Perhaps this Princess Phase isn't totally useless

It's time this blog returned to its roots: shameless, unadulterated bragging about my kids. So here goes.

Last week Amanda spotted a long, thin cardboard box (we got a new floor lamp) and decided it would make the perfect tower for her Tangled play. She has been planning this play for a while now, and I'm pretty sure she spends most of her playground time at school searching for kids willing to play parts in it. She will play Rapunzel, of course. She is searching for four-year-olds willing to take supporting roles. There have not been too many takers.

Anyway, I cut a hole in the box for the window and took the box outside. Then the girls painted the box. It had to be painted because Rapunzel loves to paint. It also had to be painted in costume, of course.






Later in the weekend, Amanda found two pieces of cardboard held together by a piece of tape. (Yes, there is apparently scrap cardboard laying around my house. That's the kind of housekeeper I am.) "This would make a perfect book," she declared. I cut a few sheets of white paper down to the size of the book, and she glued them inside the cardboard, added yellow construction paper to the outside of the cardboard, then decorated it.

She spent a very long time drawing pictures inside the book to tell a story. I did a little bit of drawing, but this is almost entirely her work. Then she told me exactly what words to write on each page to tell the story. Here's how the book ended up:







Fun, Fun for Rapunzel


Rapunzel lives in the tower, and she's outside.

Flynn is running and the guards are chasing him.

(I drew those horses. Yes, they're horses, in case you couldn't tell. I would like to say I was trying to draw like a four year old, but honestly that's the best I can do. She drew everything else on the page.)

Flynn is climbing up the tower.




Rapunzel knocked out Flynn with a frying pan. (I drew the frying pan.)

Flynn is all tied up in the chair, and Rapunzel is asking him a question.



Rapunzel and Flynn are in the water trying to escape.

Back cover of the book. It's a cliffhanger! She'll need to write a sequel.

So my four year old wrote a book! Technically it has some rather serious copyright infringement problems, but I doubt Disney will sue.

Someday hopefully she'll graduate from re-telling princess stories, but this little project was pretty cool.

Go Texan Day 2011

Amanda's school hosts an annual Buckaroo Breakfast in honor of Go Texan Day. Moms are not allowed; it is a "dads only" event. My role in the festivities began and ended with a trip with the girls to the Cavender's Boot City closest to our house, which happens to be the one directly across the 610 loop from the Reliant Center. During Rodeo season, that particular Cavender's Boot City is the seventh circle of hell. But we survived, and even that was not enough to completely quash my Rodeo spirit.









I took this last picture as Amanda and Brian are making their way to his car. Elizabeth is starting to get the distinct impression that she is about to be left out of something. Being left out is not something she will abide. "Daddy, I go with you!" "Mommy! I go with Daddy and Manda too!" It is so sad. Thankfully she is fairly easily distracted.

Washington D.C.

Nine months after our trip to France, my in-laws had completely recovered from their seven days and nights with the little ones. It was time to hit them up for another kid-free weekend. We had good reasons for going out of town-- a long overdue trip to see my sister-in-law Caroline, and a new play at The Kennedy Center directed by none other than our own Kathleen Amshoff.

Caroline will turn 25 on Saturday. By this young age, she has gotten an undergraduate degree from Wake Forest, a masters degree from American University, and now she has one of the most coveted art gallery jobs in the country, working in the development office of the National Gallery. Every morning she walks through this lobby to get to her office:


Here's a view of the National Gallery and its ice rink and sculpture garden with the US Capitol in the background:

Not bad, eh?

We shuffled behind Caroline as she shepherded us to some fabulous restaurants in several different DC hot spots. We watched her sweet talk a cop into letting her park in the perfect space right in front of the gallery on a busy Saturday afternoon. We got to know her very considerate and generous boyfriend, who sacrificed his entire weekend for a couple of tourists from Texas, and seemed genuinely happy to do it. Caroline is thriving, and it was a thrill for us to be a part of her world for the weekend.

Caroline and Brian outside one of her favorite cafes:

Caroline and Ward at breakfast on Sunday morning:


On Saturday evening, we watched American Scrapbook: A Celebration of Verse. Here we are in front of the Kennedy Center:

Here is one of the many posters hung in the Kennedy Center's breathtaking lobby that read "Director Kathleen Amshoff." (It's a little blurry; trust me, it's there, right under the word "verse.")


If I had seen a show like this one when I was as young as this play's target audience, I may have become a true poetry lover. Alas, when I was in junior high, this play's director was still in the early stages of her craft, forced to work with sub-par actors, like myself, in history fairs and the like.

Kathleen is one of my oldest and closest friends. There is no way I could articulate what her friendship means to me without catapulting this blog into the realm of the intolerably cheesy, if it isn't there already. So I will just say, I love her dearly. Many months ago when she told me she would be making her Kennedy Center debut, I knew we would be there. I'm sure she will appreciate me saying -- what is the point of selling out and dedicating your life to the pursuit of the almighty dollar if you won't spend your money on trips to see your starving artist friend when she makes it big?

And make it big she did. Truly entertaining show in a world-class venue. It doesn't get any better than that.

Kathleen and I are in the GWU Inn after the show:


What a weekend! While we were gone, Amanda and Elizabeth got the royal treatment from their grandparents. Lucky kids; lucky parents.

Half-Marathon, Half-Satisfied

So I ran 13.1 miles on Sunday along with 22,000 of my closest friends, including Clyde Drexler. How cool is that? I ran with Clyde the Glide!


I don't think I've ever been more proud of the City of Houston than I was when I was standing at the half-marathon starting line under a menacing gray sky and a light drizzle listening to Mayor Annise Parker welcome all of the runners who had braved the rain to run around the city that morning. A Chronicle columnist recently wrote that all you need to be a runner are "determination and willpower." My city proved it has those qualities in abundance. Consider this a shout-out, H-town.

The run went pretty well for me. I ran the whole thing and finished in 2 hrs 16.5 minutes. I had wanted to finish in 2 hours 10 minutes, but six minutes off pace during my first attempt at that distance isn't too shabby. After a few days of reflection, I am disappointed that I didn't push harder during the last three miles. I know now that I could have. But I'm still very happy to have finished. Next time I'll come in under 2:10.

There is no way I would have been on the starting line on Sunday morning without three smart, successful, fit, fun, beautiful Baylor women-turned-UT-law grads. To see people making positive things happen in their lives and having them encourage you to do the same is one thing. But having these same people be women with whom you spent three years searching for Austin's best margarita is infinitely better. Michelle, mother of a three-year-old and a one-year-old and a practicing lawyer, ran the full Marathon. That means she started training when she had a tiny infant. Lactating boobs; sleepless night after sleepless night; the teething; the neediness. But she found a way to get out and train for this race and finish it. Two words. Bad Ass. Jennie, full-time lawyer, did not run this marathon. No, she is too busy training for an Iron Man Triathlon in May (2.4 mile swim + 112 mile bike + 26.2 mile run all in under 15 hours). She came to Houston to pace Michelle and help her get to the finish line. Again, two words. Bad Ass. Jen, the third member of this group, could not make the race this year because she is about to give birth to her second baby boy any day now. But she has done several 10-Ks with me, including my very first attempt at distance running, and I know she will be up for more races in the future.

Michelle, Jennie and me after the race:


My biggest fan, Brian, also got me out there that morning. He has spent a whole lot of hours parenting solo on the weekends so I could get out and run. And when we woke up at 4:50 am on race day, I'm pretty sure he was even more excited than I was. I'll make that number 694 on my long list of reasons why I love my husband.

Thanks also go to Dad and Linda for babysitting Elizabeth in the wee hours of the morning so Amanda and Brian could line the race route and cheer for me. Elizabeth had a great time, as this picture attests:

This was the first weekend of a very busy month. Up next is a trip (sans kids - thanks to my dear in laws!) to DC to see two of the other amazing women in our lives -- my sister-in-law Caroline and my dear friend Kathleen. More on that when we return, assuming the weather doesn't ruin our plans!