"Harry Potter's Tent"

Last Friday I stripped the girls bed sheets off to wash, thinking of how domesticated I was.  (Kidding!) They were washed and dried by lunchtime, but for whatever reason I got busy doing other things and didn't have a chance to put them back on the bed.  I swear, it had nothing to do with how much I absolutely HATE putting sheets back on the bunk beds. Lucky for me, the girls requested that Corky build them a fort to sleep in for the weekend.

Corky has some mad fort-building skills, but this one was up there as one of his best.  Using the bunk beds to get one side really high, he made it pretty cozy in there.  Using our large sleeping bag as padding, our girls were pretty comfortable.

The girls are bundled up in there somewhere.

It is nearly impossible to get a picture without them pulling these goofy faces.

Saturday morning after waking up, Gracey said this fort reminded her of the tent on Harry Potter.  She said, "You know Mom, the one that is totally huge on the inside!"

Best news for me, I could put off having to place the sheets back on their beds for 2 whole days!  :)

Another one bites the dust

Gracey lost her 4th tooth on May 10, 2012. Her front, left tooth has been loose for probably 6-7 months.  However, she barely would touch it to make it looser so it just sat there.  Finally the last few weeks it began being really wiggly on her own and that got Gracey a little more motivated to play with it often.

Thursday, I picked her up from school where she immediately handed me my Mother's Day card and flower.  She was all giddy and said she had another surprise for me.  I was thinking that it was another gift or something, and Gracey loves giving gifts and surprises so I didn't press too much. I just wanted to let her do her thing.  A little bit after we got home, she yelled for me to come see her surprise.  I walk in the living room and she is grinning from ear to ear.  I look around, looking for whatever it is that she is surprising me with, but didn't see anything. She started laughing and pointed to her mouth!  Her tooth was gone and I didn't even notice before!

She said that her friend from school, Damarius, tricked her into pulling it.  He said if she pulled it by the end of the day then he would give her $5.  When she actually pulled it, he said, "Gotcha!  I don't have $5!" (That story makes me laugh!)

She wasn't too upset about the money because she was too excited that she lost it at school.  If you lose a tooth at school, you get a fancy tooth box!

CherryBerry

It's no secret that I LOVE frozen yogurt, particularly the self-serve types that are all the rage these days.  On our trip home from Dallas, Texas a week ago, we stopped in Tulsa at CherryBerry as a treat/dinner.  We had a later lunch than normal, so the girls thought it was so funny that frozen yogurt was their actual dinner.  Every kids dream come true, right?

Because I am nursing Janie, I try to stay away from the dairy as much as I can, so I enjoyed a mango sorbet with a tiny bit of vanilla fro-yo.  Janie had a little taste of it and was unsure of it all.  I don't plan on adding any solid food to her diet for a few more months. But the little tastes here and there, and the faces she makes, is simply for our entertainment.  She is unsure of just about everything that we give her a taste of that isn't her normal meal of mama's milk.  

About 40 miles before we were home, Janie decided she was done in the carseat!  We decided to stop and fill up the gas tank and let her stretch her legs a bit.  She was all smiles then, but the second we were back on the road, she was mad.  

So I crawled in the back seat with her and let her suck on my finger.  Have you ever let a baby suck on your finger for an extended period of time?  Ladies, that is why the first few weeks of breastfeeding make you want to jump through the roof.  Those little babies sure can suck hard!  My finger was absolutely raw....but we made it home!

Weekend in Dallas

A few months ago, some dear friends from high school started planning a weekend trip to Dallas.  I knew that Janie would only be about 2 months old for the trip and I also knew I would be nursing her.  First of all, I didn't want to have to be the only one that brought a child.  My friends insisted that they wouldn't have minded, but I knew it would be somewhat of a burden.  Second, I didn't want to make the drive to Dallas all by myself with an infant.  I was afraid that a 5 hour trip would turn into an ALL DAY drive.

I kindly suggested to Corky that we all go down together, stay in the same hotel as my friends, and he could have a daddy/daughter weekend while I hung out with the ladies, still being available to feed Janie. Corky was game!

The whole weekend was wonderful.  Not only did I get to see some of my best friends but I still feel like I had quality time with my family as well.   I know for sure that my kids had a blast.  As we were packing up to come home Gracey said,

"Mom, are you going to do this every year with your friends?"

I said, "Oh, I don't know.  I wish I could, but probably not."

Gracey responded with, "Well I hang out with you all the time, and it is fun, but I had a really great time hanging out with Daddy!"

It was pretty sweet.

And just as sweet as my kids are, it was pretty sweet doing grown up things too.  We all got massages and pedicures, and eyebrow waxing.  And when we weren't doing our spa treatments, we were shopping or eating.

As much as we played, our age and lifestyles certainly showed at night.  We were all hunkered down in our pajamas, chit chatting and sleepy, around 11:00pm.  And when it was time to go to sleep, all I had to do was walk down the hall of the hotel and be with my family.

 It was so fun to catch up with these ladies.  I am so glad that we have managed to stay friends after so many years.