A Papa Project...

Sometimes there are things I find on the internet-mainly Pinterest-that I think...Wow!  I would love to have that.  Wonder if I could make it.  Sometimes I do, sometimes the idea just sits in my Pinterest board forever and I think...I will get to it sometime.  

Sometimes I think, "daddy could make that for me"(hubby doesn't like handyman projects) and I send it to my mom in an e-mail with a note saying, "Tell daddy I want this."  Ha!  Hubby has never claimed to be a carpenter or handyman! Sometimes I get it.  BUT...if ever I find a project for Darbee Rae and call on my dad (Papa) he's sure to follow thru.  

So....when surfing thru Pinterest the other day, I came across the coolest sprinkler and knew Darbee Rae would have a blast with it!  I had to make it.  I thought I could do it but wanted Papa around to be sure.

So today, we decided to grill out and Papa made her sprinkler.

We started out with this...a pile of PVC pipe and some fittings.  

You should have seen me in Lowe's this morning trying to find the right fittings...it was funny!

Of course, he had a great helper!

It's almost done!

Drilling the holes for the water...

Tada!!

It's a kid/bike wash!  How fun.

I would have LOVED this as a kid.

She doesn't really like the water in her eyes, but she had fun with it.

We are having a play date tomorrow afternoon and I'm sure the girls will enjoy it!

Day two of swimming lessons didn't go as good as yesterday.  She is not a fan of putting her head under the water at all.  

She was a bundle of nerves this morning.

Oh-well.  There's always tomorrow...and next year.Ha!  

I hope all of you have had a great day!

Until next time....

Let's Go For A Swim

Hello friends.  I hope all of you have had a great day and did something that made you smile.  Did I?  Sure.  But...I also did something that made me want to cry.

I dropped a very nervous and scared little girl off at her first swimming lesson this morning.  My SIL is teaching her, so that was comforting knowing she was with someone she knew and trusted, but still.  It's my baby.

It broke my heart.  It was one of those mommy moments when I knew it was for her own good.  She needs to learn how to swim and really wants to.  However, she was so nervous and scared and excited all in one. 

Here she is just before I left her looking all brave.  

It was another rainy morning here, but she was able to get her lesson in.  I know the water had to be FREEZING though.  It was only 70 degrees on my car thermometer when I dropped her off!  

We had talked about her learning to go under the water and learning to kick and swim.  I tried to talk it up to her but a part of me wanted to just sit in my car and cry when I left her.

The lessons are only 30 minutes, so I was back quick to get her.  When I walked in the pool area, she was not crying which was a good sign.  Kate took her out to where she couldn't touch and said, "Show mommy the big girl stuff," and ducked her right under the water!  She did GREAT!  

Here she is right after she came up!  Yay!

Aunt Kate helped her get back to the end where she could touch and wipe her eyes.  She was such a big girl.  Aunt Kate said she did great!

She was shaking like a leaf when she got out.  I'm not sure if it was nerves or being cold or a little of both.  I know she was relieved it was over.  

We have talked about tomorrow and she wants to go back.  That's a good sign!

The weather is supposed to be warmer tomorrow and hopefully we will see the sun!

Until next time....

Surprise!!

Wow!  What a day.  Good evening friends.  I am tired!
We have been gone since 11 a.m. this morning and it is not 9:30 p.m. and we haven't been home very long!  Whew!  What a fun day it has been. I will go ahead and warn you this post is very picture heavy.  We made lots of memories today! :)
Hubby took a day off and asked me if I wanted to check on getting tickets to take Darbee Rae to Lego Land.  It just opened in Atlanta about a month ago.  Yay!  I was just like a kid.  I was so excited. Swim lessons were cancelled this morning due to storms, so we had a little extra time.

We decided to surprise her and not tell her until we were almost there.  She has known we were going on a surprise day trip since Friday, but had no clue where we were going.  She was thrilled.
We were less than 5 minutes away before we told her.  I got it on video.  It was priceless.

I apologize in advance..it is sideways.  It was that way on my phone and I couldn't figure out how to rotate it.  I couldn't figure out how on You Tube either.  Ugh! Anyway..you get the point.  It was so cute.


We got there and were ready to head inside!

Our first stop was the Lego factory.  There we learned how Lego bricks were made.

The kids got to participate in helping "make a brick."

Then you could see how much you weighed in Lego bricks...

Darbee weighed 17,000 lego bricks!  Wow!

Mommy didn't bother stepping on the scale...Ha!

You could also see how many Lego bricks tall you were.

It was really neat! 

Next was Mini Land.  It was the city of Atlanta in mini Legos.  It was awesome to see.

I just wonder how long it took to build everything.  Wow.

The Atlanta Capital building.

A rock stage.

The exhibits were interactive too!  This one turned on the band and the lights on stage.

It also turned from day to night inside this room and a fireworks show displayed on the wall.  It was so neat!  

You can see in the picture above, the lights turned on inside the buildings at "night" too!

I couldn't believe the detail!

The CNN center had closed circuit cameras on it that you could control with the buttons.  It was so neat!

The famous Varsity restaurant.

There was even an Atlanta Falcons game!  Wow...now that's neat!

Look at all the Lego people and how each one is different!

There was an Atlanta Braves game going on too!

After spending some time in Mini Land, we headed out to the first ride.  It was a laser shooting ride where you helped to save the princess.  No photos were allowed there, so I couldn't get a pic. of it.  It was fun though.  

Once inside, there was so much to do! Our first stop was the build a car area.  You build a car and then race it down the tracks.  

I don't claim to be a Lego pro, but I worked to make her a mini car so she could race it.  She was proud of it...that's all that matters right? Smile...

Hehe...

We headed over to the race track to test it out.

It zoomed down the track and didn't fall apart!  Wahoo!

I decided to get a little more creative and try to make a little better one. We got to work and came up with another one.

This one even had headlights and sat three people!  Hehe..

We raced it too and it rolled great! What a fun area.

The Lego Friends area was a big hit too!  

Darbee has a mini set of these Legos but I see more in the future!

They are so girly.

This was the girly girl area and lots of fun.

Next, we headed over to the movie theatre for the fun 4-D movies.  We watched two movies and they were so fun!  It rained on us, snowed on us and the wind blew too!

Darbee loved the glasses.

Anywhere you had to wait in line, there were Lego pits where kids could play while they waited.  What a neat idea!

After watching two movies, we headed out to the Merlin Adventure ride.

I rode first with Darbee Rae...

Then she decided daddy needed a turn.

They rode again!

Next was the earthquake table.  This was my favorite. 

You used legos to build anything...preferably a tower and then tested it to see if it would withstand an earthquake.  

Here's what we built.

Here's the earthquake!

It survived!  Yay!!!

The kid play area was our last stop and Darbee Rae was pretty tired by then.

She played a little bit, but decided it was too crowded and was ready to go.

We headed out to the gift shop and made a souvenier penny.  

We brought home a few legos and a lot of memories.  

It was a ton of fun!

We had lunch, stopped in Trader Joe's and Ikea and headed home.

Whew...Darbee Rae napped on the way home and is going strong but I am ready for bed!  

What a fun day.

A dream come true...almost

When hubby and I first started talking about having a baby, I always talked about a baby girl.  I never gave much thought to having a boy.  My grandmother was an only child-a girl...my mother was an only child-a girl....I am an only child-a girl....I couldn't break the trend could I?   I sure hoped not.  

After I found out I was pregnant, something told me it was a boy.  I think I was trying to convince myself so if I really did have a boy, I wouldn't be so disappointed.  I remember they day of my ultrasound like it was yesterday.  We went in and her legs were crossed and pulled up to her chest.  Stubborn already.  After almost 30 min. of doing everything under the sun to get her to move and turn around, she finally flipped and revealed she was a girl!  

Tears of joy flowed down my cheeks.  I was going to have my little girl...my best friend in the making.  I couldn't have been happier.  The next thing I envisioned was a little red headed freckle faced snaggle toothed little girl running around.  

Several months before she was born, my mom called to tell me of a dream my daddy had.  He told her that he had a dream about the baby and she was going to have dark hair.  He told of how he dreamed that he was sitting on the altar of our church beside a beautiful little dark haired girl holding the microphone for her while she sang "Jesus Hold My Hand" with him.  I've never forgot that..

Just recently, his dream has almost come true.  She has a new found love of singing with our church choir and where does she go?

Right beside Papa.  He stands her on the baptismal so she is as tall as everyone else.  Although she doesn't know all of every song, she sings her little heart out.  It is precious.

We will work on learning "Jesus Hold My Hand" and truly make his dream come true one day, but I am sure this makes him pretty happy.  Smile.

She is still so small in my eyes but has such a love for Jesus already that warms my heart.  

I love our conversations about Jesus and the Lord.  She amazes me sometimes and leaves me with my mouth open sometimes too.  

I hope all of you have had a great weekend.  

It is supposed to be a stormy evening with storms tomorrow too. Ugh...

Darbee is supposed to start her swim lessons tomorrow, so we will wait on the weather and see.  

Then, we are surprising her and taking her somewhere extra fun...I can't wait!

Until next time....

What? Did I miss something?

Oh my...dear friends I discovered something today that made me sad.  I have missed several holidays and I can't believe how far behind I am.  I have missed July 4th.  I have missed Labor Day.  I have missed Halloween and even Thanksgiving!  Do you know what?  I am behind on my shopping because according to Hobby Lobby....

IT'S ALMOST CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!

Darbee and I were walking thru Hobby Lobby today minding our own business and I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this...

Oh yea...there were several aisles of it!  Gah!  How crazy!  Not yet....let me enjoy my summer first please...I mean...I could let it pass if it were pumpkins or fall leaves but CHRISTMAS???  Wow....

Anyway...got a good chuckle and just had to share with you all.  

Might as well leave it out all year!

Today was the last day of cheer camp for Darbee Rae.  She was totally excited this morning because the parents got to come and watch them perform.

She was excited about her new outfit, so of course we had to take a picture.

All I have heard all week is about the bows the big girls wear in their hair.  Darbee loved them.  So...I surprised her yesterday and took her in Michael's and let her pick out some paint and ribbon.  We came home and this mama got busy and made one.  Yes...I had one happy little girl.

Here's the final product.  It matched her shirt perfectly today.

Nana came and she and I went to watch them perform.  It was the cutest thing ever.

I was so happy to see her laughing and having such a good time.  They had changed all of their shirts and put them in matching cheer camp shirts.  They had also put matching bows in all of their hair!  It was so cute.  

They were waiting for their turn to perform and watching the "big girls."

They called them up by grade level, so pre-k got to go first!

I love it...all of their shirts were bigger than they were!  Smile...

They looked so tiny out there!

"Go go go...go blue!"  

They did a quick dance/cheer routine to music to.  It was adorable.

Yes...I got it all on video too!

Darbee said this was her "favorite big girl."

She had to show off her shirt.  

Love them...

And her official "big girl bow."

She even got a cougar backpack!

It was so cute.  I am so proud of her.  She was such a big girl and she has already told me she can't wait to go back next year!  Yay!

We went out to lunch with Nana afterward and did a little shopping.  A good day...

Until next time...