What a beautiful Saturday!

Today was an absolutely GORGEOUS day!  The high was 78!  We headed out early.  We stopped by Peep's house to help her with a few things.  Then we went to a local park in the city.  I have lived here for more than 20 years and NEVER been to this park.  It is precious!  Hidden...the trails and scenery were amazing!  We only explored half of the path today.  We hope to go back soon and explore the other half.  Caroline is applying to for a photography class and has to have some specific pictures for the application.  She kept my phone most of the trip.  She found some really unique things to photograph.

We came home, had lunch and rested a little bit.  Then we went back outside to enjoy the day.  The girls decided to create a trivia game.  I asked the questions (found some great ones on Pinterest).  If they got their question wrong, they had to dip their face in the ice cold water.  They thought it was great.  I am always thankful for these moments where I see them laughing and playing together...these days are fading fast! :-(

 Thank you Lord for this gorgeous gift today!!!!!!!  Bring on Spring...just not the allergies associated with it!

Picnic Fun

Today was a virtual day of learning for the girls.  It was supposed to be a gorgeous day so we made plans for a picnic lunch.  The girls packed lunches and were ready when I got off work.  We met Mrs. Cooper and Ms. DeeDee at the playground.  They get to see Caroline a lot because she comes to work with me between dropping Mags off at school and waiting for her drop off.  However, they haven't seen Maggie and were thrilled to catch up with her. It was so sweet!  

Once Ms. DeeDee and Mrs. Cooper left, we ate our lunch and they played while I read.  It took them a little while to get in their groove and not argue like they did when we had an audience.  It was a nice two hours outside.  I was thankful.

Y'all every day I am reminded that Caroline's childhood is quickly slipping away...imaginary play and play itself is being replaced with time by herself with a book or her kindle.  It makes my heart so sad...I love the young lady she is becoming but it makes me sad to see her closing a chapter that has been oh so sweet!  I don't know what to do with teenagers...I'm an early childhood person.  But I know the Lord will lead Andy and I in this new chapter...for today I'm super thankful she wanted to hang out with her little sister.

 

A fun surprise for Mags

Today Andy wanted to take the girls birthday shopping for me.  He asked if I could bring Maggie to him when he got off work.  They would then pick up Caroline and go shopping.  I had about 30 minutes in between.  I had several little errands to do.  However, it wasn't really enough time to mark anything off my list.  So since it was a gorgeous day outside I decided to surprise Mags with a play date at the park at my school.  When I pulled up and told her what we were doing she got SO excited!  She said "Mommy this is the best day ever!  I haven't played here in YEARS!!"  

I realized that sometimes my most productive days can't be measured by what got marked off my to do list...sometimes my most productive days are spent filling my families LOVE tank!

 

Way to go Mags!

My sweet Mags has struggled with reading and writing.  As an educator, I know that when she is ready, it will come.  As a momma, I want her to excel...not to struggle because struggles aren't fun for her or for me. (Plus I am an educator, I should provide my kid with a strong foundation to know this stuff right?????)  But in the Lord's sweet and providential way, He has given her amazing teachers both past and present who see her as an individual and they encourage her (and me)!  They see her working hard and doing her best.  They remind me of what I already know...it will come!

Today I received this sweet post card.  Maggie did this all on her own. Y'all!!  Look at this!!  I am so excited to say that it's beginning to click!  I am so proud of her hard work and dedication! 
 

Which polish is best?

 I walked into the bathroom to find this.  I asked Maggie what in the world she was doing.  She said "I'm testing polish...this one I like, this one I don't, these I haven't tried."  Ok...well folks there you have it!  I guess sitting in the bathtub makes it easier.

Charlie Brown scared us

 I told the girls after church that we needed to clean out the van.  (I was embarrassed for Maggie's teacher to put her in the van in carline earlier this week.)  We got everything out and took a load inside.  One thing led to another and we started working on other stuff.  I walked in the kitchen and realized that the garage door was open. I called Charlie and he didn't come.  I immediately grabbed my keys.  Anytime he has the opportunity, he is out the door and loose in the neighborhood.  I walked outside and called him but didn't see him anywhere.  I was really worried because I wasn't sure how long he had been outside and who knew how far he had gotten...Caroline went to get in the van first and said "MOM, look who I found!"  Thankfully we had left the van door open and he hoped in ready to go!  SHEW!  What a relief!

Daddy Daughter Dance

The girls were so excited for this night with their Daddy!  The theme of the dance was 50's dance party.  Maggie's only request was that her dress would "twirl the night away."  Caroline on the other hand Googled 50's clothes, hair style, etc.  I had very little say in what Caroline wore.  Both were excited with their final product.  Andy always makes sure to buy corsage's for the event and they love it!

Andy took the girls to a nice dinner out.  Caroline was sure to send me pictures of her steak salad!  Once at the dance, they stayed in the circle with their friends from church.  It made it a lot easier for Andy to keep up with everyone. :-)  We were thankful they sold 50% of the tickets and held the event on two different nights.  

Andy sent several videos of the girls dancing.  They said it was the BEST year yet!!  After the dance, Andy took them to get ice cream.  They even brought me some as well. 

 

A change of plans...

Several weeks ago Andy began planning a camping weekend away for the two of them.  Then we realized it was President's Day weekend and we were all off work/school today.  So we decided to extend the camping weekend through Monday and Maggie and I would join them Saturday night.  Two weeks out, the weather looked fabulous!  We were so excited!  As the trip grew closer, we soon discovered rainy, cold temp...ALL WEEKEND! I thought surely it would get better but it didn't.  In fact, it got worse. Saturday and Sunday were BOTH 100% chance of rain.  When I got off of work Friday, I called Andy and asked if he wanted to reschedule.  He said might not be a bad idea.  I called and sure enough we could transfer the reservation to another date and only loose $10.  No brainer...

Then he got busy looking for a place to stay.  He found a great villa.  (Due to COVID I don't feel comfortable staying in a hotel or sharing elevators with people.)  And to surprise me, he wanted us to all go down Friday afternoon...which meant I had about an hour to pack AND find someone to take care of Charlie.  Camping and villa vacation are totally different.  Especially when I've worked really hard to stock our camper so that we only need to take clothes...for the villa I had to pack everything!  Caroline was great and helped get Maggie ready.  I worked on my items. Sadly, instead of being excited, I was extremely overwhelmed!  It wasn't pretty...but everything fell into place and we were on the road in record time.  

Andy got a great deal on the villa through work. It was exactly what we needed.  However, once again villa vacationing and camping cooking are two different types of cooking.  We had prepared meals for outdoor cooking.  So we looked at the items we brought and figured out what we needed to make it work.  After a quick trip to the grocery store, we were set for the weekend.

With the rainy days forecast, the girls packed several games.  I had several minute to win it games prepared for Valentines.  We were lazy.  We laughed!  We relaxed!  By Saturday I came around to the spontaneous idea and was thankful for the time away.

Maggie loved sitting on the balcony.  I thought it was entirely too cold! :-)

I purchased a cookie kit from a local bakery.  We had fun decorating our cookies for the trip.

Sunday morning I made heart pancakes for breakfast. 

We had to see how many candy hearts we could stack on our popsicle sticks in one minute.

We stood at one end of the table and tried to toss as many candy hearts as possible into the cup at the other end of the table.  We moved the cup to the center for Maggie.

Someone staying at our campground posted these pictures on FB.  Thankful for the change of plans.

This game we had to use a straw to suck the candy and move from one side of the stick to the other.

The rain was scheduled to move out this morning.  My only request was to get to walk on the beach!  We did and I'm so very thankful!  It was beautiful!  Definitely helped me refocus before heading home. 

No joke, we say Caroline is an animal whipserer.  She really is.  This flock of seagulls followed her down the beach.  It was so sweet to watch.

Happy Valentine's Day to ME!

 I'm thankful I was able to get out of my own head...I hate that I am not spontaneous.  I hate that I have to have a plan...I hate that I don't go with the flow of whatever is thrown my way.  But I'm extremely thankful that the Lord is gracious and didn't allow my sour attitude to ruin our time away.  My hubby really did try to do something sweet and it was definitely memorable!  Happy Valentine's Day!

Something nice for you...

 I walked in the kitchen to find this...Maggie said "I wanted to do something nice for you!"  What a sweet treat!!