113/365

Today I am thankful for Target. I know this is a fluff thanks, but I really enjoy Target and get a lot of pleasure out of my time there. I think that they have really cute clothes and shoes for cheap - for me and the girls. I really love any excuse to go to Target and I always end up spending a lot of time (and money) every time I go there. I especially love it when Justin is home and I can leave the girls with him and just wander around. I took the girls with me today, but they are actually pretty good shoppers most of the time. I have gotten much, much better about not buying every cute thing I see in there.

Today was Lucy's playgroup and we did it at this restaurant at the mall that opens up to the most beautiful field of flowers and the softest, greenest grass. I can only imagine what the servers were saying about our group. There were 7 moms and 11 kids. We did go early, so there was almost no one there for most of the time we were there. By the time we were finishing up, it was starting to get crowded and we kind of rushed to finish and pay. Afterwards, we let the kids just run in the field.

I got asked yesterday about how we manage to do so much with nap schedules for the girls. Both girls take an afternoon nap. They generally go down around 1:30 if we are home but can wait until 2:30 if we are out and about. We absolutely NEVER miss this nap. They both require it every day. Annie does take a morning nap, but the poor girl ends up missing it a lot if we have stuff going on. I try not to make her miss it completely, but she has to get woken up from her morning nap a lot. I would never do this if she was grumpy when I woke her up, but no matter what, she wakes up in the greatest mood. You should see how happy she is to see me when I wake her up. It is so sweet. So, once Annie is up, we are generally always out the door. We all seem to function better when we get out of the house. We also almost always do something after they wake up from nap - a lot of times it is just playing outside, but something outside of the house. Today it was a trip to Target. The late afternoon portion of the day is always the longest part of the day. I feel like if we don't do something, the day just drags on, the tv ends up on, and we are all just bored with one another. I don't like this feeling at all, so I try and mix it up for the girls as much as possible. I have found that I am a much better mom if I feel like I am not forced to be tied down to our house for a strict schedule. I am lucky because both girls are really great about rolling with it and don't have to have a strict schedule to function at their best. I know not all kids are like this. Or maybe they are like this because their lives with us have always been like this. We have rarely let their schedules stop us from doing something fun, and they have always been totally fine with that.

I don't have too many pictures from today because I have made myself buckle down and edit session pictures. I don't want to get behind since next week is so busy. I got a lot done while the girls napped today.