Another Winery weekend in St. Gen .... with a cherry topper

That cherry topper is Penney Lane!! She is no longer a winery virgin. She added flare, charisma and a little more craziness to my group of Missouri girls .... if that is possible.

Amazing what smart phones capture on a good day with your girlfriends.

The last night EVER at the Saloon .... the best rat hole bar in southern MO. They closed it down for good that night. On more then one occasion we have ended up at the Saloon after the winery closes at sundown. Good times.  

Please don't ask .... I'm not sure what this one is all about but it cracked me up when someone emailed it to me. All I know is that I had a damn good time. Don't get mad Penney ....Hassie Clare and Quinn will probably look at this picture in 20 years and say "Yep. Not much has changed with Penney Lane and Momma." 

Also, please notice that it is still daylight in all of the pics. I've notice that the older we get, the shorter amount of time it takes us to get the party started. I have 3 or 4 different groups of girlfriends that I thoroughly enjoy spending time with. I think time away with your girlfriends should be a requirement. Not only does it create lifelong friendships, it's good for the soul!

1st Airplane ride - MEM to MCO

When planning our Disney trip, our gravest concerns were 1) Quinn on an airplane 2) Quinn's fear of characters at Disney 3) Quinn riding rides. We decided that we can't plan our lives around Quinn's fears. If we did, we would stay in our house 24/7, wearing nightgown's only, watching movies, doing arts and crafts that didn't make our hands messy and playing pretend. So we decided to take on this challenge, pad ourselves with loving patients and book it.

Jamie was 100% convinced that he would have to carry Quinn on the plane, kicking,screaming bloody murder, spitting and yelling for help. I had a little more faith in her. I didn't think she would have her melt down until the engines started, at which time she would bolt out of her seat screaming and attempting to jump through the small plane window. When Quinn has a melt down, it causes a MAJOR scene. And we all know how Jamie feels about attention from strangers:) I opted not to medicate her before the plane ride ... thought I would give her a chance to prove us wrong.

We used a crazy amount of frequent flyer miles for 4 direct flights from Memphis to Orlando, NON-STOP. 240,000 to be exact. Totally worth it!

We talked about it daily for months. We walked her through exactly what would happen, when it would happen and how everything would play out.

We had a "bribe" bag of candy full of every gum and candy they have wanted for the past 5 months. It was the bag of every 4 year olds dream! If we were at the grocery and they wanted some kind of candy then we would buy it and put it in the bag. But the deal was, they could not have any until we were on the plane. They were more excited about their candy bag then anything else about the trip.

We kept it extremely light before boarding the plane.

Riding the walking escalator over and over and over.

And prove us wrong she did .... thank you God! She treated it as another means of transportation. No issues from her... except who got to sit next to the window. Who would've thought!

HC and her bow looking for our house.

Watching Tangled with Baby Susie and Baby Angel Cake

Hassie Clare had some painful ear issues on our descent ... in fact, one ear is still bothering her. Note to self - might want to take her to the doc. She has been complaining about it daily for 2 weeks straight.

Now ...if only our gravest concerns #2 and #3 had went as smoothly :) But little did they know that the best week of their lives was about to take place!

Hippity Hoppity Easter is on the way .....

HAPPY EASTER



Time-outs @ Disney

Time outs at Disney were NON-EXISTENT! In fact, there was only one time-out in 7 days between 2 four year olds (we usually average a few a day) ..... and I happen to capture it on camera. As you can tell ... it was brutal.

And for the record, she got put in time out for repeatedly drinking pool water out of the pee-pee kiddy pool and licking the pool's germrail handrail.  It gives me the hibby gibbies just thinking about it!

Vacation Blues

It's almost been a month since my last blog entry and that is totally unacceptable. We have been busy little beavers. Not to mention we just got back from a weeks stay at the wonderful and magical Disney World.  I've never been sad about vacation being over. Time away from work and reality usually regenerates me and inspires me to tackle the world when I return. Not this time. I'm blue.... and a little red from the Florida sun.

But I'm perking up. Maema has been in town for the past week to help us out while our sweet, sweet nanny is in Paris. She is wonderful and such a huge help for me. We love having her in town and we are always sad to see her leave. The girls count the days until they can see their beloved Maema again.

So she left earlier today and now I'm blue again. But I'm super stoked about a last minute trip we just planned for this weekend to trip across Tennessee to spend Easter with my beautiful new niece, my sister, brother in law,  Nana and Pawpaw. So things are looking up. Obviously I have it rough.... a week at Disney, a MIL that rents a car and travels 5 hours to help us at a moments notice, a weekend get-a-way in the country with family. GEEZZZZ ... cry me a river!

So when the vacation blues start setting in I look at this picture and it tickles my funny bone.



Hassie Clare's first roller coaster. Jamie had to sneak her on the second time they rode it cause she wasn't quite big enough. Quinn cried the entire time they were riding this ride because she was afraid Hass would get scared or hurt.