Memorial Day

Last weekend we had a fantastic few days in the works, and it might not have turned out exactly as planned but I don't think any of my crew could say that it wasn't fun! We were completely shocked (so kidding - all it does is rain in Decatur these days!) that the hot air balloon festival was rained out. We look forward to it every year and the kids love it so much that we'll always stay here for Memorial Day weekend instead of traveling. We took the girls to the carnival even though the hot air balloons were gone, and bless their hearts, by the time we stayed all of 30 minutes they looked like they'd been swimming with their clothes on! There's not much to do at a carnival when everything has been rained on, but the funnel cakes made it worth our while!

Bethany took Towns on her first 'real' ride and she loved it...


We were counting on Memorial Day being pretty so we could hit the water park at Point Mallard...the weather had other plans for us, though! Surprise, surprise! :)
Bethany was down and out about not having anything fun to do, so I did a little brainstorming and came up with a plan.

I treated them to hair, make up, a mani/pedi (they only had patience to sit through the pedi portion!), lunch, an art class, and a cake-baking lesson...

Towns did her own lipstick, can you tell?!

I put the topiary that sits on the kitchen counter in front of them and they all had to paint their own version of it...


Even little Cate got in on the action...


And the finished product (I'm framing them to put side by side in the kitchen)...

I'm sure you can tell who painted each one!

The rest of our weekend was spent playing. I was once again reminded of how all 3 girls are monkeys and it takes my breath away when I saw things like this at the park...


In the picture above, Towns climbed up the railing, over it, and then onto the chain thing to climb down. I don't know how much more I can take!!
Then Cate got the notion that she could do it too...


Where, might you ask, do they all get it from?
Here's the culprit...

I live with a bunch of fearless individuals! I think I'm the only cautious one in the fam!
After several mild heart attacks, we walked over to the splash pad where Bethany and I watched from a distance...




Until the dripping wet munchkins decided they wanted to come hang out with us and get us soaked...



They're pretty irresistible, so we took all the loving we could get while it lasted!

School Days

I'm not so great with goodbyes. Or change, for that matter. The girls' last day of Mother's Day Out was today and had you not known better, you would have assumed they were graduating from high school and leaving the nest for good. Towns' class had a beach party to celebrate the last day of school which made for some good fun. And naturally when you have a beach party at school, you have to ditch the backpack and pack a beach bag to the brim instead. Apparently that's written in code somewhere in the 4 year old handbook. She started packing yesterday - she's a packer like you wouldn't believe. She could hardly wait for today to come so that she could put on her beachy crab dress and hit the road!

Of course, Cate hadn't been dressed for a 5 full minutes before she'd ripped the bow out of her hair and thrown it to the floor! That's one battle I'll fight 'til the end! :)

I have pictures from almost every single school morning when they came out of the front door and stood together for a sec before they both sat down on the stairs to check out the scenery...

After that, they give each other really good love...

Like clock work (after the hugs and kisses), Towns holds Cate's hand to help her down the steps and doesn't let go until she's safe at the bottom on the sidewalk. Now that Cate's older and more independent she mostly likes to walk down on her own. But then occasionally when we're lucky like we were this morning, she'll grab Towns' hand and then mine too and we'll walk down all together. Mornings around here are pretty special to me for some reason - I think it's the routine and how we all just fit really well together. That's a post for a different day when I have way more time...can you tell I'm a little sentimental?!

On to the beach party...

Towns & Ms. Libby

Towns & Ms. Jennifer

Cate's teachers have been so super sweet all year and have loved her like crazy. And as a mother, you just couldn't ask for more from a teacher! Although, this last week of school hasn't been so hot for Cate...she was in time-out a few times which doesn't surprise me in the least. We're working on it, though! She and I had a talk before school this morning, and she had a good report when I went to pick her up! :) After we said our goodbyes and her teachers shed a few tears (ok, me too), they handed me a gift for her with instructions not to open it until I got in the car because it wouldn't help the sappy mama to open it in the class room. My mom gave me the same exact gift when I graduated from college...maybe that's the reason I was a basketcase! She just finished her 1 year old class and I'm already reading the book to her like she's preparing to set out on her own...

Ms. Connie and Ms. Taunton each wrote something to her in the book...so sweet!
What a treasure!


After school, we headed to the new park in the neighborhood to enjoy the sunshine and play until time to pick Bethany up from school. We're so thankful for the new place to play...it's fabulous!

I've got two little monkeys on my hands. They climb up everything imaginable! Towns thinks her new trick is the coolest...scaling the fridge! She makes me a nervous wreck, and she's supposed to be the calm one! It's Cate who usually gives me fits!



Cate was in a mad dash to get to the top before the little boy beside her. She's a competitive little thing!

This one made my heart stop...and when it started beating again we had a little conversation about showing panties to the whole playground and how next time we'll definitely be wearing bloomers!
I couldn't get a picture of Cate doing the same exact thing as Towns in the picture above because I had to have both hands on her, but she didn't hesitate to think she was just as big as her sister!



My lack of time lately has gotten in the way of my blogging - I have so much to catch up on!
One thing that can't wait any longer to tell you about is Bethany's Awards Day at school last week! She got an award for having all A's and one for Outstanding Student (which was a surprise because she knew she was getting a second award but didn't know exactly what it was). We are SO incredibly proud of her! She's had a great year at Oak Park and has so much more to look forward to!
Congrats Bet!

Getting her Outstanding Student Award...

Towns couldn't get to Bethany fast enough to give her a great big hug!