Family Times are the Best Times

Hiiiiii!  I've just come back from a whirlwind 4 day visit to PA!  We had a bunch of family things going on and my sister and many of my cousins came in from out of state.  It was wonderful and I was so sad to leave last night.  It makes me so happy when all of my sisters, cousins and extended family are reunited.  I love the times when we can all come together.  It reminds me of when we were little and we used to do things together all the time, before everyone grew up, spread and out and moved away.

Ok enough sappiness.  On to the recap!  Warning: picture overload ahead.

The weekend started out with a surprise 90th birthday party for my grandfather!  He is truly the patriarch of our family, and the person who instilled the notion in all of us that family comes first.  Holidays and parties were always hosted at my grandparents house when I was little, and there is nothing my grandfather loves more than having his whole family gathered together.  He walked into the party totally surprised!  (Probably because his actual birthday isn't until October! HA But we planned the event when everyone could fly into town.)

Here are a few pics from the party:

My grandparents and their grandchildren

My grandparents with my family

 

Sisters!

My 5 nieces and nephews!

 

 

I would say the party was a raging success (without any actual raging, of course).

 

The following day was my niece's Christening day.  My sister asked me to be Godmother.  I now have 4 Godchildren!  Each time I'm asked, I feel so special that the parents have chosen me to serve that role in their children's lives :)  After the Christening there was a big party at my parents house.  It happened to be the HOTTEST day of the year so far, so most people stayed indoors. Which meant my parent's house was pretty much bursting at the seams!  Ah well, the more the merrier. 

My new Goddaughter

 

The next day we took the kids to an amusement park.  I can now successfully cross that item off my summer bucket list! Yee haw.  This particular park was one that my parents used to take us to when we were little (Knoebels), and it was the first time we had been back there in 20+ years!  It was also the first time I had been to an amusement park at all in years.  Something about being there kind of makes you feel like a kid again.  Who am I kidding, I pretty much feel like a kid every day.  HA  #nannylife

 

We spent all day there which wore the kids (and adults) OUT!

 

Post flume-ride AKA soaked!

 

 



Other highlights from the extended weekend include:

 

Picking giant zucchinis from my parent's garden:

 

Spending more time with my newest nephew who is now 1 month old!

And of course, some Vegan Treats (cake batter & chocolate soft serve):

Someone recently told me that my family sounds lovely from the way I speak about them and it's true. I love them.  I cherish the times when we are all able to be together.  Especially my sisters.  I miss them both often and wish I could pop over to see my nieces and nephews any time I wanted!  Time really does seem to speed up as you get older.  I guess the best we can do is to enjoy the moments we have together and hold them in our heart until the next time.  Kind of like what I do with summer to get me through each winter :)

I hope you've all been well and making memories of your own!


What were you up to this weekend?

Are you close to your family?

When was the last time you went to an amusement park?!

Sweet Georgia Peaches

Hey y'all!  I'm back after spending a week down south visiting my sister and her family and meeting my newest niece:

2 weeks old!

 

 

If you are anything like me and think there is nothing sweeter in this world than teeny tiny baby faces & hands & toes, then please accept these photos as my gifts to you:

 

 

 

 

 

My sister was 2 weeks post-partum when I arrived so she was still dealing with a fair amount of pain (from the C-section) as well as sleep deprivation!  So it was my job while I was there to step in and do as many of her duties as I could.  Mostly this meant taking care of my 1 and 4 year old nephew and niece, but I also tried to help out around the house too. 

Remember when I asked you all for easy recipes?  Well, by the grace of God and all of my sister's incredible friends we had meals to eat almost every night!  My sister has a network of mom friends and so many of them brought over cooked dinners while I was there.  Guaranteed I ate far better last week than I normally do at home.  I actually only cooked one night and I made tacos.  I know, I'm a real Betty Crocker.  But the kids and adults alike ate them and no one got food poisoning so that's a WIN!

I did a lot of running around for my sister since she couldn't really leave the house yet.  I think I went to the grocery store 3 times that week and to Target twice?!  [This is apparently standard for a family of 5?!]

Random grocery store finds:

The best vegan gelato I've ever had.  I wish I could find this up North.

 

 

I obvs did not buy these but came across them while shopping and wondered if anyone has ever seen these?!

 

Let me just tell you it is a far different experience grocery shopping with toddlers than when you go alone! Hahaha I'm sure all the moms out there can verify this but I sure do take for granted how easy it is to run errands by myself.  I dk how my sister gets anything done in a timely fashion.  My 23 month old nephew is obsessed with vacuums so every time we went to Target we had to visit the vacuum display so that he could try out at least 10 different vacuums (which we had no intention of buying).  20 minute derailment right there.  Good times.

What else did we do?  Hmmm, I took the kids back and forth to school every day.  I took them both for haircuts one day which was incredibly cute, and of course I forgot my phone that day.  So unfortunately I wasn't able to capture that priceless moment for each of them, but let me assure you they both looked ADORABLE sitting in the big chair draped with a cape. 

It was also still fairly warm down there so we went to the pool and naturally took a selfie:

Me & my niece/Jillyruns/IG

I took the kids for ice cream one day after school.  It should be noted there is a vast difference in terms of neatness in how a 23 month old and a 4 year old eat soft serve ice cream:

She remained this tidy throughout the entire process :)

\

This was about 1 second in.  He was completely covered approx. 2 mins after this

 

I also took my niece to t-ball one morning:

Tiny body x huge helmet = cuteness x1000

 

 

I got called by my sister's name at least 15-20 times last week.  I kind of just lost count.  When I was out at Kroger or Target I heard random people shouting "Lisa" at me, so now I pretty much just answer to my sister's name when I'm in ATL.  They all told me I looked wonderful for just having had a baby 2 weeks ago.  Yep, thanks!!!

 

In between all this madness, I managed to fit in just 2 runs late-night.  I went out around 9pm after the kids were in bed and ran 4 miles one night and 5mi another.  I now pretty much know my sister's new neighborhood like the back of my hand, even in the pitch dark.

 

In an unfortunate turn of events, I came down with a cold that I contracted from my NannyKid just 2 days after I arrived in Georgia so for the rest of the week, I had to keep my distance from the new baby.  I was so terrified of giving her the cold, but so far she has been ok. 



Last week was such a whirlwind, and as if I didn't already realize moms are pretty much superheroes this week of nonstop action pretty much sealed the deal for me.

 

 

 

With the addition of the newest baby, I now am an Aunt to FOUR nieces and nephews.  How did I get this lucky?!

Hope you all had a great week!  I'm off to tend to my other babies now :)