First Official Sleepover Party

Here is my cute little Gretchen heading off to her first official sleepover birthday party. She was not sure initially if she wanted to spend the night, but after she found out a couple of her Girl Scout friends were going and spending the night, she decided to try it. She had a blast, they had pizza, ice cream, an bonfire with marshmallows, playing outside on the swing set and trampoline, not going to sleep until 2 am and getting up at 6am(really shocking considering she was up at 7 am to get ready for softball practice, softball pictures, Girl Scout field trip before even going to the party) pancakes for breakfast. It was an success!! It was so out of my comfort zone since I had not really met this family, but we all survived, mainly mom. Of course, that was not without many talks before I let her go, Jason swears he is surprised she even wanted to go after I kept having talks with her, well had to have all the bases covered you know. Needless to say after another b-day party yesterday too, she was so ready for bed Sunday night and slept very well! Zzzzzzz . . . .

GNO

Girls Night Out was this past Friday and we had a blast!! I met Lori and Debbie at Lori's house, after Debbie and me found it again, lol. And that sad part is we both have GPS systems, helps to have them hooked up though. So here we are on her street calling her from our phones because we both walked out with address, again doesn't help without an number, but we both figured of all houses hers we could find because it was probably painted black and gold for Pittsburgh colors. No such luck for us. Then we met our friend Tiffany closer to her house and off we went to see Tim Hawkins a comedian in Beavecreek (I know it is supposed to be Beavercreek, but the tickets were printed wrong so we thought that was funny before we even walked in the door). He was a hoot. And it was so funny because some of the things we discussed on the way down that we were laughing about he was talking about and that made us laugh even harder. Needless to say our face, head and stomachs all hurt we laughed so hard! Well we decided that since none of us had time for dinner we would go to dinner at O'Charley's, yummy!! So more laughs were shared by all. Needless to say we all had a great night and can't wait to get together again and we even have others wanting to join us next time because we are some fun ladies!

And the Winner is . . .

So my girls love to color and enter the coloring contests. Gretchen has won some of them before and now following in her footsteps is little Laney Bug. We got a call last night from Frisch's Big Boy saying we needed to bring Delaney in to claim her coloring contest prize. So today Delaney and me ran some errands and she could not wait until we could go claim her prize. Well, she one 1st prize for her coloring for the 4 and under group and got the cute little stuffed animal she is holding and an gift card, so she will be taking us to dinner or lunch soon, lol. Then she could not wait to tell Gretchen, although she was a little disenchanted that Gretchen did not win too. Then Gretchen told her that it was so good that Delaney totally deserved to win. See they can be sweet.

Innocence of a Child

Just had to share. Gretchen gets off the bus today and says "Look, how pretty" and to be honest I am thinking it is cool, wet and not really springlike so what exactly is she pointing at. Then she said come here mom, look at this clover in the grass with the rain on it, the rain sitting on it makes it so pretty doesn't it? And I have to agree it was very green and somewhat glistening. Of course, typically I would just look at the clover and think, ugh, we need to get that out of the yard and if I was feeling positive would say at least it is green. We should all be able to find beauty in such simple things. Go find the beauty in the simple things! What will you find?

Lunch Date

One of our "lunch dates" at McDonalds.

I started a tradition with Delaney this year with preschool that usually 1 day after I pick her up from preschool we enjoy an lunch date together, just the two of us. Usually it is McDonald's or sometimes she will throw in a Taco Bell. On occasion she will ask for us to call Dad, but I have before and she said "it is supposed to be just us 2." Now sometimes Missy, my cousin and me don't want our no kids day date to end so we will pick Delaney up and take her to lunch, which Delaney does enjoy because she has Aunt Mimi all to herself, none of those other 4 interrupting her and taking time away from her Princess self, hiliarious! This is just a cool little thing Delaney and me do since I had time with Gretchen alone before Delaney blessed our lives. And yes I still do have "dates" with Gretchen, but usually they are something more like Girl Scout activity without the rest of the troop we decide to participate in or a lunch or some shopping. Jason does the same, remember skating with Gretchen, but alot of times it is something as easy as running an errand with dad. I really enjoy my one on one time with my girls as much as they do.

Easter!!

Striking a pose in her new sunglasses - styling!

What do I get into first??

The girls were very excited about Easter and even said it was better than Christmas, which I am sure will change when Christmas is closer, but for now Easter is their favorite holiday. They said they get their baskets and to hunt eggs! Well we got up and had to see what that Easter Bunny left and they were very happy with their baskets. New kites, chalk, bubbles, jump ropes were some of the highlights and of course some candy!! Then it was time to hunt eggs, which I have to laugh because Gretchen is all about finding them as quickly as possible while Delaney is more like I get how many and is slow, but sure, no biggie I am guaranteed how many is more the attitude? Hillarious how different they are.

We then went to church in our dressed up attire, which I have to say is something special in itself since our church is very casual and friendly - don't have a church or looking you should give it a try!

Then we went to Easter with my parents. We ate and the kids, including Travis' and his fiances' 3 kids, which happen to be stair steps with my kids, Gretchen will be 8, Kylee just turned 7, Ashlyn will be 6 this month and then Costas and Delaney will be 5 in October like a week apart. So for this it was color coated and you each had 6 eggs. Gretchen did not want any help and was like "That is not your egg put it down" if anyone touched her blue eggs, even if they were just trying to help. And Delaney is just ho hum walking around no big hurry looking for her purple or pink eggs(can't remember what was her color). And then they checked out their goods and played, until the play time had to end because everyone needed to get to bed for back to school on Monday!

Whew I do sometimes wish Spring Break would be the week after Easter or at least that Monday because it is a little crazy getting off the sugar high and Sprink Break/Easter high to go back to school, but we made it and getting back into routine.

Munch & Hunt

Delaney getting her face painted.

We had to get them not on the move!

Saturday was the annual Munch & Hunt at our church. Gretchen got a surprise because her friend Delaney she met in preschool I had arranged to meet us there, neat side bar is that Laura (her mom) and me graduated together. Gretchen, Delaney and my Delaney had a lot of fun hunting eggs, playing in the jumpies, playing corn hole, frog bog, ring toss, getting their face painted, decorating cookies (my station) and just spending time together. We then came home for them to play at the house some more and they can't wait until the next play date or the next Munch & Hunt.

Then we went to Easter at Jason's mom's house. Everyone was there and we had a delicious meal with some great conversation, some internet searching, some Wii playing, some mower fixing all with a little heckling her and there. It just would not be a get together without it. And of course, a discussion of who has what projects going so they boys all know who can help who with which project in between their other committments, softball and fire duty are the biggies right now. I mentioned if they all helped maybe I could get my projects done and said Jason had promised some by Thanksgiving and we are at Easter of course the logical question was did he specify which Thanksgiving ? Aren't you all cards? Ugh they are all alike and brothers, there is no hope! LOL