oh spring, where art thou?

I don't know about you, but we are *so* ready for spring at our house. We got a short glimpse of spring-like weather last week, and lemme tell ya, it felt great. I took Isaiah and Gena to the park for an hour or two after lunch one day. Gena got her first swing in the baby swings - she loved it. She was just laughing and smiling, it was so cute. Then of course, a day or two later, it was snow flurry-ing and cold again. Oh spring, why must you tease us?

five years ago

Guess who celebrated a birthday this weekend? That's right - my baby boy is officially five years old. Wow. I can't hardly believe it. Seems like just yesterday my sweet boy was born, and we were bringing him home from the hospital. Before long, he was screaming his head off, we were frustrated parents of a toddler and infant, we tried everything.....we resorted to putting him in his bouncer and in our closet to sleep, so he would not wake up his sister while throwing his baby tantrum. We fed him, changed him, burped him, changed him, fed him again...........and still screaming. Yup. Those were the good 'ol days. If you would have asked me a couple years ago, if we would both survive to him seeing his 5th birthday, well, I was not sure. But alas!! We made it! Woohoo! Now THAT'S reason to celebrate!



We had his big shin-dig birthday bash on Saturday (March 5th) at Monkey Bizness. He had about 15 of his family and friends there, to party hardy and celebrate with him. Climbing the rock wall, jumping on the bouncers, going thru the inflateable obstacle course, going down the inflateable slide, eatin' some pizza and cake and opening lots of fun gifts. = )

Above: Ben (Isaaih's cousin)

Below: Daddy going down the slide - yes, this place was a blast......even adult friendly :)

Above: Isaiahs cousin, Jonathan on the rope swing

Below: Jer's dad going thru the obstacle course :)

Above: Jer and Gerald, my brother-in-law going up the rock wall

Below: They even had a little toddler play area for smaller kids......Gena was having a blast

Above: my dad going thru the obstacle course

Below: the gangs all here!!!

Awesome batman cake!!

Grandpa and PaPa with the baby girl.........yeah, she only got a little love at this party ; )

Isaiah said he had fun at his party "except the candle part....I didn't like that that much" LOL

We've told him how fire is bad, and he's watched fire safety shows, that now he is scared of fire. I mean scared. He freaked out when we lit the candles. ooops. *mental note for his next birthday*

He has a funny look on his face. Still a little worried about the candles that were just on his cake...... LOL

The birthday boy made out like a bandit. Overall, he had a blast.

ps. Isaiah's actual birthday was yesterday, March 6th. I can't believe my little man is five years old........

"Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You." Dr Seuss

Today, back in 1904, Dr Seuess was born. Happy Birthday Dr Seuss!

One of my favorite Dr Seuss quotes is ..... "You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is better than your dreams.” :)

**********************************

I welcome March with open arms. January and February have got to be 2 of my least favorite months (although I do enjoy February a tad more, bcuz of Valentines day and all.....you know, any extra excuse I can get to book a babysitter and go out with my love, I'm all for ;) )

Yeah, it (winter) can go away and not return for a minimum of 10 months. tops. Bring on the short sleeves, flip flops, play dates at the parks and bike rides. Whose with me?? :-)

=) Sheila

Weekend trip to Salina

A couple weeks ago we took a family weekend trip to the small-town of Salina, KS. It's one of those cities where you see someone you know everywhere you go, and they have a church around every corner downtown. They have like one Pizza Hut, one Burger King, one library....you get the idea. Anyways, we have some good friends that moved there the end of summer last year. So we have finally made it out there to see them. Jim, our good friend (pictured above) was the lead in their community theatre show, "Company". So we had to go out and see him in it. (He did a phenomenal job btw, that man can sing like nobody's business!) Anyways, it was just a quick weekend trip, left here Friday afternoon and got home Saturday night. It was lots of fun though. It's always fun catching up with old friends. :) Jim and his wife have 4 kids, a 10 yr old, a 6 year old and twin 5 year olds, all girls. So our kids all had a blast playing together and didn't want to leave.

In a moment of silence, I was worried and went looking for the kids, only to find Claire (one of the twins) in her room with Lilly and Isaiah watching a movie on a teeny tiny screen (never mind the big screen they have upstairs AND downstairs....silly kids)

Claire (also pictured below) absolutely loves babies and wanted to hold Gena a lot, it was so cute :)

I miss them and wish we could see them more often. Their a hoot. :)

Happy Heart Day!

We had a great Valentine's Day over here! I heart Valentines day :)

Jer and I went out Sunday night on a date, to a nice restaurant on the plaza and to see the newest Jennifer Aniston movie, 'Just Go For It'. We had a great time. I love love love date nights with my man ;-)

don't mind the drool in the pic below :) I just thought her shirt was cute - it said 'you can call me sweetheart' This is my baby girls first Valentines Day!!! :)

On Monday, Valentines Day, I went up to Isaiah's school for his class Valentine party. It was so much fun. I love going up to his school. All the kids in his class are so cute. There are only 9 of them total, so its a small, cozy class and all the kids are just adorable. Below is my little man, sittin next to the cutest little girl, Leila. I just love her :)

Eatin' :)

Below they are playing a M&M relay race game

Below: getting directions for the next game. They played several games, the room mothers there are fantastic and had some fun stuff for the kiddos to do :) ps. in the pic below, the lady in the red shirt on the left is his teacher, Ms Kim :)

Later that night, the kiddos got a few extra treats from mommy and daddy :)

Hope you all had a fun Valentine's Day!!!

Kiss or Diss

Seven Simple Snowday Survival Steps

Yes, we got hit with the Blizzard of 2011. Or Snowpocolypse (according to facebook). However you want to look at it, we got dumped with about 12" of snow earlier this week. Around us, some people got a little more, some less. We measured about a foot at our house. It was seriously dumping snow about an inch an hour. Yup. We were snowbound. We hibernated at our house for a couple days. Kids were outta school. Thankfully Jer works from home, so he didn't even have to leave the house. My mom called the day we got all the snow, and asked if Jer was working that day (because a lot of people and businesses were closing due to the weather). I told her that he was indeed working. His commute to work is walking down the stairs to the basement, so unless he fell down the stairs, he would still be working :-)


So the kids went to school Monday this week, then proceeded to have Tues, Wed and Thurs off because of the snow. Yes, this was snow day 5, 6, and 7 for our district. So, to all those other going-insane-must-send-kids-back-to-school-before-I-lose-my-mind mommies out there........here are a few of my snowday survival tips....

Tip #1: Throw em' outside. :-) A little fresh air and excersize is good for kids. And while they’re out there, have them shovel the sidewalks. It’s not child labor if you pay them in hot chocolate. ;-)

Tip #2: Bake something. I love those prepackaged cookies, chocolate chip and candy - yum. And so easy, lol. Or if your really brave, you can break out the Easy Bake Oven your daughter got for Christmas that you have been too scared to try until now.

Tip #3: Play 50 games of Trouble.....until your brain won't stop popping and you get callusses on your hand from the popper.

Tip #4: Practice sight words with your kindergartner or writing the alphabet with your preschooler....this will help you remember why you never want to homeschool. :-)

Tip #5: Make hot chocolate so the kids can complain it’s too hot, eat the marshmallows, then leave their still-full cups in a sticky mess on the table.

Tip #6: Snap a ton of pictures and/or take video of the day so you can look back and remember all the fun you had. A wise woman once told me "these are the best days of your life" :-)

Tip #7: Cancel all appointments and plans for the rest of the week because it will take you that long to clean up all the messes the kids will make while home for their snow day.

Have Fun!

(oh, and kids finally go back to school tomorrow!! wooohooo! yes teachers, I am praying for you daily! ) :-)