Can you ever spend too much time with Grandma?

Ask any of my kids that & the answer is NO WAY! These four were loved on non stop while Gaga, GGran & Grammy were all in town.  Words are not needed to express the love these women have for their grandchildren & great grandchildren...just look at the faces of all : ) 

My Grandma had not met the boys until this weekend & Jeannine had not held them since they were just days old in the NICU with all sorts of wires & tubes attached to them.  Quite a bit has changed since then!

The first moments of seeing the boys...

a little sneak peek of the nursery I have yet to photograph...

Remember how I said that GGran gets the most smiles & coos of anyone I know? Here she is with Owen who is usually stingy with his grins...

Here is Eloise trying to show off some wrestling moves...

I love these two black & white ones.  She spent so much time just talking to them & they loved it!

Love seeing these hands touching my boys knowing they were the same hands that held my mom & me as babies....

Grammy stayed at Aunt Jenny's house but came to visit lots. It's like she couldn't get enough double snuggles!

looking very much alike! Anson on left, Owen on right : ) 

Anson & GGran

Grammy & Anson

Jeannine and all her boys

We were all surprised to get such a great picture of all six grandkids with Grammy! We were definitely missing Papa!

It is not hard to miss but there are definitely WAY more pictures of the boys with the Grandma's than the girls due to the non stop action we experience around here.

We love these Grandmas & our GG who is up in Michigan looking forward to visiting in the fall! Thanks for loving on our kids!

Splish Splash Birthday Bash

I feel like I am constantly playing catch up...it is a new way of life & I am learning to be alright with it. So, two weekends ago, we celebrated Charlotte's 4th & Eloise's 2nd birthday together with one big splish splash bash. After planning two separate parties last summer only 6 weeks apart (and inviting all the same families) we thought, "why not celebrate them together!" It was fabulous to plan for & knock it out in one weekend. Plus the girls had a blast!

With all the time spent playing in the Florida heat, we decided that an outdoor water themed party seemed perfect for the celebration. Too I bad I didn't consider the monsoon of a summer we had experienced so far & if I were smart enough to think about that I would have picked a morning party instead of the afternoon. More on that later.

Here is the invite we emailed out...

It worked out perfectly to have all the help we could possibly imagine when Jeannine plus my mom & Grandma all ended up being here over the weekend. We could not have pulled it off without them!

Little missy, sporting her new swimsuit from Auntie Deb & Uncle Joe helped me make the "Crabwiches" which were a copycat recipe from Pinterest...of course. We did chicken salad croissants with olives for the eyes & a radish for the smile. She wanted each of the crabs to have three eyes & thought it was HILARIOUS. So, we compromised & I let her do one crab like that. If it would have been her third birthday, I would have let her do all of them ; ) 

This is a great picture to capture the true essence of the newest two year old on the block....

The rest of the food was themed, Lifesaver life rafts, sea cucumbers & crab leg carrots, goldfish & sweedish fish, triangular cut cheese for shark teeth & octopus hotdogs.

Eloise LOVES her grandmas & great grandmas! We are so excited to spend more time with this particular one in the coming years since she is officially retired!

So, we got it all set up & I took the first picture with the bright colors & the sun beaming through the window. The next picture was taken at 3:30. The skies opened up & rain came pouring down promptly at the start of the party. Haha!

We made the best of it! Finding Nemo was on but these three little munchkins decided to play dress up....

Karis, Charlotte & Hannah

Isaac, our handsome little nephew was rockin' a cool hair do & looking so much more like a big boy. He enjoyed snuggles from Uncle Rob.

Rob & Eli stood outside on the porch with the girls who were hoping the rain would stop.  Thankfully the thunder & lightning finally let up & although the rain continued, it didn't stop the kids from having fun!

The adorable Audrey was all smiles watching the big kids play from mommy's lap.

The party moved outside to the Valentine Water Park which included our upgrade to a triple wide slip n' slide. Robby gave me a hard time about why I chose a triple wide instead of a quadruple one so all four of our kids can race ; )

It was fun but then it got even more fun when the dish soap came out & the Dad's decided to participate....

Sal

Eli

After we were all soaked, we served up some sno cones.  A little back story here... in college at Texas Tech, my roommate Cheryl & I enjoyed eating sno cones from a place called Bahama Bucks.  Robby & I had many a date that included a stop there as well. The year we moved away from Dallas, a Bahama Bucks opened right by the lake we kayaked on & we were SO excited. Then we got here....we were hot....we were always saying "I just want a sno cone!"....then about a year and a half ago we came upon a place called Seprock's Sno....our dreams had come true! We have taken some family dates there & sometimes when I am out running errands alone I stop by & get a treat that I don't have to share with anyone : ) Back to the party.  I thought sno cones would be the perfect addition to our splish splash bash with the hot sun beaming down.  Haha! We were a little chilly from being wet, in a rainstorm but it didn't keep us from enjoying a sweet treat!

Sno & flavors provided by Seprock's Sno- the Hulk, Blue Bubblegum, Pineapple & Strawberry Cheesecake

The best idea I had to cut down on prep time was to throw a couple candles in the sno cones & sing happy birthday!

You can't say I didn't try to get a picture of the birthday girls smiling together....

Eloise, oh Eloise! This little firecracker was overcome with love for sugar during the party. It is possible that she might have consumed at least 8 sno cones. Here she is at the table eating a bite out of each cup lined up in front of her.

It's like she would stalk people waiting until they placed their cup within her reach then she would down it.  Rob's face makes me laugh. It's like he is thinking "oh joy, she is going to be up till midnight with all that sugar in her system!"

Eloise wasn't the only one who enjoyed them! 

We had so much sno left over that we had a mini sno ball fight!

Eli happened to be the perfect target & the girls had a great time hurling sno at him while he blocked with a beach towel. 

One last game that we enjoyed was shooting ping pong balls off of golf tees with water guns.  It may have been a little over the coordination of a 3-4 year old but they still played even if they were only inches away : )

Here is the Grandma & Great Grandma  that spent the weekend at our house.  They along with Jeannine were so helpful caring for Owen & Anson & helping me get everything ready.  By the time we got this picture Eloise & Owen were done!

Even with all that sugar in Elo's system, they were happy to go to bed that night after such an exciting Splish Splash Bash!

Celebrating a father

We laughed this Father's Day thinking about how much there is to be celebrated....there is no denying that this man is a father with four little Valentine's & a wife that loves him dearly.  The boys woke up LOTS during the early morning hours so I just stayed up once 5:30 hit. They girls were up super early too...I guess everyone wanted to celebrate! I cooked some breakfast tacos while the girls fought & screamed at each other in the kitchen (seems to be a pretty common occurrence these days).  I went in to wake up Rob at 7 & told him I was sure he didn't want to come out to eat breakfast with all the grumpy kids but it was on the table. Ha! He happily got up & joined us. Morale improved once he was at the table & we were able to share our gifts.  Robby had requested we not spend any money so here is what we came up with.....

All about my Daddy 

Father's Day 2013

by Charlotte & Eloise

-answers: Charlotte/Eloise-

What is Daddy's name? Robby/Wobby
How old is Daddy? 3/2
What is Daddy's favorite color? Green/Orange
What does Daddy do for fun? Play with Legos/Play me
What does Daddy like to watch on TV? The news/Calliou
What is your favorite thing to do with Daddy? Eat ice cream/Play toys
What does Daddy say a lot? Mommy can you please get a diaper?/Gaga
Why does Mommy love Daddy? Because he is your husband mommy/cause he laughs
What does Daddy do at work? Do computers/play computers
Who does Daddy love? Mommy/Gaga
What is Daddy's favorite thing to do you with you? Read books & take me on a date to Steak n Shake/Hol me, Rock me
What is Daddy's favorite place to go? Chimneys (Chuy's)/the park
What does Daddy call you? Charlee/he call me El-wheese mommy
What is Daddy's favorite thing to eat? Ice cream & cucumbers/Oatmelt & coffee
What makes Daddy laugh? Funny jokes/Mommy
What makes Daddy sad? When I'm mad at him/When Gaga yeaves, that make Daddy so sad!
What makes Daddy smile? When I make funny faces & when I'm nice to Eloise/ Me
How does Daddy help you? By getting me a banana/Help me go potty
How do you show Daddy you love him? I give him hugs/ I race him (with much excitement)
What is your favorite thing about Daddy? He is fun to play with/He hol me, rock me, pat me

I thought surely Eloise was not old enough to answer all the questions but she didn't miss a beat! She is a little hung up on Gaga right now so she was included in many answers. A couple comments on the answers...I thought it was really neat that Charlotte said "because he is your husband mommy" to the question "Why does mommy love Daddy?" It is true that ultimately I do love him because he is my husband, even when I don't feel like it, I choose to love him. Also, Eloise answered "Mommy" to "What makes Daddy laugh?" We do A LOT of laughing together & I'm so glad the girls notice that! I do hope our children will grow up understanding what the commitment in marriage entails. I was also reminded of the simplicity in showing love to our children. It's things like helping them get a banana & reading them a book that makes them feel cared for.

Our other free gift for the man we love

The girls love to watch the videos of photos that I have put together over the past few years so I thought it would be special to make one to celebrate Daddy.  They were SO excited to see all the pictures of fun things they have done with him.  The song "How He Loves Us" was easily chosen months in advance.  The clip of Robby & the girls playing that is included in the Father's Day video was a really sweet moment for me. I had Pandora going on my phone & that song came on.  It was blaring in the background as I witnessed two girls delighting in their father's love & affection. The words of that song are a beautiful depiction of how our heavenly father loves us & as I listened to those words while watching those three enjoying one another I thought about how an earthly father has the opportunity to love his children in the way he is loved by God. I love seeing Robby love our children. He would be the first to say that he is far from perfect but perfection is not the goal since we have a heavenly father who perfectly loves us...we are free to love imperfectly.

After breakfast & a nap for the boys we loaded up & headed to Tampa.  The plan was to keep our tradition of making this trip on Mothers Day but since it didn't work due to sick kids, we thought we would give it a try for Father's Day instead. Major plus, we had Gaga & GGran with us...four on four is a great arrangement for a day trip.  The kids did well in the car & we arrived at the fountains outside the Children's Museum in decent moods.

The boys were content in the stroller....

this is one of the first pictures where I think I would not know who is who later in life if I didn't state that
Anson is on the left & Owen is on the right. They look SO much alike!

The fountains provided much entertainment! Last year Eloise could only crawl....she was a wild woman this year running about!

Charlotte was happy to pose in her new suit & also happy to play the role of mother hen....

Eloise was given a mini baby by another girl there & she took great care of her holding her over the spraying water. She made up for her torture by sitting down to rock & sing to her while watching the other kids play. 

These two lovely grandma's enjoyed taking care of the boys....

I did sneak over for some double snuggles....

We walked over to the canal & waved at some boats going by....

After playing we went over to Ybor City to eat at our fav restaurant, Tampa Bay Brewing Co. It was quite the adventure even four on four. Just the car trip over was enough to make us want to go home. Eloise declared loudly that she needed to go potty immediately after getting everyone strapped in so my mom unhooked her since I was pumping & sat her on the potty that has been going everywhere with us. She threw a complete fit when it was time to get off the potty & back in her seat. There was no where to empty the potty since we were in a parking garage so we started driving carefully down the bumpy road. We valeted the car & I was thinking I should try to soak it up with a diaper or something but Robby told me to leave it.  We got inside & my mom said she might by Robby a shirt from Tampa Bay Brewing Co to commemorate such a special day...I said "the day that tee tee spilled all over the back seat of the Expedition?" Thankfully it never spilled. 

We attracted a lot of attention with Eloise's antics (since we skipped a nap) & the boys combined crying. At one point my grandma started waving her arms like she was directing a symphony of screams haha! We thought Eloise would be fine on the bench next to Gaga but she quickly proved us wrong. After requesting a high chair the waiter returned to let us know they had run out! That was hilarious....I asked him if he could take one away from a more well behaved child so we could confine our crazy one. Thankfully one was available after another 10 minutes of misbehaving.  We strapped her in & kept on taking care of everyone else. We laughed later when Robby mentioned the family behind us with one little boy in his perfectly pressed collared shirt sitting quietly in his high chair eating with a fork & knife ; ) Oh the days of dining out with one child....it seems so long ago! We were glad to leave as were the surrounding tables.

It was a special Father's Day & ended with the father we were celebrating enjoying some quiet time on the back porch with a book & a cigar while I headed to the hospital to photograph the delivery of Lilah Leigh to our sweet friends Annie & Eli. It was a LONG & wonderful 24 hours celebrating all the fathers in our life.