The plans started to fall apart as the girls got invited to go places and then Princess Five forgot she had a concert so in the end, none of us ended up going to visit.
I was sad about that but being the only parent in my girls world, I felt it was my responsibility to support Princess Five over visiting. Prince and Princess One were super chill with our change of plans and I appreciated that as I truly wanted to visit them and my super adorable grandchildren.
We weren't able to work any other weekend out until Princess Five's graduation weekend which luckily happened to be over Memorial Day weekend which was a thrill to me as that meant a long weekend with my clan!
Princess One had planned some fun activities for us and instead of being upset, she just altered the plan. I really thought she was super about the entire thing! She had purchased some fun coloring books about pearls and got one for each of us to do with her daughter and then she ordered oysters with pearls that are packaged from China. 
They smelled like formaldehyde or the smell when you dissect an animal in biology mixed with an low tide smell. The smell didn't stop the girls from digging in. I was OK to let someone else dig through the muck for my pearls but did touch them to say "I did" but Princess Two was totally OK not touching them at all and allowing her big sister to find her pearls. 
I was surprised at how uniform they were. There were some that were a little egg shaped but for the most part, they were nicely shaped and the majority of them were a peach in color. I don't know that pearls could naturally be that color. There were a few off white pearls and there was a darker purple and two nearly black with blue pearlier colors.
We weren't sure what to do with the pearls after we each got our two. We tried to match them up and swapped each other to get two matching pearls but I didn't know if I dared punch or drill holes in them. I then remembered I had purchased some little "cage" type containers at a second hand store in a jewelry grab bag about a year ago. 
I went down to my nightmare / somewhat organized jewelry craft area and within a few minutes found the containers. The girls were thrilled with them. They each held one pearl just wonderfully! Princess Two and Three swapped the matching pearls for one black and one white so they could trade them out depending on what they were wearing. They had a cage for each but I let them sort through some of my real silver chains to find one they liked that they could wear the pearls on. 
Princess One is making an earring and necklace set for Princess Four who is serving as a missionary in Japan as they have her for Christmas next year and will still be in Japan! I thought getting pearls while she is living on an island in the middle of the ocean would be a perfect gift! She had a nice set of three of the same color so that is fun. 
Princess One has a few more at home she wanted to do with her own family as we just did it with the girls. She took some of the little cages so she can make herself and her daughter something out of them.
All in all, it was a really fun activity and I was happy I had the little cages already so they could actually do something with the pearls. It created a great memory for the girls and a story for an heirloom piece of jewelry. I LOVED having my girls home and it will be all the better when Princess Four is home next Memorial Day! I was sad I didn't get to visit my mothers grave but truly, I think she would understand I was enjoying time with my girls before getting back to sorting her stuff! I have spent more time this year on my mother than my girls and I know she understands that I needed this weekend with my girls and the grand-kids!
I hope you had a wonderful holiday weekend and that you have a BLESSED Day!
No comments:
Post a Comment