Meet In The Middle

colleen had a great idea to have a girls weekend, where we meet in the middle...so, we chose raleigh, nc...which actually tends to be a little further for my northern girls, but i'm happy they are okay with that.  i picked gianna up from school soon after it let out and we got on the road.  i was scheduled to take a pretty big test the following weekend, so i wanted to do some studying on the drive (audiobook), so i made sure that gianna had snacks, her ipad and her headphones.  that seems to be the perfect combination to get her to be quiet.  as anybody who is around her for any length of time knows, that is a feat in itself.  

so, she's all set...let's hit the road!

this was after daylight savings time, so it got dark around 5:30 and before i knew it, we were out of south carolina and my girl was snoozing hard!

but, when we arrived around 8pm, she woke right up, excited to see mommom, nana, aunt colleen, lilah and ady.  this was the weekend after her birthday, so she got to open her presents from nana. 

and nana had a surprise in the car for her, so off they went...skipping through the parking lot.

what!?!  a new bike!

after a good night's rest, we headed to the mall to see if we could find a certain jolly old man.

we found a nice play area for the girls while we waited to see if the big man would make an appearance.

mommom and the girls took a ride around the mall in the train. 

and they got to go for a spin on the carousel. 

we found him!  lilah was a bit hesitant to talk to him and get close to him, but she warmed up and they all got to tell him what was on their wish list. 

this little stinker wouldn't let me take her picture, but i caught her...isn't she a goof?

nana convinced gianna to get her ears pierced, so here she was, getting ready.

right before the piercing...

...and right after!

but, she didn't cry for long...this was about 3 minutes later.  she was super happy with her new sparkly ears. 

and was showing them off again at dinner time. 

we had a nice evening spent rolling around target...

and then got to watch some cartoons before bedtime. 

the next morning, we went to a few more stores before we had to say goodbye.  i love these two girlies...they are only 6 months apart, but lilah's got a few inches to go to catch up...

 

we can't wait to see the girls again in about 10 days!!!