I picked up Jennifer and her daughter Kate (20 months) from the Dayton airport at noon on a Friday. Since we were in Dayton and it was lunchtime, we headed over to Dewey's (our favorite pizza place) for some delicious pizza. After eating, we loaded the kids back in the car and headed home!
Jennifer is a faithful blog reader - ha! - and was excited to finally get to see our house in person. I think Kate loved the house, too! She especially loved the stairs! Since are house isn't really baby-proofed for a mobile child, we had to improvise in some areas to keep Kate safe. Thanks to our tv box (see Steve, boxes come in handy and it isn't stupid that I keep EVERY box), we were able to contain Kate in the living room and block off the stairs when needed.
That evening, we went over to a friend's house for a product party. Kate was the life of the party and keeping everyone entertained with her antics.
(Right away, Bean and Kate were bffs. Notice Bean touching Kate's face. So sweet!)
(These two were also quick BFF's as well! Kate must have remembered Steve rocking her to sleep from our visit in Gatlinburg.)
On Saturday, I took Jennifer & Kate to one of my favorite places in Lima -- to get some cupcakes from Sara! After picking up the cupcakes and keeping Kate from terrorizing the store (haha), we headed over to Hobby Lobby & Joann's to check out some fabric. I ended up getting some fabric to make a poodle skirt for Bean, but that's another story. The rest of the day we just chilled out at the house, watching the kids play and, of course, eating cupcakes!
(It was so cute to see the kids "play" together. Basically, Bean played in her jumper and Kate would come over and make Bean laugh. It was really cute. Kate would also climb into the jumper all by herself when Bean was elsewhere. Jennifer sure has her hands full with that one! I find myself with no time with just Bean, I can't imagine having 2 little ones AND one on the way! Yikes. She's supermom in my book!)
On Sunday, we headed to church in the morning. Jennifer watched the girls while I practiced with the choir, and then we headed to our morning class and met up with Steve. Kate was all about hanging out with Steve in class. She stood patiently while he was getting some breakfast and ate it, then she climbed up on his lap and just chilled throughout class. Kate can be very wild, but can surprisingly be very calm as well! She sat so quietly through class. I was really impressed! She did just as well in the big service - go Kate! We did a lot more chilling that afternoon (and I think some naps were taken, too!).
We went a little crazy on Monday, loaded the kids up early and headed to Cincinnati to go to IKEA! I introduced Jennifer to Ikea back in the day. We felt like we had to go and pass on our love to our girls. Start them young, right?? We feasted on hotdogs, strolled through the showroom, and I even purchased a couple of trash cans! The trip back north felt longer than it should have. At one point, both girls were losing it in the back seat. We had to make a little pit stop so I could feed Bean, but that didn't totally make her happy. She finally calmed down when I gave her her bunny lovie. Kate finally calmed down after realizing there was nothing she could do about getting out of that seat. HA!
We got home by late afternoon. Steve came home a few hours later. We ate dinner, then all crammed in 1 car (which is quite the challenge with 2 carseats in the back!) and headed to another favorite Lima locale -- Pete's ice cream! We had great weather while they were visiting, but it definitely wasn't ice cream weather! I was freezing as we sat outside eating our ice cream.
(Yum-o! It's hard to tell, but Kate's ice cream cone technique is to lick the ice cream at the top, and eat the cone starting at the bottom. So silly!)
Tuesday morning came way too quickly. Jennifer packed all their stuff up while Kate and Bean got in their last playing time together. We loaded the car up one last time and headed back towards Dayton. Even though the little girls had been in the car way too much that weekend, they did great one last time. Jennifer and I tried to cram in our last face to face conversations.
(What a blessing this girl is to me! It was so neat to let her love on my daughter as I got to love on hers. What a special friendship we have!)
The weekend seemed to fly by way too quick! It was so great getting to just relax and catch up on life with her. I had flashbacks to when we lived in Tennessee and we'd hang out. Our conversation back then was mostly focused on the desires to become mothers, coupons and current deals, and the Kardashians ;-). This time around, our discussions were focused on our kids, pregnancy, and the Browns (from TLC's SisterWives, haha). Jennifer has been a great source to go to for advice on how to manage life with multiple kids and I was excited to be a source for her on pregnancy and what to expect when that little guy makes his debut. I am so excited for their growing family and can't wait to meet the new addition! Steve and I are currently in talks of visiting them later this year.
(Until next time!)
You save all of your boxes too?
ReplyDeleteI wonder where we get it :-P
ReplyDelete