A Few Firsts

This girl is a trooper.

She and I enjoyed a few firsts together this past Sunday.

*  First Merlefest 

*  First Avett Brothers concert

*  GoGo's first real concert.

Good Stuff.

It rained to beat the band.  

I mean a steady, hard rain.  Temps in the very low 50's.  In the mountains of NC.

Mud galore.  Bog boots, ponchos and layers of clothing.

I know in my heart of hearts that D would never have survived.  Not many would, however.

But the people who did were definitely my kind of people.

Nobody cared how cute their outfit was or the escalating frizz factor of their hair.

There was no alcohol (except for the older gentleman next to us) and no tobacco.  

The buzz was from the music only.  

Real music too-with actual instruments!  That people shredded on!

I was in heaven.  We scored kickass seats that we never had to vacate, thankfully.  Our ponchos kept our behinds fairly dry and GoGo held her new polkadot umbrella.  Alright, then.

GoGo was good for about the first hour and half.  She took videos and danced around a bit in our soggy seats.  Then she was done.  

But guess what?  The whole reason we drove 2 hours in the rain hadn't even taken the stage yet.  

The Avett Brothers.

And so began a 2 hour game of "What Will You Give Me If I Sit Here Another 30 Minutes?"  

And guess who won that?  GoGo = 1.  Mom = 0.

In the end, 2 bags of candy from the gas station were enough to keep her there.

I'm sure the people around us were wondering what kind of mother I was, making my young child stand in chilly, pouring rain to watch a band she had clearly lost interest in.  

As she begged me to leave and as I kept saying, "Just One More Song!"

We started walking back to the car just as they started their encore.

I was a bit bummed about missing one of my fave songs when GoGo grabbed my hand and smiling, said "That was fun, Mom!"

And it was.

Love this girl!!!

Slumber Party

So at 8am on a Sunday morning, who wouldn't want to roller blade, bike and screech through the yard?  I know my 3 would.

This one is getting pretty good on her bike-she apparently can ride and kick her leg at the same time.

Hence, this one yelling for me…"MOM!  D needs you!  N just kicked him in the NUTS!"  And I seriously hope all of my neighbors had enjoyed at least 1 cup of coffee before hearing this.

This one and her recent fascination with all animals - stuffed.  

Her newest pal is Raspberry and they do "evrefing togedder!"

This photo reminds me of John Lennon and Yoko when they were married at Gibraltar in their white suits.  White long johns are not quite the same but they'll do in a pinch.

This guy just started roller blading like, yesterday.  He isn't quite as agile as GoGo but he'll get there.

Something he is quite good at - stilts.  Yes, of the circus variety.  I do not know what possessed his father to order them but he did and they are a big hit with both D and every neighborhood child who comes this way.

Thank God the strawberry plant shows signs of life.  

D thought he killed it, like Charlie Brown did the tree.

This picture just cracks me up.  She looks like she just let a SBD fly and he looks like he is being forced to smell it during Church.

In reality, they were enjoying a fun day at the zoo with oodles of friends.

Yesterday I took GoGo to pick out her First Holy Communion dress.

It gave me a good idea of what prom dress shopping will be like.

We settled on a really beautiful dress complete with a bolero.  Jeez.

At her retreat on Saturday, she seemed a bit scared of going up to the Altar.  

A little bit of fear in this child is not a bad thing.

The finish line is in sight-about 7 weeks left of school.  Thank God.

If we can just keep up with all the end of year events, checks to write, things to donate and tests to take between now and June 7th.  

My kids are super psyched I'm letting them skip the last day of school to take a trip to Texas instead.  How often do you get to visit your best friend in another state AND mommy gets to see Mumford and Sons?  Yep.  Well worth missing cleaning out desks and packing up pencils.

My Wee One

My youngest is…

a singer, sweet, hilarious, stubborn, smart, active, incredibly cute, expressive.  My baby.

She loves to be outside.  She loves to do what her big bro and sister do.

She is a clown.  Big Time.

She cracks the rest of us up.

And her lisp.  Please don't get me started.

Becuthz sthe is sthooo pweshush!  

And yes, I probably should look into speech therapy.  But hey, she's only 3.

Have you met Sammy?  The pink horse on the chair, enjoying peanuts with my little friend?

He used to live in her preschool classroom and take turns going home with her classmates.

But it seems Squeezalicious had a serious thing for this horse.  In fact, I spent a rather insane amount of time and money, attempting to find a Sammy to keep at our house forever.

Well.  Just last week Sammy was "retired" and Blueberry the Bear has taken over.

Guess where Sammy's forever home is?  Right here with Squeezalicous.  

Somebody couldn't be happier.

Did I mention she was adorable?  I could seriously eat her up.

She is growing up so quickly.  Plus, she is off the charts tall so she looks older than she really is.

But she'll always be my baby.

And for that, I am so very thankful.