Biggest Loser

I'm a Biggest Loser fan, are you? I've been watching the show for three years now and I'm hooked. I love the trainers, the contestants and the results. Which is why this weekend I picked up the Biggest Loser Cardio Max DVD.

Don't get me wrong, I know I'm not over weight, I'm just out of shape. I knew I had to do something about it a few weeks ago when I was "winded" carrying Briar up the stairs. Since I don't trust a gym daycare and I needed something more than just a walk around the block to motivate me, I decided to try Bob and Jillian out for myself. Let me tell you "I'm loving it", so much so I'm thinking about adding Biggest Loser Power Sculpt to my library tomorrow.

So are you exercising these days?

En Garde

Happy Birthday Brie--Another year has gone by and another party is complete. This year's theme was Barbie & The Three Musketeers, check out some of the highlights from the event.

Barbie & The Three Musketeer's dessert table.

Here is a close up shot.

This is Brie's cake, yes I made it. It looks nothing like the $40 one at HEB, but Brie LOVED it, that's all that matters.

These are our strawberry cupcakes, don't you just love the cake stand. I bought it with my Christmas gift card to Macy's, thanks you Grandpa & Charmaine.

Our dining was decorated as well, pom-poms, confetti and carriage.

I even made a sign for the doors, "All For One And One For All".

Can you tell our "Barbie Girl" was excited for the fun.

We had mask making--For the masquerade ball, of course.

A Pink Pony Pinata to bust open.

A real castle to color.

And all these goodies to give away.

The kiddos even got the chance to become real Musketeers.

Complete with their very own pony...

and sword.

Brie had a great birthday this year and I had a blast planning it. Now it's time to sit back, relax and enjoy my three year old.

Barbie & The Three Musketeers

Tomorrow's the big day, we can't wait!

Day o' Fun

Today we celebrated Brie's birthday in style; Art Class, McDonald's, Cupcakes & Presents.

Too many presents.

Thanks Grandma & Papa, My Little Pony rocks.

Brie was also able to celebrate with a trip to the zoo. We're so glad daddy took the day off work.

And as the day came to an end we all settled into the living room to play with some Littlest Pet Shop toys.

I can't imagine a better way for a three year old to celebrate her birthday.

Hmm, maybe with a big Barbie and The Three Musketeers party this Saturday. Stay tuned for some serious cuteness!

Happy Birthday, Brie

My sweet, well, colicy baby girl has grown into a...


sweet, well, spunky three year old.

Happy Birthday Brie Renee, being your mother has been my greatest joy.

The Many Names of Our Girls

If I'm being honest I don't think our girls have much chance at being normal in life. Robert and I are big dorks, we love NPR, documentaries and saving lot of money. If having nerdy parents isn't reason enough to be weird, how about having nerdy nicknames.

Let's start with Brie, she's known as: Brie, Brieto, Breezy, Brietono, Briester, One, and Uno. Then there are others, like her Indian name Little Bird and her Japanese name Fumi. But wait there is even more, we can't forget her Princess names: Princess Tanaka from the royal line of Pink Tanaka's and Corinne from the French Musketeer family.

Of course not to be left out Briar has a few nicknames of her own: Briar, Bri, Briarooni, Two and Dos. Briar's Inidain name is Littler Bird and Chiakie is her Japanese name (the one Brie is most fond of), however she doesn't have any princess names, yet. Not to worry though, Robert plan to initiate her into the clan with an official Tanaka coronation ceremony when she turns two, "Then and only then she'll receive her princess name".

With so many nicknames, let's hope the girls never get lost. I fear they might not be able to tell the police their real names or our for that matter. Yes, we too have Indian, Japanese and Tanaka names--it makes for fun pretend!

How about you, do you have any nicknames?

A Walk in the Zoo

Thanks to some extra Christmas money from our generous family we were able to buy memberships to the San Antonio Zoo and San Antonio Children's museum over the weekend. And let me tell you we wasted no time in taking advantage of them. Now if it ever warms up we'll be able to head over to Sea World to pick up their season passes--comeback 70 degrees, comeback.

Onto the Zoo--Saturday was warm enough to be outside, 58-60 degrees, and daddy was busy studying for Test 7 (I did tell you he passed 6 right?) so the girls and I made a trip to the zoo.

After buying 2 Souvenir Tiger Cups of pop ($4.50 each), 2 Souvenir Lion Bowls of ice cream ($2.25 each) and 1 Souvenir Popcorn Tub ($4) we were all set to head over to the Africa Live exhibit. For your information, I'm a sucker for the "can we get that?" requests the girls make at attractions, at least I get $1 refills next time.

Here is a picture of Brie at the newly renovated Hippo Exhibit before the hippo looked my girls straight in the eyes, snarled and then turned around to pooped in their face. Let's just say this smile didn't last very long.

Once I got the girls to stop screaming, we were able to enjoy a few less "aggressive" animals like the Gazelles.

Although Briar seemed to enjoy the monkeys most.

After racing through the stinky bird section, we ventured into the Tiny Tot exhibit spending a good hour just playing amongst some animals--kinda.

Here the girls are having a picnic with some raccoon-like statues.

The girls also had the opportunity to "ride" an alligator.

Our last stop inside the zoo was a visit to watch the Prairie Dogs hard at work.

(I love this picture)

You do remember how I told you I'm a sucker for the "can we get that?" requests, so when Brie asked to ride the Choo-Choo we made it our last activity. I mean she had to get one last free train ride in before she turns three on Tuesday, right?

Departing the train Brie managed to melt my heart with a big thank you, we then picked up FireWok for dinner, road our bike a little before baths and all crashed in bed at 8:30.

If I haven't said it before, I'll say it now, I love being a mom to Brie and Briar. I pray they grow up to be even more fabulous than they already are.

Stay tuned tomorrow to hear about our trip the the Children's Museum.