MMMMMMMM --- Donuts!!!!!!!

The benefits of Brad not having his tournament this weekend was the Hartin house getting Fractured Prune donuts! D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S

Family Weekend

Thanks to the tournament cancellation, the whole family was able to enjoy the weekend together. Even Aunt Sara came down for a visit and joined Carrie, Royce, and Will at the circus. We had a great weekend despite the wet weather, especially since our Spring is going to only be getting more and more busy.

March 25th - Happy (Anniversary) Maryland Day

Today is a good day for a number of reasons:

1. It's the official day when our state honors its history.

2. It also happens to be our wedding anniversary.

Wow, what a coincidence! As you can see by the pictures, two of the kids wanted to celebrate the day in their finest clothes. Will decided to attend school wearing a tie and Royce felt it was necessary to break out the Spring fashion in hopes that she could encourage warmer weather to arrive.

Happy Maryland Day everyone!

Zoo Trip

On Saturday Carrie and the kids were able to make it to the zoo for the first visit of the year. It was also Samson the baby elephant's birthday, which was very exciting for Will (and Carrie too). While the weather was a little cold, everyone enjoyed the year's first visit.

Will vs. Driveway

Today while we were getting into the car going down to a friend's house, Will decided to pick a fight with our driveway. There are a number of problems here:

1. It goes downhill from street-level.
2. The driveway was wet from light rain.
3. Will is only 3 years old.
4. He was running.
5. Did I mention it's downhill!

As a result he has some nice markings on his forehead and nose. Live and learn, I suppose.

Last Day without Caroline

Yesterday was our last day with Carrie in Chicago on business. We finally were able to have a relatively normal day, with Will getting off to school in the morning and Royce, Preston, and I doing some errands.

Once I did the kid swap at school around noon, it was time for lunch with the boys and naps. We had our usual snackalicious moments after Royce returned from school and waited for Val to get to our house so I could get to practice.

Upon my return, Val reported that everyone had a nice evening. They even had the chance to play outside a little bit and watch the sunset.

Royce was allowed to stay up extra late and surprise Carrie when she came home from the airport. While the three days seemed difficult at times, we're glad that Carrie was able to have such a good trip and we're even happier that she's home.

Second Day without Caroline

Today really just ran into yesterday.

Starting off with Preston waking up at 2AM and not falling back to sleep until around 3. (Don't worry this is a normal occurrence of late). At which point I proceeded to toss and turn and could not fall back to sleep because my flu like symptoms were developing into a nice sized cough and cold courtesy of the little feet in our house.

At 6AM this morning, Royce came down to inform me that she had finally lost her very first tooth and proudly displayed it in her hand:

"Dad look!" (she opens her mouth in the dark)

"Royce, I can't see anything it's dark what do you need at 6 o'clock in the morning, you're usually not up for another 30 minutes."

"No, Dad - look in my hand - I lost my tooth!"

At this point I didn't have the heart to tell her I still couldn't see anything, but I was very excited for her. We put it aside for safe keeping until she could place it in the "tooth box" and waited a little while to get the boys up.

After breakfast we made green jello with Royce and Will serving as my able bodied sous chefs. Tasted delicious. Following Royce's return from school in the afternoon, we snacked on some jello and made dinner for when our sitter, Val, would be coming over.

Val arrived, which allowed me to head to work - no rain tonight just cold weather. The kids were good during dinner and bath time and apparently Royce left a nice treat for the tooth fairy via Val's details:

Royce wrote the tooth fairy a short note and left her a small snack of strawberries. Cut into very small pieces because as everyone knows the tooth fairy is very tiny and Royce doesn't want her to choke or cause her harm.

So, today was a little brighter here at the Hartin home, however, we still miss Carrie terribly and can't wait for her return.