KY Weekend

We are all eagerly anticipating some warmer weather.  It’s seems as if this winter has lingered FOREVER! Evelyn got some darling sundresses for her birthday that she can’t wait to wear and Mitch comes downstairs almost daily wearing shorts.  He doesn’t know why I insist that he change before he leaves the house.  

 We’ve got a lot planned for the next few months and I feel like the kids and I are going to be doing a lot of driving on the weekends to and from KY.  Thanks goodness they are good in the car.  We have DVD player in our van, but I’ve been trying to keep it turned off for at least half of our trips.  I’ve been getting CD’s from the library and we spent the past two trips singing songs and laughing.  One of the kids favorite songs right now is “Wild Angels” by Martina McBride.  They know all the words and man can they belt it out!  

 We were in town last Sunday for Shannon’s Bridal shower for my mom’s side of the family.  That’s around 5 hours round trip in the car for the kids.  They did well though.  Evelyn got to go with me to Shannon’s shower and Mitch hung out with my dad all afternoon.  They went to T&W, the store, to visit GG and of course they had to stop for a visit to the train park.  Mitch watched some trains go by and found a railroad spike to take home.  I’m hoping we can find a nice display case for it to hang on a the wall (you know, instead of sleeping with it and bringing it to school…which is what Mitchell wants to do with it.)

 Evelyn had ball at the shower with us.  She played with Josie, Maria and Gianna.  As outgoing and social as Evie is, she gets very intimidated by Josie and Maria.  They are in the first grade and in the same class at school so they know each other very well.  One on one, Evelyn does fine with them.  But whenever they are together, Evie tends to keep her distance a little more and stick closer to me.  They were very sweet to her though so hopefully this will pass with time.  Gianna was a total trip.  She turned 4 in Dec. so she’s a little bit older than Mitchell.  She is so talkative and so funny – I get the biggest kick out of her!  Evelyn also go to play with sweet baby Quinn.  She wants so much to play with Asa, but she knows that Asa is still a little bit too young.  Plus Evelyn knows that Asa loves Aunt Malia SO much so I need to hold her as much as possible.  Hee hee…

Easter

Unfortunately Pat had to work on Easter Sunday this year.  I decided to take the kids to Kentucky for the weekend and come back after brunch on Sunday so that we could have dinner with Pat and his mom.   We got to town at dinnertime on Friday and, after snuggling in Kiki’s new chair for a little while, we headed to La Rosas for dinner.  It’s my favorite pizza to eat when I’m in town!  After dinner we headed back to the house and the kids and Kiki parked themselves in Kiki’s corner for the rest of the night.  I think they like it.  😊 

Saturday we had a bridal shower for my cousin’s fiancée Christy.  It ended up being a beautiful afternoon weather-wise which only added to the ambiance of the Southern Tea theme.  It was so nice to see my aunt and cousins.  I know my mom particularly enjoyed it because she hadn’t seen most of them in months.  She had been looking forward to the shower and was relieved that she felt well enough to attend.  Asa got passed around and snuggled.  And sweet little AJ was the little star of the party (sorry Christy!  Lol).  AJ is two years old and so adorable!  She was wearing one of her mommy Abby’s dresses from when Abby was little and AJ could not have looked cuter!  I can’t wait to see her be the flower girl at Ross and Christy’s wedding next month!

After the shower, we headed home so my mom could rest.  My BFF Bridget was in town visiting her parents for Easter from Nashville so Evelyn and I headed to Ft. Mitchell for a short visit with them.  We finally got to meet baby Elizabeth!  She’ll be one next month and I’d never met her before so I was thrilled.  And she is cuter than her pictures!  It was nice to see Bridget and Sumir too.  :)  After we got back, I fed the kids dinner and then went out for happy hour drink with a few friends.  I had not done that in quite some time so I really enjoyed getting out and having a little girl time sans kids. 

Easter Sunday dawned and the kids woke up bright and early to find their baskets.  They were excited about getting Legos and candy and they can’t wait to go fishing with their new fishing rods this summer!  We headed to Uncle Denny and Aunt Laura’s house for Easter brunch.  This was another thing that my mom was really looking forward to doing.  She really missed seeing the extended family and was so happy to be together with (almost) everyone again.  We got to catch up over some delicious food.  The breakfast casseroles were so good and the coffee cakes my mom made were divine.  Ooey Gooey Butter Coffee Cake and a Caramel Apple Dump Cake in case you’re wondering.  I got to snuggle adorable little Teddy and sweet Quinn too.  Can you tell I was in baby heaven this weekend?!  We had little Easter egg hunt with the basement since it was too wet to do one outside. 

 

We headed straight back to Columbus after this.  The kids slept most of the time so I had a pretty peaceful drive.  We made it to Rita’s by 5:30 and we able to enjoy a delicious honey-baked ham dinner with carrot cake for dessert.  Yum!  The kids were thrilled that the Easter bunny hid a few jelly bean treats for them at Grandma Rita’s house too. I’m a little mad at myself because I didn’t get any pictures of Mitch (he never sits still) and none of the kids together.  Boo :(

We were all pretty tired after a wonderful, busy weekend!

The gift

I can’t stop thinking about this.  Since it happened today, it’s been on my mind.  

This afternoon, my cousins Emily and Lindsey threw a beautiful bridal shower for Shannon.  Emily is Aunt Linda’s daughter in-law and her husband, my cousin Kevin, has always been incredibly close to Sha.  Aunt Linda is also Shannon’s godmother.  The shower was lovely - delicious food, beautiful decor and wonderful company!  We all had fun celebrating Shannon’s upcoming marriage.  

Shannon started opening gifts.... there were a lot!  I noticed a particular gift right away as it wasn’t wrapped.  It was a beverage tub with an insulating cover monogrammed with ‘The Reynolds” and filled with towels.  I even took a picture of it.  Shannon opened her gifts, and then came to the tub.  As she picked it up, Emily’s voice rang out over the commotion.  She told Shannon that gift was from Aunt Linda.  Shannon paused and looked up.  We were all confused. Emily explained that a few years ago, she was shopping with Aunt Linda.  I don’t remember all the specifics, but Aunt Linda saw the tub and decided to get one for for Shannon as a gift when she got married.  A year and a half after she died, Shannon received this gift.  The Klare’s remembered it, had it monogrammed and Uncle Jerry filled it with towels from Shannon’s registry.  Tears started flowing.  And then... a song started to play.  Music had been playing the entire shower in the background, basically unnoticed.  But as Shannon was opening the gift from Aunt Linda, a special song that means so much to our family started to play.  “What a Wonderful World”.  No one put the song on.  It just started to randomly play.  But it wasn’t random.  It was Aunt Linda, letting us know that she was with us.  I truly believe that.  

Sleep well

I snuggle with the kids every night til they fall asleep.  When Pat’s not working, he and I each take a kid (and bedtime is so much easier!).  Our kids do not like to sleep alone.  And I can’t really blame them since I feel more or less the same.  Life is so short and I truly try to cherish this time with my babies.  

Sleep well my sweets.  I love you more than anything. 

Spring Soccer

We hesitated in signing Evelyn up for spring soccer because the weather can be so iffy, but in the end, we decided we go for it.  We requested the same coach, Coach Kathy, and we were all thrilled when that’s what happened!  Evelyn had her first practice yesterday.  The league actually cancelled it due to poor field conditions.    The recent rain storms have been intense and everything is flooded and muddy.  But Coach Kathy said that as long as everyone was on board, the practice would be moved to the Evening Street school playground where there is lots of pavement space.  I wondered how practice would be, since Evelyn hasn’t seen any of these girls since October.  Most of them go to school together so I worried that Evelyn might feel left out.  That fear was 100% unfounded.  The girls all got along amazingly well and had a great practice.  Coach Kathy was fantastic as always and made sure the girls had fun while also practicing some soccer skills.  We’re all a bit bummed that her first game is already cancelled due to poor field conditions, 25 degree predicted temps and possible snow?!  Come on Mother Nature!  

Here’s to a great Spring Season!  ⚽️

P.S- Mitch went down the fireman pole on the playground ALL BY HIMSELF.

P.P.S.- those kids are so much tougher than us!  It was chilly, but 5 minutes in, most of them had taken off their coats while we parents shivered in our parkas.  

P.P.P.S- it’s currently snowing on April.  Gotta love unpredictable Ohio!

Finding the Words

I’m having a hard time blogging right now.  When your world is rocked, it’s hard to find the words sometimes I guess.  I’m scared for my mom, yet I have faith and hope.  I won’t give up.  Life can be hard, but we are strong.  My mom shows me that every day.  She is the absolute strongest person I know.  She rarely complains and she thinks of her kids and loved ones before All else. She’s my hero.  

My mom and I have had our battles.  It’s been brutal at times.  It’s honestly hard to think about sometimes without feeling intense regret for lost tempers and wasted time.  But despite it all, today we are closer than ever.  So I chose to put aside that regret and focus on the here and now.  It’s not forgotten- it never could be.  I think about it when I argue with Evelyn.  It’s surreal because now I’m on the other side.  I’m the mom.  And my daughter has my temper. I don’t know how my mom did it because to be honest, sometimes it’s really hard.  Evelyn is passionate.  She loves passionately.  She’s got the softest, sweetest heart.  But that passion carries over into swift mood swings and knee jerk reactions.  She exhibits mine (and her father’s) best and worst characteristics.  We see ourselves reflected in her. And Mitchell too for that matter.  It’s eye-opening.   

I’m not even sure why I’m writing this.  It’s just thoughts in my head that needed to come out.  My mom once said to me that she thought that she’d made a lot of mistakes as a parent. Don’t we all ?!?!?  I sure hope so because I make mistakes daily.  But my mom... my parents...Pat’s parents... were the best parents that they could be.  I know Pat would say the same.  We do our best to live up to them as parents to our own kids. How many people can say that?  Blessed doesn’t even begin to describe how we feel.   

The picture below is Kiki’s Korner.  Evelyn and Asa helped her decide what kind of chair to get.  It’s a special place in their house where they can snuggle and forget their troubles.  Avi was so excited when it came and he couldn’t wait to sit on it.  Evelyn and Mitch are so thrilled!!  We love you Kiki!