Spring Break

You probably know that I am a Jersey Girl. I grew up there and lived most of my life in NJ and I love it, the armpit of America. My family has a house at the shore and it is one of my most favorite places to be. This past weekend we went up for a little mini-vacation. One of the highlights of our time was being able to spend some time with my family. We were even able to get a photo of everyone together. I think it has been two years since we did this.

Our dear friends, the Dabbs, were able to come for a few of the days we were there. One of those days, Jenn & I took Aubreigh, Karis & Jedi to the Statue of Liberty and into the city. My paternal grandmother was from Germany and when she around five years old she came over on a boat and went through Ellis Island. She was a remarkable woman who lived a remarkable life, I wish she had written her life story down before she died because it could have been a book. Her name is on the memorial wall at Ellis Island, this was the first time I was able to see it. It was very moving for me. I'm so glad that I had Jedi with me. His middle name is Anton, which was his Great-great Grandfather's first name (and also my Dad and brother's middle name). Jenn took a photo for me of him next to it. My grandmother would have cherished it.

After visiting the Statue of Liberty we went into NYC (for those of you outside the NY metro area the Statue of Liberty is not in NYC, it is on an island between NJ & NY, you can access it only by ferry from either NJ or Battery Park, NY). In NYC we went to my cousin's bakery, Billy's. If you happen to be in NYC it it very good. And also a fun restaurant called Peanut Butter & Company, almost everything is made with peanut butter. It was a great day bonding with my girlie.

It was a very restful and refreshing time for me. Erik is an amazing servant and went above and beyond to make the time restful for me. I'm so grateful for the time we had and even more grateful for my husband who made it possible.

Cotton Blowing

So many, MANY years ago my grandmother invented a game called Cotton Blowing to play at her annual New Years party. It became quite an event with trophies and even a belt given to the five year consecutive winner (who happened to be my uncle Tom's friend Sean for like 8 years in a row). I'll never forget playing it around my grandma's table.

When Erik first played the game he loved it and we've been playing it at our Christmas Party. For those of you looking for a bizarre, fun, germ filled game to play at your next party here are the rules:

Everyone lines up around the table so only their heads are sticking up. The leader drops a big cotton ball (the kind from a medicine or vitamin bottle) into the middle of the table. Everyone blows the cotton ball, trying to keep it from going off the table near them. You CANNOT block it with you shoulders and if goes out over your head or shoulder or closest to you, you are out. Pretty basic rules.

Here are some pictures so you get the idea.

Everyone is lined up and the ball has just been dropped.

Great action shot, who has more lung power.

And the final round, we play best out of 3 (which is not part of my grandma's rules). This happens to be a re-match from last year. Except this year my hubby actually won.

Thank you to those of you who came to our party this year. We love you all so much are so grateful for your friendship.

A Huge Thanks

This is a special thank you to all of our dear friends who helped me last week with surprising Erik. If you know Erik you know he LOVES surprises and he is extremely hard to surprise because he is always guessing exactly what has been planned. So last week he was away all week at the Together for the Gospel Conference. We have been wanting to paint our office since we moved in but have not had the time. So while he was away I recruited some excellent help from our dear friends to paint it. Orginally I contacted one of them, Denny, and asked him if he could help me paint. I don't what I was thinking. There is NO way that Denny and I could have done it on our own. Denny, being the smart man that he is recruited lots of other friends and I got a few others (care group leaders) to help prep and paint the whole office. Needless to say, Erik was VERY suprised and EXTREMELY blessed. Unfortunately I didn't take a picture before we started so I only have one from before we moved in. You can see the beige paint everywhere and the wallpaper. The office is now yellow, gray and white (thank you Denny for picking the colors). It looks fantastic! A special thanks to both Denny (who helped me plan everything and organized the work) and John (who can back on Wednesday by himself while I was a cg ladies meeting and but second and third coats on the white and yellow- making the room look MUCH better). I never could have accomplished this without these dear friends and their wives who released them to come help.

Friends

This week marks the start of the NCAA March Madness. My husband loves this tournament and every year schedules to take some time off to build family memories and watch some hoops. This year he surprised me by taking me to Boston for a few days before it started. We were able to go with our dear friends the Dabbs for a few days. It was a fun time to explore the city and visit the places we used to live on the North Shore. We arrived home in time to enjoy the start of the tournament yesterday. The best part was the plan to have the Dabbs over for a sleepover. It was a fun memory for the kids to sleep in the same room and wake up together for breakfast. Hopefully this is just the start of many fun sleepovers.

Jenn took these pictures of Cia during our time and I wanted to share them.