Trip to Montgomery to visit with Will

Will treated us royally this weekend! We left Albany on Saturday morning and arrived there in time for a splendid picnic lunch down by the river. We spent Saturday afternoon touring his marvelous church, Frazer Memorial UMC, and then we just had a relaxed evening of legos and Wii playing. Will had made his marvelous chili for supper. Sunday morning was a marvelous time of sharing in worship at Frazer. I'm just so completely impressed and proud of all that Will is doing in ministry there. It is an amazing morning of worship! We had lunch at a terrific barbecue place, napped a little and then we got to experience Will's ultimate frisbee church gathering at Shakespeare park--a truly sublime location, and the weather was spectacular! This morning (Monday) we drove home and were sad to say goodbye, but we really hope to get to go over there again this summer. It was a sweet time of fellowship, and I'm just sorry we haven't gotten over there as a whole family before now.

Daddy/Daughter Dance Feb 2011

We had so much fun going to Albany on Thursday night and staying through Saturday morning. Stan took Olivia and Dad took me to the AFUMC Daddy/Daughter dance on Friday night, and we had a blast! What a sweet time! I'm a rich, rich woman!

The Atkinson Boys Came for a Weekend Visit

Great weekend with the nephews! Love those Atkinson boys. I wish Abby and Andy were closer so we could have those little boogers over to stay with us, too! Someday, maybe! We had such a fun time. Friday night we had spaghetti with meatballs and watched the movie Alpha & Omega. Saturday morning we watched cartoons (a word that my kids hardly know, actually--cartoons used to be those shows that ONLY came on on Saturday morning), we ate eggs sausage and banana muffins, and the kids bounced on the trampoline and would periodically run in to warm up in front of the fire and then head back out. Before lunch we took a ride in the neighborhood on bikes and bigwheels. Jonathan was impressing us all with his newly learned training-wheel-free bike riding skills! Lunch was grilled cheese, apples, Sun Chips and chicken noodle soup--yummy! The afternoon was lots of lego building, sword fighting and eventually a trip to the park. We left the park and went to Uncle Stan's band room where we had quite a rockin' good time--lots of drum beating and horn blowing and boogying. When we got home it was time to go to Aunt Adrienne's Barber Shop. David & Jonathan and Uncle Stan all had their ears lowered and they all looked great! Saturday night we all made our way to IHOP for pancakes (and cheeseburgers for a couple of the kids who wanted to opt out of the pancakes--they're nuts!). It was splendidly sticky by the time we left with our crew. We hit the bath and read Officer Buckle and Gloria, a Bible story and then hit the hay. The kids and I went to the early service (I didn't make it in time to sing in the choir, but it was nice to sit with all four of them in the congregation.) David and Olivia had Sunday school with Mrs. Stein and Jonathan and David went to Miss Janet's class. Since it was the day before Valentine's day, they were showered with sweet cards and candy and special treats by these wonderful teachers. We zoomed home for a simple lunch of pb&j, strawberries and more Sun Chips. The kids got in a good last jump session on the trampoline while I cleaned up, and then we were on our way to Darien again to meet up with Aunt Carrie Beth.

Fave moments from the weekend:

1. Seeing Jonathan get so comfortable that he did a ballet dance for me in the kitchen --complete with arabesque and lots of spins and pizazz! :)

2. Hearing the kids singing "Ring Around the Rosies" while running in circles on the trampoline (how much longer will they do this?--so sweet!)

3. Seeing all four of their little pajamied bodies cuddled together for cartoons Saturday morning.

4. Me pretending I was the plane's captain on the drive home from Darien to Kingsland and then back again today--this is totally a Don Adams' special, and the kids love it.

5. Olivia begging me to make up one of my "Bippy & Jippy" stories (something I've done on and off for years with her--just spur-of-the-moment made up stories about these two bunnies who are sisters) on our way back to Darien today. My story got so convoluted and ridiculous that it lasted about 20 full minutes which helped make the drive go by pretty quickly. My personal favorite part of this Bippy and Jippy tale--Beebo and Bobo, their cousins, came to visit, and they went to this special secret bunny club park. At this secret park there was a huge slide that had loops and curves and went on forever, but the best part was that they landed in a pit of marshmallows. And have you ever seen bunnies with cheeks full of marshmallows?? Its ridiculously cute. Let me tell you, and Bippy and Jippy were stuffing their cheeks, and suddenly they got tickled. They began laughing so hard that their mouths became marshmallow machine guns--popping all of the marshmallows that had been crammed inside. Yeah. It was a pretty awesome moment in the story. There was more frivolity, and as always in my B & J stories, there was a moral. Beebo and Bobo had to learn a hard lesson.

6. Walking hand in hand with Stan in our neighborhood and watching these four kids zooming and laughing and squealing ahead of us on their bikes and big wheels.

There's more I could say, but I'll end here. It was a sweet time. Grateful to have these opportunities--precious days.

And we didn't take a single picture. We were too busy having fun and living it up. :)