ten smile tuesday

we rolled back into our driveway late yesterday afternoon after a long weekend full of memories...some tearful, some joyous, but all of them full of smiles. you see, this past weekend was the memorial service for my bapa...who, as many of you may remember, died at the end of may, just after we returned from spending a week of vacation with him (and GG too!) in florida. the service itself held a few tearful moments, but truly, they were tears of joy and not sadness...tears as we lovingly and fondly remembered our beloved bapa. there was also laughter and reminiscing. how delightful to see so many faces from the past...including our old summertime play-mates...who seemed SO much older than my sister, cousins, and i at the time...and now, well, so strange to talk to them as adults and peers...to realize they too are stay at home mommies. and after the service, how delightful to have some time with extended family at my parents' house....eating, swimming, chatting, remembering. and that was just the filling in the oreo cookie of our weekend...sunday, the day of the service was sandwiched by a saturday spent swimming, playing, and hanging with aunt shell and uncle richard and GG (and grandmommy and poppy, of course!). then monday was spent with my dear auntie phil and uncle art...visiting from the great state of arizona...perhaps two of my most loyal blog-readers. how precious to finally introduce them to miss e (as they call elizabeth) and kate in person as opposed to photos sent via the internet. how delightful to sit and chat with them...to watch my hubby sitting on the porch with uncle art, chatting away, to capture sweet pictures of elizabeth resting on uncle arts lap and kate squealing with delight in the arms of auntie phil. oh what a blessed weekend! and now that i've already gone on and on...here are the smiles!

1. my sister...her willingness to love on the girls and watch them while mike and i grabbed a quick dinner and ice cream wednesday night. oh how delighted elizabeth was by her new favorite baby-sitter ever...her ice-cream serving, swing pushing, tricycle steering aunt shell. then, of course, there was our girl time...a trip to the salon...and then a wonderful afternoon of hanging out with the girls...playing, enjoying each others company. it was time together that won't be forgotten! love you shell!


2. renting "boom blox" for our wii on friday night...and staying up way too late playing and laughing with my hubby.

3. having mike home on friday...and our trip to the county fair. elizabeth and kate loved seeing all of the animals and people...and libs was especially thrilled when she got to touch a real live cow!

4. elizabeth's newfound bravery and absolute LOVE of the water. seriously, she has been so tentative the past few visits to the lake, but aunt shell helped her find her inner-fish...after that i could barely get her out of the water. sunday night she was shivering and her teeth were chattering, but she wasn't remotely interested in getting out of the lake. too cute! i loved spending some special time with her in the water.



5. mohawk kater gator...seriously, who could resist a face like this?! and, of course, she continued in her water bug ways!

6. the chance to celebrate bapa...i was reminded anew of how blessed we were to have spent that last week with him...of the memories, the laughs...oh how precious was the sweet voice of my elizabeth declaring, "that's my big bapa!" as a picture of the two of them flashed across the screen during a slide show.

7. the chance to see the delight on my grandma's face as she watched elizabeth and kate play...and the fact that the girls have the chance to get to know GG more as she is in indiana this summer

8. auntie phil....











9. ....and uncle art










10. ...and oh so many more precious memories....too many to recount...so here are some pictures!