I guess I could have gotten breakfast in bed, or a spa day etc., if I had asked, but for me gardening is a relaxing endeavor and i enjoy the creativity that goes with picking the collection of coordiated flowers and plants, tending to herbs, and digging in the dirt. So when Isaac asked me what i wanted to do i told him i wanted to go to the flower shop. Our annual tradition is to go to a whole sale greenhouse and get a trunk full of flowers for all our pots and lawn. I let Isaac decide between two colors of this flower; or which hanging plants should we get. When we got home dad did the yard and Isaac and I did the planting. He was a great helper as i showed him how to gently pull the plants from the pots, loosen the roots, put into the whole and pat dirt on top. Later we did the watering; then went for a bike ride/walk to the park as a reward for all of our hard work! 😁 

I should say, we also use these holidays to talk about adoption. We made a video to Isaac's birthmom wishing her happy mothers day, set a play date up with he and his sister/birthmom in a few weeks once school is over for the summer (and his birthmom's schedule opens up), and talked about what it was like when he was born or what the call was like or the first time we met him, what his birthmom is like and what its like to have two mom's that love him and how much we wanted and waited for him.   (We have an open relationship with his birthmom, and are generally open to however birthparents want it to work). 

Isaac loves music and the theater, we have taken him to one or two high school plays or library puppet shows when they've been kid friendly; and this spring, Peter Pan came to the Fox Theater in downtown Detroit. I was not sure if we should go, b/c i wasn't sure a three year old could pay attention. He did ok in the high school plays, but i didn't want him disrupting a neighbor for a more expensive endeavor. But at the last minute we saw tickets were still available and reasonably priced so we went day of. I'm so glad we did it. not only did he behave well, he was glued to the play the whole time. was astounded by the actors 'flying' on stage, liked to look at the musicians in the pit, etc.

We made a day of it, getting lunch and taking the Qline as well when we are there since he loves anything like a train. It felt like one of those very special days we had together. He still sings some of the songs and wants to 'fly' everywhere!  (the last pic a little hard to see, but Anthony will pic him up and he'll spread his arms and 'fly' through the house. 

We love going to the library b/c isaac likes reading so much, we get through all the books we have too fast, and need some fresh stories to break up the mix. They had a March Literacy month challenge at the library. challenges included 'Reading a parent's favorite, a new favorite, a comic book, a non-fiction book, read on a picnic, read in a blanket fort, cook from a book'.  We finished every challenge over the month. here are some highlights!  We made strawberry muffins from a Seasame street cookbook. Isaac was a great helper, and cleaner. And in the end he shared with his 'friends' Bear and Elmo. Can't wait for him to share with a little brother or sister someday.

Later we made a blanket fort in the family room and read one of my favorites, "Tikki tikki Tembo'. Isaac loves repeating the little boys name in ths story and enjoyed holding the flashlight as we read. 
      

Caught these in Church when Anthony was holding my new goddaughter, Nell.  the little hand hold just melts my heart.

Isaac has been heavy into construction and trucks; so in February we threw him a construction birthday party with mostly family and a few friends. I scoured pinterest and amazon for good ideas for decor, games, and food ideas. I remember my mom would go into a kids party planning book back (back in the day) and hand make invites, and do little games - very home made but the committment to the theme was magic and the circus, space, pirate/mermaid/peter pan, and other birthdays still reside in my memory.  SO - here we go - Super mom, now that Isaac was going on 3 and maybe likely to remember it, as he had started to put together the concept, anticipate his own birthday and we'd been practicing blowing out candles so he'd be ready! i had to come out and get it done. I'm fine with all the 'store bought' stuff, but didn't want the birthday party to also feel like it was just 'bought' and plopped down somewhere, too perfect for anyone to actually have any fun with. (which of course just added to the list of things to do if i was going to home make the cake, some of the games, etc.). and there were definitely times when i was decorating his cake that i thought "why on earth did i sign myself up for this?!' haha. 

It turned out great, i did get some little hard hats and vests for the kid guests, and some 'cones' to drink from. We have a perfectly long entry hall that made a great construction site, where we hung a wrecking ball [read: soccerball covered with tape] to knock down walls and towers the kids could build -- when the ball finally fell off with a little too much use it became a bowling game that everyone would cheer when the tower would go down. I also made made some magic sand stuff from a tutorial online and filled his play table bins with his various construction vehicles. That was a a big hit for the 2, 3, 4 year old cousins scooping and dumping.

this one is Uncle Robby, Aunt Coco and Cousin Claire with Isaac in front of our wrecking ball. (robby and coco just announced they are expecting in Nov! so another cousin on the way!)



Isaac loves to read books, and we go through around 15 library new library books a week, so i figured it would make a good centerpiece and sprinkled the table with his favorite construction books that we have and got a few new ones for the library we read to the kids during a break in the action. We have a porch that can be enclosed with screens or vinyl, and even with snow on the ground in febraury, with the heaters on, its a cozy place to read, watch TV, or sit by the fireplace. The pic is one of Isaac's older cousins who just started reading, reading one of the construction books to him.

For food we had 'spare tires' (black mini donuts); nails (preztal and carrot sticks), bricks (cheese and melon cubes), and 2x4's (vanilla wafers). after some pizza and salad dinner we did cake. Now this cake....People gave me props for doing it and said it looked good. I have to tell you - in my mind - i thought it would be easier to do and look like it came off some reality baking show. i'm quite sure it did not live up to my expectation.  LOL. the cake itself was moist and had good flavor. Isaac wanted chocolate. The first sign was the food coloring for the frosting. no matter how much yellow or red i put in there the buttercream was decidedly light peach vs a nice construction orange i was going for. Then i cut out a bit of a ramp on the upper layers to make a little dirt ramp (cookie crumbs and chocolate spinkles) for little construction trucks to ride up. the geometry was fine.....but the frosting was so hard to get smooth that it turned out a little messy in my mind. (oh well) the concept was there. Regardless of how the cake looked, seeing Isaac blow out the candles himself and seeing him look up so proud and excited that he did it. Was wonderful. 


In the end it was a ton of fun to see him enjoying and getting excited about helping set up, or play with the helium construction truck balloons that lasted a month longer. I hope he'll remember some of those things some day and pay it forward to his kids. 

Anthony and I love to ski, so we've been itching to get Isaac on the slopes. We know he's a little young to maybe take it up regularly at this point, but in a few years we're excited to get him into lessons. Our goal this year was to get him on the mountain a few times to get him used to it.  He loved it. We would go up the carpet and come down with him between our legs and he'd laugh all the way. Maybe one of these birthday's will actually be on the hill given he's a Feb birthday! 

nothing better than jumping in the powder of fresh snow!

We took one Sunday to make a bunch of valentines for our family, including sending one to Isaac's Birthmom and half sister. It was a fun morning of stickers, cutting, glueing, painting and coloring. Everyone was unique and different. And later going to the post office to buy fun stamps and put them in the mailbox. 

I have been in a bell choir off and on since grade school. There aren't many instruments i can play, but this one i can and i love to challenge myself in learning a new piece or having an hour during a busy week to focus on something artistic and a bit of an exacpe. It's become a family affair too. Anthony played the Sax in highschool and likes music as well and when our director left, he stepped in. Even isaac gets into it. and he's getting pretty good. He will conduct with Anthony and wave the baton, or we got him a little bell that he likes to ring to the beat.  He even gets sad when we dont have 'ding ding' after church. 

This year all 5 of my siblings and their families will be in town for the holiday. I've been looking forward to it for awhile, b/c they are really so much fun to be around. whehter the adults have a night together or we are just hanging at one of the houses all together just chatting and laughing.  

A picture of my younger brother Robby, my nephew Jack, isaac and I playing the "monkey game' which is a game for toddlers that you do silly things that are indicated on a card. I think this one must have been a "group hug"

What happens with toddlers decorating cookies?  a very fun mess. 
My mom adores her grandkids. She'll come watch on a weeknight if we have something going on, or will come for a cup of coffee and a yogurt with isaac before school some mornings. Near Chrstimas, Grammy had all the cousins over to decorate cookies. Its one of those traditions we do every year to get ready for Christmas eve and for Santa, and glad i can now do with my son and any future kids we have.

And if you look away for a second, your son licks the icing off the spreader knife! HAHA.

enough said. My sister, works as an event coordinator and always gets great stuff. she brought over some Lions gear for Isaac. He wore the Scarf to school and the teacher said he wouldn't take it off all day.  haha. There you go!

 

Frankly, i don't remember a Halloween with such great weather. It was 70 with a warm wind, in southeast Michigan. That never happens. Usually its some combo of cold, rainy, windy or snowy.  Even the lead up we took a Halloween was great. We ended up going to a Halloween party/hayride the week before that had a pumpkin patch where Isaac picked out his first pumpkin. He was obcessed with the Olympics over the summer and he loved coming home from school and after dinner or on the weekends, we'd watch a few events. He'd be doing 'parallel bars' between the outside chairs holding onto the arms and standing on the cushions , or 'running track', swimming, etc. So he was an Olympian for Halloween. We went to a Neighbors house who has two little girls Isaac's age who was invited us to their Halloween party before trick-or-treating, and took him around to the neighborhood. And Anthony, dressed as his coach, took him around to some of the houses in the neighborhood. Later we sat on the porch together---it was that nice---(usually we have the movie Coco, or some halloween theme music/movie on in the background); but we sat out and gave candy to the bigger kids until it was time for bedand get into our holiday jammies. A beautifully memorable holiday.

I was so lucky over the past year - Two of my sister's had daughters, and I was selected to be Godmother to Nell, and both Anthony and I were selected to be Godparents for Xochtil. (pronouced 'so-cheel', which is Aztec for Flower). So in the fall we were able to go so San Antonio where they live. It was Isaac's first time in TX, and there was lots to see. They have a great Children's museum and we went with our nephew Jack to do all the hands on related things; from a play town, to giant Lite Brite, to a room abour music and sound, to flying ball tubes. We also had a bit of a scavenger hunt to try and find things that are Texan they might not have in MIchigan. It was really a lot harder than we thought to find a cactus; but eventually we found one as we were headed back to the airport after lunch and Isaac got to see and understand what a cactus means. Mission accomplished!
     

We decided last summer was going to be the summer we got family bikes. We even got Isaac a little strider bike that i think he may be into pedals and riding without training wheels by the end of this summer. It has been wonderful. We get to go to church and the farmers market on nice sundays by bike, or pizza and ice cream in the center of town, to the library or the parks, etc. as all of that is around 1.5 miles away. We also can bike to Grammy and Gramps' place which is a mile up the road. Its nice exercise, gives us a chance to enjoy the weather. My dad is a terrible photographer so this is what you get. also some shots of Anthony building Isaac's bike.

The summer seems like it just started and it's more than half over. We've been enjoying the first summer in the new house, so far. We got a family of bikes for Father's Day / Anthony's birthday and have been riding everywhere we can. To church, to the park, to downtown to grab dinner, smoothies or ice cream on a hot day, to the library, or Grammy and Gramp's for a quick hello.  We've also gone to the zoo a few times, they have a dino exhibit which has been cool to see with Isacc. Each time we go we seem to see a new animal. This last time it was flamingos!  We celebrated Rebecca's sister Kiki's new baby, Nell. And Rebecca was chosen to be the Godmother! Anthony's softball team is undefeated so far 5-0. (and I'm starting to wonder if they should be in a harder league). When we can, we catch a golf game, or go to the lake/ pool, or play some pickle ball. Plus grab a date night here or there. We recently went to my cousin's black tie wedding - which was beautiful and fun to get dressed up. We are looking forward to our annual couples golf trip next week, where we'll go to Northern Michigan for a few days and relax, play some golf, do a wine tour and some nice dinners.  Picutres to come when we get them off the phones!

We like to participate in community events, and celebrate holidays. The year my sister, Mom and I took the kids to a Memorial day parade, and watched the local bands, clubs, and fire squads etc. walk by.  For us its part of exposing our family to a lot of different experiences, both little and big ones and making memories of dong them as a family. 

This past April when spring seemed far off we found some cheap tickets to Florida and decided to have a week in the sun. Isaac is a seasoned traveler, but this was his first in his very own seat!

We are blessed that Rebecca's parents have a condo right on the beach in Vero Beach and the weather could not have been more perfect. We quickly got into a groove waking up to watch the sunrise over the ocean and point out pelicans flying over the waves. Would walk across the street to get a coffee and play on the putting green at their gold course. Isaac got his own little club and had a blast trying to get it in the hole. He loved it so much that he would go into the closet at the condo and try to get it out and do it around the house every chance he got.  We tried a swim lesson for the first time, and as you can imagine the attention span of a 2-yr old was not the best, but we learned a few things to practice that week. And by the end of the week Isaac had gotten the hang of closing his mouth and going under, and on the last day blew some bubbles in the water -- what a proud moment!! To see his progress and confidence grow was so amazing. 

We spent the week trading between digging on the beach and finding seashells to feeling the ocean waves and foam rush around our legs to jumping in the pool, spotting lizards, golfing and getting ice cream. Lucky for us, Rebecca's parents (Grammy and Gramp) were there too to spend time with Isaac and Anthony's dad came over from the other side of FL to spend the weekend too. 

It was a great time and we can't wait to go back! 
 

So not every weekend is packed with stuff, but we do try to take advantage of the happenings around town. This weekend started with all the cousins, aunts and uncles (even extended cousins) going to The Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village to visit Thomas the Tank Engine. Thomas was giving train rides around the park and Isaac was so excited to meet him. At the park we played with the bubble and parachute stations, rode the train, played in the jungle gym which has water games and a big 'digger' for kids to pretend in. Then had a picnic with the cousins until Isaac fell asleep.  

Anthony takes particular pride in having a beautiful yard, and this weekend happened to be time to cut the grass. This is also a favorite past time of Isaac's as he loves his mower. (he actually loves anything he can push these days: favorites among them being vacuum, brooms, shopping carts, little kid cars at school where he and his friends take turns pushing each other). He's started to mimic Anthony, walking up and down the driveway turning around when Anthony does and we can't wait for the next little child to get a chance to 'help out' around the house/yard. 

On Sunday, Anthony had to lector at church. He's a reader in our parish and it makes me proud to hear him and be engaged in the community. Isaac loves music and sings along to the Aleluias and bounces to the beats of the hymns. I love seeing the smiles from people next to us seeing the childlike joy he gives them. We also had a bell choir practice before church where Anthony directs, often with Isaac in tow, and  I plays along with family, friends and other parishoners. Isaac also has his own little bell when he gets sick of conducting he can ring alongside mom standing on a box. 

I think Isaac was already getting tired in this shot, but at Thomas as had: us, uncle Colin, Aunt Kiki and their two kids, Grammy and gramp, Uncle Bobbie and Aunt Coco (courtney), Cousin Dan, his wife Paige and their two kids Danny and Lyla, and his mom/dad (Rebecca's Aunt and Uncle Jim and Kathleen).  We typically do things as a family and extended family at that.