Thunderstorms, Laughter, and Parades

Sorry for posting so late in the day, but Lon and I have spent the day cleaning our carpets (mostly Lon; I sorted through the girls' toys and got rid of approximately 863 Happy Meal toys). So as not to be underfoot, Lainey and Sarah Grace spent the day with a friend from church. She had plans to take them to a local farm to pick some strawberries and pet the animals in the petting zoo, alas the weather was too wet to get out. We've had beautiful weather for the last couple of weeks and have even been hot for a few days (those of you in the South, read that "hot" as "in the 80's") so I guess we're due a little rainy weather. We even had a bona fide thunderstorm last night. We've lived here for 2 1/2 years now and this is the first storm we've had during that time. We've heard thunder a couple of times, but nothing that you could call a storm. Well, this was a good one; so good in fact, that Sarah Grace crawled into bed with us around 3:30 and Lainey followed around 4:30. Shortly after Lainey arrived, I decided that 4 people in a double bed was about 2 too many. I figured, "Okay, there are two perfectly good unoccupied beds across the hall so I'm taking one."

When we arrived to pick up the girls this afternoon, we stayed and visited with Vicki for a few minutes. While we did so, Lainey was crouched down in front of Abby's car seat showing her a leopard beanie baby. Sarah Grace came over and wanted to take it from Lainey and as they were pulling back and forth, Abby started laughing! She's chuckled at me a couple of times in the last week when I've tickled her, but nothing like the cackle she let out for the show the girls were putting on. It was precious! As I said in my last post, time does indeed go too quickly, but I'm always excited when my babies start showing more of their own personality.

I hope you will all have a wonderful 4th of July! Our little town has an old fashioned 4th of July complete with an antique car show, crafts and food booths, and a great parade! We live close enough to downtown to walk so we'll be heading down in the morning to enjoy the festivities. As Lainey said tonight before bed, "Tomorrow is the end of July, so we get to celebrate the parade!" She's got a few of the details mixed up, but she knows what her priority is! There's nothing quite like seeing these things through the eyes of your child; it should be great fun indeed!