where has the time gone

Almost thirteen years ago I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. I won't say tiny as she was a whopping nine pounder but she has always been my little Munchkin (and always will). How can it be possible that so much time has gone by so quickly? She used to love getting dressed up all fancy or even to wear dresses and skirts. Nowadays it is like pulling teeth to get her out of jeans! But I managed it for her semi formal dance. We had a great trip picking out a dress as the skirt selection was quite small (read that as we came across three different skirts). Then we had to find some tights which led to the scarf and then the amazing shoes she picked out.

Here she is all dressed up and ready for a great night of dancing and hanging with friends.

She usually snakes one of her friends glow jewelry so this time we went to the dollar store and purchased some of her very own. She was quite excited to have them and she did look rather fetching with them.

Picture of her shoes. She picked them out herself. I guess to dance properly one needs to have sparkly shoes. She learned that from her Nana. And I see nothing wrong with it at all.

She had a relatively good time until one of her friends had a 'heartbreak' moment where the boy her friend has crushed on for four years, didn't notice her at all and was with another girl. Oh the drama of twelve year old girls! 

I am happy to say that we have instilled in our daughter a strength to be herself and make herself happy and complete BEFORE she tries to find a guy (or girl if the case may be). You cannot be in a relationship if you are expecting someone else to make you happy. You need to be happy and bring each other up to a more intense level of happiness together. That lesson is sticking with her- thank goodness. Plus it doesn't hurt that we tell her twelve and thirteen year old boys have cooties which are fatal to twelve and thirteen year old girls! We got this parenting thing nailed!

NEWMARKET--

VOTE YES

MARCH 11

transformation

I was watching the television and there was a commercial about free haircuts at JCPenney for kids in grades Kindergarten to Sixth grade. So I checked it out online and it was the truth!! Who would have known?? I called the number (855-JCP-KIDS) and gave her the information and the salon contacted me with my appointment times. Pretty cool.

Anywho... Kira has been on me as of late to take her to get her hair cut as she is over the snarls and the fact she can never get them out herself and she thinks I am a little too rough when I do it. I really am gentle... she is a drama queen.

So here was her lovely hair this morning before we headed out to the salon.

Had to get a front shot as well. So pretty.... and so fifth grade.

Alex was on one side of the salon and Kira was on the other. As I looked over I saw this pile of my baby girls hair laying on the floor. sniff sniff. I will miss it but I know she will not.

And here she is after. I don't think her smile could get any bigger. She is quite happy with it and for that I am happy. But still sad that her long hair is once again gone. And I am not one bit happy that she now looks like she is going into sixth grade!!

Side shot which didn't turn out that great but still shows how short it now is.

Another painful moment today. I picked her up a pair of skinny jeans while we were in JCPenney... from the JUNIORS DEPARTMENT!! Big time major mommy sigh. I am not ready to be buying her clothes from the Junior Department. But they were cute jeans and I found a shirt to match and it will be a wonderful grown up outfit for her.

ikea...how i love thee

Let me count the ways....

Seriously am totally head over heels in love with IKEA now. I didn't get it until I went to check it out. Now I understand... and am sorry if I ever mocked anyone for their adoration. I get it.

Driving up.... I'm getting chills just sharing these pictures. drool...

Inside map while we were in the showroom totally loving it. I could have spent the whole day there and still not see everything. I will be going back. Promise!!

I had to laugh at this sticker that was on a display toilet. Seriously... I would have hated to have been that employee that found the customers 'mistake'.... ewwww.

Look at that glorious aisle of IKEA happiness! And this was only half of the aisle. We had already walked down part of it! I wish I could have taken the entire stockroom home with me.

Us down another aisle. They have so much stuff!!

Our cart of goodies heading home with us!! oh, if you see my kids, don't tell them that the pink and blue circles are for them. They are really cute hanging plush homes. They are going to love them when they get back home!

I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. I'll share more pictures from our adventure another day.

update to vent

After much thought on the matter, I did return to the Kittery Outlets to ask for a price adjustment on my Childrens Place purchase. It took a bit of time for the girl to ring in the return as she had to type in each of the numbers for the items (and I had purchased quite a few items) and then she rescanned everything and I received a lovely discount of about $50! Really worth it to me.

While I was standing there waiting for the girl to type everything in, the girl who waited on my yesterday was next to her and someone tried to use a Childrens Place retail coupon and she told them that they were two separate "companies" now but that she could offer her the outlet coupon discount instead!! WHAT??? Why couldn't she have done that with me yesterday?? Why did I have to travel back up there to go through all this??

I do believe I am writing to the company (I already took their online survey) but I think a district manager needs to know of this.

Feeling better already.

had to share and a vent

Okay first off what an incredibly LONG and tiring week it has been keeping the electronics off in our house. Alex was pretty easy going with it, Kira however was quite the grump about it by the end of the week. Of course her beloved reading is not the same as playing her DS. Looks like she will be unplugged some more.

Anywho... at the Family Dance Party, I hung this amazing banner that we got from Staples for $19.99! Seriously. Hubby had a coupon for a 6' x 2.5' banner. Love it. The graphic I will let you know came from my favorite of favorite Aliens. She did such a great job on it. LOVE IT!! It was the logo for the week of fun we had (we being the PTA).

I was the photographer at the Dance Party taking pictures of the families and groups of kids which I then emailed to the parents so they would have these great memories. I had to test my lighting and such and I had two adorable subjects on hand....

This is before they danced like fools all night and were hot and sweaty. But they are kinda cute! It was a fun night. I need to get the pictures hubby has of Alex 'break dancing' on the dance floor from his phone. So cute.

Now for the vent... today went to the Childrens Place outlet up in Kittery, Maine. We usually go there since the closest mall with a Childrens Place is about 45 minutes away and they have a better selection as it is a bigger store than most of the mall ones. I loaded up my mesh bag full of jeans for Alex (he is destroying the knees on all of his jeans), short sleeved polos for Alex, capris for Kira and a couple of tank tops. Pretty full bag when we got done.

I get in line with my coupon for 25% off and my Place Card which gives me an additional 5% off my sale. I'm thinking I am doing well. The girl rings me up and we do the small chat stuff. She sees the coupon I have and continues to ring me up. At the end she gives me the total before my discounts and I hand her my coupon and card. She looks at the coupon, converses with the girl next to her and tells me my coupon does not work in the outlets. ummm... since when?? I have been doing this for some time now (like since Kira was born) She tells me they have separated the two companies. Now there is the Childrens Place in the malls and Childrens Place Outlets. hmmm... I must have missed that email that they sent to all their customers on this big change. Especially since I am a Place Card holder AND I get their emails practically every day with coupons.

I was like okay ring it up whatever. Then I get thinking about it after we leave and I am not happy in the least. Now as it is about 4 1/2 hours later, I am really really not happy about it. So I go and look in my inbox and there is an email from Childrens Place Outlets. It's the only one so this is something very very new. I open it and there is a coupon there for 25% off!! ummm... I had one of those. They couldn't have used the correct code (as I am sure it was somewhere in their computer system having worked retail before I know these things) since obviously I have received emails from Childrens Place. Tomorrow we are going back up there after a birthday party and I am getting my discount or they can return my entire purchase and forget about me shopping there again.

Don't mess with someone who has worked retail before. I know how things work and they could have done something for me especially since the amount was over $200. grrrr. Not like I went in for one shirt on sale for $2.99 and wanted it cheaper, I was buying a full bag of stuff.

If you have made it to the end, thanks. If not... no biggie. I feel better getting it off my chest. Now I can have a nice evening with hubby. TTFN