Pansies, Parties, and Pride

Wow, what an incredible day of weather we're having today! It's been in the 60's here today and those are temperatures we don't usually see until the end of May or the first part of June. The girls have had a great time playing outside this afternoon and we even potted some plants that we picked up today at Walmart. Count that as a science lesson during this spring break week!

We celebrated Abby's birthday on Saturday complete with her very own cake and had great fun. Our other girls were both a bit tentative about getting into the cake, but not Abs. She dove right in and soon had it caked all over her arms, chest, and face. Pictures will soon follow, but we've not yet located our software to link the camera and the new computer. It was lots of fun, the weather cooperated and Lainey and Sarah Grace and their special friend Annelise were able to enjoy the swing set. We had several good friends from church come over to help us celebrate and really enjoyed the time. While I think it would be nice for our girls to have some other kids their age in our church (at this point, Annelise is the only one and she's several months younger than Sarah Grace), I'm grateful for our multi-generational approcah to birthday parties. It's such a blessing to have a couple of 80-somethings, some 70-somethings, along with folks our own age. It seems that real life is more about learning to relate to a wide range of different people and I'm glad that we can start teaching our girls that lesson now.

Okay, I promised funny stories on our girls and they have provided a couple over the last few days. On Sunday mornings I let the girls play on their own while I get other things ready. Thankfully our house is open enough that I can still hear most everything that's going on. I heard them playing hide and seek yesterday morning. Evidently, Sarah Grace wasn't playing in quite the way that Lainey would have liked. I heard Lainey say, "Count to ten and give me time to hide." I then heard Sarah Grace say, "Ten. I found ya!" Lainey got mad, but mom laughed and laughed from her vantage point upstairs! Today the girls and I embarked on our monthly grocery shopping trip to Walmart and Costco. This is always an adventure and I knew that today would be because it's actually been about 2 months since I've done a big grocery store run. We did fine at Costco and then headed over to Walmart. I told the girls in the car that we would eat at McDonald's at Walmart, but that we were going to use the restroom first so we didn't have to go while we were shopping (and besides, being this pregnant, I almost ALWAYS have to go). I told Lainey that she could go first and that when I went, I needed her to hold Abby and not put her down no matter how much she cried. Lainey said, "Don't they clean the floor in there?" Not to mom's standards. Anyway, as I used the restroom (there is no privacy with 3 children, even at home) Sarah Grace walked behind me and said, "Wow, your heinie is too big for the potty." I said, "Well, thank you for that." I guess the Lord thought I needed to be humbled today, though I can assure you I've not been guilty of thinking that my hindquarters were too small. Oh well, out of the mouths of babes!

Off to enjoy the sunshine and finish putting up 3 hours worth of shopping for groceries!