FOUR!

Wow.  Gianna turned four today. No more baby here!

Just had a small family dinner and a simple little box cake.

She didn't mind.  She was super excited.

She's been into mermaids lately, so she nearly blew out our eardrums when she opened her mermaid outfit and "Ariel wig" which is really a Merida wig from Brave.   

 We couldn't stop laughing.

Happy Birthday, Gianna. 

Songbird



Always Singing



Oh my little songbird!  If she's not singing, she's humming.  She has an uncanny ability to quickly memorize lyrics to songs (even if she misinterprets the words).  She also has a gift for making up her own lyrics which is as funny as it is entertaining.

This morning she asked me if she could sing for me and if I would record it. I am SOOO glad I did.  Here's Gianna as Ariel ariel singing Part of Your World from the Little Mermaid. Enjoy.

Hope that made your day.  It made mine.

Trip to the Feed Store

My sweet friend Kelli invited Gianna and I to ride a few towns over with her to get some hay for her horses - which apparently is pretty hard to find these days.  There were a bunch of foals born nearby the feed store and we thought we'd make a little field trip out of it.

Well, neither of us checked the weather before we left and we drove into a gruesome band of thunderstorms.  We headed to the feed store and that was enough of a field trip for my munchkin.

As we walked in the door, Gianna immediately held her nose and started gagging. "WHAT'S THAT SMELL?" she inquired.  I couldn't stop laughed. She couldn't figure out why no one else notice that it stunk.  She asked the lady who worked there why it smelled so bad.  "Oh, that's just poop." she replied.  Gianna was horrified.  If it wasn't evident that my child wasn't a country girl on our recent fishing trip, then the trip to the Feed Store confirmed it. 

As we walked around we discovered some awesome things....

One of the ladies who worked there was so sweet and gave Gianna the full experience. 

Gone Fishin'

I have a dear friend that lives about 20 miles north of us - smack in the middle of the country.   She called last week and wondered if Gianna might like to go fishing in their poind. Well, that was an easy answer. YES! We planned for Sunday - which is wonderful since weekends are especially lonely for us.

My friend, C.C., is an agriculture and biology/science genius - as is her entire family.

And so it was - that this little un-country girl made her way to the country - with polka dots, bows, ruffles and all.

You can imagine her excitement when she was given her own pole.

 

They have about 42 acres and dug this beautiful, enormous pond themselves.

C.C. suggested they go dig for worms for bait.  She was reluctantly excited about the adventure.

 The worm was airborn within about 7 seconds.  (That's her momma's daugher, for sure.)

 The fish weren't biting, at first.

 She was as patient as any three year old.
"This is taking a long time. I don't like fishing."

 She thought Mr. Toby might have better luck.

 Mr. Toby thought we should move to another end of the pond.

 Boy, does HE have good instincts!  Those fish started nibbling right away.

 And lo and behold - someone caught her first fish!

A catfish, no less.

There was both squealing with excitement and squealing with disgust.

C.C. and Toby have two (very outdoorsy) boys.  They got quite a kick out of Madame Prissy-Fritz.

 The little fishergirl caught five fish in all. Impressive!

Zeke and Gino both helped releasing the fish.

(How cool are those names?)

The boys spotted a cottonmouth snake, so they kept an eye on it.

She called Toby 'Mr. Man' a couple of times when his name escaped her.  Then when she remembered, she called him 'Mr. Dopey'. Ha.

Then Mr. Toby had to clear out a drain in the pond.  Guess who voluteered to help?

There was a lot of pointing going on by Miss Bossypants.

 They asked if she wanted to ride the back of the truck toward the house.  Gianna quickly pointed out that a policeman would surely give them a ticket. 

 Gino and Jacob (the boys' friend) made her a seatbelt.

Check out the look of adoration in Gianna's face...

 I think the picture below has to be one of my favorites.

 I think this day held more excitement that she was prepared for. :)

 And then a quad-ride?  Yahoo!

The icing on the cake was the trampoline. Whew. 

What a day!  Thank you, C.C., Toby, Gino and Zeke.  We had a grand time.

And she was WHOOPED!!

Wands and Whimsy

One of my friends alerted me to a great little fundraiser this past Saturday, The Wands and Whimsy Character Breakfast at O'Charley's Restaurant - where princesses, super heroes and other familiar characters came in full costume to visit with the kids as they ate breakfast.

Gianna couldn't stop gasping and pointing and running to meet her 'friends.' Yeah...so much for eating breakfast. She was completely enamored by these precious ladies....and boy, did she grill them on their stories!  She stumped a few of them, too.

I didn't know if kids would be wearing their own princess dresses (I should've guessed they would!), so in an effort not to "overdo" it I put her in this little Fancy Nancy number that my sister-in-law sent for her. It was perfect.  (And Holly, I spotted some on Ebay, FYI. :)

She totally called out Spiderman as well as Peter Pan for being girls. :)

Gianna was confused by the purple outfit that Jasmine wore.  She kept calling her Aladdin.

Some of her favorites....

And then there was the classic Disney princess, Cinderella.

She was so sweet and knelt down with perfect princess grace to be closer to Gianna, and what does Gianna do?  She kneels down right in front of her, of course.  So precious.

 I just LOVE this pciture below...

A potpouri of princesses....

Ariel couldn't have been any cuter.  She was so sweet with Gianna and let her hold her 'dinglehopper.'

Gianna was a little curious about her feet under her costume.

Ariel cleverly distracted her by letting her wear her starfish in her hair.

(Anyone else find it ironic, or at least mildly amusing, that Ariel is standing underneath the "Seafood" sign?  Hahaha.)

And there was even story time with sweet Belle. 

I wondered why they didn't have other princesses read as well - until just now when I remembered from the story that Belle was obsessed with books and reading.  Hello!

How beautiful is Belle?

A rare, still moment.

 I love the picture below because Gianna was calling, "Mommy!" in a whisper to tell me the name of her new friend.  There are certainly looks that mom's always remember about their kids.  This is one of mine that I'll store away in my heart.

Even Emma came from a land far away.

Oh, and anyone who knows Gianna knows how she ADORES Snow White.  Let me just tell you, that this young lady was as close to Disney as we have gotten.  She had the high little voice.  Knew all the story and stats and she even sang just like Snow White.  Gianna was a complete groupie.

...and guess who managed to convince Snow White to accompany her to story time?

Snow White kept her doe-eyed look and sweet smile the entire time.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

And as MUCH as Gianna loves all the princesses - especially Snow White, there is one dark character that she has become obsessed with....the Evil Queen from Snow White.  And if you don't know her name, Gianna will quickly tell you it is Maleficent.

When she awoke Saturday morning, Gianna's first question was, "Will the mean queen be there?"

I seriously doubted it, but assured here there would be princesses.

But alas, I was wrong!  As I was visiting with a sweet couple - also adoptive parents, who actually knew me from my blog (go figure) Gianna tore off and ran across the restaurant.  I saw my friend there, so I knew I had a minute to visit before I had to run off.

And guess who she found? Apple and all!

Apparently, before I caught up with them, my friend noticed how awestruck G was and whispered her name to the queen. 

"Oh, Gianna - I've been waiting for you!"

I can only imagine what Gianna's face looked like.

How amazing is this woman?

And when Gianna asked where her Magic Mirror was, she didn't skip a beat. She trapsed across the restaurant with Gianna following her, where she dug underneath the table to find her bag.  Sure enough, she had a mirror - ready for a little stickler like Gianna.

 "Yeah, but it didn't really talk."

(the mirror)

Serious adoration...

And maybe there was a little mutual admiration going on.

Most beautiful!

 * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The girls and ladies of Chi Omega Sorority volunteered to raise money to benefit the St. Nicholas Center which was founded and run by a friend of mine. The Center provides therapeutic, educational, and social services to children with Autism, Developmental Delays, and Neurological Disorders in a fun and positive setting. Let me just say that is was well worth the $6 tickets. Gianna told me not long after we arrived, "Mommy, now we don't have to go to Disney World!"  Hmmmm.  That $6 ticket may have saved me quite a large chunk of change! :)   

Kudos Christy and gang!

What a wonderful event.

Next year, I'll blog a little reminder beforehand, so some of our local friends can join us.