Making Cheese

 Zoe, Henry, and Shelli made homemade mozzarella cheese. 

 They did a fantastic job!

(God)Father/(God)Daughter Dance

The night finally came! After snow storm Nemo caused the dance to be cancelled a few weeks ago, Uncle Henry flew back last night just to take Zoe to the dance. We felt so bad that he flew up the first time and was unable to go to the dance but, Uncle Henry promised Zoe that he would come back when the dance was rescheduled and he is a man of his word.

Zoe was so excited about the dance. Her and her girlfriends were talking about it for weeks, so much so they got in trouble at school and had a note sent home!! I’m sure none of the girls did much at school all week in anticipation for the big night.

Shelli picked up Henry at the airport and on the way back they picked up Z from school. When they got home, it was almost time to start getting ready. Z jumped in the shower and as soon as she was dried off she called me to the bathroom for me to help her get ready.  Of course she didn’t want anyone to see her before she was ready. Once Zoe was all dressed, she wanted to go through mommy’s make-up to see what color eye shadow and lip gloss she wanted to wear. The end result was pink eye shadow with glitter and pink lip-gloss. Very pretty!

The final touches were her brand new red earrings, pearl necklace, red hair bow and not one but three bracelets that Mamaw made her. Zoe had a last few looks in the mirror and exclaimed, “Now, I’m ready to go!”

Both Henry and Zoe looked amazing. They posed for a few pictures and off to dinner they went to have a bite before the dance. Words cannot describe how grateful we are that Henry came back up to take Z to the dance. We know he spent an arm and a leg but he didn’t care. He wanted to be here to take his goddaughter to her dance and that alone is priceless.

“Family isn’t always blood. It’s the people in your life who want you in theirs; the ones who accept you for who you are. The ones who would do anything to see you smile & who love you no matter what.”

Bike

Bring on SPRING!! We are over WINTER! 

Valentine's

When Zoe got home from school today, we tried to get through homework as fast as we could. We wanted to get the festivities started. Once homework was done, we looked through all of the Valentine cards Zoe got at school, and opened our little gifts we had for each other. 

 Zoe was super excited to give Mimi the gift that was picked out special for her. Zoe got Mimi a HUGE Valentine card along with Mimi’s favorite chocolate treat, Turtles.  Zoe had that card under her bed for days and colored it daily until it was just the way she wanted it. I, on the other hand got one of my favorite things in the whole wide world… Chocolate covered strawberries!  As hard as it was to share, I did manage to give up a few! 

 I didn’t get Zoe candy because I don’t think she needs it. My parents always send her little sweet packages and my mom is really good about not sending her too much candy but Zoe still gets her fair share and my her Mamaw never misses a holiday!

Valentine’s is the one night I would never risk going out to eat at a restaurant, let alone with a child, it’s just too much! Instead, it makes much more sense to stay in and make a yummy dinner. When I asked Zoe what she wanted for her special dinner, she replied, “LOBSTER”. We ran up to the grocery store to see what we could find and it just happened they had lobster tails on sale. We also made sweet potato mashed potatoes and a huge salad. Zoe cracked into that lobster like a champ. She was grinning the whole time. I love to watch her dip the lobster in the butter and eat every bite with gusto!

 Zoe even went all out and made a fancy Valentine dessert. She wanted to pull out her Easy Bake stuff out she got for Christmas and try it out. She made the cutest cakes! 

 Happy Valentine's Day!

Winter Weekend

What a whirlwind of a weekend! It started off with an email from Zoe's school saying the Father/Daughter dance has been cancelled due to the snow storm Nemo.

Meanwhile, Uncle Henry was in the air on the way from Miami to take Zoe to the dance. When he got here and heard the news, he took it much better than Zoe did. She was very upset and couldn’t shake it most of the night. Uncle Henry on the other hand was here and was going to make the best of it. The storm was set to hit our area about 7pm, so before it got nasty out, we all went out to eat to one of my favorite Mexican restaurants. 

Saturday when we woke up, we had about 3-4 inches of snow. We sat around in our pj’s drinking coffee/mimosas and snacking on breakfast goodies. Once we had a full belly we headed out to shovel and play in the snow. After all that work, we deserved a yummy lunch after that and we all have one thing in common when it comes to food, we all LOVE Indian so we went for a late lunch at a local Indian restaurant. Delish!

Zoe seemed concerned all weekend about the dance. She just wasn’t herself. Henry insured her that he would come back when they rescheduled the dance. That seemed to ease her worry a little, but she was still not convinced.  After all, she has a brand new dress hanging in her closet and she has been talking about it non-stop with all her girlfriends at school.

Sunday morning, Henry headed back. It was a quick weekend but as always it was a fun visit. Zoe hates when anyone has to go home.

P.S- A big thanks for everyone checking in on us after the storm. It always feels good to know how much people care. We always know whom we can count on for support!

Science Project - Rainforest

Shelli and Zoe work on her science project together. I think it's the cutest rainforest I've ever seen!