On Saturday, May 25th my parents came to visit. It was a celebration of 5 different things wrapped up into one day - my mom's birthday (May 3rd), Mother's Day, my dad's birthday (May 28th), Father's Day and .... drum roll, please.... my dad's retirement!!! There was so much celebrating going on we didn't even get a single picture of all of us together. Bummer.
My parent's got a combined Mother's Day/ Father's Day gift from Suzie, Ian & Adella. It was a tree with the twins handprints as the leaves and Adella's toe prints as the grass and at the bottom it read, 'Our Greatest Blessings Call Us Lela & Grandpop.' I wish I would have taken a picture of it. We framed it and it turned out super cute. Those hands and toes aren't going to stay that small forever so it's fun to have a record of how they are now. My mom's birthday gift was an awesome family tree pendant from a shop I found on Etsy. It is a wire circle with wire wrapped around in the middle to make a tree with branches that have all the birthstones of our family - kids, spouses, grandkids and all! She loved it. I was thrilled because it's not super easy to find a meaningful gift that she'll use/want these days. For my dad's birthday/retirement I made scrumptious Dr. Pepper spicy pulled pork sandwiches with lime poppyseed fruit salad and broccoli salad. It was the perfect Memorial weekend menu AND my dad savored every bite of that pulled pork. It's one of his favorite dishes and I made it with an extra kick of heat just for him. He called me a few days later to say he was just finishing up the leftovers I sent him home with and declared it to be one of the best pulled pork recipes he's ever had. Which he was quick to point out was high praise since he has had quite a few in his day.
During their visit my dad got his fill of baby holding while I, my mom, Dave and the twins visited a local ice cream shop in downtown Charles Town. I love the quaint streets and the mom & pop shops. It was fun to walk around a bit. The ice cream did not disappoint and of course, Ian and Suzie loved every lick. Since Dave was home on Monday we decided to check out a local park. It was a bit cooler than we thought it'd be so we had to pull out the reserve diaper bag outfits for the twins. I'm bummed we didn't think to get a photo of all five of us in our red, white & blue outfits before changing the kids. The slides were a HUGE hit with Suzie! Ian had fun going down them too, but didn't have as much gusto as Suzie did to keep climbing the stairs and sliding down.
Adella was content to hang out in her stroller and watch the happenings around her.
 |
| Happy Girl! |
I always love it when we get to have a relaxing day to spend together as a family. Many times throughout the day my thoughts turned to those in the armed services AND their loved ones who have given so many sacrifices for our country. One of my friends from high school was a Marine who serves 2 tours and came back with a severe enough case of PTSD that he now has a service dog to help him. The sacrifices made are truly humbling and I'm grateful for every one of them. I look forward to teaching our children about this amazing country we live in with all the freedoms and responsibilities that go along with it.
No comments:
Post a Comment