Our Week - The One with Olivia’s Birthday and the Father Daughter Dance

This week flew by as I’m sure the rest of the weeks will for the remainder of the school year.  Things are really picking up and we’ve been busy with baseball, dance, school projects, and other school activities.  We’re gearing up for spring break at the end of this month and I think all of us can say that we are so ready!  I’m sure we’ll all be in desperate need of a breather by then.  Now we’re just praying the stupid coronavirus doesn’t ruin our trip.

Monday, February 24

Monday was a gym day followed by grocery shopping and lots of laundry for the rest of the day.  It rained all the live long day again but we still had baseball practice Monday evening since Jacob was in the batting cages.  He is looking better and better with his batting and we are just so proud of him.  He was nailing them Monday evening and looking like a pro.

Tuesday, February 25

Tuesday was Olivia’s actual birthday and even though we celebrated her a whole bunch the previous weekend we still had more celebrating to do!  Obviously, it was a school day so we had to get that out of the way first, but I did have lunch with her at school and I also brought some cupcakes for her class.  She and I, along with three of her friends, all got to sit at the guest table and the girls all thought they were so special!  We took the cupcakes out to the playground for them to enjoy out there while getting some fresh air.  

The rain had stopped (although it was very dreary) and the teacher wanted them to be able to get as much playground time as they could while the rain held off.  And in case you’re wondering what’s wrong with her nose, it’s green marker!  Her teacher has scented markers in the classroom, so Olivia pretty much comes home with marker on her nose every day.  Haha.

After lunch, I had a doctor appointment and then I swung by Target to get Olivia’s last gift… Frozen 2 on DVD!!!!  She’s asked a hundred times when we’ll be able to watch Frozen 2 at our house so I thought it was really awesome that Disney released it on her birthday.  Their timing could not have been more perfect!

It worked out that Jacob had no baseball Tuesday night (yay!!) so we were able to celebrate Olivia properly without rushing around.  She requested Mexican for dinner because she wanted some cheese dip and she also wanted to wear the big sombrero while the waiters sang to her.  A girl after my own heart!

We stopped by my FIL’s house on the way home because he had one last little gift for her from one of his friends (that cute little hat she’s wearing in the pictures below!) and then we headed home to let her open her gifts from us. 

She has been begging for Picasso Tiles (or Magna Tiles) since the beginning of the school year because her teacher has them in class.  The look on her little face when she opened them was priceless.  The look on both of the kids’ faces when she opened Frozen 2 was priceless, too.  Just precious!

Just as Olivia was finishing up with her gifts, Brian called us over because he wanted us to see the sunset.  The rain had finally cleared and that made way for a gorgeous sunset… something we haven’t seen in weeks.  This weather has been something else!  Olivia went outside to see it and she said, “I think God made this sunset just for me on my birthday!”  Yes, yes He did, sweet girl. 

After presents we told the kids they could watch some of Frozen 2 if they’d get ready for bed first, so they quickly ran upstairs and showered and they were back downstairs in their PJs in a flash.  They begged to watch the whole movie but it was just too late for a school night, so we settled for watching some of the deleted scenes and one of Olivia’s favorite scenes from the movie – when Elsa sings Show Yourself. 

Wednesday, February 26

Wednesday was Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent.  I attended the kids’ school mass with them at 9:30 and my Mama Cass (my grandmother) and my mom were able to sit with us, too.  The mass was super sweet – school masses are always my favorite because I just love hearing all of those tiny, sweet voices singing and praying to God.  Olivia always sings her little heart out in church and it’s one of my favorite things ever.

The rest of the day was spent doing some work at home and I also spent a lot of the day in quiet time and focusing and preparing my goals for Lent. 

It was rainy/dreary all day yet again, but Jacob did end up having baseball practice anyway.  Olivia and I dropped him off and then we high-tailed it back to the car when Brian arrived because it was freeeezing.  She and I went home, and I got started on dinner while she took her shower.  We ended up having a very late dinner and then we got the kids off to bed as quickly as we could afterward.  Jacob was kind of off all evening and I was worried he was coming down with something, but thankfully he woke up the next morning as good as new.

Thursday, February 27

Thursday was another leg and glute day at the gym and then I spent the rest of the day working at home.  I’m trying to crank out as many blog posts for spring break and summer as I can, so I’ve been working overtime on the blog lately.

Olivia had dance after school and then we all headed home and had breakfast for dinner.  Olivia’s princess dresses that were supposed to have arrived in time for her birthday had finally delivered earlier that day, so we let her open her last gift from us after dinner.  She loved them!

My girls group got together for bible study Thursday night and I was finally able to attend for the first time this month.  There were a couple of new ladies there whom I’d never met, so it was great to connect with some other people who have kids at our school.  We watched a very inspiring video that was perfect to kick off Lent, and then we spent the next hour discussing it and revealing what we were each giving up and working on for Lent.  It’s been such a blessing to have a group of girls to discuss those kinds of things with.

After our study, we all gathered around Jessica’s dining room table with wine and dessert and we spent the rest of the night chatting and painting wine glasses for our next Couple’s Club event for church.  We’re doing a wine and whiskey tasting and each person will have their own wine glass.  We painted the bases and stems of each glass with black chalk paint so each person can write their name on their glass in chalk to make it easier to keep dibs on it all evening.  So fun!  It was such a wonderful evening and I’m just so thankful for this group of ladies! 

Friday, February 28

Friday, B worked from home because they were doing some construction on his floor at his office, and that ended up being a good thing because MY ENGINE LIGHT CAME ON IN MY SUV AGAIN!  Y’all!!!!  What is wrong with that thing?!  Since he didn’t have to go to work, I was able to take the kids to school in his SUV instead which is much newer and much more reliable. 

Friday afternoon Jacob’s third grade class had a Biography Wax Museum presentation at school.  Each of the kids in the third grade class was assigned an important person in history.  They had to write a speech, make a tri-board, and dress up like the character.  All of the parents got to visit and press each of the kids’ buttons (their thumb – haha) and they would then give their speech for us.  It was just the cutest thing! 

Jacob was assigned Alexander Graham Bell and that was a hard one to dress for!  The only pictures we could find of him online all showed him in his older years, and in every picture he was wearing a suit with a tie.  Since we couldn’t find a late 1800’s suit for an eight year old, we just dressed him in his First Communion blazer and tie and we bought him a white beard.  I also bought some white hair spray on Amazon to give him the old man hair and boom, Alexander Graham Bell!  Haha.

When B and I arrived, we went straight to Jacob first and he did a great job of reciting his speech for us.  

We then moved around the room for a while, and I was just making my way back to him to check on him, when I saw that he was white as a sheet.  I ran over to him and he told me his tummy was hurting.  He looked awful like he was going to be sick or pass out, so B took him to the bathroom. 

He never got sick, so we moved him to a bench in the commons area and got his coat and tie off so he could cool off.  After about 20 minutes the color started returning to his face and he stopped sweating.  Once his body started to feel better he was finally able to verbalize that a big group of people had come over to him and that’s when he started feeling bad.  B and I explained to him that he was probably just nervous.  I don’t think he’d ever been nervous before, so he didn’t know what was happening or how to describe it so it probably scared him.  And when he said his tummy “hurt” we think he just had butterflies and he didn’t know what they were.  Bless his heart.  I explained to him that it’s totally normal to get nervous and that it happens to a lot of people and once we discussed it all, he started to feel much better. 

By the time he’d recovered enough to return to the wax museum, everything was wrapping up, so we gathered his things and headed to the car line to grab Olivia.  By the time we were at the front of the car line Jacob had recovered completely and was back to his old, goofy self.  Thank goodness.  He really gave me a scare.

After school, the four of us ran to pick up Olivia’s corsage, and then when we got home Olivia did a little happy dance because she got some mail from her BFF who moved to Florida!  

After snacks, it was time to get ready for the Daddy/Daughter dance.  Olivia requested to have her hair “as curly as yours when you went to that ball.”  So we spent the afternoon getting her dressed and curling her hair.

We took the obligatory pictures, and then once that was done, Jacob and I were off to baseball practice and then to have a little mother/son date while Brian and Olivia were at the dance.

I spent the afternoon chatting with all of the other moms while the boys practiced and it was good getting to know each of them better.  Practice ran about 20 minutes late, so by the time we left it was almost 7:30 and Jacob and I were both starving.  We headed to the Panera nearest the fields and we spent the rest of our evening together eating and talking.  He was lighthearted and happy after practice and he had made a full recovery from his nerves earlier in the day, so that made me happy, too.

By the time we finished dinner the dance was just ending so we headed home to meet up with Brian and Olivia and hear all about their evening.  Brian said they’d had fun and that Olivia danced the night away with her friends and all the girls left their daddies in the dust.  Haha.  Olivia was exhausted and wasn’t up for much chit chat, so we decided to table our conversation until the morning.  Here are the professional pictures from the dance as well as a couple that B took.  The theme was Candy Land so it was nice and colorful!  I’m so sad that Olivia’s eyes are closed in one of the professional ones.

Once the kids were in bed, B and I cracked open a couple of beers (because we survived the crazy week!  Ha!) and we chatted for a bit and then caught up on all of our shows from the week that we’d missed. 

Saturday, February 29

Saturday we had NOTHING GOING ON!!  We spent the day hanging out at home being lazy.  We watched Lego Masters, then Jacob made his own Lego creation while Olivia painted.  I got my planner prepared for the month ahead and spent some time getting organized.  The day was warm-ish and sunny (FINALLY) so the kids played in the back yard most of the afternoon until it was time to get ready for church. 

We went to 5:30 mass and I helped out with Children’s Liturgy again and then we all went out for Mexican with my whole fam – grandmother, parents, bro, aunts, uncles, and cousin.  We hadn’t made a DQ stop in a while so we grabbed some Blizzards on the way home and then B and I spent the rest of the night starting the new Netflix Show Love is Blind.  It’s definitely entertaining.

Sunday, March 1

Sunday morning I got a few things done around the house while the kids watched TV and drew and then we all headed to Five Guys for lunch.  

It was another gorgeous day so we swung by the Botanical Gardens for a little walk and then we took the kids to the playground to soak up a little more outdoor time.  While the kids played, B and I sat on a bench and started coming up with a loose itinerary for our Disney trip.  We already have our fast passes and dinner reservations booked, but we wanted to come up with a plan of which attractions to run to first after rope drop and we also wanted to list all other attractions we’d like to attempt to see.  Animal Kingdom was first on the list and we got it completely planned out and ready to go.  And, of course, we’re going in knowing that our plan likely won’t work out 100% and we’re okay with that. 

We dropped some donations at Goodwill on the way home.  I spent the first couple of months of this year cleaning out the house as I always do, and I ended up donating three big trash bags full of toys and stuff, two trash bags full of clothes and shoes, and getting rid of one trash bag full of trash, along with two trash bags full of recycling. 

The rest of the afternoon was spent planning Epcot and playing video games.  I also had a chance to give Maui a bath, which was much needed, and then we all headed to my parents’ house for Sunday dinner.  

Momma made one of my very favorites – white chicken chili – and we had a relaxing evening with the fam before getting back home and getting off to bed early.  We love our lazy Sundays!