"I Miiiiiiisssssss Her!"

Well, yes, I do in fact already miss Mrs. Figby. I find it so effortless and easy to hang out with her. But those words, that's a quote from Dumpling, less than 10 minutes after dropping Apples off at the airport. And then, big ole tear drops streamed down her face. And she held her sister's hand in their respective carseat and moaned about how much she was going to miss Apples, how Apples was her BESTEST best friend and then they recapped the ENTIRE weekend out-loud ("and then, we swam in the pool! And remember when she let me play with her little petshop? and when we went to my room and hid in the closet! that was fun! I miiiiiiisssss her.........")

I'll skip the minute by minute recap, since Mrs. Figby already gave an indepth report of her time here, but I will tell you about some of my favorite moments of their visit:

• right off the bat, at airport arrivals, Dumpling and Apples spy each other through the glass and Apples takes a mad dash towards us to say hi to Dumpling. They had met once, almost 2 years ago, there is no way they actually remembered. but right there, in that moment, they were instant friends. Plus Dumpling had made a nice Welcome Apples sign like the limo drivers. Except pink with butterflies....
• Being able to leave them almost immediately with M the Amazing babysitter to spend the afternoon by ourselves like grown ups. it was only 4 hours, but it was so pleasant. Yes, there was shopping involved, but mostely just a lot of talking.
• the look of shear terror on Apples' face after dinner on Saturday night as we were leaving a messy tomato sauce dinner... Mrs. Figby picks her purse up (well, it was hanging off the table by her fancy purse hanger doo-hickey) and she says, super nicely, not mad at all "Oh dear Apples, you spilled some sauce on the Prada!" Man, that kid thought she was done for good! It wiped up immediately, and like I said, Mrs. Figby wasn't mad in the least little bit, but the look on Apples' face..... a 5 year old who has clearly been thought the importance of taking care of a good Prada bag!
• Memorable, but for a different reason: leaving the grocery store, Mrs. Figby announces with no fanfare or forewarning that a night of insomnia in my basement led her to the conclusion that she was closing her blog.... I wasn't surprised, we had discussed our online futures in Paris, but I wasn't expecting it in that particular instant...... I'll miss her blog. Luckily, I should be good for private info by email!
• Finally, memorable overall: watching two  5 y.o. become fast friends in the space of 3 days. There are no politics in friendship when you are 5. Sure, Dumpling got in Apples personal space a few times and required adult supervision to rectify the situation, and there were moments when frankly, they had enough of each other, but overall, it was so fun to watch them evolve from perfect strangers to total companions, even telling secrets and plotting jokes against us.

I leave you with a few photos.....

Apples hangs in the bouncy castle (best ever afterdinner activity to tire out children)

the ladies at the Biodome

Vets in the making

Dumpling has some Mad Skillzz as a waitress

Finally, Apples and BB as pit crew

Comments

[Mrs Figby]

Yep, all true. And not only has Apples made me PROMISE we'll go back when there is snow, but I'm still being nagged for a sticker machine! ;-)

[Lulu]

Lovin' the pit crew photo in particular. Perhaps Mrs. Figby could guest post here every once in a while so we don't all suffer from withdrawal symptoms?