Momma's Day

Hello strangers.  How are things? This is where I go into a whole paragraph about how busy we've been and no time for pictures or blogging and all that.  But that can't be typed with a straight face because there has been time. It's just that I started having a nightly affair with Netflix and oh how easy it is to say "just one more episode" when you're watching Grey's Anatomy starting from season one!

So if you want to know what's been happening around here there's only one place to look... phone photos.  'Cause there's always time for a good selfie..

Callie wrapped up her second year of gymnastics and her class had a demonstration of what they've been working on.  I was wowed and amazed at how strong and confident my girl has become.  The club is recreational gymnastics so there's no pressure for perfection or competing.  Just fun and exercise and that's all.  No wonder she loves it!

  

We made another cake.  It was supposed to be purple tiger striped on the inside.  We followed the directions to a T.  It sorta looked like tiger stripes I guess.  The girls didn't care.  They had fun making it.  And Lexi had fun eating it!  She loves sweets.  Callie had one piece, said the icing was too sweet, and never had anymore after that.  Have you ever heard a kid say something was too sweet? That's my girl.

And today, the best day of all the days.  Mother's Day.  It snowed yesterday and outside was wet and slushy and mucky but inside there were flowers and homemade cards and handwritten poems waiting for me when I got up.  I just love these girls to pieces!  For all my special days, their dad takes them shopping in the candle section of Wal-Mart.  The girls smell all the candles and decide on just the right scent for their momma.  They would never be able to agree on just one so they each pick their own. I love the surprise of their choices.  This year it was vanilla-almond from Callie and ocean breeze from Lexi.  It's like baking cookies on the beach! What could be better that that?

Even better than flowers and candles is the fact that both Jon and I get to visit with our own mommas on Mother's Day.  As I scrolled through my newsfeed this morning and I read all the Mother's Day love being sent over the web I made special note in my mind about how fortunate we are to be able to pop in, say hello, have a coffee, visit a little and share some hugs with our own momma's.  What a gift to my girls it is for them to sit on their grandmas' knees and make bunny ears over there heads and laugh and wiggle and be silly as we try to get a "good" picture with everyone looking.  Here are the good ones...

And here are the better ones...

Happy Momma's Day!

Changing

The month of April is slipping away from us.  The earth is waking up from it's hibernation.  The trees are wiping the sleep from their eyes and preparing to make their magical transformation from lifeless dormancy to beautiful shades of green.  It's always hard to pinpoint the moment that the trees go from sleeping to full on party mode.  Sometimes it literally just happens overnight.  And if you look away for just a day or two you miss it. 



 

Our kids change with the seasons.  We can't really pinpoint when the change happens but as we're busy going from gymnastics to dance to work and to school changes are happening.  And then one day when you have a few minutes and really look at your kids, you see the changes and wonder when exactly did it they happen.

 



 

 

You wonder things like: "When did those pants get so short?"  "When did her hair get so long?"  "How are all those adult teeth going fit in that mouth?"  "Where did those dimples in her elbows go?"  "When did she get so brave?"  "When did she start asking such complicated questions?"  When you get busy and look away for a few days, like the trees, your children change overnight.

 



Even the ole boy Ozzy is getting older...

 

 

And the surest sign of growing up around here...sisters who are old enough to wash the dishes.  And just so you know, there was complaining that they didn't want to do them and arguing over who would wash and who would dry.  Yep, changing and growing...Happy Spring.

Spring Break 2015

You know when you have something really big planned and you talk about it and dream about it for months in advance and you wonder if all the excitement, expectations and anticipation can overshadow what is actually going to happen?  Well that didn't happen to us!  Our Mexican Spring Break getaway delivered above and beyond what we were hoping for.  Before we left Callie said, "mom, I just can't picture what it will be like in Mexico."  How do you explain white sand beaches, swim up pool bars, bartering for souvenirs, mariachi bands, crocodiles and lizards to an eight year old?

 



 

 

I know that there is a lot more the Mexico than the Hotel Zone but as of now, I'm okay with my kids thinking Mexico is a five start resort.  We did explain a few times that people don't actually live in these hotels but I'm not sure if they believed us.    

 

 

 

The girls had so. much. fun. with their cousins it's hard to describe.  They tried all the drinks from the kids menu, swam like mermaids and partied at the nightly kids show.  They learned to say "woot, woot"  Mexican style and ate hot dogs, French fries, ice cream and fresh donuts everyday.  By the end of the week they were ordering pina colodas from the swim up bar, eating sushi, wave jumping in the ocean, and chasing iguanas around the hotel.

 





 

Callie, the reptile lover, thought it was awesome to wake up to iguanas all over the grass and sidewalks.  And as long as they stayed outside, her mama thought they were pretty cool too.

 

 

 

 



And for the grown ups, one of our greatest pleasures is to see our kids so happy. To watch them try new things.  To see their horizons broadening right before our eyes.  But I also loved the warm sun on my face, cold drinks brought to my beach chair, reading books solely for enjoyment,  and being so far away from any to-do lists that all I could do was relax and order another pina coloda.

 

One day when we were walking on the beach I asked Callie if this is what she was expecting Mexico to look like.  She said, "not at all, I pictured the beach small like at home."  So I asked if she liked it here in Mexico and she looked at me and said...



 

"What's not to like, mom?"

And I couldn't even come up with one thing not to like. 

It was truly a dream vacation.