Our Front Porch Looking In: June 2008

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day!

Jake was thrilled that he was able to spend Father's Day with his kids. With work schedules, we weren't sure we would be able to come to PA this weekend, but luckily we made it! It was a pretty mellow morning. After crawling in bed with Dad, the kids gave him his card. After breakfast, the kids got to go to the pool one last time with just Dad. It was a simple morning, but very special.

Aren't these shirts cute? They say, "My Dad Rocks!"

Unfortunately, this is also the day we had to leave PA. Leaving is never easy, but it was especially difficult this time considering it was Father's Day. It was not the ideal ending to this day, but we are grateful for the time we did get to spend with the kids. We had a great weekend with them and we are counting down the days until our next visit in July.

Emma, Abby & Nathan, We love you and miss you so much! We can't wait to see you in July when you come to visit. Sending love and hugs, Daddy & Nikki :)

Jake's Birthday Party

On Saturday, we celebrated Jake's 32nd birthday. His actual birthday was the week before (June 5th) but this was our first chance to see the kids since then. We had a lot of fun and what made this party extra special is that Emma did most of the planning for it! A few secret phone calls between me and Emma and... look out! This was quite the celebration complete with decorations, games and presents. Great work Emma!

While Nathan and Daddy were napping in the other room, Emma, Abby and I got to work blowing up balloons and decorating.

Finally, Daddy was brought out of hiding and got to see his surprise!

Then, we all played "Pin the Golf Ball on the Club." This was an original (and quite creative) game idea from Emma.

After the game, is was off to dinner at Fudrucker's Restaurant which was also chosen and planned by Emma. She didn't even know that Daddy had been there before, and likes it!

Emma chose Dad's gifts too!
Happy Birthday!!!

Hotel Adventures

It's a lot of fun, and sometimes challenging, to stay in a hotel with three young children! Here are a few pics of some of our most recent adventures....

Meals are somewhat of a challenge while staying in a hotel. Unfourtunately, there is a lot of take out and PB&J sandwiches. This gets old after a day or so but the kids never seem to mind (hmmm, I wonder why??) Here we are enjoying a late night snack from McDonald's.

Abby really liked the chocolate sauce...can you tell?

Everyone had a place to sleep, but then there was no place to walk! We pratically had to crawl over beds to get to the door!

Breakfast...one of the biggest challenges. Buffets are great, but with little people it can be difficult. There are too many choices and everyone keeps changing their mind about what they want!

Time to tackle Daddy! No toys to play with at the hotel? No problem...that's what Dad's for!

Everyone's favorite thing to do at the hotel...SWIM!! Emma, Abby and Nate would stay in here all day if we let them. They stay in so long that when we finally do get them out they've turned into prunes! With each visit, the kids get more and more comfortable in the water. On this visit we made great progress with each of them. Emma went underwater, ON PURPOSE, and there were no tears afterwards! Abby graduated from wearing a life jacket to using arm floaties. And Nathan, left the stairs with Dad to explore the rest of the pool and at one point even practiced kicking his legs. We are so proud of each of them!

Here is little Miss Abigail playing with all my different hair accessories. If ever we couldn't find Abby, we had to look no further than the bathroom. She spent so much time doing her hair and looking at her beautiful self in the mirror. Everytime I put on my make-up, she would ask me if she could "have some eyelash too." She meant eyeshadow and I would correct her and she would walk out and say to Emma, "Look at my pretty pink eyelash!" Too cute! If she is already hogging the bathroom at the age of four, I'm nervous to see what the teenage years bring!!

Just lovely!

Snuggle time!

VBS

Friday evening was the closing performance for Vacation Bible School week at the kid's church. Emma and Abby both participated in VBS all week long and were each in a performance that evening. Jake and I were so pleased that we could attend this event with the them!

We brought Emma to her group first. She said she was a little nervous, but you couldn't tell! She looked so calm and collected.

Then, we brought Abby to her class. She was sooooo excited about being in the show and wasn't the least bit nervous.

Abby's show was first. It was difficult to get a good picture from where we were sitting, but she is in the center of the top row. Abby did such a great job at singing all the songs and doing the motions!

Nathan had the best seat in the house! He was excited to see his sister up on stage and kept waving to her throughout the performance.

Here's Abby after the show!

After the show there was an ice cream social.

We had to wait a little while for Emma's performance. Nathan kept himself amused by running up and down this hill over and over again!

It was extremely hot and humid that night, and Daddy was a little sweaty from chasing Nathan around so, Abby thought she would help cool him off by blowing on his head!

Emma's group was the Tucan's.

Here she is waiting to start. Such a pretty girl!

And, here she is singing one of her songs.

Emma and Abby, you both did such a great job on your performances! We are proud of you and so happy we got to be a part of this night with you!

Golfing with Grandpa

Since hearing that golf is the new interest of the Marshall kids, Jake and I knew we had to make time during our busy weekend for Grandpa to take Emma, Abby and Nate to the driving range. Grandpa Daly loves to golf, so this was a perfect event for him to share with his grandchildren. The girls were very excited and kept reminding us all weekend to schedule time for the outing.