Happy New Year

Happy New Year, Merry Christmas, Happy Annie, Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Halloween, Happy Greta and Happy Whatever Else I'm behind on.  We'll go in reverse order and see how far back into 2013 I feel like going.  We'll start with Christmas.  Helaina's wish list had 4 "must haves" on it:  Ivy, the American Girl Doll, make-up, a Rainbow Loom (for making rubberband bracelets) and a unicorn Dreamlight.  Good thing she's been a good girl because Santa came through on the "must haves" and a lot more.

Make-up for a 7 year old, yah right.

 That look on Helaina's face is worth what "Santa" shelled out for Ivy, the American Girl doll.

 Helaina loves Ivy because she's Chinese and because Ivy likes gymnastics, just like Helaina.

Gleo DeNile (Monster High) wig.  Too funny or what.  Helaina loves wigs.

 Helaina visited with Santa several times in December.  This was at breakfast with Santa at the zoo.

School holiday event.

 Jim was off from work starting with Christmas until after New Years, so Helaina kept us busy - and broke.  We went to a bounce house...

 ... and bowling.  Can't see the score too well but Helaina beat Jim in both games they bowled.  She also got 2 strikes in a row followed by 9 pins.  The pro bowling on the lane next to us gave her a high five and told her that he was impressed.  And ...

 ... we went to the movies with one of Helaina's buddies and saw Frozen - which is now Helaina's new obsession (they are both holding their Elsa dolls).  She sings the songs CONSTANTLY and knows every word to many.   And ...

 ... sledding.  It was all going well until...

Helaina went over this bump for the 2nd time,  flipped backwards and hit her head hard on the hill.  She landed perfectly after going airborne on her first run (of course I didn't get a picture of that) - I get the picture of her about to clunk her head. And...

... bucket list item for Helaina - the ropes course at WonderWorks.  She's been crazy to do this since she first saw it and we resisted as long as we could.  In a weak moment back in September, I told her that if she did good in 2nd grade that we'd let her do the ropes course around Thanksgiving.  Well, 2nd grade is going extremely well and we held off as long as we could, but the pestering made us finally grant her wish.

There was no way in heck I was harnessing up and doing this with my knees, so Jim was the winner.  Helaina was a pro after about 2 minutes, but Jim seemed to be frozen in time on the ropes.  Helaina finally left him behind to race through the 3 levels of the course multiple times while Jim kept yelling down to me "It's harder than you think!"

Helaina was fearless, tackling every aspect of the course and flying through it.  Thought this picture was neat because of the snow seen on the ceiling skylights above the course.

Brave Daddy, good sport Daddy, far far behind his daughter!  After I don't know how long, probably at least 45 minutes on the course, Helaina finally agreed to being finished because callouses were forming on her hands!

Halloween was a blast.  Monster High girl Laguna Blue was Helaina's pick this year.  Blonde wig with blue highlights, "creature from the black lagoon" type fins on her fishnet stockings and arms, fishy scaley jacket and shirt and shimmery black skirt completed the outfit.  She couldn't have been happier.

We even did makeup like Laguna Blue wears.  She was so pleased.

Halloween party at school.  Helaina went as "Zombie Dorothy" and had a spider in her basket instead of Toto.

The Zoo Boo.

A rare opportunity to see Ophelia the octopus at the zoo.  She's usually hiding in one of the caves in her enclosure.  Next post, our sweet sweet Greta Garbo.