Thursday...

Family trip to Home Depot - and the best shopping cart ever!

Then dinner at Emma's favorite - the Springfield Diner!

With an Elmo cupcake...

And chocolate fudge cake for dessert!

More and more we are trying to balance our lives so that we take these small opportunities to "treat" the kids, spend time together where chores are not calling our names and generally slow down for a bit.  All too soon they will be heading off to college (12 years as Emma lets me know!), and if the past 8 are anything to go by, that will not feel like very long at all!