Ballet

On Saturday we took Vivian to see a shortened-version of The Nutcracker to see if she was still interested in ballet classes. She is! She was excited to meet all the ballerinas. 

Then she gave several performances in her leotard and skirt-turned-tutu

Vivian the Brave

One of Vivian's favorite phrases is I can do it, I'm brave." Anytime she wants to do something I'm not sure about, that's what I hear. I love that she is able to get herself excited about doing things by calling herself brave! I think it's great.

She is definitely brave. She does lots of things I wouldn't. For example, voluntarily going into the snake exhibits at the zoo and looking at all the snakes for several minutes. Yuck!! I can't wait until she is old enough to go in there by herself.

Here is exhibit #2: Vivian age 3, Maura age 23

Visit with Mimi and Papa

Zoo!

Vivian and I had a surprise day together on Monday so we went to the zoo! These zoo passes have been fantastic for random days when we don't know what to do with ourselves. And they have plenty of inside activities so it's even good for cold days. 

Vivian is with my parents for the next few days. I don't know what to do with myself. I ran all the errands I haven't had time to do after work today, took a shower, and cleaned. I get so much done without her but it's not near as fun by myself.

Long hair!

I'm dying

Elsa coronation twist

Elsa braid - not quite long enough to go over her shoulder and believe me, she noticed

Christmas Cookies

I tried a different sugar cookie recipe and a different icing recipe for Christmas cookies this year. I wasn't pleased. The cookies didn't taste great and lost their shape in the oven. The icing was way too thin. We later fixed that with more powdered sugar but it still didn't turn out like I wanted it to.

The good thing about the new icing vs. buttercream is that it is much easier for Vivian to decorate the cookies herself. Icing with a flat spatula is just too hard for her. But using one of these handy squeeze bottles is really easy for her.

Too thin…

Guess which cookie she picked

Yep!

Dr. Snow White

She loves to give shots...