The Dawson Family: Labor (Day) of Love

Ok, so my title is a little cheesy but I think it works. We had such a great extended weekend where the kids were home Friday after school till Tuesday morning when I took them back to school. We love it when we have weekends like that and can't wait till we get more of them. Scott keeps asking for more time since we only live 10 minutes away but he is continually told no. So, while the 'adults' work out their differences I will continue to heap LOVE, LOVE, LOVE on these precious kids. Every decision should be about them and that means sharing time with them....and figuring out what is truly best for them. I'm sure it's hard to make that decision without your judgement being clouding by anger, resentment and fear. I can't imagine how hard it is to have to 'share' your children with someone you no longer trust or with a new person you don't know, but I am trying to be more understanding of certain responses that I see. I'm sure it's tough so I am hoping that the focus can truly be on the kids...ok...I got derailed from our Labor Day festivities...

FRIDAY: On Friday night I took 3 of the kids to the hospital to meet 3 of their Great Aunts who were visiting Grandma. My mom has 4 sisters and 3 of them were able to visit her for a week. They were waiting for her to return home but since it has been 5 months(!!) they decided it was time. Daddy stayed home with poor Eli who came home with a fever. The kids were so excited to go meet them and could hardly eat their dinner. I must say that I have the most beautiful Aunts...inside and out! They are all so loving, sweet and generous and the kids loved them right away. The Aunts felt like they already knew the kids because of all the photos they have seen and from following our blog. It was a good family fit.

Autumn, A. Linda, Grandma, Lucas, A. Claudine, Noah, A. Patty

This was their first meeting. The boys have dinosaurs that Aunt Linda gave them 2 or 3 years ago and they are always talking about her but had never met her. Sissy still uses the pink Hello Kitty purse that she got because she says "You're never too old for Hello Kitty".

SATURDAY: This was such a busy day for us. I took Noah to his clarinet clinic from 9-10 where we both learned everything he needed to know for his first day of class. How to assemble, how to clean, how to carry, how to take care of, how to play and so on. It was very informative and I prob. learned more in that class than I did my entire year of band! It is just so hard to get one on one attention when there are more than 50 kids in a 30 min. class. After the clinic, we cleaned the house, mowed the yards and then went to the Anita B Gorman Discovery center to make our nature leaf T-shirts. Our big event of the day was when the Aunts were coming over at 4:30 to take us to dinner! The kids were so excited...not only because the Aunts were coming but because they were taking us to Sweet Tomatoes! We had a delicious dinner with some glass tipping, table wobbling, plate grabbing excitement too. Good catch A. Claudine!

After dinner, we headed to Shawnee Mission Park to attend the free Pops In The Park concert by The KC Symphony. The place was so packed but the music was beautiful! We stayed till the very end so we could hear Star Wars and Super Man. It was so refreshing and we had a great time just hanging out under the stars.

The kids took A. Patty down to the very front so they could get a good look at the cello's. Scott took me to see the KC Symphony a few years ago as a surprise Christmas present. I loved it!

Lucas decided that A. Linda was his special buddy. He sat by her at dinner, was her buffet buddy, held her hand and wanted to be near her all night. It was very sweet.