Weekend(s) In Virginia

Dan & I's nieces, Arden & Skylar, asked to spend a weekend with us in Virginia as their Christmas presents. We have done this before but we had them on the same weekend together & this time they wanted to come separately. Since it was such a big hit before they wanted to continue with it. We gave them each $50 to spend on their shopping trips. Arden's weekend was January 29th & Skylar's was February 5th. Arden chose to go to Tysons Corner mall & Skylar chose the Dulles Town Center mall. Arden had her time at the mall all planned out, she wanted to go to MAC to get a new shade of lip gloss & then go to Sephora to get her makeup done. I had scheduled an "educational" makeup appointment earlier on & her appointment was at 1:00 that day. Here is a photo I took: She really learned a lot & left the appointment knowing that less is more.
During our trip to Tysons, I went into the Guess store where I found the handbag that I had fallen in love with in Barbados over the summer. I ended up coming home with the bag & a big thank you goes out to my Hubby. When we got home Arden took this picture of me, my bag & Lexi: Isn't it pretty? :o)
When we got home & were talking about makeup, we realized that Dan wasn't making a lot of noise & that's because... he had shopped until he dropped. :o)
Skylar's shopping trip was a little less planned out. She knew the stores she wanted to hit at the Dulles Town Center mall but she wasn't quite sure what she wanted to buy. We went to a store called Justice where she found some perfume & a hair brush that she really liked. I was very impressed with her frugalness because she would analyze each item before purchasing to make sure that she really wanted to spend her money on it. Arden didn't do that, if she wanted it, she bought it. Here is a photo I took of Skylar with all of her purchases:
While the girls were here for their weekends, they both chose to eat at The Cheesecake Factory so Dan & I were lucky enough to eat there 2 Saturdays in a row. The three of us after we ate; Arden had asked me to curl her hair for dinner.
Unfortunately during Skylar's dinner, she was having some problems with one of her teeth that was loose; she told us that it was hurting her so we didn't really take any photos. As we were leaving the restaurant I told her that we would get some oragel at the grocery store when we go to buy supplies for sundaes & amazingly enough, there was no more pain once we mentioned sundaes; she was very distracted by what kind of toppings she wanted to get. :o)
While the girls were here we also had movie night. Arden's pick: The Last Exorcism. Skylar's pick: Eclipse.
We had a great time spending the weekend(s) with Arden & Skylar. Here are some of my favorite moments:

Arden's Weekend -
~ Listening to Dan & Arden sing-a-long to Ke$ha during our drive to Tysons.
Perusing the makeup products in MAC & looking over to see Dan’s tortured expression.
~ The makeup artists face at Sephora after Arden showed her what kind of colors she likes to wear, i.e., neon green eye shadow & electric pink lipstick.
~ My new Guess bag!
~ Dan explaining to the makeup artist that men like women that wear less makeup on their faces; “we like more of a natural look.”
~ Arden’s epiphany that more makeup isn’t always better & that “neutral shades make you look more normal.”
~ Watching The Last Exorcism after breakfast on Sunday & Arden telling me, “cover your eyes Danielle, I think something scary is going to happen.” I did what she said. :o)

Skylar's Weekend -
~ The big hug that she gave me when she first got to our house.
~ The lip gloss that she saw & loved at Express but then realized that it was $24 & she put it back.
~ The temperature updates that she gave Dan & I each time she got back in Phoebe, i.e. "the temperature is 36 degrees, it's 1 degree warmer than the last time I told you guys."
~ Brushing Lexi with the makeup brushes that she bought from her shopping trip.
~ Her excitement when she realized that Phoebe has turn signals on the side mirrors & her saying, "oooo pretty!" (& pointing at it).
~ Her explaining the love triangle of Edward, Bella & Jacob to Dan while watching Eclipse.

We love you girls.