11 Highlights of 2011

I've really done a terrible job blogging in 2011 (yes Nana Cheryl..I know). It's disappointing to me too since I'me keeping up with my scrapbooks either so there's a good chance I'll remember very little about this year (boo). I'd like to hope in 2012 I can do better. But I'll end this year with 11 highlights for our family in 2011 (in no particular order)

1. Vacations with my hubby - This year we took 3 occasions to go out of town alone! One one-nighter to the Masters, one surprise weekend away to NYC and one well planned Disney Cruise. It was wonderful to get to be away with him and I think my kids enjoyed the spoiling by the aunts and grandparents as well.
2. Jacob potty trained!! - This might be my number 1 highlight of 2011 - while we are still using pull ups at night we are no longer, for the first time in over 8 years, buying diapers!
3. Jacob started preschool - Milestone. He loves. I love it. And for the first time in over 8 years I have 2 mornings a week (6 hours) with no children at home. Honestly..it's good for all of us!
4. My Disney Business - I'm so grateful and humbled by all the support of my amazing friends! My business has been better than I expected and I'm SO SO thankful!!
5. Erin's Wedding - My bff got married in Oct. It was such a special and wonderful weekend. I'm so incredibly happy for her.
6. Kids Birthday Parties - the kids all had fun birthday parties this year from Julia's 4th birthday gymnastics party, Emma's 8th birthday sleepover party at the hotel, Lily's 7th birthday party at the candy shop to Jacob's 3rd birthday at the farm they were all fun and we're thankful for the friends who got to celebrate with us.
7. Dance Recitals - All of my girls were involved in dance performances this year. They were So. Stinking. Cute. Love, love, love watching them perform!
8. Lily's Triathlon - My 7 year old did her first triathlon in July. I'm still amazed at her determination and commitment to doing it. She worked hard, trained and did amazing at it.
9. Julia's Soccer Season - Love watching my kids play sports. She was so cute and by the end of the season she actually started to get it.
10. Health - I'm very grateful that we all seemed to have made it through the year with no major issues. Only 2 trips to the ER (Jacob for his head, Lily for her eye) and no big sicknesses. We are indeed blessed.
11. Our New Church - We switched campuses with our church in Sept and it's been a great change for our whole family. Our new campus is smaller and we've all enjoyed being more involved.

2011 was a good year for our family. Like everyone we had our ups and downs but all in all it was good. We're so so blessed and thankful and we look forward to 2012!

Kids Write the Darndest Things

Today was the last day of school for 4 1/2 weeks. Sometimes I LOVE our year round school schedule (hello warm April, July & October) but this track out makes me strongly consider traditional schools. Anyways..it's the last day of the quarter and so Lily, my 2nd grader brought home a bunch of work. One thing she wrote was a non-fiction book about Pandas. She did a great job on it. The BEST part is the About the Author section of the book. Here's what she wrote:

Lily potter is a 2nd grade student at Carpenter. She has a talented body and likes to draw. Someday she wants to be in a art show. She likes to read books. Her faviorte aminal is panda thats why she wrote this fantastic book! Hope you enjoy!

About the authors family:
Her parents were strong enough to raise 4 kids to live a life & did a good job! The two younger ones are about anoying to me. They are deffnitly cute. My older sister, Emma is my older sister and about mean and is a computer hogger! Me, Lily has her own room and loves to play and have troubble fun!

I'm dying over here....

Indeed We are Still Here

So I haven't posted in EONS. I know..slacker I am. It's not that things haven't been blog-worthy but I just haven't had much free time to actually sit down and write. In fact, I haven't had much time to sit down period and do much of anything leisurely (except Words With Friends). As with everyone things have been crazy busy this past month. Between the kids, the PTA and my little work life is just going fast. Really fast. I'm looking forward to being out of school for a bit (though the 5 weeks might be a little much...yikes) to recover and rest and perhaps get my house organized.

So what has been going on? Here's a little recap:

*Thanksgiving was great. Quiet. We saw the Muppets which now my kids are obsessed with. In fact..Emma has assigned us all Muppet personalities: In her words: Daddy is like Gonzo because he's Weird, Mommy is like Miss Piggy because she's bossy, Lily is like Miss Piggy because she likes fashion, Jacob is like Animal, because he is an animal, Julia is like Animal because she's crazy too and I (Emma) and like Miss Piggy because I'm beautiful.

*We went to Asheville to see my dad after Thanksgiving. Went to a tree farm. Jacob knocked down Natalie's 10 foot tree. Fun times.

*Breakfast with Santa - All 4 kids got close to Santa! Our first holiday miracle.

*Holiday Dance Performances - Emma danced at the Raleigh Winterfest tree lighting with her dance team. If I can figure out how to get video on here I'll post it - it was adorable! Then all the girls danced at the Carolina Christmas Show. Cuteness abounded.

*Family Christmas Gatherings on Saturday - My kids were actually well behaved. And they ate crazy amounts of sugar.

*Preschool Christmas Sing - Seriously is there much cuter than 4 year olds singing? No. There is not. So cute. And Julia sang her little heart out.

And that sums up the last few weeks. Sort of. I'm sure there was more cute, funny stuff but I just can't remember right now...so I'll try to be better about documenting it the rest of the month!

Trophy Time

Julia finally finished her soccer season yesterday. I say finally because the season was at least 2 weeks longer than expected because of all the rain we've had. Let me rephrase that - all the weekend rain we've had. It's beautiful during the week but there's something about Fridays that seem to bring the rain lately. I swear they had more games rescheduled than the actually played when they were supposed to and they missed a handful of practices too.

No worries from Julia though. She wanted to play because her bff Preston played. Sadly they weren't on the same team - and sadder still they never got to play each other due to schedules/sickness. She was hooked from the first practice when she got her team t-shirt. She didn't take it off for 2 days. She started to get tired of practice but getting that special snack after the first game kept her interested and then it became the pursuit of the trophy.

Of all my kids who've played soccer she actually has the most interest and potential to actually do well at the game. By the end of the season she wasn't afraid to get in the pack and try to kick the ball and she runs pretty fast.

Yesterday was finally the last game and then it became the moment she's been waiting for - getting the trophy. Her sisters both have one from their only season playing soccer and she was so, so proud to have one too. I think she slept with it last night. So long to this soccer season - I think we'll be playing again in the Spring.

Happy Halloween!

Judging from the amount of candy my 4 children collected while trick or treating I'd say that Halloween 2011 was a huge success despite the less than favorable conditions outside. For the first time in any recent memory - at least since Emma was born - it was rainy, cold and pretty much just miserable out. Paul claimed "I am not trick or treating in the rain" but much to his dismay the children could not be persuaded to miss such an event. Especially not our candy-aholic Jacob. Paul has always been the designated trick or treater while I always get to stay home and hand out candy. This works well for us as I like to see all the kids dressed up. I did feel a tad bad for him last night though when he had to wrangle 4 children, 4 treat bags and 4 umbrellas. He took it like a champ though and didn't complain at all. It was little disappointing to see more winter jackets and rainboots than Halloween costumes though. But, thankfully we have Facebook and everyone is posting cutie pics of their kids today so it's all good.

Now to research where we can donate all this candy....

October Where Did You Go?

Last time I noticed it was like Oct. 10th. Now it's Oct. 29th. Seriously? How'd that happen? Where did this month go? I had grand illusions that I'd be blogging about all our Fall fun. And posting pictures- oh the lovely fall pictures. Here's what's really been happening:

*Older kids were tracked out of school for 3 weeks. Wedding was the first weekend and it was fabulous. The second week it rained every day. The third week we schlepped the preschoolers around and ran errands.

*We went to the Fair! We ate! Lots! I forgot my camera..boo..hoo..

*We had a dance performance - the cuteness was killer. Just adorable.

*I spoke at a school board meeting - that was interesting. Very interesting. And they didn't listen.

*The kids played outside a lot. And rode bikes and generally had fun on some of the beautiful fall days we've had.

*We had a neighborhood Halloween Party - I forgot my camera..boo..hoo

*It has rained. A lot. I think more than half of Julia's soccer games have been cancelled/postponed due to rain.

*Went to a birthday party at a farm yesterday and nearly froze to death. Geez. It is still Oct. right?

Hopefully I can get back to regular blogging soon!

Wedding Weekend!

So my BFF got married this weekend. I'm so happy for her - she's waited a long time to find the man of her dreams and I'm really glad that she's found him. Her courtship (I can not believe I'm using this word) to engagement was pretty fast and even though they were engaged for 10 months it feels like it was a whirlwind. It's been a long time since I was too involved in any wedding planning so I was pretty out of touch with what's trendy in weddings these days but Erin's wedding was spot on - it was gorgeous and elegant and cool.

We left on Wednesday to head up to Ohio for the wedding festivities. We arrived at dinner time and stopped in on Nana Cheryl and Curtie and got to meet the new puppies! Oh my stars are they cute! Erin graciously (and maybe a little crazily) agreed to host us for a couple days before we moved to the hotel. Thursday the girls spent some time doing wedding prep - tanning, drop off money at the reception site, pick up programs, mani's/pedi's..girl stuff. The boys did boy stuff - picked up tuxes and picked up Gagi from the airport. Gagi graciously agreed to travel with us - she loves Erin but was also along to help with the kdis. We cooked out at Erin's house on Thursday night. My girls got to spend the night with Gagi at the hotel which they loved.

Friday morning Paul and Jacob relocated to the hotel and I got to spend a great day with Erin. We lunched with some bridesmaids and her mom. Wine..at lunch! We did some last minute wedding stuff and then it was off to the rehearsal (which we were slightly late for - oops)! Erin didn't warn us that the preacher was a hippie so I was slightly surprised to walk in and see him but he was great! Funny and it was the fastest rehearsal I've ever been at! Apparently we all paid attention well - even the kids! I was really worried about what Jacob was going to do but thankfully everyone was really laid back about him and was willing to just let him do whatever he was going to do. The dinner was at a great Italian restaurant and everyone had a good time. I got to spend the night at Erin's with her and her sister which was a real treat for me! I think Erin's sister thought it was a little strange that I was staying there and not the hotel but I wanted to stay with my bestie before her big day (as well as not wanting to share a room with 4 kids and 2 people who snore)!

More to come about the Big Day!!

Smitten Kitten

I got scolded over the weekend by Nana Cheryl for not blogging enough. And by scolded I mean finger in the face, SCOLDED, for not blogging. So even though I'm tired and still have laundry to put away I don't want to be scolded again so I'm at least going to write a quick post.

My BFF got married over the weekend. Oh it was fun and sweet and fun and wonderful. I really have a lot to say about it but I think I'll save some of it for material for the week. I thought I would share a little bit about Jacob and his love at first sight.

This is Amanda..Erin's sister and Maid of Honor (and also getting married in 4 weeks):

I had the pleasure of meeting Amanda years ago when I picked her up from the airport one time. This was way back in the day when you could actually wait at the airport gates. Amanda was visiting Erin for the weekend but Amandas flight got in before Erins (she was away at work) so I picked her up and we had dinner and hung out until we picked up Erin. We made signs for her so when she got off the plane she saw them. She was very embarrassed. It was funny. Anyways I digress...the kids had heard of Amanda and the older girls have talked to her on the phone but never gotten the chance to meet her until this weekend. Amanda got in Thursday night but Jacob was already in bed. He first got to meet her on Friday right before the Rehearsal Dinner. One meeting that was all it took. He took to her like I have never seen. As soon as we got to the church he wanted 'Manda. At rehearsal he ran down the aisle to 'Manda. At dinner he sat in 'Manda's lap the ENTIRE night. Poor thing even had to help him go potty.

The next day before the wedding he wanted 'Manda. And all evening at the reception he wanted 'Manda. ALL evening. Bless HER heart. And Julia, not to be left out took a liking to Amanda and her fiance Marc. God Bless HIM he held Julia all night at the reception. And she's not light.

They were both SO SO SO sweet with the two of them. Patient, kind, generous - so loving. It was so sweet and cute. I'm certain Amanda and Marc had to be sick of them but they did not show it at all. They just cuddled with them and danced with them. So sweet..so so sweet...

Livin' the Dream

Hubs and I just returned from a (way-too-fast) week getaway. Oh...it was FABULOUS. In fact, there are not enough adjectives to describe what a great time we had. The children were well taken care of (read: spoiled) by Gagi and having the peace of mind that they were doing fine did wonders. We started our adventure with an early flight to Orlando (why do all my recent adventures begin with early flights?). On tap for the day was a trip to Universal Studios Islands of Adventure. Paul lobbied hard for me to agree to this. I'm clearly Team Disney but I was curious about the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and Paul loves thrill rides. Since we didn't have the kids it seemed like the perfect time to explore this park. We arrived before lunch and were thrilled to find the park not too busy. We headed straight to Hogswart to ride the Forbidden Journey of Harry Potter. The line moved pretty quickly and it was a great ride. We then went to the Three Broomsticks for lunch where we had Butterbeer (yum!) and Pumpkin Juice (yum!). We spent some time exploring Hogsmeade and I think they did a fabulous job. We went to Honeydukes and saw chocolate frogs and Bernie Botts Every Flavour Beans. Really really cool and amazingly detailed. We toured the shops and then decided to walk around the rest of the park. Paul got to ride his thrill rides and I was glad to have the opportunity to see the park. Before we left we sampled the frozen Butterbeer and wow - that was good!! We had a great time but I'm glad we did it without the kids. I think we'll wait until they are older to take them there! After we left IOA we headed back to the hotel for a bit and then went to Downtown Disney for dinner (and shopping!). I love DD but wow was it crowded - way more crowded than Universal!

Sunday morning our next adventure began - we arrived in Port Canaveral to board the Disney Dream for a 4 night Bahamian cruise!! The Dream is the Disney's newest ship and wow is it B-I-G. And impressive. And big. And beautiful. And holds a lot of people! It's absolutely amazing. We got a good boarding group so we got on pretty early. We were eager to walk around and tour the ship and were thrilled we got up to the top deck and realized there was no line for the Aquaduck (the water-coaster that goes out over the ocean). Paul quickly put his suit on and went on the ride. He loved it! We continued our ship tour and made our way to the Enchanted Garden for lunch. It was great and then our room was ready. We were staying in an inside stateroom with a virtual porthole. The virtual porthole was really, really cool. You could turn it off at night and back on the morning and it showed real time video of what was going on outside the ship. The room was small but perfect for Paul & I. We dropped our stuff and went to explore the ship some more. It's really amazing! Of course we had to check out the kids areas and I was totally blown away. I can't wait to take our kids!! There is a playroom called Andy's Room that has kid size toys from Toy Story. Really cool! Of course we had the mandatory drill and then the Sail Away party! We had early seating for dinner and had great people sitting at our table. After dinner we played Bingo (you just have to on a cruise) and met Bingo Debra as I know call her. She was this older lady from Texas who was on her 30th cruise. She told me she always wins and Bingo. Sure enough - she won. Twice. Unfortunately her winning mojo did not rub off on me.

Monday was our first stop at Disney's Castaway Cay. This island was one of our favorite things about our last cruise and we were really looking forward to going back. It definitely did not disappoint. Without the kids we were able to see the adult areas of the beach and rent bikes to ride around. We also did a "power walk" with the cruise staff. It was really fun! Since we were porting in Castaway Cay again we headed back to the ship to ride the Aquaduck. Unfortunately a lot of other people also had this idea and the line was really long but we did enjoy the pool deck! We met up with a couple we had first met at the port so we made plans to meet up with them after dinner. We ended up hanging out with them a ton over the next 3 days and really hope that we get to cruise with them again next year! Monday night was also pirate night. Always a fun night on the ship - we saw a great show and then headed to the adult deck to watch the fireworks!

Tuesday was our day at sea. Paul made me get up early for a spin class (I wish I was kidding) before we hit the pool deck. We also got passes for the spa and spent a lot of time just relaxing. Bliss!! Tuesday night we had dinner at Palo, which is an adult only fine dining experience on the ship. It's Italian food and it was seriously one of the best meals I've had. So, so, so good! It's beautiful too - being on the top deck of the ship. When we first got up there we walked outside and there was a gorgeous rainbow over the ocean. We saw another show that night night and then spent some time in the adult only section of the boat. Seriously there is so much adult entertainment that you almost forget you are on a Disney cruise!

Wednesday we were back to Castaway Cay. We slept in but headed out to island to do some biking before lunch. We came back to the ship to get our beach gear and a huge, huge rainstorm came up! Luckily we were eating inside the restaurant! Thankfully the rain didn't last long and we headed out the very wet island in the early afternoon. Two for 1 drink specials on the island bar kept us entertained while the clouds went away and then we tried the aqua trike - which is this huge floating trike that you ride in the sea. It was not as easy as it looked and a short time with that was plenty! We had diner that night in Animator's Palate which is extremely cool and my favorite restaurant on board! That night our entertainment was "An Evening with Kermit" and it was a blast from the past with all kinds of Muppets clips! It was actually pretty fun. More fun ensued and all too soon we had to get back to our room to get ready to leave.

Debarkation day always starts way too early and comes too soon! Our breakfast call was 6:45 (ugh!) but we made it. We were glad our new friends were heading to the airport at the same time as us so we enjoyed their company for a few more hours before boarding the plane. And then we were home in what felt like the blink of an eye.

All in all a wonderful vacation! I'm so thankful and grateful for my mom and Scott for keeping the kids. I know we are tremendously lucky and blessed that they are able to do it for us. I think the kids liked having us gone a little too much!

Meet the Teacher

We've been waiting weeks for today. Weeks I tell you. I've heard this question at least 3 times a week since August 1: "But when do I start school? When? When?" To say that Julia is a little bit ready to start preschool would be an understatement. So..today was finally Meet the Teacher day. And as long as it felt like we were off for the summer walking into the preschool building today felt like we've only had a week off! We've been at our preschool going on 5 years and it just feels like home. It was nice to see so many familiar faces.

Our first session was meeting Jacob's teachers. We have one teacher that's new to us and the assistant teacher is one Emma had. He seemed pretty excited to be going to school and on the way he asked me "are you going bye bye Mommy?". I couldn't tell whether he was happy or disappointed when I said no..not today. He walked right into the classroom and right up to his teacher and gave her a hug. All on his own. Heart melted...mine and his teachers. I think he won her over right then. She seems wonderful and I know we are going to be blessed to have them as his teachers. His assistant teacher is a mother to 2 boys. Perfect.

We then went to the 4 year old hallway to meet Julia's teachers. Julias teachers are new teachers for us but her lead teacher was a parent of a child in Lily's 3 year old class (and a Disney client) and her assistant and I were in a Bible Study together. It's nice to have some history with the teachers. I was pretty impressed with all the information sent home and I really feel like Julia will be prepared for Kindergarten when she finishes this year.

So...a long weekend and then it's on!! Julia, Jacob and I are all pretty excited about Tuesday!!!

Here we go!!

Kid Free Weekend

I so meant to post this early in the week but being gone for 3 1/2 days has put me behind about 3 1/2 days so here we are..Thursday and I'm just getting around to this. When we last left off I was on a plane with a 7 year old and a grandma. I'm happy to report all ended well and the 7 year old was safely reunited with her mother and I'm assuming grandma made it to her daughter. I'm sure hoping the daughter had the "pepsi and pack of cigarettes" waiting for momma cause by the time the plane landed she was ready.

Nana Cheryl and Curtie picked me up at the airport and we headed for Erin's house where she had a delicious lunch prepared for us. I didn't have to fix anyone's plate. Or cut anyone's food. Or get up while I was eating to fix a drink. It's the little things people. We mostly just hung out at E's house Friday. She had the Geek Squad coming over to fix up her wireless network. I was all like "I can be a geek squad..I set up my router with no issues I'm sure I can do yours." Ha. We needed the Geek Squad. Apparently though we got the B Team Geek Squad because she ended up on the phone with the A Team Geek Squad nearly the entire FOUR hours she was working. She kept calling "him" her secret weapon. I was thinking more like her only weapon. Whatever..it finally got fixed and Erin is now happily web-surfing from her couch in the bonus room. We went out for sushi (!) that night and chilled. It's not every day I get up at 5:15am to get on a plane. And travel to Tampa to get to Columbus.

Saturday I got to sleep in (!) and the lazily get ready for the Wedding Shower, which was the whole reason I was in town. E had another friend, Jenna who came into town Saturday morning too for the shower. She was fun and had just seen Britney Spears the night before. She loves Jersey Shore. I knew we'd get along famously. The shower was hosted by Erin's old babysitter and her sister. It was a lovely event and I got to meet some people I've heard a lot about over the years but never actually met. Her mom helped with the decorations and Nana Cheryl is no crafty joke - her table centerpieces were adorable! The cake was OH. MY. GOODNESS. Good. Like if I never eat another cake in my life it's okay because this one was so good good. Fortunately the same baker doing E's wedding cake so we do get to eat it again. She got lots of nice gifts and a lovely time was had by all. We got sent home with loads of food and cake so the plan was to chill at home Saturday night and catch up on Jersey Shore. I know..such a wild and crazy time. There may or may not have been adult beverages consumed as well.

Sunday was another sleep in day (!). Oh the loveliness of getting up when you want. E made us a yummy breakfast casserole and I felt like royalty - sleeping in and breakfast prepared for me? Yes please! We ended up going to see The Help and having lunch with another Bridesmaid and super cool friend of Erin's Mandy. And we went to DSW to try to look for shoes for the wedding. Nana Cheryl and Curtie came to have dinner with us and then E and I went out to Target where I got to look at anything I wanted without bribing anyone to stop touching things they shouldn't. It was blissful. I had to get up at 5:15 to catch the flight home so no wild and crazy partying going on but we did stumble upon a gem of a show: Big Easy Weddings. It's about a wedding chapel in New Orleans and it did not disappoint. The 3 featured stories included a mother running into the wedding shouting "you can't marry her she's your cousin.", a couple who got married in their trailer park and wanted the wedding cake to be in the shape of a female body part and a pub crawl wedding. No..I am not lying.

All in all a super fun and totally relaxing weekend. I am VERY thankful to my husband for holding down the fort at home while I was. He even did some laundry. I know...he's a saint. He even got Jacob transitioned to a bed and worked on potty training. He's a good man. I'm pretty darn lucky.

Is it Ironic

I'm feeling a bit giddy today after spending 3 days ALL BY MYSELF with my bff in Ohio! I have a lot to say about the weekend but I'll start with a little story about getting my trip started. The weekend commenced with me flying ALL BY MYSELF to Columbus. I hadn't been on a plane solo since I worked (so like 8 1/2 years ago) so I was a bit nervous flying - I don't love, love flying. But once I got to the airport and really realized I had NO children to entertain it was all good. Me, magazines, books...all set. I was on Southwest and I had a stop but then onto to Columbus. Since I didn't have to change planes I didn't really pay attention to the itinerary so I didn't realize until I was boarding that we were going to Tampa first. Yes..Tampa FL then to Ohio. Seriously. The flight was fairly turbulent and we ended up not getting drinks because it was so rough. Needless to say I was happy to touchdown in Tampa.

We get to Tampa and I decide to move seats. I sit in the second row then leave the plane to get some much needed caffeine before the next leg of the journey. When I get back I find an older lady sitting in the window seat. She seemed nice enough but chatty. I find out in about 30 seconds that this was a. her first time flying in over 30 years. b. she was moving from FL to Ohio to live with her daughter and her 4 grandkids c. she's never left FL before and d. she needed to take some meds at 11:30am. Ooookayy. Then the flight attendant tells us to hold the middle seat for a "UM." A UM?? That's when I see the little girl being escorted on the plane. UM = Unaccompanied minor. And she's who we were holding the seat for. Nice. She was pretty chatty and very generous (she gave me stickers, offered me a lick of her lollipop and one of the 3000 Little Debbie snack cakes her grandmother had packed her). I learned she was 7 and had been at her grandmas for 3 weeks. She was going home to start school and her older brothers called her names. I also found out that 7 years olds in Ohio and 7 years old in NC pretty much like the same things: sparkles, peace signs and iCarly. She asked me all kinds of questions about my kids but I think the one that takes the cake: "What cloud does God live on?" Finally the flight attendant brought her an activity pack that occupied her for about 45 seconds and then she mercifully fell asleep with about 30 minutes to go. Me, solo flight, chatty grandma, chatty 7 year old = irony.

Sometimes They Do Pay Attention

Yesterday afternoon Julia had her first soccer practice (it was totally adorable and except for a small shoe malfunction she had a great time and I'll talk more about it in a future blog post). So Julia wanted "the whole family" to come watch her play. I guess she's been dragged around to enough events that she wanted her turn of people coming to watch her. So she's out doing her soccer thing which left me, Paul, Emma, Lily and Jacob on the sidelines. Paul promptly sat down in his chair and pulled out his phone and didn't move for the next hour. He claims he looked up a few times but whatever. Jacob was fine - he just played around and climbed through the bleachers annoying all sorts of people. The girls however were a different story. They whined the whole time. It's hot! I'm bored! I'm hungry! Why do we have to be here? Take me to the park? For an hour. Fun times. Anyways..finally it was over. So we get to the car and the request was made to get ice cream. Paul and I decided, much to the kids dismay, that we were not getting ice cream..the girls were just too annoying to reward them with ice cream. Well, as you can imagine, this didn't go over well and more whining commenced. But eventually they got over it and all was quiet in the car. Then Lily says this:

Lily: Mom..I think you need to show us grace

Me: What? What do you mean?

Lily: Grace is when you give someone something they don't deserve and well we don't deserve ice cream but you should give us grace and let us have some anyway.

She's been learning about grace at church this month and I was stunned to hear this come out of her mouth. It just makes me so happy to know she does pay attention (sometimes) and that lessons sink in!!

By the way - I didn't give into the ice cream but I did let them have one oreo cookie when we got home..I felt like that was enough grace extended.

Thank Goodness We Were the Only Ones There

It's FINALLY not 100 degrees outside so we took the rare opportunity to go the park this morning with some dear friends that have been on vacation and are finally back. She is also a mother of 4 including one very active 4 year old boy. One thing I learned early on in my motherhood that boys enjoy peeing outside. I have a friend in MA who's son would pee everywhere outside (sorry L but that's one I thing I won't forget about J) including the front yard, the park, etc. And my friends son is no different. Which bring us to today. We're at the park and most thankfully it's just us and our 6 kids at the park. Her sweet 2 year old had a potty accident which naturally sparked a potty conversation. Her son decided he also needed to go and promptly walked over the fence and "peed in the garden." (She said he's picked up some British words including calling all yards type areas gardens - I find that hysterical). Jacob thought this was hilarious. He kept laughing. And then. Then I noticed Jacobs diaper lying on the ground. I get up from the bench and I see him, with his pants pulled down "peeing in the garden." I couldn't decide whether I needed to scold him or praise him for actually trying not to pee in his diaper. Geez....As I relayed the story to my husband via text. He sends back this: Thats my boy. Seriously?

In Which I Almost Have A Heart Attack

This morning began like any typical school morning. Kids getting dressed, eating breakfast, getting school stuff ready. All was going just swimmingly until I heard this: "Mom..you gotta get upstairs. NOW. Jacob has scissors in his head." Wha..Wha..WHAT?? I'm thinking as I dash upstairs all the while thinking how loud to I have to yell so that my neighbor will call 911 for me. Thankfully when I get upstairs I see Jacob with scissors IN his hair. As in tangled in his hair. Apparently he thought he needed a haircut. OH. MY. GRACIOUS. HE. IS. GOING. TO. BE. THE. END. OF. ME.

Rewind a few minutes...Jacob goes upstairs. I figured he was just getting something for his pockets. You know how he is. He's quiet for a minute which is not extremely unusual. Then I hear him start to cry. Again, not extremely unusual and not blood curling screams..just cries. After a minute or two (or five) I send Lily up to investigate (I know..mother of year) which brings us to : "Mom...you gotta get upstairs. NOW. Jacob has scissors in his head." Apparently Jacob had decided while he was eating breakfast (?) that he needed a haircut. So...he went upstairs to my bathroom and got Paul's clipper set from underneath the bathroom counter. He found the scissors and put them up to his hair to try to cut it. Thankfully (oh so very, very thankfully) he doesn't know how to use scissors and they got caught in his hair before any damage was done. Seriously all this happened in about 5 minutes. I guess Paul needs to cut his hair this weekend. And...so very, very thankful....at least he didn't try to cut his sisters hair. I hope I make it to his 3rd birthday.

So Ready

It was a tough day for my sweet 4 year old. Her sisters started school on Monday so she's been feeling a little lonely for a couple days. And then today, our precious neighbor started Kindergarten which was apparently devastating to Julia. She sobbed all morning because she didn't get to go to Kindergarten and she didn't get to ride the bus. And then she wailed all afternoon in true Potter-girl dramatic fashion about why wasn't she old enough to go Kindergarten and when would preschool ever start again. "What day mommy, what exact day am I ever going to school??" "I am ready to go to school Mommy."

Bless her heart. I'm ready too. This is the preschool break that will not end. Perhaps its the anticipation that Jacob starts too which is dragging out this summer vacation business. Or perhaps it's that preschool ended, the girls still had a month of school, they had their month off and now they are back in school and preschool is still out. I'm really not trying to rush it - once preschool starts it seems like the fall goes by in the blink of an eye and that I don't want to rush it. I think we're just starting to get a little tired of each other and it's just been too darn hot to be outside.

I dd feel a little sorry for my girl today though and I'm sure preschool will be here before we know it. And when she's in middle school waking up at the crack of dawn every day I'm going to remind her how she couldn't wait to start school.

Going Green

If I'm honest, we recycle around this house but until recently that's about as "green" as we got. Sure, I have 500 reusable tote bags (of course..I love a tote bag) I just never remember to actually use them. If I get them from the house to the car I rarely remember to take them from the car actually into the store. But that's a changing...the Potter's are Going Green.

Goal 1. Reducing lunch box waste..I have 2 kids who I pack lunch and snack for almost every day. And 2 more who generally get at least 1 snack a day packed for them. I'm almost ashamed to admit to the number of ziplock bags I've used just in the last year. So this year I'm making this change a priority. I got some Fit & Fresh reusable containers and some cute reusable snack bags (you can see some super cute ones here). So far this is a pretty easy thing and the girls love getting their food in little containers. I just hope they remember not the throw them away!

Goal 2: Cloth napkins. Oh this is fun because I made my own! That's right...Martha Stewart..watch out. I have never sewed but I've been wanting to for years. A couple years ago a sweet friend gave me a sewing machine and it turns out it works great. Thanks to Nana Cheryl who got me started and my awesome neighbor for the encouragement I made my own napkins. For the kids I went to Joann's and picked out some fun fabrics for each of them. For other napkins I bought some fabulous pre-cut 12x12 squares at Michael's and stitched them together. They are a little smaller than some napkins but they work great for us and I LOVE the fabrics.

Goal 3: Remember and use my reusable shopping bags. I've got a couple in the car but I'm going to try to be much more diligent about using them and trying to reduce the number of plastic bags I get.

Starting small with 3 manageable goals. I'd love to at some point get a compost bin - I think it would be great to have the kids help with it. We are planning some really cool "green" initiatives at school this year so hopefully the kids will keep us on our toes at home too. It's good to be green.

Twas the Night Before School Started

I originally posted this poem 3 short years ago when Emma first started Kindergarten. Tomorrow she starts 3rd Grade. 3rd Grade. 333rrrddd Grade. Pinch me because, seriously, how is that possible?? 3rd Grade means desks, EOG's (end of grade testing), multiplication and cursive. Oh. My. Goodness. Where does time go?? And. Lily? She starts 2nd grade. Which means, sniff, that I don't even have a kid down the K/1 hallway at school this year..sniff...sniff.

Emma is super excited to finally be starting school tomorrow - you'd think she's been out for 4 months instead of 4 weeks. Lily, on the other hand, would be thrilled with 4 more weeks of vacation. But..I know they'll be excited to go in the morning and see their new teachers and reconnect with friends.

So...big day tomorrow for 2 of my kids...and since tomorrow is August 1 it means only 4 more weeks until the other 2 start preschool. Catch that - other 2 start preschool - as in both Julia and Jacob....where oh where does time go??

Under the Sea

Emma and Lily have spent their last week of summer vacation at a music/arts camp at our church. I was thrilled when I first heard about this camp and knew I wanted to sign them up. They'd go learn about God, do arts and crafts, games and learn a musical that they'll be performing at the weekend services. Sounded like VBS with a little more. Sign us up. I was even more thrilled when I found out that if I volunteered to help at the weekend services we'd get a discount. I need to be there anyway for the kids so might as well help. The camp was for rising 2nd thru 6th graders and a few weeks before the camp they held auditions for actors, singers and a dance team. Emma was thrilled about auditioning for the dance team. The auditions were very professional - I mean each kid got a head shot taken. Emma was thrilled to find out a couple weeks later that she made the dance team! Needless to say she's been looking forward to camp for weeks. Lily, on the other hand, was a little more hesitant about it. Her bff was going to do the camp with her but at the last minute her plans changed so I think she was a little nervous about going.

Camp has turned out to be more than I expected! The girls have had a wonderful time. Each day that I've picked them up they've had huge smiles on their faces and they have only wonderful things to say about their day. I'm so thankful!! Today they had a long day of camp and a full dress rehearsal. They are both so excited about their performances this weekend! I know I can't wait to see it! Should be a very fun weekend!

My IronKid

Iron-kids ath-lete (noun): an athletic rock-star who has fun while swimming, biking and running

Swim 50 yards, Bike 2 miles, Run 500 yards. That was how one of my girls spent her Sunday morning. Did I mention she's 7! And..she just started riding a 2 wheeler in April. Seriously this kid rocks and inspires me so. She's so cool.

I can not describe how proud I am of her. She had a great time at the triathlon and that's whats most important. She totally rocked her swim - coming in 3rd in her age group and totally killed the run - coming in 2nd in her age group and 12th overall for all the Juniors (ages 6 - 8). For a kid who's only been riding a 2 wheeler for a few months she did awesome on the bike too. I mean, just to have the courage and confidence to compete - wow...just wow. It helped that 2 of her friends were competing too - I think that just added to the fun. She's hooked on races now and can't wait to do another tri. The 8 year old was beside herself that she didn't compete so watch out - we'll have two Ironkids next year!

Summer Fun

We're into our 2nd week of everyone home for their summer break and it was a good one. Lily has spent the week at Camp Gagi getting spoiled and pampered as only Gagi can do. They had a busy, busy schedule that Lily mapped out early in the week (she's all about a list or a chart). I think they went everywhere possible on the Grand Strand and more. As my mom noted: Lily's more into shopping than anything else. Ah..that's my girl! No telling what kind of treasurers she's going to come home with. She'll be home on Monday and the house will explode in noise and activity!

Those of us at home had a nice week. Emma and her bff, Meri, had a sleepover which was great. This little girl is so sweet, quiet (!) and helpful. They could not have been nicer to each other and just generally seemed to have a great time. We had a few other play dates and a pool date with good friends. We took all the kids to see Rio at the $1.50 Theater. We ended up going on Tuesday which was a total score because popcorn and drinks were a $1.00. So we all went (all 6 of us) for $15. We might just go back next week too! We loved Rio - seriously, what a cute movie and great music!

All in all a good summer week! School supply shopping will be on our agenda this week - two more weeks and we're back in!!

The Day They Slept In

It happened! It actually happened! For reals. They ALL (well all 3 that are at home - one is at Camp Gagi) slept past 8:00. In fact, it was - get this - 8:30 when the first child arose for the day. 8 freaking 30. That might as well be noon. Seriously. I think this is the first time that all the kids slept in on the same day. Sure one or 2 might occasionally get up later - later being past 8am but never, ever have all the kids done it on the same day. We've had a pretty few rough nights of sleep so it was much needed.

So Thank You dear children - let's just hope this sets the tone for a great rest of the day.

Summer Reading List

Summer's here and I always have a burning desire to read during the summer. So..I'm sharing my list - what I've just read and what's on my bookshelf. What about you? What are you reading??

Lies That Chelsea Handler Told Me - I love Chelsea Handler. She just cracks me up. This book cracked me up too. I can't believe the crap she tells people that they believe. No wonder she's done so well for herself.

The Hunger Games Trilogy - LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this. Love it...I read the first book in about a day. Same for the second and thankfully my very intuitive neighbor brought me the 3rd book as I was literally on the last page of the 2nd book. It's a young adult book and very, very good.

Dead Reckoning - The latest Sookie Stackhouse book..this is the books True Blood is based on. I love this series.

Smokin Seventeen - The latest Stephanie Plum book - I'm like 500th on the waiting list from the library. I love Stephanie (and Morelli) (and Ranger) so I'm looking forward to her newest adventure

Holidays on Ice - This David Sedaris book is my book club pick. I hear he's super funny and it's a short book. Perfect when you have 4 kids running around the house all day.

Heaven is for Real - I heard an interview with this family on the radio and I'm fascinated to read this book.

Sisterhood Everlasting - This is the next book in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series by Ann Brashares. I know it's for teens but I loved the series.

Then Came You - Jennifer Weiner's newest book. It's not out until next week but I love her and can't wait t read this book.

Sarah's Key - My bff recommended this book and she has great taste so it's on my t0-read list

If You Were Here - I read this about a month ago -and then I won a copy of it in a random blog giveaway! This book is Jen Lancaster's first foray into fiction and it does not disappoint. I am a HUGE Jen Lancaster fan so it would be hard to disappoint me but I laughed out loud while reading this book. A lot.

The First Husband - and speaking of Jen Lancaster, she recommended this book on her blog so it's on my list.

Stories I Only Tell My Friends - Rob Lowe's autobiography. Enough said.

Bossypants - Tina Fey. I hear it's hysterical.

Your turn..what else should I read?

Summer's Here

We (finally) finished our school year last Thursday and now we're officially on summer break until August 1! Yay!

We kicked off our summer vacation with our first swim meet last Thursday. Our 'hood is starting up a team (omg..is it some kind of work) and the season culminated in an intra-squad meet last week. We got rained out on the scheduled day (seriously it hadn't rained in weeks until then) so we had to reschedule for Thursday. All 3 of my girls participated in the swim team and it was a fabulous experience for all of them. Emma and Lily learned all the strokes and had a great time doing it. Julia learned so much too and finished the season swimming all by herself! The girls did awesome in the meet too. Emma and Lily both won the main heat freestyles for their age groups therefore setting the pool records! And Julia won her heat in the freestyle. Emma won her heats in breaststroke and butterfly and came in 4th in backstroke! Lily did great too getting ribbons in backstroke and breaststroke! Julia got ribbons for those two. All in all a wonderful experience and we can't wait until next year when we are competing against other teams!

Friday morning we headed to the beach for a couple days to see mom and enjoy some beach time. My aunt and cousin were down too and we all had fun hanging out and playing! Unfortunately Paul had to get back to work (boo) so we came back Monday afternoon.

This week we've hanging out reading, playing and working on PTA stuff. Year round schools never get a break! We have Open House tomorrow where the girls find out their teachers for next year. Exciting! Next week Lily is headed to Camp Gagi for the week which she couldn't be more excited about. Hopefully we can all enjoy the downtime!

7 Years Ago

Seven (short..oh so short) years ago we were blessed with the arrival of our 2nd beautiful daughter..Lily Grace. It all started after playing this long, frustrating waiting game that began a week earlier where I called the hospital to see if they'd induce me and they'd say - oh, we're really full today - call back later. After about 6 days of this I was literally about to strangle someone my doctor told me to come in that she'd find room to induce me. She didn't want me to risk having to wait until after her July 4th vacation. I remember being on the way to the hospital and stopping for Wendy's because I wanted to eat before I got the IV and they cut me off. I also remember Paul saying.."are you sure you want to be induced - if you wait until July 4th her birthday would be 7/4/04" I remember throwing a large object at his head. (Men: please note - do not ever, ever suggest to an overdue pregnant lady that they wait another 4 days to have the baby..especially in the middle of the summer).

We got the hospital in the early afternoon and by 2ish they had me set up on the IV and the antibiotics. Sometime later that afternoon I got the pictocin to start the labor. I remember the nurse saying that the dr said I could have the epidural whenever I wanted so I took full advantage - the first time I felt some discomfort I suggested she go ahead and call for it..you just never know how long those docs will take. He didn't take long but I don't remember feeling any contractions. Her labor was pretty easy as far as labors go and at 7:31 pm our little bit was born.

The hospital was not that great - I remember being wheeled to our room and a prison guard was outside one door. The nurse then tried to tell me that Paul couldn't stay the night because I might get a roommate. I then had a complete mental breakdown and she must have felt real sorry for me because she brought Paul some bedding and said he could stay. We left that hospital as soon as the pedi said we could go.

It's been an adventure with her ever since. A super smiley baby, a very spunky toddler, a spirited preschooler and now a sassy seven year old second grader. She's always loved accessories - she's had a purse since she could walk and now she's a peace sign loving fashionista who I couldn't love any more! I expect there to be many more adventures ahead with her! Happy Birthday Pooh Bear!!

Ch..ch..changes

For the past few weeks whenever Jacob wakes up he screams "Daddy" and then "Daddy get me" and then "DDAADDYYY GET ME UP" Loudly. Very loudly. Add this to the fact that he climbs in the crib all the time we've been discussing the thought of setting up the toddler bed for him. I long live by the philosophy that kids (especially toddlers) should remain in the crib as long as humanly possible but the incessant early morning screaming is about to send me over the edge. And I really don't like how Jacob routinely dives into his crib headfirst.

Sooo...while I was at the swim meet with the girls Saturday morning Paul and Jacob set up the toddler bed in his room. When we got home from the pool Jacob was very excited to tell us about the big boy bed. He told me "it's so cool." So I spent some time that afternoon redoing his room. I figured if he had that much freedom I needed to take out the "climbing wall" aka changing table and add a basket of toys for him. Paul hasn't taken out the crib just yet - we wanted to make sure this was going to work before taking it down. But so far it's OK. He got out of bed once Saturday night but he did nap OK so we'll see how it goes.

This is the first time in nearly 8 1/2 years that we don't have a crib up in the house! And we'll be getting rid of the crib instead of saving it for another kid (after being moved to 4 different houses and 8 kids it's on it's last leg. Not to mention it's a drop down crib which is apparently now evil). I think I'm a little sentimental about it...sniff...sniff....Ch..ch...changes....moving on the next stages of life....

The Lollipop Shop!

My middle girl turns 7 this week and we celebrated her birthday over the weekend at the Lollipop Shop. She's been celebrating her birthday for about a week already and we still have a few days to go. And if anyone asks how old she is she already tells them she's 7. Sigh. She can't wait to get older. Anyways this girl loves, loves candy and I was looking for fun birthday party locations (after doing many home parties I've decided that going out for parties is the way to go and Totally. Worth. It.) and The Lollipop Shop sprang to mind. So we went over to North Hills to check it out and she loved it. It's a pretty small place so we had to keep her guest list smaller than she would have liked but it worked out great. We had a few school friends, some neighbors and a couple sweet girls.

It was a great location. I can not say enough good things about the shop or the girl who led our birthday party. She was a sweet teenager with a ton of patience for 6 year olds! The girls did some coloring pages while waiting for all the guest. Then they did a sandy candy craft. Then it was the main event - picking a stuffed animal and stuffing it with candy! Then we had our peace sign cookie cake and Lily even had a little time to open her gifts which she was thrilled about.

Overall a super fun way to celebrate turning 7!!

Big Weekend

Phew...it's 9:54 on Sunday night and I feel like I'm just sitting down for the first time this weekend! Friday we kicked off the busy weekend with Lily's "Aloha to 1st Grade Luau." It was a super cute celebration and I'm so thankful Paul was around so I could volunteer. She was super thrilled to get a playdate with bff after school too! Emma rushed home from school to get ready for her big weekend activity - The Zoo Snooze! Her Brownie troop went to the NC Zoo for a special overnight trip as a cookie selling reward. Emma absolutely loved it. Pretty much she loves any activity that involves sleeping away from home but this was especially cool. They had a program, learned about nocturnal animals and made a bat house (that is apparently supposed to reside in our backyard??) and generally had a great time with her friends. I'm so happy that she loved it and so thankful for the moms to went with them!

Saturday morning we were up bright and early for our last swim time trial. All the girls are swimming our new neighborhood team. It's been so exciting to see how much they've learned over the course of the last 5 weeks. Julia swam the whole 15 yards unassisted on 2 of her races - she was so excited. After the time trial we came home to get ready for Lily's 7th Birthday Party!! She requested a "Peace Sign Cookie Cake" which was easy peasy (especially considering some of her cake requests). I'll do a separate post on her party but it was super fun and she loved it!

I opened the door after getting home from the party and saw a huge bouquet of flowers on the kitchen counter. I was a bit confused at first because they were GORGEOUS and HUGE and it wasn't my birthday, anniversary, Mother's Day or any holiday. And Paul and I weren't fighting so it couldn't be apology flowers. And it was far more than "I just stopped by Whole Foods and got these pretty flowers" that Paul brings home every once in a blue moon. I notice there's a card and let me tell you - I was blown away...My sweet, wonderful, thoughtful and incredibly generous PTA board ladies sent me this bouquet and sweetest note. I think I've said how much I love those girls and seriously I do. They make the PTA fun and eventful (in a good way) and easy and I'm delighted to work with them again. It just made my day and they still smell so fragrant and lovely and I'm so spoiled.

The girls had a great friend spend the night last night. So everyone was up late. Again. We had church this morning, lunch to return our friend and then Emma had dance team auditions for a musical she's doing at church. And then we went to our friends to celebrate their daughter's baptism. They also have 4 kids (3 of their kids are the exact ages of 3 of ours) and we all had a blast. It was a wonderful reason to celebrate and it was really fun for the kids. And they were all completely exhausted by the time we got home.

Thankfully the kids fell asleep pretty easy tonight. It's going to be a big week - last 4 days of school, field day, swim meet, Lily's birthday and swim team awards night. But then...then...vacation!!!

The Things They Say...

Yesterday was a real gem of funny things in our house. Here are a few things that made me laugh out loud:

Emma really wanted to make cupcakes (??) so I told her to find a recipe and we could make them. Paul was totally procrastinating some work and offered to help her. He wasn't down with homemade frosting so they decided to run up to Walmart to get some canned stuff. Emma was wearing pajama pants and said.."it's Ok if I got to Walmart in pajamas." Paul said "yep..we're going to be with our people." Thankfully they did not end up on peopleofwalmart.com...yet.

At dinner we were talking about Jacob getting older and Emma said this winner:

Emma (8): Can you imagine Jacob at 3? I imagine it's going to be a wild time.

Me too kid...me too.

And...as I was putting Jacob to bed I told him I love him. He said to me: "I love you too. But I love Daddy more." Thanks dude...thanks a lot.

Bittersweet

My baby is growing up. It's so bittersweet. I sometimes look at this toddler..full of words and expressions (like "you old dude") and think who are you? Where is my bald headed baby? How did nearly 3 years pass in what feels like a blink of an eye? How are you walking, talking, running, trying to swim and I missed it? Or at least it feels like it. Do you always think of your youngest child as "the baby"?

My baby is starting to potty train and we're seriously contemplating taking down his crib soon (his incessant screaming for someone to get him up at 6:30 is about to send me over the edge). And as much as I look forward to the next chapter (preschool? Yes please!) It's still bittersweet to have your baby growing up. I suppose any time you leave one stage it feels this way. No worries - I'm not emotional enough to actually have another baby or anything crazy like that...just thinking about how much he's growing up!

Five for Friday

It's been a while since I posted so here's what we've been up to:

1. Swim team is going swimmingly. The girls love it! Our coach is awesome and they've had a ton of fun! They've all 3 learned so much it's amazing. I'm so proud of how hard they've worked. And I'm eternally grateful that Julia can swim.

2. Lily has started referring to herself as "Lollipop." I don't know why either.

3. Jacob has begun calling everyone "old lady" and "old man". As in "get me some milk you old lady." Or worse, in Walmart "Mom..who's that old lady?" Have I mentioned his volume is loud and louder?

4. Speaking of the little monster - I've stopped having so many panic attacks at the pool with him. He continues to amaze me with his fearlessness. I just keep reminding myself that perhaps this is how Michael Phelps started.

5. 9 more days of school for the big girls! I still can't get over how fast the year is going. But alas, even with no school there is still loads of PTA work to be done. No break for the year round.

And that about sums it up.

The Proposal

Emma (8) noticed in Sundays Target that there is a new Dork Diaries (book) coming out.  She immediately asked to drive to Target right then to get it. First, I told her the book wasn't available until Tuesday and then I asked her how she was going to earn the book.  She looked a little puzzled about this news and then said.."I will do stuff around the house."  Thinking this vague answer would suffice and the book would be waiting for her afterschool.  Like what "stuff" I asked?  Clearly she wasn't expecting this and she said you know, extra chores.  Like what exactly?  I told her to think about and write down what she could to earn the book.  I had sort of forgotten about it.  Until tonight when she brought this down.  Her proposal to earn a book.  It made me laugh so I thought I'd share.

Top Ten Tuesday

Top ten things I'm looking forward to this summer:

1. Less driving around to activities

2. Lots of pool fun with the kiddos

3. The Beach!

4. No waiting for an hour and half with Jacob while girls dance and do gymnastics

5. 45 minutes on Wed when Jacob an Julia are both in gymnastics classes

6. No jackets

7. Way less socks to wash

8. Eating more ice cream/frozen yogurt/popsicles

9. Cheap movies on summer mornings

10. One month off from taking kids to school!

Top Ten Things that sort of suck about summer:

1. Coming home from the pool and the wet towels and bathing suits x 6 people

2. More laundry - i.e. pool towels

3. Air conditioning bills

4. Sticking to the car seats because it's so freaking hot

5. Being too hot to be outside

6. Sunscreening up 4 kids, daily

7. 12 weeks of Julia asking when she goes back to school

8. Kids that wake up earlier than when school is in

9. Daily heart attacks from Jacob being super dare devil at the pool

10. Sweating just from going to get the mail.

We Built This City

Save The Last Dance For Me

Emma Taps

Fame

Today was Emma's dance recital, Fame. She was so so excited about it! She loves to dance and she was excited to perform and show off her super sparkly outfit. She takes a tap/ballet/jazz combo classes so she had 3 dances plus the finale to perform. She did awesome! You can just tell how much she loves to dance. We couldn't be prouder of her effort and dedication!!

My mom couldn't make it up for the performance but she graciously bought us a video camera so we could record it for her (thanks mom!). Though I'm sure she's sad she missed it live she won't be overly sorry when she finds out it was 45 numbers and 2 1/2 hours and we had Jacob with us. I know..what were we thinking? He was great the first hour but after that it was hit or miss. Thankfully (?) we knew the people in front of us though I'm sure they were wishing we were sitting elsewhere. However we survived and Em's smile afterward made it all worthwhile.

One Down, Two to Go

Julia finished up her second year of preschool last week. I honestly can't believe how quickly the year flew by. I mean for reals. It feels like she just started and now it's over. She had a great year. We had the same teachers that Lily had when she was 3 and we love, love them. Only one more year until Jacob gets them too! They did some fun things last week to wrap up the year including a cutie Spring Sing and picnic. I will post some pics soon.

I'm not sure she completely understands this summer vacation business. Perhaps it's because her older sisters have always been in year round schools. She asks at least a couple times a day when does she get to go back to school. When I told her today it would be 3 whole months she replied: "Well, I don't really want to go back to preschool, can't I just go right to Kindergarten?" Sweet thing.

So...one summer vacation on and 2 to go! The older girls still have 4 weeks until their next break. But..it's such a freaking sauna outside they might as well be in school!

Cracking Me Up

When he's not defying death by climbing in and out of his crib or trying to "swim by my own" the 2 year old is VERY funny. Now that he's talking so much he cracks me up on a nearly hourly basis. Here's some funnies from this morning:

Me getting Jacob up in the morning:

Me: Good morning Jake

Him: My name not Jake, it's Jacob..Jakey Potter

A few seconds later:

Him: Get some some cereal you old lady

In the car:

Me: We're going to go to TJ Maxx to look for a cover up and we can see if they have torpedos for the pool

Him: They at Target. Torpedoes not at TJ Maxx..have to go to Target. Go there now!

A few seconds later:

Him: After errands we go to my Juju's preschool..I go on tire swing. I be careful and hang on tight. It be fun.

I could not love this kid more!!

Surprise!

Last Thursday evening I was cleaning up after dinner when my sister in law showed up. My husband had said she was coming over after her Pilate's class to visit. Seemed random, but it's Michelle so you just go with it. She'd been there for a few minutes and she asked me to look over some travel documents for her boss. I thought that was odd but whatever so I took a peak at what she had. What she had contained a Boarding Pass with MY name on it bound for LaGuardia the very next morning! As in 12 hours from that point! I look up in disbelief and Paul says "surprise we're going to NYC!" I'm all like "What? Why? Huh??" Just total shock. "What about the kids?" He says he's got it covered - Michelle is keeping the kids and he's made all these arrangements to get the kids to/from their various activities. It was quite impressive actually and how he kept it all a secret - super impressive! He even left a list of the doughnuts the kids like for "Donut Saturday." I spent the next few hours walking around shocked and busy and mentally preparing to leave my brood for 3 days! It took some time for this control freak momma to get excited - I was just totally overwhelmed and then Lily with her black eye had a meltdown about not wanting to go to school and my heart broke. And Paul reminded me that it would all be OK. And we love NYC. It's where we got engaged. It's where he took me on another surprise trip before we had kids. It's one of our special places.

We got up at dark o'clock to get the airport and our flights were easy and on time. When we got to the city our room wasn't ready yet - we got to stay at the Waldorf Astoria (yay for a traveling husband who racks up hotel/air points like crazy! This is definitely a perk of his job)! We dropped off our bag and headed out to walk around. I love being able to walk places in the city. We've been several times so I'm pretty comfortable being able to navigate around. We were starving so we went to Carnegie Deli (so touristy I know but the sandwiches are good and big) and shared a sandwich and chatted with a nice couple from Baton Rouge. We went to Times Square and window shopped and went into some of the fun stores around there. My mom also happened to be in NYC to visit my brother so we were trying to figure out meeting up with them. We went to the TKTS booth to theater tickets - we ended up with Sat matinee tickets for Avenue Q. Friday night we met up with my mom, brother and sister in law at at Brazilian restaurant. It was very good and not somewhere we'd normally pick. After dinner we had expensive cocktails (compliments of the Waldorf) at the hotel (seriously the drinks were between $18 - $20!).

Saturday morning we got going pretty early. We went to American Girl Place for the girls and got them a treat. That store is a little overwhelming! The girls! The dolls! The money rolling into that place! We walked around and found Sprinkles bakery - apparently the bakery that started all the cupcake interest. The original is in LA but they had just opened one in NYC. We had the best cupcakes ever. Our favorite was the Salty Caramel. Oh. My. Goodness. We went to our show which was really funny. And the walked a lot more. Paul had done a bit of research before our trip including looking up food trucks. He had 3 he really wanted to find so we walked a lot on Saturday to see if we could find one. No luck but we had a lovely walk and stumbled upon some cool places! We met up with my family again for dinner. We had drinks at some bar and then had dinner at Rosa Mexicana. Seriously the best Mexican I have ever eaten. The Sangria came in this little pitcher - it was so good. They made guacamole table side and it was the best stuff ever. Such a fun night! It was really fun to spend time with my brother without the kids around - I can't remember the last time that happened!

Sunday we woke up to rain but we didn't let that stop our fun. We went to Sprinkles again and decided to walk to a different part of the city - Union Square to see a movie. We saw Bridesmaids and absolutely loved it. So freaking funny. Go see it! I had remembered that Survivor was filming at the David Letterman theater Sunday night so we walked by there trying to stalk some Survivors but sadly I did not run into Boston Rob or Amber or Russell or Crazy Phillip. The day went by fast and we had to go to the airport.

Our flight was due to depart around 7pm. It took no time to get to the airport so we had plenty of time once we got through security (interesting note - in RDU every passenger was going through the body scanner. At LGA? No body scanners in the US Airways terminal.). We checked the boards and everything was on time. We went to grab some dinner and in the 30 minutes we were eating apparently all hell broke loose and when we checked the board on the way to the gate flights were getting delayed and cancelled like crazy. We checked on my phone when we actually got the gate and it didn't take long to realize we weren't going to make our connection. We ended up getting rebooked on a direct flight to RDU that wasn't going to leave until 9:40. To make long story shorter we didn't take off until 1am, landing at RDU at 2:15am! Crazy! But I was glad to get home to my babies.

It was a wonderful weekend! The weather, while cool and sort of gray was perfect - no sweating! I can't thank my husband enough for going through the effort to make some time for ourselves and planning the trip. I can't thank my sister in law and mother in law enough for their help with the kids. And I can't thank my friends enough who helped out in pulling off the surprise! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! xoxo

How Long Before Child Services Calls?

It's pretty sad when the children's ER doctor starts to recognize you. Just ask my husband who has been 2 times in as many months. I'm sure we all remember Jacob and The Clipboard Incident of 2011. Today it was Lily's turn. We'll call it the See Saw Incident of 2011. Here's how it all went down and how I totally lost my Mother of Year badge for the 1000th time this year.

It was about 2:20 and I was on the phone booking a Disney vacation for a fabulous client. We'd already been disconnected once (darn you Sprint) so we were chatting on the house phone. My cell phone starts ringing but I ignore it (and here's where I lose the badge). I notice the number looks like it could be school but I get calls from school all the time that PTA related. So I figure I'll finish with Wendi and call back since they left a message. Then my house phone beeps but I'm on the phone. It's a business call so I ignore that too. And then The Text comes from Paul. "On my way to school. Lily had an accident" I get all flustered and become completely unprofessional and tell the client - oh my goodness can I call you back? Thankfully she has kids and I think understood my panic. All I could think about was how much Lily loves the monkey bars and that for sure it was broken arm. I call Paul and he doesn't know anything - just that she got hit in or near the eye. At first the teacher said it was a bad bruise then said go ahead and come get her. So off he went. Thank God he was in town. Thank God he was just having an office day. Thank God he answered his phone in his office, which he doesn't always do. I tell him to call me as soon as he knows something. So I call Wendi back and Bless Her Heart she's so understanding and we get her trip booked. Paul calls me and says he's talked to our next door neighbor The Doctor (Thank God for him!) and was advised to take her to the ER. He tells me she looks bad and that the eye is nearly swollen shut. I panic. Start blubbering about will she go blind, will she ever see again. And Paul calmly says she'll be fine..she can see...just making sure but she'll be fine. Thank God he's the calm one. I get to school to get Emma and Paul sends a text that she's fine. Just a surface wound. Phew....Thank God. The sweet teacher running carpool asked how she was and when Emma got in the car she knew Lily had an accident but didn't really know the extent of what had happened. She was mildly concerned for her sister. But then at dinner kept saying she needed an eye patch. Nice.

Paul gave Lily some TLC this afternoon while I was at gymnastics and dance with the other girls. When I got home I finally got to see The Eye. Great heavens is it Swollen! Purple! Black! Blue! I haven't seen that many shades of purple and blue since I watched Saturday Night Fever. It's quite swollen but otherwise she's in good spirits. She got a goody bag at the hospital so I pretty much think that made the whole thing worth it for her. I finally got to ask her what happened. Apparently she and 2 friends were playing with (not on) the see saw and someone hit it a little too hard and Lily was in the wrong place at the wrong time and got nailed right above the eye. Who knew see saws were such enemies.

Mothers Day

I hope all my wonderful mom friends had an great Mothers Day - full of things you love and people you love! My family had the day very special starting off with Paul making Red Velvet Pancakes for breakfast! Yummy! He makes pancakes most Sunday mornings but he surprised me with Red Velvet ones yesterday. We headed off to church early (the volunteering doesn't end) and afterwards we went to a great lunch at Georgina's. I love that place because a. it has great garlic knots and most importantly b. it's never that busy and I don't have to worry so much about the kids making too much noise. We sat outside, beside another family of 6 so no worries on the loud factor. After we got home Jacob napped and the girls told me to go upstairs where I holed myself in my room reading and watch Mad Men season 3 on DVD. Oh it was lovely! The girls were putting together a special dessert and wanted to surprise me. I was happy to oblige! After nap we went strawberry picking where Jacob keep sneaking off to eat berries. I'm sure there are still some in his pockets. After berry picking we had a pre-dinner treat at The Skinny Dip frozen yogurt - free for moms! Then we went home played outside and Paul grilled steaks for dinner. A great day!!

What a week!

Whew...it's been a week. You know those weeks where you have 10 million things to do and remember and places to be. And you are just so thankful when Friday rolls around because even though Saturday is packed with running around at least you don't have to pack lunches. One of those weeks. It's been a fun week. Just busy.

It was Teacher Appreciation Week at our elementary school so we had things to remember to do every day for the teachers. We also "adopted" a non-classroom teacher so we had to remember her each day too. The PTA planned some really fun things for our teachers like breakfast, hand massages, mini-manicures, decorating staff bathrooms, a cinco de mayo party, an Appreciation Squad event and luncheon. It was all tons of fun and I think the teachers really appreciated all we did for them. The Cinco de Mayo party was lots of fun - we served non-alcoholic margaritas in the lounge along with all kinds of chips and salsa. The only complaint I heard was that there was no tequila in the margarita's! Ha! We also had a Volunteer Luncheon where the teachers made food for all the volunteers. They are some good cooks! It was delicious. We also had Kindergarten Orientation last evening so I had to be there to talk for a minute about PTA. It was so cute to see the little ones coming to school next year. I can't believe that next year I will be bringing Julia to the orientation - seems like only yesterday that we took Emma!

A highlight for the week was the Mother's Day Tea at preschool. I look forward to it every year! It's always so, so sweet and Julia was so excited about it. The class sang "You are my Sunshine" to the moms - oh the cuteness!!

And today I had the opportunity to talk to a MOPS group about Disney. It was so much fun! One of my clients invited me and I loved it! They were the nicest group of moms and my kids had a great time in "moppets"!

Tomorrow is a full day of girl scouts and birthday parties but hopefully Sunday will be some rest. I have 3 books I am dying to read and counting on Sunday to at least get to one of them!!

Keep Going

Conversation with Emma (8) last night:

Em: Mom, I'm just like the Soul Surfer..

Me: Really? Do tell..

Em: I got hit in the face with the soccer ball at recess today but I'm going to keep going. I'm still going to play soccer tomorrow at school...just like the Soul Surfer kept going.

Me: Good for you!

A good character lesson for us all.....

The Royal Wedding!!

Well yall know I was completely obsessed with The Royal Wedding. I happen to love the Royals - it just completely fascinates me - add that to the fact that it was my anniversary TOO and well, let's just say I was super excited to watch it! And it did not disappoint. I loved it, LOVED it, loved it!! Thankfully I found some friends who also were excited to watch and they came over for my Royal Wedding Viewing Party. We had wedding dresses, veils, cocktail dresses, crazy hats and some good eats (and about 20 kids running around). I had dvr'd E's coverage which was pretty good. The kids running around distracted from the wedding some but it was still great to watch. Some of the little girls were really into it and some not so much. Mostly they really wanted to see Kate walk down the aisle and The Kiss. Emma was also fascinated with Pippa who she thought was just as pretty as Kate. She acted like she wasn't all that interested but then told me "you have to save it for Lily to watch." Ha. Saturday I watched the TLC special: The Royal Wedding Encore which I have to say was great. Cut 5 hours of coverage into less than 2...think I'll save that for Lily.

Of course I have lots of thoughts about the wedding:

1. Kate was just stunning, beautiful., flawless, confident, poised, elegant...perfection.

2. William looked completely confident too - not nervous at all.

3. Her parents on the other hand? Looked pretty nervous - with good reason!

4. Pippa - wow - she is gorgeous too. And that dress..wow - whoever her tailor is deserves a raise. And how cute was she with those little flower girls/bridesmaids???

5. How 'bout the pouty flower girl in the carriage - cuteness abounds!

6. Don't you just want to go get a drink with Prince Harry - seriously how fun does he look? And speaking of getting drinks -poor Chelsy- she looked liked she had a big night Thursday.

7. The Hats. The HATS. Interesting is an understatement. The Hats could be it's own show. It's a wonder there were no injuries as a result of a Hat.

8. The Crowd out in front of the palace - wow - it looked liked Times Square at New Years!

9. Those little boys in the same uniform as William - how cute! I totally think my bff should make her fiance and Jacob were that for her wedding!

10. Kate's dress was gorgeous - loved the long sleeves - I expected her to be in something more fitted but I thought her dress looked very "princessy" I bed knock-offs are already in the stores.

Now onto Royal Baby Watch!

Royal Wedding Fever

Did anyone see The Middle last week? The mom, Frankie, was obsessed with the Royal Wedding...While I am not that crazy about it (well..at least not yet) I do admit that I have Royal Wedding fever. I'm so, so excited for The Royal Wedding this week! I remember getting up while it was still dark to watch Dianna marry Charles (thank God we have DVR now so we don't have to do that) and ever since then I've been fascinated by The Royal Family. I remember being deathly ill at my BFF's parent's house in Ohio when Princess Diana died. So sad.

I think I'm also a little partial because Friday also happens to be my anniversary. How lucky for them that they will share an anniversary date with me and Paul!!

My plan is to DVR as much coverage as I can find. I'm not settled yet on which network I think will deliver the best coverage. Any thoughts? So, I'll DVR it all and I want to have a Royal Wedding Viewing Party that evening. Paul (fortunately for him??) will be away over the weekend with Lily (so sad that she will miss this) so it's just me and the other kiddos. I'm planning on serving all British-inspired food, tea and of course, cake. I'd like to dress up and wear a fancy hat or maybe my wedding veil(?) and I'm trying to encourage Emma to do the same but she's not quite on board with that yet. I'm also thinking that I may need to come up with a Royal Wedding inspired cocktail?

We'll see how all this comes together and if you live by me - feel free to come! The more the merrier!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! We had such a fun Easter weekend! Yesterday our family was reunited for the first time in 2 weeks - yay! We had planned to go to church last night - we've done Easter service on Saturday night for the past couple of years..it's sort of strange but it works - and we invited some of our good friends, the Keeley's to come along with us. Between us we have 8 kids so we are quite something walking in together - ha! The husbands got the seats (wow was church crowded) while Erin and I got all the kids settled - thankfully 3 of our kids all went the same rooms. After church we came back to our house for a cookout. It was so fun to hang out with them and the kids all played and played and we ate and ate - fun times!

This morning we woke up to find that indeed Easter baskets had been left. Lily was thrilled to get "Diary of A Wimpy Kid" a book she's been wanting forever...seeing her face light up when she saw it in her basket was priceless! I still had to serve at church this morning so Paul and the kids dropped me off so I could hang out with some of my favorite kindergarteners. They picked me up right after church and we went out to Paul's mom's for her annual egg hunt and brunch. We were excited to have Aunt Mimi and Waggy there and Paul's Aunt Judy and cousin Kevin. We had a great brunch and then the kids set off for the egg hunt. Lots of candy and treats to be found!

We got home put Jacob down for a nap and the girls and I headed down to our neighbor's for an Easter gathering. More food, friends and fun! Paul and Jacob joined us after he woke up from his nap. It was a great way to spend the afternoon!

A great holiday weekend!! Back to routine this week - here we go!

Track Out Fun

My kids go to a year round school so every 9 weeks (or so) we have 3 (or so) weeks off. We love, love this schedule - it works great for my kids and our family. We are wrapping up our last track out of this school year (holy crap has it flown by) with one more day off on Monday and then back to school on Tuesday for their last quarter. For the first time since I've had elementary school kids and preschool kids the April track out and Spring Break coincided so we actually had an honest to goodness week off of school for everyone! How fabulous to not have to drive ANYONE to school this past week!

We've had a really fun track out and it's flown by. Like flown by fast enough that I'm *almost* not ready to go back to the daily grind (though by Tuesday I'm sure I'm won't be able to get the older girls to school fast enough). Over this track out Paul and I got to get away for a couple days (thanks again Mom and Aunt Pam), Emma spent nearly 2 weeks at Camp Gagi, I got to spend to spend a lot of time with my Lily, Lily read lots of fairy books, we had some fun with neighbors, played outside A LOT and we all got to spend a few days at the beach with my mom.

Emma had a great time at Camp Gagi! They got to do some really fun, cool things and she got spoiled completely rotten! I am so blessed that mom is able to take the kids for vacations - it helps SO much and means so much to the kids. The house was really different with Emma gone for so long. We missed her a ton but I'm not sure the feeling was mutual - I think she rather liked being the only child and getting all of Gagi's attention!

I brought the other kids down to the beach on Tuesday and we had a nice few days down there all together. We did a little shopping, a lot of swimming and some playing on the beach. Jacob absolutely loved the beach! He loved the ocean, the sand - all of it! I think half the beach is in my van! Can't wait to take him back when it's warmer!

Bloody Mary

So maybe you remember that urban legend that if you go in the dark bathroom in the night and say "Bloody Mary" three times and turn around that "Bloody Mary" will show up in the mirror. Are you with me? Apparently some little snot at gymnastics told Lily this story and she repeated it to all her sisters one night a few months ago. Well it put the fear of all that is holy in Julia and for weeks she refused to go anywhere in the house by herself. She'd randomly break out in tears that Bloody Mary" is going to get me. Forget it if she had to go to the potty after dark and the light wasn't on in the bathroom. Paul tried several times to put an end to the drama, and we both took turns going in the bathroom, demonstrating the chant and showing them that there is no. such. thing. as. Bloody. Mary. It took forever but they finally got over it and I haven't heard them mention it all lately. Until tonight and here's the conversation that went down:

Jacob (2): I need my paci, come 'stairs with me.

Me: Go up yourself if you want it (I know..mother of the year)

Jacob: No, I scared

Julia (4): What are you scared of Bloody Mary? You think Bloody Mary gonna get you?

Me: (eye rolling) Julia, you know there's no such thing as Bloody Mary

Jacob: Right, Bloody Mary is just a drink

Well....at least someone was listening.