DINNER AND THEATER

It's hard to believe that just the day before yesterday (Friday), it was clear as a bell and today it snowed hard where we live here in Washington. However in downtown Seattle there was no snow thank goodness.

When we heard that the Lion King was in town, we just had to take Mimi. The last time we saw the show was about 6 years ago in Los Angeles, California. It was BC (before child). The show was fabulous. Tonight was no different. Dad was only able to get tickets for this evening. Since Mimi very rarely takes any naps now, I tried to get her to take one before we left this afternoon. I knew she was tired since she still wakes up at the ungodly hour of 6 :30 - 7:00. No luck. She was much too excited knowing that she was going to see the show. This is just a portion of her phone call to Halliwell: "Guess what Halli. My mom and dad are going to take me to see the Lion King tonight and it's not a movie either! It's a stage show!!! That's AWSOME!!!" Although Mimi may not realize that I am much smarter than she thinks. Once in the car she fell asleep out of sheer boredom. It was a 45 minute drive and that is about how long she slept. I would not let her watch the dvd nor listen to any music and turned the heat up slightly. I know that was kind of sneaky. Tee, Hee, Hee. It was either let her stay awake and be crabby or make her nap and have a happy child at dinner. I chose the latter.

We had dinner at RuthChris steakhouse and man oh man was it delicious!!! Mimi not only ate her dinner but half of ours as well. That girl can really pack it away. How she loves beef.

We then had just enough time to walk the one block to the theater and of course I forgot to bring Mimi's coat with us doggone it! I did however have a small blanket in the car which served her well until we arrived at the theater. Like I said the show was fabulous. When it was all over, the audience had the chance to take a souveniour picture with a couple of the lioness dancers but for whatever Mimi's reason is, she did not want to take a picture. Instead she bought a Lion King t-shirt.

All in all, we had a grand time tonight. This is a start of another family tradition.

DINNER WITH GRANDMA AND GRANDPA

For a while now we have been having dinner with grandma and grandpa on Sundays. I am trying to get together with them more often since we live so close but due to our hectic lives, we can only manage to get together on the weekends and even that depends on how they feel. So far they are doing pretty good. Tonight was the very first time I made homemade lasagna. Usually I buy the frozen dinner at the market. I must say that it came out pretty darn good and fairly easy to make too.

Today was Mimi's last ski lesson for the season. Snoqualmie got a few more inches of snow today, so although this may be the last ski lesson, we may take her up again before the snow season is completely gone.

Tomorrow evening Mimi will go see her first Broadway production (I don't count the Dora and Diego show she saw last year with Blake). We will take her to see Disney's "The Lion King" at the Paramount. Both dad and I saw it back in Los Angeles and it was marvalous!!!

BLACK DIAMOND MUSEUM

Playing on the train tracks reminded me of the days when my friends and I would play on the tracks near our home in Long Beach, California. Mimi and Blake had a load of fun playing inside the caboose as well. It is such a gorgeous day today. Although it is 42 degrees outside there is no wind so it feels like 70 degrees. It was quite cold last night and there was frost on the ground this morning. Mimi and Blake were quite surprised when they found icicles hanging from the caboose. It's too bad that this lovely weather will be short lived, we are expected to get some rain/snow tomorrow.

Another tidbit of useless knowledge and something that I did not know (not even dad) until I heard it on the news the other night, we have bald eagles hanging out on the I-520 floating bridge that leads into downtown Seattle. We usually take the I-90 floating bridge because it is closer to us. However it was reported that there are just a few bald eagles on the I-520. There are not many of them though because we are still in the middle of the winter season but they perch themselves on the bridge and swoop down into the water to catch some fish to eat. Apparently there are more of them in June the reporter says but they are the babies since June is their mating season. How about that?

BLACK DIAMOND BAKERY

Since it has been quite a while since we had breakfast at Black Diamond Bakery, that's where we went before school. It is also one of Blake's favorite places to go too. While having breakfast a very nice gentleman stopped by our table to let us know that the Black Diamond Museum was open and that we were invited to visit. Both Mimi and Blake had loads of fun playing on the train track and caboose. We then went into the museum and it so much reminded me of Knott's Berry Farm. It was loaded with antiques. Quite interesting too. I was told that originally The Black Diamond Mining Company was in Californina then when the coal ran out, they moved to it's present location. They moved the Black Diamond Bakery building up here too.

BASKET RAFFLE NIGHT

Last night at Mimi school it was a mixture of basket raffle, spagetti dinner and open house all in one night. We got a chance to visit her classroom and talk with the teacher Ms. Blevins and then Mimi could not wait to show us the computer lab. In the library they had a lot of books for sale however we did not buy any this time as Mimi has a gazillion books in her room that we have yet to go through. She did have enough "monies" to buy a pocket size daily calendar. She's really been into calendars lately. In the cafeteria was where we saw all of her friends eating their spagetti dinner. That was where the basket raffle was held. All of the classes made baskets to raffle off and there were several silent auction table there as well. All of the proceeds are going to the school. Everyone had a chance to participate by adding to their class basket. Everything is tax deductable so in the end everyone wins.

PRACTICE CANCELLED

Mimi was still asleep at 5:15 this evening so I thought it would be best if we just skipped tonight"s practice. She really needed her rest. She has now been in the tub for the past hour just yakking away to herself. Since we missed practice, dad is going to stop by Marble Slab and buy some ice cream for her as a delicious treat. MM Good!

SHE'S DOWN FOR THE COUNT.....

Mimi now has a very busy calendar. Basically she has school and one outside activity everyday. Today is no different. She has always been active from day one. I did however notice this morning that although she has one loose tooth on the front and bottom, it is not coming out and her permanent tooth is coming in. It has already broken through the gum. Since we were out and about getting our nails done at the salon this morning, I thought that I would stop by the dentist's office to see if he had the time to help us out. Unfortunately he is taking continuing education class today and is not there. We do however have an appointment set up for this coming Monday. Maybe this explains why she has been feeling a bit warmer than usual. After school today she was very whinny which is unusual "I wanna go to Zoe's house". She whined all the way home. I explained to Mimi that Zoe is getting ready to go to the same baseball practice as you are in a couple of hours. She still whined. When we got home I caught her yawning then I knew that she was tired. Therefore my thinking is for her to take a nap (of which she hates with a passion, always feels as though she is missing out on something). Of course she fought with me tooth and nail so to speak. By looking at the picture I guess you can tell who won out. Thank goodness we live 5 minutes walking distance to and from school and her baseball practice does not start for another hour. Plus where she practices is only a 5 minute drive. So before we leave this evening Mimi will have a quick dinner and then after practice we will meet dad at the McDonald's for ice cream.