Girls' Weekend

One thing I pray about at night, is that my children stay close to each other as they grow older, and they stay close to Brent and me as well. I know our years are coming when they won't want to have anything to do with us, but I pray that after that phase they will want to be with us again. One thing Brent and I are doing to try and encourage "closeness" with us is having a Girls' and Boys' weekend every year. We hope to continue this even during those teenage years when we are really uncool. We feel that by doing this, we could strengthen the bond between Father & Son and Mother& Daughter. Maybe I'm way off, but at least we will make some great memories in the meantime.

This year, the twins were finally old enough to seperate them for the first time. Brent took Luke up to Alabama and Georgia for the weekend to see an Alabama baseball game, spring football game and a Braves game in Atlanta. It was all about sports. I gave Brent my little camera and told him to take a TON of pictures. when he has a few minutes, he's going to blog about their trip. But for now, here's how our Girls' weekend went!

Late on Friday morning, we said our goodbyes and waved from the porch as Brent and Luke sped off to the airport.


Ashley and I came back inside and I asked her what she wanted to do, and no surprise, she picked coloring.... Go figure. If I let her pick, she'd just sit there for hours and color. We did that for a while, but I had other plans for the weekend up my sleeve. I told her to pick anywhere she wanted to go for lunch, because we were going out! Of course she picks McDonalds. So off we went to jumpstart our weekend! Sitting there at McDonalds was hilarious. She just talked and talked, about everything, and we both laughed a lot. It was so fun to have that one on one conversation about nothing.


We then came home, threw on our bathing suits and walked out to the sandbar.

Ashley invited her friend Emily over to join us. This was special for Ashley, because she never gets to have one on one time with her friends. They were so cute, just having fun, playing hopscotch and giggling.

Later that evening, we had a wine and cheese party. That is what girls like, right? Wine and Cheese! No, that is not wine in her glass, it's grape juice. She felt so special drinking out of a wine glass, that for the rest of the weekend, she requested it for everything, from milk to water. I have created a monster!

Saturday was our full-blown girls' girly day. We invited my sister and nieces to join us at a children's spa for hair, nails, and makeup. When I say, these girls were pampered, I mean THESE GIRLS WERE PAMPERED!! They all loved every second and had permanent smiles on their faces.

Now what would a girls weekend be without a tea party at a tea room? This was both really sweet and really scary at the same time. Scary in that EVERYTHING in that tea room was fragile and of course there was an extra long table cloth on our table that was almost yanked off many times. But the girls loved it. They each got their own tea pot with their lunch. We got many comments on how cute they were. We tried to teach them how to hold their pinkies up.

That evening our town had a little festival, that we went to. It would have been great, but I had to take Luke's place and do this.....

I only did it once, and Ashley kept going. Thank goodness she's independant, that slide hurt!

We ran into some good friends and got to hang out with them for awhile. Ashley and Aria loved the Water Tunnel.div>

This is is when I really started noticing Luke being gone. My heart stopped a couple times when I naturally went to look for him and he wasn't there. This is something that a mom of multiples would understand. I've always had 2 kids in my periferal vision at all times, and to only have 1 made me feel a little lopsided. I felt a little off, uncomfortable. I didn't like it one bit. I think Ashley started feeling it too. She started missing Luke at the festival, asking when he was coming home and telling me that she missed him. I missed him too.

Ashley slept with me that night.

The next morning we slept in and lounged around. We went to Harry and the Natives for Brunch. (Basically, we did a lot of eating over the weekend....)

We decided to go see the movie "Hop" since it was kind of rainy out. Right outside the theatre there was a photo booth. Of course we had to get in. I will forever cherish these special pictures. After all, there are not many pictures of me with the kids. I guess that's the price you pay when you're the photographer in the family.

And I will forever cherish our weekend together. I was happy to see Luke when he got home that afternoon, as was Ashley.

We all had a great time, but I am glad that my family is back together again.

I am thankful for these special moments that I get to have with my daughter. I just love her so much and hope that she will always know that. I am so very thankful to have her in my life. I love you baby girl!