-in-ones, while Marissa blamed me for her bad game... All in all, we had fun! And Daddy beat Mommy by one stroke!! Yes, he is a Winner all Around folks!

I just can't get enough...

2011-03-23T23:35:00.000-05:00

Channeling my inner Depeche Mode, yes I am an 80's music FANatic!

This is my theme song for the week - I just can't get enough of my kids and their well rounded little lives!

My 8 year old has a full plate of religion - preparing to receive First Communion this May, community service with Brownies, sports with Soccer and we have just added Pentathlete!

OPTION A

On April 9th, Marissa will be participating in her school's Math Pentathlon Tournament! I have to admit that this is something I never thought I would experience, but I am so proud of her for jumping into this and competing! She comes from a long lineage of competitors, particularly on her Daddy's side, so I guess I should have expected that it would come into play.

OPTION B

Since I procrastinated on getting her signed up, I had to use my negotiating parenting powers to get her into this high profile event -- what that translates into is that I will be volunteering as a Game Monitor during the tournament! Luckily they don't check SAT scores for Game Monitors! HA!

OPTION C

So, I'm thinking of getting myself a shirt made, comment with your vote
for your favorite design!

Rodeo Round up!

2011-03-18T23:22:00.000-05:00

Day 2 of Spring Break brought us back to the heart of Houston, Texas for the Houston Rodeo and Livestock Show! Now this ain't your Daddy's rodeo, this is the Mother of all Rodeos - animals for miles and carnival rides to bring your funnel cake or whatever your fried fantasy...right back up... In good rodeo form, we pulled on our boots and headed out for a day of ... well, you'll see!

Not even in the show yet, and Mia's boots are starting to hurt... Sweet Cousin Miles came to the rescue with a piggy back until we turned those boots into a new pair of comfy and stylish rainboots ... girl will do anything for a new pair of shoes! (see horse pic below for rain boots..)

30 bucks later and we are ready for some farmin' fun - we hit the Agventure where we met lots of fun characters and saw all kinds of farm animal life - brand new babies, and chickies poppin' right out of their eggs.

My cowgirls

Rodeo Queens!

One of the most entertaining parts of the rodeo is the muttin bustin! If you've never seen this in real life, then get on youtube and look it up - its a hoot!

Somehow, these rodeo folk convince parents to allow their children to be strapped to the back of a sheep - helmet, protective body gear and all. The kids line up like a cattle drive for this experience!


Muttin Bustin in Action!

Just one of the many interactive rides at the rodeo - and if you don't end up with dirt down your pants then you just didn't do it right!

And it wouldn't be a rodeo without a petting zoo and a pony ride! Even big kids can be convinced to take part in the petting zoo fun!

Here is what's it's like to be eye to eye with a llama!

See Mia with her new rainboots and riding Twinkie.

This ride never gets old when your 5!! She is one happy cowgirl!

Day at the Zoo

2011-03-17T21:11:00.038-05:00

We kicked off Spring Break 2011 with a quick trip to Houston to visit the Katy cousins. The girls anxiously awaited our arrival with regular chimes of "Are we there yet?".

Marissa with our Zoo Guides

Our stay started with an overcast day at the Houston Zoo. Our "weather reporter - AKA: Uncle John, predicted that the clouds would clear by 10:00AM, so we proceeded with the plan even in the face of dark clouds. But hey, its Spring Break - we can handle a few rain drops, right? So we rolled with it!

Mia with the other fun Zoo Guide

We started with the Sea Lion Show and found many fun photo ops along the way. Lucky for us our group was game for a pose or two.

Before the rain came, we caught this cute baby elephant hangin' with her mama after the Daddy Elephant let out quite a roar!

Cute little poisonous frogs from the Rain Forest

And then the rain came.... and we took cover in some of the AWESOME inside exhibits. We captured a few pics for Marissa's QUEST Teacher -- Here's Marissa doing "extra credit" research on the Rain Forest during Spring Break! What a good student!

Our favorite - the Map Turtle

The Map Frog was one of our favorites! It would follow your finger as you ran it across the glass. Amazing!!

So many cute pics, its hard to choose which to post, but this was one of my favorites! What a fun group!

Just when we thought we couldn't stand another fish or frog, the sun came out and we got to see many, many of the outside animals! As you can see, it was a successful day at the zoo! Rain or Shine!

Sweet & Sassy Second Grader

2011-02-17T23:37:00.000-06:00

Earlier this month our sweet 2nd grader got her first pair of glasses. She was so cute about it, she went to her first eye exam at a fabulous doctors office and then got to pick out her glasses - all on her own! She tried square shaped, oval, round, pink, blue, purple and more... She finally settled on the perfect pair of round lenses with shimmery pink frames. They frame her cute little face just right! So we ordered the glasses and then we waited.... Everyday she asked me how many more days until her glasses would be ready, we waited a whole weekend and then Monday we got the call!!

I was so excited to pick her up from school just to see her face when I got to tell her that the glasses were in! So we got them and she LOVES them and even better, she can see!! She's near sighted so she only needs them to see at a distance in the classroom or watching TV. She looks so grown up and so beautiful! And she loves to hear that too!

Counting Fire Hydrants

2011-02-07T21:07:00.002-06:00

Today I ventured back into running after avoiding it for as long as possible. It was windy and chilly but sunny, so I made myself get out there with my ipod and Garmin in tow. I knew this first trip out would be tough, so I didn't set much of a goal for myself except to not come home until I finished 4 miles - one way or another....

So I started counting fire hydrants, run for 2, walk for 2. We have a ton of fire hydrants in the neighborhood, so it was as good of a tracking system as any. These are the mind games I play to get back into running.. Whenever I stop and walk I always start thinking how much better the scenery will be the next time I RUN that same route. And then I start thinking about how I can change or extend my route to get another 1/4 mile in or so.... It's all a game, but I guess I'm back in it.

The first time out is done and all I have to do is make myself go out again tomorrow. The Cedar Park Trail Setter 5K is March 6th and I plan to run the entire thing, so its time to get going! My current ipod selection could use a major overhaul too! The girls and I are stuck on Taylor Swift lately, so Mine and Story of Us was peppy enough.. let's see..

Firework - Katy Perry
Tighten Up - The Black Keys
Sweet Disposition - The Temper Trap
Majic - BoB
Bulletproof - LaRoux

Leave me some suggestions if you have songs you like to run to. Tomorrow will be Lady Bird Lake or treadmill depending on the weather. I like to manage my training and look for runs on the Active Trainer website. You can map out routes in your neighborhood and track your shoe miles, etc.. and its all free. Well that's my story. Maybe if I blog about it then I'll keep with it!

3,2,1....And we're back.....

2011-02-05T20:23:00.000-06:00

Back from a Blog Sabbatical...

Upon requests from our fans, I am bringing the Mallinger Moments blog back in full force! This week in Mallingerville, we had a SNOW DAY, yes in sunny Cedar Park, TX!! 80 degrees this past Sunday and 20 on Friday! Only in Texas! We all got to stay home from school and work! And thanks to Leander ISD, my kids will now get 6 days off from school! Lucky kiddos over here! Leander does this February break every year for teacher conference, so it is a "pre-Spring Break" break! Unfortunately employers don't factor in this break, so it will be 3 days of tag team work from home for me and Daniel!

So here's how it went... Thursday night we are notified that school will start 2 hours late.

Kim changes alarm before going to bed at 1:30am....not believing that there will be enough snow to cancel school in the morning... Kim wakes up to make kids lunches at 7:30am, and in a fog is informed that SCHOOL IS CANCELED!! Kim crawls back into bed... happy Mommy!

8:30am - Friends show up at front door to play with Marissa and Mia and snow!! The snow was still fresh, the streets undriven.. Here are some pics of the fun they had! These pics were taken before I had a chance to layer my pjs and put down my coffee, so somehow our friendly visitors were not in any of the pics. boooo, Sorry M&M!

We left Mallinger Snow Angels all over our neighbor's drive ways! The snow was just too perfect not to mess up! However, the snow was too soft to make much of a snowman, but we tried anyway... after a little frustration, we moved on to snowballs, much more fun!!

Today was Saturday and we celebrated a 2 year old birthday with Baby Jacob at the bouncy place followed by another birthday with a school friend at the ice rink, with an indoor soccer game for Mia thrown in there, just to keep us on our toes!!
Snow is gone now and sun is back... all is well in Mallingerville! The snow was fun while it lasted!

Phew.. now that was not too hard... first blog is posted. More tomorrow!

Sunny Fall Day!

2009-10-18T16:57:00.001-05:00

Today has been such an absolutely wonderful day following the UT win over OU! Hook em Horns! So I was inspired to blog and share some pics from our day.

The day started early, Maureen and I left our homes to run the IBM Classic 10K at 6:15 AM! It was quite chilly this morning and we were ready to hit the road when the race started at 8:00 AM. It was a familiar part of town for me, but I was not familiar with the course, so I didn't know what to expect. To my surprise the course was pretty flat and I was able to keep a steady pace all the way through! Maureen and I were both happy with our times. This was my first 10K (6.2 miles) under an hour! My chip time was actually 59:23! We were thrilled when we got back to the car to find that the race started at 8:00 and it was only 9:12 AM! We celebrated with a trip to Starbucks! I am so excited that this is going to be a similar course for the Race for the Cure in 2 weeks! I am going to try for 30 minutes or less!

This afternoon the girls and I made a trip to Red Barn Nursery to pick out some pumpkins and enjoy all the fall flowers! The temperature warmed up quite a bit so I dressed the girls in shorts and short sleeves! Unfortunately we did not get to go out to Sweet Berry Farms this year thanks to all the rain on the days that we had wanted to go.... but Marissa & Mia didn't seem to mind Red Barn at all! There were sooo many pumpkins and sizes to choose from that it was hard to pick the perfect pumpkins. The girls picked a great variety of pumpkins to make jack-o-lanterns with as well as a beautiful mum and some decorative corn! LOVE FALL! I just love all the pics that we took at Red Barn. Enjoy!

Mia and Marissa thought this little peek-a-boo kitty was the cutest thing, so we had to get a picture with it!

Marissa & Mia with the pumpkins. This was one of the early photos where they were still smiling. They about had it with me and all my pose requests. oh well...

Happy girls!

Lots of photo opps with all the cute scarecrows at Red Barn! Cute Patoots!

I will never get used to Marissa without her 2 front teeth..
Here she is showing off her pick of the smaller pumpkins.

I just LOVE this picture! What a big girl!

Mia's turn! Mia doesn't like to show teeth so I guess I won't have to worry about her when she starts losing her teeth. Ha!

Another great setting! LOVE these girls!

More Summer Fun and a visit to UT!!

2009-07-13T00:01:00.000-05:00

This week we tried to recover from a busy weekend and week, but we did have a cool excursion down to the University of Texas campus and the Texas Memorial Museum. This was a completely spontaneous trip, which made it even funner!

Before we took the trip downtown, we made a quick trip to Marissa's preschool where she spent many of her days when I was working full-time. Now that she is a big first grader, she was invited to come visit and read to the current preschoolers. She decided to read There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Chick! She was proud and honored to read to the kids and they all seemed to enjoy her visit! She even got to sit in the teacher chair!

Mia also got a chance to reunite with one of her buddies from daycare. These two cuties actually went to daycare together as babies and here they are all grown up. They acted like they hadn't missed a day together. Mia was very happy to see her friend!

Next we started our trip downtown and made a stop at Central Market for smoothies. Unfortunately we found out after the fact that Marissa is not a big fan of raspberry smoothies. But her reaction was priceless and I made her repeat it a few times until I got just the right pic! Unfortunately she did not acquire a taste for them through the trials, it was the same reaction everytime....

After we found parking on campus and actually did the errand that we went down there for, we decided that we probably wouldn't make it back to the library in time to catch the Clown Show. Since the Texas Memorial Museum was doing their exhibit on Dinosaurs and it was FREE and air conditioned, we decided to check it out! Not to mention that the girls LOVE the movie Night at the Museum and were hoping to have a similar experience!

Sitting on the dino bone chairs outside the museum.

This thing was outside of the museum and Mia was not too sure about him!

This one was just for fun. Property of the University of Texas!

Outside the stadium

Back at the museum.. Unfortunately I didn't take many pics inside because I wasn't sure if flash photography was allowed.

We got to see all kinds of dinosaur skeletons and fossils and learned about the body of a fish and DNA and more! It was great FREE Fun!

Week of July 4th 2009

2009-07-12T23:26:00.000-05:00

July 4th is an annual family gathering for the Mallinger Family and this year was no different. Coming off a great week of camp, we didn't even have a second to take a breath before the next round of events kicked into full gear! Marissa and Mia were thrilled to find out that their cousins would be waiting for them when they got home from camp that day!

As usual Friday night was about birthdays!! Since Uncle John and I have birthdays on the same week, we always get to celebrate it together while all the family is around. This year we headed to Z Tejas for some yummy frozen margaritas and southwestern style grub! Thank God the one by our house is family friendly, because they definitely took good care of all 15 of us!!!

The next day we planned to gather for some Wii time, this became a new festivitie last year and the kids just love it! By 2:00 it was time to head to the pool, yes it was blazing hot but the water was quite refreshing! Marissa got to go down the big slide this year (after she proved her swim skills to the lifeguard) and Mia was unstoppable! Those lessons are paying off big time!!

The last part of the evening rounds out at Milburn Park where there are tons of family activities followed by Fireworks once the sun goes down. Here is where I finally broke out the camera! Every year we come early and try to block off an island in the parking lot. We set up our chairs and tables and enjoy some KFC before the fireworks begin!

Cousins enjoying some snowcones after the pool.
More cousins and snowcones!
The gang! Bring us KFC!!

Marissa's facepainting - a horse, of course!

Mia & Daddy

Cedar Park's favorite Asst. Fire Chief and some of his biggest fans!

The kids pile into the truck to watch the fireworks!

Another successful 4th of July!

Summer Fun - Marissa's Horse Camp!

2009-07-09T22:14:00.000-05:00

Things never seem to slow down around here, its been a busy summer and the blog has been suffering. However, we've had some exciting experiences that you'll definitely want to hear about, if you haven't already!

Marissa and her friend went to Horse Camp last week. We made the decision to let her try this new experience primarily because her kinder teacher owns the horses and equestrian center! Probably under any other circumstances, I would have never let my 6 year old do this. Over the last 4 months, since we started talking about the possibility of horse camp, she has asked me when Horse Camp was going to be. This has been going on for so long that I can hardly believe it has already come and gone. She got to pick out a very snazzy helmet too! Bright blue with colored hearts & horses! Who would have know they came in that style? It was perfect for our new horse camper!

Every morning I dropped Marissa off in Georgetown at 8:00 AM! Felt like I was back on "school time" again! Most mornings we were greeted by the House Dogs - 2 sweet but huge Great Danes! The kids LOVE this place! Not only were their fun, big dogs...but also 2 cats, a bird, an aquarium with several turtles and another aquarium with a very small baby shark!

The kids did their barn chores for around an hour and then they got to ride till it was too hot for the kids and the horses. The temps had been pretty high, but they were super lucky and actually got a little bit of rain during the week!

Marissa got to ride on several horses, but then seemed to get along the best with a horse named Ruse. He is the more mature "lesson horse." He is so good that he can sense when you are off balance and he comes to a complete stop! As his owner says, he is worth his weight in gold!
He is a huge horse but seemed to match Marissa well. She was ready to canter the first day, but Ruse knew how to ease her into the more advanced trots.

Each day was filled with barn duties, learning about how to care for horses, horse back riding lesson, lunch break, more rides, crafts and fun!

Every afternoon when Marissa came home, I steered her to the tub. The farm funk didn't seem to phase her much and she even told me that she wants to live on a farm someday! Watch out Future Farmers of America!

On the last day of horse camp, we got to go to a "show off" to see what she had learned. There she was, my tiny little girl on this huge, beautiful horse! You would have thought she'd been riding for years. She just looked so comfortable! They did several rounds of riding trying to get their horses to a trot. It was amazing to watch! Then they took their horses through a short course where they had to steer them around within a circle, they walked around cones and even did a little jump or walk over in most cases.

It was a great week for Marissa and one she will never forget!

Field Day at Cox Elementary

2009-05-27T21:31:00.000-05:00

Marissa had her first Field Day at Cox and what a day it was! Again, we got so lucky with the weather! It was overcast all morning while the kinder and 1st graders went through the 17 stations that were set up! Yes, you could say that the Cox P.E. teachers aim to please! I was working the Challenge Course with tricycles, floaties, goggles and noodles - oh my! It was a blast and I got a chance to see Marissa's class and lots of our other friends!

Not sure of the name of this event, but they had to move water in a tube from one bucket to another and fill up the second bucket.

Looks like she's having fun!

Go team, go!
They make it to the other side... is the water still in the tube?

Marissa in line at the Challenge Course!

Marissa with her friend and our neighbor, Jordan!

Marissa & Maddie

Marissa putting some umpf into her Frisbee toss!
This is serious business!

Hey Jase! (AKA: God brother) Marissa and Jase share Uncle James as their Godfather.
They are good buddies!
Marissa's class

Taking a break with a sweet treat!

This was Marissa's favorite event - Balloon release! The kids put a peace message inside the balloon and let it fly!

Bye balloon!
After the field day events, me and Daniel joined Marissa for lunch. It was a great day! Then I got to come back and help out the 4th and 5th graders with the water balloon sling shot event. Yes, they actually let the kids take a shot at the teachers with water balloons! It was really hot, so no one minded getting wet! There were water balloons everywhere!

Splash Day, Field Day, just a bunch of fun days!

2009-05-27T20:46:00.000-05:00

Mia enjoyed her first splash day at High Hopes this year with the Fishy Class! As usual the playground was set up with a bouncy water slide, little splash pools, a big water slide, bubbles and beach balls on the side! I had such a fun time on this day with Marissa last year that I had to be there to help out for Mia's day this year! The weather was perfect, sunny and not too humid!

Mia's favorite was the bouncy water slide, she must have gone down that thing over 50 times! Too much fun!

Mia's first and only attempt to climb the big bouncy slide. For some reason this ride was not her favorite...No biggy though, all the other kiddos seemed to LOVE it!

Love this 2 piece! Another awesome hand-me-down from Cousin Dori!! Yes, Miss Mia is covered with SPF 50 and a hat for the day!

And the fun begins....

Action shot!

Here she comes again!

and again! Are we having fun yet?

Rest time! What a cutie patooty!

All the kids had a great time and were wiped out by the end of the day! Splash Day still gets 5 stars from us!!

I wanna iguana

2009-04-18T13:52:00.000-05:00

Marissa's kinder class read a cute book called I Wanna Iguana that was written in letter form about a boy asking for a pet and his mom writing back why he can not have a pet. In the end she caves. Marissa and her classmates were given an assignment to write their mom a letter asking for a pet.
Marissa's teacher, Ms. Boone, sent all the class parents an e-mail before the letters came home to tell us that the kids were very excited, but were aware that this is just an assignment. (no pressure) Since most of the kids are still learning correct spelling, Ms. Boone suggested that they read the letter to us in case we couldn't read "inventive spelling."

My assignment was to write a letter back about why she could or could not have the pet she asked for and I had to send it to school on Friday for them to read together in class.

Ms. Boone said the class had a lot of fun trying to convince the parents to cave in like the mom in the story.

When I picked up Marissa from school on Thursday she was very secretive about something that she had in her backpack for me. (She didn't know that Ms. Boone had sent an e-mail home) he,he,he... I scanned in a copy of the letter to show how charming she was in trying to sweet talk me into getting a bunny as a pet!! I was blown away when she didn't ask for a horse, since she has been so obsessed with them over the past few months. I guess most girls go through that love of horses phase though. Enjoy!

In case you can't read it, here is the translation of her "inventive spelling"

Dear my great runner mommy,

Please with a cherry on top

can I have a bunny I will feed it

Love your sweet heart

Marissa

When I asked her why she didn't ask for a horse, she explained that we didn't have room in our backyard and bunnies are very cuddly.

Here is my letter back to her.

Marissa was happy with this response. We'll probably be heading to Petsmart this Sunday to check out the fish. Stay tuned for more pet stories!

Kinder Field Trip

2009-04-10T13:55:00.001-05:00

Yea! It hasn't even been a month and I am up and blogging again!

Wednesday, April 8th was Marissa's First School Field Trip! I also volunteered to come along, so Mia got to spend the day at Mimi's house!

The excited kindergartners were loaded up on the big yellow buses and they headed to Crowe's Nest in Manor, Texas! They didn't have room for the moms on the buses, so we took a shorter route and managed to beat the buses to the farm even after missing our turn onto 290! Opps!

Once they arrived at the farm everyone went to the picnic tables for lunch. Kinder usually eats lunch at 10:15, so it was a priority to get that out of the way! It was still pretty chilly and windy, so I was glad that I had brought along sweaters for me and Marissa!

Lots of shadows... Marissa bundled up waiting for her sack lunch and her buddy Jase letting us know he's starving too!

Here's Marissa and Giovanni... still waiting for that second cooler to show up! Happy, but still hungry and chilly!!

After lunch the kids got to watch a video as an introduction to the farm and some of the things they would be learning about. Then the real fun began! We started with a tour of the snake and reptile room. It was nice to see all the snakes behind glass! Each kinder class wore a different colored shirt, so luckily it was easy to keep everyone together. Plus, lots of parents came along to chaperon which maybe the day even nicer!!

Ms. Boone's Kinder Class - 2009
Marissa is on the right, front row. The sun was in their eyes...

Next Marissa got to hear more about milking cows. (One of her favorite topics) On a side note, Marissa has told me that she wants to live on a farm one day so this trip is right up her alley! Anyway, one of the farmers from Crowe's Nest talked to the kids about how they milk the cows on the farm with a machine and showed them how the milk is gathered and then sent to HEB and Cox Elementary Cafeteria for them to drink! The farmer also asked them if they wanted to sample the cows milk and some of the kids got a little surprise spray. yuck!!

Marissa's friends listen attentively!

Next, we were off on a tractor hay ride and we got to see some huge ostrich and some huge rotten ostrich eggs. Our tour guide informed us that they did actually have some baby eggs that were getting ready to hatch. The mama ostrich has to sit on those eggs for 50 days!

Here's another class pic with the tractor that took us on the hay ride. Marissa is standing next to our neighbor, Jordan, in the green shorts.

After the tractor ride we were free to wander the farm and visit all the farm animals. We saw miniature ponies, a cow and her calf, a huge pig, all kinds of chickens and turkeys and more!

The goats and the llamas were very friendly and came up to the kids looking for something to eat! This one thought he was showing up for his massage appointment, he just kept holding his head up as the kids rubbed and patted him! It was hilarious! I think Marissa's favorite farm animal was the llama. My LEAST favorite was the wild hog! I didn't manage to get a picture of him with his mouth open, but his dagger teeth were nothin' to mess with!

I don't know if this was a big billy goat or an emu, but he wanted some love!

Mean lookin' wild hog!

We ended our trip with a walk through the Fairy Garden, it was super cute!

Marissa made it through the entire trip without freaking out about the bees, no one got stung or bit by farm animals and I heard a bunch of kids say, "This is the best day ever!" I remember when I used to say that as a kid, and that is the ultimate in "good times" from the kid perspective!

Rodeo Houston

2009-03-23T21:53:00.000-05:00

On Thursday we got up late and hung around the house and then got ready to go downtown to the Houston Rodeo - the girls were all decked out in their cowgirl hats!

This was a first for our family and man what a HUGE rodeo it is! We had never seen so many animals in all our lives! We mostly steered clear of the carnival since Mia is still a little too small, but the pony rides totally made up for it!

Mia on a horse named Twinkie

Marissa on a horse named Cowboy

Mia - Happy Cowgirl!

There is a section called Agventure inside a humongous auditorium where all the livestock is shown! We saw it all... baby calves and their mamas, sheep and their newborn babies, a pig in labor, chicks hatching. It was just one big celebration of life in that place! We were so lucky to see a chick actually hatch, sometimes it can take them all day to get out of their shell!

It happened to be rabbit week so we saw every rabbit of every kind, big ones, little ones, white ones with red eyes too! Then we even got to see a pig race and the girls wore some funny lookin' piggy snouts! Too cute!

Piggy Dori with Piggy Marissa!
Too bad we didn't get a picture of Dori's "Poopin' Pig! It was a sight!

This little piggy is Mia...

Here are the girls with their cousin Miles. We enjoyed a hearty Rodeo lunch with options like chicken fried bacon, ribs, barbecue, funnel cakes and corny dogs! Yeee Haw!

Cousins in the barn
Dori, Mia, Marissa, Miles

We went all day and Mia finally passed out at the Pat Green concert that night, right after the fireworks went off inside Reliant Stadium! What a great day! It feels like I should have many more pictures, but I guess I was too busy discovering to snap pics. The rest goes down as a wonderful Spring Break memory that won't be forgotten anytime soon!!!

What a Great Spring Break!!

2009-03-23T21:06:00.000-05:00

As most of you know the Mallinger schedule is GO - GO - GO most of the time through out the school year, so this past week was planned to be the opposite - SLOW, SLOW, SLOW!

It was a relaxing week with no 6AM wake-ups, no pick ups, no drop offs, little to no e-mail, no meetings, no practices, no lessons...

After a fun filled Spring Break Happy Hour at Z Tejas on Friday afternoon for some busy mommies, the rest of the week was my landscape! Although Daniel nearly worked himself silly putting in a new fence at his parents house, we managed to follow that with some relaxation as he took the entire week of Spring Break off from work! You go boy!

Monday afternoon we conquered the I-35 traffic and went to San Marcos to visit Kristy and enjoyed some mexican food at a local favorite! It was a nice visit and the girls were very well behaved! We were thankful to avoid being stung by a bee who decided to fly into our car. For those of you who know how deathly afraid Marissa is of bees, this was not fun for her and she made me double, triple check that the bee had flown out before we got in the car! All this after her Kindergarten lesson about bees and insects. She actually had to recite a "reading theater" that included the words "We like bees." "Bees are good." Maybe for some, but not for Marissa! Ha! I am happy to report that Kristy is still doing very well with her San Marcos diggs and looks absolutely fabulous! You could tell she was on Spring Break too! No tests...oh ya!

Tuesday afternoon after packing up house and home, we headed to Katy, Texas to visit with cousin Dori and cousin Miles and Aunt Kelly and Uncle John! Marissa had been asking me for 4 days "How many more days until we go to Dori's house?" It had been a very long time since we had been to Katy.. way too long!

On Wednesday, Aunt Kelly got us up early and took us to the Houston Children's Museum which had just added a new fun section called Kidtropolis! It was awesome!! It was a little kid world where you could go to the bank, go work at a TV station, buy and check out groceries from the HEB, go to a diner or be a waiter at a diner, go to city hall, go to the vet and much more! Mia followed Dori around most of the day at the museum...she was just making up for lost time!

Dori and Mia balancing balls in the air through air holes. So cool!

Dori being the checker at Kidtropolis HEB and Mia being the customer with her basket of groceries. She is one of "those" that doesn't unload. Ha!

Dori and Mia at the vet with kitty.

Dori and Mia do the weather.

They also have an outdoor water section that has all kinds of water activities. Its kinda like a mini water park and it keeps ya cool on hot days! Marissa and Daddy spent most of the morning checkin' it out!

Whoa!

Workin' on the pipes

Marissa checkin' out the Tidal Wave!

We were sooo happy that we got there early, we practically had the whole place to ourselves! By lunch time there was a line down the street just to get into the museum!! Miles came along with us too but he spent most of his time with his neighbor buddy playing the stock market in Kidtropolis. It was a good time had by all!

We were totally magnetized by this museum! Hardy, har, har!

Valentines Kinder Party - Part II

2009-02-17T22:28:00.000-06:00

Can you imagine how many parts of the story there would be if I had more than 2 kids? Whew!

Luckily it worked out that Marissa celebrated her class Valentines party on Friday, so I was able to attend both parties for both kids! I know, the dilemmas of a work from home Mom!

Marissa's party started at 1:00, so I picked up Mia from school early and we headed over. Mia was sooo happy to see me when I opened the door at her preschool. They were just getting ready for a nap in her class and she didn't seem that interested. She has NEVER been that happy to see me when I pick her up! Tooo funny!

When we got to Marissa's school the parking lot was packed! I guess all the other parents wanted to take part in the sugar filled holiday too! Marissa's class was already playing musical chairs, as the kids were eliminated from the game they got to move over to the goodie table and fix a bowl of ice cream with about 10 different kinds of toppings!

Marissa and her friend Hannah (yes, same one from Girl Scouts) were the last 2 left on Musical Chairs. Hannah Won!

By the time Marissa got to fix her ice cream it was mostly melted but that didn't bother her one bit! Mia even got to join in the ice cream fun too! Lucky duck!

Mia with our neighbor Jordan. Look at all those yummy toppings that they had to choose from!

Happy Campers!

After ice cream, they all got to sit down and open their Valentines. Each child made a special Valentines box and there were many creative designs!

After school Marissa got ready for a birthday party themed "Pajamas, Pizza and Puppies." I found her some really cute red Valentines pajamas to wear and she was thrilled!

Off to the party!

Valentines Parties!! Part I

2009-02-17T22:02:00.000-06:00

Mia had her Valentine's Party at High Hopes on Thursday. As the "Room Helper Mom" it was my job to come up with some fun festivities for the kiddos! Again, thanks to the internet I was able to come up with some cute ideas for games and Mrs. Christy had suggested Spin the Bottle with Hershey's Kisses! What a cute idea!

Each child got a cup with 5 Hershey's kisses and then we went around the circle spinning the bottle. Whoever the bottle landed on that child gave away 1 Hershey's kiss. The kids absolutely loved that game!

It's Mia's turn to spin!

She was all dressed up in her red heart dress for the party. Here she is waiting patiently to give a Hershey's kiss away.

Its not a party without a blindfold, so we pulled ours out, and played Pin the Heart on the Teddy Bear! Not all that original on my part, but totally age appropriate! Each child got a sticky heart with their name on it and tried to stick it where the Bears heart would be. At the end, we took a picture of all the kids with the Teddy Bear with many hearts!

Here is Mia taking her turn.

Here is the Fishy Class with the Teddy Bear.

As the craft for the party, I had made each child a little scrap book to stick their Valentines cards in. There was a picture of each child in the class and they stuck the valentine next to their friends pictures. It was a huge hit and the kids have something that they can keep for a long time!

The kids also made these really cute boxes to put their valentines and candies in! They were made out of cereal boxes.

We ended the party with cookies and candy and a game of Smile, Smile, Heart which is similar to Duck, Duck, Goose but the kids went around with a Teddy Bear and just handed it to their friend and traded places instead of running around the circle. Again, it was great fun for these 3 year old Fishies!! Mia had a great Valentine week and was sent home with all kinds of neat crafts that she had been working on. They are now all over our fridge!!

Be a Sister to Every Girl Scout

2009-02-16T08:06:00.000-06:00

We had another great Girl Scout meeting on Wednesday, February 11th. We had taken a few weeks off since there was a school holiday at the beginning of February. At this weeks meeting we worked on earning our petal for "Be a Sister to Every Girl Scout." It is the very last line of the Girl Scout Law. That is how Daisies works, each petal matches up with a line from the Law.

The girls started out with making Valentines for the Children's Hospitals. My favorite radio station, Mix 94.7, was collecting valentines to deliver to children in the hospital on Valentine's Day, so each girl made 2 valentines and we were able to deliver 16 very creative Valentines for this effort.

Here they are in a flow of creativity (or maybe that was just sillyness!) They are too cute!

This will be part of our service project for the month of February. The girls thought it was a great idea and enjoyed making all kinds of pictures and decorating with stickers!

Marissa & her Valentine creation

We had 2 other rotation tables to earn our petal. The second was to make a beaded Daisy SWAP for another 1st grade Daisy troop at our school. SWAP stands for "Special Whatchamacallits Affectionately Pinned Somewhere." There are a gazillion ideas for these things out on the internet and we found a cute Daisy to make. Thankfully we had some great helper moms at the meeting because this project required a glue gun!!! They all turned out super cute!!

Hannah & Samantha working on Daisy SWAP with Madison's mom

The finished product.

We also put together some thank you cards for the Senior Girl Scouts that helped us at our Cookie Booth. They volunteered their time on a cold day to come teach us the ropes of cookie selling and we were very grateful! We decided to sign the card with animal finger prints from each girl. The cards turned out really cute! The girls had many animal finger print examples to choose from thanks to the great library book that I found - Great Thumprint Drawing Book!

Alyssa's mom helping Lily and Marissa with their Animal Prints.
Lily and Alyssa making their animal print selection.

Thankfully we have some awesome Daisy Moms to help us with our many projects!

Wanna buy some Girl Scout Cookies?

2009-01-28T16:25:00.000-06:00

Check out the AWESOME website that Marissa's Daddy built her for her Daisy Troop!
http://www.gstroop854.org/

Marissa sends a shout out to all her friends and family that have bought Girl Scout Cookies from her! She has been having a good time and is almost finished selling them all! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

We hit the neighborhood on the first day of cookie sales (Jan 21st) and everyone on the block welcomed her warmly! She sold 22 boxes on her first day out! She also wants to thank her little sister (who is a Daisy in training) for her support in helping her complete her cookie transactions!
Mia felt that it was very important to watch Marissa ring the doorbell and then hear her pitch!

We practiced her script on the way home from our Girl Scout meeting and by the time we got home, she was ready to roll! We loaded up the double stroller with cookies and only had to come home once to refill on Thin Mints! Marissa had a cheat sheet with the boxes and names on it, so she just read off all the flavors that we were selling. It was quite impressive! Marissa even received a $100 donation towards Operation Cookie which will send cookies to the troops! Wow, that is 28 boxes!!! And that is in addition to the 22 she sold that night! Yipee!

She also got her first experience with working a cookie booth! Our troop signed up to sell at the Starbucks by our house this past Saturday (1/24) and we were lucky enough to be accompanied by some Volunteer Senior Girl Scouts to show us the ropes! And it was a COLD day even at 1:00 in the afternoon so we were very, very appreciative of our volunteer helpers! We sold alot of boxes and had fun at the same time!

I posted some pictures of the girls on my Troop 854 website so check it out! http://www.gstroop854.org/pictures.html
Plus you can see what we have coming up and what petals we will be earning.

This past Wednesday, the troop earned their Rose petal for "Make the World a Better Place." This was our very first meeting at the school in the Science Lab! It was alot of fun making bird feeders - we did one version with pine cones, peanut butter and bird seed and a second larger version with a milk jug. The girls all seemed to enjoy the projects!

Last night I went to the first Leader meeting of the year and got some great ideas for earning other petals. Those ladies are so creative and I am definitely inspired! Thanks for reading and Have a nice day! (that is how Marissa ends all of her Cookie transactions) and hey if you didn't enjoy this blog... well "Thanks anyway!"

After Christmas ... Family Ski Trip - Ski Apache, Ruidoso NM

2009-01-25T20:59:00.001-06:00

On the day after Christmas we packed up the family for a road trip to Ruidoso, NM and skiing at Ski Apache! We left super early on Saturday morning with James, Luci, Rachael-Anne and Christy. We were a 2 Tahoe caravan! The winding roads of the Texas Hill Country were a little tough on Mia's tummy, and mine too but we managed to survive..

It took about 10 hours to get there. And we got to experience the wind mills and dust storms on the flat lands of west Texas. We knew we were almost there though when we got to the alien sighting tourist stop in Roswell, NM.

Once we got into New Mexico the scenery was beautiful, surrounded by mountains and blue skies! We were so happy to find out that Ruidoso had just gotten 9-10" of snow right before we got there, so the ground was still covered and it was thrilling for all of us! The kids were ecstatic!

We stayed at the Storybook Cabins in the cute little town of Ruidoso. Since it was still snowy and icy, we really had to take our time climbing the hill to our cabin in the Tahoes.

This picture was taken after the snow had melted....

This was the scene of our patio when we arrived! Ya, no jackets on the kids, they had no idea how fast they were going to freeze!

When we weren't skiing, we spent alot of time in our pajamas snuggling on the couches, eating, drinking hot cocoa, watching TV, reading and playing Wii! It was very relaxing!

The first day after we arrived, we made the 12 mile trip straight up the winding mountain to Ski Apache where we were scheduled to take ski lessons. Marissa and Mia spent the day with Aunt Luci since she wasn't too excited about the heights that came with that trip up the mountain. Luckily there was plenty of snow around our cabin for them to build a snowman, make snow angels and have a snowball fight!

Mia making snow angels!

Look down, there's the snowman that they built with Aunt Luci!

This was the scene from our car. Some spots on the route to Ski Apache had no side railing on the road and it was a little scary. Luckily James is an excellent driver! (and no one got sick)

The Ski Lift above El Capitan (blue)
Daniel considered going down this one but I managed to guilt him out of it!

Ready to hit the slopes!

Christy was rockin' and rollin' on the greens -

you would have never guessed it was her first ski trip!

The next day we took the kids to a Winter Park where they had snow hills to slide down in tubes. They even had a mini hill for Mia's age. Uncle James took her to slide down that hill over 20 times! She had a blast!

The rest of us had fun too but the lines were much longer for the big hills! It was almost like a snowy Schlitterbahn in the heat of summer!

Uncle James, Aunt Luci and Me heading down with our tubes

Here's Racheal-Anne and James waiting for their turn on the hill.

Snow bunny Marissa!

On the last day of our vacation, we signed Marissa up for a ski lesson with the Kiddie Korral. She was super excited to try out skiing! It was really convenient because they had several instructors and separated the kids into groups based on skill level. Since this was Marissa's first time, she was in the very beginners group when we dropped her off. All of us were already pretty worn out from skiing for several days so we took it easy. Even though daredevil Daniel kept eyeing the blues, we managed to keep him off! Unfortunately, James was completely off skis after a bad fall the day before. Yes, it was time to head back to Texas!

They teach the kiddos to start out without poles. Here is the obstacle course that Marissa had to get through. I think she spent alot of time getting caught by the instructors (to avoid falling), but she had fun! They gave them a basic lesson in the morning to teach them how to put on skis and how to position the skis (french fries). Then they took a break, fed them lunch and let them watch some of a movie. They were back out in the afternoon on 2 skis! Marissa could not stop talking about what a great time she had! Maybe next time Mia will be old enough to go to the Kiddie Koral too!

I have to give all the credit to my brother-in-law James for planning this awesome trip for us! We rate him a 10 star travel agent! (no, he's not a real travel agent, but he did some really good research and saved all of us lots of time and stress!) What a great trip!!

Another Family Christmas

2009-01-23T20:49:00.000-06:00

It's like the sequel, only better! On Christmas day, Mimi, Joe and Kristy came to our house and we had a casual dinner of delicious fajitas that Daniel cooked up for us. It was a nice diversion from turkey and ham and alot less left overs!

The night before, Santa came to visit our house again, but this time he was too rushed to visit. He just left the presents, grabbed a cookie, gulped some milk and was off with a dash, with Rudolph leading the way!

Marissa and Mia were really excited to see the wrapped presents under the tree that Santa had brought them, but Mimi and Joe had several loads of presents of their own! So the girls were glad that they came to visit too!

Marissa and Mia were very excited about the new movies that they received. Mia got the new Tinker Bell movie and Marissa got Wall-e!

This picture was actually taken on Christmas Eve at Mimi & Joe's house. But it was too cute not to post!

Santa brought Mia a very fun Wall-E Learning Game
Smile Mia!!

And he brought both of them a Barbie Karaoke radio. They both LOVE to sing, so now they can share many duets together!

This was also a big year for Littlest Petshop toys! Marissa got a Littlest Petshop Wii Game from Santa too! She loves it!

We were so thankful to have Mimi and Joe and Kristy with us for Christmas Day! And we were also celebrating Kristy's awesome grades this semester! She even made the Dean's List! What a great Christmas present for her! We are so proud!

You would never have known that it was a bad economy at our house this Christmas. Mimi and Joe spoiled the girls rotten and they loved every minute of it!

Family Time

2009-01-23T20:32:00.000-06:00

We celebrated Christmas with the Mallingers the weekend before Christmas since we planned to leave on our ski vacation the day after Christmas. It was really nice to have almost all of the family together. We missed those that couldn't be with us though! All of the kids got what they wanted as usual... and here are some cute pics from that day...

Now Marissa has her own alarm clock to wake her up at 6:30 every morning!

Mia got some super cute clothes from Rachael-Anne and family
Here is our crew!
Front row: Marissa, Mia, Dori, Jacob
Back row: Zachary, Rachael-Anne, Miles

Just the girls!
At the end of the day, the bubble wrap got more play time than the toys! Ha! Go figure!

Playgroup Christmas Party

2009-01-23T20:00:00.000-06:00

After 2 super fun class parties, me and the girls hosted our playgroup Christmas party! It was marathon party day and unfortunately our beautiful "real" Christmas tree was a killer on my allergies! By the time this party came around I had practically lost my voice.

But, the party must go on! Our wonderful playgroup leaders - Ms. Melissa and Ms. Donetta had some fun stuff planned for the kids and all we had to do was open our house up to these wonderful kids and their moms and Santa! Yes, Santa!

Every mom brought a dish for our potluck, including an awesome veggie tree which was almost too pretty to eat! The kids were thrilled to be together but when Santa walked through our door that just made it perfect! Santa had a gift for all the kids at the party and each child received an ornament through an ornament exchange!

All the kids crowded around Santa anxiously waiting for their names to be called! They were in total awe! It was a sight to see!

Marissa graciously accepts her present from Santa!

Marissa and Mia both got these books that came with charm necklaces. It was really a Santa miracle because they had been begging me for these books just the day before. Thanks Santa!

After an awesome visit with Santa and some really good food, we headed out the door to do some caroling. You would have thought these kids were the Forest Oaks Children's Choir! They were totally into it and sang Jingle Bells without skipping a beat! The caroling was a huge hit and the kids had such a great time! We love our playgroup and are so blessed to be a part of it!

2009-01-23T16:52:00.000-06:00

So back to that busy week.....

After the wonderful performance at High Hopes, it was classroom party time at both Marissa & Mia's schools! And playgroup party to boot!

We started the day at Marissa's school. The Kinder hall did the coolest thing... They did a rotation party where each classroom hosted a different activity for the kids. Marissa's class was the face painting class! So, I volunteered to help out with that during the morning. It was so fun because not only did I get to paint the faces of some of Marissa's cutie-patootie friends from her class, but I also got to see and visit with little friends from other classes. The kids could choose from 5 or 6 different designs from a Christmas Tree, stocking, reindeer and even a few Hanukkah symbols. It was really fun! The other rooms had the kiddos decorate and eat cookies, play musical blankets (same concept as musical chairs), dressed up like Rudolph with painted red nose and antlers, and they got to visit with Santa too! It was a great morning for the Cox Kindergarteners!
Since I was busy volunteering, I wasn't able to take pics, but I'm hoping Marissa's teacher was able to get some and will post some on her website.... UPDATE - Check out this website to see a slideshow from the Rotation Party. You have to click the download button.

http://classroom.leanderisd.org/webs/anne.boone/christmas_rotation_party.htm

So, 10:00 (yes, AM) comes around and its time for me to head over to High Hopes for the Fishy Party! Mia's class was having pizza for lunch and guess who was the Pizza Delivery Lady? You guessed it! Thank goodness for Little Caesars and their pick up to-go pizzas! They make class parties super easy! So Mia and the other Fishies had pizza and fruit salad for lunch as a special treat and then they partied for the rest of the day. As the "Helper Mom" for the Fishy class, I brought some Christmas craft activities. It's the very least I could do considering all the fabulous activities that Ms. Joy and Ms. Christie keep them busy with the rest of the year! And boy do they stay busy!!

Here are some pictures of the ornaments that the kids decorated with glitter and stickers. They were plastic balls, so they were easy for the 3 year olds to handle. Mia and her friends were proud of their creations!

Then, they decorated gingerbread cookies with icing and candy. And that was dessert! Yum, yum!

After some super fun crafting and a round of musical blankets (thank you Kinder hall), the Fishy class did a book exchange. It was a good time!

This is Marissa's fabulous Fishy class!
Front row: Rylan, Gavin, Emily, Kennedi
Back Row: Avery, Abby, Ava, Mia, Saint Joy (I mean Ms. Joy), Madison, Isabelle

Next....Mia's High Hopes Christmas Performance

2009-01-16T16:55:00.000-06:00

Believe it or not, the last 2 blog entries, this one and the next 2 that will follow, all happened in the same crazy week! It was end of school/holiday happiness, (or Mommy madness for some - not naming any names) but we all survived and were happy for it!

One of the things that I love about High Hopes preschool is their fabulous teachers and the time that they spend teaching them about God and their approach through song! Mia loves her teachers - Ms. Joy, Ms. Christie and Ms. Patti! They are all awesome and we are so blessed to have them in our lives!

On Wednesday night (night after back to back dance recitals), Mia had another performance at High Hopes singing all the beautiful songs that she learns from Ms. Patti! Mia got all dressed up in her Christmas attire and hit the stage! The Mallinger family was in full attendance with Uncle James & Aunt Luci, Aunt Christy, Grandma & Grandpa!

It was sooo cute! As soon as they came out on the stage all the kiddos started looking for their parents and waving to them! Mia was no different - she was thrilled to see many Mallinger faces in the audience waving back at her!

Mia sang with all of her classmates several songs and did hand motions too! Again, Mia was in her element! She just loves to be on stage and sang every song from deep down in her heart! I LOVE hearing her sing and hope she will always enjoy performing as much as she does as a 3 year old!

Dance Party II

2009-01-16T16:18:00.001-06:00

On Tuesday afternoon we were back up at Dance eMotions and Marissa had her chance to show off her dance skills with a snazzy tap routine to "Do you believe in magic?" Luckily, she also had a wonderfully simple and cute costume! These are usually the scarfs that they dance with for free movement - so this was an extra special occasion to wear them! Marissa also had the support of her fan club in the audience (as always) and turned on her tapping skills! Marissa loved this dance and you could tell because she was boppin' those hips with attitude!

Daddy and Joe surprised Marissa with some flowers and made her feel Super Special!
I could not have been more proud of both of my Dancing Queens!

Dance Parties - December

2009-01-16T10:29:00.000-06:00

I have to admit that writing back in time is actually kinda fun. I get to relive the memory of the days that likely flashed by before I could even cherish the moment. As a mom, I always find myself planning, planning, planning for an event that is coming up in my children's life and before I know it, it's over and we are on planning for the next event...

In December, both girls participated in a Christmas dance recital with Dance eMotions. Mia's dance class is during the day - Mondays at 11:00 and she did a tap routine to that old but sweet song "Baby Face" - you know it, "You've got the cutest little baby face...."

Now, Mia loves to dance and she equally loves to perform! They had been practicing this dance for over a month, every time she came to class! And the teacher even gave us a copy of the song to practice at home. All the cute 3 year olds were dressed in their pink leotards and pink tights and Ms. Sarah supplied the decorative ribbon for them to wear around their bellies.

Unfortunately Mia had been having a rough time with bloody noses through the week so we were stressing when it started up right before she was supposed to perform! Luckily, we were able to get her cleaned up with minimal mess and she turned on like a Christmas tree when that song started up! Both of my kids are theatrical but Mia tops it! She really reminds me of how my sister used to entertain all of us when she was about 4 years old too!

Mia had her fan club on hand with Daddy, Mimi and Joe, Aunt Luci and Vanessa all in the audience! She LOVES being in the spot light!

Daddy surprised Mia with some beautiful Christmas flowers to congratulate her on her fabulous performance! We also got to watch another group of small dancers and then we celebrated with a little party. It was such a great way for all the girls to show off what they had been learning in dance class! Way to go Mia!

Chuy's Parade

2009-01-16T09:19:00.000-06:00

As part of our Girl Scout service, we attended the Chuy's Children Giving to Children Parade on Saturday, November 29th. Me & Marissa and her Scout friend, Samantha and her family went downtown to join in the fun! It was the first time me & Marissa had gone to the parade, but Samantha and her family were old pros, so we were happy to follow their lead!

It was a chilly day in Austin, Texas so we were bundled up and praying for no rain while the parade was going on!

We watched the entertaining performers and put gifts in the big truck at the end of the parade. There was a great turn out, so we squeezed in tight to find a spot where we could see.

All of the kids were very antsy and excited about putting their presents on the truck! It was nice to see so many children interested in giving toys to those that are less fortunate. I'm pretty sure that truck was loaded up by the time everyone was finished and it was ready to drive a way! What a sight!

Thanksgiving 2008

2009-01-16T08:34:00.000-06:00

After getting through Marissa's 6th birthday, we prepared for a small Thanksgiving celebration at our house. Daniel grilled the turkey this year for the first time on his own and my parents and Kristy came over to our house. It was a muggy day and we were wondering if we'd be heading out to the UT/A&M game later that evening, but we were so stuffed with turkey that we decided to watch from home...We were all decked out in our UT gear to cheer on our Longhorns!

Marissa and Mia both got many lessons on the meaning of Thanksgiving this year - Marissa was suited up in a paper Pilgrim outfit which she also wore at her school Thanksgiving feast! Mia recited a Bible verse for us and it was just wonderful!

We were soo happy to have our Kristy home from Texas State - she is working so hard this year and this was such a nice break for her! Plus, she always takes great pictures for us too! She loves being home and visiting the girls and we love having her here!

Mia is learning so much at High Hopes Preschool and she weaved this placemat and learned this wonderful Bible Verse! Wanna be inspired? Watch this video. It is so sweet!

Catching up....

2009-01-16T07:14:00.000-06:00

Ok, how do you wrap up when you haven't blogged in 11 weeks? And you had a birthday party, celebrated 2 holidays, went on vacation and started a new year? well, ya um - we've been a little busy!

Working backward from November 25th when Marissa turned 6 years old....
We celebrated her birthday with many friends and family at Extreme Fun on Saturday, November 22nd! It was a great day to bounce and bounce and bounce! I could be wrong, but this just might be the last year that Marissa will want her birthday at an inflatable place, so we tried to relish the moment! However, I'm pretty sure that people of any age would take advantage of this past time if they didn't put an age and size limit on those bouncies! Marissa got soooo many awesome gifts - some of her big surprises included Pixos, a sewing machine, Kung Fu Panda movie and her own "make your own" jewelry box (which she's been admiring since Mia got one for her birthday).

(Marissa is in shock when she opens the Dance Dance Revolution from Mimi and Joe! I wonder if she's happy? Ha!)

I have to give big props to Marissa's daddy for saving the day and getting her delicious birthday cake delivered to the party on time... We had ordered the cake from Sam's and attempted to pick it up the night before, but there was no record of our order! Eeek! Luckily Daddy got right on it and made sure that they would have it ready for Marissa's party before 9:00 on that Saturday morning! It was really pretty and very yummy!

I can hardly believe my first born is already 6 years old! I'm sure that I said that last year too, but the time really does seem to move faster and faster every year!

On Marissa's actual birthday, on Tuesday, November 25th, everyone was out of school for the Thanksgiving break, so Rachael-Anne, Mia and I took her for her next major lifetime milestone - she got her ear pierced!

It was a little iffy at the beginning, but after really thinking it through, Marissa got brave enough to sit through the piercing. Luckily we had arranged for 2 people to be there so that they could do both ears at the same time! After it was over she was very proud and happy about her accomplishment and the earrings looked just precious on her! We almost had Mia convinced to get her ears pierced too (especially since she LOVES jewelry), but then she bailed out right before it was time to get the earrings in.... Marissa said it only hurt for a second when the earrings went in. It was a proud moment for all of us!

Really great day with Mia!

2008-11-12T20:22:00.000-06:00

I just want to document for the record, that today was a fabulous day for Mia! We had such as nice time together. I don't even remember a moment today that she cried or complained just for the fun of it! She was very excited because she knew that today was her soccer class and it was the last class of the session, so it was Parent Participation Day and Party Day! We had a blast on the soccer field together! And, one of her buddies from school was visiting soccer class too, so that made it really fun! When we got home from soccer she ate some lunch and then went to her room on her own, took off her shoes and took a nap. It was miraculous! So, as a reward, I let her watch the Barbie Diamond Princess movie for the first time, which kept her entertained during Marissa's Daisy meeting tonight. Anyway, thank you God for this wonderful day! It was a blessing to say the least! Love ya Mia! She is entering the Terrific 3 stage!

TOP 3 - Lost Tooth, School & Halloween Celebrations!

2008-11-07T11:12:00.000-06:00

October was a milestone month for the Mallinger girls!
1) Marissa lost her first tooth early Monday morning, October 27th.
This tooth has been loose for months! But it was hanging on and hanging on and driving Marissa bonkers! She kept on pushing it with her tongue to loosen it up and managed to fall asleep with it still on on Sunday night. At 5:50 AM Monday morning she came to my bedside to let me know that her tooth had finally come out! Since it was still dark outside she went back to bed before it was time to get up for school. When I went to get her up at 6:30, she informed me that the tooth fairy hadn't come yet! I had to explain to her that the Tooth Fairy only came in the middle of the night and she would have to wait another night. She was a little disappointed since she had her Tooth Fairy pillow all ready to go for the Tooth Fairy's arrival! Luckily she did visit our house on Monday night and left Marissa a whopping $3!

2) Lots of Halloween to Celebrate!!
Mia's class at High Hopes Preschool had a Halloween class party on Thursday, October 30th! All the kids came dressed up and Mia was a cute Princess Fairy! As the class mom, I provided the games and goodies and we had a really great time! We decorated cookies, played pass the pumpkin to Monster Mash, decorated our trick-or-treat bags, played pin the nose on the pumpkin and got wrapped up as little mummies! Then the kids treated each other with goodies that they brought in for the class.

They all looked so cute dressed up in their costumes and Mia's teachers were very appreciative for the party festivities! The kiddos got lots of candy and had many craft projects to take home that day! Mia just loves getting dressed up for Halloween and still asks me almost everyday if it is Halloween! Ha!

We also had the pleasure of celebrating Halloween with our FABULOUS neighborhood play group! These mamas are no joke! They do Halloween partying right and planned a huge Halloween carnival for our group on Thursday, October 23rd! Each mom pitched in a little and made it super fun for the kids and moms alike! We had several stations set up including face painting, picture taking, cookie decorating, pumpkin painting and much, more more!

Marissa was dressed up as a witch and actually wore the long black wig that I had from a Zena costume from many years ago!!
Of course, Mia was her favorite character! She might just make us call her Princess Mia soon! I wore my angel costume and the kids were tickled that I got dressed up too! We had sooo much fun with our friends and saw a few that we hadn't seen in a while too.

On Halloween night, Mia switched out her costume to a soft and feathery kitty costume that Mimi brought over. Once she got over the tickling feathers and saw how cute she looked, she was a happy kitty! Mimi, Joe and Kristy joined us for trick-or-treating around our street loop and the girls raked in loads of candy! Marissa was even complaining about how heavy her bag was! It was a good night and we even lit up our jack-o-lanterns that we had carved the night before.

3. Last but not LEAST, Marissa received her first report card this week! She has mastered all of her required reading and math skills for the first 9 weeks and received all Satisfactory for everything else (there are 2 options: Needs Improvement or Satisfactory) so this is a good thing. Her teacher also wrote that she has enjoyed getting to know Marissa and that she is a leader! I was so proud, it brought a tear to my eye! Way to go Marissa on an awesome first report card!

First Daisy Meeting

2008-10-17T21:42:00.000-05:00

On Wednesday, October 15th Marissa and her mom hosted the first ever Daisy Girl Scout meeting for Troop 854 at our house. We had 5 girls attend and 4 out of the 5 are in Ms. Boone's class! What are the chances?

Anyway, we started out with making Daisy shaped name tags. Marissa was very excited to wear her Daisy uniform with her Troop number and American flag proudly displayed! She is official now!

Next we got the girls together for the Daisy Circle where we say the Pledge of Allegiance, Girl Scout Promise and Girl Scout Law! It has changed a little since I was in Girl Scouts, so we are all learning it together. Then the girls went around the circle and introduced themselves and had a little sharing time. Since this was our first meeting, we also invited siblings and Moms to join in the circle too! It was lots of fun! I am sure that it brought back some memories for the other mommies too! Next up was a fun game called "Daisy to Daisy" - this one was right up their alley! They got to be silly and giggle alot! In this picture they are doing "Ear to Ear"! Smiles all around!

Our craft activity was to get a partner and trace each other. Then the girls decorated their pictures with colored yarn for hair and different materials for clothes. The moms helped out and the craft was a hit! We ended our meeting with a fabulous and not-so-nutritional trail mix that each girl got to help mix. It included colored cheerios, raisins, reeses pieces, popcorn, banana chips, yogurt covered raisins, chocolate chips, and more. Even though I am sure that it probably ruined their dinner, the girls LOVED it! I think it was a very successful first meeting and we are looking forward to the next one! Her Aunt Kristy and Fellow Girl Scout would be sooo proud! Go Daisies!

Visit to Sweet Berry Farms for Fall Fun!

2008-10-13T21:36:00.000-05:00

Today was a school holiday, so me and the girls headed to Marble Falls to visit Sweet Berry Farms! It was the first time we had ever been out there, but we went along with our friends from playgroup who have been there several times and always have lots of fun.

We started out early this morning and the trip to Marble Falls was not only through the scenic Hill Country but the road is like a long roller coaster! The girls and I loved the hills as we took in all the beautiful green foliage around us.

We arrived at Sweet Berry Farm around 10:30 and as we waited for our group to all get there we took a bunch of pictures! There were so many photo ops with the many different kinds of pumpkins that they have there! In the fall, they turn the place into a Pumpkin Patch since the strawberries are out of season. We got to paint pumpkins, and then we had a little rain shower...
Luckily the rain stopped and we decided to sit and eat some lunch with our friends. Pony rides were after lunch and Mia actually got on the horse and LOVED it! I am pretty sure that was her very first pony ride! Then we went on a very dusty hay ride! Not much grass in the area that we rode in, so we all experienced the dust storm at Sweet Berry Farms. Didn't phase the kiddos much though. They had a blast!
We also got to feed some billy goats that liked to hang out in the trees. Then those little goats figured out that all these kids had food for them and couldn't stick their necks through the fence fast enough! Marissa and Mia LOVED feeding the goats! Last, but not least, we went through a hay maze with our friends and it was pretty cool! Luckily, I went with the kids, so we made our way out pretty easily. Even though, I am notorious for getting lost in hay mazes!

Towards the end, we grabbed some bails of hay to add to our Halloween decor at home and of course, picked out a few more pumpkins before heading home.

We had such a great time, minus a few bad run-ins with the bees. Marissa hates em and she was a little paranoid about getting stung to say the least.... Other than that, we were happy campers, they even took a little rest on the way home!! Back to school tomorrow....

TOP 5

2008-09-26T10:39:00.000-05:00

I recently got a great idea from a fellow mom and blogger - if you get behind on blogging, you can just do a Top 5 of the most exciting things that have happened, so here we go!

1) September 20th, Good Times at St. Thomas More's Fun Fest - Last weekend we participated in the Fun Fest at our new church, St. Thomas More. The girls had a blast and we brought Rachael-Anne & Joe with us too! We got to visit with Grandma Mary at the Silent Auction and Grandpa hung out with us too! There were sooo many games for the kids, all the classics, from Fishing pond and Dart ballons and many, many more. Brought back many memories of growing up with the St. Louis Fun Fest! We made many visits to the Cake Walk & Wine Game. Fortunately the Wine Game also had DVDs and Rachael-Anne was the lucky winner bringing home Lord of the Rings and National Treasure! We finally got lucky at the Cake Walk on our last round of tickets and brought home a chocolate bundt cake and some brownie bites.

I also made a few cakes to donate to the carnival, here is a picture of my Chocolate Longhorn Cake. The girls had a blast helping me mix all the ingredients for the cake and Mia cracked her first perfect egg without even breaking the yolk! Don't worry, I did inspect for egg shell! They were more than willing to lick up the cake batter bowl for me after.

Anyway, we ended our Fest fun with some messy but refreshing snow cones, as you can see all the girls like Cherry flavor.

2) September 21st - Wedding Shower for Christine & Nick - another one bites the dust!!! One of my long-time friends, Christine Cottrell is planning to get married in November and our old crew all came together for an awesome Italian Style Couples Shower! It was so great to see many of my old pals! We recruited Rachael-Anne again to help out with the kiddos that came along to the shower and I have to say that she made a killing in babysitting jobs while she was at my house this weekend!!! Dori G. (and soon to be mama of 2) was the the MC of the shower and came fully prepared to keep the kids busy with bubbles and lots of entertainment! The happy couple were good sports with a little Couple Q&A Game and of course posing with all the guests to capture the happy memories! Although we were completely wiped out on Sunday night it was all worth it! Can't wait until the wedding!
Left to right: Amanda Wilson, Gina Siste, Jennifer, Christine "Bride to Be", Dori Gardner, Cristina Garza, Cathy Douglas, me!

3) Starting up Daisy Girl Scout Troop 854! It's official, Marissa is now a Daisy Girl Scout and her mother is the co-leader.... How do I get myself into these responsibilities? I don't know, but I have several hours of Girl Scout training under my belt after this past week, so we are ready to start planning our first official meeting!! There are a few girls from Marissa's class in the troop and so far they all seem to get along just fine! We met up for a Girl Scout rally on Sunday and the girls got to do some fun GS crafts with the Brownies and Juniors of Cedar Park! We can't wait to start earning our Daisy petals!

4) Mia continues her 2nd season of Soccer Tots!! Mia is loving her soccer class at Soccer Zone, so we have signed her up for another season! Since she starts out the week without her big sister, and at home with boring old mom, we decided that Monday would be a great time for her to kick off the week with some fun soccer time! It's all about Mia - Mondays at 10:00! She was thrilled to show off her skills for cousins Miles and Dori while they evacuated to our house during Hurricane Ike. Although it was terrible circumstances, the evacuees got some time to catch up with the Austin Mallingers while they were here!

5) Pics of Marissa's Class Activities - Marissa is LOVING kindergarten! We are only 6 weeks in and she has already done a Teddy Bear Picnic, Pajama Day and Grandparent's Day! Her teacher posts pictures of these events on her website at http://classroom.leanderisd.org/webs/anne.boone/photo_album.htm

Last week Marissa also got to evacuate her school for a fire "drill" and visited the nurse all in the same day. Apparently she got play-doh in her eye and the nurse gave her some saline drops to fix her right up! What an exciting day!

Mia starts dance tomorrow so stay tuned for some pics on that!!

For the record....

2008-09-09T10:22:00.000-05:00

This one is mostly for the mamas and me....
OCD runs in my family and my children have it too!

Mia - 3:

Must get into and buckle self into car seat independently and on her own time.
Must get out of car by herself and on her own time.
Must carry backpack and lunch box into school by herself!
Must hang up backpack on her hook at school by herself!
Resists holding hands in the parking lot (of course, I think most kids do this at some point)
Just stop helping me mom, for goodness sake!!!

Marissa - 5:

Did many of the same things Mia does now at that age....
Must try everything many, many times before admitting she needs help (i.e. tying shoe laces)
Wants to help with cooking and pouring and getting things out of the fridge!
Must have control over the computer when she is in the chair... until she gives up and admits she needs help.

I just love my little "Independents"!

When I was pregnant with Mia, Marissa always wanted to do everything in the bathroom by herself - especially in public bathrooms such as washing her hands, reaching the soap, activating the sensor on the paper towel machine... Anyway, one evening I got really frustrated in full-on "LET ME DO IT" mode and this older lady (probably a wise and loving grandmother) told me, you'll be happy she is so independent when your second one comes. So I tried to chill and let Marissa do more on her own after I was ever so tactfully put in my place. Gotta love being a mom! chuckle, chuckle!

I was just remembering these moments today and wanted to journal them before I lose my memory completely because it is bound to happen! (probably much sooner than I would like)

Much Appreciation for Grandparents!

2008-09-08T18:05:00.000-05:00

Really, what would we do without grandparents?

Sunday and Monday we had an opportunity to show a few of the grandparents and great-grandparents in our lives just how much we love them. Meanwhile, we missed the ones that we couldn't be with due to distance or loss.

We are so blessed to still have Great Grandma and Grandpa Schmidt with us and also to have them living close by. On Sunday we went to an ice cream social at Cedar Ridge to celebrate Grandparents Day with Grandma Carmen and Grandpa Melvin and enjoyed each others company. And great-grandkids, Mia, Marissa and Rachael-Anne put big smiles on their faces! Ginny girl made Grandma really happy too!

Today, Cox Elementary also hosted a lunch for Grandparents Day and you can bet your bottom dollar that Mimi was not going to miss a lunch date with her little Marissa! She even brought her a special "Cake in a Cone" sweet treat! Since the parents of Cox have not been allowed to have lunch with their kids for the first 2 weeks, this was Marissa's official first lunch visit! She was sooo happy to have her Mimi there! Joe and Grandma Mary and Grandpa Tom were greatly missed, but we hope to have them there next year! Happy Grandparents Day!!!

Alone at home....

2008-09-05T10:40:00.000-05:00

Today is my first day alone at home while the girls are both at school.
I am supposed to be working, but instead I am blogging and reading about other peoples interesting lives and catching up on LOTS of e-mail.

The house is so quiet I can even hear the weed eater of a lawn service that is working at my distant neighbors home. Now that is quiet! I have my coffee and my cluttered desk and no one is fighting me to play on the computer.

This is an odd experience... maybe I'll turn Barney on just I so I can get back into my groove!

Day 4 of Kindergarten

2008-08-28T13:04:00.000-05:00

Wow, how the week has flown by! Marissa is already on Day 4 of Kindergarten. She has experienced so many new things this week including buying her lunch from the cafeteria! On Tuesday she had a hamburger, carrots and chocolate milk and you would have thought that was the best meal that she had ever been served in her life! FIVE STARS for Cox Elementary Cafeteria for sure! Today is Cheese Pizza, so we'll have to see if that is just as good!

Mia and I have been dropping Marissa off at her room everyday and so many moms have told me that their children don't want to be walked to their room anymore. I guess I am lucky that Marissa hasn't kicked me to the side yet... She also got to meet the teacher's class bird, which was pretty exciting for her! However she is mindful of the rules - "Don't stick your fingers in the cage or the bird might bite!"

Today Mia got to visit High Hopes to meet her new teacher for Mother's Day Out! We found out that there are several other fun little girls in her class as well, so I am sure that she is in for a great year! Tuesday will be her first day!

Well last night was my last swim lesson at Nitro. Not sure what's next, except that I will probably be practicing more on my own until I am ready for some kind of fitness swimming. I really LOVE the lessons, but now that I have to be home to get the kids into bed early, I might have to try to do it when they are both in school or something. I think I am going to sign the girls up for another round of lessons though just because they love it and I am always inspired when I see how comfortable the swim team kids are in the water. It just amazes me! I could only dream of doing 6 body waves and 6 free style arms and then taking my first breath! Ugh....

First Day of Kindergarten

2008-08-25T21:13:00.000-05:00

Marissa's first day of kindergarten was a pure success! I asked her what she didn't like about it and she said, "I like everything about it!" You just can't beat that! Her mother had a successful day as well with no water works! Marissa's teacher is Ms. Boone and she has several friends in her class including Jase and Giovanni who were her buddies from Buttons & Bows! Marissa said that she went to P.E. today and got to play on the play ground 2 times! And the nap was really short so that was okay with her! (but she didn't actually go to sleep, of course) She was so proud because I left her a little note in her lunch box and she was able to read it herself! She was just tickled pink about that!

Me & Mia went to breakfast with Aunt Luci this morning and then Aunt Luci came to watch Mia at her soccer class which made her very happy! The rest of the morning was a little boring for Mia without "Rissa" but she managed to make it through.

Tonight both girls were ready for baths and bed and were both asleep by 8:00!! We'll be ready for another great school day tomorrow! Stay tuned, Marissa will be buying her lunch for the first time at the cafeteria tomorrow! Can't wait to hear how that goes!!

OMG - where did the summer go???

2008-08-23T18:27:00.000-05:00

Wow! Well it is August 23rd and I have failed to blog once since Marissa's pre-school graduation and on Monday she is off to start kindergarten!! It has been the busiest summer of my life and we didn't even take a family vacation. I'm just exhausted! Here's how our week goes...

Monday morning - Mia's soccer class
Monday night - Marissa's dance class
Wednesday night - Mommy swims - Yea!
Thursday - Playgroup!!
Friday - Marissa & Mia swim
Saturday - Marissa's soccer games

Luckily all of that has come to a screeching halt with today being the last day of Marissa's soccer academy! She ended the season with a goal and a shiny medal! Way to go Marissa!

It is so hard to believe that Marissa is starting kinder! We are thrilled with the teacher that she has and she already knows half the class, so we don't have to worry about her feeling lonely - that's for sure! I'm not sure how we managed to get into the same class with 6 other children that we already know when there are 8 kindergarten classes at the school, but I am thankful she will be among friends on her first day!

Mia turned 3 on August 9th and we celebrated with the dreaded (for me) birthday party at Chuck E Cheese. To my surprise and delight, it was the first birthday party that I hosted that I was able to enjoy. Those C.E.C hosts keep everyone on time and happy! Mia and her guests had a great time and so far 3 is just as terrific as 2! I am being totally sarcastic here... Mia seems to have ramped up on the "Terrible" part of these ages with the letter "T", too bad we can't just jump to 4! Just kidding really!

We managed to get her 3 year old picture taken! I finally went back to my favorite picture spot at the mall -ha-ha-ha- every time I go there something has to go wrong! We did manage to get in as the first customer of the day which is good because Mia's happy morning mood held out long enough to get some really cute shots. Unfortunately that day, at this said Mall "picture place" had to change their software for viewing and sharing the shots with customers. By the time they got our pictures loaded and ready to view, Mia was in melt down mode. Luckily that seemed to save me money because I just didn't have enough time to think about spending alot of money so I just got a few sheets of the really cute ones. Then we ran out of the mall as fast as we could, Mia leaving everyone behind with her screams and cries. Sometimes there is just nothing you can do when the split personality comes out, I just try to get the you-know-what home as fast as I can.
Another major change for Mia since she has turned 3 is her transition to her big girl bed! Mia has been in her crib up until now and has not once tried to climb out which has been fabulous and totally opposite of Marissa. We couldn't even keep Marissa in her crib past 18 months! So far Mia is getting comfortable with her new bed and has only fallen out twice, but it was within the first week of having the bed so hopefully we won't have to add rails. We'll see....

Today we moved my sister, Kristy to San Marcos! This is Kristy's first move EVER! But she has 3 great roommates, her own room and bathroom so I'm pretty sure she is set! We all went to help Kristy move in and get settled. YEA! Go Kristy and Go Bobcats!

Stay tuned for next weeks back to school blogs!!! I promise a play by play!

Pre School Graduation

2008-06-13T16:26:00.000-05:00

Marissa said good-bye to High Hopes Pre-school
on May 29th. I can hardly believe she will start kindergarten in August! The rock star teachers at High Hopes sent her and her classmates off with a wonderful blessing at the nicest pre-school graduation that I have ever attended! Marissa and her class sang songs that they learned from Mrs. Patty's class (WE LOVE MRS. PATTY) and each child got to go up on stage and tell everyone where they were going to kindergarten and what they wanted to be when they grew up. Marissa's teacher told her she will be a wonderful teacher but she will always be God's Little Princess! Each student received a special book - the girls got "Gigi, God's Little Princess"

Our fabulous teacher (I'm not biased - ha!) organized the graduation and it was truly a moment I will never forget! As usual, Marissa's fan club was in the audience to cheer her on in another major milestone of life!I am so thankful for Aunt Luci who told us about High Hopes when we needed Mother's Day Out, but she is also the reason why Marissa has learned SO MUCH in her preschool years and will definitely be ready for kinder! Aunt Luci surprised Marissa with her binder from her days at Buttons & Bows on the night of her graduation. Buttons & Bows puts together a scrap book of memories for the kids that attend preschool there - each student receives one when they leave to go to kindergarten. Although Marissa's stay at B&B was cut short when I left work, she still had a HUMONGOUS binder of memories from her 2 years there! She learned so much from Miss Luci and Miss Nancy and we are so thankful to have them in our lives!

Now we are working on the summer calendar that Cox Elementary provided for preparing for kindergarten. Lucky for Marissa most of it is just review and she should be ready to go on August 25th! As for me, that is another story! At least I will still have Mia around for a few more years!

A month of recitals!

2008-05-29T20:48:00.000-05:00

On Mother's Day, May 11th, Marissa participated in her 2nd recital at Connelly High School. This year she took classes at Dancer's Workshop and did a ballet to "How Does She Know" from the movie, Enchanted. Marissa wore the sweetest pink outfit with lace and ribbon galore! On the day of her recital she had a huge fan club in the audience including Mimi, Joe and Kristy, Grandma & Grandpa Mallinger, Aunt Christy, Uncle James and Aunt Luci, Rachael-Anne and Uncle John, Aunt Kelly, Miles and Dori!

What more could a girl ask for in a supportive family! Marissa did a great job even though she was a little sleepy from staying up a little too late the night before.... Marissa danced beautifully and was the cutest ballerina on the stage! After the recital she was presented with flowers and gifts from her loving fan club! What a day for a 5 year old!

On Memorial weekend we headed to Katy for Dori's recital. Dori is a much more seasoned dancer, who Marissa really looks up to! This year she did a jazz and ballet routine and was the star in both! We always enjoy watching Dori perform, although dancing is just one of her many talents. You can always tell that she puts her whole heart into her dancing! She never misses a beat or loses her smile! The Adamson Ballet School always holds the most impressive recitals that I've ever seen and it is always such a treat!

Hopefully soon we will be able to watch our oldest dancer, Rachael-Anne, when she joins the Dance Emotions performing team! We just LOVE our dancers!! Marissa and Mia have some wonderful dancing role models to look up too! And who knows, maybe Marissa and Rachael-Anne can perform in the same recital some day! Wouldn't that be neat!!

Catching up on May!

2008-05-18T21:00:00.000-05:00

On May 1st I took Marissa to the pediatrician to check out a scrape on her knee that was getting progressively worse and now was causing her to limp. Our pediatrician took a culture of her knee wound and sent us to the lab for blood tests. This was a very scary day for Marissa since she had never had blood drawn. She was a trooper after another nurse came in to help hold her still with me. She screamed just like any 5 year old would but we got the blood test done! A few hours later

I got the first call that everything appeared to look average and I was going to need to give Marissa a prescription for a skin infection. Seconds later I got another call but this one had my frantic pediatrician on the line saying that Marissa's second round of tests showed severe inflammation and I needed to take her to the Children's Hospital to see a pediatric surgeon. So, my mind was racing about a thousand miles an hour and all I could do was act like nothing was wrong for Marissa's sake! So Daniel came home to stay with Mia and Marissa and I headed down to the Children's Hospital which I dreaded more than I can describe. Probably because no happy stories are ever associated with the Children's Hospital - none that I could recollect at the moment anyway. So we got there around 3:00 and got checked into a room pretty quickly. Soon after we were introduced to the Kid Coach which is the lady that helps smooth over information that is hard for children to understand. We really liked this lady! So about an hour later the doctor came in and diagnosed Marissa with MRSA. Surprisingly to me he said that he saw cases like this all the time - about 10 - 12 cases PER DAY!! He recommended making an incision to remove the infection. Luckily Daniel was able to be at the hospital with us after my mom went to our house to take care of Mia.

About 8:30/9:00pm that night, Marissa was given an IV for pain medication to prepare for the incision. It was no easy task for her or for for us to watch. Unfortunately she had to watch most of the procedure until the Kid Coach showed up (better late than never) to distract her with a huge Disney "Find the princess in the picture" book. I don't think she really felt it all but since she could see what was happening she was scared to death. About 15 minutes later the wound was drained and Marissa was patched up and we got ready to take her home with a knee immobilizer and more prescriptions. Her knee had to heel from the inside out so there were no stitches involved. When we got home Mimi, Joe and Kristy were waiting for her to check on her and give her get-well kisses. Luckily Mimi spent the night and helped us the whole next day! We were so thankful for Mimi!

So we doctored her all weekend long and on Monday morning I called our pediatrician to let her know what happened to Marissa. The pediatrician told me that the culture came back as STREP and NOT MRSA!! I guess I was relieved considering the seriousness of the epidemic. (yes, these were the doctor's words).

The following week she stayed home from school and healed and got to perform in her ballet recital on Mother's Day with all of her biggest fans in the audience! I'll blog more on that next!

Anyway, today is May 18th and Marissa has healed from the knee incision and got to go to swimming and soccer this past weekend! We are so thankful to have our active little girl back in action!!

Other outings

2008-04-20T16:29:00.000-05:00

I didn't have a chance to blog on a fun day we spent down at Central Market On April 2nd. The Biscuit Brothers were having a CD release party and we attended to help support them and enjoy a great concert. I don't know that much about the Biscuit Brothers, but the kids have watched them on our local PBS channel and have always enjoyed their show and entertaining songs. We got to the concert pretty early to find a seat on the patio at Central Market and luckily Mimi came along to help keep Mia and Marissa in close range. Any children's event usually turns out to be a bit chaotic and this one was no different.

The weather had been threatening rain and we were just keeping our fingers crossed that the sky wouldn't open up on us that evening. Marissa and Mia got their new CD signed and got a very cute picture with Dusty, Buford and Buttermilk Biscuit! Marissa also talked me into a blow up guitar that I couldn't even blow up until Mimi helped me. Thank God Mimi was there! The Central Market patio got packed with kids and their parents and even though we were lucky enough to have a table to sit down at, the people still piled in in front of us. The music was lots of fun and the girls enjoyed the songs for as long as they could sit still and stay in one place. We had a great time that day and had a few pictures to remember the fun! This is definitely one of those days that I would have missed out on if I was not a "work from home mom" and I'm just thankful to have been able to be there and enjoy this day with the kids and my Mom.

Skipping out on the schedule!

2008-04-07T22:49:00.000-05:00

Today started out LATE!! Mia slept later than her usual time - mostly because the Austin allergies are starting to wear on her. If she has any of my genes, she is cursed with it!! She woke up with a snot filled face this morning but surprisingly was happy to face the day after I cleaned her up. Since we were running so late for our playgroup at the farthest Meet Up spot that we have ever participated in, we grabbed an Oatmeal bar for the road and hit it down 183 to Mopac to The Nature & Science Center down by Zilker. We were way later than our 10:00 meeting time, but lucky for me, one of the other Moms from play group saw us wondering around and steered us back to the group before we got too lost among the birds, owls and other cages. Once we got on track, we got to see a coyote, raccoons, opossums and lots of other cool animals. That was followed by a visit to the stinky amphibian/reptile room where the kids got way too close to the snakes and other critters. Luckily it was all behind glass of course. The Dino Dig was probably the best part since the kids went crazy with their shovels and brushes digging around the HUGE dinosaur bones. We ended the day with their first ride on the Zilker train and some time at the playscape. Marissa was having so much fun that she ditched her dance lesson for the day to stay and play. And poor mom never got that visit to the driving range since Mia was out to the world once we got home and of course there were magazine calls to be made! Now it is 11:00 P.M. and I am still on this blasted computer!! Oh, but I LOVE IT - it is my journal for remembering these precious moments with these 2 amazing kids that love me for doing what I do as much as I love them for what they do (most of the time anyway)...

Ethiopia or Fairytopia?

2008-03-25T22:55:00.000-05:00

Tonight after another battle with Mia on eating supper, Daniel told her, "If you don't eat that food, I'm going to send it to the hungry kids in Ethiopia." Who hasn't heard that line before? Well obviously Mia has not. She responded with, "Fairytopia?" We just laughed.... For those of you that are not familiar, Fairytopia is this new Barbie series that has movies and of course the Barbie dolls that go with them. They are big time for Marissa's age but since Mia wants almost everything that Marissa wants, she knows all about it. Other than not eating her supper, today was a great day for Mia! She stayed dry in her panties AT SCHOOL all day today! I was sooo proud! I can now officially reallocate my diaper and wipe budget for something else - maybe something that I want, like a manicure! But really, why would a work-from-home mom need a manicure?

We also went on a mini field trip with our playgroup to Zero Degrees Ice Cream Parlor today! All the kids got a tour of the place and got to see how they make their ice cream! We all got to pick our ice cream of choice and the kids ate until they were running circles around their mommies!! Fun, fun! What a great mom I am spoiling their dinner like that - no wonder Mia wasn't hungry!

More on Mia's potty training - everywhere we go, we have to visit the bathroom! Yuck, public bathrooms, what a nightmare. Today we got to visit the unisex potty at the ice cream place. Lucky for me they had a potty and a stand up, which Mia noticed and pointed out right away - "that's for boys! Right mommy?" Not sure if she picked up that bit of intelligence from a visit to the potty with Daddy or school, either way it was entertaining. Then earlier after our visit to the bookstore potty Mia found a water fountain and they just happened to have a step stool next to it, just her size! She had soo much fun sticking her face into the water as it sprayed up at her. The first few times I think she was surprised, but then she just laughed over and over again as it continued to hit her in the nose! Oh, to be 2!

Jersey Barnyard Field Trip

2008-03-19T21:59:00.000-05:00

Today we went on our first out of town field trip to Jersey Barnyard in La Grange with a group of friends from the neighborhood. The trip out there seemed long - especially with a few potty stops along the way... but it was well worth the drive! Lucky for us, we were already quite familiar with Hwy 71 since we pass through La Grange on our way to Cousin Dori and Cousin Miles house - Ah how, how, how, how... Me and Daniel always sing the ZZ Top La Grange tune with each visit!!
Anyway, when we arrived at the Jersey Barnyard we visited with a Sicilian donkey which is known for its cross on its back. Apparently this is the same type of donkey that carried Mary through Bethlehem, so they have quite a reputation! We also met with the goats and chickens, rabbits and piglets. Mia also managed to run into a gray Farm Cat which she really enjoyed! We got to feed the goats, who were SUPER hungry, but Marissa and Mia fed them out of their cups just fine! Mia really enjoyed the big rabbits in their pens and she even helped one along with his water bottle! Then on to the calves - both girls got to feed the little calf heffers a full bottle of milk, but Mia wasn't too happy about it because the calf was way stronger and more aggressive in taking that bottle than she was at feeding it to her. It lasted long enough for me to take a picture!

Then we spent 15 minutes getting lost in the hay maze which was lots of fun because all of us moms ended up going through the maze with children other than our own. The kids really got a kick out of the maze! We also got a tractor ride out to the Dairy where we met a 500lb pig named Ethel. Marissa and Mia didn't want anything to do with that pig! They were ready to move on to the cow milking! So we got to see where they milk many cows at once and then we got a lesson on milking cows by hand. Marissa thought it was cool but Mia was already melting down by that point. We ended our visit with a few pics in the newly bloomed bluebonnets and a picnic lunch with our friends. We couldn't have asked for a funner day! Jersey Barn gets 5 stars in our book! We'll definitely be going back again!

One Week Until Easter

2008-03-16T21:31:00.000-05:00

Spring Break is over and there's 7 days until Easter!! This week will be jam packed with fun-filled Easter activities and parties at school - on top of all our other normally scheduled extracurricular events. Today we went to our community center for an Egg Hunt. Tons of people came out for the festivities with a petting zoo, pics with the Easter Bunny and the egg hunt, which was more chaos than anything else, but we got our loot and then left early for some ice cream. I was so impressed that Mia went voluntarily to take a picture with the Easter bunny, she usually isn't too crazy about dressed up characters, but I guess she is getting to be a big girl now. After all, she went almost a full day with a dry pull up!! We are sooo close! I hope to take the girls to the mall Bunny this week with their Easter dresses. Hopefully the weather will be nice enough this year that they will actually be able to wear them. I still can't believe that a year ago we were at Dave and Vanessa's wedding in Leander on Easter Saturday in the cold and pouring hail!! Who would of thought?

Daniel and James finished putting together the play scape this weekend, so stay tuned for some new backyard pics.... I expect the girls to have many hours of play outdoors now that the weather is warming up! Marissa already has plans for sliding into the blow up pool off the play scape!

"Meow Meow's" Back!!

2008-03-05T14:14:00.000-06:00

I am sooo happy to report that Mia's missing kitty, "Meow, Meow" has been found. He apparently has been taking a vacation in an undisclosed location in our house. We asked no questions, we are just happy he came back to us. All is good in the world now!
Today me and the girls visited the park and had a picnic. Marissa was really pleased because she has been dying to go on a picnic forever!! I LOVE the parks by our house and I hope to spend lots of time there over the warmer and summer months! Enjoy the pics!

Kung Fu, Birthdays and a Kite Fest!

2008-03-02T20:48:00.000-06:00

Man, have we been busy!! Last weekend kicked off with Zachary and Jacob's Kung Fu Tournament at Anderson High school! That was my first time at such an event and it was exciting stuff! Zack and Jake were really impressive with their Kung Fu moves and they had lots of fans in the audience cheering them on, including Marissa and Mia!!

This week we celebrated Daddy's 33rd birthday with a homemade cookie cake, presents and a big "Surprise!" when he got home from work. Marissa decided that we should have a Surprise Party, but wasn't very happy to learn that it would only be us four! We hid behind the bar anyway and did the best we could to pull it off! At least we were able to pull Mia away from her puzzles long enough to get her to hide with us! The girls had lots of fun preparing for the evening and helped me out with all the planning!

We also went to 2 other parties this week for 2 of our friends in playgroup - one on Monday at Chuckie Cheese and another on Saturday at Ready, Set, Play in Round Rock. It has definitely been a party week!

Today we went to the Zilker Park Kite Fest! It was my first time in all the years that I have lived in Austin. Rachael-Anne and I were there early for magazine stuff, but throughout the day I managed to reunite with many old friends, ex-coworkers and other acquaintances that I have gained through my many years as an Austinite! It was the place to be! Marissa and Mia had a blast too! The sky was full of kites! Ours was the blue butterfly which we bought special for this event! All in all it was a nice day and I am completely wiped out!

Mia Starts Mother's Day Out!

2008-02-21T13:31:00.001-06:00

Mia started her first day at Mother's Day out on Tuesday and she took it like pro! Even her teacher said she acted like she had been there all semester. Her and Marissa looked so cute with their backpacks that I had to take few pics to commemorate the moment. Mia is getting so big and her big sister is too! I can't believe how fast the time flies by. As for me, I couldn't believe how quiet the house was and it got me thinking about how weird it will be once Marissa starts kindergarten next year. (weep, weep) Unfortunately, I think we lost "Meow Meow", Mia's kitty at school and that means we are going to have to pay a visit to the webkinz store so we can try to find a replacement. Although I was shocked that Mia has not had any breakdowns or even seemed to have noticed that Meow Meow has taken a leave of absence from our home. Maybe now would be a good time to break that "kitty talk" habit. But really its just soo darn cute!

Happy New Year! - January 17, 2008

2008-01-17T12:25:00.000-06:00

Well I have really fallen behind on my blogging so I'll have to do a quick recap of the holidays for my own memories sake -

- We spent Christmas day with Mimi, Joe and Kristy at our house. It was a very nice, layed back day full of yummy food prepared by Daniel which we were all very appreciative of. We also spent lots of time opening up the many gifts that we were blessed with this year. The kids had such a great time and the adults had a great time taking video and many pictures and just capturing their beautiful smiles with each surprise!

Marissa's big gift from Santa was a Pink Leapster and 2 games which she has been wanting ever since she got to play with her cousin Dori's Leapster over the summer. She was very happy and is still enjoying it alot. We did have to teach her about caring for the Leapster since Santa won't be able to bring her another one if it gets broken by her or her sister. Marissa is handling the responsibility pretty well but Mia doesn't like it too much...

Mia got a great gift from Santa too. Since Mia has become half-cat over the last few months with her "meow" responses to every question and singing Christmas carols in meow, meow, meow (Jingle Bells) Santa brought her a Fur Real Cat and kitten. They are very cute and 100% allergy free, which makes me happy! The cats purr and move and are just entertaining to put it mildly.

Marissa and Mia also got TONS of great gifts from Mimi and Joe & Kristy - much too many to list out here! I decided to bring my parents into the digital era this year and we got Mimi an ipod shuffle and Joe a digital picture keychain that he can show off to all his friends that ask about his wonderful granddaughters!

- On December 29th, we celebrated Christmas again at Daniel's parents' house with all the brothers and sisters (Christy and sis-in-laws) and nieces and nephews. We were also thankful to have Grandma and Grandpa Schmidt to celebrate with who were in good health and good spirits.
The big gift was the Wii Game System that Aunt Christy gave to all the families. The kids were all ecstatic! Including all the Big Kids as well!

On a sadder note, this was the first Christmas without Popo and it was tough on me and my side of the family. It was also Momo's last Christmas in her own home and that was difficult too. This has been a tough year for all of us that love Momo and Popo so much and it will just never be the same.

On a lighter note, Daniel and I got to go out for New Years Eve, which I don't know if we have ever done. We got to eat some AWESOME crab cakes and other stuff at Chez Zee after only a 30 minute wait which ROCKED considering we got last minute babysitters and had no reservations! This year, I am resolving to learn how to sew and how to play the guitar. My first sewing lesson is January 23rd and I'm psyched!

January has been a lucky month for me - I got a TON of new accounts with the magazine due to one of our sales ladies leaving. I am really going to miss her but I am thankful for the business that she left behind. I also got 2 new accounts on my own that I've been working on for a while. so yipee!

Daniel is busy with performance reviews and other fun management stuff but he continues to be supportive of my drastic lifestyle change.

This month we started working with Mia on potty training but I have yet to pull out the panties to give her the "Real Deal" experience. Maybe next week... She has had a few successful experiences on the training potty this week though so we are taking it slow.

Marissa is back in dance and still LOVING it! She will also be starting back up with soccer at the end of January - still in-door. She's moving up to the Grizzlies!

Tonight Marissa will be performing her "Fruits of the Spirit" show at High Hopes Preschool so we are all looking forward to cheering her on. We have already had several rehearsals here at our house with various audiences so I think she's ready! She just LOVES singing about Jesus! I have to say that she fills me with the spirit every time she opens her mouth with a new song! She's just precious. And Mia will be following in her foot steps because she loves to sing too and never holds back!

To my blog fans - I'm sorry this has taken so long to get back to but I am going to do my best to get back on track.

Halloween - October 31, 2007

2007-10-31T21:36:00.000-05:00

The girls had a successful Halloween night and managed to pick up a ton of treats - even from some of the spooky neighbors that went all out with their scary costumes. Mia and Marissa had a blast accompanied by Daddy, Aunt Kristy (The Angel), Rachael-Anne (Cinderella), Mimi, Aunt Luci, Aunt Christy and Jenny who was dressed like a doggy cheerleader! The loop around our street was just the right trail for my pretty in pink princess Marissa and beautiful butterfly Mia! Considering this is Mia's first official Halloween she handled it like a pro with her "halloweeeeen!" for Happy Halloween and thank yous! What a great night! Now that they are all hopped up on sugar and pure excitement I doubt they will be ready for bed.... even though I am!!

October 27, 2007

2007-10-27T18:58:00.000-05:00

With the Halloween season in full swing, we have been super busy with costume parties and craft parties and just all kinds of Fall fun. Last weekend we went to the Red Barn Fall Fest for the first time and the kids had a blast playing in the hay maze and playing all the fun games hosted by the boy scouts. We also got to have some fun with the farm animals in the petting zoo! It was a good, hot day and it was followed by pumpkin carving, cookie baking and fajitas with Mimi, Joe and Kristy!
On Sunday, Marissa (and I) got our first visit to the Blanton Museum on the UT Campus when we accompanied Uncle James while he worked on his school project. Ms. Luci, Rachael-Anne, Marissa and I looked for the exciting pieces and decided that we liked the penny exhibit the best! This one was the Cildo Meireles, it had 600,000 coins, 800 communion wafers, 2000 cattle bones, 80 paving stones, and black cloth. The museum lady came by and said that we could touch the pennies in the middle of the exhibit, so Marissa and Rachael-Anne were all over that! It was fun watching them in this new environment!
Marissa and Mia tested out their second round of Halloween costumes at our Play Group Costume Party! It was a huge success, with more kids from the neighborhood packed into one house than I had ever seen before! Fortunately, it wasn't my house and the organizers of the party had tons of fun games and crafts planned! Both Marissa and Mia dressed up as princesses thanks to the dresses that Mimi had brought over the day before! I think each costume that they try just gets cuter and cuter!
Today we spent the morning with Great Grandma and Grandpa Schmidt at their home at Cedar Ridge. The home had a huge fall festival with ponies, a clown and yummy food! We had a great visit and took some beautiful pictures in the garden at Cedar Ridge! Phew, just typing all this has made me tired. That is the latest on the Mallinger girlies, minus a birthday party, craft party and trip to the Children's Museum earlier in the week. Time to put our feet up and watch some TV!

October 16, 2007

2007-10-16T20:33:00.000-05:00

Tonight we got a treat on our door step from someone. We don't know who, but it is all in the spirit of Halloween and the kids thought it was pretty fun. The doorbell just rang and since it was after dark I called to Daniel to go get the door. I guess that gave the secret treat dropper plenty of time to run away before we got to the door. Too much fun! Many of our neighbors have decked out their homes with Halloween spookies, so I am sure it will be a very exciting Halloween night. Last night I went for a walk/run by myself and the sky was pretty wicked - lots of clouds with chill in the air - it was pretty cool. Would have been a prefect setting for trick o treating. I think I am going to get ready to run Race for the Cure. It is in a few weeks so I should be able to handle a 5k at the very least, even if I can't run the whole thing. Its always so touching to see how many people come out for that but so sad to see how many people have been impacted by breast cancer either in their own lives or through someone they love.

Marissa got a special treat yesterday, my dad (Joe) came to watch her during her dance class and Mia got a treat because he entertained her while we were waiting for Marissa's dance class to end. They took quite the adventure from one end of the shopping center to the other end - through the Halloween store and even passed Petsmart! And then after dance, we went to the Arboretum to feed the ducks. It was a long walk down to the pond but Mia walked all the way and just became one with nature! It was a blast for all of us. And of course we ended our outting with Amy's icecream - all before we headed home for dinner. Ha, ha, ha!

Here are some pics that we took at the Bethany pumpkin patch. We had to pick a bunch of little ones to decorate during our playgroup. I think the kids had more fun running up the walkways at the church than picking out pumpkins but daddy met us during his lunch hour to help us out, so they were happy campers!

Mia's new words are "wook at me Mom" and "whatsiz?" That is What's this? She likes to ask that over and over as she discovers new things that she doesn't know the name for. And Marissa is into counting as high as she can. Today she asked me to count to 1000! She also ends every statement with "Right Mom?" She is always looking for confirmation of her intelligence! Wonder who she gets that from! : )

Side note - if you want to read or hear an interesting blog, check out Roy Spence's walk - http://www.walkingwithroy.com/ The Austin American Statesman reported that he had lost his cell phone while he was on his journey and the person who found it was surprised to see that it held the phone numbers of none other than Bill and Hillary! ha! Luckily for him an honest person returned it!

October 7, 2007

2007-10-07T22:41:00.000-05:00

This weekend we fell into Fall! We decorated the house in Halloween and harvest decor. Now that the kids really "get" the upcoming holidays I felt like it was time to get everyone excited about them! We even went to a dress up Birthday party this weekend for a friend of ours in Play Group. The kids were supposed to dress up as their favorite animal. So, the girls went as kitties. Not that cats are their favorite animal but it was a cute, cheap and easy costume. The girls had a great time! Tonight we passed down one of Marissa's favorite princess gowns to Mia and she was ready to receive her crown. Mia even performed with singing and dancing us through the evening. We even got it on video. We hope to go to the Pumpkin Patch tomorrow since we didn't get to it today.

October 2, 2007

2007-10-02T21:32:00.000-05:00

HAPPY 8th ANNIVERSARY TO DANIEL AND KIM!! This will be the GREAT EIGHT!

This is SOOO embarressing that it has been almost a month since my last entry but the time just flies by! Marissa started Mother's Day out and has been enjoying her new class on Tuesdays and Thursdays. She is learning lots of new songs about God which is always a good thing, they definitely know how to make the religious stuff fun and interesting for 4 and 5 years olds! She is also really enjoying her dance class. She is learning the basic terms of ballet and really likes showing them off to me and her daddy or anyone that will watch. Unfortunately the dance class is right in the middle of Mia's nap time so me and her spent most of the class in the car this week since she was not a happy camper.

Mia is chatting it up these days and LOVES to try and out do her sister. She loves to repeat everything that Marissa says and totally competes for the attention. Luckily for them, we have enough attention for both! They are so fun and we enjoy all their silly and smart things that they come up with. Mia has been on a food strike for the last month or so. She's really picky these days and doesn't eat much unless she's skipped several meals in a row. However, she LOVES condiments - ketchup and ranch dressing are oh so filling... ugh. I found some more shoe pics and other new ones - so enjoy!!

2007-09-07T16:01:00.000-05:00

Wow how the time flys.... Well here are some new tidbits about the Mallinger girls. Mia has become addicted to shoes! She loves the shoes that her Mimi bought for her and Marissa to dress up in. She doesn't do anything without them, in fact it is the first thing she puts on in the morning with a clean diaper. Yes, diaper - she has no interest in the potty these days. I have so many pics with Mia in her dress up shoes - the one that I missed was the one of her in her diaper, dress up shoes and bead necklaces - what a sight! Where was the camera? Ugh.

Since I've started working from home, Marissa has been finding herself to be "boring" lately. She means that she is bored but she still says "boring." So we went out to check out Mother's Day out programs the other day and hopefully we'll be able to make her less boring soon! However, she is learning many important life skills during her time at home with me. She is making her bed everyday and has the task of helping her little sister put on her shoes! Marissa has become such a big helper! I figure this is important so that she will never end up on one of those Organization or Clean House shows on cable. I remember a guy saying that his house was a mess because his mom never made him clean up or make his bed - lucky for Marissa she has me!

Mia had a little accident the other day - but she is okay thank goodness! She loves to push her feet against the breakfast table and this time, she pushed back too far. She fell back on the chair, broke the chair and bruised her back and head. It was not pretty but I don't think she'll be doing that again anytime soon - especially since I will be watching her much closer at the table. I was a nervous wreck because of her bump, but it wasn't long after that she was doing her half skip around the house and I knew she would be fine. Now I just have to replace the chair - no biggy compared to the alternative. Stay tuned for many more M&M advertures!

August 22, 2007

2007-08-22T20:53:00.001-05:00

This past weekend we went to the Ice Cream Festival at Waterloo Park in the blazing Austin heat! As you can expect at every event in central Austin, every dog in town was present! Not that dogs bother me, but there were way more people than I expected to see and I had to be extra cautious since Mia was riding in the umbrella stroller - right at dog level. Since we didn't get to the fest until after Marissa's soccer class and a trip to Chick-fil-A for lunch, we were lucky to get some Amy's ice cream and a spot under the shaded tent that was out of the sun - but still extremely muggy. Putting on our happy faces and making the best of the heat, Marissa got to spend some time in the petting zoo with goats and other furry farm animals. Unfortunately, since the animals had been fed all morning long, they weren't hungry by the time we came to visit. Marissa still thought it was fun though! Since it was Mia's nap time, she decided to nod off since she was in the stroller and we waited with Marissa in a half hour long line to take 3 trips down the blow up slide. As my mom would say, "The things you do for your kids."
So the heat did us in and we were exhausted for the rest of the day!

August 8, 2007

2007-08-08T13:25:00.000-05:00

Mia has had a very successful week so far with no paci!! She hasn't even asked for it which really makes me feel like she is getting to be a big 2 year old!! I can't believe tomorrow is her birthday already! She is trying to sing her ABC's and is learning to say "please" and "thank you." I love watching her run - she gets going so fast with both arms in action. She is always trying to keep up with her big sister, and does pretty well I must say. She is still babbling alot but it sounds so cute that I will really miss it once she can talk like a big kid. Sometimes she just starts babbling like she's telling a story and she always looks so pleased with herself when she's done.

We went to visit a Mother's Day Out program today and the school was AWESOME! Unfortunately there is a very long waiting list and I'll be very surprised if we are able to get both girls in anytime this year.... but I can always pray! The director showed us each classroom and Marissa just lit up with each new room. I know that she is so anxious to start school and I am excited to see that in her! This last year before she starts kinder is just going to fly by! As I am writing this, Marissa has come into the office to tell me just how big she is getting. She must be getting sappy mommy vibes from me or something.... strange.

August 5, 2007

2007-08-05T21:49:00.000-05:00

I can't believe we've been on vacation for seven whole days! No computers, no house cleaning and no worries - except preventing sun burns - which we did successfully! We packed up the car and drove to Gulf Shores, Alabama for a week of fun in the sun and luckily the rain stayed far away for us to enjoy many days at the beach! This was Mia's first time to the beach and Marissa's second time and they both had a blast! Not to mention the fact that we went with Cousin Dori and Cousin Miles which made the beach even funner!

We had some of the best seafood you can find from shrimp and grouper and crab and snapper! Even Daniel's brother, John whipped up some tastey grouper for us one night!

Everyday that we got back from the beach we'd have to dump the sand out of Mia's bathing suit - she LOVED getting covered in it. It didn't phase her one bit! Marissa got to spend some nice quality time out in the ocean with Daniel and I'm sure that she felt like such a Big Girl being able to be on the boogie board in the ocean with cousin Dori! Marissa has such a lovely tan and the rest of us whities are just thankful that we didn't get sunburned!

We took the little blow up pool for Mia to sit in in the shade and she loved it almost as much as Marissa did when we took her down there the first time when she was just about Mia's age. This time Marissa was much more into being in the ocean and finding shells! Mia LOVED getting splashed by the waves and Marissa loved jumping them! It was so fun to watch - which was what I did in my beach chair most of the week! It was wonderful to have a beach chair set up for me every morning and when I decided to come down to the beach it was waiting for me! Now that is vacation! We even got to watch some performing dolphins in the ocean in the not to distant distance! They were going after a school of fish and man were they showing off for us!

Daniel got to go parasailing with Dori and Miles for the first time and enjoyed it alot. We even got to go to the movies one evening. The guys saw The Simpsons movie and me and Kelly and Dori and Marissa saw Hairspray! What a treat!

Overall, we had a GREAT vacation and have lots of great pictures and memories to cherish! Now that we're back we gotta get planning for Mia's 2nd birthday! I can't believe she is already going to be 2! But it seems like she adds 10 new words to her vocabulary everyday so its so fun to watch! She is such a happy kid - especially when she's not having a temper tantrum. I have to say, considering we drove back and forth from Gulf Shores - both kids did sooo great in the car. But it does feel good to be back home and in our own beds!

July 15, 2007

2007-07-15T14:14:00.000-05:00

We recently made our long awaited visit to the Austin Childrens Museum! Coming from Cedar Park, it was quite the drive, but definitly well worth it! And there was a parking meter waiting right up front for us - yipee! We got there in time for the Sing Along Storytime with Staci Gray who is a very entertaining children's performer! And the finale was the bubble machine at the end of the show. See pictures! The museum also has several different areas for kids to play in from a Construction Zone to a place to look at insects and a place to try out different types of jobs such as a doctor or a farmer etc. They also have this really cool train that goes all along the way and right at your feet on the second floor which Mia loved looking for! I think Mia's favorite thing was the slide that was just her size and Marissa and Rachael-Anne really enjoyed the larger than life size board games. After the museum, we drove around the downtown area where I was happy to spot a new wine bar that I hope to try out very soon! I can't believe how much the downtown area has changed and developed! Instead of trying to get another parking spot downtown, we headed over to EZ's for lunch which was a treat for all!

July 10, 2007

2007-07-10T17:46:00.000-05:00

It is a good thing that I have a communications major because 60% of my job is helping my two children learn how to appropriately treat each other and communicate effectively to get what they want as quickly as possible. Since Marissa speaks, she expects for all of her demands to be responded to - especially when they are directed at Mia. However, Mia is just starting to figure out all of the amazing words of the English language so she can get away with alot more. Right now I am trying to teach Marissa that she will get better results from Mia if she talks to her like Mommy does. It is a slow learning process, but we are taking it one day at a time. Since Marissa is a smart cookie, I think she will learn quickly that Mia is a sucker for sweetness and can be talked into just about anything if you just ask her nicely.

Both of the girls are so into music and dance, they bop their heads to ever song that they consider has a good beat and Marissa is known for breaking into dance to any song that might be playing at the grocery store or mall or where ever we may be. Mia loves to dance too, and I am sure that she will follow in her sister's dancing footsteps, but Mia also sings or hums along. It is pretty helarious and I plan to get it on video some day very soon. I'm sure that I could collect several video clips of just a one week time frame, could splice them all together, add some music in the background and we'd have the debut of the M&M Music Factory!

July 8, 2007

2007-07-08T15:39:00.000-05:00

Well with one crazy week, follows another! Even with unpredictable rain for the 4th of July and spotty weather all week, we managed to get out and about and see most of our relatives that are in town over the holiday week. The in-town family hunkered down at our house over the 4th of July since the fireworks show in Cedar Park were canceled and Aunt Christy brought the Wii over which is always a hit! Unfortunately she left the Wii for us to play with and Marissa is now bowling a 150 on average and has beaten Daniel and I on several occassions!!! It might be time to switch to a new sport!

In case anyone hasn't had a chance to catch any of the new kids movies that are out, I'll share my ratings. Surf's Up - 5 Stars, super funny, good plot that you can follow (not a Happy Feet repeat even though it has penguins in it) Thank goodness!! Ratatouille - 4 Stars, a little long... Mia could have been happy with only a hour of it! Tonight Daniel and I are planning a date night at the Alamo Draft House and the kiddies have a date with Mimi and Joe! Can't wait to see a non-animated movie!! And I don't plan to stuff my purse with raisins, teddy grahams and Capri Suns either! Ha!

July 2, 2007

2007-07-02T16:57:00.000-05:00

Well we are finally home from a week of Cousin Camp in Katy, Texas! And what a week it was with Cousin Dori (7) and Miles (12)- who's home we invaded, Rachael Anne (13) from CP and Jacob (5) and Zachary (10). My wonderful sister-in-law, who was kind enough to invite all of us, entertained us all week in the midst of swim practices and a sick Miles who was working through a sinus infection... We saw Surf's Up (which I highly recommend) and made a visit to Chuck E Cheese, spent time at the neighborhood swim parks and had a night of Gymnastics trial. : ) So we are recovering this week as we get ready for more excitement on the 4th of July! Marissa was sooo well behaved and independant over the week at Cousin Camp! Mia on the other hand, refused to sleep and had to be driven around the neighborhood EVERY NIGHT to go to sleep. I guess she just LOVES her crib and was way over excited about spending the days with her other cousins! No that we are home, we are going to start working on the potty training. She seems to get the idea, but doesn't realize quite yet that she "needs" to go there. She just goes if I sit her there and she happened to have something to drink recently. We will also be starting up new swim lessons at Lifetime Fitness on July 9th! We are very excited to get back to lessons after being away from Emler for a month + some..

June 13, 2007

2007-06-13T20:55:00.001-05:00

Marissa had her final dance recital on Sunday, and she had quite the audience of family members there to support her! The recital was at Westlake High school in the performing arts center and it was Marissa's first appearance on the big stage! She had a blast and was thrilled to get a snow globe trophy at the end! Mia's new word is "no" - so, now we sit around asking her all kinds of weird questions just to hear her say "no." We tried, "Do you like chocolate chip cookies?", "no." "Do you wanna party all night?", "no." All of this week we've been at vacation bible school at St. Albert the Great. It has been a trying experience with all the little ones (Mia's age) and the pre-schoolers - but we've made it through half the week so I'd say we are doing GREAT!! We also had a chance to try out both the neighborhood pool and the Lifetime Fitness pool! At Lifetime, there is a humongous slide that scares the you-know-what out of Mommy and at the neighborhood pool there is a perfect Marissa size slide that she LOVES! Even me and Mia took a turn and had a blast!! Daniel is recovering nicely from his Lasik surgery that he had last Friday, so we are all happy!

June 5, 2007

2007-06-05T14:52:00.000-05:00

Today was our first visit to the Cedar Park library, which happens to be practically around the corner from our house. They have a great kids room where all the noisy kids can hang out together in peace! Marissa got her first library card and we signed both girls and me up for the summer reading program. Ahhh, the pressures of my day.... I'm lovin' it already! I can't remember the last time that I had enough time to think about being in a reading club! Well today at the Cedar Park library they had appearances by Clifford the Big Red Dog, Geronimo the Mouse and one of the Berenstain Bears. Marissa gave hugs and Mia waved hello and good-bye from a far. Another major milestone for Mia today was her pronunciation of "Marissa" - she has got it down now, so every time she gets a little upset, she just says it over and over. As for me, I am now on two Play Group Yahoo group lists so I am getting just about as much e-mail as I did at work except now its all about the kids!

June 3, 2007

2007-06-03T22:32:00.000-05:00

Well our first weekend with me as a SAHM (Stay at Home Mom) was busy and fun for all! After the bon voyage happy hour on Friday afternoon, we were ready to get the weekend kicked off right with Marissa's Saturday morning soccer practice. It was a tough one, Marissa was recovering from fewer hours of sleep after her sleep over at Aunt Luci's on Thursday night and an eventful Friday. Marissa wasn't her normal resilent self and it took several bribes to get her to stay on the field - but we made it through and luckily, nobody got hurt! There always seems to be balls flying at that place and I'm always paranoid that one of us is going to leave bumped or bruised.

We had sunny skies on Saturday, so we got the blow up whale pool out and let the kids jump in with their beach toys and set up the Little Tikes slide on the side of the pool so the kids could have some fun! Marissa and Mia had their matching stars and stripes two pieces on so it was a sight to see! After Marissa got bored in the pool, she and Daniel decided to catch some bugs in the back yard. Marissa was thrilled to watch Daniel catch 2 baby grasshoppers which she decided to keep in a little see through bowl with holes on top. Luckily, Daniel was able to convince her to let them free this morning. To wrap up our Saturday evening, we headed to the Zilker Hillside Theater to watch Ballet under the Stars. This was our first time with both kids and all in all they did really well. Although we were probably sitting on the steepest part of the hillside, we managed to keep Mia from rolling down, although she gave it her best try. She is such a music and dance lover, even in the dark, as overtired as she must have been, she still swayed along with the music and did her best ballet arms with her little Mia grin. It was late by the time we got home, so Sunday morning at church with my two tired children was a challenge. Luckily, they both got naps and we were able to enjoy a few hours at Mimi and Joe's in the afternoon.

May 30, 2007

2007-05-31T14:46:00.000-05:00

Almost there....

Well I am two days away from my last day at work, on my way to becoming a full time stay at home mom. The anxiety of all the anticipated life changing events is wrenching. As for the kiddos, Marissa gets to sleep over at Aunt Luci's tonight - she just LOVES sleep overs. And she is counting down the days until Mommy gets to be her teacher! Mia is becoming more and more understandable each day, although she still sounds like she's speaking German sometimes. I have been working with her on saying "Marissa" but she usually only gets out "..ssa". Marissa had soccer pictures taken last weekend and they turned out really cute, what a sucker I am. I went into it saying "She's not even on a team yet..." but hey, at least the moment has been captured. If you want to check them out yourself, they are posted to the photographer's site - http://www.fizbinphotography.com/accounts/sz/269/