Father's Day Weekend

As you know, I like to turn special occasions into a big reason to celebrate. Especially when it's a holiday like Father's Day.
I have a wonderful father and super special father-in-law too. I am blessed in both areas. They are kind, generous, loving and so incredible with our kids. I love them dearly!

I also have one of the most amazing husband's in the world who is a spectacular father to our two children. I often look at him when he's with them and just say a silent prayer thanking God for giving him to me. He teaches them about life, God's love, generosity, standing up for themselves, how to be a gentleman, respecting others, and he always makes sure they compliment me. As I said, I am so blessed to "do life" with him.

So, I wanted to make Father's Day a great celebration weekend in recognition of all that he does for us. We started Saturday morning bright and early by heading out to the beach. We got there by 8:45 a.m. and the beach was nearly empty. It was so beautiful and quiet. There was a cool breeze in the air and the kids were ready to play!

The boys heading down the boardwalk to the beach.

 Payton had so much fun "walking on water" - really there is a huge rock structure that sits just below the water line when the tide is high.

Parker just loves playing in the sand:

 Look how happy he is!

 We ate lunch at the ocean-side restaurant where we were and then headed out. On the way home, Parker fell asleep (ocean air will do that to anyone!) so we stopped at a new meat market to pick up some steaks for Father's Day. The place was packed, which is always a good sign!

Brian got a little cat-nap in Saturday afternoon while I cleaned up from the beach and then we both got ready for a special date I had planned.

Our sitter arrived and we headed out to one of Brian's favorite Irish pubs where he got to enjoy a pint:

 And a Scotch egg. Never heard of a Scotch egg? Well, it's a deviled egg, wrapped in sausage and then deep fried. Oh boy, was he in heaven!

 

 After the pub, we did a little shopping and then headed to my little surprise.

I booked Brian a professional barber shop shave at "The Art of Shaving."

The barber has been doing this for over 30 years, but the store itself is new to Tampa. They only had 1 appointment available on Saturday, so I guess it's doing quite well.

First, they started off with a hot oil massage:

 

 Then a steam towel:

And then the straight-edge razor shave:

I think the barber was getting annoyed with me taking pictures, so I stopped there, but the whole experience took 30 minutes. It was quite intense.

Needless to say, I couldn't stop touching Brian's face the rest of the night! It was SO smooth and smelled so good!

Sunday morning started out pretty typical with church. Then we opened presents and Brian read through all of Payton's cards (there were 4 of them if you were wondering).

(Do you think someone was licking the beaters from the chocolate cake I was making???)

 Intently reading the cards together:

 

 Payton made Brian a paper tie. And of course got him the cliche pair of socks (at least Brian looks really excited about them).

 And while we were at the store, Payton spotted these beauties and insisted that he HAD to buy them for Daddy. "He will LOVE them!" And he did! :)

 We had some low-key family time in the afternoon playing in the yard:

 And then we had two very special families over for dinner that evening. Brian is really close with the husbands and I am really close with the wives and the kids all get along great. It was the perfect Father's Day BBQ!

 

 Remember those steaks we got at the meat market? YUM! Brian cooked them to perfection!!

 We ate until we couldn't move. Laughed until we cried (literally!) and treasured every moment with our dear friends.

Brian said overall, it was a great Father's Day weekend, so that makes me very happy.

We love you Brian - you are the best father we could ever ask for!

1st Week of Summer

The 1st week of summer is coming to a close.

I can't say every day has been super relaxing, but there is definitely a slower vibe in the household.

No one "sleeps in" in this house (boo...hoo...) so unfortunately, that has not become part of our summer ritual. But, there is no rushing off to school at 7:30 and Payton is around a lot more in the afternoons which makes things easier on a lot of levels.

Payton has been in a Creative Arts camp all week and has been making things like paper mache, a painted matchbox car, a candy necklace, a painted "surfboard", a tie-dye pillowcase, and many other messy projects that have required me to wash his camp t-shirt every. single. day.

The afternoons have been spent lounging around, swimming with friends, playing with chalk in the driveway, coloring, doing a puzzle and preparing for Father's Day (we've got lots of fun things up our sleeves for Brian this weekend!).
Here are some random pics from the week:

Parker has discovered squirrels. And he's like a dog. He likes to chase them in hopes of capturing them. So far, he hasn't had a lot of luck...

( I'm pretty sure this squirrel was laughing at him.)

 Brian and Payton did a little experiment called "Mystical Tree."

 Basically, you start out by assembling a little cardboard tree...

 And then you add water to the base, and watch it grow.

This is what it looked like about an hour later:

 And this is what it looked like 2 hours later:

 It's a little creepy if you ask me. What is in this stuff? Why does it grow so fast? Why can't they use this chemical to make other things grow that fast? Strange. But it made for a very intriguing science experiment.

 Payton is really into the book series "Diary of a Wimpy Kid." I found this 200 piece puzzle at Marshall's last weekend and thought, "Oh, this will be great for the summer! It will keep him busy for weeks!"
He and his friend started it after camp one day this week:

 Working hard!

 And this is how it looked the following morning:

 What?!? He finished it in less than 1 day??? So much for keeping him busy.
So, he's been drawing a lot instead. He made this picture of all of us:

(That's a pacifier in Parker's mouth if you can't tell. Also, don't you love that he put me in high heels? When does he ever see me in high heels? I love that he thinks I'm so fancy!)


Parker figured out this week that we have a hose on the side of the house. Now he's obsessed with filling up his beach bucket with water. He prefers to do it first thing in the morning while still in his pajamas. Which then he gets soaking wet, so I have yet another item for the wash. That's okay though, because I'll have to wash Payton's camp shirt any way!

 This is his "Gimme that camera!" face.

He also enjoys coloring with chalk while in his PJ's...

(like how I got my toes in that shot??)

Lastly, today was the final day of Creative Arts camp, so I told Payton I would take he and his 2 buddies out for pizza afterward. Of course we went somewhere that also had an arcade, because what fun is a restaurant without an arcade???

 After a couple slices of pizza and some brownies, they were off!

 I gave each of the "big kids" a dollar to play a game (they were all $1 each - what a rip off!!!)...

 But Parker was happy as could be pretending to play the games. So happy in fact, that I could NOT get him to sit still for a picture. These were all I could get:
Totally blurry:

 Almost clear, but not quite:

 Back to totally blurry. You'd think he was Jeff Gordon the way he was driving that thing!

 A good time was had by all! That's for sure!

 Now, I'm off to make Brian's favorite Mexican dinner to kick off our Father's Day celebrations.
Have a great weekend!