Valentine's Day

OK, I know these aren't the best photos but we had a different kind of Valentine's Day this year.  My kids were all given the opportunity to have a special party as their basketball teams met to make Valentine's, eat snacks and then take the cards to a local nursing home to hand them out.  After passing out their special creations, some of the kids performed a mini-concert for the residents and the rest were able to sing a song or two.  I was glad to see the kids get the opportunity to serve others and make the day special for someone who truly needed it. 

As for my man & I, we took off that weekend for 24 hours without kids.  A hotel to ourselves, good food with no cooking, an exciting movie and sleeping in were some of the highlights.  Reminiscing about the many times, both good and bad, that we've shared over the past 16 years was the best part.  There is so much to be grateful for and God's faithfulness has been evident through it all. 

Hope you had a special Valentine's Day as well.

Mother Daughter Tea Party

Recently the girls and I were able to attend a special tea at church.  Each set of mothers & daughters was supposed to decorate their own table and enjoy a nice brunch together.  Now we're not the fancy type at the Murphy house (as you can see by the tie-dyed tablecloth) but the girls are all about special events.  We were blessed to get to sit with our "adopted Grandma & Great-Grandma", Donna & Paula.


We enjoyed some special music from our friends & their daughters and took a quiz to see how well we know one another.  As a special memento, our friend Jocelyn (in the above photo) was drawing on-the-spot portraits of each little group.  It was pretty amazing to see what she was able to do with us in such a short amount of time.

It was a fun opportunity to make a sweet memory with my precious girls.