Farewell Tour Part 1

My brother's family flew out to Manila on Friday the 1st to begin the adventure of a three-year job over there. After their packers tucked the last of their things into their truck, they were to come down to my mom's for one last hoo-rah of cousin time. My sister Jodi came in town with her three on Thursday, and she and I began the partying a little early. Unfortunately, as happens with moves, unforeseen items came up and prevented the Elliotts from joining us until Saturday night.

It was a taste of what it will be like when Jodi's and my kids are the only cousins. It was plenty of fun, but each of the oldest three were lacking their little buddy. Katie (7) goes with Scott (8), Ian (5) goes with Ryan (6), and Abby Jane (3) goes with Ashley (3). There will be big holes without those special buddy relationships, but most families don't have those stairsteps anyways- so it's a taste of more normal age range of kiddos for this season of life. Jodi, Mom, and I managed to make the fun go on while we awaited the Elliotts with things like popsicles after dinner (the twins' first!)...

Pool time- here's her three- Katie, Ian, Maggie...
My three looking at the spillway by the pool...
Jake came over Friday night and got in some fishin with his big girl on Saturday morning...
Then we boot-scooted over to my fantastic Grandaddy and Granny Joan's house just in time for hugs and Granny Joan's snacks in the sunroom...
Grandaddy's BRILLIANT paper airplanes to glide off their deck (which he built himself, including all kinds of amazing adirondack furniture on it!)...
some swinging time...
and some flying time. Or so the kids thought. Joy wanted to go as high as the big kids had gone.
For some reason the twins slept HORRIBLY while we were there. So on the night before this picture, Jake and I got a collective 2 hours of sleep. CRAZY. Definitely called for a treat that Sunday morning. Here's Jake handing out doughnuts to the feeding frenzy, which is a bit of a tradition for him anyways...
Reading is another big family tradition at every single get-together. There are tons of pictures of every aunt and uncle with a passel of kids crowded around for a book. Susan, a former elementary school teacher, is always a particularly popular reader.
One day after my sister's family headed home, I watched Ashley while Susan took the boys to Six Flags (they got free tickets through some reading program). We had some quality little girl time in Grammy's driveway. Our last time with this sweet family was at the splashpark, and I'll give it a separate post...

Girls weekend!!!

I know, you think I meant to say Father's Day weekend. But no, my husband cheerfully sent me packing for my annual weekend with my Auburn roommates despite the fact this weekend should have been all about him. What a precious, selfless, servant-hearted husband and daddy this guy is!

Here's the four of us:

We went to Chattanooga this year, as Mikelyn's aunt had a river house she graciously let us use. This was the sunset that first night as we walked around the cute downtown after a delicious dinner at Tony's. Riverbend was wrapping up, so it was definitely a crazy and fun atmosphere down there!

Morning water is my favorite, whether it's the ocean, a lake, or river. Something is just really special about water in the morning. Both mornings I woke up earlier than everyone- some things never change- and spent a long time down on the dock enjoying the water and the Lord.

Breakfast became lunch as it took us a while to get out the door and decide where we were going to go. We sat down at the Urban Spoon, and I was thinking coffee, breakfast, etc... and we get a menu with salads, pork and beans, and meatloaf. After switching mental gears since we DID arrive at 11:00, we really enjoyed our lunch, and my smoked chicken salad on greens was fantastic. Next we headed back to the river house for an afternoon on the dock and in the river. (First of all, let me tell you we got this moon pie banana pudding to go- you read that right- moon pie AND banana pudding- and it was OUT OF CONTROL!!! Picture bits of moon pie substituted for vanilla wafers, with a bit of chocolate sauce thrown in for good measure... ummm, AMAZING. And appropriate, as Chattanooga is, after all, home to the moon pie. (Another pic from Fri night inserted here as I apparently took no blog-worthy pics on Saturday)...

The weekend was simply a pouring out of our hearts and lives and catching up on any minor or major event that emails or texts or phone calls inevitably omit, much to our chagrin. We all come away refreshed, encouraged, reconnected, and so incredibly grateful for the friendships we made at Auburn.

Here is a delish breakfast at Aretha Frankenstein's... quite the wait, but well worth it! That big round carb on all of our plates was ONE blueberry pancake- which sounds pretty minimal til you see how huge they were!

Here is my man and my girls Sunday afternoon after a precious weekend with their daddy! Jake and the girls camped out a Mimi and Bop Bop's for the weekend, and they had a wonderful time going swimming, playing with cousins, watching golf, and going on Bop Bop adventures. At one point, Blythe pulled down a runner on a buffet, shattering a hurricane lamp on it- Mimi went barefoot on broken glass to save my little girl's feet! And no one was injured. God is good! And so is family! Happy Father's Day to our resident hero, man of the house, and #1 man in all of our lives!

Coming of Age...

This morning, Blythe and Joy had their first smoothies! Abby Jane (who is in terrible need of a bow below) has been having a smoothie every morning since she turned about a year, but until this morning, the twins' main breakfast has still been that pumpkin oatmeal. Well, we now have three smoothie drinkers, and I even upped the ante: these pink smoothies are hiding three cups of spinach, distributed across my three little drinkers! Click here for the recipe I went by. Remember, if you are putting frozen (or fresh) berries in, the color is actually still pink, not green.

Here is Janie at 15 months with her morning special.

Joy didn't want to put it down, even when Blythe got down to play.

"Mmmm..."

Speaking of the twins' age, when Blythe had this shopping cart after lunch today...
this was how Joy felt about it.

It's not always easy being a kid!

Last minute

I was thinking about the 4th of July today when it hit me... only two of my three girls have 4th of July outfits. Glad this dawned on me now and not on July 3rd! I have a real hankering to do a turquoise dress (polka dots, gingham, or paisley) with red accents this year, but couldn't do it since it would not do well with the other girls' outfits.

Here's what I got this evening for Joy's "red" seersucker pillowcase dress. Haven't decided what kind of accent I'm doing with the blue yet (I'm feeling some sort of beach theme here), but at least I've got the bones for my red, white and blue dress!

If you need a last minute Fourth of July outfit, too, I'd love to do it for you! Go to 418 Stitches to pick out what you have in mind!

A day in the life...

Of Jake. I have a father's day weekend post coming up, but this day was last Monday, and I thought it was pretty classic.

7:15 Janie wakes up, he goes in to get her up.

8:00 Twins wake up, he gets them changed and sends them toddling down the hall to me for their breakfast, just like he does every morning.

8:10 Jake leaves for work.

11:30 Jake gets phone call from me saying we're on our way from a meltdown of severe nature at the pool (picture bicycle pedaling the air/ hysterical crying and strangers giving me dirty looks like I did something to cause it) and though I was calm about it all, I wanted more objective input as to an appropriate consequence.

11:45 Jake meets us at the house for what we deemed "a little shock and awe", some nice conversation with our three yr old, and lunch.

12:30 Jake goes back to work

5:30 Jake comes home, jumps in the game with the girls, and makes the world's BEST burgers. I've seen Abby Jane pick at other burgers, and I don't blame her since all she knows is the best.

6:00 Jake puts Joy in time-out mid-meal for poor behavior at the dinner table.

6:20 Daddy/family horseplay. Which is now officially condoned as healthy for our kids. Glad we have official approval to play with our children. (More "horseplay" in jumping closet at Grammy's recently.)

6:40 Starts bathtime. Successfully and masterfully cleans all children. He's a pro.

7ish B.E.D.T.I.M.E.

People say kind and encouraging things to me about how I mother, but if you look at that one Monday, it looks like I wasn't even here. Which I was. But the point is that Jake is THE man in this house. I might move the household along, but he is the head of it. My sister had a great line when she said that "Just like they say 'behind every strong man is a strong woman,' it works both ways: Em can do what she can do with the girls because of Jake."

Happy Father's Day, babe!

Tackle Abby Jane

Well, the tackling happened before I started recording, but click here for a video I took earlier today of the girls just playing around...

Graduation

We have now completed one tadpole, two minnows, and one seals class. We're done with lessons for this year and ready for summer! Here she is getting acclimated to the water with Miss Katie.

I love how intense Andy looks blowing his bubbles while Someone Else is obviously just looking like she's up to no good!
The proud graduates!