Heard from Jason

Jason arrived safely in Cairo! He even said that he has arrived without jet lag, because he was able to sleep on the plane and then again soon after arriving in Egypt (he flew in at 7pm Cairo time). Thanks to a friend who lives in Cairo, but lived in Madison last year, Jason has a place to stay and was given a tour around his new neighborhood.

Now the countdown until his return begins :)

I have neglected the blog

and I realize it. It seems like there is too much going on for me to blog, but here is a very quick update.

Today I am driving Jason to the Vegas airport, where he will be flying (eventually) to Cairo, Egypt. For ten weeks. Again. But this time, the kids and I will be staying home. It's just too expensive for us to buy tickets, and we didn't suffer through a Wisconsin winter to miss out on enjoying the beautiful summer! I am not looking forward to being the sole adult/parent in the house for that long, but military spouses do it all the time, and for much longer periods, right? I think that we will survive without Daddy for the summer, but can I survive without Jason, my husband? Luckily technology today is awesome and emails and webcams can keep us all in contact.

And now a couple of pictures:

Jason, his sister (the beautiful bride), his brother (the ring-bearer), and Ellie (the flower girl)

Ellie spent the entire wedding ceremony dancing with the big girls

Rowan had more fun exploring and climbing

And the promised picture of Ellie's birthday "cake." It was cake pops, roses, and candles arranged in a box. The cake balls are soooo good!!

Birthday Fun

Whew, Ellie's 4th birthday is over, and I am exhausted! If our camera had a memory card (ours is MIA), I would have done the day in pictures like Tara did for Easter.

The celebration started Thursday night,when we ate dinner at Red Robin for Jason and Ellie's birthdays. Jason and Ellie both had free meals, and then the staff came out with balloon-decorated ice cream sundaes to sing a LOUD, enthusiastic birthday song. Just what Jason was hoping for :) But Ellie grinned as she hid in her daddy's arm. I think we could have just done that for Ellie's birthday and she would have been perfectly happy, because she really loved it. Funny, not eating out for 4 months made it like a brand new experience for the kids.

Last night I stayed up past 1am cleaning and preparing food for Ellie's birthday party today. Instead of a birthday cake, I made cake balls and pops (cake balls on a stick). Those were fairly easy to make, but took a long time since each one had to be coated in chocolate. The other food we had was fruit salad, sandwiches, veggie tray with dip, hummus and pita bread, chips and salsa, cheese slices, kettle corn, and lemonade. Quite a spread!

Ellie woke up this morning to find the huge dollhouse that Jason put together for her. I bought it for her before Christmas (at an amazing price), so I've been impatiently waiting to give it to her. So far she loves it, we just have to find somewhere to put it in her room. At 10am we went downstairs for her party. We played a few games, ate some food, sang happy birthday, opened presents, and then just let the kids play. The weather was pretty good (upper 50s) until we tried to light the candles and then it started to be really windy. Isn't that how it always goes? :)

After the party we came in for a short rest time. No one slept, but the kids played in their beds for 1/2 hour while the parents refueled. Then, after Ellie tried out her new stamp set, I took the kids back outside to play for a while before Ellie's friend came over for a "play date." No, Ellie didn't hide her in the closet to stay forever :) Next we had a yummy meatloaf for dinner and finally, I took Ellie on the bus to get her free birthday Coldstone ice cream cone. Cotton candy with M&Ms, yum. We ate it outside on a bench and everyone who saw her smiled at her sticky blue mouth as she devoured her cone.

As soon as I can figure out how to get the few pictures and video off our camera, I will post them. In the meantime, there are some pictures on my facebook page.