dates with kates.

Although these two lovely gatherings deserve two special posts of their own, this is my EIGHT HUNDREDTH blog post and it needed to be extra spectacular so I'm combining two very awesome play dates I went on last week with incredible people both named Kate! {And besides, the title rhymes and the poet in me is tickled pink about it.}

When Rhonda told me that her, Kevin and my little angel Kate were going to be on a tiny island off the coast of Fort Myers for Thanksgiving, I squealed with delight! Last Saturday, I was able to spend all afternoon on little adventures guided by the wild imagination of the six-year-old Miss Kate, just her and I! I met her collection of stuffed animals including a lone beaver in a herd of puppies + kitties. "I want to be a dog shampooer when I grow up!" I learned about all her friends in her first grade class. When I asked how many she had, she humbly replied, "Ummm... like a baker's dozen!" She reluctantly showed me her very advanced reading skills + has a vernacular that consists of more three syllable words than I even know.

We fished on the dock, her and I. We went out for a delicious seafood dinner {thank you, Nona!} + then we hunted for shells down the beach as the light of the moon danced on the Gulf. "That's a planet, you know!" Her memory of our days together is even more vivid than mine and much of our conversations now begin with Kate saying, "Remember when..." and that just makes my heart smile because perhaps my favourite three years of my life were making memories with Miss Kate... and my heart will carry on smiling knowing they'll never be forgotten and there will be many more days, just her and I.  =)

As if my awesome Sunday in Sanibel wasn't enough Kate to fill my heart eight hundred times over, Monday I met Katie Bug and Kate + her girl tribe for lunch at Olive Garden just down the street from our high school, to pay homage to the old times and reminisce about life when we all lived in the same city and saw each other every single day. Although I absolutely adore reading her silly antics every morning with my caramel brulee latte to start my day off laughing, it's a little surreal getting to interact with Kylie and love on Piper in person. They are the two sweetest babies and I'm so happy we've kept in touch the last 7+ years! As magnificent as it is to have a friend like Kate in my life, its pretty special to get to be a part of her girls' lives too!