Happy Father's Day

Patrick has been away for work in Long Island for two weeks now so I guess you could say we are officially at our half way point until his return. It was hard on the kids to be without their father on this special day, but I am sure it was even harder on their father to be without his kids. This morning when returning from brunch with my own Dad, Brody saw Patrick's van as we pulled in the driveway and he yelled, "Da-de home!" Only...Daddy wasn't there. It took a moment for Brody to realize that his Daddy's van has been there these entire two weeks...except for the days we've taken it out and about on our daily routine...I suppose all of us hoping a ride in it might make him feel closer. Throughout his time away, I have been trying to make a point to send Patrick picture messages of the kids, but today we received our own picture message of him...and a happy little tune to go with it. Going to bed tonight, we must have played that thing at least five dozen times, with Brody saying every time I flipped open the screen, "Dat my da-de!" Whenever those kids saw his face, they were just bursting with happy smiles.

We celebrated Father's Day with Patrick's family this afternoon in honor of all our Dad's...those that were here and those that were not. I didn't take a lot of pictures, but here are a few highlights...

The girls were playing castle and they each had a role in the royal court. This is our niece Kennedy, the "queen"...



Aunt Meme led the kids in an afternoon of games. "Princess" Cassidy...playing "hide and seek"...with a royal frog (don't worry, he was of the "stuffed" kind)!



Our nephew, Conor...quite attached to this yellow truck of Brody's. Not too long after this shot was taken, the truck and Conor had a nasty run-in with Gabriella on the swing. Thankfully little Conor is going to be okay...unfortunately, the yellow truck is not.



Quite the flattering shot of my son eating a chocolate cupcake...



After the celebration, I realized I didn't have any pictures of any of the Dad's from the day...pretty pathetic on Father's Day huh?! But here's an old one of Brody and his own Daddy...or at least part of him anyway.



Happy Father's Day Patrick. We love and miss you!