It’s Callaway Time Again!

This was the back of my mother’s van last Saturday morning. Five of the seven grandchildren on their way to Callaway Gardens in middle Georgia.

Last year, they took four grandchildren. Next year, all seven will be “eligible” to go. (You have to be fully potty trained and willing to be away from mommy and daddy for a week.)

I love to hear the stories when The Princess (she’s the one on the right) returns. She has SO MUCH FUN on this trip each year. She gets lots of great time with Grandma and Gramps, but even more importantly she gets time with her cousins. She LOVES her cousins….loves them. I think she appreciates and enjoys them more because she’s an only child. This is one of the few times of year that she gets to be rowdy and crazy with kids all day long.

Cousin time at Callaway Gardens…it’s a FINER THING!

Linked to Finer Things Friday.

Finer Things Friday: Moving In

The purchase of our new home was finalized on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the Princess and I moved the majority of the kitchen – just to go ahead and get it over there. I took two pictures of the event – both with my phone – both not amazing. Both bring tears to my eyes. They are seriously “finer things.”

Look closely and you will see the finer things.

1. All those bags – the Princess carried them ALL in herself.
2. All those baskets – the Princess carried them ALL in herself.
3. The box she’s unpacking – my spices. She unpacked, organized and put them all away.

Look closely and you will see the finer things.

1. The Princess unpacked ALL the bags and put things on the shelve.
2. She made groupings of things that “went together”

The Princess was SO MUCH HELP on Wednesday. Seriously! She blew me away. It was definitely a finer thing…

Linked to Finer Things Friday.

Surprise: The Reaction

WOW! We had some serious traffic on the blog yesterday! Everybody wanted to see how we were telling the Princess we were going to Disney World for the Social Media Moms Celebration.

If you missed it, we made a video telling the Princess SURPRISE and explaining what was going on. She was ABSOLUTELY surprised.

When I picked her up at school, she was complaining that she didn’t feel good. Her tummy hurt. She felt achy. I was seriously trying not to panic. We’ve had a rough winter, and it seems she’s only well for like three weeks at a time. We’re nearing the end of the three weeks.

I ushered her out to the car where she was surprised to see Daddy. We were supposedly heading to the dentist (at 1:30 in the afternoon) and Daddy doesn’t usually go with us. We sat her in the car and gave her my laptop on which to watch the video we had made. Daddy recorded her and I took still shots. This is the (unedited) reaction:

Now, those of you that don’t know my child might think that’s not much of a reaction. Those of you that do will know that the grinning from ear to ear and eyes shifting back and forth is pure joy and excitement while her brain tries to adjust her entire week’s schedule to the fact that we are going out of town. (She gets that from her mama.) She was THRILLED. She was EXCITED. She was SURPRISED.

After the being overwhelmed wore off, she started to get really excited and by the time we hit the FL state line was giddy. Interestingly, she’s been much more appreciative this trip than any other one. She’s been here at least nine times – always in the fall. It seems that changing it up has made her realize it truly is a gift and blessing to be able to come.

And it is SUCH a blessing to be at Disney for this conference. I can’t wait to see what they have in store for us! I’ve got some posts lined up as I don’t know how much time I’ll have to actually blog while I’m here. I’ll be sure to take lots of pictures and share them with you when I can! If you twitter, be sure to follow me (kathill).

Things I Love Thursday: Girl Cousins

I’ve talked about the girl cousins before… last year as a matter of fact, but I just can’t help sharing a few more pictures.

This relationship continues to amaze me. I don’t have a girl cousin. (Well, not one that I’m close with at all.) I don’t have a sister. I have a step-sister and a half-sister, but we never lived together or even in the same city. So this relationship between the Princess and E fascinates me. It fills my heart so much it wants to burst at times. I LOVE to watch it unfold. I KNOW it is a relationship that will last a lifetime. It is a relationship that will get them through many trials together. It is something I truly LOVE!

Linked to Things I Love Thursday.