Family

Yesterday was my mom's last day in town before heading back to Florida, so we had Brandon and his family over for dinner (they happened to be in the city for a trip to the zoo to celebrate Tyler's preschool graduation!).

These past few years we have seen too little of them. So many babies, so many sleepless nights, so many days stuck at home while the babies nap. They live only about 1/2 hr drive from us, but it sometimes seems like it might as well be a 1/2 day drive. I really hope that as the kids all get older it will get easier for us to spend more time together, because we truly cherish our time with them and the kids just adore each other. I grew up spending so much time with my cousins, and I want the same thing for my kids. I think Brandon and I are very blessed to have ended up living in the same area.

We had a great little impromptu dinner and the kids could have played all night.

For dessert I made this Maraschino Cherry Cake. It was delish! I tore the recipe out of Ladies Home Journal (disclaimer: I used this icing recipe and added a couple tablespoons of the reserved cherry juice...I didn't use the frosting included with the cake recipe because I didn't have enough butter on hand).

I know my Mom really loves having us all together in one place, but we also miss the other cousins (Ashley, Caroline, Kevin) and wish they lived closer. They would be great babysitters for their baby cousins!

I'm working on a post about our recent trip to Gatlinburg, but I take so gosh darn many photos and it's a real pain to wade through them all. Hoping to get them up soon.

Henry is out of MDO for a couple of weeks before the summer session starts and, while I love having the kids home with me, the days can start to seem pretty long. We are trying to take advantage of the beautiful weather and spend some time outside before real summer hits us.