summer flashback: father's day

we celebrated father's day this year at brian's parents house! adorable sign courtesy of my amazing sister-in-law. :) my kiddos are blessed to have a daddy, a pappy, and a papa who love them like crazy and think they are pretty awesome. the feeling is mutual, i can guarantee you!


this post truly calls for a heart-spilling paragraph about how much these dads each mean to me...and they do mean a lot to me. but we are pushing october here, folks.

moving on. :)

the kids climbed on my dad's lap for a picture, but we failed to do the same with brian or his dad... not sure how that happened! so dad, you got the grand prize for father's day!:) and hallie's thinkin, "where's my prize!?"


father's day fare included these mouth-watering, fall off the bone ribs! yum yum yum. i think we need to have these again soon! we honored the guys by letting them grill their own lunch. they did a fantastic job.


ethan was so excited to get a sneak peek at dessert.


adorable cupcakes courtesy of.... yes, my amazing sister-in-law. i think the only thing i brought to this lunch was my appetite!


my dad and ethan especially liked the golf cupcakes.


my father-in-law is a downright funny guy, and he always gets a kick out of silly cards. what is on the front of that card? no, it's not a picture of a big, big man in his underwear. no, no, we are much too refined for that.


see?! he's still laughing! i love this one. :)


like father, like son, like son!


we loved spending this day with our grandmothers, too!


thanks to brian's parents for a wonderful day, thanks to kristie for her cute little celebratory details...


and thanks to God for the gift of these men!


we are blessed!

hang on, fall!

is it really possible that the entire summer flew by without a single blog post? brian sighs a big sigh every time i blog about blogging. but i feel like i owe my (3) readers (well, 7 if you include my kiddos who will surely visit this page and read about their childhood one day) some sort of explanation. my excuse is 5 words long. ethan, caroline, amelia, and hallie. yep! my days are filled to overflowing with their giggles, stories, requests, hugs, kisses, tears, questions, and smiles. (and add in hallie's hilarious gibber-jabber that will just make your day.) they are my reason for blogging, and now they are my reason for never blogging. however, i refuse to give up on this enjoyable and convenient medium for preserving the memories that matter to me... i refuse for tenlittletoes to be yet another journal that is 1/3 written in, 2/3 blank. i have a whole box of those from the years gone by. i am determined to continue to chronicle the important and not so important happenings in the lives of the 40 little toes that run circles around me day in and day out. so don't give up on me! i thought that i would surely catch up on summer by the end of september, but here we are with pumpkins and candy corn and trips to the farm just around the corner. so it is my goal to do a whirlwind catch up of our summer. i know most of us here in florida have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of some cooler weather.... but if you just wanted summer to last a liiiiiiittle while longer, then this is the place for you! put down your pumpkin-flavored coffee, grab your swimsuit, and come on in! the water's not too cold yet!

1-2-3-go!