When I was a teenager I once said, “Everything British is better.”  I still believe that to this day. Especially in the husband department. When Jan is around everything is better. He happens to currently not be around but luckily he will be back tomorrow evening. Kansas will be the poorer but we here in Madison, NJ will be the richer.

When I miss him most is at bed time. When you’re flying solo by the end of the day you don’t have much left to give. And the whole bedtime thing feels so daunting. Millie knows it far too well for me to skip anything. So there isn’t much that can be done except to just DO IT.

Our evening routine with Millie involves all the usual suspects:

Without fail there is a trip to the potty, a brushing of the teeth, a laying out of the jammies, and reading a verse from the scriptures.

When Jan is at the helm he adds an extra step and makes sure that the first thing Millie does is choose stuffed animal to sleep with. The night before he left for Kansas Millie chose Zebree. While Millie trotted off the the loo Jan did this…

He likes to set up the little critters as if they are waiting for Millie. So sweet!

When Millie returns from the bathroom, she gets to pick a book.

Then prayers

A drink of water

And to bed

That is a tired little face. I love to kiss it good night.

I know Jan does too, so if you are reading this from your hotel room know that we did all the same things tonight but… it wasn’t the same without you. oxoxox, Lize

Bliss. It was bliss, my friends. The evening before I had been doubting that my husband would come through this year – I was a fool. Jan is the KING of providing me a birthday of bliss. He nails it every year. And this year was no exception.

A few highlights of the day…

I dressed myself and the girls in coordinating outfits. Which leads me to a confession – if Laura Ashely Mother & Child were still in full force I would be deeply tempted to purchase matchy matchy outfits for me and the girls. I KNOW it is SO LAME! But there it is! Luckily for people like me there is J. Crew and Crew Cuts – which Millie and I wore(me the Crew and she the Cuts) and Clara provided the “accent” in a floral number – she looked like a little Spode dish…as you can see.

Knowing of my deep need to be “matchy, matchy” with my daughters Jan provided this perfect gift:

Eat your heart out Maria Von-Trapp. Gretel was cute and all, but she didn’t have plastic princess shoes like Millie D. And yes, we are going to make culinary masterpieces together in the near future. I am thinking a little mac-n’-cheese might look good on our aprons.

Amanda brought us her famous cup cakes but with a new addition – peanut butter frosting. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. Thank you so much, AJ!

Best of all though, and the thing that made me feel like an absolute love glutton was a website that Jan put together where every member of my family and some of my dearest friends wrote me love notes.

I just cried! It was so wonderful! People were so generous (I still haven’t been able to read it all).

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!

P.S. THANK YOU!!

As many of you will know it was Opening Day at the new Yankee Stadium on the 16th of April.

Jan and Ian can tell you all about it.

If you want to know what un-diluted, pure happiness looks like – just check out their faces. (And this was despite the score Indians 10, Yanks 2)

Well here in our quaint town of Madison, NJ we celebrated opening day for our little league.

It was stink’n awesome.

The boys and girls paraded through our main street. It was the only parade I have been to where the people in the parade who throw the candy are also the ones who grab up the candy. Riddle me that one, if you can.

We had great, curb side seats (as in right on the curb) where we cheered on some of Madison’s finest sons, Porter and Braxton Rich. Their lovely mother, Emily, is seated beside me, in her lap is my future son-in-law, Hudson Jack Rich. (He likes the middle name mentioned, thankyouverymuch.)

Afterwords we headed home to play a little ball of our own.

Clara was more of a spectator.

Millie took time out from playing to give the camera some “attitude”

Eno, does this one slay you as much as it does me?! Check out that sisterly affection while wearing the world’s greatest baseball team logo.

Jan doesn’t need any sons to fulfill his baseball needs…

And yes, I was there too

Love,

The Dawsons