Jump-n-Jive Mothers Day - 2014

Since our weekends are a bit full this time of year the girls and I decided to be a bit untraditional and take Kristin out Friday night for Eve of Mother's Day Eve celebration. There was a jazz concert at Allerton Park which sounded like a great fit for the family.

Since Dad was driving we left pretty early and got there early enough to walk around a bit before hand. Abby and Nora were sort of brave enough to climb to the top of the gazebo and get a view of the spot where Mom and Dad got married. They both agreed it would have been better to be married atop the gazebo, more royal I guess.

Mom's ankle is still slowing her down a bit. Is it wrong to abandon Mom to run ahead for Mother's day?

We packed a picnic, Mom and Dad enjoyed the music while the girls danced the night away.

On the official Mother's Day we had French Toast, one of Mom's favorites, for breakfast.

We called it creme brulee french toast, mostly because then I got to torch something.

I asked the girls to tell me some things that they loved about Mom.

Nora and Abby:

• I love that Mom is silly and funny.
• I love when Mom pretends we're too old.
• I love that Mom helps me read.
• I love that Mom makes dinner (and soup).
• I love when Mom takes us shopping at the dollar store.
• I love when Mom takes us to the library (and ballet).

Dad:

And here, in the interest of posterity, are some things the girls should know about their Mom if they forget when they're older.

Mom is a night owl, yet she gets up at 6:30 every morning to be ready to take Abby to school and later to take Nora to preschool. She always walks them into the building, so they can have a hug right before they start the day. In between there she makes time to have breakfast with me, one of my favorite parts of the day.

After school starts Mom uses her only free time of the work week to either: volunteer at Dr. Howard, prepare Sunday School for Church, or run errands for the family. She fills her afternoon with trips to the park, ballet lessons, and working attentively with our girls - currently practicing reading with Abby, and writing letters with Nora. No matter how busy she is, she will always stop and listen to whatever excited story the girls have to tell.

She cooks wonderful meals, taking time to consider everyone’s taste in the menu, no easy task as we can all be quite picky. She is always up for an evening walk, even if her ankle and knee are sore from standing all day.

Mom spends much of the weekend doing chores; careful to make sure the girls have their favorite outfits ready for the week, and admirably attempting to keep me from looking too much like a hobo. She gets up before dawn on Sunday to make sure the kids in Sunday School learn about how much God loves them, and she checks in with her family on a weekly basis, a feat I will feel blessed to have our girls repeat.

Kristin is the embodiment of selflessness, everything she does is marked by her love of others, and it is inspiring. When I see Abby being relentlessly positive in the face of disappointment, or Nora’s fierce determination to greet everyone with a hug I see their Mother.

Kristin does all these things out of love, and continues to do them cheerfully and gracefully when they’re not seen, appreciated, or reciprocated. She is a blessing, and we love her. Happy Mother's Day K!

Dad Camp 2014

Kristin took a trip to Atlanta last week to attend a youth ministry conference. I took most of the week off work and proceeded to do some serious father-daughter bonding. Since everyone survived the experience mostly unscathed (at least emotionally) I thought I'd add it to our family chronicle.

Walking home from school was our first family activity after Mom left, somehow we managed to scrape everyone's knee in the process. It cracked me up so I suppose that was our first lesson about Dad Camp, dramatically less sympathy points were available.

Rub some dirt on that, you'll be fine.

After that we went to the library where I was introduced to Elephant and Pig books, and I returned the favor by introducing the girls to a dinner of Cheetos and Baked Beans.

Wednesday Nora and I planted some bushes in the yard in the morning. Abby and Nora found some princess jewel rings that morning which they decided had the secret magical power to let them talk to each other wherever they were. All day Nora walked around saying, 'See my ordinary, totally-not-magical ring Dad? It's not magic at all.' and then proceeded to whisper something directly into her completely ordinary ring.

After school we went to ballet. It was a watch day and I told Nora she could follow along at the back of the dance hall, so she thought she was pretty big stuff.

Thursday was 'D' day for the Kindergarten alaphabet countdown and Abby had been telling Nora all week how her class would be getting doughnuts. Nora was a little upset so we decided to make doughnuts for breakfast so everyone could have one.

To be fair to Abby, she had asked me if she could stick a doughnut in her backpack to bring home for Nora. In all honestly making doughnuts was also a little bit of self preservation, getting chocolate glaze off of the inside of a backpack sounds like a more of a job for mom.

That evening we had small group at our house. After dinner the girls were playing in the living room, Abby had bridged herself between the coffee table and couch when I heard her say, 'Hey Nora, tickle my feet!' Hilariously, that worked out not nearly as well in reality as it did in the minds of a certain 4 and 6 year old.

The past few weeks we've been working on thinking about what we do before we do it, proceeded by such hilarious lines as, 'Nora, pretend to kick my face!' and 'Dip me darling!'.

Friday the girls woke up before 6 so we went out for breakfast.

In the evening we went to International Night at school. Abby sang a couple of songs and we visited booths about different countries. I believe Japan was their favorite because of the Japanese Pocky Sticks (biscuit sticks covered in chocolate).

Abby is in pink, just to the left of the music stand.

I'm sure I had a great time, I think the girls did too.