Day 6 - Wednesday

Today was our hardest day by far.  The morning was pretty usual, however it all started going downhill when I went to pick the kids up after work.

I discovered that Harper had taken her bracelet and necklace she got from Daddy to school.  Not only had she taken them to school, but she had purposely snuck them to school in her pocket because she knew she wasn't allowed to bring them.  Little stinker!  

I didn't get mad at her, I simply put them in my pocket, but that was enough to send her over the edge.  I guess she already knew she had done wrong.  

We had several time outs in her room, but those only got her more worked up.  Thankfully Jasper was in a wonderful mood and we actually had a very pleasant evening together when Harper wasn't screaming or throwing a fit.  We eventually made it through dinner and bath and we were starting to work towards bed when the doorbell rang.  It was our dear friend bringing us Christmas in July cookies that she had made!  Unfortunately she came during the worst time and got to witness the house being a disaster and Harper a total basket case.  However it was a perfect distraction and such a nice surprise!!! They were delicious and we were so thankful for the lovely thought. 

Because of the horrible mood Harper was in, we didn't open presents, therefore I didn't take pictures.  We did read Daddy's letter which was wonderful as usual.  

Day 5 - Tuesday

Today was another good day.  The morning went well and when I picked the kids up from school, I had some fun news for them:  We were going to chickalay to meet up with some friends for dinner.  I realized later that this was the first time we had eaten out since Daddy went on his trip!  I figured we would've logged at least 3 or 4 meals out by now.  :)  We had a great time and the kids got to play AND have ice cream.  

It was already past bedtime when we got home, so we did a quick bath and read Daddy's letter and opened presents.  His letter tonight was about praying for each other if we miss them.  Jasper got another car and Harper got a necklace and bracelet.  They LOVED them!  

Day 4 - Monday

Today was our first day going to school and work, doing the whole morning routine without Daddy here.  We've done it before plenty of times of course, but it feels a little different now that we can't call and talk to him.  We miss him a lot but we know we will be seeing him soon!

Harper started another week of soccer today.  She loves soccer and wanted her hair in braids for the occasion.  Not one braid - two braids.  She was very specific.  And then she wanted a headband too.  When I mentioned headband, Jasper wanted one too, so he found one of the headbands from the 4th of July and put it on.  So silly.  

We read Daddy's letter at dinner tonight and he had written "Jesus Loves You" on the front of the card.  I felt it was a perfect night for heart-shaped suckers! 

Day 3 - Sunday

Today we got up and got ready for church.  Getting out of the house on a Sunday morning can be a pretty hectic event in our house.  Thankfully this morning went pretty smoothly despite Daddy not being here! The kids were great and excited to be going to church.  We did leave about 10 minutes late, but that was mostly due to a last-minute potty break requested by Jasper.  I think it was a very vacation-heavy weekend, so I still had plenty of time to get the kids checked in to their preferred classrooms and find myself a seat.  

Before we left for church, Harper made the comment "I wish Daddy was here to go to church with us".  It was said in a very sweet way, not a sad way, so I agreed with her and we were reminded to pray for Daddy and be thankful for the times he is here with us.  

Following church, we stopped at the grocery store so I could pick up a few necessary items for a dessert I have been wanting to make. We got home, I made lunch and got the kids down for a good nap.  I started reading my book (I'm almost done with Catching Fire!) and was overcome with sleep, so I gave in and ended up getting a great nap!  Too good I think.  I woke up completely groggy and feeling horrible.  I'm pretty sure my allergies are acting up... grrr...  With it being so hot outside, Sarge has been digging in the mud outside and of course had brought tons of it inside.  I bribed the kids with a movie to stay in the play room so I could vacuum and mop.  MUCH needed!  

I fixed some dinner and got dessert prepared.  I didn't tell the kids what I was making until their dinner was gone.  

Worms & Dirt!!!  

They loved it!  Well, Harper loved it and Jasper loved the worms.  He is not always a sweets lover and didn't care for the cookies and pudding.  I'm not always convinced he is my son.  

I completely forgot to take pictures of the kids' gifts tonight, but I did videotape the letter.  Harper got a lettering pad where the paper looks just like the papers she uses at school so she can practice her lettering.  Jasper got a new coloring book.  The only bummer about giving them their gifts right before bed is that they want to play with them.  Duh!  I think I will start giving them their gifts at dinner so they have time to enjoy them before bed.  

Day 2 - Saturday

Day 2 started out great.  I was feeling pretty groggy after the big day on Friday, but managed to get the kids breakfast and settled in with a movie.  One of their favorite things to do (and mine now) is to watch a movie when they wake up.  It's turned out to be a good transition time for them, and, let's face it -- it gives us more time to wake up too!  I've been having them stay more in the play room so they can feel like they can spread out with their blankets and pillows and things and not have to hear me ask them to clean up their stuff a 100 times per day.  It's working out great!  

We had a 1st birthday party to go to, so once I had cleaned up the house a bit, we got ready and headed out.  It was baseball themed for a sweet little boy in our home group so the kids had lots of friends there.  It was a nice time for them to hang out!  

Harper with the Birthday Boy.  He doesn't look too happy here! 

All the kiddos!

After the kiddos woke up from their nap, I had considered taking them to the splash pad.  But it was 109 outside so....  yeah, that didn't happen.  I knew they were kind of getting bored with watching movies, so I decided to make a fort for them.  They LOVED it and it made me wonder why it took me so long to build one with them!! I always made forts with my brother and sister.  This one was not as dramatic as I used to make, but it was a good first one for them since they don't know the difference.  and the funny thing was -- a movie now seemed really appealing!  So I found a new one on Netflix they hadn't seen yet and set them up with snacks, drinks and the iPad and they were occupied for a good 45 minutes until they started needing to go potty, wanting more snacks and just wanting me in general.  That seemed like a successful adventure!  

We had a small dinner (they weren't too hungry after eating their snacks from the birthday party and the snacks while in the fort) and they looked forward to opening their presents and reading the note from Daddy.  Tonight their bags contained playing cards.  Harper got Bible Heroes, Bible matching and Sight Words to help her with her reading.  Jasper got Noah's Ark, ABC's and Shapes and Colors.  They were very excited and Harper loved going through the Bible Match Game cards and talking about them.

Day 1 - Friday

Our day started early on Friday morning.  

Jon was packed and ready to go, so we just had to get ourselves and the kids ready and out the door.  We had to be at the airport at 7am.  

The last couple of days before he left, Harper had been crying a lot, very sad about the idea of Daddy being gone for 10 days.  It broke both our hearts and we tried our best to reassure her that everything would be okay.  Thankfully for everyone, she did not cry when we said goodbye to him at the airport.  Both she and Jasper were in great moods which made it a million times easier.  

On my way to pick the kids up from school, a HUGE storm blew in to town and there was flash flooding and crazy winds as I drove.  It seemed like it literally came out of nowhere and I checked the radar and it was not in the forecast.  I had planned on taking the kids to a few places once I picked them up and had hoped to be home by 7:30 since Jon thought he was going to be able to call at that time.  But the storm was so crazy and knocked out signals and caused so much traffic, we were a little hurried.  We made it home right at 7:30 but, as we found out later, the wifi on the plane would not work more than 100 miles off the coast of the US.  Bummer!  The kids weren't expecting it though, so no harm done.  The kids were in great moods and despite the storms, it was a good night.

Jon and I had come up with the idea to have little notes and presents to give to the kids each night he is away.  We are used to him being gone for dinner, bath and bed time during the week due to his work schedule.  But we call him each night and are able to Face Time so we can say good night.  We knew we wouldn't be able to do that obviously, so we thought this would be something for the kids to look forward to each night instead.

Here they are after bath, looking a bit stunned.  They've just found out about the notes and presents.  

They loved reading Daddy's note and LOVED the presents.  Harper got 4 hair bows and Jasper got a "monster truck" which he practically has not let go of since Friday night.  

In his note, Jon requested that we look at the map of Manaus, Brazil and the Amazon so we could know where he was.  

Jon's Mission Trip - Pre-departure

So I'm attempting to document our time while Jon is away.  I know the kids probably won't remember the time that Daddy went on a mission trip to Brazil, so I thought I would do what I could to help us remember what we did and how we felt.  

Jon took a few days off before he left.  He needed to get some last-minute things done, and I took the 2 days off before he left to help him and spend some time with him.  We didn't have many plans (or so I thought), just a movie together and running errands were on our To-do list.  

Tuesday night, we went in the backyard to play some baseball.  

Wednesday morning I got the kids to school while Jon finished up the lawn.  That was on my list of things for him to do before he left.  :)  We had decided to go see Spiderman, so we hit the cheap show - the first one of the day.  We loved it!!  It was a good entertaining movie with no cussing and very little (if any) gore.  It would be a good movie for the kids to see when it comes out on video.  

We went browsing for some last minute things for Jon and had lunch together. Did some more browsing around Target and eventually Jon looked at his watch and said "uhhh.. we need to get going".  What?  We didn't have a schedule and we didn't need to pick the kids up yet.  I eventually got it out of him -- he was taking me away for a night!!!  We needed to get home and pack, pick the kids up, and drop them off at Nana & Papa's house:  We were going to The Gaylord!  I was so shocked - he has never surprised me before.  And honestly I was so glad he had taken care of everything ahead of time, because I would have thought of a million reasons why we "shouldn't" do it.  But since he had everything planned already, I couldn't argue ...  and it was awesome!  

The kids were so excited when we picked them up and told them, so that made things easier.  They love an adventure and spending the night at Nana & Papa's house was sure to be an adventure. 

We made our way to The Gaylord and changed up our initial plans to go to The Glass Cactus, instead choosing to stay at the hotel and eat and walk around there.  The next morning I hung around the room while Jon left to go pick up the kids and drop them off at school.  I LOVED every second of the night and the morning of not having to take care of anyone else!!!  I could just hang out and do what I wanted.  It was awesome!  Jon came back and we hung around a bit more, then checked out and headed to the water park they have on-site.  I had 1 goal in mind: to float down the lazy river!  And I did.  And it was fabulous!!  We found some lounge chairs and I promptly fell asleep to the sounds of waterfalls.  We thoroughly enjoyed our time, even if it did seem a little short.  We left by 1pm so we could go home and take care of a few more things that afternoon.  That overnight trip has caused the Vacation Bug to bite me big time!!  I can't wait to go away with Jon some day!  

The night before his trip, he read books and gave lots of kisses and cuddles....

And did some wrestling of course!  

We were up late getting everything ready for him, and we knew the next morning was going to come much too early!

Rainbow Birthday Party

Well in a LONG overdue blog update, here are some fun pictures and details from the kids' rainbow birthday party.  

Jon and I are on the same page on most things, and birthday parties are one of those things.  We have chosen not to make a huge production out of the kids' birthdays. We feel like birthday parties are more meaningful with family and maybe some close friends here to celebrate with.  We've done a "bigger" party for each of their first birthdays, but really we prefer to just make the rest of them a smaller celebration and make the focus more on the person than the party.  

We go to a lot of birthday parties for her friends at school and they are typically chaotic and not much fun for the parents.  Most of them are held at bounce house places or other retailers where the formula is usually the same:  let the kids bounce, jump, etc.. until they wear themselves silly (which is definitely my favorite part!), then cram all of the kids and parents into the tiniest of rooms while we dish out pizza and juice boxes as quickly as we can to all of the kids, climbing over each other just to help put straws in or reach napkins.  Then it's a quick birthday song and cupcakes or cake is dished out to all the party goers.  It's usually very hot and very crowded and very awkward.  Not my cup of tea.  

We were definitely on the same page for this party, but Jon really humored me with the things I wanted to do.  It was definitely a delicate balance to make the celebration not be all about the gifts and gimmes, but more about celebrating our precious children and another year of life we have been blessed to have with them.  Harper had been talking about having a birthday party for a long time and since their birthdays are only about 3 weeks apart, we scheduled it right in between and settled on a theme that could fit both of them:

RAINBOWS! 

Okay, so it was really more for Harper who LOVES rainbows, and the main theme was really all about rainbows.  But I managed to boy it up a little by incorporating Jasper's favorite building blocks into it, which come in primary colors.  It was a small something, but hey, at least it was something.  Hopefully it was enough to not make him hate me when he gets older for throwing him a rainbow party when he turned 2.  

I knew it would be a lot of work and I was right.  But I think it was all worth it.  I practiced beforehand on a few things I was unsure about, and a few other things I just tried to wing it.  I love to bake, but baking as a "presentation" and experimenting with making things pretty are not things I am comfortable with.  I don't ever use frosting that doesn't come from a can or piping bags, nor do I spend 3 nights trying to get a rainbow skittle trifle bowl to look right.  I didn't even own a trifle bowl before this party. Despite all of this, I think it all turned out great!!!  The things I was most disappointed with were their birthday cakes, but they tasted great, and it was such a small part of the overall party.  

We really wanted everyone to enjoy themselves and enjoy the food, and I think we accomplished that.  It was a lot of fun!

Here is the batter ready to be made into cakes.  This is one of the things I experimented with ahead of time.  I knew I didn't want a super tall cake, so the popular rainbow layered cakes was out of the question.  I made Jasper's block cake and Harper's rainbow cake with a kind of blobby tie-dyed effect.  It looked cool when it was sliced open. 

My mom came to visit and help with the party.  I get every bit of my creativity from her, which is basically nonexistent.  She was a really good sport and even though she didn't catch my vision for the party right away, she pitched in and helped with what she could.  She did awesome and we LOVED having her here!!!

These rainbow cupcakes were probably my favorite thing.  I found them on Pinterest of course.  I layered the batter into the cupcake liners and even though the blue turned out much darker than I had hoped, it didn't matter.  The rainbows were sour candy and the clouds were a happy accident.  On the couple of Pinterest posts I saw them on, they were thicker and fluffier.  I didn't have the tips I needed to do this, so I sliced a tiny hole into the piping bag and it came out much thinner than I wanted.  I started swirling and was loving how it turned out.  I kept going and it worked!!!

Jon was in charge of decorating the backyard and I loved it!  I purchased these lanterns from Oriental Trading and they were perfect to hang from the umbrellas and EZ Up.

The candy bar turned out so fun!  I had originally intended to make the garland, but once I saw this one on Oriental Trading, I decided to save myself tons of stress and frustration and purchased one.  

The rainbow cupcakes are on the top left.  I purchased the plates and silverware at Walmart in the colors of the rainbow and alternated the colors.  The polka dot napkins I found on clearance at Hobby Lobby and the striped tablecloth and napkins were from Walmart.  The jello cups took forever to make but were fun.  I think they were the most under appreciated aspect. ;)  I bought six flavors of jello and took an entire day of carefully layering the colors and chilling them - in and out of the fridge all day!  It was a little too warm for the whipped cream so it melted.  Oh well!  

The previously mentioned trifle bowl of Skittles is easier seen in this picture.  I first used the standard bags of Skittles, but didn't think about the fact that there were no blue Skittles in there.  I went back and found a newer kind called Skittles Riddles.  This had lime green, light blue, dark blue, pink and purple-- it was perfect!!!!  So I deconstructed the trifle bowl for the 2nd time (the first time was because it was too full and I didn't have enough room) and the third time of putting it together was the charm.  It looked great and tasted great.  It was a total hit.  Mom helped me make the rainbow fruit kabobs and she also made the "cake pops".  These were Jon's idea after he saw the rainbow sprinkled donut holes at Walmart.  They were devil's food cake donut holes, so all we did was put a stick in them and voila!  Cake pops without the stress!  Perfect! 

I got rainbow goldfish and rainbow Twizzlers.  Mom made the yogurt-dipped pretzel sticks and put rainbow sprinkles on them.  Everything really looked great and better yet, tasted awesome!  

A dear friend of mine made a custom-made headband and bracelet for Harper.  They were perfect!!  They went perfectly with the rainbow t-shirt I found for her.  

The favors were another favorite.  We have this awesome popcorn place near us and one of their specialties is Rainbow Popcorn.  It's flavored and all the colors of the rainbow.  We bought a small bag ahead of time to make sure it actually tasted good (fruit-flavored popcorn is not something you think of tasting good) and it was awesome!!  So we purchased an entire tin-full of rainbow popcorn and Mom yet again came to the rescue by putting it into clear bags to give to each party-goer on their way out.  In a perfect world, it would have had some cute rainbow ribbon tied to each, but some things just don't get done when it comes down to it.  The rainbow take-home boxes were great so each guest could visit the candy bar again before they left to take home some treats with them.  

We didn't tell the kids ahead of time that we had gotten a bounce house, so Harper took a front row seat when they unloaded it so she could watch it be blown up.  She was beside herself with excitement. (Jasper was at the tail-end of his nap so he missed the bounce house arrival).

Here are a few of the girls twirling their rainbow ribbons.

Hoarding her skittles with a fruit punch smile.  The punch bowl is one thing I never took a picture of, but it was awesome! 

Here is Harper's rainbow cake.  I used a bundt pan with the layered batter, and simply cut it in half to create a rainbow.  Again, the execution and final design of their cakes were not my favorite, but the point was understood.  

Here is Jasper with his block cake (and sporting his rainbow tie t-shirt made especially for him!).  I made several failed attempts at making a cake shaped like blocks, but when it was obvious it wasn't going to work the way I wanted it to, I decided a basic cake decorated with blocks would work just fine.  

Enjoying a blue Twizzler in the play room.

Harper and I after the guests had gone home and they had opened their presents.  Here she is with the Pinkilicious doll Mimi got her.