Liesel and Ireland were deep into Music Man rehearsals so we never saw them. I kept sending them photos like this with a text "This is your father- he loves you very much!"
"We are your parents and we love you! We went to Portillos for dinner." They never responded, but I hope it gave them a smile.
The above photo was from Stake Conference and man it was nice to have a little date just the two of us and be inspired.
Liesel said something fascinating and Sydney concurred that neurodivergent kids can't be popular. They get too distracted and might burst out saying something odd. They both said not one of their fellow neurodivergent classmates are popular. Things that make you go hmmm...
Hairbrushes and pin-tail combs have a way of disappearing in this house. One cleanout of the Pilot and guess where they were found?
Some Trader Joe's flowers!
No idea what the furry green things are called but I love them!
We managed a trip to the Chicago temple with the little girls.
Gita made these packets for her jewelry and accessories for the week. Like me, she is a planner and she had her outfits for the week all laid out and ready to go.
Brigitta got braces!
A little girl in the dance class Liesel assists broke her arm and it was in a cast. Coincidentally, Liesel broke her finger but she just wrapped her injury. Regardless, those exuberant little girls wanted to sign both the cast and the taped fingers! How cute is that!
While I was in Birmingham with the little girls, this came across my feed so I sent the screenshot to Brent and said, "Where did you go? People think you are missing!"
For this trip to Birmingham, I decided we would do all the things. Usually when I visit it's a trip to Chopt for a delicious salad and then just hanging out at Whitney's house, which I love. This time I did some serious research and came up with a good list of things to see and do with the little girls. This time, we really DID Birmingham!
Starting off with church at Whitney's ward. Among the things she brought to help occupy Madeleine was this fuzzy pen...
...which also happened to match Sydney's dress!
We tried out Dreamland BBQ including their fried green tomatoes,
finger-licking barbeque,
(it was good)
and banana pudding
(also good)
Whitney generously supplied plenty of avocados so Gita could make her avocado toast.
YUM! We ate really well this trip.
We shopped it up at The Summit, spending time and some serious $$$ at the Lululemon, Ulta and Kendra Scott and then the girls had manicures while I took in a pedicure. They got pink French tips which they then used to drum on just about anything they could find. They even taught Madeleine to do it! We had a proper ladies lunch at Chopt. Sydney had really only brought Sunday shoes and her Uggs which somehow got left outside and soaked in the rain so we found a cute shop called Little Soles and bought her a couple of sandals she could wear for the week.
Statue of Liberty Replica- Apparently this was originally cast in France to go on top of the Liberty National Life Insurance Company building in downtown Birmingham in 1958 but was moved to a landscaped park on July 4, 1989.
1989 you say? Well then let's all pay Taylor Swift some due respect!
Liberty Park is free, quiet and just a nice place to meander.
In between all our adventures, I took the dogs on plenty of walks and my gosh Birmingham is beautiful!
Activate was all over every Google search and blog post about Birmingham with kids. It's kind of hard to understand exactly what it is until you do it, but I managed to catch this video. We had so much fun, we insisted on taking Whitney and Tim were available and again, we had so much fun! This was definitely a highlight of the trip!
Having built up quite an appetite, we tried out Post Office Pies. Coming from Chicago, I am always skeptical about another town's pizza but this place was so good!
Birmingham Botanical Gardens- If you are looking to escape a lingering Chicago winter to enjoy sunshine and cherry blossoms, this is the place! We had so much fun here soaking up all the vitamin D we'd been missing. So many beautiful spots for photos which is why we took so many! They have a big gift shop where I found an adorable little cream bag that looks somewhat similar to a tiny Birkin.
Sydney with her lilies of the valley.
The gardens are huge and there are so many sections to explore!
We couldn't have timed our visit any more perfectly for those cherry blossoms!
Brigitta wanted to climb all the boulders.
Sydney stays a little closer to the ground.
The bamboo forest was really cool.
Sydney found a P carved into one of them.
After all that walking we cooled off with ice cream from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams and it was indeed splendid!
Since we don't do any gaming at home, it's always a treat for the girls to play the Nintendo Switch at Whitney and Tim's- which they don't mind one bit. We also managed to do a bit of thrifting with Whitney which was really fun.
Whitney and Tim treated us to lunch at a place called Brick and Tin and absolutely everything was delicious!
We had driven by Sloss Furnaces National Historic Park but couldn't quite figure out what it was, so we decided to check it out. It was free and through the self-guided tour, we learned it's the "Birthplace of Birmingham" where pig iron (named for the moulding shape) was produced and shipped off on railways throughout the country. Definitely a different backdrop from the organic beauty of the botanical gardens, but another place to take some cool photos.
If you have a chance to get your meal delivered by robot, jump at it! We went to Yo Mama's where I finally satisfied my craving for fish tacos. Sydney had a classic southern dish- chicken and waffles.
The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute is so very well done and is just across the street from the 16th Street Baptist Church were 4 little black girls were murdered. I wouldn't say this was "fun" per se, but it was significant and important for the girls to learn. There were surprises and questions and deep conversations.
Brent kindly made us an appointment at the temple. There was a youth group doing baptisms and we were able to join them. They kindly put us at the very front of the line and both girls were in and out lickety split! With the drive, we thought we'd be gone for hours but once we were there, it was just 20 minutes, so we walked the grounds a bit.
The McWane Science Center was a one and done, but I'm glad we fit it in. We caught virtual butterflies.
Gita took me up on a dare to try this weighted bike on a wire.
Sydney played with bubbles.
We laid on a bed of nails.
Learned about forced perspective. Sydney and Brigitta are about the same height so this was fun.
Sadly this graphic did not aid my free throw shooting any, but good to know!
Back at Whitney and Tim's, Dakota became an eager companion of Brigitta's, especially while she ate.
The Birmingham Zoo was our last big stop where we saw this stunning wisteria!
We also saw monkeys, elephants, red pandas, lions, flamingos, otters, and jaguars among others.
We enjoyed a little train trip around the zoo.
We definitely did all the Birmingham things but our favorite moments were still just hanging out with Whitney and Tim. Brigitta commandeered the toy car and decided to see how far up the hill she could go on it. She did this over and over, sometimes narrowly avoiding a crash into the curb.
Seeing her on this...
...reminded me of this.
Whitney made sure the pool was open for them and even though the water was quite chill, the girls made sure to make good use of it. See how Felix comes flying from across the yard when Gita jumps in- just to see if she's ok.
Gita also perfected her handstand entry into the pool.
More than anything, Sydney really needed some love from her Aunt Whitney. Both of them are the youngest, incredibly talented with technology and both have ADHD.
They just have a special connection.
As parents, we always do our best to show our girls they are loved and valued. Ours should be the opinion with the most weight, right? But sometimes it seems more authentic when it's someone a little more removed and I'm so very very grateful for the amazing aunties my sisters are to my daughters. It takes a village!
