Just a Saturday morning

 Saturday morning pancakes with my sous chef.

 Jake with a monkey on his back teaching the game of checkers.

It feels successful that the girls have been aware of the game of checkers for about three weeks now and can access it on their own and we actually still have all the checkers so far. I don't expect that to last long, but it feels like win for now!

Dad of dads

As some of you may have seen on facebook recently, the girls have given Jake a new title: "Dad of Dads!" There are a million reasons they think this, but here is one of them.
One day, the girls said, "Dad, I think we need a swing under this tree." We actually had a random swing kit I had purchased years ago from IKEA stashed in the barn. So Jake said, "OK" and 15 minutes later, a swing was hanging under our dogwood! It is the front yard hot spot.

Here is Dad of dads drilling in climbing pegs for easier access to our favorite climbing tree. Love this man and love how these girls love this dad!

Legoland

 Last month we surprised the girls with a morning at Legoland, thanks to a great deal on Google offers. Jake had taken off the day to go with us to the zoo on our last month of membership, but we woke up to chilly drizzle and made a change of plan. The girls were ECstatic. Abby Jane went last year with cousins, and the little girls had stayed behind, making this their first time. They loved it! This first room was a huge and ridiculously detailed display of the city of Atlanta, all in legos.

Here we are at the 4D movie. Joy made it about 20 seconds into the 12 minute film before she was shaking and crying so hard that Jake made a quick exit with her. It was not her forte. Blythe tolerated it, but Abby Jane LOVED it.

 They had fun climbing in the massive playhouse, mostly having the place to themselves.

I thought this was funny- it was just the two dads building legos together for a little while til the kid walked up. Legos: not just for the kiddies.

The girls loved this ride that goes up and down as you pedal. There was another ride that Abby Jane also loved where you shoot the bad guys, but we came nowhere near attempting that one with the little ones! It was an INCREDIBLY fun morning, and I'd absolutely recommend going for a fun outing!

The New Naptime

Abby Jane has been spending an hour of the twins' "naptime" in the playroom since we moved into the new house. She is so creative, and it's fun to see what she does with her alone time... party invitations...

Tying together triple strollers...

Teaching classes to her babies...

And conducting all kinds of parties!

Love this girl!

Goodbye to The Oaks

 We went down in April for A-Day and the last rolling, as I'm sure many of you did. If you didn't read this article about the trees, it is fantastic and so well done.

 This day went a lot differently than I expected. Usually when we're in Auburn, we've coordinated and planned and we're meeting up with folks and there's tons of hanging out and catching up with friends. On this particular A-Day, we didn't do any planning and the only friends we saw were the ones we ran into... which there were plenty of, since it is Auburn and no matter how many people are there, you always see friends.

 I thought it was going to be this fun time of letting the girls roll the trees and enjoying the day and experiencing sweet Auburn.

But it was so much more than that. Because we weren't spending time with friends and it was just our family going through the day, we really soaked up and reflected on the full meaning of the day so much more. It was the perfect thing for that day.

Over 86,000 people showed up for the spring scrimmage, and I guarantee they weren't all there just to check out our new line-up. All these folks were rooted in Auburn and these two trees meant something deep and intrinsic to them.

 We watched the game, and it was the twins' first time inside the stadium, which was so sweet to share.

 Our little Auburn women.

 They played tackle on the field after the game.

 But when all the hoopla was done, we passed back by the trees on our way back to the car. The main festivities were about to begin, but the girls were done after a long day and we needed to start the trip home. Here's the transcript to David Housel's speech, which perfectly encapsulates the moment.

Just being honest, we snapped the girls into their seats, and I went around to the back of the car and cried for a moment before we got into the car. It may seem silly if you're not an Auburn person, and it may seem like they were just two trees, but Jake and I started the walk that ended in our engagement under those trees, and that's not even the tip of the iceberg of all the history that has passed under those trees. It is simply such a sad loss in the history of Auburn. But the beautiful thing is that there will be more history to come, and it's an honor to be a part of the Auburn family and be a part of that history in the making.

Observation Day

This little lady. This little lady thrills my heart. She amazes me daily. We were supposed to observe her ballet class this day and see the girls practice their recital piece. But I was really just observing my girl growing up.  I'm a big fan of this kid.

Twinsies

 These two crazies are my favorite littlest buddies. They are made complete with Abby Jane, who perfectly completes the trifecta, but just the two of them are pretty big buds. I honestly just want to just squeeze them to pieces.

Campout at Grammy's

 In April we had a camping trip planned with Jodi and Chris, but wouldn't you know, it got rained out. So we re-routed and did a weekend at Camp Grammy instead. As chances would have it, it didn't rain there, so we had a great outdoors spring weekend, complete with canoeing, paddleboarding, and fishing. Not to mention have some fabulous family time!

 Katie is a paddle boarding queen, and she has even placed in a creative writing essay contest with a story called "Paddleboard Fun" about the first time she ever went.

 Joy and her main squeeze.

 The "triplets" on a canoe ride.

Abby Jane and I were out on the paddle board for a cruise and were pulling up close to the shore where Jake was fishing. I was pulling back the paddle to splash him when his line went taut and he pulled a large-mouth bass, definitely the biggest fish he's ever caught in years of fishing on Mom's lake.

 There is no end of delight I get from this.

 Ian went for his first ride on the paddle board...

 And this is about how that went down. He thought it was awesome.

 Teaching my Blythey how to cast...

 Other than great times on the lake and great times with family, another great plus to our camping weekend getting re-routed was Grammy providing babysitting for a date night out for Jo, Chris, Jake and I. It's so much fun being such good friends with your family that you want to double date with your siblings. It was a good, good time.
On that note, T-minus-just a few weeks until the Elliotts get in town for the summer and the whole Elliott clan will be reunited. Wooohoooo...