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

This past week was a nice mix of activity and downtime – after a full weekend and seeing Mikayla, Aunt Jen and Uncle Dave off back to Indiana (and Daddy off on an overnight business trip) on Sunday afternoon, I decided to take Monday “off” and keep us at home for a day to recuperate. A good portion of the day included playing, baking (muffins and an especially delicious blueberry coffee cake – yum!), bothering Nana who was working from our house for the afternoon, and a WHOLE lot of this:

On Tuesday I made arrangements to have a Girls Only Outing while Lincoln stayed home with Grammie.  We visited our favorite local storytime, played at the little adjacent park, and had lunch out at Moe’s – some extra Mommy time was just what they needed

Sissy, working on her heart-flower craft after the stories were finished:

Scarlett:

Wednesday was a busy day, but I didn’t get a single picture!  The kids and I went to the pediatrician for Scarlett’s official 3-year well check, where it was made official that she’s tall and skinny (41.5 inches and 31 pounds, which puts her in the 50 percentile… for a FIVE YEAR OLD!) and all of the kiddos did great despite our 30 minute wait time to get taken into a room and then wait 20 more minutes.   Afterward we trekked over to the McDonald’s on Floyd Road for some “eat and play” action with Erica, Elizabeth, Kristen and Colton – it was fun, relaxing (or MY version of relaxing anyways; I’m not sure the average person would find the play area of a McDonald’s that is packed out with yelling kids to be relaxing, but the kids all played great together and I got to have some actual conversation while Lincoln ate so what more can I ask for?) and exactly what we needed.  That evening I jumped ship and left all of the munchkins home with Grammie, Nana and Jim for a gals night out with Amanda ~ we had such a fun time and I so appreciate everyone’s help in making it happen!!

Thursday and Friday were pretty low-key days.  One memorable story that pops out is courtesy of Scarlett, who after playing out on the deck came back into the kitchen, smelled the ribs cooking and asked, “Mommy, can I please have a bit of that smell?”  You know a dish is going to be tasty if a 3-year-old doesn’t even care what exactly is cooking – they’re willing to get a bite of whatever it is if it smells that good!

Saturday was fairly laid-back, but that evening we got decked out in some red, white and blue and headed out for the Chamblee fireworks:

Although he had been dressed festively to match us all day, Lincoln did not accompany us to the fireworks – I was pretty anxious about exposing him to the heat for such an extended period of time, not to mention the potential mosquito situation.  So once again, Grammie grudgingly (ha!) kept him home all to herself

Before the fireworks, we stopped for dinner at Platinum Blue Sushi.  We made sure to bring along the girls’ specialty chopsticks (they’re training chopsticks, and they’re both really, really good with them) so they could partake in the sushi experience.  Scarlett has recently been willing to try some sushi and discovered that she really likes it – I’m so proud!

Platinum Blue Sushi is billed as a “Sushi Bar and Lounge”… I guess they are trying to express the lounge aspect by having pillows in the booths, and Sissy was willing to demonstrate how to lounge:

Meanwhile, Scarlett showed off her sushi-devouring prowess:

We made it to the fireworks location a full two hours early to secure a good spot to watch the display.  Jim and I were a little nervous about having gotten there so prematurely, but we shouldn’t have worried – the girls were so geeked by all the action and were incredibly content to run laps around our little site that we set up.  We had chairs set up and also a big blanket laid out – Sissy was most happy to sprawl out on the blanket…

While Scarlett enjoyed her own pint-sized camping chair:

But one thing they were BOTH agreed on was the awesomeness of their very first Moon Pies

For full two hours, they ran laps around our site, tossed a beach ball back and forth, and rolled around on the blanket – it was good fun.  Finally, it got dark out enough to break out the sparklers we had brought.  Now some people might find this surprising, but Jim is a TOTAL KID MAGNET.  Kids just flock to him – it’s weird!  We had already had several kids come up to our spot and try to engage our girls in playing and Jim in conversation, but when Jim busted out our sparklers, about 20 kids magically materialized next to him.  However, instead of handing the kids lit sparklers, Jim handed them all their own box and told them to take them to their parents for liability purposes (yes, he actually said that to them)

The first sparkler Jim lit he handed to Scarlett – she remembered them from our time at the beach this past May.  But Sissy backed up and was pretty unsure about them for the first 2 or 3 that Scarlett played with.  Then her curiosity got the best of her and she caved and took one, discovering that they were in fact a lot of fun:

Then FINALLY it was time for the main event – the fireworks!  Sissy snuggled up with me, and Scarlett took the most creative approach to watching the fireworks   Daddy always makes the best chair!