Daddy's Girls

There are plenty of words to describe life over the last year but busy definitely isn’t one of them. But this week was different. I’ve got 3 new clients plus of course there is school. Then, on Wednesday we met Yaya at Ellis Pottery to get plants for our front flower beds. I had full intentions of helping Matt plant them but he did it all for me that evening while I cleaned to get ready for Pops and Honey to come. Janet’s aunt passed away and the funeral was in Tyler on Friday so they spent Thursday and Friday here so they could go. The girls had their 2nd riding lesson Thursday evening and they were here when we got back. I hate the reason they were coming but it was a nice, unexpected visit.  It was so great to be able to have a few evenings with them being normal. And I hugged them for only the 2nd time in a year too! They left about 8 o’clock this morning and I had to show a house at 9:00. And then at 11:00 I had a bunch of the girls friends over for a big play date. We have be...

Lilli’s birthday was almost 2 months ago and I totally forgot to do her birthday interview until now. 🤦‍♀️ Better late than never! Well here we go forward the record... What is your favorite color? Green What is your favorite toy? Stuffed animals  What is your favorite fruit? Pineapple  What is your favorite show?Mandolorian  What is your favorite lunch? Lean cuisine pizza What is your favorite outfit? My green sweatshirt and black shorts What is your favorite game? Roblox:dragon adventures What is your favorite snack? Cheetos or raspberry’s  What is your favorite song? Undivided What is your favorite animal? Giraffe What is your favorite book? Wings of fire and Percy Jackson I can’t pick Who is your best friend? Austin or Lily  What is your favorite cereal? Captain crunch What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play Among us with my friends in real life What is your favorite drink? Dr. Pepper What is your favorite holiday? Thanksgiving  What is your fa...

Matt and the girls have had a multi-day project getting fruit trees planted in the yard. He has had this planned in his mind for years and I’m happy for him that the day was finally here. They planted blackberries and grapes Friday evening after he got home from work.  Saturday morning, Lillian woke me up at 3:30 for the 2nd morning in a row asking for Tylenol for her throat. That is so out of character for her so I decided it was time to see a doc. She’s on antibiotics and still running a low grade temp so the rest of the weekend work was done by Matt and Katie. It’s normally Lillian who is in to the gardening but Katie never left his side. She was invested because while we went to the doctor, they drove to Oil City to get the skid steer. It was a fun adventure and had her glued to her Daddy’s side. They plotted where the holes would go and dug them all before bringing it back to Oil City that afternoon. Lilli and I went out to watch a couple of times. And today, they woke up and ...

We drove down to Alexandria today to meet friends at the zoo. It had been closed since Hurricane Laura hit last summer because of all of the damage and we wanted to take advantage of spring break and check it out. Ashley, Paul, Bridget, Heather, Marlene (Heather’s Mom and a past client), Britney, Bella, Kelli, Ethan and Lily all came.  At the start of the pandemic last year I really considered Heather and Ashley to be “Mom friends.” (Kelli and I had already gotten pretty close and would hang out without kids) I always loved their company but we never really socialized other than play dates. But during that time that we were strictly locked down, these 3 ladies were the ones I talked to regularly and the ones who would come sit in the driveway or a parking lot from 6 feet away so that we could socialize. I’m sure that’s not what they wanted to be doing most days but they always made it a priority and we definitely got closer during it. We talk all of the time and have group texts go...

The whole McCormick family stayed at the deer camp together for the first time since probably Christmas of 2019. We had seen each other of course but this was the first time to all be under one roof with no one talking about social distancing.  These kids were the most excited and talked about it for days and days. They love being together and play so hard that we barely see them while we’re there. But that’s ok because it had been a LONG time since I’d had some girl time.  Matt and Josh boiled crawfish Saturday afternoon and they were delicious! Crawfish boils are one of my favorite things about spring and the family time made it all that much better. I hope this is the start of many more times like this for the year.  We came home Sunday and on Monday the girls went to stay with Josh and Hailey for the night. We had done school that morning and met Lily Jordan for Happy Belly’s custard and Hailey came to pick them up after. They had the best time with the cousins again ...

We aren’t taking a full week long spring break over here at LGA. Austin and Josey are out of school this week and the girls wanted a couple of extra days to play on the iPads with them. And next week is Bossier’s spring break and all of their friends are out so they want a few days to get together with them too. Since they couldn’t decide what week to take, we decided to take a little of both. We did 3 days worth of school this week (but in 2 days- doubled up lessons) and will do 2 days next week. They got the extra cousin play time and also had time for other things. All 3 of us had an eye doctor appointment Tuesday morning so we were there for over 2 hours, Lilli got new glasses and I have to start wearing them too. 😫 I made it 39 years, lol. Mine are ordered but she told me to grab drug store readers until they come in. I had no idea how blurry things were before! Can’t wait to see when I have my new prescription and real glasses.  Katie is still having fun with her virtual gym...

Today is my birthday and I had the best weekend celebrating. Cara and Luke came over Saturday night and we boiled crawfish. It’s been an annual tradition to eat them with them for years but this is the first time we’d ever cooked them ourselves for it. But it had been a FULL YEAR since we’d hung out (more than a 45 minute kid backyard play date at least) so we made it a birthday party.  Katie and Josie had so much fun together (Lilli played too but she’s getting a little big for dolls) and the grownups got to hang out for 3 hours. It had been way too long since we’d done that.  And yesterday we went to Alexandria to the same park we’d had Dad’s birthday and Christmas for a birthday picnic. We had shrimp pasta and Nothing Bundt Cake and the kids played at the park. It was a beautiful and perfect day.  And today I will get my haircut while Yaya keeps the kids. And I decided it’s a school holiday so they are benefiting too. Matt will cook tonight and we’ll have a family movi...

Things are getting a little weird over here at Little Garden Academy.  We may do school with a dinosaur mask on (Lillian is painting and designing herself). There may be a dog squeaking a toy while we try to work on the floor.  But it’s coming along too. Katie is starting multiplication and division which is way ahead of 2nd graders in public school. We’re working on paragraph writing and Lillian is working on a multi-page research paper. And we had a pretty cool science class when Matt found baby bunnies in the real life little garden.  Katie started a new P.E. Class with virtual gymnastics today. I wasn’t sure how that was going to work virtually but it was very cool and she loved it! It’s more advanced than what they did at Bossier Olympiad.  And the best part of today was our spring book fair.  The girls woke up to the latest editions of the series they are each reading, plus some activity and art books and a cool graphic novel Bible. We ate sausage balls an...