Charley's 8th Birthday

Charley was very specific on how she wanted to spend her 8th birthday.  We were to wake her around 8:00 (so she would be awake on her actual birthday time at 8:04) with breakfast in bed.  She originally wanted donuts from Donut Palace in Lebanon, but Chick-fil-A opened back up two days before her birthday (it had been closed for renovations for 6 weeks) and she said, "forget donuts...I want a biscuit!"  She spent the afternoon getting a mani/pedi with Amma, we made the loop at Opry Mills, and had dinner with the whole family at Chuy's to celebrate.  My favorite part of the day was the look on her little face when the entire dining room joined in to sing "Happy Birthday!"

Charley Robinson AKA Amelia Earhart

The 2nd Grade at Rutland Elementary has a Wax Museum Project each spring where the kids spend a month researching an important person in history.  The project includes a decorated cereal box with specific criteria, dressing up like the historical figure, and preparing a speech for the day of the museum.   Charley spent the month learning all things Amelia Earhart.  We read multiple books, researched online, shopped a few different craft stores and watched Night at the Museum to prep for the role.  We had so much fun learning about her, but Charley made it even better by turning her "speech" into a little monologue with the cutest accent and sassy confidence that Amelia Earhart obviously exuded throughout her life as a trailblazer.  

I'm happy to report that Charley was a fantastic Amelia Earhart, and she received a 105 on her project!  

We checked Target, JoAnn's, Party City and Hobby Lobby for sky wrapping paper.  No luck!  So we did the next best thing and made our own sky by painting it!  

The Downtown Library and Pancake Pantry

School was out for flooding, so we continued the girls' education at the downtown library to prep for Charley's school project and by learning about the best pancakes in Nashville.  They loved the library and Pancake Pantry, and I loved the unexpected quality time with them.  The funniest part of the day was watching Carter devour her "bears in the snow" pancakes.  She started to get full before she finished, so she stood up in the seat, burped, and said, "you've got this Carter!"  Charley and I lost it and laughed so hard!

Should Have Bought the Unicorn...Happy Valentine's Day

Thursday nights are busy around here...surprise, surprise...so Valentine's cards and goodies didn't get looked at until after cheer, right before bedtime.  Honestly, I'm not sure if any other time of the day would have made a difference for Carter, because she took one look at her sparkly, stuffed cat, grabbed it by the tail, let us know that it was terrible, then threw it down on the table.  She informed us that she hates cats (I get where she's coming from), and only loves unicorns.  I probably should have spanked her for being ungrateful, but I wasn't sold on the cat when I bought it and her reaction was too funny to be mad.  So...what did we do?  We took that cat to the store and exchanged it for a unicorn!  

Charley spent Valentine's afternoon making us the sweetest card, bracelet and Braves picture...she is so loving and thoughtful!  I especially loved the baggies filled with heart Sweetarts (from my candy jar) and two Girl Scout cookies (from the pantry)!  We loved opening all of our sweet cards, and the girls can't wait to use their special date coupons from their Daddy.