A Fabulous Father's Day!

We had a fabulous Father's Day weekend celebrating all of the fantastic Dad's in our life! 

We started out on Friday night by taking Mark shopping for a Father's Day gift- a new baseball cap. We spent the evening at Park Meadows, shopped, and ate at the food court! A cheap way to feed a family of 5! The boys split one piece of pizza from Sabarro and Mark and I chose what we wanted. We all split a drink and got plenty of free refills! Ha! What will we do when we have 3 big boys to feed?! 

While out shopping we picked up something for the boys too! Mark had been wanting to get Nolan his first baseball glove. We have finally settled on the fact that he is a lefty! So it was time to make the purchase! We still aren't sure what Heath will be, so we held off on buying him one too. Sometimes he uses his left hand and sometimes his right. He seems to do pretty well with both. So we'll just wait and see and for now,  he can practice with Nolan's mitt. 

Saturday morning we hung out as a family and made Green Monster Smoothies! Spinach, apples, pears, lemon, and more. Nolan liked it alright, although, we are still not sure if that's the source of the rash he got the next morning! Maybe he's allergic to spinach? Who knows?! We've made them every day since trying to perfect the right combination of fruits and veggies! But we think we have perfected the recipe now...just trying to get some more green vegetables into our kids diet! 

We spent the morning practicing our bike riding and enjoying some cooler weather finally. Then Mark had to go to church to practice and sing for the evening service. The boys took naps and when they all woke up, and Daddy was home, it was back outside for some more fun! 

The boys practiced throwing and catching with their new glove. 

And we enjoyed some juicy watermelon! 

It was a nice night for a barbecue! 

Sunday morning, Mark was back at church from 7a.m. until noon singing at services. We joined him at the 9:30 service and then came home to prepare a few surprises for him! 

Nolan worked hard on his card and a little dictation project too! (You can see Mark's new Rockies hat in the background of this picture.)

I just love his face when he gives gifts! It really is his love language! 

He gets more excited to give than to receive! 

They sure love their Daddy! 

I made cards this year on Shutterfly. They were only $1.50 and they could be addressed and mailed right to the recipient. It was cheaper than buying a card from the store and mailing it myself! And they were personalized with pictures and text! Super cute! 

Here are some photos of what Nolan and I worked on for his Daddy and Grandpa and Opa! 

I just love how he really thought about each person specifically and came up with a few special things that were true about each one. 

He even decided where to draw each person or what to have them doing in each picture he made. 

 The funniest part was that each person was born in Mexico! I have no idea where he came up with that! Ha! 

In the afternoon, Mark and his Dad went to see the movie, The Avengers! Then they met up with us at Grandma Inge's pool in the late afternoon. 

 We swam and had a poolside pizza picnic! 

 Heath LOVES the water! 

 He never wants to get out! 

 And he is learning to swim with floaties on all by himself! He is doing awesome! 

 Nolan is just as cautious as ever, but enjoys playing in the shallow end, sitting on the steps in the water, and LOVES all pool toys! And he also loves popsicles at the pool! 

Nolan always repeats word for word everything that Oma tells him throughout the day when he is at her house. One story he often tells me is about how Oma doesn't like it when Opa eats a spoonful of peanut butter at night and leaves his spoon in the sink without rinsing it off. Nolan thinks this is hilarious! So we came up with the idea to get Opa some peanut butter for Father's Day. He also told Nolan that Oma never buys him the good stuff...so of course we had to treat him to some Jif! 

 Nolan had a great time giving his thoughtful gift to his Opa! 

 They thought it was pretty funny! 

 And of course we had to read what Nolan had to say about Opa too and give him a new raincoat as well! 

After the pool, we came home to Skype with my Dad! We had fun watching him open up his presents from us- a McDonalds gift card (Nolan picked it out- he thinks this is the best gift to give to anyone! But it will buy Grandpa some coffees in the morning!), a Kohl's gift card for a summer hat or shirt, and some gummy bears (his favorite)! We were sad not to be able to spend actual time with Grandpa on Father's Day, but Skype is the next best thing! I don't know what we'd do without it! 

So, we were busy, but we had a great time celebrating all the men who have constantly supported us with their time, love, and encouragement! 

Thank you Mark for truly loving our kids for the unique persons God created them to be, for being the most fun playmate to them, and for showing them how to love and respect the women in their lives!

Thank you Dad for being a humble, hardworking servant to your family, for doing anything for me, and now my 4 boys as well! 

Thank you Bruce for always supporting us and valuing family time so much! 

And thank you to our heavenly Father who has deeply blessed us with an amazing family and for His ultimate sacrifice- sending his Son to die for us so that we can spend eternity with him in heaven. Amazing love!