pen pal

my best girl, K, came to visit over the weekend

i could hardly teach all week.

thinking about spending a whole weekend with her leaves me bursting at the seams with joy.

we prepared by making chocolate nests...

to give our guests a proper welcome

while waiting outside for our visitors to arrive, 

J hopped on the neighbor kids' new bike and took it for a spin

spontaneity is one of the reasons i married this guy.

beautiful blue eyes and I watched from the grass

and, to my surprise, this little love button just up and walked right across the driveway.

eyes brimming with tears, we whooped and hollered, cheering her on to greatness.

one step at a time

she has since taken up to eleven steps all on her own, without the aid of toys or big people hands.

this girl is going places

more posts to come as she navigates through the world of walking.

but where was i?

ah, yes...weekend with a pen pal.

the wait seemed like forever, but, at last...

they arrived.

due to the over five hour drive that separates us, it had been months since these girls had seen each other

however, they've been keeping in contact as pen pals.

they send each other cupcake-shaped cards, notes scribbled on hello-kitty stationary, trinkets, treasures and homemade crafts embellished with way too many stickers.

Peach twirls around the living room clutching the envelope anytime we get mail from her pen pal.

and having her at our house, in real life was just too much fun.

we jam packed the weekend with nothing in particular but every thing special:
 wagon rides, stories, 

new headbands made by mommas who should have been in bed, but stayed up chatting and crafting until the wee hours

running in sunshine

backyard whatever

dessert on the driveway

sand...everywhere

goofy faces

pretty hair with extra clips

and books by the dozens....

it was the weekend we'd been hoping for.

after we said some teary good-byes and promised to make the trip up their way this summer, Peach and J got down to business with washing the vehicles.

and we stayed outside until the last drop of sunshine faded from the sky

feels like summer around here

lucky for us, the opportunity to fulfill that promise to meet up with our buddies again will come quicker than we think

until then, we'll be nurturing the idea of pen pals.

sending good old fashioned snail mail and loving each other long-distance.