The Wright Side of LifeThe family is one of nature’s masterpieces.

On Tuesday morning, May 10th, Victoria headed off to work with Daddy.  Jim had made the plans and arrangements a few days before and Sissy was practically bursting with nervous excitement!  Nevertheless, my brave 2.5 year old packed her “work bag” with all of the essentials (paper, glue, scissors, stickers, crayons) and went to work:

Victoria was super relived when she arrived at Jim’s work and discovered that she wasn’t expected to sit in her own office all alone – that is what she told Jim.  It’s always tough as a parent, because even when you think you’re being very attentive and in-tune with your child and try to talk with them about potential anxieties (“Don’t worry, they have a potty and Daddy will help you” or “Daddy will get you a drink when you get there to keep at your desk” or “Everyone there is happy you are coming and will be friendly,” etc.) you just can’t always predict what they might be worrying about!!  So there Sissy was, super excited to go in with Daddy, but almost sick with nervousness about the thought of having to sit all alone doing work makes me feel both bad for her, and at the same time made me think “Wow, that’s super brave that she would go in anyway!”

After doing a walk-around and chatting with everyone, eating a donut, and getting her work station all set up, Victoria spent most of her time happily “working” and crafting one-of-a-kind pieces of artwork for various co-workers:

The Chicago Bulls made it to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in more than a decade, and the whole family got into watching with Jim – getting dressed up in team garb, cheering on (literally) the Bulls, and letting the girls stay up til half-time on most game nights.  They loved it!  It was so much fun to see them really get into it, ask a million questions and start to piece together what was happening.  Plus, I’m pretty sure there is nothing cuter in the world than hearing Sissy say, “Daddy!  There’s the Balls’ [she can't say BULLS, it comes out as BALLS] coach, Tom Tippytoe!”

Scarlett, wearing a Bulls’ jersey that Jim had bought for Mikayla when she was three years old:

Later that week, Mik and I took the kids strawberry picking with our homeschool group.  It was H-O-T that day, and the kids could hardly look up at the camera for the sun glare:

The girls had vague recollections of strawberry picking in summers past, plus we had talked about what kind of berries we would be hunting for and so they felt confident and ready to dive in.  Due to the field being almost picked clean, the girls truly had to HUNT for the berries:

Once the girls were fully searching, I tried to spend a little more time with Linc, who wasn’t feeling too sure about all of the goings on at first.

“See, Linc, we have to look for a red berry.”

“Yeah, great mommy, you have fun with that.”

Sissy really dug into the bushes trying to find those dark red berries:

Finally, Linc got into trying to help me pull the strawberries off their stems.  I really thought he’d be more interested to eat them, but he mostly liked to hold them and put them into the bucket:

Scarlett is pretty strong – she lugged this half-full 5-gallon bucket all around:

Lincoln was way jealous of Scarlett’s bucket, so we had to get one of our own:

“Hmm, mine seems more empty than hers did…”

At the end of picking, we were all hot and sweaty, but it had been fun!

Lunch afterwards in an air conditioned restaurant and shopping around Old Navy with the Phillips helped to make it an officially great Friday