On Saturday, the family headed to Lincoln for a fun-filled adventure. To start, I took Hadley to see Fantastic Mr. Fox at the theatre. She loves going to movies and was especially happy that Papa and Grandma could join us.

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After the movie, we headed to Chucky Cheese’s for lunch and games. The girls had never been there before and it had been about 20 years for me, so we didn’t know exactly what to expect. What we got was a wonderful afternoon of pizza, cake and rides. Hadley loved trying all the games out, but preferred to climb around in the tubes and slides that of course, didn’t cost anything. Zoey Belle must’ve ridden the full-sized horse game 12 times. She gave Chucky Cheese a high-five the first time he came around, but on rounds 2 and 3, she wasn’t really into the giant rodent.

After Cheese’s, we headed over to Barb and Nolan’s so the girls could play with the cousins. The weather was beautiful and they really enjoyed getting to ride bikes, skateboards and scooters down the sidewalk.

Around 6 we started making the trek home and it wasn’t more than 5 minutes before both kids were passed out in the back of the car. It had be a busy and awesome day, especially considering that I don’t remember the last time Hadley had behaved this well.

Sunday showed up quick. We went to church and had lunch, then Hadley’s friends came over for a party. We had cake and presents and then just let the kids run wild for a while. They had lots of fun, but soon the sugar was wearing off and it was time for everyone to head home.

Hadley and Zoey Belle didn’t take too long to fall asleep and Linds and I felt like we might be following suit.

So here we are, back to Monday, the actual birthday. No big plans, just hanging out and letting Hadley have one more piece of cake before we rid the house of sweets again.

We had a busy weekend with Lindsey’s bday party. Other than that, we’ve made it through Tuesday and there isn’t much to say. I’ll take that as a good thing.

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On Friday evening we spent a quiet night at home. The girls got to watch a movie with popcorn and Eric and I rented some movies for when the girls were in bed. On Saturday we got up and did some shopping and then headed over to a birthday party for Hadley’s friend Emma. Hadley marches to the beat of her own drum, that is for sure. During the party the kids were all doing crafts and Hadley worked on one, and then moved on to the next activity of playing with balloons. She had been super well behaved the whole morning, but at the party her defiant side showed up and she got attitude with me and had some rotten behaviors. It is so frustrating sometimes to deal with that when it is supposed to be a time of fun. I really wanted her to enjoy the party, since she just loves Emma so much, and I was really disappointed that she was behaving so poorly. She was just being disrespectful towards me, so as weird as it sounds I am grateful that she wasn’t treating any other adults badly and was having fun with the other kids. As soon as the party was over, she got home to tell Eric all about it and within 10 minutes had crashed on the couch. So, it appears some of it was being tired.

Later that afternoon the Schwarz family came over and we got some supper together. Then we had a few friends come over with their families to play games for my birthday. We had a game night last year and it was a blast, so we decided to do it again. Jenna made me an amazing cake, and we all had a ton of fun. We are very blessed with wonderful friends.

This morning we got up and went to church. It was really good to get back to our Sunday routine because we have been out of it for so long. Zoey Belle was very excited for bible class and continued to say “bible class” over and over again. This weekend Zoey also said her first three word sentence besides “I love you.” It was “maybe next time.” We thought that was pretty funny and Eric and I both are left wondering what that says about our home life.

This week is probably going to shape up the same way that last week did. The girls will have a lot of friends to play with since we are doing a lot of babysitting and Eric will be hard at work and launching some new websites for clients. This is our last official week of babysitting for Cami because her mom is having another baby and she will be staying at home now. I think we are really going to miss Cami a lot. She is so much fun and the girls really love playing with her. But I have a feeling we may steal her away from her mom every now and then so the kids can still play and maybe her mom can have a break with a new little one.

This next weekend will also be full of parties and celebrating because Hadley is turning 4. I am currently working on how to make her a batgirl cake. Her only other request has been “lots of balloons in different colors.” We are just letting her have some friends over to play and enjoy some cake and balloons since that is all she really wants anyway. It should be fun.

Lindsey and I got the kids all ready to go to Grandma and Papa’s house for the week and we got into the car.

We made it to the interstate interchange in York before having to turn around because of the white-out conditions. An hour and a half later, we made attempt number two. It seemed better outside, until we actually got on the interstate. Just a mile or so down the road we were slammed with a complete white-out. I couldn’t the the entire hood of the car. I knew at this point it was going to be a long drive.

Eventually we made it to Lincoln and we got onto highway 77 to Fremont. It was much better to drive on since the wind was coming at us instead of broadsiding us. There were few drifts and the roads weren’t too bad. When we arrived on the south side of Wahoo, the sheriff could be seen ahead turning vehicles around. This appeared to be a bad sign.

I rolled down my window and asked about getting to Fremont. The only two roads both had major accidents on them and were impassable. Awesome. As I turned around and headed back for Lincoln, Hadley pointed out that we were headed the wrong way. We tried to keep her mind at ease and let her know that she was still going to get to stay at Papa’s house. The girls had been great so far and Linds and I began to wonder how long they could last.

Once back in Lincoln, we were welcomed with the interstate now being closed. Our option of driving to Omaha and then backtracking to Fremont crumbled, so we went to Target for an hour or so hoping the roads would open. They did not so we headed over to Craig and Erin’s house. They graciously accepted us and it was nice to sit for awhile and let the girls all play. After eating supper with them we got word that the eastbound interstate was open and we left for Omaha. The roads weren’t bad at all and we made great time.

Grandma and Papa met us there and picked up the girls. Hadley was excited to see them, but began to cry as I gave her hugs and kisses goodbye. I wasn’t having trouble leaving them until this point. It was tough, but I knew they would have a great time. Zoey Belle couldn’t have cared less that we were leaving or probably didn’t understand what was happening. Finally we left for a hotel and the kids left for the farm.

Lindsey and I safely arrived in Mexico the next day and spent a wonderful week relaxing in the sun. The kids got to spend lots of great time with the grandparents and had a blast. Hadley got a little homesick but overall seemed to enjoy it. She definitely didn’t want to leave when it was time to head back to York.

Speaking of heading back, we got to Lincoln just fine, but then it was ice world and another wonderful trip of driving 30 mph on the interstate. At least we could see where we were going this time.

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