Our good friends, the Spears, came down from LA to visit. They have five kids so there's no way we could have them stay overnight at our house, but we told them that if they came down to visit when Andy's parents were in Philadelphia, they could stay at their house. So that's what they did. It worked out so well! They got to our house Friday afternoon. We hung out and had dinner.

On Saturday they invited us over to Andy's parents house because they wanted to make us breakfast. I felt badly having them make us food on their mini vacation, but I'm so glad we let them because it was delicious. They made eggs, bacon, homemade scones and homemade clotted cream. We were in heaven! (I'm not sure why the lighting is so weird in this picture.)

After breakfast we headed down to Coronado for the day. Andy didn't come with us because his sprained ankle was still really sore and swollen. 

It was supposed to be pretty cool and gloomy, but the first half of the day we actually had some beautiful sunny weather. That worked out well since we started the day at the Hotel del Coronado and beach. Once the clouds rolled in, we headed over to the other side of the island to the playground where you overlook downtown San Diego. We had a picnic lunch there, and then headed home.

Out of the eight girls, there were only three boys so they stuck together. They bonded over video games.

Andy even showed them the video game he's been working on. He showed them all the code that goes into a video game.

Then they tried playing it. Tucker's face lit up when he was playing. It was good feedback for the video game creator.

On Sunday, the Spears went to church with us, we went on a little hike after lunch, and then they pretty much hit the road. The weekend went by so fast, but it was so fun getting some good time with them!

I briefly mentioned Ellie's softball season in a previous post, but she had a blast playing softball this year. Her coach was really fun, she loved the other girls on the team, and she got to pitch. In fact, she was very proud of her bruises from pitching! Ellie has been wanting to pitch since she was in t-ball, so it was neat seeing her reach that longtime goal.

Her team wasn't great this season, and they finished in last place. However, once they got to the playoffs, they dominated. They ended up making it to the championship game and got second place. Ellie pitched in every game this season. In the championship game, she only let in two runs against a really, really good team, so she was very pleased. After the game we had a little end of the season pizza party. 

Ellie was the youngest girl on the team and really loved getting to be friends with the older girls. They were all very sweet to her. It was definitely her favorite softball season ever.

Andy turned 42 this year. He took the day off of work so he started his day with two of his favorite activities...sleeping in and snuggling.

Ellie had school that morning so we had cinnamon rolls without her. I promised that I would bring her a warm, gooey cinnamon roll when I picked her up from school.

The weekend before Andy's birthday, he sprained his ankle really badly playing basketball with Joey.  

So he spent most of this birthday like this.

When Ellie got home from school, she got her turn for snuggles. 

For dinner we had Andy's favorite carne asada burritos.

The kids made him cards. Hannah went all out with a 3D card.

I also love this form she filled out for him.

We finished his birthday off with creamy cookies...

and more video games. We had a lot of fun spoiling him all day.

I mentioned in my last post how pumped Ellie was that Hannah and I were going to Indiana and that she would be the only girl at home. I wasn't kidding. She literally counted down the days until we left.

Andy thought it would be fun to get Ellie a special apron for when we were gone. The first morning we were gone, Ellie got up at 7:00 am and started making chocolate peanut butter bars, so he had her open her present right away. She was thrilled! 

Before I left town, I sat down with Ellie, and we went over some ideas of dinners and desserts she could make while we were gone. I went over a couple of the recipes with her and made sure she had all of the ingredients. She made notes while we talked which I thought was darling. What I didn't know is that she had a whole folder of notes for while we were gone...

There are so many things that crack me up and remind me what a sweetheart she is!

As you can see in her notes, one of the things she was excited about was messing up her room when Hannah wasn't there. The girls are very sweet about sharing a room, but there is always a little tension because Hannah is obsessively neat, and Ellie is naturally messy. With Hannah gone, Ellie's second priority, after making the chocolate peanut butter bars, was to transform Hannah's bed into a cave for her Beanie Boos and Squishmallows.

Before we left, Joey told me that he wanted to get a little gift for Ellie. I think he felt like he had been extra short with her recently and wanted to make it up to her. I helped him pick out a cute butterfly necklace on Amazon. He wrapped it up and gave it to her when we were gone. Apparently being the only girl at home is pretty great! You would think she was devastated about being left behind and the boys were trying to make her feel better. I love it.

The second morning, Ellie was up making waffles. 

When I was trying to think of fun, easy desserts for Ellie to make while we were gone, I came across this kit at Aldi for Easter egg Rice Krispie treats. The directions looked easy enough, so I bought it. I got a phone call from Ellie while we were in Indiana, saying that she messed up the recipe on the box for the frosting, so she wanted to make our homemade buttercream frosting recipe. I told her where the recipe was, and walked her through it over the phone since she had never made frosting before. She asked about the confectioners sugar, and I told her that was powdered sugar. She called me back a few minutes later crying and saying that the frosting looked and tasted terrible. As I was trying to figure out what she did wrong, she said something about baking powder. It turns out, she used baking powder instead of powdered sugar. At first I didn't believe her because there's not enough baking powder in one can to do that, but she said she found a new can in the garage pantry. So she used almost two cans of baking powder instead of powdered sugar. That will definitely make it taste terrible. Thankfully, she recovered from her mishap, and the eggs turned out fine without any frosting.

When Hannah and I were in Indiana, Lauren heard about Ellie's new apron and wrote her a letter during her nap time one day. We gave it to Ellie when we got home.

Overall, their week without Hannah and I went very well! 

A couple of days after Easter, Hannah and I flew to Indiana to help out my sister for a week. She is pregnant with her fifth baby and is due at the beginning of May. This pregnancy has been pretty rough on her. She's been in a lot of pain so we went out to help with her kids and get things ready for the baby. 

At first I was just going to go, but then I thought about how helpful it would be to have Hannah go with me. With homeschooling this year, it was a perfect time to do it. Andy was on board, but we were both a little worried about how Ellie would take the news, especially since Joey had just gone on a fun trip with Andy to Texas. Andy and I decided that Ellie would get her own special trip in the future, but we didn't know if that would make her feel any better about being left behind for this trip. When I told Ellie about Hannah and I going to Indiana, she was SO excited. She was thrilled at the thought of being the only girl at home, baking treats for the boys, and doing fun things like movie nights, Taco Bell dinners, etc. She never wavered in her excitement. At one point she seemed to feel badly about all of her fun plans while we were gone. She told Hannah, "Don't worry, you'll have fun in Indiana." That really cracked us all up.

Hannah and I had an early flight out Tuesday morning. We had a really long layover in Dallas. The best news is that we didn't have to wear our masks in the food court area while we were eating and drinking, so we just stayed there for our whole layover! 

And here's the cutest pregnant girl ever! Rachel picked us up from the airport that evening. The Gallo kids didn't know we were coming, so we were very excited to surprise them. Michael was tracking our locations, so when we got close to home he convinced the kids to hide under some blankets on the couch to "surprise Rachel" when she got home. When they popped out from under the blankets, Hannah and I were standing in front of them. Their reaction was pretty funny...they just kind of stared at us smiling. 

The next morning I gave the kids some Pokemon stuffed animals from Joey (Joey gave Ben Pickachu a while ago and Lauren got the pink one for her birthday). These three are pretty obsessed with Pokemon, so it was fun to surprise them with these gifts.

Joey also had some mini Pokemon figures for them.

Hannah had her hands full with these four...and she loved it! 

 

This little guy was such a cuddle bug. He loved being held, so Hannah and I took full advantage of that. We joke that his feet never touched the ground the whole time we were there. 

The kids got some seeds to plant in their Easter baskets. Rachel made them wait until we got there (although they didn't know they were waiting for us) before they could plant them since she couldn't help them. I don't exactly have a green thumb, so hopefully at least some of them grow.

There were many times I looked over at Hannah and the kids and thought, "I'm so glad I brought her!"

Really, every time I looked at her with the kids...

 

Nathan really loved Hannah. She ended up doing his nap routine with him everyday, which was so helpful.

 

We took the kids to the park one day, and that was fun. Carmel has the best playgrounds, and this was yet another new one. I actually thought we would go to the park more, but it ended up raining the last few days we were there.

Rachel came to the park as well, so for most of the time we just sat and talked while Hannah played with the kids.

While Hannah was on kid duty, I worked around the house cleaning and getting ready for the baby. Before I got there I told Rachel to make me a list of things she wanted to get done, so I just worked off that list.

 

But I also took lots of snuggle breaks.

A major theme on the "to-do" list was getting their house back in order after their huge kitchen remodel. Their kitchen was finished just a few days before we got there, so it was so fun to see it in person and help move things back in. Their kitchen remodel turned out so well. The new kitchen is gorgeous.

We loved the morning snuggles.

One evening Ben and I played croquet (aka Ben's love language). He's so fun to play with because he's really into the game, but he's equally happy whether he's winning or losing. For the record, he beat the pants off of me both times.

Then we played MY favorite game, "Bashminton." Unfortunately the rain interfered with our plans to play more.

Saturday morning, before it started raining, the kids and I did some spring cleaning and scrubbed the back patio. They were all very helpful, even little Nathan!

After our family cleaning day, the four of us girls went out for lunch.

It was a fun treat!

In honor of our girl's day, Hannah and Lauren dressed like twins.

Thankfully it didn't start raining really hard until we got back from lunch. Hannah and I were hoping for some thunder and lightening, but it was just some pounding rain. It was still fun to see the streets get flooded with all of the rain!

Again, this was a very common sight!

Saturday evening, after the middle two kids went to bed, we watched the online student showcase concert at Hope College. Christina was the accompanist for a lot of the students, and Benjamin even accompanied one song. We all really enjoyed watching it, especially since Benjamin provided some live commentary via Group Me.

On Sunday we went to church in the morning, and then after lunch we went to a "Sprinkle" for Rachel. Rachel's sweet friend Laura hosted at her BEAUTIFUL house (honestly, it's ridiculously beautiful)

Hannah and I left EARLY the next morning. We were so thankful we got to spend the week with some of our favorite people!