Monday, May 26, 2014

Garden Fairy SAA Birthday Party

After school last Thursday, Helen Grace celebrated her birthday along with two other May birthday friends from school, Bella Marie and Olivia, at Millstone Market with a garden fairy party.

The girls dressed up like fairies, made fairy dust, listened to a story about fairies, went on a scavenger hunt around the nursery for fairy keepsakes, built a fairy garden, and enjoyed a sweet cupcake and pink lemonade.

Helen Grace really got into all of it. She picked out her costume, loved getting all decked out in her fairy ‘gear,’ enjoyed telling everyone how to make the fairy dust (modeled from the dust Peter Pan gave her last year), soaked up every minute of the scavenger hunt, and freaked out when she found the fairy dust that the fairy left during her visit to her garden.

Enjoy the pictures of our favorite little fairies!

2014-05-24 21.56.35CF6C3329 Grace and OliviaCF6C3333 They had a very loud and excited bird in the nursery. HG and BM were so intrigued….until it squawked for the next hour.CF6C3335 This is what happens when you tell 5/6 year olds to hug and say ‘cheese.’CF6C3336  The birthday fairies: Olivia, HG, and Bella MarieCF6C3343 CF6C3357 CF6C3359 CF6C3362 P1050218   Thankfully, Spiffer jumped right back into teacher mode to help with the fairy dust project.CF6C3376 Evie and EmersonCF6C3380 CF6C3386 Olivia, Emma, ClaireCF6C3398 Getting ready to go on the scavenger huntCF6C3402 Found a birdhouse!CF6C3434 CF6C3441 CF6C3456 Back to the greenhouse to build the fairy gardensCF6C3461 Mary Kate, Ellis, LilahCF6C3465 CF6C3498 CF6C3503 Ms./Coach Katie and LilahCF6C3528  Listening to a fairy storyCF6C3542 CF6C3544 “Ah! The fairies have been to our gardens!!!” (with Sophia)CF6C3549 Emerson, HG, Olivia, Bella MarieCF6C3556 CF6C3562 CF6C3565 CF6C3571 CF6C3572 CF6C3579 When HG got tired of her fairy crown…CF6C3598 CF6C3602P1050226 P1050231 Happy birthday to our favorite little fairies!CF6C3616

Afterward, we went to Bronte for dinner, and while we ate, there was a wild rainstorm. Immediately afterward, we were blessed with this AMAZING double rainbow.

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Saturday, May 24, 2014

Mud, I mean BBQ, Fest 2014

Last week was Memphis in May BBQ Fest, and HG was DYING to go down to our Vaco tent on Friends and Family night on Wednesday. She wanted to see all the tents and the river, although she was disappointed there would be no bouncies. It rained on and off all day, but she kept praying for the sun to come out so that we could make it. I promised her that if it wasn’t raining by dinnertime, we’d try to make a go of it.

The rain cleared around 5:00, so we started off toward downtown. As we got close to parking, it started to sprinkle. We were prepared with rain jackets and boots, so we parked and headed to the river. Of course, the sprinkles never stopped and the rain only increased, and as we got down the bluff and to the river, a COLD and brisk wind hit us full force. BRRR. Luckily, HG thought it was super cool to splash in the mud puddles and brave the hurricane force winds on the top floor of our Vaco tent, so she was in hog heaven. John met us there, we scarfed down some BBQ nachos, and within an hour, headed back to the car with a muddy and happy little girl!

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Monday, May 12, 2014

Mother’s Day 2014

We had a great, sunny Sunday together as family on Mother’s Day. Despite a forecast of rain all day, we couldn’t have asked for a prettier day. We enjoyed brunch at Bosco’s, all crowded around the table together, and then headed home for a nice Sunday afternoon nap. We met Bubba for dinner at McAlister’s to round out the perfect day celebrating God’s greatest (and sometimes toughest) gift:  motherhood. We are so thankful for all the mamas in our lives!

2014-05-09 14.56.44Giving Spiffer an early gift of chocolate covered strawberriesIMG_20140509_164647546_HDR Bosco’sIMG_5794 This is the ‘real’ HG and Spiffer- always cackling about something.IMG_5795 HG had a special Mother’s Day treat too- she spent the night before with Grandma and Peggy. Lots of barefooting, nail painting, digging in the sandbox, chasing the kitties and Buster, and waking up Addie on Sunday morning. She was in hog heaven! Meanwhile, Mama and Daddy went to Target, WalMart, and Kroger- big time!IMG_5799 IMG_58012014-05-11 12.20.24 2014-05-11 12.54.56 2014-05-11 12.54.58 “I’m so tired of this big afternoon!” –just before she conked out-2014-05-11 15.10.22She made this platter for Bubba. She drew herself on the left and Bubba on the right. PRECIOUS.photo 2 2014-05-11 17.38.20 2014-05-11 17.38.51 Granddaddy bought her a hula hoop from the Dollar Store, and the girl has taken it everywhere with us since then. It even rode in the car to school. She’s actually pretty good!P1050183 Wearing out…bedtime is near.P1050190

From the Mouth of Helen Grace

2014-05-12 07.03.14 The best $1 that Granddaddy has ever spent. Isn’t this how you feel at 7 a.m. on Monday morning?!

When I asked Helen Grace what happened on Easter, she said, “On Easter, Jesus came out of dead, and he goes in my heart.”

She saw a cute kitten video and said, “Oh, that’s cute to death!”

We ran into a classmate and her mom at Yolo, and she asked HG how old she was. “I’m 4, but my mama wants me to stay this size forever.”

HG was pulling the ends of my long, flowy shirt up around her head. I said, “You look like Aunt Jemima!” She said, “Who is ‘ain’t your mama’?!”

We left a restaurant one night when John and I each had our own cars. I suggested she ride with Daddy, and she squealed, “Yay!! So we can talk!!”

HG has figured out a way to make us both happy- to fulfill my wish for her to stop growing and to fulfill her wish of having chocolate for breakfast. "Fill me up with sweets, and I'll stop growing."

“This show really funnies me out!”

Leaving a party for baby Rebecca last weekend, she told me, “That party was super duper fun. The best part was helping Camille.”

As I tried to sneak out from under her in bed one night, she sleepily grabbed my hand and said, “I never want you to go.”

“Everyone [‘s body] is a cross because we come from Jesus.”

She asked me, “How old are you?” When I told her I was 33, she said, “Ok, I have to remember that for school.” Obviously, she was working on her Mother’s Day questionnaire.

She told me the other day that the kitties were “doing their business.”

“How could anyone say ‘no’ to chocolate?”

On the way to school, she looked up at the clouds and said, “Looks like a cold front is coming in!”

“Everyone looks beautiful if they have a kind heart.” (We are trying to distinguish between people being outwardly pretty and inwardly beautiful.)

To a guy in traffic that cut us off- “Well, boo on him!”

She and I were in a heated discussion about how she wanted to sleep across the foot of the bed, while I wanted her to sleep with her head on the pillow. She told me, “My heart’s telling me I need to sleep at the bottom of the bed.” For the record, she slept with her head on the pillow.

In bed on Sunday night, she asked me, “Do I get to go to school tomorrow?” When I said yes, she screamed, “Yayyyy!”

“Google knows everything.” When I asked her what Google was, she said, “It’s a website that knows things you don’t know.”

After the world’s longest day today, she told me, “I’ve been waiting for bedtime my whole life.”

And three other points of interest…

  • Snapping: She came out of school one Friday snapping. Lilah apparently said something about how her sister was 8 and couldn’t snap, and that spurred the entire class to start trying to snap. She’s been close lately, but that day she was really finally snapping. She played soccer that night snapping, she snapped the whole way through dinner, and ultimately, she created a BLISTER on her middle finger from SNAPPING. She was *not* happy to be held back from perfecting her new talent for a bit while her finger healed.
  • End of Year Conference:  We had our end of year parent-teacher conference last week. Again, Mrs. Gossett explained that she had ‘blossomed’ so much this year. Her motor skills have exploded, she is the one that the teachers can count on to comfort a friend, and she plays well with the whole class (she couldn’t even pinpoint a best friend because she flits between everyone). She is starting to read and will be well prepared for SK next year. We couldn’t be more proud.
  • The Dreaded Shots:  On Saturday morning, she woke up and said, “I want to get my 5 year old shots today.” At her 4 year old check up, I told her she could go ahead and get them over with, but she refused and wanted to stick it out for another year. She’s even been a bit resistant at times about turning 5 because she knew the shots were coming. So after I picked my mouth up off the ground on Saturday, I called the doctor’s office but found no open appointments. This morning, I did find one opening on Monday afternoon at 2:30, so I checked her out of school a bit early and had sweet tea and ice cream (and Tylenol) waiting for her in the car. Of course, when she saw me, she was confused why I was picking her up early. I took a deep breath and told her I thought we could get those shots over with since she was ready, and she said, “Oh, goodie, let’s go.” I was shocked but rolled with it. Her positive attitude kept going through the car ride, waiting room, exam table, and until the first needle hit her arm. Then the silent tears started. When the second and third shot came, so did the crocodile tears and “Ooowwie!”’s. She was still crying as I carried her out to the car, but she soon pulled it together, although she wasn’t terribly happy. By the time we got home though, she was laughing a bit and wearing her Bandaids like badges of honor. Within 30 minutes of being home, she was exercising with me and playing like nothing had happened. SO. GLAD. THAT. IS. OVER. (Until she’s 12, anyway.) And while we were playing outside, these friends came up to say hi…

2014-05-12 17.12.58 Our lake is full of ducklings and goslings this spring. Our neighbor has counted as many as 17 ducklings, and we spotted three goslings on our walk tonight.

Sunday, May 11, 2014

Olive Branch May Fest

On Saturday, we headed to downtown Olive Branch to check out May Fest. The Words came along too, and Sallie Key and Helen Grace worked together to get all kinds of trinkets out of us- a balloon yoyo, a bracelet with their name on it, balloon animals, a crown with streamers, and a ride on a hamster wheel on water (I’m sure there’s a better name for it). HG tried the wheel by herself before SK got there, and she didn’t care for it very much (asked to get out). When SK got in there with her though, they had a big ole time. We enjoyed the beautiful spring day in our hometown!

Sweet tea and a sugar cookie- life doesn’t get better than this!2014-05-10 11.02.24 2014-05-10 11.45.07 2014-05-10 11.52.14 2014-05-10 12.10.48 2014-05-10 12.10.59 2014-05-10 12.17.46-1family