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Keeping the ordinary, extraordinary...







My life is filled with a whole lot of ordinary: school days, errands, chores, homework, school projects, home projects, chauffeuring kids...you get the picture.  I sometimes feel like Bill Murray in the movie Groundhog's Day.  The alarm goes off each morning and my chance to turn the ordinary into extraordinary begins.  OK...that's only after I hit snooze three times.  My alarm clock is set to 5:30, three snoozes gets me closer to that magical reset hour of Bill's 6:00 a.m. And yes, there are many mornings I feel like giving my alarm clock the same beating Bill gives his!
 

 Don't you miss those old flip clocks?
 

 
That's why the weekends are those necessary times to make the little things, extra special.
 

 
Weekend morning buffets.


Park time with the kids. It was 75 and sunny and January 26!

And birthdays...well those are always magical even for me!  This year, Savannah played a big role in making my birthday fabulous.  Her and John had the table ready with birthday presents, just like I do for the kids on their birthday and holidays.  It was nice to have a turn at the morning surprise.


She made me breakfast...


 
 
She set me up a breakfast buffet! 

And decorated my cake...

Gee thanks! And yes we realize after that she spelled "Birthday" wrong.

I asked for a simple gift this year, a set of the blue anniversary Ball Mason jars.  I'm so happy my husband is an overachiever.  He went the next step and found me real antique Ball Mason jars, with the cold pack canning pot.

 
It was a lovely surprise!


Friday evening, the girls and I had a fun night out together. This time for our "dates", I'm pairing up the girls and then the boys.  We had dinner at Jim's, followed by a Carson event a the Rampage Game.


Boyen girls selfie at Jim's!

Lorelei didn't like the hockey game at first and cried for a bit,
but guest services gave her ear plugs and a few
surprises to help ease her anxiety.
Saturday night, we re-visited an old birthday tradition for me.  We've been to the Gristmill in Gruene, Texas several times to celebrate a variety of things, but for my birthday at least two other times.  It's always a great time, good food and an evening to remember.


 
Sometimes the ordinary days aren't so nice to us.  Poor Lorelei got sick this week with viral bronchitis.  She was pitiful...
Poor baby had a fever of 103.3!
 But the miracle of Motrin can turn any frown around...


Fever free and happily waiting for flu results
(they were negative!) at the pediatricians.

Mother nature had another mood swing and brought back some cold and snow!?! Actually Savannah informed me what we had fall last night is called graupel, which is soft hail or snow pellets.  Some one on FB said it looked like Dippin' Dots fell from the sky!  It was certainly unlike anything I had ever seen before!

 


 
It packed like snow and more importantly it turned an ordinary Thursday in February into an extraordinary one.

Funny enough, I just realized that Monday was Groundhog's Day.  He saw his shadow, which means Mother Nature gets to be moody for 6 more weeks! ;)
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