Daddyless weekend, Day 2: Awesome yet busy day

Our day started off really rough. Ryan was exhausted from being up so late, and Paige is just not a morning person in the first place. Nate missed his Daddy, so he was grumpy, too. Every little thing was a fight, and instead of leaving the house by 8:15 to go to my aunt's house like I had planned, we didn't leave until 8:45. I missed my exit and had to take another one, but it worked out really well as I hit green lights the whole way. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm severely geographically challenged, so the fact that I didn't get lost was a huge accomplishment!

All set to head to Aunt Sharon's house!

Upon arriving at my aunt's house, the kids were super whiny about being hungry and not wanting to play. However, my Aunt Sharon pulled out a bag of outdoor toys and I had packed a snack for them, so they cheered up right away!

Nate watching to see what toys Aunt Sharon is pulling out

Paigey's a goon!

My cousin Lindsay and I got to work on taking down the concrete pavers that were a wall around one of my aunt's gardens and loaded them into the van. We got about 1/3 of them into the van (about 50) and then noticed the van was looking a lot lower. I was hoping to load more, but silly me forgot how heavy pavers are!

I let the kids play some more while Lindsay and I got caught up on things in our lives. The kids had a snack, then played hide and seek in the yard. They had so much fun!

This is Nate's concentrating face as he looks for Ry and Paigey

Ryan ready to go find Nate and Paige!

When it was time to leave, the van was too heavy and was making nasty groaning and grinding noises. We unloaded some pavers and only brought 40 home. I was nervous about potholes in Greece and the hills on the road we live in, but was panicking about making into our steep driveway. We made it home safely with no troubles and no grinding!

Fresh air + lots of fun = sleepy Nate!

And a sleepy Ryan, too!

After lunch, naps, and snack time, we headed outside to play and unload the pavers from the van. Can I just say that moving pavers is a great work out? My whole body aches today like I worked out for hours! It's fantastic :) We were unable to go to the birthday party; Ryan has some health issues, and he was having difficulties after nap time. I would have loved to try taking the kids, but with him stopping every few minutes to scream and have difficulties was just not going to be a fun time for any of us.

The kids playing nicely together

Mason enjoyed laying in the cool grass

Mommy taking a break from working to snuggle her Ry!

Silly Paigey!

A smile? He's like his Daddy and isn't a fan of getting his picture taken

My little ham!

We put some pavers under the kids' swing set. They'll be able to sit and have tea parties there and we'll be able to move their outdoor toy box to the space now and not have to worry about little creatures living in the tall grass.

Before...

And after!

I also lined the new garden we're starting to put in at the fence by the driveway. I'm not sure how far I want to take the garden down the fence, or if I want to stack the pavers. Once Pete gets home, we can decide together and then figure out how many more pavers we want to go pick up from my aunt's house. Any thoughts? Should we stack the pavers to two high? Would the garden look nicer continuing down the driveway? I can't decide. I took them down as far as we had things planted. It's a work in progress, so excuse the mess of it all!

The highlight of our day was getting the mail. In April we became sponsors for an almost 4 year old girl from Colombia named Freyle, and we just got our first letter from her! The kids were super excited about it, and as soon as I texted Pete about the letter, he called the first chance he got so I could read it to him. Here's the drawing she did for us:

For dinner I made pasta salad (my Mom's recipe!) and hot dogs, and we relaxed by watching another Shaun the Sheep DVD. The kids were so tired not all of them made it through the movie without falling asleep! Dessert was home made ice cream sandwiches.

Ry was too tired to make it through the movie and dinner!

The kids passed right out at bedtime, so I got caught up on cleaning and dishes before watching a movie. I'm glad we have a dishwasher; Pete usually does the cleaning up after dinner and takes care of the dishes, and as I'm not used to it, things got piled up over the two nights. I can't even imagine how long it would have taken if I had to have done all those dishes by hand!

I had a special surprise when I went to bed. Nate had picked me flowers, but I thought he had left them outside...but he had snuck them into the house and put them on my night stand instead! I wish I had known so I could have put them in water, but it was such a sweet gesture that it didn't matter that they were wilted.

My pretty flowers <3

It was an awesome day, and we really got to do some fun things. I think they were used to just having Mom be around, and keeping busy and getting out of the house really helped.

We're super excited Pete's coming home tonight, although we won't see him until tomorrow! It's hard to explain, but I feel homesick when he's gone. Home is wherever he is, so it's hard not having him here. Does anyone else ever feel that way when their spouse is gone, or am I just weird? No comments allowed from my brother on me being weird! ;0P

I hope everyone's enjoying their Sunday!