Flying Airplanes

We had a traumatic doctors visit earlier this week where we learned Mary Ellen had a double ear infection.  She never once complained about her ears hurting.  Although, I've learned she rarely ever does and have to look for other signs which is usually an attitude shift!  Now the ear infection part wasn't traumatic in-and-of-itself.  The traumatic part was that she had lots of wax build up in her ears and they had to spend a considerable amount of time irrigating them.  To put it mildly, Mary Ellen did NOT enjoy it!  But two free ice cream cone coupons were given...yes, Michael also benefited from Mary Ellen's traumatic doctors visit..so we decided to go to Sonic for lunch and the free ice cream.  I guess that's a long story to say we got these GREAT gliders as the free kids meal toy.  Because we don't often eat out at fast food places these toys still hold great excitement for the Thorne kids.  We waited until Daddy got home to put them together and fly them.  I think Michael was in hog heaven; they both were really.    You can just see the pure bliss on their faces!

Daddy helped throw them a few times and if they wanted to watch it fly high, but they did most of it themselves.  They'd run after each other flying the airplanes and spent a considerable amount of time just throwing it on their own about 2 feet, usually behind them!

This last picture is one of my favorite.  What joy it is to watch my children so carefree running through our backyard enjoying life!

        

New Tractor

We finally had to break down and buy and riding mower for our 1-acre-monster-of-a "yard".  Michael and Mary Ellen call it our tractor and want to ride it everyday...especially Michael.  This was right after the Sears truck delivered it.  They had a ball just riding around.  We love it too and cuts a two day project of mowing the yard down to about 3 hours!  Hooray for Sears!!

Independence Day

July 4th was a great weekend of celebration!  We had Andrew home and we were celebrating our country's freedom.  What a great way to welcome Daddy home!  However, most of our celebrating was done inside just spending time together.  We didn't even do fireworks.  It was enough to just spend time playing and being together this year.  Hope everyone had a great Independence Day weekend and that you had the opportunity to thank a military member for our freedoms!

Daddy's Home!

Andrew finally made it home, after an excruciating 5 day journey back, and we have been enjoying all being together again.  It always takes some adjustment to fall back into routines but it seemed easier this time probably due to a 60 day instead of 120 day deployment. 

This was where Andrew slept and all the things we sent him to remind him of how much we love him.  The room he shared with Slammer was about the size of our bathroom but he was always thankful for a dark, cool place to sleep when he could.  I think he only had one day "off" while he was there and that was only because of trying to schedule crew rest.

My handsome husband ready for a mission.  Still does something to my heart to see him in uniform!

He arrived back home very early in the morning.  So we arrived before dark to pick him up.  Michael and Mary Ellen were troopers though, and so excited to finally see Daddy!!  I have video of the actual reunion that I'll have to add later.  Seeing them run across this field yelling, "Daddy, Daddy" was priceless!

Mary Ellen modeling the shirts we had made for Daddy's return..."My Daddy is My Hero"!

Michael and Mary Ellen looking happy and content sitting with Daddy.

WELCOME HOME DADDY!

USO Books

The USO has a wonderful program called United Through Reading where they provide hardback children's books for service men and women deployed to read on video to their children back home.  They package up the book and the DVD and send it to the families.  What a wonderful treat for children to have their Mom or Dad read them a bed time story and actually be able to see them!  Of course many have been away from family for up to a year or more, so seeing them doing something so everyday is truly a comfort for children.  Here is a link to a sample of what United Through Reading is doing...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEGRijdCIm8

Michael and Mary Ellen were so excited to get their books from Daddy!  They have instantly become their FAVORITE books; wanting to read them every night!  We miss Andrew so much and are eagerly anticipating having him home soon.  Thanks USO for such a special memory!

Happy Father's Day, Daddy!

We were sad we couldn't spend Father's Day with Andrew this year but are eagerly anticipating having him home in a few weeks!  We did have a great day at church and Michael and Mary Ellen made cards for Daddy in Sunday school.  You'll get them when you come home Andrew!  We took some pictures to send to Andrew to remind him how much we love and miss him.  You are our hero and the best Daddy ever.  Thank you for taking care of us so well and loving us so much.  Hurry home!

Hooray for Daddy!!

Artwork for Daddy

We started working early on Andrew's Father's Day box.  It takes about a week for them to receive packages and we wanted him to be able to enjoy our gifts for Father's Day.  Michael and Mary Ellen are really into finger painting and coloring right now.  So we did a few "paintings" for Daddy.  As you can see Mary Ellen decided to use the entire jar of red finger paint for her painting.  I finally had to take it away from her.  She just kept scooping more and more paint on the paper.  I think it ended up being about a 1/2 inch thick!  Michael was a little more restrained.  We also did a paper collage tie.  Wish I would have gotten a picture of those.  They turned out really cute!  It was a neck-tie outline on a paper and they glued different color scraps of paper on the tie and then we cut them out.  They did most of it completely by themselves!  We also made "Cowboy cookies" and bought a few DVD's and magazines to add.  He got the box yesterday and loved it!  We really miss him and are looking forward to finally getting him HOME!!