Weekend Outings

June:  week 2!
Amazing!
This time of year is so busy.  We went to the Roger Williams Zoo on Saturday.  It's a bit of a drive from our house but the kids really like it-especially Peter, who calls it the 'Big Zoo'.  In fact, Peter has been talking about it all winter and we've been telling him we would take him in June.

Well, on June 1st Peter was raring to go!  Unfortunately, there was no way we could take him that day because it was Jon's graduation!  Peter was emotionally escalating so Jay grabbed the calendar and we wrote "Big Zoo" on Saturday the 7th.

Thankfully, the weather was nice because we were going no matter what!

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It was a good time:)

A special Happy Birthday shout out to my incredible husband!  I know it's a little anti-climactic after the big surprise party, but I hope you have a great day!  Love you!

And It's June...

Inconsistency seems to be my new blogging theme!

Things have just been so crazy with all the end of year events for each of the kids.  Not to mention that having bronchitis completely threw me on my butt!  Throw in Jay's surprise party in the midst of all that, and I am just one tired mom/wife!  Most days I still need a 10 minute power nap while Kate and Luke snuggle with me and watch Wallykazam!

I'm still struggling with the eye sensitivity/panic issues following my migraine problems in late April.  Some days are better than others and I'm hoping that the saying, "Time heals all wounds", will be kicking in soon!

In the meantime, I wear my sunglasses a lot, don't function as well as I used to, and try to be honest with myself about my new emotional limits.  (Which hopefully will be temporary!)

On a positive note, this weekend was filled with some special occasions!  Saturday night was Jonathan's Baccalaureate Mass and Sunday was his graduation.  I can't believe that four years went by so quickly!  This 6 foot tall, handsome young man used to be a pudgy little toddler that wouldn't leave my side!  Sniff, sniff!

Before Jon left for graduation

As he processed in

As he processed out

Throwing up his cap with his class

With most of his closest friends

Laughing at Andrew's smile...or lack thereof

Jay's mom made a cake for the family.
We all got together at our house for pizza from Jon's
favorite restaurant and some special dessert!

That's a wrap!  Four years of high school goes by in the blink of an eye!  I'm grateful that we have 3 years before we have to go through another high school graduation!  (And that year should be a doozy as well....since Ellie will graduate from 8th grade, Sarah from high school, and Andrew from college!  Ugh!)

Of course, it won't be the last graduation for 3 years since, God willing, Mike should be graduating from Assumption next year!

Sometimes I feel like I'm on a race track and they are all speeding off and growing up and I'm still at the start line trying to figure out how to make the shift work!

Congratulations, Jon!  We are very proud of you!

Prom!

After last weekends craziness and excitement, I'm looking forward to a quieter weekend!  Well, mostly quieter anyway....Jon has a Baccalaureate Mass on Saturday night and graduation on Sunday afternoon!  I still can't believe we have a 3rd child graduating from high school and heading off to college! Sniff!

For 7 Quick Take Friday, I'm sharing my 7 favorite pictures from Jon's prom last week!

#1:  The Classic Shot

Jon and his date, (and one of his closest friends), Amy.
They have known each other since 1st grade.
Many of Jon's friends went to prom together as friends:)
#nodrama

 #2:  Photo Bomb

I love this pic!
The guys are most of Jon's closest friends.
Amber, also a super close friend that Jon has known since 1st grade,
photo bombed:)
So much fun:)

#3:  Swag Pose

I'm cheating...this is a group of pics:)

Jack trying to figure out how to get his jacket on his thumb and over his back:)

Look to the right....

Look to the left.....

 #4:  Fun Pose

This pose was a suggestion of Isaac's sister(in the green).
Everyone looked at one person and Jon's naturally goofy nature took care of the rest!

 #5:  Jon and Amy being Jon and Amy

Such goofballs!

#6:  Poor Mom 

Amy is laughing in this shot because she noticed her mom crying!
These kids just don't understand how hard it is for us that they are growing up!

 #7:  Strike a Pose

I love this shot!
The guys were such good sports:)

They all had a great time at the prom and at the incredible after prom party that their school puts on!(Love that they have somewhere safe to go and can keep having fun together!)

Have a great weekend!

Surprise!

I'm keeping my promise!  I've been going back and forth in my head, but I think I'm just going to jump into Jay's surprise 40th!

So, months ago I had it in my head to throw Jay a surprise 40th birthday party.  Actually, about 5 years ago I had thought about how we should celebrate our 40th birthdays....we will both be turning 40 in June.  That was pre Luke and Kate.  I had thought that I would get a few of our closest couple friends and surprise Jay with a weekend away.

And then we had more babies....neither of whom sleep through the night!  So, I improvised, and a surprise party at our house made more sense!

I created the invitations, booked a bouncy house, and worked on a menu.  I was keeping things more simple than I would have in the past because of my struggles with panic attacks in the last month.  I am not the 'plow through anything, queen multitasker that I have been in the past.  Right now I have very obvious limits....and taking care of me by not taking on more than I can handle is important.

Anyway...I had a hefty guest list so I prayed for good weather from the get-go because if it rained I was in big trouble!  A large number of Jay's relatives that live 2-3 hours away all said they were coming.  Lots of our friends were able to make it.  The countdown was on to the big day!

It was a herculean effort to keep the party a secret!  Jay and I talk about everything!  I always bounce ideas off of him.  I found myself constantly ready to blurt out things like "Do you think we will have enough food?" or "Do you think it will rain?"....and stopping myself at the last minute!

Then, there was the whole issue of trying to get the house and yard ready for the party without being obvious that we were getting the house/yard ready for the party!

Since we were supposed to have house guests with us for the 2 nights leading up to the party, they were a great excuse to get the house "company ready"!  So, basically I tricked Jay into fixing lots of those little things that have needed to get done for a while but have been buried on the 'to-do' list!

My older kids were HUGE heroes in the 2 weeks leading up to the party!  Mike was especially helpful getting some of the bigger projects done.  He cleaned up the yard, cut and cleaned up all the overgrown brush around the fence, kept the grass cut, and even helped me get a fresh coat of paint in the main areas of the house!

Andrew and Jon helped with projects too...painting the deck, indoor clean up, and just about anything I asked was done without complaining!  I so appreciated that!

Things got a little ugly in the days leading up to the party!  I ended up getting really sick with bronchitis!  From Tuesday to Thursday I was on the couch unable to do anything!  Talk about panic!  That's when the kids and our families stepped up big time!  (Andrew even went grocery shopping for me!)

It was a lesson in humility for sure!

It took a village to put this party together!  Not being able to control and multi-task everything made it extra special!  I kept praying and asking God to bless the day and He did!  The weather was absolutely perfect, I had lots of help from my family and Jay's family to set everything up, and it was just a great day!  The bouncy house was a huge hit and kept all the kids occupied and having fun all.day.long!

You know it's from God when you can not feel 100% and have 110 people in your house and have everything go so well!

Jon went to buy balloons at the dollar store that morning and they were out of
"Happy Birthday" balloons!  So he got a 'Feliz Compleanos" balloon instead!
His spanish teacher would be so proud!lol

The dessert table and a "40" picture collage!

Jay's mom made the rubics cube cake.
 I cut out 80's quotes and taped them to cardstock and a lollipop stick and put them in the cupcakes:)

Sarah, Andrew and I made a Pacman wall:)

I wanted to do a few special things, but not go overboard!  I'm happy with the way everything turned out!

The best part is that Jay actually had no idea at all!  Our friend, Corey, kept him out of the house on Sunday morning.(thank-you, thank-you!)  We even got away with telling  Jay that our neighbor was having a party and we stuck a balloon on their mailbox to make it look authentic!  It was so great so see Jay's look of shock when he walked in the house and everyone yelled 'surprise'!

Laughing at something Corey said as he walked in the door.

Confusion....Why are all these people yelling surprise?

Really confused face

The "you got me" face

Mike hugging Jay

Peter joining in!(Peter was so happy there was cake!)

Jay and his mom

Add caption

Luke and other kids having fun in the bouncy house:)

Kate, Sarah, and Jay's sisters, Julie and Jackie!
They dressed up 80's style:)

The party started at 12 and our last guests stayed until almost 6!  It was great!  The kids all had so much fun:)  There was plenty of food!  The weather was perfect!  The company and conversation was wonderful!  

Jay kept saying, "I can't believe you threw me a surprise party!"  "I can't believe that this many people came!"  "I can't believe I actually know this many people!"

It was truly a blessed day!

I Had A Secret!

What a whirlwind the last week has been!

Most days last week were spent on the couch not doing what I had planned because I was so sick with bronchitis!  I missed Luke's field trip on Tuesday, Ellie's field trip on Wednesday, and then I had to cancel our house guests on Thursday!

I have not been that sick in a while....and it just lasted so long!  Friday was the first day that I was able to spend some time off the couch!  Thank-you, God, because Friday was Jon's prom and I was able to take pictures of him and his friends at promenade and at a local gazebo.

We were also able to have our friends from Tennessee over for a simple cookout Friday night.  I was disappointed that we weren't able to spend all the time with them that we originally planned, but I was very happy to at least be able to see them for a couple of hours!

They left early on Friday night-around 8:30- and I was exhausted!

Saturday was a little better, but I still had to do some couch time and take a nap!  But I needed to get better because there was something very special that I had planned for Sunday and I absolutely needed to function!
Curious?

It has been sooooo hard to keep quiet about what I have been planning!  There have been so many times I wanted to write about what I was thinking...or stressing about...but I couldn't because the surprise was for Jay and he reads my blog!:)

Jay has a big birthday coming up in 2 weeks and I wanted to throw him a surprise party.  It was an incredible day and a huge surprise for Jay!  I am so happy the way it turned out and so grateful for all the ways that God blessed the day!  From the weather to the help from my family and friends, the party went so smoothly!  I am so grateful!  Because after being sick on the couch all week, having the party could have been ugly!

It totally wasn't, though!

I can't wait to share all about it but I don't have time tonight!

Not sure I will have time tomorrow either.  Tomorrow is jam-packed with Peter's IEP, a doctor's appointment and Senior Awards Night for Jon.  (I'm pretty sure I will need to fit a nap in there somewhere, too!  I'm getting better but still not 100%!)

I promise that I will catch up at some point this week!  I have some great pics from the prom shots and of course lots from the party!

I hope you had a great long weekend!

#BestDadEver

Today, I'm feeling a little better.  No more fever!  I am still hacking and really wiped out though, so Jay stepped in and went to Ellie's field trip.  It is a big sacrifice for him because his boss could only give him permission to go if he could still see all his patients.(They are short staffed this week.....but special thanks to his supervisor for being flexible!)

 So, Jay squeezed in 2 extra patients yesterday into an already busy day because he had to get home early for Sarah's Confirmation.  When he gets home from the field trip around 2:15, he has to see 3 or 4 patients.  It will be a long day for him!  Even tomorrow, he will be playing a little bit of catch up!

Jay hasn't complained at all about it.  He knows how important it was to Ellie to have one of us chaperone her field trip!  After hearing me coughing so much this morning, he knew I wasn't up for the trip.

As Jay was leaving this morning, I asked him if he had his "Super Dad" cape with him!  He's certainly earned it today!

Love you, honey!  Thanks for taking such good care of all of us!

Too Busy to Be Sick!

So, it's only Tuesday and already we are on plan 'b'!

Today was supposed to be Luke's field trip that I was going to help chaperone.  I wrote "supposed to" because I woke up losing the battle with the bronchial cough/cold that I have been fighting.  I just didn't have the energy....and I was "hacking up a lung".

I went to the doctor's this morning and was told I had bronchitis.  They did a chest x-ray to make sure I didn't have pneumonia.  I haven't heard anything yet so, hopefully, no news is good news!  I did get some antibiotics and then came home and rested with Kate while she napped.

This is not the week to get sick!  Sarah is getting Confirmed tonight and I was afraid that I wasn't going to feel up to going after how awful I felt this morning.  After my early afternoon siesta, I feel a little better.  

I'm hoping to feel up to chaperoning Ellie's field trip tomorrow!  We have house guests arriving on Thursday and I still have quite a bit of cleaning to do before they get here, too!

Oy!

Today would have been my Grandmother's 94th birthday.  It's the first birthday that she is spending in Heaven and it still feels strange that she is gone.

Today also would have been our daughter, Therese's, 16th birthday.  It always amazes me how much time has gone by since her brief stay with us in this life!  It's always such a tough transition to go from celebrating Sarah's birthday on the 19th to grieving Therese's birthday on the 20th.  Such a yo-yo of emotions!

I think that it's special that Sarah is being confirmed on Therese's birthday.  It gives them a special spiritual connection.

It's a little tough for me because on May 20th my instinct is to turtle emotionally.  Turtle-ing doesn't work on a day that holds a special Sacrament for Sarah, though!

One of these days, it will stop being quite so crazy!....at least I hope it will!