reunited and it feels so good

beware: long post with many similar looking pictures of adorable little girls. you have been forewarned!

megan and xan (our bestest friends who now live in china) got to come stay at our house for five glorious days. we had the best time. i am so very grateful for my friendship with megan and for eva and xan's friendship. they were in texas for the holidays and planned a little detour through madison.  this is a trip that megan and i had been planning for several months.

we had decided to try and keep this a surprise for eva and xan. partly because neither of us wanted to hear daily/hourly asking of "is xan coming today? when will xan be here? is it january 9th?" and so on. also we thought it would be tons of fun to just surprise the girls.

so here's how it went down. i took eva and lily on a drive. eva asked where we were going and i told her "just for a drive". when we got to the airport she said "the airport!" i told her i thought we would just go inside and walk around. she replied "alright!!!" (we clearly don't get out much.)  


so we went inside and started walking around and i spotted megan and xan. 


now, i must pause here and tell you what megan and i had envisioned happening when these two little girls spotted each other. it was supposed to go something like this: they would lock eyes from across the room, the theme song from chariots of fire would start playing in the background and they would start running towards each other in slow motion, one yelling "EVA!" and the other "XAN!" and quickly embracing each other while laughing and jumping up and down and maybe saying something like "it really is you!" all of this happening while onlookers stop to smile, point, maybe even shed a few tears while watching these two sweet little girls finally reunite after many, many months apart.


ummm...yeah, not so much.


here's how it really went down:


megan had sent eva a shirt to wear that matched the one xan had on so they could be dressed similar.  as we started heading their direction i told eva "look at that girl down there, she has on the same shirt that you do!" and eva said "yeah! and she looks exactly like xan!" (clueless).  i said "she sure does! and look that lady with her looks just like megan!" and eva said "yeah!" (still clueless).

we continued to walk towards them and i said "hey! i think that is xan!" and eva said "i think so, maybe..." so we walked right up to them and xan was very shy and eva just stood there and smiled and then said "i'm not really sure that is really xan."  i convinced her that it was and then megan suggested that they hug and from that moment on they picked up right where they had left off when they last saw each other 9 months ago in april.

so, lesson learned. five-year-olds don't do well with such unexpected surprises.

we knew they had picked up right where they had left off when we caught them holding hands on the way out of the airport.

a summary of what eva and xan did for 5 days: wore the same princess dresses everyday, played, watched movies, and...yep that's about it.

they also spent time just looking pretty darn cute.

and practicing their "smiles".

and looking cute some more.

and making silly faces.

and they also tortured shaun for a while.  they rode his legs all around the house.

and then shaun was their horse. i don't think lily ended up with the best seat here.

and then the horse finally broke down.

and then they played games together.

and painted their fingernails. and their toenails.

and the next day they painted their fingernails again. and their toenails again.

and of course took baths. and splashed lots of water everywhere.

and they danced like crazy girls all around the living room.

and they even dressed in something other than princess dresses, finally. all by themselves (obviously).

and then they spent some last moments together.

and then it was time to hug goodbye. :(

and just in case you are wondering here is a summary of what megan and danielle did for 5 days: eat. talk. eat. talk. eat. we did take one picture of us together but who wants to see a picture of two tired mommies who stayed up past midnight talking every night and stuffed their faces full of food for 5 straight days?

the end.