Every once in a while my awesome husband does something awesome for my mental well being and takes the kids to do fun stuff with their grandparents while leaving me at home where it is quiet. All I have to be responsible for is ME. What a novel concept. So here is how I spent my Mommy Vacation. Girls night on Friday evening with two great friends and a yummy dinner at a fancy French restaurant. Slept in on Saturday morning, caught up on some television on the DVR, ran to Adventureland for a work event, hit the grocery store, home to cook a meal that my family wouldn't want to eat, ate said dinner, blogged while watching television and then to bed. Up early on Sunday morning and back to the reality of laundry and house cleaning, organized a few cabinets and the kids dressers, leftovers from last night's yummy dinner and then my family came home! The dinner my family wouldn't have eaten. Started with caprese salad.....
Anchovy and garlic pasta....with extra anchovies on top!
Massive slab of strawberry shortcake.
While I was enjoying my Mommy Vacation, the kids were having a blast with Gram, Pa and GranJo. There was a trip to the Dollar Store with a $3 budget for each kid, some frozen yogurt, a cookout with burgers, a trip to the park, some pizza and a whole lotta fun! Here are a few pictures from the trip to the park. Lots of smiles!
Peak-a-boo Paul!
Everyone loves the swings......
And then the funny faces....he is rather expressive, don't you think?!
Earlier this year when I asked Paul what sport he wanted to participate in this spring and summer, he excitedly answered tennis. So I found a tennis program for 5 to 7 year olds and last week was the week of his foray into tennis. And he was pretty darn good. He had a blast and talked a lot about how much fun he had. It was just 4 days of tennis camp and just 45 minutes per day but he loved every minute. We are seriously considering finding him a private coach to see if this is something he continues to enjoy. He's tried several sports and hasn't really "attached" to anything yet so maybe this will be his thing? Who knows but if he likes it and is good at it then I feel like it is our job to encourage it. Check out some great action shots.....he's good pretty good form and he even learned how to overhand serve.
Paul has a new obsession with something called Magic Pop. The package indicates it was created by a Korean man and his wife. The product is made in the store and then sold in a package. Imagine a flavored rice cake the size of a small plate. Pretty tasty and very low in calories. The other night at dinner, Lillie decided that she needed to try one too. And she loved it. The way she was munching on it was super funny. She was crunching really loud and repetitively. We were all cracking up. And then of course as soon as I pulled the camera out she wasn't quite as funny....but you will get the idea. I especially enjoyed Daddy's comment about eating drywall. These things are pretty dry but tasty. Enjoy.....
Tomorrow our fifth care package for Peter will be headed to Seoul. Hard to believe that enough time has elapsed in this wait to allow for five care packages to be prepared and sent. It is hard work to continue to find cool new things to send that will fit in that darn gallon sized bag. But we will continue to focus on our task as we have lots more time to wait....and therefore plenty more care packages to prepare! We snuck some cute summer clothes into this package. Based on his most recent height and weight, I am going with 3Ts on top and 2Ts on the bottom (along with the waistbands that are adjustable). I LOVE preppy boys clothing!
I included this cute beach hat that Gram and Pa picked up in Florida over the winter. It was too small for Paul so we think it will fit Peter just great!
And now on to the fun stuff......a singing plastic wallet.
And a favorite toy around here.....a singing flashlight. You can adjust it to shine different colors, it sings, it counts, it has a ladybug on the handle....what's not to love!
And finally another pair of shades....we are big sunglasses wearers in this house. We sent a pair a few months ago and now a cool pair with flames on the side! We are quite sure he will be a cool dude in these.
And I must have forgotten to take the "all packed up" pictures. But here's a shot from the package's traveling place.....back left of the bag along with all of the other bags of love headed to Seoul tomorrow. Couldn't be prouder of the network of families that I am honored to participate in.
Sadly I have already started thinking about Peter's second birthday package. Since we have to plan ahead, it is time to think about what will go into that package and then hope to find someone traveling in September to take it. With Lillie, my main goal was to make sure she came home before her second birthday. When we accepted Peter's referral, it was pretty clear that he would most definitely not be home before he turned two. We didn't even know about him on his first birthday. So now I am completely focused on hoping that he is home before he turns three. And we will most definitely celebrate enough to make up for the birthdays we are missing. We know he is so loved by his foster family.
This year's weekend to celebrate all things daddy was a bit low key. Jason's back was bugging him so we stayed pretty close to the house and just hung out. Paul had his last tee-ball game on Saturday too. He enjoyed the season and it was fun to watch him learn a little about baseball! Daddy got to pick our dinner menu on Sunday.....he chose salmon! After dinner the kids gave him their presents but not before a little snuggle on daddy's lap!
Too tight daddy....stop squeezing me!
I think Paul was pretty proud of his card.
Always so fun to see Lillie's answers to questions about her parents. Evidently she is older than daddy in her mind.
Here is the card that Paul was so proud of....they made it at school before they dismissed for the summer.
Evidently Paul thinks daddy is strong because he can hold him. He was close on his guess on Jason's age. The rest is questionable and Paul can't remember how he answered.
Here is the book that the kids picked out for their daddy.
I took the kids and dog for a walk around the neighborhood....Lillie had to bring her pink purse. Of course she did.
And then we played some hoops.....the ball is bigger than her head.
Good effort Paul - and he made the basket on this shot. He is getting so much better at dribbling and shooting. He said on Sunday that he wants to play on the basketball league again.
And I will leave you with one of our newest fun things to do. It's called Fetch and the rules are quite simple. Mommy throws the ball and you run to retrieve it and bring it back. When playing with two children, you must alternate who goes first. This is serious business. And sometimes you can mix up the rules a bit and have Paul throw the ball for Lillie. Nice to have options. Mommy loves this game because she can sit in a lawn chair and it makes the kids very tired. This video of fetch makes me giggle every time I have watched it.....enjoy!
I am so hopeful that Peter will be home next year in time for us to celebrate Father's Day as a family. I am not sure how realistic it is based on the super slow progress that the Ministry and Family Courts are making. But hope perseveres and so I will remain hopeful.
The last day of vacation really stinks! Especially when you have to get up super early to get to the airport. Ugh. But, we made it out of the house on time and hit the road to return the mini-van, schlep our stuff to the terminal, head through security and wait to board our plane. Don't we all look thrilled to be up and on the road so early?
We actually were pretty efficient and got to our gate with lots of time to spare. Paul filled his time playing video games and Lillie enjoyed the poles and hand rails near our seats. We wiped her down thoroughly with sanitizer after this.
She is pretty strong for being so small.
We were delayed at O'Hare which got us a bit off schedule and meant we had some meltdowns when we finally were able to fly back home. We made it through it, got our luggage and headed to grab some late lunch....and then this happened within 5 minutes of being strapped into the car.
So we ran to the grocery store and I waited in the car with the snoozing kids. Jason grabbed some staples and Chinese food to serve as our late lunch/early dinner. When we got home Paul perked up but Lillie never really wanted to wake up so we just put her to bed. She slept from about 4pm until 8am the next morning. It's tough to have that much fun and then have to come home and she was clearly worn out. What a great trip we had - there were certainly stressful moments and tantrums that were irritating but on the whole I think it went pretty well. We didn't overschedule ourselves which helped. We picked specific fun things to do and spent time hanging in the pool or at the beach. We are so fortunate to be able to do fun stuff like this. I must admit there were sad moments when I realized that we were missing one of our little ones to be running around in the pool and on the beach. We are 5 months into our wait and while we have waited with grace and patience thus far, I found myself feeling negative for the first time. This is all very normal but still hard. We were blessed with the update on Peter right before we left for vacation which was nice....but it would have been nicer to have him with us. The time will come and we will be thrilled when it does. I can't send enough thank you's to Mimi for her hospitality. She was such a wonderful hostess for us....we come with lots of baggage and noise and mess. She had so much fun with the kids and they were thrilled to be at Mimi's house. We are so blessed.
Our last morning in the Keys meant a quick run to the resort pool before we had to pack up and hit the road. Love that scrunchy face.
We had the pool almost to ourselves for quite a while and we took advantage of it! The water was warm and it was a nice morning. The kids were in happy moods.
Lots of fun at the pool.
And then it was time to pack the car and head out. A few final shots of the kids in front of our beach house.
We stopped at Islamorada Fish Company for our lunch.....we ate right by the water and had a good time watching the pigeons, pelicans and seagulls.
It was back to Mimi's house and of course the kids wanted to hit her pool one last time. Thank goodness for daddy who was willing to get in with them while I sat and watched.
Enjoying some pool basketball!
Mimi decided to celebrate their most recent birthdays while we were there....she had a super fun birthday hat and made red velvet cupcakes for Paul.
And an angel food cake with yummy strawberry sauce for Lillie. She refused to wear the fun hat....big surprise there!
Everyone enjoyed the yummy "birthday" treats. Paul started with the angel food cake......
.....while Lillie started with a red velvet cupcake!
And then it was off to bed since we had an early morning on Saturday.
