A Special Friday

Every Friday With Mother is special but THIS Friday was even more so.

I had Faith and Levi with me!

Mother is GiGi to them and I can't remember the last time she saw them!

See the American Girl doll Faith is holding? She is wearing a little dress that Faith wore when she was 3 months old. It just so happens that Faith has a picture of GiGi holding her nine years ago when she was wearing that exact same dress! Faith has this photograph in her bedroom and was telling Mother about it.

Mother actually REMEMBERED this and was so touched.

When Faith arrived this morning the dress was sporting a safety pin where the top button was. That button was lost long ago but surprisingly Faith found a perfect match in my button box!

I had that thing sewed on before we ever left the house!

Our lunch choice was kid friendly Chick-Fil-A!

Mother discovered their chicken noodle soup today. NOT that SHE ordered it! I did and she looked so longingly at it that I got another container and gave her half. Next time she said she will order soup AND a sandwich. She always orders TWO so she can take one home for supper. Smart!!

On our way back to take her home we passed this awesome tree house!!

The kids and I wish WE had one like this!!

Often times my sister, Nita, has something special for me to take home.

Today it was a box full of wine bottles. Her friend had hosted a wine tasting party and knew I made wine lights so she saved the bottles for me. Win! WIN!

That large one at the center front leading the pack cost $100!!

That will be one special wine light!!

Faith was so impressed with the bottles SHE wanted to make a light!

And so she did! It was harder than she thought. It's not EASY poking a whole strand of lights down that narrow neck!

Of course, LEVI then decided HE absolutely HAD to make one too!!

And so he did!

When we were coming home from Fort Worth earlier this afternoon we stopped at a garage sale and scored big time all the way around.

Both Faith and Levi wanted to find something for their parents.

Coffee cups for both Mom and Dad, a glass for Faith, a duck picture for their dad that they said would remind him of Duck Dynasty, and a yellow lamp for Faith's bedroom.

Not pictured is a teddy bear for Levi plus a sturdy yellow dump truck to keep here for playing in the sand....which he did. Louis Dean has piles of sand all over the place and I am not smiling when I say this!!

Levi didn't want Granddad to be left out so he picked out a coffee cup for him, too!

Now while I paid for all of this.......

Faith INSISTED on paying the $3 to buy her mother THIS!!!

She cleaned it all up.....

....and we set it out in the sun to dry.

Faith said her mother will LOVE floating around on this in their pool.

I thought that was just so sweet!!

I made a haul myself on some fall things. Oh, I am so itching to put out FALL!

Now I have never successfully given any of these older 3 grandchildren of mine a gift that they TRULY liked!

No matter how hard I have tried, my presents have been disappointments!

So Faith and I talked about it and this year I am giving the family a gift card for their favorite Mexican restaurant at Christmas. So while I am not good in ONE area I AM good in another.

The kids LOVE my Peach Cobbler!

Jesse told me that Levi prayed last night especially for MiMi to make it today.

Along about that same time I took a can of peaches out of the pantry and set it on the kitchen counter as a reminder to ME to make one for him!

It may be August 2nd but we ate HOT peach cobbler this afternoon!!

Louis Dean was really happy to get dessert!

We enjoyed our visit with the grands. Kids say the funniest things! Faith told me my house is CREEPY!

Creepy as in scary and spooky.  My home has been described a lot of ways but 'creepy' is a first! It just made me laugh because if you have ever BEEN to my house you will remember it. Once when Amber was a little girl she asked a friend if she had ever been over to her house.

The little girl replied, "I don't remember." Amber said, "Well, NO, you haven't been to my house before because if you had - you WOULD remember!"

After Jesse and the kids left I got busy in the kitchen making a batch of popcorn crunch.

I also chose one of those fancy wine bottles to make a birthday present for a friend.

Happy BIRTHDAY, Brenda!!!!

Her friend, Lucy, made THE best birthday dinner and we all sat around eating, visiting and laughing.

It was a wonderful celebration!

Now we are ready to close out our day. It has been really hot lately and the grass and plants are struggling in this heat. The best time to water is early in the morning or late at night. If you know US then you know it WON'T be early in the morning!!

So it is driveway sitting time with our wine this evening while the hoses are running.

We dare not leave with the water turned on because we tend to FORGET about it!!

Louis Dean's wine tonight - Chillable Red from a box. He likes to say 'it was a very good HOUR!'

My wine is a 2011 California Riesling from a wine cube.

We are going to love the wine we're with!!