Visit with Melissa

Well, my visit with my sister, Melissa, was great!!! It was drama-free, which made it even better. Sometimes we have visits together when I tell her I am glad she lives in Texas, and other times our visits are wonderful and I tell her I wish she was my next door neighbor. This visit was definitely one that I wished she was my next door neighbor. She has flown the coop and is headed back to Texas. Actually she left on Thursday morning, but I have been so exhausted from all the fun we had that I haven't taken the time to blog about it until now. Here is a recap.

They arrived on Monday and shortly after we gave our "hello hugs" and laughed a little while, the boys headed out to play golf. Melissa and I decided to take the kids to the park in my neighborhood. We had lots of fun. We then walked back to the house and had a "Make Your Own Pizza Night." It was so much fun. The kids really liked it. We gave Noelle the special plate, and so we all had to say something nice about her. After we went around the table telling her how special she was she raised her little hand and said, "I love all of you." So sweet. The boys got back and we hung out until bedtime.

The girls picked me a bouquet of flowers on our walk to the park. The flowers that are hand picked are always the most special ones to me.

Joseph-Scott played freeze on the way to the park. Melissa hollers freeze and then he freezes and does this move.

Why did these little chickens cross the road - to get to the park.

Ashley being "little mama" and pushing Noelle in the swings.

Sweet Joesph Scott swinging

Help, Melissa's stuck. She was climbing on the play set and the kids INSISTED she go through the tunnel. I was laughing so hard I thought I was going to wet my pants.

Hanna and Noelle posing as they walk down the slide

After getting home and being in the cool air conditioning we all became little pizza chefs.

Making their own pizzas. They slopped SO MUCH pizza sauce on their pizzas!!!

Ready to put them in the oven

The next day we got up and hung out awhile. Jon had a meeting at this coffee shop here in town that he couldn't cancel. After he got home we headed down to the park again to take the pictures I posted. After getting home we started making our tie-dyed shirts. So much fun!! I think Melissa had just as much fun making Joseph-Scott's as the other children did making theirs.

Hanna tie-dying her shirt - her creative juices are flowing.

I actually had to run out for a bit and pick up some towels I was having embroidered. I left at the perfect time -clean up time. Melissa got everything picked up and we all decided we needed to take a siesta. We headed down to our family room and put on cartoons. All of the adults, except Jon, napped, and all of the kids except Alec and Ash napped too. After waking up we headed out for Mexican. I have to say since moving to Texas, Melissa and Scott have become Mexican food snobs - like the great state of Texas is the only place for great Mexican. They really liked where we went though.

Melissa, Me, and Hanna right before making myself miserable on Chicken Fajita Nachos.

We got home and played a game of Dutch Blitz. This was actually a game I ordered for homeschooling, and when Melissa was going through my homeschooling stuff she saw it and went berserk. She said she LOVED this game, so she taught us how to play it ----- S0!MUCH!FUN!

Wednesday we decided to tag team babysitting with the guys. They headed out and had lunch together while we got ready. After they got back Melissa and I tackled shopping. I took her to one of my most favorite accessory stores. She was not really impressed, but I got 2 pair of earrings and a bracelet, and a ballet bag for Hanna. We went to a couple of other stores. She really loves the Shabby Chic look so we went to a thrift store - not my cup of tea, but we had a good time. That night Jon and Scott were going to see The Dark Knight, so Melissa and I took the children to church. All of the kids (except Alec) were so excited about wearing their tied-dyed shirts. Alec was not having any of it. He informed me he was too old to match other people and that is a little kid thing.

I loved having Melissa and her kids at church with me that night. After church she was craving a peanut buster parfait, so we headed to DQ. No lie - we waited in line for 40 minutes. Their ice cream machine was broken, and bless their hearts they were working so hard and were so stressed out. They had this rude customer give them the "what for." I felt really bad for them. I would actually turn off my car while in the drive-thru because it is an SUV and literally sucks down a gallon of gas just idling. So I would turn it on and off since we had to wait so long. To tell you the truth the ice cream really was not good. All of that waiting for nothing - oh well!

Tie-dyed kids. Joseph-Scott wouldn't get in the picture.

Thursday morning came and we said our goodbyes. I miss them already and can't wait until we get to see them again. They actually headed to Scott's dad's house. Melissa informed me that Joseph-Scott was going around going Scott's dad's saying, "Chel, Chel, Chel." We had such a fun visit!!!