How to make a Princess deliriously happy in three easy steps

The kids and I, plus The Princess's BFF "The Court-i-nator", spent the day at the Riverside Arts Market. It was a beautiful, sunny day with a lovely breeze off the river and we had a fabulous time!

We wandered around a bit and admired the art work and crafts and then we had to make a decision about what to eat. The Boy opted for fried shrimp and The Court-i-nator for a hotdog. The Princess and I couldn't decide...until we spied this booth...

Crepes? Yes, please!!

The Princess got ham and cheese...

and I got chicken, spinach and feta.

We all met down by the river and enjoyed our little repast (the crepes were tres bien!) and listened to the music (also tres bien!)

The girls went to find something sweet to eat.

They came back with a funnel cake.

Oh my!

Tres bien, indeed!

After we ate lunch we walked around a bit more. We saw lots of cute pooches - a Polish Lowland Sheepdog that looked like a ball of fluff, an Akita, a Goldendoodle, and a gorgeous Newfoundland. The Newfie was very sweet but, sadly, a wee bit stinky. After petting him, my hands stunk. Blech!

And then The Princess saw a booth with "magic" wands. She was like a kid in a candy store. She begged and cajoled and batted her baby blues but I found it remarkably easy to decline the offer of spending $20 to buy her a "magic" wand. 

I know, I know. I'm the meanest mom in the world.

Thankfully, she then spotted the palm reader (thank goodness this was free!) and just like that, her attention was diverted. She convinced the BFF to have her palms read at the same time...

She even convinced her brother to give it a go!

I'm sorry to report that I didn't hear a lot of the palm reading because I was too busy taking photos.

But when we saw the handwriting analysis booth, I paid a bit more attention...

I don't want to give away all the kid's secrets, but let me just say that she was GOOD. Really good. Spot on! I even had mine done. Naturally, she said that my handwriting revealed that I was awesome in every way. 

Well, duh!

When The Princess saw a man making balloon animals with an elephant (her favorite animal) on his head, she was smitten once again. She forgot all about being a 15 year old and waited in line with all of the little kids.

The Boy and I decided to head over to the Farmer's Market area. I bought lovely melons, tomatoes, celery, onions, strawberries, cucumbers and the biggest zucchini I've ever seen in my life!

We went to meet the girls and found The Princess wearing her balloon elephant hat...

She was as happy as a pig in...well, you know how the saying goes.

Flashback Friday: (AKA: Went through old photos, got out the scanner, and started feeling nostalgic)

Yesterday, I started cleaning out the trunk at the foot of our bed, which has become a sort of "catch all" the past few years. I found a lot of old papers, some cross stitch stuff I'll probably never finish, and a bunch of old photographs which apparently never made it into albums.


If you're on Facebook then you probably already know that I was scanning old photographs all afternoon...

*sigh*

And now I'm feeling nostalgic and sad that those days are gone. My teenagers are great...really, they're such fantastic kids. But...I miss my little cuddle monsters with their sweet little voices and sticky fingers and gap toothed smiles.

Sniff. Sniff.

Looking back: Smoke

I just found these photos and realized that I never shared them. 


A couple of weeks ago, when our little area of NE Florida was surrounded by wildfires and we had several very smoky days, the wind shifted direction and the smoke cleared out. We had a beautiful, sunny morning. Then, around noon, I noticed that everything had an orange tint...

I kept blinking my eyes and thinking that there must be something wrong with my contacts. It was surreal looking. I asked Mr. Wonderful if he noticed it and he was seeing a smoky, salmon colored hue also.

Once I realized that it wasn't my eyes playing tricks on me I walked outside and saw this...

The wind had changed direction yet again, and the smoke was converging on us...

It was very creepy looking in a sort of ominous, post-apocolyptic sort of way...

The one about being busy, walking turtles, and other ridiculous stuff

This past week has been busy! In addition to the usual hurrying and scurrying around with the carpool and dance and whatnot, I've been trying to firm up the summer plans and get a bit organized: 


~ There was supposed to be a showing on the house last week, so we frantically began cleaning the house. After cleaning all morning, the agent never showed or called or returned our agent's phone calls.


~ The above incident made me ponder why there are so many rude and unprofessional real estate agents. Wouldn't it just be common courtesy to (a) return our agent's phone calls and (b) to let us/him know that the buyers had changed their mind about viewing our house?


~ The Boy's BFF came over and they went for a long bike ride and then took his turtle for a walk.


~ No, sadly, that wasn't a joke.

~ We've decided to participate in another exchange this summer, although we will only be hosting, since The Princess will not be able to visit France this year. Her name is Roxane and we are still firming up the dates that she will be here, but The Princess is very excited to, hopefully, improve her French over the summer!

~ The Boy has a summer job, although he is still not sure when he will begin working. He'll be working with a friend in the friend's father's ice cream store. He is very excited to start making some money!

~ We've also been trying to work out dates for the kid's cousin to come visit for a bit and for The Princess to attend a summer ballet intensive and for both kids to take the SAT/ACT exams.

~ I've decided that the summers are just not long enough! I've also decided that making the kids go back to school in the middle of August is just not right!

~ The Princess spent the weekend at a church camp retreat called "Happening." Long time followers may recall that The Boy went to Happening a couple of years ago. I've been quite bad about taking photos and documenting our lives lately, but I did remember to get the camera out for this!

The Princess before she left. She was obviously thrilled with the Mamarazzi.

It rained all weekend, but as we drove into the camp to pick The Princess up the sun was shining and it turned into a beautiful afternoon. The lovely old oak trees were draped across the road and the resurrection ferns were all green and happy...

The chapel was decorated with posters for all of the "candidates"...

(Mr. Wonderful was busy searching for the restroom as I searched for The Princess's name)

I found a couple of posters with her name...

and then I saw this one, which was pretty exciting! Someone reads this blog! Woo Hoo!

We spied The Princess...and enjoyed the chapel service.

And then it was time to go home. 

While Mr. Wonderful and The Princess gathered all her stuff from the cabin, I took photos.

It is such a beautiful area with the Spanish Moss swaying gracefully in the breeze and the sunlight filtering through the beautiful oaks...

~The Princess had a great weekend and made some wonderful friends. (And for everyone who wrote her a caritas letter - thank you! She loved them!)