The Growing Caldwell Family

Some mornings we have a delightful bit of time waiting for carpool to start.  Kiddos giggling, telling me about dreams they had at night or what happened to friends. They tease each other and laugh. It is a wonderful way to start the day. Those precious minutes with them make me so happy. I love when Sarah Graves leans in the front seat, kisses my cheek, and tells me to have a good day just before she hops out. Not every morning is blissful, but I hope those good mornings help lead them to have good days. 

Charlie came home from school and got such a kick out of wearing these glasses and saying, "leprechaun" in a cool dude accent!

Sarah Graves and Charlie performed in the choir and Sarah Graves rang the bells. Their voices made sweet sounds!

We love doughnuts, so when we heard about Krispy Kreme offering green doughnuts for St. Patrick's Day, we were all about that!  We initially planned them for breakfast, but Charlie had a hard time getting dressed for church and ultimately, the whining and stalling made us too late for doughnuts. That was a hard natural consequence for all of us.  Doughnuts at last tasted so good! These were fresh and still warm! Such a yummy treat! After our doughnuts, we went and had Mexican food for dinner! 

Sarah Graves had a delightful time playing with her friend, Marcela! She and Marcela are part of many of the same activities at school and out of school, but they haven't had much time to play on their own. When Marcela asked Sarah Graves to come and play, Sarah Graves was so mature and said she was looking forward to getting to know Marcela better without so many other kids around. Her maturity and perceptiveness surprise me.  It was St. Patrick's Day and they were celebrating Marcela's dog's birthday and Sarah Graves wanted to look festive! She was sporting the light up headband Lovie got her! And, she opted to sport a fun green mustache I got her! They had a great time and Marcela's mom shared this cute picture of them playing outside on a beautiful afternoon. Sarah Graves came home feeling that she and Marcela were closer friends since having some time to play on their own. 

Charlie and Aaron spent a beautiful, spring day hiking near the Chattahoochee with the Cub Scouts. Fun to explore with Emmett! Sunny smiles! Happy buddies! Charlie has really been enjoying Cub Scouts and looks forward to these fun activities. 

We started back at Future Swim to get the kids ready for summer swim team. They seem to be enjoying it!   After a Saturday evening practice, we headed to IHOP for a pancake dinner! Charlie is giving me his wink! Yummy! Pancakes with whipped cream and chocolate chips!

We had a fun, spontaneous dinner out with Lovie!  Charlie was chatty and playful and Sarah Graves was adventurous and tried calamari! A good night for all.

Sarah Graves went to her last cotillion party. She was very excited about her dress! I think she looked beautiful and so grown up in it! Ready for the party. Because this was the last party of the year, they practiced their table manners at a formal dinner; then, a parent could join for the dance party!

Charlie chose to do a tennis class with some buddies from school and loved it! He was so excited that he hit the ball! He commented that this class taught him tennis.  Clearly, everything is more fun with your buddies!

I wanted to celebrate Pi day, but of course, didn’t get a pie in advance. So, after everyone had a long day full of annoying things, I decided to make a pie. I found a recipe for a vanilla custard pie that I had the ingredients for and proceeded to make it.  It turned out less than ideal. My meringue wasn’t stiff enough and the pie should have chilled before we ate it. Not my best showing! It was so sweet though because Sarah Graves who was really tired, had a lot of homework, got pushed down while running at school, and had a hard time with a friend, had the generosity to say, “it may not look the best, but it was made with a lot of love.” Have to love her big heart! Charlie was not quite as gracious, but he did have a good laugh about my pie! He had a rough day too. Mostly because he goofed and grabbed a hot cookie sheet just out of the oven (he knew it was hot and he has done the same thing before). It burned his hand and hurt pretty bad! In the end, laughter around the table over m

Charlie really likes stuffed animals! I never really cared for them that much, so I guess it surprises me how much interest he takes in them. He wanted a picture with two of his current favorites, Pandy and Fuzz Buddy. Pandy he caught at the Mardi Gras parade and fell in love with, and Fuzz Buddy was recently found vacationing at the lake all winter! I think Pops got him Fuzz Buddy a while back but I can’t remember for sure. In case you noticed, those are Christmas pjs that he chooses to wear all year long!

Sarah Graves loves to do craft projects. Recently, she asked to decorate a plain journal. She wanted to put pictures of her favorite things on it. It turned into a fun activity for us together where I taught her about using google and navigating on the computer instead of an iPad!  She had to work in a bit of washi tape too!  We both had an easy, fun time together!

Sometimes Charlie surprises me and wants to try something new! While in Shreveport, he decided it was time to try a hamburger! I was shocked when he wanted to order one and even more shocked when he ate the whole thing! He was pretty pleased with himself and pronounced that this gave him more options!

Saturday it was time to head home. One more pic with Grancy and Ger Ger. We had a good time being with them and Zoe. The ride back felt long. One highlight was stopping at Cane’s for lunch! The kids know it is my favorite! Charlie liked the fries! After riding for hours my neck was sore, so Charlie offered to give me a massage! The ride went on late into the night. I don’t think any of us were super-excited to be home, so we stopped at just about every gas station on I-20, ha!

After the museum, we headed to dinner. Meatless Friday for Lent is no problem with the delicious fried fish!  The kids were so excited about more time with cousins! Charlie surprised us and chose this trip to try hamburgers! He was pretty excited about it and continued ordering them. These sweet boys were so much fun! Grandaddy and Mi Mi with all their grands Grandaddy and Mason! A little sad to be saying goodbye, but already excited to come back during the summer!

The kids love going to the Shreveport science museum for kids. It was recently redone and we found so much fun stuff! Grandaddy joined us to explore it. We saw an IMAX movie on Pandas that was neat. We also explored all sorts of things like aerodynamics to fly planes; types of light like infrared and ultraviolet; and space,  Firefighter Charlie! The flames went out when you hit them with the hose. Or you can blow the fresh air in your face! The kids enjoyed practicing to be little veternarians. There were real animals in the vet clinic too! Sissy enjoyed petting the bunny, Fletcher. We also checked out this king snake. Charlie and I considered our ability to speak parseltongue like Harry Potter, but we don't have it! Grandaddy pretending to be a silly snake with Charlie. We learned about pulleys and how they help you lift heavy things. The kids enjoyed pretending real life in the grocery and the bank! Making BIG music! We s