Here is Pinkie Day Episode 11! I am playing around with some music and editing. This video is set to some rather dramatic and mood enhancing music. Like we need any of that with the excitement of Daddy coming home, but it is fun! The children are greeting Daddy. John is really getting excited now! He is really getting the hang of this "Daddy" concept!
Hope you are all having a great spring weekend! We are so happy to have Daddy home again. Today, George and I took Emmett on a little "date" to see Mr. Peabody and Sherman in Charlottesville. Emmett loved it. How bittersweet to see that movie. Emmett is 7 years old just like the character Sherman. Part of the message of the movie was about letting go as your children grow up. Awe. We are so proud of Emmett. He has really changed so much since he turned 7. It is like his face is literally morphing into a young boy from one day to the next. Oh wait, it IS! sigh...
And Carmen is off at a birthday party by herself today. She has been looking forward to it for weeks. She is so grown up, as well. She is doing a wonderful job with dance, she is reading and writing better each day, and she is so proud that she can count to over 100 now, just like her big brother.
George is so surprised at how John is changing. Hard to believe that John will be 2 on May 14th. That also means that we are coming up on 2 years in July that George has been working in Richmond. Wow. John was very sick a few weeks ago and when he recovered from that, he just took off! He is saying more words, running all over the place, saying goodbye to naps and he is about to be sleeping in a toddler bed. Next up, potty training. Well, not really. I want to potty train him about as much as I want to have a root canal. ugh...
Well, at the end of the movie today, I caught this picture of George and Emmett. It is so sweet. I love it when we can be together. Other than the fact that my George looks like George Clooney with that gray hair, it is a very touching picture! heehee Why does gray hair look so handsome on him and gray hair on me makes me look like I should be a character in the new movie, "How to Train Your Dragon"?
So on to the rest of the weekend. We are excited to begin Holy Week with Palm Sunday and the procession to remember Jesus entering Jerusalem. Have a blessed and fruitful Holy Week!
I just made a photo book for the children of our Myrtle Beach trip. I am experimenting with how you can add the photo books to a blog. So that is what this is!
What a Pinkie Day weekend! Well, I have decided to start posting AFTER Pinkie Day since then I will have more to say about our weekend! We had an amazing weekend together as a family. George took Emmett to VMI for a basketball game. They had a great time. As reported by George, Emmett jumped up gave a good ole fist pump when he saw a slam dunk. So cute! Meanwhile, Carmen, John and Mommy met a friend at the green way downtown and enjoyed a nice spring walk before the weather got colder today.
And Saturday evening, Carmen had her little dance recital that she has been practicing for all year! I told a few people that I can't share the actual video of her dance because there are SO many still pictures from the performance and the performance was so short! I have no idea how we got so many pictures from such a short little dance but we did it!
Lest you wonder why a doting parent would take so many pictures of one single, short event, here are some reasons for all the pictures:
Carmen is cute
Carmen is adorable
Carmen is happy
Carmen is adorable
Carmen is growing up fast
Carmen :)
Here in the Pinkie Day post, you will be treated to the actual video of her performance. Frankly, I am too tired to figure out how to get all the pictures on this blog post right now!
After the recital, George and I actually went on a date. It was such a lovely evening. George went to VMI 2 times that day because we went back to see the play. However, plans changed when we realized we'd be late so we stopped in and visited his old friends and it worked out great because we were there at intermission. We also stopped at Walmart first to pick up food for the cast. When George was in VMI theatre way back when, he used to have turkey, bread, sunchips, cokes and squeezable mayo. That was the fare that evening. It was fun to do that for them. Then we just made it in time to the movie theatre to see Mr. Peabody and Sherman. It was an adorable movie!
Sunday, our poor little John was very ill and running a high fever. Although, I was not happy he was ill, I did enjoy cuddling with him at mass and getting some time to relax on the couch while he was sleeping. So glad George was home to help care for him and to keep me from panicking about how high his fever was.
Having a sick child in our house goes something like this:
GEORGE!! JOHN'S FEVER IS 105!!!!
(long pause)
Lorraine. Take his temperature again. Go to the store and buy some children's ibuprofen and some pedialyte.
(a bit calmer) ok
Happy to report that John is doing much better now. He really slept it off. Poor little guy. Thank God for my husband and his medical background. If we both reacted like I did at a fever, then our children may just be taking care of us instead!
Thanks for stopping by and I hope you had a great weekend with your family or whoever is important to you in your life.
We are looking forward to this coming Pinkie Day when Daddy will be home for a whole week! Ahhh....I like the sound of that.
It is hard to believe that 2 weeks ago I told the children we were going to the beach for vacation. And now here I sit on our last night at Myrtle Beach. We arrived last Saturday and we leave tomorrow for the condo in Richmond to see Daddy.
I am watching the birds fly off into the ocean and the pink sky say goodnight for my final sunset here. What a beautiful week this has been. Not a cloud in the sky or a breeze that we couldn't handle. Every day a new field trip and a new adventure in our lives. With every wave that crashed on the shore, a new memory was made.
.
We missed Daddy the whole time, however, and we look forward to seeing him tomorrow on Pinkie Day in Richmond. I have documented our trip to the beach as much as possible in order to share it all with him since he couldn't be here. It is amazing how you can be in paradise and having a wonderful time, but if the right people aren't there, it is much less than it could be.
Well, the moon is almost full, and so are our tummies! I think we ate enough junk food this week to feed an army. It will be good to get back into the routine on Monday! My jeans will thank me for it.
I am still trying to figure out how I want to blog this trip. So stick with us! It is a work in progress.
Happy night before Pinkie Day and have a wonderful weekend with your families!
Happy Pinkie Day! Well, even though we won't see Daddy today, Carmen is excited to share some news. Here is her video from last night.
Here they are in a traffic jam just blocks from the ocean!
We made it! This is the view from the balcony.
Ahhhh...so happy to see the ocean.
A short Pinkie Day post as it is not actually Pinkie Day! BUT, if you'd like to follow our adventures and field trips this week, feel free to follow us HERE!
Well, not really. We are actually NOT going to see Daddy this weekend. He is busy working in Richmond and we are busy trying to not miss him too much. We are distracting ourselves with adventures and fun news. Are we in denial?? I think NOT!! We are just doing what we gotta do!
So this morning we started out at Chik Fil A celebrating Dr. Suess' birthday by eating breakfast and decorating a cookie in the theme of One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.
I read this story to them last night to get ready for Dr. Suess' birthday
Here they are decorating their cookie at Chik Fil A this morning. John did a pretty good job, although he did start licking the icing right off the knife.
This afternoon we are going to the James Madison University Planetarium to see the Sesame Street family show. JMU does great community outreach and I am so glad to have them as a resource for my young scientists! You can like them on FB here. Don't make the mistake I did and try to navigate the website. They have more up to date information on their FB page.
On a different note, John is really getting used to Daddy coming and going now and it is very sweet to watch. Right after John was born almost two years ago this May, George took the job in Richmond. This is all John knows. He knows Daddy coming and going.
This past Monday, when George got his belongings ready to leave, John sat on his lap extra long and he interacted with him a little more right before he left. George and I both commented that it was new of John to do this. We could really see John starting to understand that when Daddy gets his backpack ready, that means he is going somewhere. It was so sweet to watch! John just sat on Daddy's lap and smiled as if to say, "I am going to spend as much time with this guy as possible before he goes." Below, you can see two pictures of them together. John asked to do Itsy Bitsy Spider and then there he is all smiles on Daddy's lap.
And now to the Pinkie Day surprise. Well, I decided to tell the children today that in one week, we will will be going to Myrtle Beach, SC for a week! We have been invited by George's roommate to go to stay at his timeshare for the week. We are going to have many adventures and wonderful learning experiences! How neat is it that we have been observing the moon all of February and now we will see first hand how the moon affects the ocean tides! This teacher is very excited for that!
So this morning, I hid the three little sand toys you see in the picture. I showed them the kids sunscreen and told them that I hid three things in the living room that go with the sunscreen. They caught on fast! Their faces were priceless when I told them.
Have great week, everyone! Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy that family time no matter where you are!
Daddy's home!!! Here is the video to prove it!! :)
Pinkie Day is here! Hope you had a great Valentine's Day and have stayed safe and warm in the snow! We had a great Valentine's Day and we are so happy that Daddy, OUR Valentine, is home for vacation. After two long weeks, we are ready to have Daddy home for a whole week! Poor Carmen has been counting the days on her fingers for two weeks. She has been such a trooper. No Pinkie Day last weekend because George had to to work and he was on call. Occasionally this happens and boy is it tough.
When you have a parent that travels, you have to get used to a few different modes of communication. Face-to-face contact becomes a luxury. Here are things you may hear me saying on any given day:
Hold the phone to your ear
Wait for him to answer
Call Daddy and say goodnight
Speak up!
Daddy can't hear you
Can you hear him?
Did he hang up?
Look at Daddy on the screen
Mommy and Daddy love you no matter WHERE we are!
We have Skyped a lot and that is so great for the children. For Mom, not so much. I am so self conscious I just keep checking myself in the camera. I don't know where to look, don't know if he is looking at me and so on. You get the point. I'm a mess!! Actually, I do have to share that when I do see him on the screen, I just LOVE it! I love to see his face! That's a good thing. I break out in silent song and channel Roberta Flack...The first tiiiiiiime, ever I saaaaaaaw your faaaaace....
John just LOVES seeing Daddy on the computer. It is really adorable. Daddy sings "Ridin' On a Horsey" and John plays the game and falls down just as if Daddy was in the room.
Emmett runs around the room and hides from the camera and giggles.
Carmen starts to share everything she wants to share and it all begins like this..."Um, Daddy?" It is cute.
I like to watch George try to give them directions from the screen. I wonder to myself, do they think they don't have to obey him because he is inside a computer program? "Emmett, put that down. This is Daddy, speaking from Skpye. Don't make me come out of this screen!" Sometimes I listen from out of the room and instigate a fight among the children to see how he would handle it. No, I am kidding about that. Currently, I am working on an app that would allow him to change John's diaper from Skype. Not having much success, though.
Yes, communication has its challenges while one parent is away. However, any communication is the KEY! I am so grateful to have such a supportive, communicative and loving husband. It makes all the difference in the world.
Speaking of communication, enough blogging and on to face-to-face time with my family! Have a great week everyone and thanks for stopping by.
Happy Valentine's Day! Here the children are enjoying their Chik Fil A kid's meals for their Valentine's Day dinner.
If this isn't a Chik Fil a ad for age 3 and under prizes, I don't what is. John loves Super Why on PBS. When he saw he received a Super Why board book in his meal, he was so happy!
OK, when John drinks chocolate milk, he is in this exact same position the until it is all gone. Too cute!
This is the best picture I could get of John with the big heart sunglasses on.
A good distraction while waiting for Pinkie Day was our 18 inches of snowfall the day before Valentine's Day!
All bundled up and ready to go outside and attack the snow!
This is what we saw upon opening our garage door on Thursday. :)
