......celebrate.....

......I never have thought of myself as one who takes anything for granted.....

.....however, the longer I am married with kids, I realize that when we were married without kids, we did take for granted how easy it was to spend quality time together.....

......so after packing for a 24 hour getaway, spending an hour and a half with our sitter giving her the rundown for the girls, cleaning the whole house for the sitter so she didn't think we're slobs, leaving emergency contact information in every room of the apartment, and hugging my girls goodbye a million times, I was off to get our hotel room ready for a night of celebration.....

.....and while Stefan finished up his test and made his way to 57th and 3rd Ave, Amy and I got a head start on kicking back and propping up our feet in a comfy place.....

.....before I knew it, Stefan and I were alone without any stresses or time constraints......except when we needed to meet our friends for dinner.....and it was a perfect and festive 24 hours.....

......and he hates it when I say things like this, but I have a feeling he passed....

......thank you Rich and Amy for joining us for a night of carousing and belly aching laughter....

.....thank you for sipping champagne with us in taxi cabs, for friendly banter at dinner, for toasts that recognized Stefan and his discipline and for being our second family in the northeast......we love you....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

......the first thing Elsie noticed when we came home the next afternoon was that the color of my toenails were different.....it never fails....she can detect the slightest transformation or subtle change with anything....I'm so glad she was so perceptive because while Callie took her afternoon siesta, Elsie and I had some girl time.....

.....Elsie likes to learn, but she likes to do too.....Two days later and I am still walking around with hello kitty pale pink splashed on my fingers, cuticles and knuckles.....

.....and it's my most favorite manicure I have ever had......

......she loves to be girly.....and I love that she is so girly....

......and when Callie woke up, she was in her usual happy, gleeful, sweet disposition......

......and ecstatic to have her Daddy around just hanging out in her room.....

.....it was an afternoon of laying around, letting the house get messy, pizza and pasta for dinner followed by chocolate ice cream cones......the only productive thing we discussed was how amazing our beach trip next weekend is going to be.....more family time and decompression.....

......although we won't know Stefan's results for another 6 weeks, we can at least be at peace that he gave it everything he had.....and is teaching our girls what true dedication and discipline is without sacrificing family.....but we get a whole lot more of Daddy over the next 6 months.....

......and that is something I don't take for granted.....