Merry Christmas

New Moon

No, I did not read the book.
Yes, I went to the movie on opening night.

Yes, it was great - mostly because of the ladies I went with,

and because the chocolate fondue at Melting Pot is delicious.

Can't wait to do it again ... June 30th?

cinderELLA

Here's how the party went down:

Yours truly was Belle, and told the story of cinderELLA ... with a few breaks for activities, of course.

Our first task was to "work, work, work!"

The little princesses popped all the bubbles in the garage.

Then we tried on different princess clothing to get ready for the ball.

With some help from the Fairy-Godmother, we "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo-ed!"

Decorated our magic pumpkins,

Had a great cake (thank you Draeger's),

Opened presents,

And we all lived Happily Ever After!

Thank you Jen for taking beautiful photos - it doesn't take a trained eye to distinguish which images are professional on this post. Fore more of Jen's work, click here to check out her site.

As a side note, in a recent discussion where we were saying "oh, I wish I would have..." statements, I said: "I wish I would have been a Disney Princess for a summer job." Fortunately I had a white cotillion dress that took to yellow fabric dye quite nicely ... and walla! A birthday Belle at no extra charge:)

cinderELLA, 10 year Reunion and a Black Eye

Packa Lee Lee and Packa Low Low helped cinderELLA celebrate her third birthday while we were in the Valley of the Sun.

Great Grandma Ginny (or "Grandma Darling") is a snow-bird and traveled from Wisconsin a few weeks early so she could see us while we were in town. We love you Grandma Darling!

In addition to the Iacobelli clan, the Budd's came to join in the fun. How random is it that on Sunday while lapping the halls during stake conference I saw John and Savannah in the foyer. Pretty cool, right?

Ella getting her new cinderELLA light up dress and crown ... yes, she already has a cinderELLA dress, but it didn't light up - so Packa Lee Lee had to get her a new one of course ... and yes, Ella is a bit spoiled.

We also went to my 10 year high school reunion ... 10 years already!

Andrea Winerstein was the first friend I made, and the first person to invite me to a sleepover when we moved to Scottsdale in 7th grade - now she's a speech therapist in Santa Fe:

I actually forgot to take pictures until the end - which is why it looks sort of empty:) Dana recently graduated from Hastings Law School - and we never got together while she was here! Bummer since she's in L.A. now. Congrats on your engagement!
Carolyn, my third best friend (no, I don't have a 1 or 2, but since 7th grade, she's been my third) left the Bay Area and is a manager at PWC in Phoenix. Fortunately she's taking off a day in December to come hang out with me (mostly she wants to hang out with Ella and Anne:))

Word is there are more pictures on facebook - but since I really don't know how to navigate that social networking site ... your guess is as good as mine. Thanks all - it was great to see people and catch up... it really was fun seeing every one's new and improved selves!

Here is a picture of sweet Anne moments before she fell on the pool deck getting out of the hot tub and got a black eye. It's been a full week, and she still looks like she got in a back alley fight. Poor thing.

AZ

We were in Scottsdale for 4 days ... and went to the McCormick Railroad park on three of them. I think it is fair to say we have a favorite AZ activity.

Friday afternoon:


Saturday Morning:
We met my high school friend, Alex Bailey, and his family at the park.

It's a small world too, because our dear friends Scott and Jen Bailey are Alex's cousins...

So much to do, in so little time!

Anne was mesmerized by the carousel.