Riley Child Life Night with the Pacers

The Jeff Gordon Foundation purchased a suite at Conseco from an auction and donated it to the Child Life Department of Riley Hospital. We were blessed to be their guests March 20 for the Pacers vs. the Mavericks. What a fun night. Everything was thought of to bless the former patients of Riley and their families!

All the kids were given Pacer jerseys with their name and # on the back. Their # is their Age which I figured out about half way through the night! We were 15 minutes late getting to Conseco so we missed meeting Larry Bird who came out right at 5:00pm. The girls would rather play with Bowser anyway! Bowser was SO SWEET.

The Chef came in and was introduced. The "patients" got to choose from a menu and the rest of us had a choice of hotdogs and fixings or chicken fingers.

Aunt Tammy and Vaughn were at the game in regular seats. The lady in charge offered to invite them to our suite!

Mayor Ballard came by and said Hello as well as a couple of the Pacemates. Steve had a camera there also and he has more pictures which I'll post later, including a picture of the AMAZING Dessert cart that came by our suite!

Why do they have to grow up?

Ok, this will be a little illogical. A little emotional. You can stop reading now if you want.
Tonight I miss my 17 year old son. He has been working a lot more than usual. He's spending the night at his friend's house and I'll see him at church in the morning but I didn't want him to go tonight. I've been looking at pictures of him as a little guy and I think, I just want to go back and hug that little guy one more time. Read him one more story and hold his hand when we cross the street and go to the Children's museum. They grow up so fast. He's a good boy. He still gives me hugs and wants me to make him hot chocolate. I'm so proud of him. He's a hard worker and a good brother and son. He calls me when he's on a break at work or if I'm out with my girlfriends like last Sunday night and I wasn't home at 10:30. :) So when the I'm tucking in my little girls tonight, I took the time to stay with them a little longer, read one more book, and take turns laying down with each one. They'll grow up so fast.
I'm so thankful that I've been able to be a stay at home mom. Except one or two nights a week. I'm not rushing off to work every morning. I get to spend summer days taking them to the pool. No, my kids have NEVER been to Florida! Never been to Disney! But that's okay, because I'm home everyday and I wouldn't have it any other way.
I know some people don't have a choice and some do... I'm just very thankful to God and my husband that I get to be here for our kids.
Enjoy every day and every moment and make happy, laugh-filled memories with your kids that they will always remember. My 4 year old LOVES to wrestle with Daddy. Daddy didn't want to wrestle tonight. Seems that 4 year old jumped on Daddy's back while wrestling last night. But she begged until Daddy finally did a little wrestling. I know she will never forget those times.
Now that one of the kids is older, we have to make sure that we protect some "family" time and family dinner nights when we are all here. We'll make it work! God is Good! All the time! If you didn't see the post about Gingerbread houses, go see 17 year old building gingerbread house for 4 year old. VERY SWEET. ( I just remember that earlier tonight my voice got a little loud at 2 little girls that wouldn't settle down when I was trying to spray the shampoo out of their hair!!) Lord, give me more patience and maybe they need to bathe separately next time!