While daddys away

Daddy was away all last week.

He flew to Brazil for work leaving us behind. 

At one point in our life I had more passport stamps in my passport than him. 

I cannot say that any more.  I had my first passport when I was 10, he went on his first plane ride when he came to Philadelphia to propose to me at the age of 23.

Now I have been on a plane only once in the last 3 years and he travels to places all over the world.  Jealousy aside.

I am so happy he gets to have these experience and gets a chance to get out the office once in awhile, while I hold down the home front.  He can leave us knowing I will be able to handle the kids and the house even though it is so much easier when he is around to help. 

I think he prays for my sanity while I am away. 

I went into this week without him with a smile, trying to think of ways to pass the time and have fun too.  We did things that Daddy doesn't let us do when he is home. 

Like...  

have picnics on the floor in front of the tv,

climb the woodworks (literally)

 

{even Lil Miss tried scaling the doorways with a little help from her big sis}

We wore what we wanted and mommy didn't care or complain. 

{mommy did interfere when we had to leave the house and Lil Miss HAD to put pants on}

{this girl has a style all her own}

And when the kids went to bed, I tried not to stress over the dirty dishes and laundry, but instead spent a little time picking up and alot of time doing things that I like to do. 

Like reading a book!  I actually picked up one of the many books on my nightstand last week and read a few chapters.  Crazy!  On Sunday night (after the kids were tucked in) I pulled out our painting supplies and a few canvases and started painting. 

It was so fun and therapeutic.  I made a splatter piece for the living room and drew quick characatures of the 4 kids and painted them for the playroom.  The kids loved them. 

They could each point out which one was them because of the special touches I added on each canvas.

 

{something fun for playroom wall}

I decided on Monday that I wanted to spend time with each child while dad was away this week.  This is tricky because most of their time is spent at school and there is only a few hours each afternoon I have with the kids.  So I decided Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday would be each of the big kids nights to be with mommy.  Lil Miss has me to herself each day so she didn't need her own night.  This could only happen if the kids pitched in and watched Lil Miss while mommy was spending time with them.  I told them that they would each get $1 for babysitting on their off days.  This got them all excited.  I had great hopes that this would all work out and it did. 

On Tuesday we ate an early supper then Bubba and me got started on "our night". 

The girls played house with Lil Miss and we worked on Bubba's pet care poster for cub scouts and then figured out the decals for his pinewood derby car.   

{the pinewood derby car -- in process} 

We didn't get all the car decals done but we got a good start on it.  Daddy is the true perfectionist so he can help Bubba this week with all the finishing touches. 

On Wednesday, the two oldest had religion after school, so to start "Gigi's night of fun" we went on a hike.  Her school assignment was to collect 100 things for the 100th day of school.  They could pick anything that they wanted to collect.  Some kids picked marshmallows, buttons, pennies, but my kid picks rocks.  So we went on a snowy hike to find more rocks to add to our collection of 63.   

 It was a fairly mild day in the mid 40s so we put Lil Miss in the stroller and searched along the path for rocks or stones.   

{proud of our collection of rocks} 

While we were on our hike and before we had to pick up the big kids we got to watch a beautiful sunset.  It was breathtaking.  Pinks and and Yellows and Blues.

 When we got home, Gigi's other special thing that night was having a doll salon in her room.  She lined up her doll babies and barbies and we did their hair one by one. 

Thursday night was Rosie's night.  This was a little harder because Gigi and Bubba aren't the best baby watchers yet.  Lil Miss spent most of the time on my lap during Rosie's time and she was not happy.  I will have to make it up to her now that daddy is home. 

{she likes to paint like her momma}

Her theme of the night was crafts. 

She is in love with crafts.  We made her stain glass flowers that Santa brought her and did some sewing. 

On our next craft to do list:  Repurpose an old olive oil jar to make a pretty vase for her flowers.  

Then she wanted to do some sewing.  Since she got her own sewing machine for Christmas she is constantly talking about sewing.  So we had 1 hour to do some sewing.  Lil Miss was bringing us cups of tea and cookies as we sewed.  Rosie did all the cutting out of a real quick project.  A cloud and colorful raindrops for her room.  More stuff to decorate her wall.  After we finished the project she was super nice and told me that Gigi loves it so much it should go in her room.  Awwww. 

We also had time to finish a project we started last week.  Teddy Bear sleeping bags. 

She helped me pin all the binding on and sew it to complete the bags. 

Super cute and Super easy.   

{baby doll loves her new sleeping bag}

During the Day, Lil Miss got her time with momma. 

That morning the girls were in my room while I was getting ready and put momma's pearls on Lil Miss. (don't worry they aren't real)  She wore them the entire day. 

They completed her look with her apron as she cooked with mommy.

{Cooking Diva}

While mommy was making coffee cake, our little baker was wiping up some fruit loop soup and vanilla wafer tarts. 

That day when Daddy came home we were all happy to see him. 

They were all talking a mile a minute to tell him all the things we had done.  Even though mommy told them not to say we ate on the floor and climbed the woodworks. 

They are not so great at keeping secrets. 

 

We are glad he is home!!!