Annapolis

On Thursday of spring break we went on an Annapolis adventure with the little D’s and Jess & Adeline. 

I am lookkng for windows to decorate our family room, and found some in Shady Side, which is only about 15 minutes from Annapolis. When I found out Chelsea and crew were going, I decided to tag along. C had a whole day planned out with thrift store stops and fun all along the way. We switched kids back and forth and it was so fun. Sadly, the window situation didn’t work out - they were the perfect size, but the wrong orientation. 

Going away party and service

Friday we hosted the McCombs going away party. The house was pretty clean, but we cleaned the floors and made sure everything was wiped down and sparkly. We also moved our paint station from the formal dining room where it’s been for about a year. Sometimes weird things happen and then you think about it and wonder why. Like keeping all your paint stuff in your formal DR. We also finished up painting in the basement and Matt made more progress on the bathroom down there. We made salsa, veggie tray and dip, and Addie made rice crispy treats. This is the one picture I took. 
Then Frankie took some. We had a bigger turnout than I thought we would, so that was fun. 

Frankie took my phone around and got lots of random shots. Like this one. 

Saturday was a busy day. Matt and I had it all mapped out because we had to keep close tabs on our timing. We got off to a late start because:

We wanted to be at the church to begin cleaning at 9, but didn’t make it till 10. Matt and Frankie had already bought the donuts though, so that was good. Our whole team was out of town, so we had a plan to clean the chapel and bathrooms, but when we got there we discovered -  to our delight and amazement - that the carpets had just been shampooed. That meant the whole building had been vacuumed. 🎉 Because of that we were able to do all the jobs. Tender mercy #1. 

From there we headed to the McCombs to help with moving stuff. Matt jumped right into caulking and I helped organize junk drawers. I really like organizing, I wish I could make a living out of it. The little girls found Joseph’s swing way down by the stream and played so happily. And we love our dear friends, so it was hard to leave them. But we had more people to serve! Tender mercy #2 (all of it from happy girls to dear friends). 

At 2 we headed to the Hatch’s new house. They are a new family and needed help unloading their pod. So many people were out of town and busy that we felt like we should really help them. On our way over to their house we realized we hadn’t fed the girls, so I dropped Matt off and picked the girls up some lunch. By the time I got back to their house, they were done unloading. More people had showed up to help and it went really smoothly. Tender mercy #3. 

We visited for a bit and came home to make the Hatchs dinner and make treats for Ken’s baptism at 7. We had just enough time to drop off dinner and got to the church nice and early, since Matt was conducting. Tender mercy #4. Anna took this cute picture and it was a wonderful evening. We are so happy for their family!

We helped clean up, put girls to bed and hid our 41 eggs, and fell asleep feeling successful and tired and happy. 

And some bonus pics. Frankie has been wanting to be a curly girl for awhile, so during spring break I added curl activator and plopped her hair overnight. 

She woke up  a crunchy curly girl!

We scrunched out the crunch, threw in some Bobby pins, and called it cute! She loved it!

Easter eggs and moving garbage

I like the idea of doing the Easter egg hunt on Saturday, but this year our Saturday was busy doing lots of service, so that didn’t happen. Luckily, the little girls woke up by 7, so we were able to eat and get them totally ready with plenty of time to hunt for eggs.

The girls only get pop tarts once a week, and since daddy gets them ready for church all by his lonesome, we’ve chosen Sundays as our p-tart day. So Lanes grabs a p-tart and I reminded her that she’d already had one earlier in the week. She was crouched down (think Smiegel from LotR) and said in such a weird voice “it’s Sunday, it’s a new week!” that we’ve been laughing and laughing at her (with her because she’s a great sport!). 

We The Easter bunny hid 41 eggs, just to keep things v random. 

I think they found them all, but the counting always gets a little bit sketchy. 

They were all pleased with their waster loot, in spite of our very minimalistic year. Since I didn’t get out Easter stuff last year some of the candy I’d stored wasn’t great. Thankfully they’ve got undefined kid taste buds!

We got her middle school elective alternatives today and i just can’t. Why???? 😩

Back to today. Matt has the day off from the navy, so went to work his regular job because he’s a kind heart. He came home early and we went to see Best of Enemies which was so good. Then we all headed to Mc’s. Melissa and i cleaned out the fridges, Matt painted, girls played, and Chris picked up a dolly and helped David switch refrigerators and do other toolsy things. I took one picture. 👇🏻 

Laura made a big dinner of chicken, rice, and beans, so we were able to stay till 7. She divided up more food for us. I came home with around 30 puddings that will always remind me of my McCombs. 

I was trying to remember a timeline of our friendship, so I looked up our first OBX vacation together. 

June of 2012, it was so fun! Look at all those babies! It is going to be so weird driving past their empty house! 

Spring break wrap up

It’s the night before back to school. (Wrote this last night) We talked about how it went and the ratings went as follows:

Addie - 9/10

Frankie - 10/10

Delaney - 9/10

So I’d say that’s a pretty darn good spring break. 

And we’re winding down from a celebratory weekend. 

So in backwards order. Today we went to piano early. The girls played on the tree swing and Frankie only hit the tree once. And Delaney fell off once. What are you gonna do. 🤷‍♀️

It was a perfect day. 

Addie and i hosted our Mother daughter book club where we talked about The Diary of a Young Girl. Our 4 regulars showed up and it was a good discussion. It’s such an inspiring work, it’s hard to believe Anne was so young. So brave and so insightful. And we forgot to take pictures. 🤷‍♀️

We went to the library and ate Easter leftovers. We had fhe and watched some bible videos. I love these sweet moments. 

Preciousness. 

Yesterday we had dinner with the McCombs at the Martines’. I can’t handle that Laura is leaving this week. But we had a wonderful last Easter together. We each brought delicious holiday food and stayed talking until bedtime. 

Church was so good. I cried all day. I am so grateful for my savior, Jesus Christ. I’m so grateful to have a very personal relationship with Him. Celebrating His resurrection this Easter was very emotionally stirring for me. My knowledge of Him is so important in my life, it’s everything. 

We snapped a few pics after church. Frankie was all excited she’d been able to take a few pictures of families, so why not?

Chris was visiting Megan, so they sent some shots. 

More Spring Break 2019 to come!

 

Celebrations, piano, and thunderstorms

Last Monday we had our annual volunteer appreciation breakfast at school. I cancelled tutoring so I could go because it’s always a fun time. Emily got a job tutoring at the center as well and it’s been nice to have a buddy to learn with, especially now that I’m starting to do informal assessments for students. It’s really interesting, but super intimidating. I never thought I’d be so anxious about going back to work, but holy moly, it’s crazy. Anyways, Emily and I are Ms. G’s volunteers so she grabbed a pic of us. 

Then for lunch I picked Laura up and we went to Amy’s because Sudha came into town and made the most delicious Indian food for us. It was so fun to visit with the ladies and eat amazing food. So for those keeping track, this princess was served breakfast and lunch. Being pampered is the best thing. 

I’ve been playing and walking with the girls during piano and last Monday was beautiful. 

We looked for sea treasures on the beach. 

#2peas

We sent this one to laura, the teacher of drip castles. She and David flew out to house hunt in Utah and I’m not taking it well. 

It started raining and lightning while ma girls and i walked around Johnna’s neighborhood. I LOVE a nice thunderstorm, so I was in hog heaven!

And oh these climbing girls!

So pretty. 

When we got home the girls ran around in the rain. Crazies. 

On Tuesday I picked the girls up early and we met Matt at the post office to get passports. We paid two months worth of my first apartments rent for our family of 5, it’s so ridiculously expensive. And again, #2peas.