Marry Me

Emma had her second gig as flower girl last weekend at cousin Mandy's wedding. Man, did she get the royal treatment! Starting off with a girl's day at the spa...Emma was pampered and got her first french pedicure! (I have pics of this on Mandy's camera. If I get them I'll add later) She and I went for pedi's one time before Kinder started, but this was the FULL treatment-a bubbly soak, foot and leg massage, and her adorable french tips! So cute! And I, holding the important position of "mother of flower girl", was also pampered with a pedi AND a full body massage! Ahhhh..... :)

The next day started off with hair appointments.

And 34 bobby pins later....


It was a BEAUTIFUL outdoor wedding. A gorgeous spring day. A bit breezy and threatening to rain, but we made it all the way to the reception before we got wet. And we did get wet, because by that time I was so exhausted I was just glad to be sitting down and eating that I really didn't even bother to move. The food was good and the company great-and what has a little rain ever hurt anyway? :)

It was EXTREMELY stressful trying to keep the kids off the rocky hills, the grassy knolls..., the wooded area, scolding them from running around and through the chairs so carefully set in perfect rows, from playing hide-and-seek in the bridal suite.
At one point I luckily overheard someone mention musical chairs.

"No WAY!" I said, just picturing the kids running and jumping for the chairs, spilling over, tearing their gorgeous dresses and mussing their hair!
So, one of them had the idea to 'pretend play' musical chairs.
I then witnessed the most hilarious thing of the day. 4 or 5 children, following each other in a tight circle, humming some sort of tune. Someone yelled "Stop!", and they all "sat" in the air, freezing on the spot.

They were playing musical chairs. With no music. And no chairs.
Classic. :)

It couldn't have been a better wedding. The bride beautiful, the groom very nervous!

Mandy was her usual, goofy, gorgeous self. We were so glad to be a part of her special day!

A few pics.

Great Grandparents.


Cousin Mandy.


Sweet cousins.


Oh-no pics of Ally, but she was also spoiled. Nana and Pops took her while Emma and I were away. She got a trip to the outlets, picked out some treasures, helped harvest tiny oak saplings from the front yard, went bunny hunting with carrots and peas (and found a bunny!), and had more priceless fun-it's not often she gets one-on-one time with her N&P. Thanks Mom and Dad!

W-A-T-E-R-M-E-L-O-N

The Patch

We loaded up on Thursday and headed out for Sweetberry Farms in Marble Falls. We have done the pumpkin patch here several times, but for some reason, only once before have made it out for strawberry picking.
My main memory from the last time is hearing Ally from across the rows, yelling, "Puuuullll!" She was about 2 1/2, I guess?

This time the phrase of the day was,

"I found one, Mama! I got one! Come look! I found a good one! I got a good one!"

Each girl picked about a pound apiece (say that 5 times fast!), and we had SO much fun. I didn't have to tag behind either of them this time. Even Ally really got it-she'd see a nice red one, then turn it over and say, "nope, still some white there!", and move on.

We had no agenda, no schedule, we just took our time, and enjoyed a beautiful day in a strawberry patch. Does it get any better?

We did have to hunt a little bit. It was Spring Break after all. It was the busiest I've ever seen the place, but we still have rows and rows to ourselves. There is definitely a lot of room to roam.
I would LOVE to go back in a few days and snatch up the hundreds of berries that will be ready this week. Man, it was so hard to pass up all of the 'almost ready' ones!

We picked (or 'patched'...Ally kept telling everyone she went "strawberry patching!"), then visited with the animals, then broke for our pack lunch (and had some bee issues and low-sugar moments from Miss E), then picked some more.
Topped the visit off with some nice homemade ice cream and called it a day!

Grammy tagged along on this trip. I heard she made some jam with her batch. Yum! We polished ours of in a couple of days alongside some French Toast and Belgian waffles!

It was a wonderful trip! Here are some pics-I wish I could include them all!

The Funeral

The girls went with us to Jason's Uncle Eddie's funeral last Monday. They knew him and had met him a couple of times, but were not extremely close with him, so I thought it would be okay for them to attend and to be introduced to the fact that we do sometimes lose our loved ones.
Emma was pretty upset that morning and didn't want to get out of the car when we got there. She was sad and did not like being at a cemetery. After a couple of talks she loosened up, and she was excited to see some other family members there.
Ally had no clue. She kept asking where he was. I think we had phrased things like, "We're going to say goodbye to Uncle Eddie".
She would try to run around, being her usual goofy self. I did my best to contain her and I hope no one else was bothered by her antics. The girls and I sat in the car for most of the wait time.

Eddie was a veteran and had a very nice service. Two guards folded and presented the flag to his son, and another guard played Taps behind us. It was beautiful.
Emma sat still and quiet through the whole thing. Ally sat still, and was very quiet, but was VERY curious! She kept asking about the flag, whispering,

"What are they doing with the flag, Mama? Why are they doing that? Why are they making it into a triangle? Why are they giving it to his son?" and on and on and on...
Then she noticed "the box".

"Why is that box there, Mama? Why is that there? What is in that box, Mama? Can we look in there? Are they going to open that box?" etc. etc....

When the service was finished, I whisked her away and we took a walk along a pretty little tank and found some geese and ducks to occupy us.

I know this in not my typical, upbeat, fun and games post. I'm trying to include more of our life events, simply to help me remember them down the road.
I think this was an important event-both girls understand that Uncle Eddie is in a better place, and them being a part of the event opens up doors to discuss other concerns or fears.

The two of them had included him in our prayers lately, asking God to take care of him, and to make sure Eddie finds his Mama and Daddy.

They have also had an argument about whether or not he has met Dr. Seuss.

All in a day...

;)

The Big Day

For Emma's actual birthday day, we went to SeaWorld. It was quite a bit busier than the last time we went (in the fall), but I know it's going to get much worse. We managed to squeeze in 3 shows and several rides. The girls love the ShamuCoaster in the kiddie area. They also had a ferris wheel sort of thing that we did.
Our second stop was the Shamu show. We did this one in the fall and were able to walk in as it was starting and pick our seat. Not this time! There were people lining the top of the bleachers, standing in the isle, etc. Determined to find a seat, we kept going down, down, down the stairs. Until we ended up on the second row.

In the Splash Zone. Clearly labeled. You WILL get wet.

Oh Dear.

We left the place soaking wet. Drenched. Head to toe, socks and underwear, dripping hair.

Wet.

Wet, like, we were the lucky bunch that, after the usual three rounds from our big whale, and after they lined all 5 whales up at the big stage in front, they called THREE of those whales back over to our section to give us one more go. THREE Killer Whales who somehow are both graceful and ginormous, with perfectly synchronized form, showered (or pelted, IMO) us with fish water.

Really? Was that really necessary??

This was a somewhat chilly day. If you're wet, anyway. It was about 64 degrees, and we were walking around dripping with 52 degree fishy salt water.
Jason wasn't as wet because he had Ally in his lap. Somehow most of Ally's legs were dry too. Emma was wet through and through, but once we took her jacket off, her thin wind pants and t-shirt dried pretty quickly.
I was soaked from the waist down and had a mop for hair. I kept my sweatshirt over me to protect what I could, and also tried my best to hide behind Emma.

Yeah, I hid-you would too!!

I had on a sweatpant like suit, so it was heavy, holding water, and sooo uncomfortable.
We tried another show and left with chills, so decided to walk to the car to eat lunch and let our clothes dry some. The girls were fine by the time we got back. I still had wet socks when we left, and my undies had not been dry for long.
And I swear I still smelled like fish. ;)

The other big event of the day was Emma riding the BIG Steel Eel roller coaster with her daddy. I never thought it would happen. I was fully expecting them to come walking back down the entrance ramp, having changed her mind.
Nope. They waited through about 5 rounds until it was their turn.
She had the biggest nervous smile as they were getting loaded in. Here's a snap of the "pep talk".


Here's a shot of the second big hill. The first one was even bigger.


How I WISH I had a picture of her sweet face when they excited the ride. Emma did not follow the crowd down the walk and towards the ramp. She came straight to her Mama. She walked straight over to me where I was waiting (a WRECK, by the way) and said....


"I don't ever want to do that again."



And here is a picture of the picture you can buy at the little booth after the ride. I was fully prepared to pay for this picture! Such a momentous occasion!
BUT....
Where's Emma? She was scrunched so far down in her seat with fear, it looks like Jason is riding by himself. Ha!


A few of my faves:

Wet girls.



Watching the "Viva" show.


Riding buddies.


My smiling Sea Lion.

The Party

Emma had a pseudo-sleepover last Friday with a few of her girlfriends. I was a little disappointed at first that so many of them could not make it, but I SURE got over that quickly! Emma didn't even seem to notice once we got started that half a dozen or so of the invitees were missing.
I cannot imagine what the decibels would have topped at if everyone had showed up. Wow. Four 7 yr. olds (plus one very excited, show off little sister) can really stir up some noise.
I guess by throwing them into a room with a karaoke machine and a video camera, I really was asking for it!
We had fun. The kids decorated pillow cases, sang karaoke, played "hide-and-sleep" (a game that Emma "invented", then wrote out the rules and explained to her friends), dressed up and giggled their way through the evening. They ate pizza and made ice cream sundaes and had a very special cake (more on that in a minute).
Emma "allowed" Ally to invite one friend over, and she choose best buddy, Lil' J. He came decked out in spiderman pjs and never once seemed to care that he was the only boy. He and Ally played so well-staying in her room most of the time. He joined right in with the crafts and treats, and even took a goody bag filled with girly treats like an eye mask and a Hannah Montana pen. :) Such a good sport!

Anyway, I have ZERO pictures from the party! I did lots of filming, so I guess it's one or the other with me. I did get a picture of the cake though, and each attendee has a likeness on the cake....



That's Emma on the far left. Notice the marshmallow pillow and bubble tape bedskirt? :) The girls LOVED this cake. Seriously!


And although NO pics of the bday girl (I know, it's terrible), one of Miss A all dressed up, then one of her with buddy J in their awesome hiding spot! They were not IN her little house, but behind it-for at least 20 minutes! I don't think the big girls even knew they were playing along-no one was looking for them, and they stayed so quiet!



It was a lot of fun-AND little stress for me~thanks everyone for coming!

F-R-E-E!

With a catch!

To the first 5 people who comment on this post will get something made by me! Lucky you!

My choice. For you.

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
What I create will be just for you.
It'll be done this year.
You have no clue what it's going to be. It may be a book or a re-gift. It may be poetry or a copy of my favorite recipes. I may do you a favor. I may bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!
I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must re-post this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!