Weekend Quotes

Planning Ahead

Yesterday in Target.  Buying new socks for the girls because the washing machine eats theirs.

Hallie, pointing excitedly:  Mommy look!  They have bras for kids!

Mommy:  Yes, Hallie.  For much, much bigger girls than you.

Hallie, after considering for a moment:  Well when I'm big can I have a purple one with pink straps?

Mommy sighs audibly, grabs socks, and pushes the cart briskly down the aisle.


Self-Assessment

The church nursery, picking up Brooks after the late service this morning.  I entered to find Brooks sitting in time out.

Brooks, wide-eyed and announcing:  Mommy, I was a lotta bad.

Brooks's teacher just nods her head wearily.

Rocking Their Worlds

Aunt Melissa has gone and lost her mind.  She purchased tickets to take the kids (and me) to Huntsville on Tuesday to see their obsession, The Fresh Beat Band ("in puh-son!" as Sara says) as an early Christmas gift.  I think Sara must have asked me six times today when it's going to be Tuesday.  They are so excited they can't even stand it.

So as you sit in your quiet home on Tuesday evening, think of us wrangling kids and singing along to the Fresh Beats with hundreds of other preschoolers and try not to be jealous!

How to Waste Time You Didn't Know You Had

So I'm supposed to be reading the stack of cases next to me.  For the past couple of hours, however, I have found myself playing with a really cool little program that creates word collages for you.  You can make them in all kinds of fonts, layouts, etc.  (Pinterest, what did I do before you introduced me to such fun?  Wait, was it my work?  Hmmm.)

So here are the results of my hard labor.

One for Hallie...

And one for Sara...

Cute, no?

So, if you too want to waste your time in fun ways, go here to make your own.

Love Language

I've never given any of my children any sort of Love Language test.  But I am telling you right now, Sara Head is 100% "physical touch."  She will cuddle you to death.  This is one of my favorite things about her (unless I'm trying to sing a hymn at church and she is crawling up me while I'm holding the bulletin with the lyrics, or unless I'm walking across a hot parking lot holding a bag of groceries and herding Brooks, but I digress...)

Yesterday morning she stood up in her chair at the kitchen table amid complete chaos.  Brooks was whining while stuffing his face with beignets.  Hallie was singing and gyrating around the room as usual.  Jason and I were loading dishes.  And then I heard from that relatively quiet voice, "I want a hug."  And then with a little more desperation, looking around the room, "Can I have a hug from somebody???"

Bless that baby girl.  She didn't even care who it was.  Someone needed to hug her!

A Confident Michelangelo

Hallie, describing her latest masterpiece:

And next time I'll get to bring it home.  You can't wait to see it!  It is so pretty!

Fun in Point Clear

Jason had a work conference at the Grand Hotel in Point Clear on Thursday and Friday this week, so we got Hallie's absence from school excused and packed up the whole group for a quick trip to the bay.

While Daddy was in meetings Thursday afternoon, the kids and I explored a little. We found a playground right on the coast of the bay, so we stopped to play.

We stayed at the Marina House (the name of Hallie's favorite character on Fresh Beat Band, as she was quick to point out).

The beautiful landscaping attracted a ton of butterflies, which the kids loved.

We ate cookies at Tea Time in the lobby of the Grand (until Brooks decided to throw himself on the floor in protest because Mommy said "only one cookie"--then we headed back to our room).

We ate dinner with Daddy at Wintzell's, which is where Jason and I ate lunch when we stayed at the Grand for our one-year anniversary.  It was just a LITTLE different this time...

After dinner we admired the sunset and went for a night swim to wear everyone out before all sleeping in the same (thankfully, large) room!

Sara and Brooks swim with their vests all by themselves these days, which makes pool time a lot more fun--and more doable for me when I'm by myself with the kids.  

Swimming lessons with Daddy.

Friday morning, we enjoyed the amazing buffet breakfast in the main dining room at the hotel, where the kids were surprisingly well-behaved, thank goodness!  I was fully prepared to evacuate if things turned ugly, since Jason's coworkers were also eating their breakfasts in the fancy room.

Then Daddy went to more meetings, and we donned our swimsuits for the morning.  We walked out to the beach area.  On the way, we did some ballet/gymnastics by the water.

Stopping only briefly to humor Mommy with a picture.

 We played on the sand and splashed at the edge of the water.

Then we went to the pool to play.

And sunbathe.

We also found a cool playground near the pool, so we did that for a bit.  This was done largely to console Sara, who got turned down when she tried to ride the cool slide at the pool.  You have to be 48 inches tall, which Mommy didn't know until a dejected Sara came racing down to tell me about the 'bad bad man" at the top of the slide who wouldn't let her go down.

Daddy ate with us by the pool during his lunch break.

After lunch we went back to the room to pack up.  Brooks was asleep within 5 minutes of sitting in the car, and the girls weren't far behind him!  We stopped briefly at Peach Park on the way home to eat some of their homemade ice cream (they don't sell chocolate chip anymore, which has been my staple PP purchase since I was five!  I'm still not quite over it).  And then we were home.  It was a whirlwind trip and a bit of a haul in the car, but I am glad we did it.  The kids had a great time, and 36 hours was just the right amount of time for me to fly solo at the pool and beach.  If it had been much longer our fun level might have deteriorated somewhat!  :)

Uncle Gray Turns 21!

GrayBear turned 21 on September 3rd!  We celebrated at Gigi's house.

Mom decorated her table with all her Gray memorabilia, from trophies to his favorite childhood movies and games and his beloved stuffed bear.

We also played Gray Trivia, which I am proud to say I won!  Woohoo!

See what fun you can have when you ask Mama Pat instead of Mommy??

Happy birthday, Uncle Gray!