Butter Brew & Brunch

Today was actually the end of an era… Since 2017, we’ve had a little girl attending daycare at Growing Room. But today was Addison’s last day there! So in honor of that, she wore one of sister’s hand-me-down GR shirts, that was just slightly too big for her, but so cute!

We weren’t actually planning to pull her out before completing VPK there and moving on to kindergarten. However, they reduced their VPK student spots in half for this upcoming year (without telling the families, unfortunately), so at re-enrollment the spots filled up super fast, and sadly we didn’t get one of the spots. So slightly against our will, we had to find somewhere else for Addie to attend VPK next year. We already shared here before I believe that she’ll be going to NFC, but now you know more the backstory, since I don’t think I shared that part before… Anyways, today was our last day there, after eight years, which is such a bittersweet feeling at this point!

And then we got this picture of Addie and her teacher, and one of her sweet little besties poking her head in on the side! 🙂

OK so today was Emerson’s 8-year-old checkup, but not until mid-morning, so her and I had some time to just chill on the couch at home after Jeff and Addison left, before we had to get dressed and out of the house. And on the way to the appointment, we made a stop by The Frother’s Daughter for a Butter Brew iced coffee, in honor of Harry Potter’s birthday today! I rolled the dice to be sorted into my house, and unfortunately I rolled Slytherin…

But my tiny girl had a good, quick, easy check-up. She’s a whopping 47 pounds, and also 47 inches, and her vision and hearing tested perfectly.

I decided to splurge and treat us to a mommy-daughter brunch down the street after the appointment finished, so we headed over to Uptown Cafe. This is one of my favorite local Tally spots, but we haven’t been there in forever. She ordered Minnie Mouse pancakes with strawberries, and I ordered the Uptown Combo, subbed toast for a bagel with their delicious homemade garlic dill cream cheese, and we just kinda shared a little bit of everything together. (Except the cream cheese was too garlicky for her, but certainly not for me.) It was such a sweet little brunch date together, just me and tiny bestie!

We went right back down the street after we ate (the doctor’s office, restaurant and summer camp are all within like three blocks from each other down Miccosukee Rd) and I dropped her off at camp right before noon. Well, Jeff decided he wanted a special Harry Potter coffee, so before I went to work, I ran back by there to pick up a coffee for him, and obviously I had to get another one for me too. I rolled the dice again to get sorted into our houses, and this time we got one Gryffindor and one Hufflepuff (we are both Hufflepuff actually), but this time we both got the Espresso Patronum, and this one was even better than the Butter Brew, in my opinion.

OK and then I did eventually make it to work, for just a short little half day of work. But it was a very busy, chaotic half day, and I was still glad to see 5 o’clock roll around! Today was also the last day of the summer gymnastics session for Emerson, of this T/Th 5:30-7pm schedule we’ve been doing for all of June and July.

I think I’ve been the one to take her to all but two of those nights this summer, but I’ve actually loved getting to watch so much of it this time around (last spring, I only took her like once a month because it was so early in the afternoon I had to take off work to make it there…) and see how much progress she really made. She was also moved up into a higher class this summer, and she’s really learned a lot and gained new skills and gotten even stronger. I’ve also loved my 1.5-hour of reading time two times a week 🙂

Jeff picked up Addie today as usual, and made sure to pick up all of her stuff from her cubby, and any recent art work, since we won’t be going back there anymore! And one or two last photos before heading out the doors for the last time!

And so on the last day of Growing Room, and the last gym class of the summer, we decided to go out for dinner at Culver’s again. We love getting their kids meals (me included), so that we get the coupon for the free cup of ice cream. Well, it’s technically “custard,” so it’s creamier and thicker, and very yummy. Today’s flavor of the day was mint cookie and it was so good.

Once we got home, it was time to get started on the usual bedtime routine, and although it was later than usual, both girlies did fine, and everyone was asleep very quickly and easily.