Father's Day Weekend

We got to spend part of Father's Day weekend in one of my husbands' favorite places... "the taqua house" as James calls it.  It's easy to see why he loves it.  Life slows down at the lake.  It's quiet and peaceful and there is nothing to do but go for boat rides, take walks, sit with your feet up and enjoy a good book, enjoy bonfires and s'mores and just be together.  And if you're a little boy of almost three... it's absolute paradise!  James spent the day running up and down the dock, throwing sticks and rocks in the water and squealing in delight.  He collapsed into bed at 7:30!  

Our boys are blessed beyond measure to have a daddy who loves them to no end and works tirelessly and without complaint to provide for our family.  I am so thankful to call him my husband.  

Happy Father's Day to the one we love!

I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.

~Ephesians 1:16-18

Sweet Innocence

Couldn't help capturing this tender moment looking out his bedroom window with his lovie in hand.  We are about to embark on a new milestone this week... Potty training!  I have to admit that I am a bit sad to see this diaper bum go.  It is just another step in him gaining independence and needing less of me.  I want to train my boys to be men and men after God's heart, but oh how my heart aches at the thought of losing this sweet innocence...

"The other night dear, while I lay sleeping, I dreamt I held you in my arms.   When I awoke dear, I was mistaken, and I hung my head and I cried."

The Bright Spot

It's hard when people you love leave... there is just no getting around it.  While there is joy in seeing the new adventure that lies ahead, there is heartache in the goodbye.

My sister and her husband recently moved to Rochester, New York with their four children after having lived ten minutes down the road from me for as long as I can remember.  While we are happy for them and excited to see the plans God has in store, it was so hard to watch them go.  For months I could not think about it without welling up in tears.

"It's not far," we have told ourselves.  "You can make the trip in a half a day's drive."

"It could always be worse.  You could be going to Yemen."

We have comforted ourselves with these sentiments and the hopes that someday they will return to the burgh.  In the meantime we are seeing the bright spot.

When we see each other it's 100% time together.  Here are the cousins in their jammies having breakfast together!  They were recently home for a weekend and while mayhem reigned it was a total blast!  James was positively giddy!

He adores his cousins!  And so does Ethan.

I love this picture!  He always snuggles right up on Chloe's shoulder.  She is like a big sister!

Daddy took the boys for a jeep ride, which they thought was totally rad!

They whipped around the neighborhood a few times... all three with poker faces.  You would have never known they were having fun, but they were gleeful when they arrived back telling us all about what a great adventure it was.

We will be making a trip to New York in a few weeks and we can't wait to hang out in their new digs and spend some quality time together.  

While I would still love to have them ten minutes down the road, in many ways I think this will bring us closer.  We talk almost every day on the phone and when we see each other we really get to spend time together instead of an hour here or there.  

God's ways are not our ways and sometimes it is so hard to make sense of what He is doing, but I rest in the knowledge that His plans are always good and I praise Him for the gift he has given us in "the bright spot".

"For I know the plans I have for you, " says the LORD.  "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope."

~Jeremiah 29:11

Don't Sweat the Story Hour

My sister gave me the title for this blog post.  Her and I had a long chat yesterday as I was driving through the pouring rain after excusing myself from story hour at the local bookstore.

Ah yes... I had such great intentions.  It was a rainy day here in the burgh.  Why not go to story time with the boys?  James loves that kind of stuff and I thought it would be a fun activity that would get us out of the house where we had a painter working in our playroom.

Here are the boys before the story began.  Don't they look so cute sitting on this bench?  That lasted for about ten seconds... just long enough for me to snap a picture... and then they were done.

Ethan only wanted to rip books off the shelves and push them around on his hands and James only wanted to sit on my lap, which was not going to happen since I was chasing Ethan around desperately trying to clean up the mess in his wake.  Therefore James decided just to lay all over the floor in his act of defiance.  Of course story time was packed and all of the other children were sitting nicely on the benches listening intently and answering the story lady's questions.  We made it halfway through book #2 and I had to grab my boys and scurry out of there with my head tucked down while the other parents looked at me with looks that seemed to say, "Oh, I feel so sorry for her."  Or, "Glad that's not my children."  They may not have been thinking this at all.  This was only my perception and probably because I have been one of those moms' before... not meaning to judge, but doing it all the same.

You know... for a few minutes I was tempted to be completely mortified.  I wanted to tuck my tail between my legs and run out of there and never come back.  They must think that I never take my children anywhere and they don't know how to behave and I must not discipline enough or the right way, etc.  But then I remembered that I have a one year old and a not yet three year old.  Give yourself a break Cara and don't sweat the story hour!  

As I was driving down the road I felt like God said to me, "It's okay.  You did the right thing.  You did what was best for your children in that moment."  And I felt peace, just like that.  Instead of feeling embarrassed and replaying the scene over and over again in my mind imagining what I could have done differently, I just let it go.  There is such freedom in allowing the Spirit to reign in my heart rather than trying to keep up with the worlds standards.  Praise God for that.  Unfortunately I don't always live by the Spirit, but as a mom of littles I am learning more and more each day how to surrender and let God have the controls.  

I'm sure we will make it to another story hour and I will plan to leave Ethan at home!  But I have to say that I am thankful for this mishap of a morning because it is teaching me and growing me in the wisdom and grace of my heavenly Father.  It is showing me more of His love and in turn helping me to love my boys in all of their "littleness" and imperfections as well.

Most of all, love each other as if your life depended on it.  Love makes up for practically anything.

~1 Peter 4:8

National Donut Day

Did you know that today is National Donut Day?

Don't miss the opportunity to enjoy yours today!  Yum!

Rain, Rain, Go Away

It's been rainy here in the burgh for the last two days thanks to Hurricane Andrea.  We have little boys anxious to get back outdoors...

Happy Birthday Curious Ethan

We celebrated Ethan's first birthday with a family party over Memorial Day weekend.  I wanted to do a Curious George theme because he is such a curious little guy and I found all these darling ideas on Pinterest.  What did we ever do before the internet?  It was a lot of fun getting everything together and of course I wanted to preserve it in pictures.

I wanted one area to display his year in pictures and his banner and another area for his cake and desserts and the rag tie garland I made.

I bought this Curious George birthday book and had everyone write a little message in it as a keepsake for Ethan when he gets older.

I LOVE his little hat!  I had it made for him from a woman I found on Etsy.  So cute!  He looked adorable in it!

Year in pictures:  I did this for James' first birthday as well.  It's so much fun to see the visual progression of how they have changed each month of their first year!

We had burgers and fries and fruit skewers to eat.  It was a bit on the chilly side the day of his party so I had to set up seating in the dining room.

Get it?  It's supposed to be the man in the yellow hat... no one else got it either.

This was the dessert table.  I made cupcakes, sugar cookies and chocolate covered frozen bananas and his smash cake.  

I cut out the cookies in his initials and number 1's

The cupcake toppers were from a package I bought on Etsy

I filled mason jars with lemonade and used these fun straws!  Note for the future... make sure to figure out some sort of label system for names.  After one sip no one knew who's were whose.  Oops!

This was the rag tie garland that I made.  Super cute and super easy!  My mom gave me all her fabric scraps and I just cut them in strips and tied them to jute.  Love it!

This was his smash cake, which I also loved!  I'm no Martha Stewart, but I was pleased with the way it turned out.  I found the cute Curious George monkey on Amazon and it came with candles and I made the little garland for the top of his cake.  It was chocolate with white icing.

Here is a picture of the chocolate covered frozen bananas.  They also had a layer of cookie dough between the chocolate and the bananas.  It was a little too much.  They looked really good on the recipe and in reality they were just too rich.

I did red and yellow candies for added decoration

I was sad to watch him destroy the cake after making it look so cute, but what are you going to do?  That was kind of the point!

He was a little confused by the whole process

Naturally he loved eating the cake though!

So did this kid...

We kept catching him sneaking licks of icing off the tops of cupcakes.  

It was such a fun party and worth every bit of time I put into the preparations!

Happy Birthday Curious Ethan!

Lunch with Daddy

There are lots of bonuses to having a daddy who owns his own business.  His office is in our home, which offers both pluses and minuses.  The buddies get to see daddy all the time!  But sometimes he is here and not accessible.  This can be confusing for a one and three year old.  However, we choose to see the blessings in it and one such blessing can be counted today.

Daddy called around lunch time and said, "Can I take James to lunch?"

How did I respond?  "Yes!  Let me grab his shoes."  I love my little guys, but when you get an unexpected break like this... you jump at the opportunity!

Here are two of my favorite boys on their way to Eat n' Park:)