Love In Motion

I spent a chunk of last week at my Daughter2's house in Tennessee while she and her hubs were on a cruise around the Greek Islands. Swoon! 

Let's pause for a quick sidebar-

That now married momma of two pictured above made a trip to Greece when she was 14 years old. The girls loved swimming in the sea, tasting octopus for the first time, shopping in the market, seeing the historic sites, eating their weight in yummy Greek salads, and roasting under the white hot August Athenian sun. 

Such a fun week for all of us. 

Carry on. 

Daughter2 and her hubs had planned their trip as a bit of a mile marker anniversary celebration (5 years), and because of the distance and travel involved their time away was about ten days. When she first mentioned the trip to me I'm pretty sure my first reaction was, 'TEN DAYS!! WHO'S WATCHING THE KIDS FOR TEN DAYS?!!" 

Yes, in all caps. 

Sometimes things come out of my mouth and I wish I could rewind, but there I said it because seriously, who is watching the kids for TEN days??? As it turns out the plan from the get go was her in-laws would cover five days and we'd cover five days. 

Much better. 

You know once upon a time I was a speech pathologist with over 75 students on my caseload and now I panic at the thought of being responsible for two that are related to me for ten days. Ha. True story though. 

Her two littles are, in a word, busy. Also lightning fast, stinkin' adorable, chatty, curious, and lovable. Keeping up with them requires a clear head and the endurance of a marathon runner. These days I have neither, but I am the Nana and Nanas can do hard things for the people we love. Plus hubs is a great teammate and has an endless array of tricks, funny faces, funny voices, creativity, and muscle so all is well. 

Except! Hubs as you know sells real estate on the lake and he's been working with an out of state client for several weeks who, as timing would have it, would be coming to the lake the very weekend we would be in Tennessee. Bother.  

I mean it's fine because he put a lot of work in for the client and needed that in person time with him, but also it meant I'd be on my own for the last two days of keeping everyone in high spirits until mom and dad came home. 

The thought was daunting. This is how you know you're not young anymore. 

As it turned out everyone did great, the kids too lol. Their momma had left a little gift for them to open each day and I brought a couple of things with me so we'd have new things to play with and distract us. 

Hubs and I drove over to Tennessee last Tuesday and we had one night there with the in-laws still in the house. We enjoy them very much and it was nice to catch up with them once the kiddos went to bed. We ordered pizza for dinner because everyone loves pizza and chatted before calling it an early night. 

Sleep is key. 

They left first thing Wednesday morning and hubs and I took the grands to the Creative Discovery Museum.  Wait. First hubs dropped their dog at daycare. Did I tell you we also had their dog? And our dog? And our dog is not feeling his best these days which makes us wobbly. 

If your kids are not yet married, just know one day you'll be taking care of their dog. That's how it works. 

The Discovery Museum is fabulous. We arrived just as it was opening and beat the crowds that my daughter told me come later. It's really well done, organized, clean, child focused, and lots of space for imaginative play.

Sugar would have been happy to feed and rock baby dolls all day long in the housekeeping section. 

We were home for lunch and then rest and I'd planned ahead and made a pan of chicken divan before I left the lake, so dinner just needed heating and eating. 

Thursday morning the kids have swimming lessons and we were almost late because you forget how long it takes to get out of the house with all the things, plus the kids, plus getting everyone into the car seats, etc. But we made it and hubs got in the pool with them so I was able to just cheer from the sidelines. 

One gift my daughter left was a gift card for donuts so we stopped after swimming and got donuts in this lovely shopping center very close to their home. There's a really nice common area in the center and we let the kids run and play and coincidentally one of their neighbors was there too so all the kids had fun together. 

Afternoons were mostly rest and outside play and usually a show watched while we got dinner ready. Friday morning was meet the teacher day at their new preschool and I told hubs to go ahead and get on the road back to the lake and I'd be fine managing this. And I was. Such a sweet school and everyone's excited. 

We left there and I stopped at Publix to pick up subs for lunch and popsicles because August needs popsicles, and then it was home for the afternoon. I'd brought a new Young, Wild and Friedman play dough kit with me (Reptiles) and I cannot say enough about how wonderful these kits are. I brought that out Friday afternoon and they played with it for a couple of hours Friday, twice on Saturday, and again on Sunday. 

There was a lot of rain over the weekend, but we managed to get outside some each day. We went to the neighborhood pool one day and I took them for ice cream Saturday afternoon. We took a walk each evening which they enjoyed and it seemed to make them more ready for baths and bedtime. I know it did me.  

I arrived home Monday afternoon with two broken fingernails, a mystery bruise on my leg, in dire need of a nap, and a full heart. I love that we're able to give the parents a break now and then. I remember how much I appreciated and needed that when I was in the heavy lifting years of parenting and I want to pay that forward now that I'm the grandparent. 

I think it’s important to make memories together as a family, but also to make time for each other as a couple. Getting away from the everyday craziness of work, parenting, keeping up with the house, and everything else gives mom and dad a chance to reconnect and just enjoy being together.

One of the best ways to keep a family happy and whole is to temporarily escape from them, miss them, recharge, and come back refreshed and eager to resume the routines of daily life. Opa!

The Tender Middle

Linking today's post with Talking About It Tuesdays hosted by Joanne

We've recently moved my mom south, out of my sister's home in PA where she's lived for the past six years, and into an assisted living facility. Safety is paramount when you're in your ninth decade and that was the tipping point for all of us in making this hard decision. By all of us I mean myself and my three siblings. We've had a loose plan knowing this might someday become necessary but not going to lie, reality hits harder than you might imagine. 

I'm not going to talk too much about the process because every family has to do what's right for them. I will just say my younger sister did her homework and knew all the questions to ask. We looked at many places in two different states and between the four of us saw each one in person. 

There are so many factors to consider coupled with a lot of emotion, so if a move like this is on your radar start visiting and collecting information now. Just know that nowhere is perfect and settling in takes time. For everyone. 

I have a mishmash of thoughts I want to put into writing but the mishmash is real. Hubs has asked me a number of times this month, 'What are you thinking? I can see the wheels turning." 

Turning but not really getting anywhere. 

So what am I thinking? 

I'm thinking about how difficult it is to reach a point in life where your decisions are not your own. Not where you live or if you drive or sometimes even what you eat. 

I'm thinking about how every member of a family has feelings about how best to meet the needs of an elderly parent and how emotions run high where love, sadness, and exhaustion coexist. I'm thinking about how much grace is required in those moments. Grace given, and also grace accepted. 

How sometimes we have to do hard things we wish we didn't have to do. 

How giving an elderly parent as much independence as they can safely handle is a good thing, but knowing when too much is too much is maybe the more important thing. 

I think about everything our parents once did for us, and how that memory helps us now do for them. 

How often we frustrated them, tested their patience, wanted our own way, didn't want to be told what to do because we were certain we knew best. Suddenly that gets flipped on its head and now you're the one digging deep for patience and a gentle tone. The one trying to give in a little whenever giving in is possible. 

How you learn the parent you've known all your life is still there inside the person who now needs a walker and some help remembering the life they lived. 

There is also, somewhere in the middle of all this thinking, the unsettling realization that one day you might be that person too. The one needing all the things you're now being asked to give. 

How you will likely buck and dig in your heels because you still feel like yourself, an independent capable person who cannot imagine being anything but. 

Except now you kind of can. 

And it's a little bit frightening. 

I think about the term sandwich generation and how apt that moniker is. I'm the filling and sometimes I feel squished. 

And sometimes completely overwhelmed with love for those doing the squishing. 

I think about how I don't have the energy I had even a decade ago, yet I still have opinions and wisdom and things I want to contribute. I still want to matter. Everyone does. 

I think about how time shrinks and expands at the same time and  how I want my children to have big beautiful lives, but not forget mine as it gradually but naturally will grow smaller. 

Mostly I think about how God holds each one of our lives in the palm of His hand. How He knows the number of our days from beginning to end, and how He walks beside us through every season we encounter. 

We are never forgotten. 

Never unseen. 

We are known and loved by the One who made us. 

For Keeps

Linking with Joanne for Talking About It Tuesdays 

As I mentioned in my post yesterday I've flip flopped letters K and L this week, which means that while it's L Day everywhere else in the A-Z Blog Challenge, I'm here blogging letter K. It's fine. Off we go-

 
Day 12-K is for Kids and Their Stuff and Also Their 'Stuff'

I have grown kids, and for the sake of keeping things simple I'm going to refer to them here as kids. In reality they are full grown responsible adults, but it's easier to say kids. 

Plus they're my kids. 

Hubs and I recently made a dent in the great attic clean out and much of what we have stored there belongs to our kids. Or it did at one time, when they were actual kids, and we their parents have hung on to things we thought they might want one day or that we couldn't bear to part with way back when. 

My granddaughters are going to love this glam Barbie who is fully clothed and still has a head full of beautifully coiffed hair. Such is not the case for all the Barbies I kept. 

Quite a few of the things in these attic boxes are mementos from our girl's childhood and teen years. There were yearbooks, ballet slippers, piggy banks, knick knacks and more. 

What do we do with it now? 

We went through a lot of this when we moved from the UK back to the states in 2009 and my girls were college students. The boxes had all been in storage for several years while we were overseas and it was fun to open them up and rediscover so many treasures.

Some junk too because one man's treasure is another man's junk, right? 

We re-boxed a lot of it because they were young and single and the future was way out there and who knows, maybe we'll want that kaboodle or the doll that was won at the fair?

Suddenly (not really) nearly twenty years have sailed by and my kids have kids which makes it a little bit easier to say keep this, toss that. 4th Grade report card? Toss. I mean it's fun to look over, but there's no real need to keep it beyond that. We've consolidated everything but the American Girl Dolls and all their furniture and accessories into one box for each daughter. They can decide for themselves what they deem worthy of keeping. 

The rest feels much easier to part with now than it did back then.  

But what about the other 'stuff' we parents love to hold on to when it comes to our kids? The things they deal with in life that we as their parents, the people who love them most, want to take on, fix, smooth, resolve...what about those things? 

I was brainstorming with my daughter2 about words I might match to the various letters in the challenge and I casually said something about how I might like to talk about grown kids and not taking on their stuff and she, a little too quickly I might add, started nodding her head, saying yes that. 

Hey now. I've come a long way in this department. A very long way, and that's the first thing I'd tell those who are a little bit behind me in the parenting game. It's a process. I have responsible, solid, well adjusted daughters and they manage their lives very well, but still sometimes my brain wants my mouth to chime in...

Have you figured out what to do about the dog while you're away? Your kids had the measles vaccine right? Measles are back ya know. Should you be traveling out of the country with the state of things as they are currently? Have you thought about this that the other?? 

Hubs and I are a good team in this department because we don't seem to be concerned about the same things at the same time. This allows us to keep one another in check. I tell him 'that's not our donut' and he tells me to 'let them figure it out'. 

We're parents. We'll never not care, right? Here are two things I remind myself of when I'm tempted to intervene...

1. I remind myself what it felt like to be a 35-year old mother of two. Did I want my mom piling on to my worries or telling me I should do A-B-C when I thought X-Y-Z was best? Or did I want my mom to say she was proud of how I was managing all the things there are to manage in any given season? 

2. I remind myself that as much as I love my girls God loves them more. That He has a plan for their lives and His ways are higher and better than my ways. I pray He opens doors, closes doors, protects, emboldens, and that they listen as He speaks into their lives. 

We all learn by doing, sometimes failing, but often succeeding beyond our wildest dreams. 

Once upon a time, I was a young mom who loved to cook, who dreamed of cooking alongside my girls. Tucked into one of those attic boxes I found an old cookbook-

Inside the cover was a love note, written in cursive to my three-year-old daughter who wasn't even old enough to read.

The note was written by a momma who somehow knew one far away day in the future, a box would be opened and that little girl, now a grown married woman with children of her own, would read those words and feel the love behind them.

That little girl cooks with her children now. 

I hope she adds her own note to the page. 

The Weekend Roundup

Good Monday morning friends. I hope you had a nice weekend. Ours was bursting at the seams, in a good way of course. Linking this post with Holly and Sarah for their Hello Monday recap party. 

Thursday. Yes it's the weekend. Especially when your daughter and her hubs pull out of the driveway at 7 AM and you're left in charge of their three littles for four nights and five days. One of my friends says anyone can do an overnight or two with their grands, but more than two nights feels like a month lol. She's not wrong.

My daughter was a bridesmaid in a college friends' Annapolis wedding this past weekend so she and her hubs got on the road Thursday morning in order to be in town for the festivities. Our day here Thursday started with breakfast out at one of our favorite spots. The boys ate every bite, and I'm nervous about their grocery bill in a few years. 

Next stop was Pet Smart because what better place is there to while away an hour than a store with fish, birds, reptiles and kittens? The kids asked if they could adopt one, but I thought I should check with mom first. I mean we grandparents love to indulge but a live animal felt like maybe a bridge too far. 

We moved on to our next venue which was Lowes, an exciting stop for everyone as we all joined in the hunt for a particular lightbulb. 

Side bar here...lightbulbs in 2025 are one of my pet peeves. Carry on. 

We found one that is not quite right but will work, and then it was back in the car for yet another stop-Publix. In case you've lost count  that's four times getting three kids into and out of car seats in a three hour span of time, and it was only day one. 

Grandparenting is not for sissies. 

Hubs took the kids to the bakery for a cookie while I grabbed a few things, and then it was home for playtime, lunchtime, and a nap for Little Miss. The boys watched a movie and Nana made tacos for dinner because that sounded easy and easy is good. 

My daughter left a little gift for the kids for each day she was away and they looked forward every morning to seeing what was in their bags. I bought a few things for Valentine's Day as well, and having new things to play with when your parents are away helps. 

I bought Little miss a pair of sunglasses that came with a unicorn case with sparkly handles, and she carried her 'purse' everywhere we went all weekend long, including the middle of the forest. 

The weather was lovely on Friday, a little cool but we bundled up for a hike to a nearby waterfall. 

It warmed up as we walked and I had packed a picnic lunch, which we ate beside the rushing water. Such a fun day. 

I carried a backpack loaded with water bottles, snacks, diaper, wipes, dry clothes to counter the inevitable mud, and a jacket or two. Hubs wore daughter1's carrier with Little Miss in it most of the day. Let me just say there is no need for a weighted vest when you hike with toddlers. 

The trail was muddy thanks to all the rain the day before, but we embraced it and everyone loved the sunshine...

the fresh air...

the natural beauty...

And digging in the sand...

The little brown dog came too, because what's one more? While navigating small children and a dog on a narrow trail won't be everyone's cup of tea, it is ours. 

We came home in time for Little Miss to have a nap then went back out that evening for a Valentines' Day dinner. Pizza followed by a stop at the ice cream shop right next door for dessert. 

So glad we got out on Friday because Saturday it rained literal buckets. Hubs was manning an open house for work most of the day so it was me and the three kiddos at home, in the house, all the ding dong day. I made sausage biscuits for breakfast, we worked a 300 piece puzzle in record time, watched a movie, played games, played with toys, colored, Little miss napped, we read books, read more books, and we watched the rain pour down around us. 

When hubs got home we took everyone to grandson #2's favorite restaurant -Firehouse Subs. I hadn't been in one of these in a while, but their sandwiches were so good and the guy making them took extra care with our order. Everyone in the place was so nice and it wasn't busy so we took our time. The boys ate their sandwiches, then I ordered them each a second and they ate those too. Let's hope the price of groceries goes down before they enter their teen years. 

Sunday Nana made french toast and bacon because apparently Nana cooks breakfast every morning now-ha. Afterwards we went to the nearby Botanical Gardens to visit the geology museum there.

It's free and full of bones and fossils and rocks. There's even a little room you go in where you turn off the lights and all the phosphorescent rocks glow, which thrills everyone. 

We bought souvenirs because we're the grandparents. 

After leaving the museum we took our little crew to Longhorn Steakhouse for lunch.  I didn't have it in me to make lunch and dinner both, so lunch out was a win. 

Little Miss went right down for a nap once we were home, but the boys played outside, rode their bikes, ran around and got muddy as little boys are wont to do and then I was back in the kitchen making dinner. You forget how much you cook with little ones in the house. 

The parents will be back home today and we're all excited lol. I'm so glad my girl was able to have a fun weekend away with her Valentine. It's important to recharge, to reconnect as husband and wife instead of mom and dad, and it feels good to wear fancy clothes and sleep in a hotel bed. 

I remember lots of trips I was able to take with hubs when our kids were young and needing so much of me. My parents and in-laws both, were always willing to come and stay and cook and entertain and do the endless tasks that need doing, and I am probably even more grateful for that gift now than I was then. 

Oh I definitely appreciated it at the time but now that I'm getting a refresher course in the particular kind of exhaustion that comes with the daily parenting of small humans I'm feeling very tender towards my own mom and dad and hubs parents too. 

Forty four February 14ths with this guy by my side. We still make a good team. 

Weekending

Good Monday morning friends. We are still fighting germs in our house and it seems when one kiddo gets to feeling better another one goes down for the count. The two oldest grandboys spent the weekend with their other grandparents and I washed all the sheets and towels (again), Lysol-ed the house, cleaned all the bathrooms, then opened up some windows to let the sunshine and fresh air in. 

Hubs, daughter1, little miss, and I hung out at home mostly, with a few little errands thrown into the mix too. I've been doing a lot of cooking with a full house here and was running out of steam by the weekend. You forget how often kids eat. I mean there's breakfast then there's lunch and then of course dinner plus snacks in between. They are not picky eaters at all, but I'm just not used to all.the.meals. 

I made a chicken pot pie on Friday and we had BLT's Saturday which doesn't feel like real cooking and was a nice break. Pictures? Nope. 

How about an outdoor project update because I do have some pictures of that. When last we spoke (about this) we were waiting on furniture to arrive and guess what? It's here! The truck pulled into our driveway Friday morning and the unloading and figuring it all out commenced. Thankfully the designer came with them because it required a bit of finagling. 

It's a large space and we needed large furniture to fill it. Plus we always have people coming and going here so we wanted a lot of seating. It took a while to get the rug in the exact correct precise right spot and then get the furniture centered. Where is the center anyway? Is it between the columns? In line with the sliders? in line with the line that runs through the patio? hmmm...

Hubs needs everything symmetrical to the nth degree, while I'm more of a 'let's eyeball it and see how that looks' kind of gal. These delivery guys were great and super patient. 

Can you move it about four inches to your right? 

Wait, can you move it two inches back to your left? 

Bring it forward just a smidge. 

Too much! Can you back it up a hair? 

Maybe we should try removing one piece? 

Maybe we should add that middle piece to the left side instead? The right side?

Somehow the rug is now off center. Can you slide it over just a tad without 

moving all the heavy furniture we just asked you to set down there?

In short, we're a lot. Daughter1 tried to gently suggest hubs and I go upstairs and let them set it up and then come down and weigh in, but that's not how we roll here.  We have opinions. Especially one of us. Hi hubs! 

The end result though is so pretty! Can't wait to have a party of some kind when the weather warms up for good. 

I love the swivel chairs which sit out a bit from the main seating. You can join the conversation or swivel and look at the lake. 

We've made a cozy outdoor dining space under our screened porch and I love the new table and especially love all those chairs. 

We still need a fan installed in the dining space, along with some twinkle lights or Edison bulbs, and I need some lamps for the serving pieces, and some art and 'stuff' but we're on our way. 

We sat out by the new little fire table that afternoon and it was lovely. 

I have my new soon-to-be favorite napping spot all picked out-

Saturday we loaded up the car and went to see a couple of houses that are on the market. My daughter and her family are house hunting, and she's finally got her land legs after the move, the trip across the pond, the germs!!, so starting the hunt in earnest now. While Saturday's houses were a no-go, I guess it's good to eliminate things too. There's not a ton on the market, but listings generally pick up here in these next couple of months. While they're not in a big rush, I know it's hard not to be itching to get settled into your own space too. One day at a time. 

Saturday night we put little miss to bed, then the three of us watched Back In Action with Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx. I thought it was going to be silly, but it was actually pretty cute and we all enjoyed it. 

Sunday hubs took daughter1 to see three more houses and a couple of these might be worth another look once her hubs arrives later this week. I did more cleaning, more laundry, and just some general picking up while they were out and it felt good to get the three inches of dust off my bedroom furniture. Hubs grilled burgers for dinner and then it was early to bed for all the littles. We watched Groundhog Day because it seemed like the thing to do. 

It's an unusual season here...we're trying to hold on to some of our routines, but others we've chucked out the window for the time being.  It's fine. Better than fine. We love having the kids here and I know the other grandparents feel the same. 

I confess I might need to mother my daughter a little less, but it's hard. I mean she's right here in my very own house so it's tempting to weigh in on all sorts of things I don't need to weigh in on. She was going to run an errand the other day and I launched into directions when she reminded me she lives here now and is going to have to learn her way around. Plus it's 2025 and she has gps so I actually never need to launch into directions. 

It's what I do though. Mothers gotta mother.

Think maybe I'll put myself in time out right here. 

Linking with Holly and Sarah for their regular Hello Monday weekend catch up. 

Weekend Jamboree

The weekend. It was a doozy y'all, and I mean that in a good way. It was my grandson's second birthday. It was anniversary #40 for the hubs and I. It was Father's Day. It was baby dedication day for Sugar at their church. 

It was food and fun and family. 

It was cards and presents and balloons. 

It was baby girl in her Daddy's baptismal gown and a sermon that highlighted marriage on the very day we married. 

It was men supervising the BBQ, the grill, and the smoker. 

It was also college baseball (GO VOLS!), heat, and naps in cribs and on couches. 

I could write a post about any one of those things, but I think I'll just dive in and see where we land. I will very likely write a separate post about our anniversary because someday I have to climb out of the shallow end of the blog pool and get back into deeper waters. There is much to be said about a long married life. Stay tuned. 

Back to the kiddie pool...we made the three hour drive to daughter2's house Friday morning, with a stop at her nearby Publix to pick up subs for lunch. When we walked in the door sweet baby J literally clapped his hands and jumped for joy at seeing our faces. There's not much in the world that can top that. 

We had lunch and both kiddies took naps before the in-law grandparents rolled in. We hung out on the porch and passed Sugar from grandparent to grandparent while little man played. There's a lot of watching the grands do whatever kids do when you're a grandparent. And you think it's all marvelous because it absolutely is. 

Daughter2 made spaghetti for dinner and we watched Tennessee baseball win in the last seconds of the game to beat Florida State and then we watched all the replays and then Saturday we watched the ending a few more times because it was so good. 

Unless you're a Seminole of course. 

Anyway, Saturday morning was the birthday party for sweet baby J. As an aside, I always write my grandchildren a letter on their birthdays and you can read his in the link here (Two-rrific). The birthday was small, really just family and the next door neighbors, but the size was perfect for someone turning two. 

There was a cute construction theme with vests for the guests, and bins of kinetic sand with lots of construction vehicles and assorted road works equipment tucked inside. There were chicken minis from Chick-fil-a, sausage balls, a fruit tray, pasta salad and a scrumptious homemade cake courtesy of his momma. 

Homemade and homestyle are my favorite kind of parties, and J had a ball leisurely opening presents and exclaiming WOW! upon seeing each and every gift unwrapped. Completely precious. Everyone rested, chatted, read, and/or napped that afternoon, then my son-in-law grilled hotdogs and burgers for dinner and then we all pretty much collapsed into bed at an early hour. 

Did I mention the heat? Whew! It was extreme all weekend long. 

Sunday morning I got up and took a walk around the neighborhood before the temperature went soaring, we had a quick breakfast, and the guys all opened their Father's Day cards and gifts. 

We don't really do gifts on Father's Day, but I bought all the men a jar of these pickles I spotted at the local farm stand the other day. They all like pickles and spicy food (these have a whole jalapeno in them, along with lots of garlic and onions) plus the name screamed Father's Day to me. 

We all changed and  loaded up the cars for the short ride to church. There were four babies being dedicated today and big brother was feeling like the freshly minted 2-year old he is up there grinning on the stage with his parents. His dad had one hand on his shirt collar most of the time, but sweet baby J enjoyed every minute lol. 

Sugar of course was just like her name. Sweet. She has the biggest, best smile y'all. It's like a full body smile and her whole adorable face lights up. 

After the dedication portion concluded the whole congregation sang Jesus Loves Me and it made me feel so teary. Getting toddlers and babies and yourselves to church on Sunday mornings is not for the faint of heart, but my daughter2's church is bursting at the seams with small children. Makes my heart so happy to know these young families are doing whatever it takes to get there each week. To raise their children in this upside down world to put their faith in the One who made it. 

The media loves to tell us every awful thing millennials and older Gen Z-ers are up to, but when I'm around my girls and their friends I see hard working, committed, faithful parents raising families and living with intention. These young adults don't make the news, but they are quietly going about the business of living full, productive lives, and the world is less depressing when we remember that. 

My son-in-law is a master griller and he smoked a delicious pork butt for Father's Day dinner. 

There was more college baseball afterwards (GO VOLS!) and it was the perfect way to end a perfect weekend. I think Sweet baby J would tell you that next to the balloons this was his favorite part-

So how did you spend your weekend? 

                              

Linking up with Holly and Sarah for their regular Hello Monday blog party...see you there!