Welcome Home, Daddy!

In celebration of Adam's return from Atlantic City, the kids and I decided to have a welcome home party.  He was severly missed!  The night before he came home, Houston actually broke out in tears while talking to Dad on the phone.  Poor guy just couldn't stand his father being gone for one more minute.

As soon as the kids got home from school, I put them to work on painting a door sign.  Things always go a lot differently in my head.  I am a bit of a control freak.  I figured I would just let the kids be their own little artists, you know, let their true colors shine through.  And voila!  We would end up with a replica of the beautiful masterpiece I had already painted in my head.  However, the kids weren't seeing it.  I offered many suggestions, that were inflected more as commands, "Hey Houston, don't you think some yellow would look good right here?"  "Hayes, why don't you draw some squiggly lines of blue right here."  "Hawkins, don't you want to paint with your favorite color, green?"  Despite my attempts to "control" the outcome of the banner, the kids ultimately painted how they wanted.  And I don't think it could have turned out any better!  It was beautiful!

Time was beginning to get away from us, and we still needed to run to the store to get some balloons before Adam's arrival.  Besides, what's a welcome home party without balloons?  There is just something about a bouquet of colorfol latex that makes me giddy inside.  Things just seem magically more blissful and immediately more joyous with the presence of balloons and curling ribbon.

With Houston's help, we got the door sign hung.  I hollered at the kids to quickly put their shoes on while I buckled Holt into his car seat and got my own shoes on.  By the time I had Holt loaded in the car, the boys emerged from the house, all with shoes on.

Well, he did have shoes on.  Even if they weren't matching and both left-footed.  And yes, I let him go in his puppy pajamas.  Hayes still had his blue mohawk from horrible hair day.  What can I say?  We did look like a bunch of misfits. 

No sooner than we all entered the party store did I truly understand how ridiculous we looked.  Right away, I noticed a woman staring at me and the boys.  I could almost hear the snide remarks in her head.    I didn't hesitate to address her, more so as to convince myself that I'm not a crazy mom, just a cool mom.  "He's two.  He dressed himself today.  Ha ha.  Some battles are just not worth fighting. (insert more phony laughter)"  She smiled and looked away.

I let the boys each choose four colors for the bouquet of balloons.  I think I would have rather shot myself in the leg.  First of all, there's about twenty choices of colors.  System overload for indecisive young boys who are limited to only four selections.  And of course, they all want the same color.  Which goes like this:

In the whiniest voice ever, "I want blue."
"No, I want that blue!"
Trying to remain calm, "You can both have that blue if you want."
"Uh, nevermind!  I'm changing mine!"
(Like a chorus, repeat 4 times, just change the color)

Twenty mintues later, I think they all had settled on their four balloons at least three times before I told them they had fifteen seconds to make their final, final decision and that was it -- no more switching.

And that's how we ended up with the craziest bunch of colors (ivory, gold, black, and some actual cheery ones).  It wasn't fifteen minutes after we got home and had tied the balloons all around the living room that Adam got home!  He thought the colors were just perfect.

The boys and I were absolutely delighted to have him home.  However, as thrilled as we were, I think he was even more so excited to be home.  There were lots and lots of hugs and kisses to go around.

Followed by a tackle and a Schwartz boy sandwich.

Holt even wore his coolest Daddy shirt in honor of his return.  And around here, Daddy is a big deal.  Without him, life just doesn't feel right.  The five of us downed an entire celebratory angel food cake and nestled on the couch together for the rest of the night.  Everything was once again right in the world.  There is an overwhelming peace to have everyone safe and together at home.