Egg Hunt Attempts

Despite our best efforts to hunt Easter eggs over the last two weekends, our springtime weather had different plans. Last weekend, we went to the Jacobs’ annual egg hunt, and we were plagued with cold weather and sprinkles and forced inside. Might not have hurt that there was a big basketball game on around that time that seemed to draw all the daddies toward the tv… ;)

Sassy pants Caroline, Lilly, HG, Camille, Ann Coleman 

On Good Friday, we had hoped to head to Cedar Hill Farm with the Eldreds and Coats like we did last year. The weather just laughed at our plans though, and as we were on route to Hernando, the bottom fell out of the sky. We decided to meet the Coats for lunch at Sweet Peppers, and while we couldn’t hunt eggs, our little bunnies still had a ball playing.

This week, Helen Grace continued her egg dyeing tradition with Peggy and Grandma. Tons of fun!

First Grizzlies Game

John got some tickets from a friend for Friday night’s Memphis Grizzlies game (our local NBA team). He’s been wanting to take Helen Grace to a game, so we thought it was the perfect opportunity to let her see what it’s all about. She loved the box, danced around while the warm up music played, and intently watched the players making shots. And then…the lights went off, the player introductions started, and the big fire thing exploded. She was NOT a fan of the loud music and fire. (Me either, chica!) So she and I went for a little walk until the game got started. She made it until almost halftime before she got bored, but Dippin Dots and the halftime entertainment perked her up. We left soon after the act was over, but overall, she seemed to really enjoy the game. She thought all the grizzly bear stuff everywhere was cool, although she made it clear that she didn’t want to meet the mascot, Grizz, or a real grizzly bear.

Princess Party

Last Friday night, we had a special treat- a girls’ night party fit for a princess! The Paul Mitchell School was having a night for little princesses to benefit local charities, and the girls could get their hair and nails done, make a bracelet and crown, and walk the runway. My little princess was super excited to meet her friends for dinner (including Emsley who was back in town for the occasion!!!) and dress up in her Tinker Bell dress, but she refused the hair do. She also refused the manicure for most of the night and was content to dance and chase pink and purple balloons around, but after all her friends got their nails done, she finally got brave and asked to do it too. She was thrilled with the result and showed it off to her friends, but then she messed up a few while making a crown. We got them fixed, and then she had a panic attack to take the polish off. I refused to ask the poor girl who had now done her nails twice to remove the polish, so she had a meltdown and then another one when she realized her friends had left during her ‘episode.’ It was obviously too close to her bedtime, so we made a bracelet and headed for the car. As we got in the car, there was a HG meltdown because she was worried that her nails might get messed up again and there was also a mama meltdown because it was dark, rainy, and not a great area of town to be standing in the parking lot with a screaming child. Whew! The princess and her crazy mama finally made it home to show her nails off to her daddy. She has talked about the fun she and her friends had at the princess party for days!

On a side note, the nail tech chose a bright neon green polish to match her Tinker Bell dress. I was just opening my mouth to suggest a light pink when she happily showed HG the green color and how it matched her dress. It was over at that point, so I just smiled and nodded. The next night at church, Grandma’s friend was commenting on how much she liked her nails, and I made some sarcastic remark about how the color glowed in the dark and HG should have no problem finding the bathroom in the middle of the night. Well, I should know by now that the child hears and takes in everything. When HG and I walked out into the dark garage on Monday morning, she said, “Wait, Mama! Let me be the line leader and show the way with my glow in the dark nails!” And proceeded to hold her hands out in front of us all the way to the car door. ;)

HG, Caroline, Libby, Emsley, Camille Pretty pretty princess Posing for Mrs. Doty The calm before the storm So excited to show Caroline

God Bless the Irish

Happy {belated} St. Patrick’s Day from Peggy and Helen Grace! And a bonus pic of our ballerina gardener, hard at work at Grandma’s

Jackson

We were way overdue for a Jackson trip for some family time, so we packed up this past Friday and headed south. To satiate the constant demands from the backseat (“I wanna see Grace Ann. I wanna see Grace Ann.), we headed straight to Suzanne’s house. We spent the afternoon playing around on a friend’s trampoline and catching up, and then we headed for dinner and ice cream. Grace Ann surprised us by staying at Aunt Glo’s with us, and of course, HG was in hog heaven. It took physical force to get her in the bed by 10:00. :)

We had planned on meeting Ryves and Mary Chris for brunch at Julep’s on Saturday morning to celebrate Ryves’ MATCHING AT CAMPBELL CLINIC IN MEMPHIS (for his orthopedic residency- CAN YOU TELL I’M EXCITED THEY ARE COMING HOME?!?!), and I was even MORE EXCITED to hear that William would be joining us too. He was passing through from Memphis to New Orleans and would be in Jackson around lunchtime. I was certainly a very happy girl to have both my boys in the same place- and Mary Chris too! Yay!

After lunch, we visited Uncle Lary for a bit, and then as we were about to head home, HG reminded me that I’d promised her a stop at the playground. Since she was upset that Grace Ann had gone to the St. Patrick’s Day parade with a friend and we wouldn’t see her again before we left, we thought this might make our trip home a bit more bearable. Well, imagine our surprise when we heard a familiar voice yell, “Helen Grace!,” on the playground- Grace Ann was there with her friend! What a happy baby girl! They played for a while and ran off some energy before we scooped up HG and headed for the car.

We had a great trip just hanging out with our family. Worth turned FIFTEEN on Monday, so we feel pretty special that he spent his Friday night out in public with his crazy family. Now, that’s love!

Make yourself comfortable, child. “I catch you, Mama!”

Happy Birthday, Nini!

We celebrated a BIG birthday for Nini last week with Teddy’s fried fish and hushpuppies, banana pudding, and coconut cake. YUMMM. We love having Addison here now for our family birthday gatherings, and Nini and Teddy were just aglow the whole time and barely put her down. Happy birthday, Nini! We love you!

Saying ‘See You Later’ to the Blackmans

We have recently had to say ‘see you later’ (I am not saying ‘goodbye’) to some of our dear FTM/MOT friends, Amy and Emsley (and Brian, too, of course). They relocated to the Fayetteville, AR, area for Brian’s job in early March, so we tried to squeeze in as much girl time as possible before the dreaded move day. Luckily, we will see them again this weekend for a mama-daughter date night as they pass through town, so I’m in a bit of denial that we won’t be seeing them at Hope every Wednesday morning. HG and I have both been so blessed by their friendship over the years (especially all the times Amy has let me be ‘real’ without judgment and kept me sane!!!), and I know we will always have a very special relationship as the girls grow up ‘together’ across the miles. We love you, Amy and Emsley!

Rainy, cold day princess party “Camping” Going away party at the Yates

Lawson + SkyZone = Happy HG

California: Disneyland

While we were in Los Angeles, we thought that we might could tackle Disneyland just for a day as a less chaotic introduction to the world of Disney. Really, if all we saw was Fantasyland, we could consider it a success. We hoped that would hold us over from jumping into Disneyworld in the near future, so we spent a lot of time preparing Helen Grace for seeing characters dressed up and how much fun it would be to see the *real* princesses and Aurora’s castle. Considering that HG ONLY sang “Once Upon a Dream” from Sleeping Beauty the ENTIRE time we were in California, I think you could say she was pretty excited. (While John was out of town that week and we were home preparing to leave, she’d ask me, “Is Daddy waiting on me in California with the princesses?”)

Despite all my planning, it still took us what felt like hours to get to Anaheim Saturday morning. I have never seen the likes of the park’s parking garage, but once we finally landed on the tram and were on our way to brunch, I started breathing again. We ran straight to the Plaza Inn for breakfast with the characters. On our way, we saw Chip and Dale, and she was fine. Almost as soon as we walked into brunch though, we saw either Minnie or Pinocchio, and poor HG immediately plastered herself on me and started panicking. Full on meltdown. John talked the hostess into giving us a booth back in the corner of the room, and HG attached herself to the floor under the table as John and I tried to shoo away characters as they came over to see us. I thought that the Fairy Godmother might be a welcome visitor since she was a person, but even she was a no go. Finally, we threw in the towel and gobbled down our food as quickly as we could. I saw Minnie nearby and asked if I could take a picture with her, so we’d at least have something to look back at from our breakfast. For some reason, as I posed with her, HG popped her head out from under the table and decided that she wanted to sit on my hip on the opposite side of Minnie. It was a Disney miracle! She even kind of talked with her, but we hurriedly ran out of there and headed to the castle to try to calm HG down.

We toured Aurora’s castle (until the dang Hall of Ghouls spooked her) and then hit the rides- Storybook Land (loved the boats), Dumbo (LOVED to fly Dumbo but the wait was ‘boring’), It’s a Small World (it’s really a ‘little world’ that she gasped and pointed at the whole time- I think my stomach is still sore from getting punched repeatedly), Peter Pan’s Flight (it ‘scared her to death’ but she liked it), and Jungle Cruise (too loud). HG caught a quick nap in Tomorrowland, and we also played around and enjoyed some cotton candy in Mickey’s Toontown. (For the record, I think the whole park heard HG scream bloody murder in the potty in Toontown when an automatic toilet flushed too soon. DRAMA!)

We noticed the park employees setting up for something late afternoon, and we were pleased to find out that they were getting ready for a parade at 4:00. What a fun surprise! (I thought it wasn’t until 7:00, but they had one at 4:00 and again at 6:30.) One of the cast members recommended that we watch it along the path between Alice in Wonderful and the Matterhorn Bobsleds, next to the restrooms. At that point, parade watchers can only sit on the one side of the path (there’s a fence on the other side), so the characters only have to entertain one side of the parade route. We loved it because each character looked right at Helen Grace and made her feel so special. I really got caught up in the Disney magic as my little princess sat in my lap grinning from ear to ear as all her favorites smiled at her, blew her kisses, and said hello just to her. I will never forget it and the way they made her glow and giggle.

Afterward, we called it a day and headed for a quick souvenir stop on the way to the car. She picked out a Baby ‘Punzel doll and a spinning Sleeping Beauty light up toy. We practically had to drag her out of there, and we had to have a special goodbye moment with the Disneyland stroller we borrowed, thanks to such a short nap for the day. We stopped at Panera on the way back to the hotel and then collapsed.

The flight home on Sunday was pretty uneventful, and the LA TSA agents treated us like celebrities- escorting us to our own, empty line, helping me put all my stuff in bins, and being so nice to HG. HG slept most of the flight again, so I’m sure we’ve used up all good flight luck we’ll ever have. John and I both mentioned what an easy traveler Helen Grace was on this trip. Even though she wasn’t feeling 100%, she really hung in there and didn’t fuss much or require a lot of maintenance. She was honestly a piece of cake- and a LOT of FUN!! Loving this independent and interactive age. Here’s to a *mostly* fabulous Disney ‘first’ experience!

Ready to go see the princesses! (with Sallie Key, of course)  Under the table at brunch Storybook Land Dumbo:  March 1986 / March 2013 The only pic I have of the two of us on this trip, thanks to our little photographer. It’s a Small World Zzzzzzz Toontown Jungle Cruise Parade!!!  

The many faces of Helen Grace