Father's Day!

From those first years of dating

2002

Through our engagement

2003

On our wedding day

2004

And beyond

Yosemite National Park (2007)

I knew you would be a fantastic father.  And you have been.

From the beginning

Daddy and Frances

Daddy and George

All the way

December 2010

Until today (and beyond!).

Frances's Kindergarten graduation (6.13.13)

Daddy the graduate

Happy Father’s Day to my incredible husband—patient, gentle, sweet, hilarious, and selfless.  

We love you, Daddy Will!

And a happy, happy Father's Day to all of the fathers in my life.  Enjoy your special day!

For our graduate

When you started Kindergarten

You couldn’t have looked smaller

But you’ve been growing so fast

And not just taller

You’ve learned to read and write

Math and science, too

You’ve learned about true friendship

We are so proud of you

Like a seed that was planted

With a gentle hand and spade

You have bloomed and are ready

To move on to first grade!

The great Mrs. Linkous!

You are ready, my girl!

(Even if your mother is not : ))

Freedom trail

I have a confession to make: for the last two weeks, George has been in a summer camp sponsored by his preschool.  And Frances has been finishing her last two weeks of Kindergarten.  What does this mean?  For the last two weeks I have had approximately 2.5 hours per day to myself; by far the most amount of alone time since stopping my law practice.

In typical motherly fashion, I’ve spent most of it running errands (grocery, Target, Sams, fabric store, back to Target—can’t escape the pull of that red bullseye), cleaning, or tackling those house projects that are either loud (and thus not doable during nap time) or located in the kids’ rooms.  But as this second and final week of freedom is winding up, I decided to get crazy this morning:

I took a walk.  Please notice there is not a soul around, and if you could hear what I heard when I took this picture it would only be my footsteps, the wind in the trees, and the happy mockingbird that seemed to follow me for the entire duration.

I felt a little guilty enjoying the late morning fresh air when Will has been slaving away at the office for 20 hours a day—so I promptly took a picture, emailed it to him (“wish you were here!”) and went about my walk.  Guilty conscious gone.  Okay, not really; but I do have enough sense to know that while Will’s workload has reached the “inhumane” level, he doesn’t expect that I do the same on my end. 

The funny thing is my entire walk took only about 20 minutes.  These trails are located in a park very close to our house and I’ve walked them many times with the kids and it always takes at least 45 minutes to walk about half of them.  With Frances and George in tow, it’s less of a peaceful cardio session and more of a stick-collecting, mud-stomping, leaf-crunching adventure.  And I wouldn’t trade those walks for anything in the entire world.  But I also loved (and needed) my faster paced walk.  Twenty minutes later, I felt like a new woman.

I guess Frances and George aren’t the only ones learning something new during these two weeks.

Happy Wednesday, everyone! 

Jump (for my love)

I couldn’t help a little obvious Pointer Sister reference.  My new minivan comes with a USB port, which means I can download 400 of my most favorite cheesy songs into one tiny jump drive and sing to my heart’s content while carting the kids around town—and one of those just happens to be that great 1980s hit “Jump.”  If you see an Odyssey driving around Richmond at 30 miles an hour and swaying back and forth to the sounds of ‘N Sync or the Dixie Chicks, there’s a good chance that’s me.

We had a great, relaxing, and completely uneventful weekend—my favorite kind.  Will was able to actually play with us during the day (rather than work) and my advanced yoga class was cancelled (yay and boo all in the same breath.  I know my dance/running/yoga friends can identify with that), so we had much more family time than usual.  Of course with nothing exciting to report, I can only give you some photographic evidence of one of our lazy Sunday afternoon activities at Grandma and Grandpa’s house – jump rope.

Frances picked up on it nearly immediately.  George was hesitant to try, but once he did he figured it out pretty quickly, too.  And we all know where they get their jumping talent:

Happy Monday, everyone!

Signs, signs, everywhere signs

I recently found this taped to Frances’s bedroom door

“Marshall and George – my room keep out please!”

Ah yes, the “keep out” sign – a vital rite of passage in childhood.  While I should probably stick up for my two boys, I am secretly glad that she didn’t include her father and me on her blacklist.  And don’t you love how she decorated this stern warning with confetti and hearts?  Not to mention, she asked nicely (“please!”).  Undoubtedly, many local and worldwide executives could learn some important lessons from Frances on how to get your message across while still maintaining class and elegance.

Another important sign in the Homiller house:

13 days and counting!  Mickey art courtesy of Will.

Happy Friday, everyone!   

Say Cheese!

I’m sorry for the horrible self-portrait.  I took this about 10 minutes after leaving the oral surgeon’s office after my double implant procedure today.  Believe it or not, the assisted smile was better than the gauzy, chipmunk-cheeked expression I was forced to wear as a result of my numbness from what felt like stem to stern (but probably just from nose to chin).  No complaints on the amount of Novocain used though—as far as I’m concerned, the doctor could have injected me five more times with the stuff just for safety’s sake.  I am your quintessential, white-knuckled dentist patient and even after delivering two children, I am much more nervous at the sight of the dentist’s chair than the maternity ward at the hospital.

All that being said, the procedure could not have gone better (at least according to the surgeon) and now I just need to figure out how to live on a liquid-only diet for the next seven days.  For now though, I think I will take an easy afternoon while George is napping, lie down with Marshall and the latest episode of “The Real Housewives,” and wait for the Motrin to kick in as the Novocain wears off.

Happy Wednesday, everyone!  I promise to be back with some much more interesting stories soon enough.

A little of what we've been up to

Frances’s school had their spring carnival on Friday evening.

Yep - that would be my George!

The evening sun was blazing, but the kids had a blast.

My favorite part was the petting zoo, which came complete with baby pigs.

I am not kidding you when I say I wanted to take this little guy (or girl) home with me.  They even set out brushes so the kids could groom the bigger animals.

Does anyone else look at this alpaca and think of a Dr. Seuss character?  Or maybe a brown Marshall?  Hilarious.

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One of Frances’s recent weekend naptime projects:

That is 22 faces looking right at you, my friends.  A little creepy.  But she loves them.

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I finally bought a baby pool (from Kroger, no less).  Thank you, Sara, for the suggestion!

So far, it has been the best $15 I’ve ever spent.  It takes the kids at least an hour to fill this puppy up and then at least another 30 minutes of playing before they get tired of it or tired of fighting over it.  A mother’s summertime dream!

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My yoga studio had a family-friendly pool party this weekend at one of the instructor’s homes:

Frances in the pool.

George and Daddy "napping."

Needless to say, Frances and George had a blast.

They even got to watch us put on another yoga demonstration.

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With preschool out for the year, George has been my tagalong this past week.  But I’ve done my best to make it worth his while.

Children's museum.

Swift Creek Reservior

Contemplating the James River.

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And speaking of school ending, Frances made a lunch menu for me (at my request) once her school is done for the summer.  Her current Kindergarten provides lunch and snacks (I know – I am SO lucky!) and I’ve gotten out of the habit of what she likes to eat during the day.  Seven days of lunches according to Frances:

Monday - turkey sandwich

Tuesday - hummus and carrots

Wednesday - cream cheese and raisins
(which, as it turns out, is her version of ants on a log without the celery)

Thursday - spinach wrap

 

Friday - chocolate sandwich (Nutella to the rest of us!)
Sunday - yogurt and crackers

Saturday - (my personal favorite misspelling) soy butter and crackers.

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Finally, a little weekend sidewalk chalk art to say goodbye.

The beach and hotbogs – it doesn’t get much more summertime than that.

Happy Monday, everyone!