The Lilly Visit

Elliott is getting out of the Army. For the last three years, the E team was living in Sparta, Wisconsin, and Sergeant Farro was training at Ft. McCoy. They rented a lovely ranch house on a dairy farm....

But IT'S OFFICIAL -- they've purchased a home in Iowa -- and it's time to MOVE. AGAIN.  Because they have two vehicles AND a moving van -- we went up there to drive the packed van back to Iowa.

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AND it only made sense to bring Lillian down to Iowa with us. That would give the E team a few days to do ALL THAT PACKING without the distraction of a toddler and her two little dogs...

Grandma and Grandpa went to Wisconsin to drive Lilly and one vehicle back to Iowa...

On the first day of the Lilly visit -- Memphis came over to play.  The girls are picking petals off the Mother's Day bouquet (which was still in a vase of water, two weeks after the fact)

<><>Please note that Lilly is wearing a different dress in every picture. She LOVES to change clothes! She wore nine different outfits on this day. The girls baked cupcakes, and did lots of dress up with the dolls. My planned craft activity was to make little rose petal sachets for their Moms...but they lost interest long before the sewing part happened. They looked for butterflies, and played on the neighbor's swingset...then they helped me put together a picnic for Memphis's family... At the end of Day One -- Lillian went to bed in her Moon Room. And Grandma slipped into a coma...

Then, there was the butterfly catching activity. Which, frankly, didn't go as planned...

But, maybe with a change of accessories, they'll do better...