The Day Her Brother Went to The Ducks Game

Last weekend Henry got to go to a Ducks game with some of his friends from school.
We were excited for him to have that adventure and excited that it would give us a day to really connect with and focus on Lily.  We didn't execute the day as gracefully or purposefully as we wished.  We tried to do too many things and didn't focus on Lil the way we hoped (I had an assignment to work at the temple in the morning, Nate spent a few hours helping out at the stake day of service).  By mid-day she was feeling kind of frazzled and disappointed and her sass really started to shine.  She has enough sass for a gaggle of girls and sometimes she makes her wishes or her distaste for people/situations known in no uncertain terms.  Her strong will and spice will serve her in the long run and I actually love them dearly already, but it's something we're trying to manage right now and sometimes as parents it's really tough to get the right balance.  
When we asked Lily what she wanted the day to look like she said, "I want a long day of coloring and jumping on the trampoline." :) And then as the day wore on, the real wish of Lil's heart emerged: to go to Kid-to-Kid to look for a halloween costume.  But because of a few colorful moments during the morning, we decided we couldn't grant that wish.  Sad, sad.  That pretty much felt like the most rotten thing to do on a day when we were trying to really focus on her and delight her.  Even when we went to bed, we were still questioning ourselves and our parental tactics.  As you can imagine, the day really dipped at that point.  But we did our best to pick it back up.  We colored a lot of pictures together. We went to Halley's soccer game.  We stopped at McDonald's for ice cream cones.  And when we got home, she mowed the lawn with her dad -- he even let her steer :)  (And my heart just swelled watching the two of them working together).  We ended the day with a visit from Nana, which is always a happy occassion.  She had dinner with us and we got the extra special treat of having her read some Harry Potter to the kids before bed.  
We just love Lily.  She has tenderness and concern to match her sass drop for drop.  I've had a terrible rash on my face and body for about 10 days.  Lily has been praying for me to get better from day one, without any prodding or reminding from me or Nate.   She will look at my face really sweetly and say things like, "sometimes I wish there were just buttons for stuff.  Like I wish there was a button I could push to make your face get better.  And a button for my homework, too."  It is just in her heart to care for other people and she is really quick to turn to prayer when she's worried about something.
We are so lucky to have this girl.  I hope we're loving her in the right ways and parenting her in a way that will let all the good, sparkly gifts she came with shine and grow.