Sunday, June 17, 2012

Celebrating Daddy!

This weekend we spent celebrating the man in our life who is our nurturer, protector, provider and gives more for our family than he even knows. Happy Father's Day Brad!
Our fathers day preparations began way back in December of 2011 when two of my best girlfriends and I purchased the Rusty Wallace Racing Experience for our guys and we have kept it a secret for the past 7 months! We made the purchases and began right away thinking of creative ways to reveal the gifts for the Daddy's. We decided that we would have a Friday evening reveal on Father's Day weekend, we ordered matching checkered dresses for the little girls and I found checkered shorts for Dylan and as long as the outfits arrived as expected, well then we were set!
I found Dylan's shorts about 3 weeks ago on Etsy and quickly ordered them up, hoping they would arrive on time especially since they were hand made. Well about a week and a half ago much to my surprise a little brown box showed up on our door step looking like this.......

  Brad brings it to me and says, 'Um, what did you order from Lithuania?' I look at him like he was crazy, grabbed the box and thought, 'OMG the shorts, this has to be the shorts.....from Lithuania?!' I quickly put it in a hiding spot for a few days and when I finally got a chance to open them in private....yep, inside were the shorts. I shot off a few pics to Monica and Kirsten and had a ton of laughs over this. Who would have thunk.....and the funniest part is that Brad had NO clue!

So phew, the last of the outfits had arrived and that part was handled! We had decided to do a pizza party over at the Eddins household and that we would have a cake of some sort to add to our reveal! We all searched and searched for the perfect cake and landed on this awesome design that Kirsten found and Jules Bakery duplicated it for us to a 'T'! We were all SO excited and anxious to pull of this long awaited....huge surprise!
Friday night we headed over with our outfits tucked away to be used later in the night. We had pizza and cold drinks and enjoyed each others company while the kids played amongst us and the Daddy's relaxed on the deck!

After dinner us Mom's quickly headed downstairs with all of the kids to make the transformation into little racer children! They looked SO darn cute! We got a few pictures of the littles and we were all so excited to see the faces of these surprised daddy's!


The cake and invite!!!!



  Aahhh, this picture melts my heart! SO super sweet!!!
SURPRISE!!!

October 6th, we will be heading to Newton Motor Speedway for these 3 fantastic Daddy's to race their hearts out! Brad and Brandon will be riding along shot gun in a NASCAR Sprint Cup Car and Mike will be driving an actual car! We look forward to this weekend which at that time will be 10 months in the making! All of these guys are fantastic daddy's and we are SO blessed to have such great friends to share super fun experiences with!
The remainder of our evening was spent having good ole' summertime fun. Bubbles, glow in the dark bubbles I may add, car and trike rides, chalk pictures on the driveway, barefoot cuties.....what a super fun evening we had! Thank you Eddins and Hahn families for sharing in super fun exciting events with us! I think we are all pretty lucky to have such awesome Daddy's for our munchkins.....oh wait, they are pretty lucky to have fun Mommy's like us too ;-)


   This is glow in the dark Dylan with the rements of the glow in the dark bubbles on his face, belly and legs......hilarious!!!
Saturday was a HOT one! We decided at the last minute to forgo market and just have a relaxing day. We had another busy fun night we needed to rest up for! Mike was playing in an Alumni Football game for his Alma Mater, Center Point. He had been preparing for the past few months and we were pretty excited to head out and cheer him on! We had a great dinner with friends before hand at Vitos and then headed up to Vinton for the game, Vinton vs. CPU!


  #29 Mike, #38 Josh!

Dylan was super excited to watch the game. A little guy taking after his Daddy's heart, we have a football fan in the making! We opted to leave Danielle at home with a sitter, not knowing what the heat would be like or the room for a stroller and how comfortable she may not be, being held, so Dylan took advantage of a fun night out with Dad and Mom!
  All of the kiddo's were so good and loved watching Mike play, especially Lila who loved watching her Daddy relive his glory days! I think it has to be every man's dream to strap up and head out under the lights one last time!!!

   Way to go CPU pulling out the win!
Post game congrats! So super sweet to see Mike with his little cheerleader watching her Daddy on the sidelines! And Dylan was SUPER excited to get to try on an official helmet too! After we left on the car ride home Dylan says, 'Dad, Mom, I'm gonna go out and play football like Mike and have number 2-9 on my shirt too!!!' Little guy had such a great evening! Thanks Eddins family for another fun night and great job Mike!!


Happy Father's Day Daddy!!!


Today we celebrate the men in our lives who gave us life, the man who gave me our beautiful children. For my Dad, my husband, all of the other men in our lives who are in inspiration to us, we Celebrate you!
We let Daddy sleep in all weekend and boy did he need it he said! Shortly after 8:30 this morning Brad awoke and we planned our day! He chose to have a nice breakfast, then to visit his Dad and then we had a family afternoon at the pool! What a great family fun Fathers day Sunday we had!
Today at the pool Dylan took a huge leap and decided to put his head under water on his own even without plugging his nose! Today he officially transformed into our little fishy and it was so fun to watch!



   I DID IT!!!
 There was hardly anyone at the pool today which was perfect for us! The water was warm and refreshing and we just sat and relaxed while the kids splashed and kicked around. Danielle even took a little snooze on my arms in the water, it really was a perfect day.
One of Dylan's favorites about the big pool is the waterslide!
One of many rides down the slide today!

This evening found us having more play time outdoors before baths and the wee ones headed off to bed. Steaks on the grill for Brad's special dinner and quiet time on the deck.....what a great way to round off a fantastic fun filled weekend!
'Remember its what you do & say today and always that can and will have an impact on your child's life.' We are thankful to have some pretty fantastic Daddy's and role models in our children's life and it all started with the man who raised me to become who I am today, thank you Dad! Happy Father's Day too all Dad's!

Sunday, June 10, 2012

hot, Hot, HOT!

This weekend felt like Summer was in full force! With a forecast of 90+ degree temps Fri-Sun we made plans to hit the water and let me tell you it felt, GOOD!Saturday Dylan had a birthday party for his little buddy Wesley! So him and I headed over there for a early afternoon of non-stop kid fun! Allison asked if I would stick around and I was more than happy to do just that. The kids were SO good! The Owen's had their backyard set up perfect for a party! The kids found their own individual squirt guns and wasted no time filling them time and again, running around squirting each other. Even the girls weren't shy, running squirting whomever was in their path, it was hilarious! The also had a super fun bounce house for the kids with an inside basketball hoop and an outside slide. What a fun way to kick of the weekend!!
  Group Birthday picture!!!! Many of them heading to Kindergarten with Dylan next year but a few of the ones just turning 5 this summer will stay back. Too cute!!
 The kids were all so well behaved. It was hilarious because we could see the mannerisms they all learn at pre-school they also all do in unison when together. So when Wesley was opening his Birthday gifts, the person who the gift was from, got to go sit by him, then after he opened their gift the kids went on the rug and the other person got to sit by the birthday boy when their present was opened. They ALL did this on their own, it was super funny to watch and absolutely adorable!!!
 Happy Birthday Wesley!
It was a HOT day and we were more than ready to hit the big pool for a fun afternoon in the water! After the birthday party we headed home to pick up Daddy and Danielle and we hit the pool! It took each of the kids no more than 2.2 minutes to adjust to the big pool, they were more than happy to be in the water with Brad and I, and the smiles were as wide as could be!




We had a very refreshing afternoon in the water and even stopped for a delightful ice cream snack on the way home! We love summertime fun!
Saturday we also stop to wish Brad's Grandma Holub a VERY Happy 83rd Birthday! We send her lots of love and wish her nothing but a year of good health and happiness. She is one of the very best Grandma's ever!!
Sunday we headed to Central Park in Center Junction Iowa for a family picnic with my Dad's extended side of the family. We arrived and our family had a pavilion rented right on the Lake and nice and close to the beach. My Dad was thankfully able to make it back for the day and we were very happy to see him! Dylan caught wind of the beach a few days ago by a conversation I was having with someone and he had his mind set that he was playing in the sand. 'Mom, we're gonna dig for some gold. We have to find the treasure chest at the beach Mom. Mom is their gonna be lots of gold in the sand at the beach?! I'm gonna find some. Mom we have to build huuuuggge sand castles at the beach Mom.' These were a few of the numerous word tracks Dylan had been feeding to us in the past few days. He was beyond excited to get his toes in the sand. I warned my Dad, and he was excited too, coming in his trunks and all ready for some water time with Dylan!

  The afternoon started out great. Our family that was able to make it, arrived, and we had a good old fashioned English, Delay potluck/picnic! After lunch Dylan was patiently waiting for his chance at building a sand castle when Grandpa Kinney said he had a surprise first. Dylan waited and waited and before long Grandpa came back with....
  3 life jackets which meant a rented paddle boat!!! Dylan was SO excited. Danielle was very content in her Daddy's arms so Brad sent Collin with Dad and Dylan, he gladly jumped up and off they went!
  Dylan's very first Paddle Boat ride with Grandpa Kinney and cousin Collin!
 
  My Dad and his Sister, my most favorite Aunt Ellie!
  Soon after the boys and Morgan headed to the beach! Dylan was SOOO excited!!

 Morgan, Collin, Dad and Brad all tried their best at making Dylan a sandcastle with a river going thru the two castles. It was pretty darn cute and it appeased Dylan's little heart! So super sweet to have him literally beaming from ear to ear. He has been begging for the beach for a couple years now.


 Little peanut was such a trooper today. She was smiling and jabbering and just a happy camper!
  Working up an after beach appetite! Time for a snack!
Our family picnic traditions with this side of the family go back all the way from when I can remember, I was a very little girl. We always rented out the Woodpecker Lodge at Pinicon Ridge Park and had Thanksgiving dinner together. It was a huge production with all of the families on my Grandma Kinney's side. The past 10 ish years or so the cousins got bigger and having families of their own and the tradition slowly fizzled away. Thanksgiving every since honestly doesn't seem quite the same. We have tried to start the traditions again whenever we can, and although this wasn't our traditional Thanksgiving picnic, it was a beautiful afternoon with extended family in a different location and it was very very nice. A tradition that we always did was to take an afternoon walk after our meal. We did this every year after Thanksgiving dinner and we did it today too! We walked down to an old Bow String Bridge that was built in 1873. Wow, this was seriously part of history that was pretty cool to see!




We also took a visit to the parks Conservation Center to see the animals they had. Dylan loved watching the turtles and seeing the big snakes. Very neat place for the kids to see natures habitat.


It was a beautiful day with family that came together to re-visit all of the memories we had made with each other over the years. There is no doubt my Grandparents were looking down today with a smile upon their face. It is times like these that we remember no matter how busy life gets, no matter how many miles come between us, it is always very important to never forget the love of your family! We definitely felt the love today.
Speaking of feeling the love....these little munchkins of ours continue to melt our hearts each week. I find myself capturing more and more of these moments and each time I have to stop, take a deep breath to soak up the moment... and realize how incredibly blesssed we are to have 2 of the most beautiful little miracles ever and 1 super sweet Angel protecting us all :-)

This Holub family was feeling the heat this weekend and taking every chance we could to cool off. Summer is proving once again to be hot, Hot, HOT!!~