Visitors

This past weekend we had visitors!  I kind of love that the idea of guests motivates me to get my house in order.  It's nice to have a good reason to tidy up...

I even took on a couple of projects I'd been putting off.  First I blew up a few of the photos I took of the girls.  I am so excited about the fact that you can get a 2x3 foot black and white print at Office Max for only $4.99...

I had seen this tip on Pinterest but really wasn't expecting the quality of the photos to be all that great.  I was pleasantly surprised!  I had a couple of large frames so I trimmed them down and popped them in...

I also had a few other things printed off and added all these happy prints and some of Carter's masterpieces to this wall with the giant whale that I love (painted by my mom)...

So we were clean, pressed and ready for our guests!  Yay they finally arrived!

G.G. had never been to visit us and we were SO excited to have her.  She and Emme became fast friends.  Roxi had played chauffeur and brought her down to see us which meant twice the fun.  We swam...

Gave them some lessons in technology....

Did some cooking...

And some deep tub diving...

It was a great weekend!  So good and fact that Saturday Pops came on down to join in the fun!  

The icing on the cake was Carter's ballet recital Sunday.  I'm not sure if she was more excited about dancing or getting to wear make up...

Let's be honest probably the make up...

Her ballet school was putting on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and she was a beautiful little white dove...

We had so much fun watching her perform...

Emme had talked us into letting her wear a little make up too...

But she managed to sit through the entire show and I think she was really proud of her big sister...

We all were...

Later that night we set out to give the girls some "summer cuts"...

My mom used to cut our hair growing up so this definitely brought back some memories!  

Emerson's hair had never been cut so I may have fought back a tear or two...

But both the girls were super happy with the results! 

Carter has started calling Emme her "mini-me"...

It was a great weekend filled with the things in life that really matter.  We loved it Roxi, G.G. and Pops!  Thanks for coming to hang out with us...

Come back soon!  June will be waiting in the window to greet you! :)

My Angel Mother

Today is my Mom's birthday!  These are a few of my favorite photos of her, isn't she beautiful...

My mom is the most encouraging, loving, genuinely joyful person I have ever met.  She was the first teacher I ever had...

And now that I too am a mom I have that new found realization that we all get the moment we become parents...it sounds a little something like, "WOW!  My mom is amazing!"

I'm so thankful for the importance she placed on her role of being a "Mom" and raising us right.  I'm doing my best to follow in her footsteps with these little ladies...

It's not easy by any stretch of imagination but I think the best we can do is to try our very hardest that's all anyone can ask of you...

I know my mom would tell you that she was far from perfect but she loved us with all of her heart...

My mom loves better than anyone I know...that's a fact jack!

And there is something else my mom was and is really good at...making things feel special.  She always has a way of sprinkling a little fairy dust on things and making them feel magical.  I'm so grateful for that because I find myself trying to do the same things for Carter and Emme.  You know what?  It makes life a lot more fun.  This past weekend I sprinkled a little pixie dust on this fortune cookie (or maybe I just slipped this note inside)...

Thanks to a well connected Aunt we managed to score last minute tickets and knew it was going to send a certain 7 year old into orbit.  Surprising her was fun to say the least...

I think we earned a few brownie points for this one...

I also got my own little surprise this weekend for Mother's Day.  My girls surprised me with glitter flowers and balloons that they picked out themselves, I couldn't have loved anything more...

It was the perfect Mother's Day weekend filled with lots of togetherness, a little ballet and of course there was swimming!

Happy Birthday Mama!  And Happy Mother's Day to all of my buddies out there in the trenches fighting the good fight against potty training, terrible two tantrums and snotty noses...I salute you!