The Ears Made It In the Paper

As my friend Mary commented on the previous post about the ears, Nina has got a great marketing campaign going.  Her picture made it in the county paper.  Click here to see the article.  She is still wearing them, so we’re going on nearly 3 weeks of wearing ears every day.  Uncle Bo took the girls out to dinner at Chick Fil-A yesterday evening to help me out while I was running to a few stores to get some things for Mark, and she looked so cute in her little outfit with bright green Vans (that she picked out for her birthday), but then the dog ears were on her head as soon as her hair dried from the shower.  I had to laugh.  Her persistence is working on us.  While in the hospital with Mark, I think I researched the perfect dog for our family.  I want a Vizsla. After reading all about it’s personality, I’m convinced we need to get one.  Don’t you think?

 

Surgery Update - We’re Home!

After less than two full days, we're home from the hospital.  I was the skeptical one when Mark said he was ready to leave the hospital today, but he passed his tests and got doctor approval, so we're home now.  It's a challenging road ahead but at least it's the road to recovery!  Thank you so much to my parents for all you've done for us in the past two days.  I don't know how we would have done it without you!

A Visit From Grandma

As I sit here and type this blog post out, Mark is in surgery getting a bionic knee.  After over a decade of dealing with the results of a staph infection that destroyed his knee after a routine surgery, he’s finally getting his knee fully replaced.  When I see him in a few hours, his leg will be straight, his bum knee will be gone, and in its place will be a bionic knee – thanks to Dr. Gerard Engh and the folks here at INOVA Mount Vernon Hospital. 

However, over the weekend, Mark’s mom visited from Florida to spend the weekend with us before his surgery.  The girls were excited to see Grandma and immediately convinced her to read many of the 20+ books to them that we had just brought home from the library.

Saturday was a warm and sunny day, so we decided to head over to the 100th Anniversary family fun day to celebration of INOVA Loudoun Hospital.  They were making a Guiness World Record attempt to have the most people  in one place wearing surgical masks, so we accepted our surgical masks and wore them for the official photo being sent to Guiness. 

Nina is still wearing the dog ears everywhere she goes.  A photographer from the local paper took her picture and asked our permission to print it.  So, the dog ears might even make it to the newspaper.  If so, I’ll be sure to share the link.  She’s going to have the whole county rooting for her to get a dog now!

The Loudon Hounds were going to be at the celebration also, so of course we got to see Fetch (who also loved her ears).  Then it was time for some ice cream, fun at the Hounds booth, and some playing in bounce houses before we headed home. 

 

Of course the girls wanted to take Grandma to Sweet Frog on Saturday night, so we did that after dinner, then enjoyed lunch at Clyde’s after church on Sunday, then later that afternoon Grandma was back on the plane to Florida.  We enjoyed our weekend, and we were glad that she was able to be here before Mark’s surgery.  Surgery updates will come later.  He will be at the hospital today and will either be allowed to come home sometime tomorrow or Wednesday.  We are hopeful that since he’s young and in good shape he’ll be allowed to leave tomorrow, so I will be sure to update when I have more news…

Cupcakes For A Cause–Year 2

Last year was our first bake sale that we called Cupcakes For A Cause.  Nina and Lyla had been asking me about doing our bake sale again, so last week we did all our baking, made our signs, and had our second annual bake sale.  I forgot to take any pictures until the very end, and by that time, Nina was taking customers in her roller skating gear, and Lyla was running around with friends.  This year we donated our money to Youth For Tomorrow which is a home for at-risk youth in our area.  As usual, the girls had fun hosting the bake sale, and it was a fun way to raise some money for a great organization!

 

Father’s Day

I am blessed to have two great fathers in my life to celebrate on Father’s Day – my dad and the dad of my girls.  My dad was out of town this weekend, but we still got to enjoy a great day celebrating Mark.  It was the perfect day to be outside, so after church and a tasty lunch we went over to the batting cages and the driving range.  Mark used to love playing baseball, but since that was before I knew him, the girls and I had a great time watching him launch some 90+ mph pitches to the back of the fence! Myself, on the other hand, only made it in the cage with the slow pitch softball.  

 

The girls both wanted to try, but Lyla was too young, and there wasn’t a bat small enough for Nina, so they settled on wearing the helmets and holding the bats.  We had to laugh at this picture of Nina.  She looks like the perfect sidekick to her favorite mascot, Fetch.  She’s been wearing these dog ears since last Tuesday.  She’s worn them to friends’ houses, around the neighborhood, to the grocery store, running errands, to Sweet Frog, etc.  She tried to wear them to church this morning (that’s when we made them take a rest), but they were right back on after church for the batting cages and for hitting golf balls.   

All four of us took turns hitting golf balls, then it was back home for showers, steaks on the grill, and cherry cobber.  Mark’s type of day!

   

Bunnies

See that hole between Nina and Lyla?  Well, it’s filled with baby bunnies.  Mark was edging before cutting the grass about 2 weeks ago, and saw an area next to the house that had dried, fluffy grass.  He moved aside the grass and found the hole with the bunnies in it.  At the time, they were so little but now they are looking like real bunnies and are so cute. 

There are more in the hole than the ones you can see here, but they’re packed in there so tight that it’s hard to get a picture of them all without moving them.  Needless to say, the girls love “checking” in on the bunnies quite often.  It’s all we can do to keep them from picking them up while we’re not looking!

What a Nut!

Last Day of School

Well, it’s over.  The school year is done, and the summer has started.  Lyla and I met Nina at school at the end of her last day.  Lyla brought her some flowers, and after all the kids were released there were bubbles, balloons, buses circling the bus loop and honking, waving and cheering, etc.  It was quite a fun end to the school year. 

After we left the school, one of my friends (and mom to Nina’s twin friends) and I surprised the girls with a picnic at the park.  The twins’ grandparents had gone ahead and set up the whole picnic and had even made “K” shaped sandwiches for the girls to eat – signifying the end of Kindergarten.  They had a great time, and then they’ve been living it up the rest of the weekend…late bedtimes, gatherings with friends, people over, etc.  I think the start of summer has officially begun.

The End of Kindergarten

It’s hard to believe we’re in the last week of the school year.  It doesn’t seem like that long ago that I was getting Nina ready for her first day of Kindergarten.  Now here we are at the end of the year.  It’s been a busy week of year ending activities, and today was the big performance and celebration of our kindergarteners.  They sang songs and got awards, then all the kindergarteners and their families went back to the classrooms for an ice cream party and a special video commemorating their year. 

 

 

 

Nina really loved her class this year.  We felt very fortunate that she had such great teachers and a wonderful experience for her first year in school.  While she’s excited for summer to begin, I know she’ll miss her buddies from her class over the summer, but thankfully we see so many kids around the neighborhood, at the pool, etc., and there never seems to be a shortage of playmates.

We enjoyed being there as a family to celebrate this milestone for Nina, and we’re very proud of her and the young lady she’s becoming.  Congrats, Nina, on finishing your first year of school!

 

Visiting Uncle Bo

Last weekend we decided to make a visit to see Uncle Bo at his apartment.  One of his roommates has a puppy, so we thought Nina would love to see and play with her.  The girls were a little unsure at first how to get close enough to pet the puppy without it jumping up (out of excitement), but once the puppy got some energy out, the girls had a lot of fun finding sticks for her and getting her to play tug with large leaves. 

 

This picture cracked me up because of Nina’s face.  This was her reaction after getting a little puppy nip.  It’s like I can hear her saying, “I can’t believe she just DID THAT.”

It was a lot of fun to visit Uncle Bo at his place, see the pup, and just hang out for a bit.