Guess Who Got a Winter Break!

I’m a little sad tonight because tomorrow we’re taking Amelia back to her mom and dad.  We’ve had her with us since last Saturday and it has been such a good week that I hate to see it end.  We met Amy in Eufaula to pick her up and eat lunch together.  The trip back was entertaining.  (There was singing involved.)  We stopped in Marianna for a frozen yogurt.  Amelia put so many candy toppings on hers that I think she had a hard time finding the frozen yogurt underneath.

Yummy!

When we arrived home, she walked around the yard admiring our “beautiful flower garden” (scraggly azaleas), visited Archie’s grave where she knelt and brushed the pine straw off the top and said, “He was a really good dog, wasn’t he?”  Paw-Paw had put her tree swing back up and she tried it out.  Then we went inside where she proceeded to paint the sun-catchers I had bought for her to paint when she needed an inside activity.  Then she made corn muffins for supper.  I had made some brownies for her.  She wanted to cut them into squares and used that as an opportunity to give us a math lesson.  We learned about an “array” and how to figure area and perimeter.

Painting

Mom's Old Keyboard

Biking with Paw-Paw

Sunday morning after Paw-Paw brought her hot chocolate to her in bed and I fixed pancakes and bacon for breakfast, we went to church where she was so sweet and politely conversed with everyone she met.  When the pastor did the children’s message, she quickly answered his questions.  The afternoon was filled with bike riding and swinging.

Calling a lizard, trying to get him to jump
onto the paper towel

Monday after sleeping late and hot chocolate in bed and pancakes and bacon, we went to the local dollar store to purchase some “decorations” and refreshments for the tea party that was planned for her cousins that afternoon.  She was so happy to see her Aunt Ashley, Madison and Avery that she jumped up and down when they arrived.  She decorated the table with violets she had picked in the front yard and a pink lantern with a candle in it.  We had little round pb&j sandwiches, round slices of cheese on Ritz crackers, and mini Oreos and Fudge Stripes cookies.  The “tea” was pink lemonade.  The girls had a good time serving each other.  Avery wanted to know who made the cheese and crackers because they were very good.  (I’m selling the recipe!)  The girls had a good time playing together.

Party Time

Tuesday after sleeping late and hot chocolate in bed and pancakes and bacon, Amelia and I had a “girl’s day” and went to town for a pedicure and a movie.  Amelia thoroughly enjoyed the pedicure.  She kept the massager going on her chair the whole time and did a lot of laughing when she got her feet scrubbed.  She wanted her toes painted red with black dots like ladybugs and they did that for her.  Having no time for lunch we went on to the movie theater to see the “Lego Batman Movie”.  Our lunch was plenty of popcorn with lots of butter and lemonade.  When we came out of the theater it was raining and we stopped by Starbucks for a hot drink and headed home.  We were about halfway when Amelia announced that she had to go to the bathroom and we realized that we had left her shoes at the nail salon.  (We had picked up a pair of flip flops at Target earlier.)  We turned around and headed back to the nail salon which was all the way back into town stopping for a potty break at the corner CVS.  We finally made it home just as it was getting dark.  Somewhere along the way I realized that I had lost my umbrella.  Oh well, it’s not the first and I’m sure it won’t be the last.

Happy Girl

Pampered Girls

Lady Bug Toes

Wednesday after sleeping late and hot chocolate in bed and pancakes and bacon, Amelia worked on sewing a pair of pajama pants on my new sewing machine.  I spent some time making a meat loaf and baking a pound cake to take to the church supper.  When the sun came out, Amelia and Paw-Paw had time to ride bicycles and swing.  Then she made corn muffins for the supper and they were consumed down to the last crumb.  After the supper we dropped her off at the ball field to have some time with Darryl’s family.

Corn muffins for church

Follow the directions!

Thursday after sleeping late and hot chocolate in bed and pancakes and bacon, we sewed again.  Amelia wanted a “fairy” headband that was pictured in a book that she brought with her.  Of course, I didn’t have anything to work with except the ribbon. The instructions called for attaching the flowers to a cord with sticky floral tape – I didn’t have any.  I headed to the local dollar store where I found some suitable flowers but no sticky floral tape so I improvised by using band aids.  (I hope we don’t have any cut fingers before I have a chance to replace the band aids.   Then we had another tea party just Amelia, Paw-Paw and me.  Amelia wore her fairy headband.  She prepared what she called a “peanut butter sundae” which was a round mound of peanut butter surrounded by Ritz crackers.  We h  ad cookies and little rounds of pound cake.  Amelia was presiding at the head of the table when she reached over and took Bubba’s hand and mine and said, “I just love you guys!”

Fairy Headband

Family Party

Sweet Paw-Paw

Pretty Girl

So good in a teacup

One of many bike rides

Friday after sleeping late and hot chocolate in bed and pancakes and bacon, we lazed around watching tv and I washed clothes.  That afternoon Aunt Ashley picked up Amelia and she went to two scheduled ball games with Ashley, Madison and Avery.  Ashley brought her home around 8:00 and I have never seen such a filthy child in all my life.  Her tennis shoes looked like they had been soaking in muddy water all afternoon.  The knees of her jeans were black with dirt and her shirt was stained, but she was one happy little girl.  She had a great time apparently playing horsey with other kids in the mud among other things.  She required a good hair washing and a scrubbing.  When I was helping her dry off, she raised her arms and she had a ring of dirt under them that we had missed.  I can promise you that her mother was never one for getting dirty so this was a new experience for me.

Saturday we hit the road early and stopped at a McDonalds for breakfast where Amelia ate three pancakes and half a biscuit.  Thirty minutes later we stopped at a Dunkin’ Donuts where we got dessert. We made it to Atlanta in about the same amount of time we usually do although we had stopped five times along the way.  Needless to say Amelia was excited to see her mom and dad (and Billly) and they were overjoyed to have her home.

Bubba and I came home on Sunday which was a little hard to go and come like that but on the upside, we didn’t have to pack very much to spend the night.  Coming home was a little sad.  There were little reminders of Amelia everywhere.  We sure had a great week with her and appreciate the opportunities we have to be with her.  And I will be going back soon to see her drama club play and attend the Arts Night at her school.

If I were more talented, I would put the pictures below in a slideshow format with Willie Nelson as background music singing, "Turn out the lights. The party's over. They say that all good things must end."  Use your imagination!