Mother's Day Weekend 2014

After last year's weekend of fun at Skytop Lodge, Grammy's side of the family planned another one. We all traveled to Pennsylvania to be together this past weekend. It is amazing to me how much activity we all managed to pack into a day and a half. 

We hit the road on Friday afternoon and as we crossed into PA, we landed ourselves in miles of traffic. What to do when it's time for dinner (actually almost time for bed) and you are stuck in traffic with whiney and screaming little girls? (Other than stop to go potty two times!) Well, these parents led the loudest little Disney dance party sing-a-long we could and kept the snacks flowing. It's hard to keep up shouting while Joe is belting the Lion King.

 

After many hours in the car, we finally sat down for dinner at 7:30. I think Abby's face says it all! 

 The girls actually did pretty well at dinner considering how overtired and hungry they were, but when the meltdown started it came quickly. One of the sweetest (and most chaotic) moments of the night was bedtime. Abby was a little wound up, but Ella was past the point of no return. We thought for sure they would crash when we got them upstairs. Well, Ella was not having it. 

Abby got settled into her bed and Ella was in the crib a few feet away. Ella just kept screaming from her crib, "Nooooooo eeeeep. Peeeeese, nooooo eeeep! No Daddy! Mommy no eeeeep!" It was so sweet to hear Abby whispering from her bed, "Ella, don't you want to see Grammy in the morning? If you want to see Grammy, then you need to go to sleep. Ok?"  Ella: "Otay Abby!" Then, she would lay down for a few seconds, think about it....and start again. After a few tries, Abby asked permission to get out of bed and help her sister. Joe and I were completely spent and kind of at a loss, so we sat back and watched as Abby's dream came true and she had a real life chance to comfort her sister like a little momma. Abby asked Ella to lay down (Ella listened) and rubbed her back as she sang their bedtime songs to her. Total peaceful silence. It was beautiful. Until, Abby walked back to her bed and fell fast asleep. That seemed to be Ella's cue to jump back up and start shouting again. "Abby, Abby peeeeese elp me! Elp me Abby Elp me!" This girl finally wore herself out at 10:30. Phew! That was some start to the weekend. Joe and I fell fast asleep.

The girls were up bright and early the next morning. I let the girls play some games on my phone while we were getting ready. I love this picture of them playing together. They are such buddies.

Rough night? Who had a rough night? We are totally refreshed and ready to attack the day!

 The hotel is absolutely beautiful, inside and out. I couldn't get enough of the stunning floral arrangements everywhere.

Nana and Ella are buddies. Ella loved to sit next to her at meal time and play with all of Nana's jewelry or find something fun in Nana's purse. They also enjoy taking walks together. 

Saturday was filled with fun aunt and uncle time.

make your own ice cream sundaes with Uncle Tommy

Uncle Bradley and Aunt Alex

silly Philly Phanatic glasses from Grammy

While most of the guys spent the morning golfing, a bunch of us took a hayride around the property. Rain was predicted for Saturday, but it turned out to be a gorgeous day instead. Perfect morning to be outside.

three generations

 

An empty-ish lobby  must mean an open dance floor, right? Abby sees wide open spaces and she just can't resist making it her stage! Ella joins right in.

best daddy ever.

The grounds around Skytop are so gorgeous, I could literally take pictures all day. These tulips! I couldn't get enough of my little girls and the tulips.

Abby asked me to take a picture of her with this one and posed all by herself. I love her.

 

Next up...the rubber duck derby. We headed down to the creek with to see whose ducky would make it to the finish line first. There was an extra duck, so Joe claimed it, putting himself in the running with ten kids for a free milkshake. It was all fun and games until Joe beat out a bunch of excited kids. Thankfully, there was a duck that made it past the place Joe's duck was stuck, so the guide gave the first place honor to the little boy. I say thankfully, but Joe wanted that milkshake and wasn't so sure about having his title as Rubber Duck Derby champ taken away! ;)

After lunch and naps, we all headed down to the lake to check out the boats. Abby hopped in with Uncle Brad and Aunt Alex. Ella, Joe and I rode right alongside Grammy, while G-Diddy rowed. Grammy even led us in rounds of Row Row Row Your Boat!

 With an hour left before we had to get ready for dinner, we headed down to the pool for a swim and confirmed once again what I already knew. My girls are like little fish. Abby is a cautious fish who does what she can to ensure water safety. She loves the water and could stay in it all day! Ella is a pretty fearless fish. We have to watch her very carefully because she would go under (in the one foot of water they were playing in) and it barely phased her. Joe would pull her up and she wouldn't even pause before bouncing around again without abandon. When you imagine a kid standing on the edge of a pool preparing to jump into their parent's arms, Abby is definitely a "how about we test this out a few times with you holding me, so I can determine my level of trust and make sure I'm not going to land safely in your arms" kind of kid, while Ella will just jump right in before anyone is ready for her and no one is looking. Can anyone say 24 hour life vest for Ella when we are in Florida next month?

The girls made some friends at the pool. It was fun to sit back and watch them interact with the four older girls so easily. The eight and ten year olds loved having the little ones come play with them. Ella was running around the pool and hugging all of them and Abby was making up games for the girls to play and telling them the rules. My favorite was overhearing Abby have a big kid conversation with the girls:

Kayleigh: Abby, where are you from?
Abby (with such confidence): I'm from (insert street address here).
K: Where is that street?
A: In New York. In America.
K: What city is that?
A: Oh ummm...Albany. The house with a blue car and a green car in the driveway. 

Then, we headed back to the room to get ready for dinner. When dinner was over it was close to 8:30, so Ella needed to go up to bed, but Abby got to stay downstairs with the grownups and dance. I heard she was learning to waltz with her Daddy. She came upstairs at 10:00 so full of energy and excitement. I'm pretty sure she felt like she was on Dancing with the Stars.

 

 

 

On our last morning, the two late nights and the day full of activities must have caught up with Ella because this was her until 8:30 when we had to wake her up for breakfast.  When my girls sleep until 7:00, we consider it sleeping in because it never really happens. Once 8:00 hit, we even turned the lights and TV on in the room while we got ready and this girl did not budge. I LOVE these pictures. I could just squeeze her and kiss those chubby cheeks all day! Actually, when she woke up, I did just that.

 

We only had a few hours after breakfast before the big Mother's Day brunch, but we enjoyed some mini golf (both inside and outside), archery on the lawn (where I channeled my inner Katniss Everdeen) and took some more family pictures. 

It's not often that a rattlesnake display makes me do anything but walk by it as quickly as I can without looking.  Justin Timbersnake is officially on record as the only snake I ever liked.  My N'Sync fandom lives on in nature. :) I'm wondering what my girls will do with that cultural reference when they read this someday. N'Sync? What was N'Sync? When I hear them start saying..."Oh, that must have been back in your day, Mom...", I'll just break out my best choreographed dance for them and call it day.

running into her daddy's (and Abby's) arms. I love this sight.

kind of felt like Katniss Everdeen, but with way less style and skill

We are thankful to have been able to celebrate Mother's Day with Grammy and Nana over a yummy Mother's Day brunch. We are blessed by these two special ladies in our lives.

so thankful for my family

There aren't enough words in the world to express how blessed I am to be a mommy to these little ones. There is no where else I'd rather be. There is no other way I would choose to spend my days. There is no other job I could want more than this one. I'm so honored that God chose me to love and teach these precious girls. They are my sweet gift. My daughters, I love you so so much.

Abby might be over pictures right about now...or it's starting to sink in that we are leaving in two minutes.

Take two with Ella

One day I will share more about our sporadic photo booth picture collection. When we find ourselves near a photo booth, we try to capture the moment and watch our family grow. This was our first as a family of four. Unless you count the one we have with Ella in my belly!

On our drive back home, I saw this and was reminded once again of how much I love my home state! I really really do love New York State!

And....one...two...three....they're done! This was our backseat three minutes into the drive home.

 

This year, it worked out perfectly because we were able to celebrate Mother's Day with my mom too! On our way home, we stopped to take my mom out to dinner. Though it seemed too short, the time was really special to all of us. The last four years have made this day more special to me than ever before, not only because I became a mom, but because at the same time my mom's life was saved and she was given a fresh start. Mother's Day is a celebration of so much in our family! I love you, Mom!

Reflecting on this weekend, I am reminded of how many wonderful moms we have in our lives! I'm thankful that we got to spend time with so many of them on Mother's Day. (Though we definitely missed celebrating with Nagymama.)We love you all so much!

Bookworms: Spring 2014 edition

Most weeks, I'm heading to the library to pick up a preordered stack of books from a list of must-reads I've compiled. Then, we roam around the shelves with an already overflowing bag and add even more! This week, we didn't have any books waiting for us and went in with an empty bag.  (Danger!) We chose randomly and without knowing anything about our books this time, but ended up with an overflowing bag of book gems.

 1. How to Hide a Lion by Helen Stephens- a sweet picture book with a clever plot and beautiful illustrations

2. Skippyjon Jones Class Action by Judy Schachner- We love EVERY Skippyjon book. These books definitely win the award for best books to read out loud. Not going to lie, I love the chance to show off my Spanish speaking skills. It really fits well here since the book is a whole lot of Spanglish. Makes me sound like a pro. The girls have a lot of fun and get into it too!

3. Hippos Can't Swim: and other fun facts by Laura Lyn DiSiena - Such a fun learning book. The pictures are beautiful and the animal facts fascinated the kids. I learned a lot too. Engaging and informative.

 

4. Sophie's Squash by Pat Zietlow Miller and Anne Wilsdorf

 

5. Henry's Map by David Elliot 

 

6. This one is a gem for another reason. It isn't the story that delighted us most this time, though this Little Critter story was particularly cute. Snowball Soup by Mercer Mayer made our Bookworm Favorites list because Abby opened it and with the exception of a few words read me the whole thing all by herself! Some of these beginner reader books still have really hard words in them. This one was perfect for a beginner reader. I loved seeing the look on Abby's face when she realized she was taking this one to the finish line all by herself. Milestone moment!

Unexpected Adventures

I'm a planner. So most days I tend to have a general outline for what I expect to do. It's not often that I wake up without any plans, but I did the day after Easter. That tends to happen the day after a holiday. We're usually tired. The day after a celebration the girls are most likely detoxing from too many sweet treats and lack of sleep, so I never plan much. We take it easy, stay in our PJs for a while and play A LOT, while we recharge to start the week for real on Tuesday.

Every now and then, God surprises us with other plans! When I'm flexible enough to roll with it (a trait I'm learning to cultivate more and more), I'm always so glad I did. His ways are so much greater than ours...even in the simple day to day moments when I'm willing to follow Him.

Monday morning our plans were shaken up by 9:00 when we learned we had to make a spontaneous trip to my hometown. On Easter, my dad took our green car home with him to work on it for the week. With all the happenings of the day, Joe didn't realize that he had left his wallet in the car after church. On Monday morning, when Joe went looking for his wallet..he quickly realized it was an hour and a half away in my dad's driveway. So, the girls and I got ready quickly and packed up for our unexpected adventure. (Side note: So thankful for my dad and his willingness to spend his days off fixing our cars for us when we need him! Thanks, Dad!)


It was a beautiful day, so on the way I called my mom and asked her if she wanted to picnic with us at my favorite park. She rearranged her day and packed up a picnic for us. After visiting with Papa and Uncle Cory for a bit, we spent the afternoon with Grandma enjoying the day! 

 

I have years of memories at this very spot. Picnics by the river as a kid. Learning how to pump for the first time on the swings as a little girl. Fourth of July fireworks. Class field trips. Hikes with friends. College goodbyes. Birthday lunches. More picnics.  I loved being with my mom and taking my girls here for the first time! 

 

Everyone was flying kites down by the river. The girls were fascinated and asked if we could try flying a kite this summer. I'm adding that to our summer bucket list!

Let the record show, I was totally spontaneous!  I love days like these when it really works, we choose to embrace life (even the unexpected) and everything about the day is a beautiful success. It didn't hurt that a really grateful husband was waiting for us when we got home that night! To think a misplaced wallet could provide such unexpected joy!