Five on Friday

Trying out the Five on Friday format now! Incidentally, it was supposed to snow yesterday. It didn't, and it still hasn't...so we are living on borrowed time, and I am loving it. ;-) Hannah said yesterday, in that slightly wistful way that only a three year old can manage, "Once it snows on top of the pretty leaves, I don't think we will get to see the leaves ever again, will we?" So stay away, nasty snow -- do you really want to make my three year old sad?!


1) Last weekend, Ashley got to fly to Seattle with Lamont for a couple of days! She was so excited about it, and counted the days until her trip for at least a month beforehand. Her only other flight was when we went to Chicago when she was eight months old, and of course she doesn't remember that, so she was just giddy with joy over the plane ride. Lamont sent me this picture on his phone when they were in the plane....

(Yes, she does appear to be wearing a lei in this picture. I'm not sure what that is about!) She got to sit by the window, and look down at the clouds -- she was specifically hoping for clouds so that she could see if they look the same from above as they do from below -- and even go into the cockpit for a few minutes after they landed. I missed her! And she had such an amazing time. When they got home, she sat on my lap and talked nonstop for over half an hour...full of life and full of stories, I love it. :-)


2.) On Wednesday Ashley was gone overnight again, this time to go to AWANA with my younger sisters and then stay with my family for most of the next day as well. (And um, it's cool that she's growing up and having all these adventures, but when she's gone we really miss her!) So Thursday morning I took the little girls out for breakfast -- to McDonalds, because I'm classy like that. It was fun to get to hang out with just the two of them, and it's so much easier to have conversations with two instead of three! This was them discovering that they could blow bubbles in their orange juice, which I started to stop them from doing, and then realized there was really no reason to say no and it was just one of those parent things that drive kids crazy with their senselessness. So blow bubbles we did.

3) I apologize for the terrible, terrible picture quality (the lighting was bad and, well...we were trying to do a self portrait of four people, what do you expect??), but here is a picture of us this evening, out to dinner with our wonderful friends Ashley and Cameron. It's Ashley's birthday tomorrow, and we were celebrating a day early. Such a fun night! It's so nice to get out as just the four of us sometimes, with no fruit snacks or diapers or sippy cups involved. Happy birthday, Ashley!

Funny story -- after our waiter called me "ma'am" for about the tenth time, I complained about it to our table when he had left: "He keeps calling me ma'am!" A different waiter, walking up behind me, chimed in instantly with, "What was that, MA'AM?", with a big grin. I glared and everyone else laughed, and he proceeded to toss a "ma'am" my way the next several times he passed by. Then when he came by for the last time as we were standing up to leave, to make sure we didn't need anything else, he looked at me with that big grin again as he started to speak, and I cut him off with, "Don't you say it!" So he paused and then stuttered out, "Uh...studly!"

4) I cut Hannah's hair this afternoon. That is only noteworthy because I've been trying to let it grow out for months...it's just been driving her nuts, though, and growing so slowly. And the mop of ringlets all over her head is SO adorable, and we miss it! So it's back. :-) I did take a before picture, so maybe tomorrow I'll get an after, and get them up here.

5) And this is just because this picture makes me so happy.... Happy Friday!