We took the offspring on a little surprise weekend trip to Dallas last week. I have started calling it “The Trip That Almost Didn’t Happen..” Here’s why: We kept it a secret from them and I spent the day on Thursday getting everyone packed. Not an easy task I assure you. Anyhoo, as we were winding down that night with our nighttime routine of bath and before bed snack of fruit or yogurt, there suddenly came the loudest crash followed by even louder wailing and screaming.  Before I got to the scene, I knew it was Big D.  Poor kid. I swear everything happens to him. As he was descending from the bench  of our kitchen table to the floor, somehow the bench flipped on its side and slammed down on his big toe. When I finally got to him he was on the couch screaming and writhing around like an earthworm that has been plucked from his dirt hole and thrown on the ground. We finally got him calmed down and figured out what happened.  J. took him to after hours clinic and got the blood drained from under the toenail. When they got home, he was still hurting quite a bit. He finally fell asleep around 1 a.m. The next morning we went to get an xray to be sure it wasn’t broken.  It wasn’t, but I’m telling you, it looked awful. Since it wasn’t broken we made the executive decision to go ahead and go on the trip. So, we told them what we had planned and everyone was soooo excited.  We loaded up the troops and set off.  We folded the seat down in front of D. and put a pillow on it and he rode the four hour trip with the gimp foot propped up. As seen here: (along with some Pringles..)

We rode around downtown the night we got there and there were quite a few “oohhhs and ahhhs” coming from the backseat.  I took several pics. but they really didn’t turn out,so they didn’t make the cut for the blog.  Our first stop the next day was the Dallas Aquarium. Very cool place.

Davis and the sloth having a staredown….I believe the sloth won.

Peek a boo….

I have an urge for some Fruit Loops right now….

How bout I leave you with a cute kid pic….

 

We got the pinata strung up and ready to go.  This was the pull string kind.  I wasn’t too keen on little girls weilding bats inside my house, so this was the perfect choice!

Unfortunately, it was a dud.  All the strings got pulled and no candy.  I finally had to open the bottom and shake all the candy out.  I say the pinata was a dud, I’m sure the fact that no candy came out had NOTHING to do with the fact that the little princesses didn’t really pull with all their might….

As everyone knows, the pinata is officially the unofficial signal that the party is over.  But, in all actuality the party was just starting!  Here is where we found the boys who were sentenced to outside time due to their high levels of exuberance… those silly boys were playing in the overflowed edge of the pond.

They were having the best time running through the water and splashing each other.  A few of the adults commented on how much fun it looked…

In fact, one of the “adults” just couldn’t stand it any longer and…..

Yep.  That was one of the “grown-ups”… fun times!

The royal refreshment table complete with doilies.  I like doilies.  Shhh…don’t tell anyone. The goblets are my favorite things though.  I searched everywhere for goblets.  I couldn’t find “just the right ones” and then….I spied these little beauties on the bottom shelf in the party section at Hobby Lobby. I grabbed all they had.

The princess cake was pink on the inside as requested by you know who….

My next favorite thing was the HUGE, gaudy “diamond” rings I put on the cupcakes…

She’s all about the icing…

A princess dress-up party is hard work.. you have to stop periodically for a small sip to quench the royal thirst…

 

The candidates for princess were then led upstairs to complete their training so they could be crowned and become a “real princess”. So, up they went…

Curtsy Class 101….

The candidates lined up on the stairs to await their turn in the crowning ceremony.  It was quite a big deal folks!

Each candidate came before the Queen..aka me… and was tapped once on each shoulder then given a crown and a septor. After that, they were truly little princesses….

After all the princesses were crowned they gave the traditional wave and retired into the dining room for some royal refreshment..aka..cake and juice.

 

Are you ready for even MORE dress-up pictures?  These girls changed dresses over and over. Which is good, that was the idea….

 

So, I guess I should start with the fact that not only the little girls dressed up.  The big girls did too.  Uh huh, we sure did! The costumes were “one size fits most”, so they were not the most flattering…

As the girls arrived, they went to the office for puzzles and coloring until everyone was there.

When everyone was ready, we led the little ones to the dress-up room…

Let the dressing up begin…

 

  It was quite busy around our house this weekend. Wait. What am I saying?  Its always busy at our house. What I should say is that it was a little busier than normal.  It was a party weekend for us.  We dressed up, we ate cake, we partied!  I suggested to RA a few months ago that maybe she would enjoy a “dress-up” party since she spends half her day everyday dressing up in costumes.  She thought about it, and decided she wanted to put her own spin on it, and told me she wanted it to be a princess dress-up party.  So, there ya go. A four year old who knows exactly what she wants!   So.  We had a princess dress-up cake:

 We had princess dress-up jewels:

We had princess dress-up dresses:

We had princess dress-up shoes:

We had a princess dress-up room:

Shew!  Its tough to be the princess…