Father's Day Weekend

This past Friday was the first Friday all month that I've been home with the kiddos and everyone was healthy so we headed outside to a "new park" per Phoebe's request.  We headed to Holliday Park - one she hadn't been to since she was probably 18 months old so it felt new to her.  

However, now that Maverick is mobile and Mr. Independent, she couldn't just run everywhere she wanted - it was 90 minutes of compromise but she handled it like a champ!

Still the easiest way to contain them...

Maverick fell asleep for 10 minutes on the way home from the park and that was the extent of his nap that day - which made for a long day and a fairly unproductive one as well. We did get a few errands in at the end of the day when it was more than apparent he wouldn't be napping at home.  Then we met Ryan at the Westfield Farmer's Market - which is held on Friday nights.  We snagged a few goodies and the kids had a good time in the kids' area. 

Working on her frisbee toss.

We parked by a Catawba tree and Phoebe said, "Those are huge green beans!"

Saturday morning we got up and went to the Carmel Farmer's Market.  They claim it's one of the biggest markets around but we left unimpressed.  Nothing but vegetables and we didn't need any more of those!  Not to mention it was (or felt like) 98% humidity and about 90 degrees at 10:00 in the morning so we made the rounds and headed back to the van!

Phoebe's gift to Ryan for Father's Day was some one-on-one fishing time. 

She surprised us by being eager to touch all the worms!

Her first of five fish that she caught in just a couple of hours!

Sunday, after church, we headed to YiaYia and Papou's to celebrate Father's Day with my family.  This man has taught me a lot about life, about love and about loyalty.  God gave me one heck of a dad and it was fun, albeit a bit chaotic, to celebrate him! 

Phoebe filled out a little questionnaire about "My Daddy."  Among her answers, she included:

"My daddy is as big as a:  grandpa."

"My daddy's favorite food is: salad."

We'll try again next year. 

Inside her card, that she picked out all by herself and which begins, "From her royal highness..." she drew him a picture of a forest. 

These kids love their daddy!  We're so lucky to have someone that works hard, plays hard and loves even harder!  There's no doubt in my mind that God hand-picked this man to do life with me and these two amazing creatures!

All the handsome men in my life. 

This was as good as it was going to get.  GGMa and GGPa were good sports while we tried (unsuccessfully) to get Phoebe to look straight ahead and open her eyes. 

Maverick was ready for nap number two but he had fun hanging out with Uncle Steve.

Ah, yes, my crazy family.  I'm not sure Phoebe is ready to claim the rest of us as hers quite yet.

But somehow she loves me as madly as I love her!

All is right with the world when there's freeze-dried yogurt to be had!

We piled into our cars late afternoon and took YiaYia, Papou and Uncle Steve to the model of our floor plan so they could see what our home will (sort of) one day look like.  We go for the sign-off on the 28th and are told we should be moving in to our home by the end of November.  Here's hoping for a mild fall/early winter and that they're super efficient on everything from the permit process to the construction. 

While there, the girls took a break to say "Cheers!" once or twice.

This little one is turning into one hilarious kid (at least her mama thinks so)!  She loves to quote movies - her favorites right now are from Cars ("Silly Grandpa car, I'm not a bulldozer!") and various things from Despicable Me (which she's seen maybe three times) ("So fluffy!" "Light bulb..." "Someone has a frowny face...") - what gets me is that she says ALL of them in a row.   She also sat by me while I was changing Maverick's diaper last week and started talking about his "tail."  Oh my word.  She cracks us up!