Life, Love, and Marathons: Haircuts, Jazz, and Holiday Party

It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving is already next week! We've been enjoying our last few weekends before the craziness of the holidays is here. The first couple weekends in December are already slammed for us with our normal holiday activities (getting our Christmas tree, Breakfast with Santa, etc) as well as few additional events that got added to our calendar.

We have our Christmas mini session pictures on Saturday so last Friday, I took the girls to get their haircut. It was only Cece's second haircut and first time at Lucy's favorite salon, Funky Scissors. The girls, specifically Cece, did great and sat still during both the haircut and manicure. Afterwards, we went to Hoot Studio, a new play cafe right by our house. This is the third time it's been under new ownership and name and I really hope it does well because our girls love this place. It was our first time since it opened as Hoot Studio (except when we went to the grand opening a couple months ago) but we'd been to it many times when it was under a different name and owner. On Friday afternoon it was my turn to get my haircut and then once Todd came home from work later, we decided to get out of the house for dinner and took the girls to Culver's for burgers and ice cream.

Both girls intently watching their TV show that plays on the mirror

Cece picked bright red for her nails (and she got her first braid!)

So excited to show off her nails and sucker

Lucy picked pink & gold for her nail colors

Letting them dry for a minute

Playing together at Hoot Studio

Since Todd is in school right now, he spends quite a bit of time studying and writing papers so I try to get the girls out of the house so he can have some peace & quiet. On Saturday morning, the girls and I went to the first PBJ & Jazz event of the 2018-2019 season at the Lincoln Theatre Ballroom. It's a family friendly event sponsored by the Jazz Arts Group that is meant to introduce kids to jazz & American music. They hold an hour long concert about once a month where they also serve peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, cookies, and juice for the kids. Lucy loved it and was up dancing almost the entire hour. Cece enjoyed it and danced about half the time but also spent the other half of the time trying to grab more cookies off the snack table.

Outside Lincoln Theatre

PBJ & Jazz concert dates for winter/spring; in the summer, the concerts are held at the Topiary Park

The band was set up in the middle of the room and Lucy & Cece picked seats front & center

There was a balcony up above that a lot of the kids were playing on before the concert started so here's a view from up there

Cheesin' for the camera

I think there were 7 people in the band; they were really good!

The girls danced by the band for awhile and then went to head up to the balcony to watch them from above

And then Lucy went back down to dance some more with a couple other kids

On Saturday evening, our babysitter came over so Todd & I could go to his work holiday party at Dublin Bridge Park. The employees had access to The Exchange, Pins Mechanical, and 16-Bit Bar + Arcade, which were all closed to the public that evening. The Exchange is an event center with a ballroom so there was a live band and food stations set up throughout (Cameron Mitchell did the catering) as well as a photo booth. Outside, they had a street blocked off with a heated tent (more seating and another band/DJ) and food trucks lined the street. They also had food inside Pins and all the games were free for the evening (although by the time we headed to that part of the party, the bowling was already booked solid until the party was over at midnight). Around 9:30 PM, they had dessert available back in the ballroom. We hung out with several of our friends that evening and had a great time. Previously, they had done their holiday party downtown at the Convention Center (again, with food stations, bands, DJs, etc.) but Todd & I both agreed that we liked it better at Bridge Park.

One of the couples got a hotel room at Bridge Park so we met up in their room before the party started

Honda Wives

The street that was blocked off for the party where the food trucks were

Photo booth pictures

View of the ballroom while getting food

Todd playing pinball

Hanging out at 16-Bit

Sundays always seem busy even though we usually don't have much planned. I slept in since we were up late the night before so I took the girls to the Y with me later in the morning while I worked out to give Todd another hour or so of uninterrupted study time. I ran some errands while Cece was napping and Lucy was keeping herself occupied at home and then once I got home, the girls decorated their gingerbread turkey. We got the kit from Trader Joe's, which is where we got our gingerbread house last year for Christmas, but the girls aren't a huge fan of how any of it tastes (because of course, all they want to do is eat it) so I'm thinking we might try our own graham cracker "gingerbread" houses this year.

Always doing arts & crafts