Ahoy mateys!

Our weekend came early as the girls had Thursday and Friday off of school for a President's Day break. Man, I just love those presidents! Grace is going to follow in her Mama's footsteps and took part in a volleyball clinic on Thursday and Friday afternoons with her good friends, Megan and Zach Zimmer. From the few minutes I was able to observe on Friday afternoon, I am not sure how much progress was made in way of skills but I do know Grace had a lot of fun and I was proud that she wanted to give it a try. Of course, my shy, timid Grace is becoming quite a joiner these days so I really shouldn't have been surprised. She loves going and doing so anytime she gets the chance, she usually takes it. Ella, Lily and I had two hours to kill on Friday afternoon while Grace was volleyballing so we decided to do a little shopping. Actually, I decided to go shopping and the other two had no other option but to tag along. They were good sports though and we were able to find Jason some Valentine's Day gifts (a cooler, a t-shirt, a Hank Williams Jr. CD and a bottle of rum~for those of you who were wondering).

Friday night was consumed with science fair, science fair and more science fair. Grace and Ella both decided they wanted to participate in the school's science fair, which is just fabulous~in theory. I personally have never had one moment's worth of interest in a science fair, have never been to a science fair and generally have no idea how to prepare for a science fair. Suffice to say, Jason and I have both been through a crash course. Ella has been researching one of her favorite topics, tornadoes and Grace is doing an experiment to find out if the temperature at which you store your popcorn affects how well it pops. Grace's experiment involves popping many, many bags of popcorn and then measuring the amount of popcorn popped and number of kernels unpopped. I am pretty sure I am never going to eat popcorn ever again. However, she has become very excited about this project and so far it is turning out just how she predicted which is kind of fun. Poor Lily has been left in the dust during all of the researching and experimenting. Luckily for all of us, she is pretty good about just occupying herself and finding things to do. Of course, having a bowl of tomatoes and a bowl of cookies, doesn't hurt either!

Lily recently discovered a hand me down pair of PJ's. She quickly fell in love with them and has worn them several days in a row. Unfortunately they weren't in the greatest shape to begin with and what was once a small tear was helped along into a big tear. Lily was fairly ticked off at first but then decided she really thought she liked the totally 80's one shoulder look, so much so that she asked me to "Take a picture of me with my shoulder out." I do believe a career in modeling is in her future!

Saturday morning the girls were thrilled to receive a few special little Valentine's Day treats from Jason and I. One item they each received was a pair of flip flops in anticipation of Spring's arrival. Lily has never worn flip flops before and wasn't crazy about the rubbing between her toes. She quickly solved that problem in a very interesting and fashion forward way!

Jason and the girls went off seeking a Valentine's Day gift for me, leaving me home all alone. It was so quiet and peaceful, I didn't even know what to do with myself. (I cleaned, what else?) They returned arms laden with flowers; a bouquet of beautiful red roses and a bouquet of bright, Springlike flowers. After a lunch of a heart shaped pepperoni pizza, we loaded up the vehicle, ready for our annual Valentine's Day swimfest at a local hotel. This has become our Valentine's Day tradition and the girls anxiously look forward to it each year. It was too early to check in though so we made a pit stop at BBQ Heaven to pick out the grill we intended to purchase a couple of weeks ago. Of course, the girls were less than thrilled with our stop as they were ready to swim but were patient and the colors and legos at BBQ Heaven helped with this patience! After one long hour of learning about grills (who knew there were so many options?), we were out of there (without a grill, no less!). I am an impulse buyer but my husband is a muller and so he needed some time to digest all of the grilling info and make an educated choice. I wanted to get the coolest looking one so maybe it's best if he decides!

Finally, off to the Ramada Inn. We checked in and got our suits on ready to enjoy Buccaneer Bay.

There were big slides and little slides. Deep pools and shallow pools. Two hot tubs and one pirate ship. Lily loved the little slide but was very reluctant to go on the pirate ship as she claimed, "I am afraid of the captain.". I am not quite sure what the deal is with that but she did eventually get over her captain phobia and try the slides on the pirate ship. Grace loved the huge water slide and after much coercing, Ella finally tried it and loved it too. As you can see in the pictures, they enjoyed themselves immensely.

All that swimming worked up an appetite and soon we needed to find some nourishment. The captain of our ship, Mr. Kolb made the command decision to shove off in search of the perfect Valentine's Day meal. As you all know, after spending time with my family and friends, there is nothing I love more than food, eating it or just thinking about it, so I was really looking forward to a succulent meal out, a perfect Valentine's Day ending for me. After a lot of discussion and driving around, we finally ended up at..............yep, you guessed it, FRYN' PAN! How unique and special, right? I will admit, I was the slightest bit disappointed to begin with but once I had my first bite of prime rib, my disappointment was gone. It was a great meal of prime rib, chili and hashbrowns with cheese sauce. What more could a girl ask for? After gourging ourselves, we went back for more swimming and finally hunkered down for the night.

Sunday morning we got up and readied ourselves for one more dip.....

Ella was super excited about it, apparently........

Sadly, all good things must come to an end and our stay was over. We had lunch to eat and church to attend. After a quick but oh so wonderfully delicious stop at one of my favorite restaurants of all time, Buffalo Wild Wings, we made it to church early (something that pretty much never happens). Maybe we should stay at a hotel every weekend?

HyVee and science fair projects were beckoning. Our fridge and pantry fully stocked once again, we settled in for one last night of feverish science fairing. Other than a few finishing touches, I am elated to say, they are done and ready for the big night, which is Friday!

You know, every time I go to do a post, I tell myself, keep it short, concise and to the point. It seems that is something I am unable to do. Some may say I am long winded. (Could this be why I was voted "Talks Most/Says Least" by my High School class?) I prefer to describe myself as detailed! Anyway, to make a long story short, we had a "LOVE-LY" weekend and were able to spend it just how we wanted, together!