My sweet grandma has not been doing well. She's been in the hospital twice this week and is there now. She suffers from advanced Alzheimer's - such a heartbreaking disease - and it just breaks my heart to not be able to hug her and tell her how much I love her in person (she lives in Puerto Rico).
This is how I like to think of her (pic circa 1995)...with the beautiful smile and those sparkling baby blues that can tell a story without saying a word. Always finding something to laugh about...her faith, strength and resilience have inspired me all of my life. She loves flowers, hence why she grabbed one of the silk ones out of my mom's jar to pose for this picture!
I came across these next 2 pics this weekend when I stumbled upon a box of old pictures while spring cleaning. This was during one of my mom's visits to PR several years back. She had just given her a cross I sent her and a picture of baby Grace. I love how happy they both look!
If you happen to read this and you have a minute or two to spare, will you lift her up in prayer, please? Her name is Virginia, but we all lovingly call her Tata.
This one is a recent one - from January, age 89 - still as beautiful as ever! Te quiero con todo mi corazon, Tata!
Thank you all so much for your prayers!
Hudson's preschool had a fun little camping-themed field trip and Hudson was sooooo super excited!
I always lay out the littles' clothes, but this time Lance helped me. He did great!!
On the bus and ready to go!
A fun hayride to check things out around the farm...
First stop...fishing!
He wasn't too sure about the catfish...
...but he sure loved the worms! ha!
As did most of his friends!
Madi caught a big one!
But when Mr. Brian pulled it out there was no way she was going to touch it! he he he
Lilly either!
And Hudson said NO WAY!
Hanging out waiting for hot dogs...
Smores!
M'mm...M'mm!
A whole new meaning to "Cool Cat"!
Casey's turn!
{Okay, I'm so not a hunter! All of these mounted and dead animals freaked me out!!}
Scavenger hunt!
Such a fun group!
I loved "camping" with you, Hudson!!
Thank you for having us over, Mrs. H!
Maybe my theme for 2014 should have been "catching up" because that's what I seem to be doing the most these days - ha!
The little pumpkin had her first grade musical a couple of weeks ago. One of the things I love most about her school is that they emphasize the arts...visual arts, performing arts...you name it! She was so excited before school that morning!!
Their musical was alphabet related and each of the 4 first grade classes sang a couple of songs. Here's her class singing about that "Mysterious X"...
All of the sweet first graders singing their little hearts out!
A-E-I-O-U and Sometimes Y...another one of their songs...so proud of this sweet girl!
She had a speaking part right before one of the songs and she got nervous and started to say the lines for a different part. She was able to pull it off in the end, but I could tell she was upset with herself. One of the hardest things as parents is letting them experience moments like this without immediately just scooping them up and protecting their little self-esteems! Believe me I wanted to!!! Especially when she told me she cried backstage!! Thankfully, she told me her sweet teacher Mrs. Y hugged her and comforted her.
It nearly broke my heart days later when she told me in a quiet little voice, "I guess I'm not ready for second grade." I asked her why she would think a thing like that, to which she responded, "because second grade is when we start doing plays and I can't even get my lines right so I won't be able to go to second grade." Oh boy. I fought back the tears and we talked about it and I did my best to reassure her. She's so kind with others and yet she puts so much pressure on herself. She's a perfectionist by nature and these are hard lessons to learn. But we all must.
So happy that Noonie was able to come see her!
My deart Grace,
It doesn't matter how many times we fall, just how many times we get up! Never, ever give up! Daddy and I will ALWAYS be here for you NO MATTER WHAT!
And we are very proud of WHO you are!
In the midst of all the craziness, this party was a blast to plan...a ray of sunshine from behind the clouds! Meet Tiger Lily, the cutest-sweetest-kindest-seven year old Native American Fairy Princess!!
A little mama + me moment just before her party started. I love this sweet little pumpkin to pieces!
We wanted fun, bright, girly colors and I think we were able to pull it off! The weather was iffy for the day so we brought our tables inside, but the girls didn't mind - they still enjoyed running around the backyard and then coming inside for lunch and dessert.
Fairy wings for all the sweet girlies!
Adorable teepee cookies to greet each girl as she sat down...
And special little details for the birthday girl...
I worked once again with Jess of Party Box Design to create the sweetest invitations and before we mailed them, Grace gave each girl a Native American name, so we addressed the invitations by their new name - fun!
The girls got to pick their very own leaf headband when they arrived {thank you for making them, Noonie!} and we took a sweet keepsake picture by the sweetest teepee ever thanks to Sugar Shacks Teepees! Oh, and I found the sweetest vintage card in perfect condition to write a little love note for our sweet Tiger Lily - love continuing this tradition with the littles!!
Sorry, for so many pictures, but I want to remember their sweet faces and Native American names Grace gave each one! This is Tiger Lily with Hunting Hawk!
Tiger Lily with Streaking Star (Aunt Tammie) and Red Feathers (Mimi)...
Tiger Lily with Singing Light (Noonie) and Wild Wolf (Papa J)...
Wild Bear and Sparkling Moon with the littles...
{blurry, but the only family pic we have - boo!}
Grace was so excited her first grade teacher, "Morning Sun", stopped by!!
All the sweet fairy princesses, starting with Bright Lightning...
Tiger Lily and Happy Hedgehog
Tiger Lily and Wind Dancer
Tiger Lily and Pink Cloud
Tiger Lily and Shooting Arrow
Tiger Lily and Little Blossom
Tiger Lily and Strong Wind
Tiger Lily and Autumn Sun
Tiger Lily and Little Lake
Tiger Lily and Ice Dancer
Tiger Lily and Night Owl
Tiger Lily and Honey Bear
Tiger Lily and White Pearl
Tiger Lily and Lion Heart
This is what you do when you're the only boy at a girl party...you sneak around eating cookies!!
Time to get creative...
Masterpieces!
A beautiful mess!
Our face painting artist was AMAZING!! Love, love, love what she did for each girl!!
Tiger Lily in all her splendor!
Hunting Hawk was sooooo patient!! He waited until all the girls had their face painted and when it was finally his turn, he chose an exploding volcano!
The anti-rain dance worked! :))
Girls being GIRLS! This was some sort of contest on who could scream the loudest and for the longest time...
I wanted to get a group picture of all the Native American fairies, but I forgot - boo! I am so, so, so thankful to God for surrounding Grace with sweet, kind friends. I hope their friendships last a long time!
Who knew Native American fairies love taco salads??!
If you wanna take a picture of the guys........... find the FOOD!
Time for sweet treats and birthday wishes...
Thank you Alicia for making her teepee cake!
Happy Birthday to you...
May all your wishes come true!
One super HAPPY birthday girl!
Brownie sundaes per the birthday girl's request! They were such a hit - yay!!
Note to self: next time take the picture BEFORE the ice cream melts - ha!
Oh, the conversations around this table!!
Little girls sure love to Ooooh and Aaaaah!
More crazy games...
Thank you, Klaire, for being such an awesome big sis!!
And before we could call it a day, I had to get in on the face-painting action!! We started talking about it and I think this was the very first time I ever got my face painted!!
Noonie too!
We prayed and prayed for no rain during the party and I kid you not, just a few minutes after 4 o'clock on the dot, it started raining! God is always in the details!!! And a special thank you to Papa J for being such a gentleman to walk everyone to their cars!!
And this is what it's all about...the sweetest giggles and big, BIG {toothless} smiles!
Happy 7th Birthday, Tiger Lily!
We love you soooooooooooooooooooo much!
