Another week gone by...

It's been another fun week! 

We drove out to Paige, TX last Friday to go see our old friend play at Woody's.  Regan lived down the street from us growing up (with his twin and 2 sisters) and we are also distantly related by marriage.  We went to the same church and his mom was my teacher in elementary school and we've attended each others weddings, etc.   So it was a reunion of sorts!

His sister Cheryl was there, too, visiting from Washington D.C. and snapped this above cute photo of us!

We don't dump the kids on my parents very often so it was fun to have a girls night!  Thank goodness we were in my BIL's 4-wheel-drive truck to get out of that parking lot.  :)

We also used the weekend to celebrate nephew #1's 11th birthday and my mom's 63rd birthdays...

The kids took it upon themselves to make the brownie cake look like a baseball diamond...

On Monday, I constructed a new raised-bed garden.  I used all the old fence posts and a lot of nails, which turned out pretty well.  As I was taking apart the old frame, I found several "garden helpers"--a toad and 2 snakes, plus endless roly-poly's.  Now we have a pet snake named Crazy Eight. 

As you can imagine, Lucy is enamored with the thing.  It's being held nearly constantly from end-of-school until bedtime.  We gave it some water today and hope Lucy will lose interest in it by the time I need it to work in the garden!  :)

I took her to the library Valentine party/storytime last night.  She wanted to finish her 24 valentines so she brought her box with her.  Each valentine read "To you, from Lucy". 

It was a good party!

And this was a lively week of mail as well--thanks to Oma and Opa for the laser light and dress!

Jellybean is enamored with the laser light (and snake).  :)  Lucy kept saying "Opa can't fool me.  I know there aren't any kitty elves". 

One of the brightest moments of today was seeing blooms on one of our Sam Houston peach trees...it was the tree we buried li'l Biscuit's remains under and it was the 1-year anniversary of my Popo's death, so it was a very bright, beautiful thing to see in time for Valentine's Day!

Tonight, I took Lucy to her first Ash Wednesday service.  It's held in the sanctuary of the church and I've always been nervous to take her in there.  We always go to the kid-friendly 9am service on Sundays, but I felt confident she could hang with the older crowd...and she did!  I had numerous people comment on her and talk to her and it made my heart sing.  It's my Lenten resolution to read the Bible and a devotion to her each night during Lent, and this was our kick-start to our program!