Tuesday, September 27, 2011

The Harding Family Tradition Continues......

From what I understand, the "strong girl" impression has been a Harding Family tradition. My sisters and I did it as kids, and ever since Sophie was born, we've been trying to get all the grandkids to do it. I'm not sure why this cracks us up so much......BUT it certainly does! I got a video of Anna doing her impression about a week ago. Not too shabby, kiddo!!

Monday, September 26, 2011

Happy Birthday, Grandma!!

LOVE this one!!
 Grandma came for a visit the second weekend in August.  Her visit fell a couple weeks before her birthday and you all know how I feel about birthdays!!  I asked Grace what kind of cake we should make her.  Her response was, "Ummmm either a princess or a candy corn cake."  DUH!!! Why wouldn't anyone want a princess or a candy corn cake!!  WAHAHA!!!  We went with a candy corn cake since we were getting into the fall spirit (and sadly, yes, that happens in early August!).  While I don't think it will end up in the next edition of Martha Stewart magazine, it at least did end up looking like candy corn!
On Saturday, we took a trip the the farmers market downtown and had Grandma's birthday party!  On Sunday, we had a park play date, Grace got to go to the theatre to see the Smurfs, and we had our first big fall meal of the year!  The girls got in LOTS of play time with Grandma and we're already looking forward to her next visit!!

 
Singing Happy Birthday!!

Candy corn cake

Drink break at the park


Headed to see the Smurfs!



EXCITED!

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Little Ballerina

Grace is what you might call a bit of a performer and might even LOVE a crowd!  She loves to dress up and dance around especially to "princess songs."  I knew I wanted to sign her up for dance this year and was SO excited when I found out about the classes at Gym Bugs.  The class for her age is an intro to ballet and gymnastics AND the teachers let them dress up in princess dresses at the end of class!!  SCORE!!!  
We're about a month and a half into dance class now and I have SEVERAL videos to share with you!  The teachers let the parents come in at the end of class so the girls can show off their stuff and I've gotten a video each week.  The studio puts on a recital in December and I'm sure Matt will put together a video showcasing each week.  The picture below will have to do for now.  This was taken before her first class.  She wasn't excited at all!!  :)

SO EXCITED!!

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Girls Weekend in Nashville!!!

Dinner on our first night!

Apparently Maritza missed the gray memo!

The first weekend in August was a weekend that my friends and I had talked about for what seemed like FOREVER!!!  What started out as just a couple of people talking about going to a concert, turned into an AWESOME weekend filled with great friends and hilarious memories that still make me laugh out loud!!!  For those of you who don't know, I'm what you can consider to be a HUGE Keith Urban fan!!  Maggie might think she's a bigger fan, BUT I tend to think she's just more of a stalker!  I'm more of a "I'll go to every show you have, rock out, sing out loud, roll my windows down when he's on the radio, and like his page on Facebook" kind of fan.  Where Maggie is more of a "I don't care what it costs to get front tow tickets, maybe hold onto the exhaust pipes of his tour bus and follow him to his next stop, and might even get arrested at his house" kind of fan!!  WAHAHAHA!!!!!  While he is definitely easy on the eyes, he puts on an AMAZING show!  And let me tell you ladies after just one show watching him rock out on his guitars, you'll be googly-eyed and day dreaming for weeks to come!!  Oh my, oh my, oh my!!!
We took off early Friday afternoon and were all SO excited!!  This was a group of moms who don't get out too often.  And having TWO WHOLE NIGHTS to do whatever we wanted, almost made my head spin just thinking about the possibilities of things we could do!!  Did we want to go, go, go?  Or maybe we should just lay around and watch movies the whole day.....I don't think so!!  
FAMILY!

Ready to shake it!

When we were about an hour away from Nashville, we stopped to get a little....ummmm libation before we got to the hotel.  Turns out this would be our first adventure of the trip.  3 of us had to use the "facilities" and had to go next door to get that accomplished.  I'd like to give a little note to all convenience store owners:  a burlap curtain + a prison-type door marked "MENS" + a squall of flies coming out of the toilet + a wall so close to your head that you can't properly assume "the squat" position + unknown feces on the toilet + NO toilet paper DOES NOT = SUITABLE RESTROOM FACILITIES!!!!!!  And yes, I did take a picture (of course) that I will not be sharing (take a sigh of relief) with you!  DISGUSTING!!!!!  Hold on a second while I throw up in my mouth just thinking about it!


We arrived at the hotel and were ready to get the night started!  We were starving and decided to grab a quick bite before we got all sassed up for the night!  Somehow we found what I'm sure is the only honky tonk that serves mexican food.  Who cares, right!!  We could've eaten McDonald's and we would've been happy!  We headed back to the hotel to make plans for our first, big night out.  We all congregated and noticed something hilarious.......we ALL had on gray except for Maritza!!  WAHAHAHA!!  At least we wouldn't lose each other.  We decided that Coyote Ugly was the bar of choice.  I know, right!  ME going to COYOTE UGLY!?!?!?  AND it turns out it was FUN!!
TOOTSIE'S!!!


Oh la la!!
We actually made it an "early" night.....didn't want to over do it before the big concert on Saturday!!  On Saturday morning, we did a little shopping and ate at The Cheesecake Factory (YUM!) while we waited on my family to get into town.  Mom, Dad, and the Mohr's met us in Nashville on their way home from Florida.  You gotta' love those guys for keeping Sophie and Charlie in the hotel room while Mom and Maggie went to the concert!!
And then it was FINALLY time!!  We had waited on this ALL summer long!!  It was time to head out to the concert and shake it like we've never shaken it before!!  WHO HOO!!!  I won't bore you with all the details and tell you that Keith didn't disappoint and put on his best concert yet!!  We danced our booties off and then realized.......IT'S ONLY 11PM!!!  WAHOOOO!!!  And since we're VIP's, we had a table reserved for us at Tootsie's!!  That's how we roll!!  Annnnnd, it helps to have connections!  Thanks again, Kay!!  The band was fabulous!  I'm quite sure we looked like a SNL skit after each song we'd look at each other and said, "OMG!!!  I LOVE THIS SONG!!"  WAHAHAHA!!  Good times!
The next morning when I first got out of bed, every joint snapped and every bone creaked!  I guess that's what happens when you're 32, dance for 5 straight hours, and think you can go to bed at..........TOO LATE!!!  :)
We had a FANTABULOUS time in Nashville!!!  It was a much needed get away and would LOVE to do it again SOON!!  Next time, we'll have Lauren (no more babies for a while :) ) and Erin (take your vitamins!) joining in on the mischief!!  Maybe in late October for Erica's birthday??????