The Big Surprise

The day has finally come! YAY!!! Please keep your fingers crossed for good weather in the greater St. Louis area. Since we have...

Planned a surprise for the girls this weekend - its been in the works for 3+ weeks now. We are whisking them away this morning. The bags are going to be packed, and we will just load them up in the car & drive! We will be going to the "big" zoo as Olivia calls it, staying in a hotel, & capping it off with a trip to Grant's Farm. Olivia has been begging & pleading & crying for us to take her to a hotel waiting patiently for all of us to stay in a hotel for the past 2 years. Our hotel even has an indoor pool. She is going to blow a gasket! I can almost hear the squeals of joy & see the huge smiles on both of their faces!

I can't remember the last time I was this excited about something. And I have successfully kept this a secret from Olivia, for the most part. This is very hard for me to do...very hard! Did I say very? I am not known for my great secret-keeping abilities. I like to talk, who can blame me?

In fact, Jarrett almost spilled the beans this past weekend. So in turn, I made Olivia a countdown calendar for her to pull off a day until the big surprise. Because you & I both know, if I hadn't done that, every morning I would be asked at least 10 times "is today the big surprise?" I find myself becoming down-right giddy imagining the smiles on both Olivia & Rachel's faces when we arrive at our destination. This will be our first official family trip over-night as a family of 4. (Rachel was in-utero our last trip over-night, technically speaking & possibly TMI. Sorry)

After a whopper of a fit some inconsolable sobbing from Olivia Thursday morning, I did divulge a little piece of information to her. It all started with Olivia complaining of a stomach ache. She said she couldn't go to Mona's or school & that I should stay home with her from work. I explained if we did that, she would have to be laying on the couch or in bed all day & would not be allowed to go outside. And what do you know, her stomach didn't hurt that bad after all.

But she then started sobbing uncontrollably...I couldn't figure out what was wrong. She cried, "I wish you could just stay home with me!" This brought on some major WORKING MOMMY GUILT! So, we managed to have the following conversation amidst her sobs:

Olivia - "I would feel better & not be sad if you would tell me the surprise."
Me - (I had to try my hardest not to laugh. I mulled it over) "my hint is that we will need to pack a suitcase"
Olivia - (very excitedly) "YAY we are going to Grammie's house"
Me - (panicked & feeling guilty) "No honey, not Grammie's this time. But it will be fun"

I decided we should leave it at that. I gave her a cookie & turned on some cartoons for her. (*side-note Grammie is Jarrett's grandmother who lives in New Jersey. We don't see her very often at all & it broke my heart that Olivia was so excited thinking that is where we were going. At the same time, I was happy that Olivia will be just as excited when we do in fact go to visit her in September.)

Anywho, I better sign off because we have a busy weekend ahead of us! Can I get a WOOP WOOP for weekend get-aways!