Messy Father's Day Fun

I am the luckiest girl in the world with my family. I would choose my Dad over and over again if I had to build our family from the ground up. Many of the traits that have served me well in life, I received and learned (by example) from him. So Dad, I love you! Of course, there's not just my Dad for Father's Day now; my sweet husband Chris is an amazing Father. I'm so lucky that he wanted to marry me (!) and have little ones together. I feel blessed and loved every day because of the choice we made: to create a family together.  

We hosted a Father's Day Weekend at our house with a revolving door of guests. We were also celebrating my Mom's release from the hospital. She was admitted early this week with an antibiotic-resistant strain of ... something(!). The Doctors never were able to fully culture it so it's a mystery but either way, we were so happy to have her out of the hospital and home.  It was crazy stressful to have Mom in the hospital with a newborn at home because I couldn't be there as much as I would have normally. Cheriss and Erik to the rescue!

 

Erik was in the ER with Mom most of the time while I waited in the parking lot, eating food from the vending machine and watching Miss Lily Mt. Versuvius on me (actual picture of the vomit all over her face after 4 hours sitting in the car below). Erik also visited her for hours each day, brought her food, and got her all checked out of the hospital. Sister in Law Cheriss also spent hours with Mom at the hospital. We are all happy and relieved she is out.

 In addition to coming to Mom's rescue, we are quite proud of Erik for catching his Personal Best (that's PB for those of you in the know) this weekend. Check out his fish!!! And, we're a catch and release family so no, we didn't eat it. It's a Small Mouth Bass and Grandpa was there to catch the proud moment on camera.

Thanks to Pinterest, I had quite a few good ideas for how to keep our little toddler busy this weekend. I have 215 pins (!!) on my Toddler Fun Pinterest board right now. You can check 'em out or follow the board here.

   

This Water Blob tutorial was genius. The kids **loved** it; loved it! They were soooooo happy. And, besides a few small tears as the afternoon wore on, the water blob held up remarkably well and is still in tact today. 

 PS - No, that's not Lily all grown up already. That's Miss Ava, Jamisen's first love. They've held hands so we're already planning their nuptials.  

We had a hot dog (and for the vegetarians, faux dogs) and a marshmallow roast. It was Jamisen's first marshmallow and he was quite enamored with all the sugar and gooey and warm.  

We also made the Faiola Family Tradition cake (we really should pick easier traditions that don't take so many hours to make) - Butterscotch Butterscotch Cake. You can find the full recipe here. It's clearly a sign that we adore my Dad because we keep making this cake, over and over, for him. Sister in Law, Cheriss, was the hero this time. She made 80% of the cake and just let me swoop in for the final caramelizing (butterscotching!) the pecans and of course, the eating. 

I call this the "I'm kissing. I'm kissing. I'm smothering. I'm smothering." picture. Jamisen is still a little unsure of this interloper that has come into his family. Overall, I think the transition is going well though and I continue to be thankful for two happy, healthy children. We are blessed.