Another great day

I woke up this morning to the sound of Matt mixing something in the kitchen. Did I mention it was six o'clock in the morning? He could not sleep so he decided to make pancakes for breakfast. Never mind that we had to have everyone dressed and ready to leave the house at eight thirty and they do not usually wake up until seven thirty or even eight if the house is quiet. Somehow the morning went off without a hitch, I went back to sleep, the girls woke up at their regular time, the pancakes were a huge success and there were three (clean!) dressed little girls marching out of the house at eight thirty!
When I was getting the girls dressed I told them we were going somewhere special but it was a surprise. When we got in the car Lior told us she wanted to go and pick berries, which would be a great surprise but not where we were headed. We were headed to the Little Gym for a make up class for each of them. Matt took Jordan to her class at nine and I took the big girls to a store to kill time. When it was finally time for the big girls class we walked into the gym and the girls took off their shoes and went to look in the window, all the sudden I hear Lior say in a VERY excited voice "Hey, hey my Daddy is in dere, my Daddy is in der, Daddy! Matt, Matt, Matt" and then of course Sydney starts screaming "Daddy Daddy". Everyone in the lobby was laughing hysterically. The kids had a great time at the gym. It was amazing to see all the dads at the gym, since the classes are usually filled with moms.
After the gym we drove about forty five minutes to our favorite kids shoe store again because it was about that time. Jordan's shoes were getting tight and the big girls wanted sandals. I thought Lior was ready for sneakers but he thought she could get away with at least another three weeks, maybe four in her current pair. Lior was so excited about getting a pair of sandals she let the man measure her feet and put the shoes on her feet, all while she was holding my hand. Sydney was not going to let him measure her feet, until she saw Lior slip the sandals on her feet, then she was kicking off her shoes and asking for sandals. Lior was walking around with the new sandals and was really less than thrilled, she said they hurt her feet and she tried to adjust them several times. When we asked her if she wanted the shoes she said "no" and meant it. She left the store without sandals and was not unhappy about it. Even with Sydney singing the praises of her pretty new sandals and Jordan's cute new shoes, Lior was happy with her decision and Matt and I were thrilled that she told us before we spent the money on shoes that hurt!
It was a great day, that started entirely too early. The girls were in a fantastic mood all day. There were no temper tantrums, fights or power struggles to put a damper on the day. We could not have asked for a better day!