Woo Hoo Halloween!!

Halloween was never one of my favorite holidays. The meaning behind it always scared me. Now having kids I must admit it is fun. When else do you get to knock on peoples doors and they hand you candy? It was also a great way to meet the neighbors. So here they are, my little munchkins, Thomas the train, a duck, and a fire fighter.

After about the third house Thomas says, "this is really fun!" and I am thinking oh my goodness my arms are going to fall off. My little duck isn't walking yet and she felt more like a 40 pound turkey. We hung in though and even made it to the firehouse, and my little firefighter couldn't have been more excited! The aftermath of Halloween is a house filled with candy, and God knows I have no self control so I must get it out of my house!!

Ahhh, I just love family time!

Two days of 100% family time! No work, no TV, no cooking, no cleaning, just wonderful family time. THE PLAN Leave our house at 1pm on Saturday, kids will take naps in the car, wake up fresh and ready to go at our first destination. THE REALITY Taylor (love her), napped almost the entire 2 hour car ride. Trey fought his eyes falling asleep the entire way and kept trying to keep his brother awake with him. Evan got 30 minutes of sleep despite his brothers attempts. THE PLAN Get to Dutch Wonderland, kids put on costumes for the Trick or Treat at the park, and just have lots of fun. THE REALITY Spent lots of time putting together the costumes for no one to want to wear them ( I new that would happen), instead we just had lots of fun!! One of the first rides the kids wanted to go on was the Twirling Turtles (Blaaaa). It didn't help that I was already a little carsick from turning around 300 times to keep telling Trey to stop teasing his brother and to pick up cheerios that dropped all over my back seat. After the Twirling Turtles I stuck to the simpler rides and had the kids go on the one's that said No Adults (Thank God). THE NEXT PLAN drive from Dutch Wonderland to The Hershey Hotel, the kids would fall asleep in the car and we could put them right to bed and my husband and I could watch some TV and relax. THE REALITY They did fall asleep in the car but once we got to the hotel it was like someone pumped their blood with caffeine! They were so excited that I feared they would never go to sleep. After running down the hall to the vending and ice machine, eating all the Hershey kisses on the pillows, telling stories, playing go fish, wrestling in the huge bed, we finally realized we had to shut everything off and just go to sleep ourselves. By 9:00 all lights were out, TV off, and everyone fell fast asleep.

The next day went very smooth. We went to Chocolate World and everyone loved the history of chocolate tour and the trolley ride. The 3-D movie didn't go over so well though. A bunch of chocolate popped out of a box and I think my boys thought it was going to hit them in the face. We had to quickly run out of the theatre with them in hysterics (maybe next year). The last part of this trip was Hershey Park. The park was huge and we saw maybe 20% of it but it didn't matter. We had so much fun seeing our kids having fun that we didn't have to go to every ride. They were so excited to be able to go on the same ride 10 times if they wanted to. Before making the 2 hour drive home we stopped for a quick dinner and my oldest, Trey who fought sleeping the entire trip, fell fast asleep before our food even got to the table. THE PLAN HOME We would feed them, drive home and they would all fall fast asleep. Once we got to our house we could put them straight to bed. THE REALITY It happened!!

Birthday, Birthday, Birthday!!!

This week was just one big birthday party. Monday my little Evan turned 3, and Friday my big Trey turned 4. With the birthdays so close I tried really hard to make each day very individual and special for each of them. No matter how much I planned for this there were still moments of jealousy. Evan woke up on Trey's birthday and started to cry "why isn't it my birthday anymore?", I wasn't sure how to answer that other then "because it's not honey, it's Trey's so lets make it special for him" and he was over it. I only had to break up a few fights over sharing their new toys, but no broken bones!

Tomorrow, for the grand finally of the week we are going to Hershey Park, overnight! The idea of traveling 2 hours in the car and packing up 5 people for one night is a bit overwhelming but "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can!"

Who wants a cupcake?

Today I baked my very first “school” cupcakes! Tomorrow my two year old will turn three and he gets to take show and tell and a snack. So tonight I baked up a storm and turned out some pretty cute cupcakes if I do say so myself. Evan (my 2 year old requested orange icing because orange is his favorite color) so I ran with it and this is my result.

As I finished the cupcakes and placed them in the little cupcake carrier, that I just purchased for this special occasion, I felt this little happiness. One because I am excited to have Evan carry those cupcakes to class tomorrow with such pride, two because I’m moving into the next threshold of motherhood. No longer is it just changing dirty diapers. I am now a mom of a pre-schooler, baking cupcakes for his class! I know it is such a simple thing but special and it makes me happy!

It Just Hit Me!

I just realized why I often get frustrated with my mommy roll. As I was folding laundry this morning my husband was replacing our 300 year old back door. (My husband is wonderfully handy, he actually renovated our entire old farm house before children). Then WHAM it hit me! My job is like replacing the back door every day three times a day. I do laundry, clean the house, cook meals, but it never ends. If I could just finish something and never have to do it again that would be so rewarding. Back to my laundry!

Loving a quiet Sunday!

We woke up this morning and started the day like every other morning, Evan (our 2, almost 3 year old ) waking us saying "my bellies hurting!" He wakes up starving every day! Our Sunday morning "thing" is Strawberry Pancakes. I make the pancakes, my oldest son makes the syrup (1 cup of sugar, 1 1/2 cups of water, 1/2 a package of strawberry jello, and 2 Tbls. of cornstarch) which needs to be stirred over low heat for a long, long, long time until it thickens, and everyone else waits patiently! After inhaling our delicious breakfast with lots of sugar we decide it was time to take out pet turtle to a better home. (We found a turtle in our backyard about a week ago and have kept him a little bit longer then we should have.) So as a family we got out the stroller and the bikes and traveled about a mile in a half to a little lake to let the turtle go. My boys, so big, rode their bikes all the way there with a little huffing a puffing but no giving up! Once we got to the lake the little turtle ran and dove into the water and seemed very happy! Getting home was a little tougher as the boys were a bit more tired but we made it.

We played outside and I pruned our out of control tomato plants and then it was time for lunch. We ate some homemade pizza from the night before and some brownies for dessert, yes I know, don't make me feel guiltier then I already do. So to work off my atrocious day of food I decide to go for a run which turned into a walk as I almost threw up because of all the crap in my stomach. As I was walking a long and enjoying the beautiful day I began to appreciate everything. Appreciate the sun shining, being able to walk, and sing, and thinking of my beautiful family that I so truly adore and all I can be is thankful. When life gets you down, money is tight, things aren't easy, stop and take a look at all that you have and not what you don't and I know you will be like me......Thankful!

Hope you have a great day

Is it just my husband?

So I work occasionally and many times my husband will watch the kids while I go to work for a couple hours at night. He is great with the kids but my God, the house is a disaster when I get back! Well tonight I just couldn't resist to take a picture and document what an idiot he can be (sorry honey, it's true) Ok... This is what the sink looked like when I got home.
This is what it looked like after me loading the dishwasher for 15 minutes!!!!!

Can you believe how well this man packed a sink FULL of dishes just to avoid emptying the dishwasher and then reloading it? I felt like throwing the dishes at his head!!!