What Happens at Grandma's Stays at Grandma's

 I woke up this morning to find my girls making mud pies in the driveway with Poppy.  Surprisingly, they were pretty clean.  Then I told Lily how rich people paid lots of money to take mud baths.  Then she said she wanted to know how it would feel in her toes.  So I said whatever...(there was a hose nearby).

Also notice the mud was mixed up in an empty OxyClean container.

Then we went down to the playground, and Lily was playing teacher.

Here Jack is put in time out.

Happy Mother's Day

Seven years ago on Mother's Day we told our parents we were expecting.  I was 13 weeks along that day.  We'd been to the doctor the week before, heard the heartbeat, and were given a due date of November 17.

Today I spent the day with my girls and husband.  I got to "sleep in."  By mom standards that's about 7:30 am if you don't know.  And it may not include sleep, but you get to hide out alone.  They brought me blueberry muffins in bed.  We packed a picnic and headed off to the park despite the threatening clouds.  I found this amazing tree and got to take beautiful pictures of my girls.

Reading Makes It Happen

For the past few years the girls have been huge fans of a magician  - Happy Dan the Magic Man.  We first saw him at Peakfest in Apex a couple years ago, and the girls had me stick around so they could see his act THREE TIMES IN A ROW.  Plus they stalked him during breaks.  It was crazy.

Luckily we've been able to see his act at other locations and TMOTT (our twins club) has had him for their summer picnic a couple of times.

Their favorite trick is one where he turns torn up tissue paper into a hat.  I think they've always liked it because it's the one trick where you get to take something home.  The catch is, to help him with the trick, you have to be able to read the list of instructions.  Every show they would raise their hand excitedly, and I would remind them that they weren't able to read the list, so they should let another kid try.  He was super nice and would always let them do another trick.

So this weekend was Peakfest.  The whole way there in the car they asked me if I thought he would be doing the hat trick.  Did I think he would pick them?  Would I let them go up this time?

We paced up and down the street waiting for show time.  They were the first to sit down.  Happy Dan pulled a toy rabbit out of Madeleine's ear to start the show.  About three tricks in, he pulled out the bag that makes the hat.  And the girls' faces just lit up.  They knew this was THE TRICK, and immediately raised their hands.

Happy Dan looked at me about who to choose.  I said they shared well and could help each other out.  So Madeleine read the list while Lily tore the paper.

And it was magic for them.  They took turns wearing the hat the rest of the morning.  They wondered how in the world Happy Dan made that hat.  I noticed tonight Madeleine has it pinned up on her bulletin board next to her bed.

As Happy Dan always says, reading DOES make it happen.