eternally chaotic

Piper received a pair of pink princess roller skates from Aunt Autumn for Christmas.  Today was the day she got to try them out.  She reminded us all day that we “promised” a trip to the park so she could skate like Minnie and Daisy, or at least start to learn.  Along with the skates came knee and elbow pads to help on the falls that were sure to happen.  We picked a park with a flat running track as a good starting place.  The temperature was in the low sixties but very windy – there were two guys on the track playing with very large stunt kites.  We bolted the skates onto Piper’s shoes but left off the pads since she would be holding our hands the first few times, or until she was confident enough to think she didn’t need our hands anymore.

It was interesting to see her reaction, and I wish I would have brought the camera.  Walking in the skates didn’t really pose her much of a problem and she was able to move them around as needed for stepping but as soon as one would start to roll it was splitsville each time.  Since she was holding onto either me or Missy during all this she didn’t fall but certainly would have and I think she realized it as well.  After a few mishaps like this, even though they weren’t too bad she was through.  We coerced her to the grass where she kept walking in them, basically just letting her get used to them on her feet before heading home.  Even a little discouraged she still wants to keep practicing.

Piper and Violet both had Christmas parties today at daycare.  As a part of the festivities we painted a snowflake purple, were showed the decorations done by the kids, now proudly dispayed throughout each room, at some good finger food, mingled with the other parents and got a chance to watch the kids sing and dance.  In past years at school the kids weren’t old enough, or coordinated enough to do a rehearsed routine.  This year that all changed.

Piper has been constantly asking to hear “Jingle Bells” or in particular “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” but we hadn’t figured out why other than that particular song was also a main them in an episode of “Mickey Saves Christmas” that she watches now and then.  So when kids lined up in the gym to perform we were in for a treat.  Not only did they sing and dance but they did so in the three year old equivalent of “in sync” which equated to marching in a rectangle while making various arm, leg and body gestures.  They sang several songs, a few in Spanish and a few in English each good in its own way.

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While shopping tonight at Discover Mills for Christmas gifts we walked past a Santa booth that was empty of patrons.  Piper waved at Santa and he smiled and waved back.  We asked if she would like to visit him and tell him what she would like for Christmas.  Of course the answer was an excited “Yes!!!”.  After a bit of shopping we made our way back, stood in a short line and watched the people in front of us as we waited.  Soon it was our turn.  Having just recently visited a Santa at Lake Lanier Islands and seeing the quick-in quick-out, how many pictures can we take this hour, rush to get kids through, whirlwind that was a “Lake Lanier Santa Visit”, this trip was refreshing.  The Santa was a typical greying elderly man with a long white and grey beard and an ample lap for the kids to sit.  This Santa took Piper and sat her on his lap and for what seemed an eternity asked her question after question about what she and her sister wanted from Him.  Movies and Toys and Princesses.  After a few minutes she sat in awe, answering only “Yes” to each of his questions, humbled but not quite sure why.  When he was done with the questions he offered her a lolly pop and wished her a very merry Christmas.

As we walked off we couldn’t help but contrast our experience here, similar to what we recalled as kids, and to what the “expected” visit should be to the sub-par experience at Lanier Islands where they were more concerned with queue length and pictures per hour than they seemed to be with the kids coming to see the main christmas man.

Missy mentioned a while back that it was possible to integrate our photos stored and managed at Flickr with a blog.  She did so on Facebook as well with a particular badge but wasn’t pleased with the results.  We have added a new plugin to Princess Hell to fully integrate the two.  In particular there is now a widget on the sidebar that shows a few random pictures from our photo sets as well as a new page that shows all of our public photo sets on Flickr.

Check it out!

We have wanted a place on the web where we can write about the girls and our life with them that is seperate from our personal more focused blogs.  Missy’s blog at yellowjeepgirl seemed to be a good fit at first but that is really her place for her and is not focused on either the girls or family but point in time snapshots of her life.  My blog daggersden was never really an option as the site is completely focused gaming and politics.

So withouth futher ado welcome to Princess Hell!