Proud Grandparents

These two fabulous grandparents waited so patiently for these tree-hangers.

They themselves chose to hold off on having children, and then their children chose to wait a while before having children.  So to them, I'm sure it felt like an eternity waiting around for grandchildren to come along.

Their friends were buried in grandkids and not once did they make sly, underhanded comments to their sons or daughters-in-law about how wonderful it would be to have grandkids.

They waited.

Patiently.

And Quietly.

Good things come to those who wait.

7 grandkids in 6.5 years

Good stuff, I'd say.

Thank goodness for friends who tolerate the kitchen

It's no secret: I'm not a cook.
Nor a baker.
Nor, do I really enjoy doing anything inside the kitchen beside cleaning it up or reorganizing it.
So, when family or friends offer to do things with our children that involve making kitchen activities fun, I'm all over it. Because frankly, that's why God made all types, right? I find it a blessing and privilege to depend on other's strengths to teach my children stuff I could care less about, and hopefully they'll look to me for the same.
So don't waste your time wondering what my response was when Bamah called one day and said, "Papa found this adorable Gingerbread house and thought the grandkids would like putting it together and decorating it. Would you mind if they came over for the day to do that and make some Christmas cookies?"
Or even, when my good friend 'A' said she wanted to have Katherine over to make/bake/decorate some sugar cookies with her daughter, AC.
We all know the answer to those two requests.
Just thinking about the patience I would need to muster up to do something like these two activities makes me want to go chill out and watch some HGTV.

Thankfully, our children not only have their father to encourage healthy kitchen habits, but also loving friends and family to do the same.
Even our neighbors make a point to include our little ones in baking.
Make sure you keep me in mind when your child needs tutoring in math or your closet needs a good cleaning.

Girl's Night Out

"These economic times" have really opened up a new and exciting time of getting creative when it comes to finding fun and inexpensive things to do, and this just happens to be a perfect time of the year to take advantage of many of them. Our latest outing was special in so many ways...

We went to a free ballet here in town. It was put on by a local Christian ballet school that's been around for over 25 years. Katherine was excited about wearing her new super-twirl dress and seeing big girls in "beau-tee-ful" dresses, dancing. She was also very excited that Mer and Bamah came along. And the icing on the cake was our best buddies Miss A and AC coming along also.

Are these two cute or what?

What made this trip so extra special (for me at least) was knowing that our little girl has both of her grandmothers living close that can do special things like this. Not many little girls can say that. It was a girl's night out and with her being a card-carrying, registered-and-paid-the-fees girly-girl, it was very exciting for her. What more could a girl want? Twirl dress, mommy, both grandmas, best buddy, dinner at her favorite restaurant and refined, up-scale entertainment.

Little Miss Shy decided to poke her head out of the shell a little bit that night also. After the show was over, she thought it would be the perfect time for her to perform. Up on the stage, she practiced twirling and jumping all with hands in the air.I enjoy having a girl so much. My girly-girl side was put on the back burner, if not lost for a loooonnnng time, so painting fingernails, getting dressed up and talking about girl-stuff is so much more special now, because she's the one that brought it back.