Thursday, June 7, 2012

Vacation- Day Four

On Monday we hung out with Gammy and Gampy and learned how to ride a training wheel bike and played dress up at Meme and Pop's and then went to visit G and Pa on the farm.
(we are soaking up every bit of this vacation time)

Matching aprons

Banana pudding

Four generations

Hmmm?
Buzzy and Mammaw
Water Fun
Farm Drink
Wheelbarrow ride


The girls had a perfect Summer evening running through the grass, climbing the fence, and chasing Frank.  Throwing rocks in the creek.  Snacking.  Laughing.  Splashing.  Not a care in the world.  And the beautiful thing is that it rubs off on their Mommy.  My anxiety and thoughts of the next plans and the dirty clothes in suitcases all fades away a bit when I see sunlight streaming through Amelia's blonde hair or Elise laughing hysterically while getting a face full of water.

Ahh the farm.


Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Vacation Kickoff

To start the long awaited vacation week of my hubster, Joanna and Adam came up to see us.  I was apprehensive about them coming because I knew how their hearts were still freshly aching over the loss of their sweet Meryn.  I didn't want the weekend to be extra hard for them because our two precious girls were buzzing around wildly, but they assured us that they needed to get out for the first time.

Amelia and Elise were excited to see them for sure!  Elise chanted "Nana" and "Dadum" all weekend.

We had a cake for Adam after supper and it was delicious!  Amelia loved singing to him and we were just SO happy to have him with us for his birthday weekend. 


After playing some games with the girls, and staying up too late talking, we were off to bed.  The boys golfed the next day and we colored, played school and played outside.  Joanna has always been good with my girls.  She is just a natural nurturer.  I was so proud of her the whole weekend.  I know how her heart is hurting, but she put others first (as always) and made a fun, fun day for my girls.

 Joanna was telling us how she has seen a white butterfly at her house when she has been praying and thinking of Meryn and that it allowed her to get close enough to photograph it without flying away.  She told me a few more stories about this butterfly and when we went out on the deck, there was a white butterfly!  We thought that was so special.
 
Barbara and Darrell came up to watch the girls so we could all go on a date night to Nakato.  We were so happy they were able to do this and Darrell surprised us all by giving us money to pay for our meal.  Even better!!! It was a blast and we took a slight detour to the mall where Joanna and I did some speed shopping.  Home to tuck the girls in and we called it a night.  Thanks G and Pa.

Here are my sweetie pies before church on Sunday.  Amelia was particularly excited to come out of her room and show Adam this crab dress.  She loves the fellas.

After church and a quick nap, we headed to Amy Jo's house for a fun cookout.  My favorite people were invited and the kids had a blast outside before the rain came.  (There was thunder and dark skies and lightning and I didn't go to the basement ya'll.)




Is it just me or is their house more fun than a playground?  Amelia and Elise love going over there.
The rain pushed us all inside to eat, but that didn't stop the fun.  The food was delicious.  Like, keep eating when you can't force in another bite because you know you won't get food like this again for awhile delicious.  Then Amy brought out the homemade ice cream.  YUM.


 After the rain, we headed to check Mem and Pa's chickens and look at their garden.


Fun weekend with fabulous people.  And vacation had barely even begun.

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Summer

Ross got off work early and....what?  You want me to repeat that?  Sure.

Ross got off work early and surprised us.  We promptly got out the sprinkler and had two hours of pure fun.  Ahhh.  Summer.




Saturday, June 2, 2012

Last Day as a Pufferfish


 I was a nervous wreck on Amelia's first day of school.  Look how sweet and tiny she was!!

She has done such a fabulous job this year and I just couldn't believe it when the last day rolled around.  We had a little bit of a rocky start back in August, but her personality soon came out in full force and just continued on during the course of the year.  I am so glad we enrolled her in this fabulous program and just can't say enough good things about it.  She did a little dancing on her end of the year party day- of course.



And let me say that I was SO confused as to why the end of the year party was on a Monday and they were then still having their last day of school on Wednesday.  I was stuck on that.  Why wouldn't the party be on Wednesday?  Well Amelia had strepthroat that Wednesday and wasn't able to go on the actual last day.  If it would have been how I wanted it to be she would have missed out on the most fun day of the year!!!!  I got to be a Mom Helper and I was so excited.  Thank you Mom for watching Elise and letting me go take part in the day.

Balloon fun in PE

Ring around the rosie with Kinley, Kaitlyn, and Kezzie.
Colored bubbles at recess
Amelia and Mommy
 In August she will be in the 3/4 class with a new teacher and I know she will grow and learn leaps and bounds.  Amelia, I am so proud of you!!


Friday, June 1, 2012

It Takes A Village: Part II

Here are some pics of said village:
Amelia Claire swimming!

Amelia and Shelb, her "big cousin."

Meme, Mom, and Livvy

Gammy and Elise

Gampy and Elise
Meme and Elise (thanks to her, I got to eat)
Aunt Jen and Liv


 Look what I got!  A picture of a lot of our family down by the pool.  Success. 

Mommy and her cutie pies before dinner the second day.  I just love these two so much.
Okay, at this point, I start to get out of order so I am just going to post a few more pictures and call it a day.  We had such a blast at the reunion and a huge thanks to Mom and Dad for paying for our cabin.  Love, love all my family.