Stay-home day w/ Derek and Brianna...

Almost every morning, Zachary asks if he has to go to school that day, or if it's a stay-home day. (He already knows how to tug on the heart strings (which are connected to the guilt strings.)) SO - w/ the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday meaning 4 stay-home days in a row, we decided to start the vacation early and stay home on Wednesday to play w/ Derek and Brianna before they headed back to Austin. Dziadzia took charge for the day, and from what I hear, the kids had a great time together.

All arrived on Hospital Road for momma's and Emily's favorite meal...spaghetti! After the whole day, I was prepared for some times of not-sharing or playing so nice... mainly from Emily being of that age (I hope it's the age anyway) and Derek and Brianna being a bit older than Emily and Zachary and maybe getting a bit bored w/ their games. But no. Derek and Brianna were so wonderful w/ Emily and Zachary.... we'll just say it's rare to get 4 kids of any age or family together and not hear one disagreement... but there was none. Made this momma particularly happy.

Brianna and Emily took turns on the bouncy ball and dump truck, and Derek pushed Zachary for his turn in the dump truck... (great photo of Derek... they were heading for momma a bit faster than expected (ie GET OUT OF THE WAY) so all we got was Zach's head.)

The kids cleaned out the toy box, and played hide and seek, and after dinner Brianna and Emily made cupcakes... (I cracked the eggs and did the mediating only....ok, and maybe the scooping into the cups.)Then the kids got to frost their own cupcakes...and would not be complete w/o sprinkles!

Emily was sad to see them go...which is another sure sign of a good time! But we've got great memories!