- Father's Day 2022 -

Happy Father's Day to these men who love us so well! 

 

BLESSED WITH THE BEST! <3

- Father's Day -

Painting/crafting to the max...do I see another Father's Day on the horizon?!  

...YES!  The kids picked out these wood crafts at Michael's this year and couldn't wait to get to work creating some special frames and artwork for their wonderful daddy and all their papas!

On the big day, Brian was surprised with breakfast in bed [and luckily only had to share a couple of his powdered donuts...]!

We also hosted a brunch to celebrate Papa Mark...

...and had dinner with Brian's family to celebrate Papa Ron!  Somehow the men of Brian's family escaped my camera, but here's a pic Aunt Laura + some of the grandkids enjoying the new tree swing Papa Ron hung up for them!

Cheers to the "dads" in our lives!  You are all such strong, loving fathers; your examples are more valuable to us and our marriage and our kids than you know!  We love you all so much!

- Cecilia Clare & Co: Daddy Day -

...I said it alllll here, so I won't waste yo' time rehashing everything again...

But! Cheers to a new year with no new beginnings; Christmas 2.0 lives on and on and on! 

Happy Father's Day, Brian!!! We love you! 

Harper entered a drawing in her daycare's Father's Day contest, and she was a winna' winna' chicken dinna'!!! She scored a book out of the deal and was practically doing cartwheels in excitement to tell Brian what she'd won.

Kisses and hugs and Father's Day love to each of the fathers and grandfathers in our lives who we adore! You love us so well, and we are blessed by you! :)

- Christmas 2.0 :) -

Ahhh...a short reminiscence of Mother's Day twentah-eighteen that came and went without sight of a single scribbled on card or solitary homemade toddler gift [#notbitter ... #justamused] ...But love makes the world go 'round, and the love was abounding on May 13, 2018, and so! I rest my case forever and ever amen.

...But I was juuuuuust reminiscing/comparing for a hot second, because for literally three weeks before Father's Day, the girls and I spent our days hand-picking special cards ...and taking and printing pictures to glue in said cards ...and cutting vinyl with the Cricut ...and painting with brushes and our hands ...and HOLY crafting basicallllly 24/7 all for the dads/papas in our lives!  Every single day, Harper said, "Mommmmmy, is it Fah'ver's Day yet?!" with her head cocked to the side and eyebrows raised and lips pursed.  She always had the most anticipatory look on her sweet little face, which is when I decided to officially deem Father's Day as "Christmas 2.0."  [Admit it, it's appropriate.]  The second Brian walked in the door in the evenings, she would run to me and say, "Mommy! Where did you put 'dat ting we made today wif our hands on it so I can show Daddy?" Yessssss. Definitely Christmas 2.0.

She was also dead set on buying Brian a hot and steamy [sort of inappropriate, too] wife-to-husband card, but alas I coaxed her into the daughters-to-daddy section and she found a cute one with two baby bears wearing princess crowns that she liked almost as well. Phew.

All [bitter] joking aside, I am truly in awe of the love and patience that Brian has for these girls, and I was almostttt as excited as Harper was for Father's Day to arrive and for him to open his gifts!  It takes a real man to live with three attention-seeking women ;) :), but Brian does that perfectly and flawlessly day in and day out!

[^^ Swooning over these beautiful pieces of artwork that came home from the daycare... I cherish these little handmade things sooooo much -- probably more than Brian does hah! -- and literally almost cried when I saw the gifts in their daycare bags.  Harper was so proud of the things she made and again could hardly wait for Fah-ver's Day to arrive!]

Annnnnnd drumroll... Harper popped out of bed at 6:48am on the holiday of all holidays to give her daddy a hug and then begin the large task of transporting all her homemade gifts for him to open in bed!

Happy Father's Day, babe! We are blessed by you and hope you enjoyed your special day! :-* :-*

- Family Reunion + Father's Day -

Home from vay-cay at 9pm and one sleep away is the highly anticipated Drago family reunion!

The rooster rises at her normal crack-of-dawn time. And in the 3.2 minutes I'm busy putting my makeup on, she's in the closet dumping all my feminine belongings like, "PHEW, thank the Lawd I'm still the baby!..." 

...Yes yeshhhh, she's my baby; but she definitely isn't the only baby in this family!  There are EIGHT little munchkins in Brian's extended family that turned one in the past several months!! Craziness. Someone hired a photographer to come to the family reunion to capture a photo of all eight of them...

...which was a TOTAL disaster and I'm terrified to even see the photos!!! Ha...ha...haaaa, slow laugh... I didn't have high expectations considering I can barely even take a good photo of Harper these days before she just stands up and walks off, but it was even worse than any of us imagined! ALL EIGHT OF THEM WERE CRYING!!!  It was actually kind of hysterical.  I hope she got some good shots because these will be hilarious to pull out at the family reunion in 20 years! ;) The photographer also took some video footage, so I'm looking really forward to seeing all 'dat! 

Anyway, pretty soon the photographer packed up her stuff and left and then it was time for everyone to let loose! Shockingly, all eight babies were happy for the rest of the afternoon... 

 

^^ Brian's uncle bought this awesome inflatable that will be fun for yearsssss to come!  Harper was too little to get in this year with all the big kids, but she sure kept an eye on all the other cousins having a blast in there! 

Parade fun...

 

"Gog!"

 

...Then a little fair food and partyin' uptown at the carnival to close out the night! 

So thankful to be a part of this great family!! 

Oh, and...

 

Father's Day sort of definitely and sadly got overshadowed by vacation and the family reunion this year, but you better believe we had a lazy Sunday after all the action! Harper and I woke Brian up with a back rub and a big breakfast, then the rest of the day was dedicated to some true "Daddy/daughter" bonding time [...photo-free, shockingly!]! :)  

Happy Father's Day, Brian!!! Harper and I are so lucky to have you! :-*