A Few Posts in One Giant One

I have to catch up on the last few days . . . so here we go . . .

Wednesday was Grandma's birthday.  Evan and I took her over breakfast and enjoyed the weather.  Evan LOVES Uncle Eric's MP3 player - most especially when Uncle has his giant headphones!

Thursday was a bit of a blur running a bunch of errands to wrap up my time on the PTO board.  But we ate dinner as a picnic on our awesome front lawn.  It's such a foreign concept for us to be in our front yard after the last 3 years.  You can definitely tell with the girls - they will ask if they can sit on the front porch and just enjoy sitting there. 

Friday night was a fun night out.  Our local Learning Center had discounted tickets for the local theater's production of The Little Mermaid - I'm talking $2/each!  So I bought tickets with the thoughts of a girl's night with Grandma.  Unfortunately, Daddy's schedule didn't work out, and Evan was a big NO for sitting through a play (both by my feelings and the theater's discouragement of under 3 kids).  Instead I dropped off Grandma, Uncle Eric, and the girls, and Evan and I headed out for the opposite of a girl's night! 

We went to the park downtown for a bit before it stormed.  And then grabbed a Frosty at Wendy's - or "eye cream" as Evan calls it.

Why does my baby boy all of a sudden look like he's 4?!?  And he tries to act like it too - running and playing tag with the 7 year old boys!

Saturday the weather warmed up a bit and we went out to our favorite strawberry farm!  It was their annual Strawberry Jam festival - this was our 3rd year checking it out and picking berries.

It was hard to take any pics - I was mostly chasing after Evan . . . and as a result of me dealing with him, I didn't notice how many berries the girls were picking . . .

Yea . . . we got close to 10 gallons . . . but that's alright . . . we took about a gallon to our neighbor across the street.  She is so sweet and she told the girls as a trade for the strawberries she would cut some flowers from her gardens for them.  They proceeded to walk around and pick out one of every flower and then came home and arranged their boquets.  Dude - these are some fragrant flowers - no need for Febreeze in this house right now!

And I also completed the last few patches on Marlie's Daisy tunic.  She is officially done with that and on to her Brownie vest.  She was a very busy girl - and I have 8 patches that didn't fit!

It's been a busy week - but at least it was busy doing things other than packing or unpacking - so I will take it!  We are finishing up our last few days of school this week . . . summer will be awesome!

And just when you thought this long post was over . . . I have a story I want to pen for memory.  As I have been unpacking our bedroom I have been rearranging some things and moving some things that the girls hadn't seen.  2 of the things I moved out were 2 boutique box handbags that belonged to my Grandma Millie.  One is empty and looks as if it's never been touched.  The other one houses a few very special pieces of jewelery that I don't keep in my jewelery box - mostly things given to me by my Grandmothers.  Well, one of the things was a pair of earrings from Grandma Jackie.  Samantha got a little too excited about those earrings and flat snapped the top off one.  She came up to me (I wasn't in the room) and informed me of what she had done and told me she was very sorry.  Out of reflex I burst into tears - these were irreplaceable and important, two words that are horrible in a situation of broken shit!  I walked outside and stood in the garage for a few minutes.  There was the little girl part of me that wanted to just cry and punch something.  But after a few more deep breaths, the mother side of me kicked in.  If I didn't react the right way in this situation with something small like an earring, then what would I expect her to do if it was something big . . . um, not tell me?!  It was one of those moments that I have where I am fully convinced that my decision in that moment is going to have a lifelong impact (yes I know how ridiculous it sounds - but that's how my mind works).  So instead of yelling or crying - I very simply told her that I appreciated her coming and telling me the truth - because that was brave and a very big girl thing to do, and I was proud of her.  In the end, it was a pair of earrings.  And likely I would've passed them on to her at some point anyway - so at least by her breaking them now, we get a lesson out of it, right!?  I am telling myself that anyway :)