May and Mother's Day

 Look! Our first trip in our new RV!  Lily was thrilled to be back in action.

She really is a great kitty to bring along.  She mostly just chills out on the ride.

So happy to be going camping!

For our first trip, we went to Wanderlust in Eureka Springs.  We had great weather, a beautiful spot, and Aunt Coco joined us for our first night!

This RV has a great back patio that we all love to use.

Lily and Syd checking out Aunt Coco's tent.  Sorry girls, those days are behind us.  You can try that in college.

One of my favorite pics of Millie.

Watching from the front.

Watching from the back.

Waiting for the trolley to take us into Eureka for lunch.  Don't they look so grown up here?!

Cute pic of these two.  Millie is so good at showing how happy she is to see people.  She loves when family and friends come to visit! (Sidenote: Millie and Syd have discovered how delicious guacamole is, and it makes me so happy!)

I can't wait to introduce them to margaritas some day ;)

Always fun things to see in Eureka Springs

Syd had some money burning a hole in her pocket, so we now have three more stuffed animals to add to the 250 already in her bedroom.

Chilling back at camp

While in Eureka, Millie visited a candy store and we picked up some atomic fireballs for a little family challenge.  Dang those things are hot, but I didn't spit it out!  

Hard to see, but Millie is adorable here on the back patio talking to Syd on the walkie talkies.

playing a little catch at dusk

Ending the night with s'mores.  It's good to be back.  It was the perfect first trip of the season.

The kittens continue to grow and get cuter every day!  We try to stop by and see them as much as possible.

Our second trip of the season was back to our home away from home.   Our favorite!

A new spot to ride

Dinner on the veranda

It's Mother's Day weekend!  Millie brought me these flowers from school.  We actually had to interrupt her science project with them tho because we made her miss school on Friday.  The kids were in the process of turning the flowers blue, but since Millie's didn't get the full treatment, these only had a few blue spots.  They actually looked really cool that way.

Morning downtime

As it turned out, a huge group of people from our old neighborhood were camping there the same weekend.  So we got to hang with the McClungs and do a hike!

Marlowe, Syd, and Millie

Don't forget our fave pups: Ginger and Charlie!

I love this trail but I cannot tell my mind to calm down when we get to the top.  If the girls get within 5 feet of the edge, I'm making them get back.  I really go to worst-case-scenario brain in that situation.

And look who joined us for a night!  Nana.  My mom.  Happy Mother's Day weekend!

Syd is very patient with Lily's nibbling

JKK up early to start our breakfast fire

I believe hammocks are Millie's happy place 

The master chef: Nana

BACON.

A little hike with Nana and Sydney - I love the spring at Devil's Den, everything is so green and pretty.

thankful for her

It was too cold to swim this early in the season, but that didn't stop Mills from trying.

big stretchums

Yard Yahtzee!

Ms. Traci makes me laugh.  We had the adults down to our fire on the last night, and it was so fun to drink wine and hang out in the woods!  We actually made the mistake the first night of trying to hang out at their fire after the girls went to bed (which was many sites down from ours), but Millie was not into us leaving her there and came to find us.  All by herself, walking in the dark.  EEEK!  Sorry to scare ya Mills.  

We packed up the RV on Sunday (Mother's Day) morning and headed back to civilization.  Miss Millie asked JKK over a week ago to make dinner reservations at this fun restaurant called The Hive.  I was floored and so thankful to hear she had planned ahead - very thoughtful.  It's kind of a tough thing to teach - how each person in our family needs to be celebrated for all that they do.  But if we don't teach them, then who will?  So although it feels awkward, it also feels important to remind them to show me some love that day.  Moms do so much and at this age of kids, we don't see a lot of gratitude.  So it meant a lot to feel their love and to be the focus that day.

JKK made me feel loved too, even though I'm not his mom <3

This restaurant brings green apple cotton candy at the end of the meal.  Looks like we have a new fave place to eat!

We also swung by Nana's house that day to show her some Mother's Day love.  And Willow and her kittens, of course!

I'm so glad I became a mom.

Syd is good at planning ahead too.  She made me this card all on her own the week before Mother's Day.  And she made some special presents at her art class: a painted pot for a little plant and a Christmas ornament.  She loves making others feel special and giving thoughtful gifts!  It's something I really appreciate about her.

Syd's 2nd grade class picture.  I wish I could properly convey how Syd gets in the car every day telling me little tidbits about her classmates or her day.  Things like "Liam is getting braces tomorrow" or "Olivia brought a soda in her lunch today" or "Madden isn't a good listener" or "Mrs. Lamp loves sloths" or "Ms. Le made us all put our heads down because we shouldn't have been talking".  She loves sharing her thoughts and observations.  She loves her teacher sooooo much this year and gets lots of hugs from her (Mrs. Lamp said especially on Mondays).  

Millie's 4th grade class picture.  Millie's teacher really gets Millie and appreciates her social butterfly-ness.  Which makes me love her so much for getting our girl.  Millie just loves to hang with her friends.  She just does. Academics will never be her jam, but she's definitely stepped it up this year and put in a lot of hard work!

Millie's teacher had a special request before their big ACT testing in May.  She asked that four sealed letters be sent so that the kids could open a special encouraging letter the morning of each test day.  I love the idea!  Me, JKK, & Nana all wrote letters to Millie.  The fourth day was just a fun card from all of us.  Millie loved it!  She came home each day saying she loved the letter of the day.  I hope she knows how much we all love her and how proud we are of her!  Did you know that her teacher said she is one of the BEST SPELLERS in all of fourth grade??  Incredible.

Yoga break in class!

Millie's GLOW contemporary dance group had a performance recently.  They partnered with an artist who made this huge painting (seen below) and the girls did a BEAUTIFUL dance.  Millie works so hard in dance, I love it.  It's rare to see her care about something so much. ;)

our dancer

Nana came to watch!  Doesn't Millie look pretty in lipstick??  Unfortunately, it was packed and our seats weren't good, but we will get to see this dance better at the end of year recital.  I'm trying hard not to care about chaos and poorly planned events.  I know it affects others when I get grumpy.  I promise I'm trying harder to recognize that about myself.  I can wing a hard enneagram 1 sometimes.  Jesus, take the wheel.

Ewww. Stop.

This makes me laugh so much.  Millie doesn't even look like Millie ;)

More beautiful art from Syd and her art lessons: rainbow chameleons.  This is actually the last of it, we are taking a break for summer.  But we might pick it up again in the fall, she really loved it!