end of winter break

Friday afternoon/evening I received a text message from Serenity's teacher. The kids were on break last week so it was a bit of a oh no what could be wrong type of reaction from me. it wasn't a really problem but it was a whoops on her part. While cleaning up the class on break she came across an invite for a classmates birthday party that was the following day. of course Serenity was excited and thankfully we didn't have anything planned. Her & I got ready the next day and we headed to the party. it was at a nearby roller rink. the only skates she has ever used before are the plastic ones you wear over your shoes. i was super nervous. i figured she would fall one time and she would be done, but she never ceases to surprise me. she got out in the little kid area and had a blast. she fell a hand full of times (once bad enough to cry some) but it didn't stop her from getting up every time and trying again. after that her & i had a nice little mommy daughter date and went to dinner & went window shopping for Xavier's birthday present. It was really a good way to end her winter break.

busy week

last week sure was a busy one. Monday was well, just a Monday. Tuesday I worked which was nothing to exciting. The exciting thing was getting a text on my way to work asking me to be a Matron of Honor and then that night going and watching my little girl sing Valentines songs at school. she (as well as the rest of the prek) was absolutely adorable. Wednesday was church like normal.Thursday she had her first Valentines party at school. Friday was a field trip that mommy went along on. But one of the most exciting yet scary things that happened this week was on Friday after the field trip, after the kids got back to school I did not take Serenity home. Daddy did not pick her up. Neither did Nana or Grammy. But on Friday afternoon Serenity had her very first play date with a classmate. She and her friend Avery have been talking for some time now about Serenity going over and playing but I kept telling them both that her mom and I would have to get together before this could work out. well go back a few nights to Tuesday night where we were at the school watching this cute little kiddos sing and afterwards Avery's mom & I finally got to talk some to get this play date set up. I thought i was so ready for this. I've been excited since i knew i was pregnant with a girl for play dates and sleep overs but i guess in my head everything took place here with me. never with her going anywhere. I went shopping after I saw her get picked up from school by someone that was not family but before i got to shop i got to drive 20 minutes to the store and during this 20 minute drive i probably cried for about 15 of them. I couldn't understand why this was upsetting me so bad but then Skip helped me realize the reason was because my little bitty baby girl is finally getting old enough to do things like this. She is almost 5, yes i can hardly believe it but my teeny tiny baby girl is almost this many......

and because of this she is getting old enough to do things apparently deep down i'm not quite ready for.

date done right

I know i shared with some people but i don't exactly remember if i shared it here (and let's face it i'm way to lazy to go back through and check) but for Christmas gifts for each other this year Skip & I decided to each take 6 months of 2013 and plan at least one date a month. that way we are guaranteed to get a night, or day, or breakfast, or lunch,or even just a couple hours sometime throughout the day of just us time. time to help us become closer. time to help us not lose skip and starr. time to help us just have some fun.
     Well, february was my month and today was the day i had planned. i was so nervous that Skip was going to really not enjoy it and was worried it would be a bust. on the agenda was Bingo, Subway, and an actual conversation. He was really rather happy with bingo and even happier when we won the coverall :)  another lady won as well so we didn't get the whole pot but lets just say we were both quite happy with our $300 win. yep, that's right. it cost us $22 to play bingo and we won  $300. could have been $600, which would have been crazy awesome and we could have planned a mini getaway, heck we might just do that anyway with the $300 or we may plan more extra dates to just go become bingo addicts :)
after our awesome time at bingo we went and grabbed lunch and then went to the park and had a little picnic. a while back when planing the dates i had each of us take a test to find out what our 5 love languages were and then while on our picnic we discussed them. we learned which love language we each are and which ones are rated where. it was nice to have time to talk with one another and just talk about us. overall it was just a great day :)

selfish.....nope not her

Christmas time seems like the only time that people seem to care about one another. Skip & I don't want our kids to be raised like that so we have decided that this year we are going to continue on with the Random Acts of Kindness we started during the holidays.
We are currently sponsoring 2 soldiers overseas (if you would like to drop them a card please let me know and i'll send you the address) but we knew this just wasn't enough. I told Skip that I really want the kids to be involved in coming up with ways to help other people. Serenity came up with some pretty great ideas over the holidays so i knew she would continue to make some great unselfish choices and boy did she. I asked her this morning what was something she wanted to do for someone else. It could be anything and for anyone. She said she wanted to buy coloring books & crayons and when I asked if she wanted them for just random kids, kids who don't have a lot of money, or kids who are sick. She said kids who are sick in the hospital. I love how much she loves thinking of others. I looked up the address for St. Jude and we are off to the store to buy some coloring books and crayons now but there is also a phone number to call and see what toys are currently wanted by the kids as well so we may just have to do that too :)
I asked Serenity if she knew who else was proud of her for making such a great choice and she said Jesus mommy. I could do nothing but smile at her

so proud

One of those proud mommy moments that lets you know you must be doing something right as a parent.we are so proud of her