Tuesday, August 6th

I decided we would take this week off from school work entirely - between a lot of miscellaneous things that needed to be handled, birthday party prep work to take care of, Uncle Jeff coming into town later in the week, etc., it just seemed like an ideal last full week off.  So with no school work to be tackled, Victoria and I headed out early Tuesday morning for a special mommy-daughter party supply shopping trip!  We had such a fun time together!  The kids are truly an awesome unit - I love their cohesiveness and that of our whole family; however, it is really fun to occasionally take one-on-one dates with a kiddo, and it is something Jim and I try to do often.

After we had shopped til we dropped, we headed home for a very chilled afternoon that included nap time, cleaning, and laying around after dinner :-)

Our swagger wagon (minivan) was having the brakes repaired by our awesome mobile - meaning he comes and does the work at our house, so awesome - auto tech, Nate, and so Gram was kind enough to let us borrow her car to head out shopping.  We had to take Nana's classes to her in Decatur - something about "wanting to be able to see" on her way home - so we picked up a Starbucks treat to sustain us on our drive :-)

We finally made it to our destination - Party City.  Victoria has had a Mexican Easter Egg Hunt birthday party theme in mind for quite a while.  She had already drawn a LOT of her own decorations (love it!), mostly consisting of bunnies in various combinations, quantities, and apparel, so I was interested to see what kind of plates and napkins she would want to select.  She ended up choosing...monkeys.  Okay!  Here she was choosing a big number five candle for her cake.

One very satisfied four-nearly-five-year-old little girl :-)

I told her I would take her out to lunch anywhere she wanted to go - completely her choice... 

...and she chose Taco Bell.  Because we are fancy like that ;-)

After getting back home and getting the kids down for a nap, this little one decided that she and I had lots of catching up to do!  I love that even if she is squawking for me to come get her after a nap, as soon as I start talking to her she is ALLL smiles!

Scarlett had gotten upset with Victoria during a game they were playing and just couldn't resolve it herself.  I noticed after a while that she wasn't around, so I tracked her down to her room, where she had put herself in a "time out, but not a BAD time out, just I need some time to snuggle Pixie [cat] and relax time out."  I am constantly noticing just how grown up she is getting - definitely still a little girl, but just maturing so rapidly all of the time. 

We were having "reworked leftovers" for dinner - Mexi rice, shredded pork and black beans revisited into some hearty nachos - and Waverly decided it was prime "hold me!" time :-)  I decided to break out the sling that I'd gotten for free online, and it worked great!...except how, if I tucked her head in as demonstrated on the instructions, she looked like she would suffocate.  But she was loving the position of being in the sling, so I just untucked her head and supported it - she was instantly snoozing.  Well... at least I had *one* hand free, which fortunately for me is pretty much all you need to assemble nachos.

Always with the fists - just like Scarlett! When Scarlett was a baby you knew she was about to fall asleep or was in a deep sleep when her hands curled up.  Lincoln and Victoria were/are the exact opposite - you knew they were about to be asleep when there's hands opened completely, palms up.  Isn't it funny the things parents notice about their kids? haha

Waverly getting in some tummy time with one of her most favorite people - Nana!

Post-nachos floor laying: Scarlett, Jim, and Salty :-)