Just Around the Corner

One of my favorite things about living where we do is that year-round warm weather is just a hop, skip and a jump down the road.

One of my least favorite thins about living where we do is that we miss out on 99% of all extended family fun.

So even though our own summer weather is (fingers crossed!) just weeks behind, we jumped at the chance to head south for a quick visit with my sunbird grandparents and a preview of all that is to come with the season of shorts and snowcones.

Note the dirty legs and smears of blue goo. Porter tripped on a curb and spilled his dragon's blood snowcone and a thousand tears all over the sidewalk.

Fortunately, it was nothing a little candy store bribe couldn't fix.

 

We don't get to see our family nearly as much as we'd like since they all live hours and hours away, so this was a very special treat to spend the day with my grandparents. Just the lift I have been needing.

As an added treat, Grandma & Grandpa Great took the kids on the new carousel. And just like that, the four of them became the best of friends. They keep asking when we can go to "grandma & grandpa's park" again.

This little lady started out timid and refused to get on a horse. She really is a little lily-livered mini me. I was reminded of this yet again just last night when she wouldn't let me carry her on my shoulders because it was too high for her liking.

After three rides, I finally got her on, after telling her that she could only look in the pretty princess mirror if she was on a horse. And I may have bribed her with more candy. And promised I would keep a vice-like grip the entire time.

 

Looks fun, no?

Oh, how happy I am that summer is just around the corner and that my grandparents are now just down the road.

 

Grandma's House

The kids and I headed to the big city for a quick visit with Grandma, Grandpa and all the gang. It was much too short for everything we had hoped to do and everyone we had planned to see. More to come, but for now, just grateful my kids get as excited to go to Grandma's house as I did when I was a kid.

Yes, I wanted to steal the Fisher Price record player and my favorite Hansel & Gretel storybook/record once I saw that my little lady loved it as much as I did.

A Little Bit of Sunshine

I feel a lot like the early spring weather: sunny and unseasonably warm one day, gale force winds and rain the next. And the weirdest thing about this kind of sadness is that it leaves you unsure of yourself in every moment. Am I unseasonably sunny, or is the wind and rain simply scattered across a normal, happy life?

I really don't know. But I know that the sunshine feels good after a very long winter, so I have been trying to focus on that. It's easy to focus on the two little guys I don't have, and I worry I may never be able to fill the space they left behind. But the sun still shines, and I don't want to spend so much time missing my babies that I forget to take stock in the two other little people who are still here with me.

I have been worried about finding that balance a lot lately as life charges on. If this is all I get, then I certainly don't want to miss it because I'm too busy pining for the impossible.

So, without further ado, the pursuit of sunshine (AKA: Saturday mornings)...

There is beauty all around.

Please don't tell the husband I posted a picture of him just waking up—I couldn't resist.
I can bang pots and pans and talk loudly all morning, but the only person who can get
Andy out of bed is this little girl, who tiptoes in with an armload of stuffed animals
and requests for a story week after week. 

I pray I will never forget the value in a wasted day of storybooks, playtime and cartoons.