Monthly Archives: October 2011

Embrace the Camera Thursday 10.13.11 & A few Happy birthdays!

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Here’s another shot from our fun afternoon at the beach!

Mommy & her kiddos!

We are celebrating 3 birthdays today!  Cousin A, Auntie S2 & Puppy B.

Dear Cousin A,

I know we don’t see you too often because you like to be home a lot, but I really love you so so much and when we do see you we always have the best time!  You are a great cousin & always share your toys with me…unlike your sister!  I’m looking forward to growing up with you & making our mommies insane…driving them crazy like we did in the restaurant the other day!  I really can’t wait to go on our family trip to California with you!  Auntie H – you MUST TAKE COUSIN A!!!!!  I wish you the happiest birthday & hope that your 2nd year is as good to you as mine has been to me!

Love Always,

Baby A

A moment of sanity in a night of chaos!

Dear Auntie S2,

I am so happy that I got to see you recently when you brought Cousin CJ to NY.  I had a great time playing with you & I hope we see you again soon!  I know that CJ snuggling with you will make this your best birthday ever & I told her to be extra good for you today, so I hope she listened!  I love you very much & wish you a very happy birthday!

Love Always,

Baby A

A baby is the best birthday gift!

Dear Puppy B,

You’re a cute dog & we love you!  You’re insane and I’m not sure how you’ve lasted so long in Auntie H’s house, but my cousins love you & so do I!  I hope you have a very happy birthday and the girls give you lots of treats!

Love,

Baby A

 

Paper Mama Photo Challenge: The Little Details

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I’ve been MIA here for a while…no excuses, just Mommy-exhaustion.

Some updates on our lives include A’s completion of 2 weeks of school.  After today’s class she is doing MUCH better than last week!  The girls at Seaside Celebrations in Long Beach, NY get my highest recommendations!  They are amazing with A and are achieving what I thought to be the impossible…getting her to separate from her Mommy…and for me, there are no words to describe my gratitude.

From these new found 2 1/2 hours of “freedom”, my house has clean floors, bathrooms, and is almost dust free!  Over the next few weeks my goal is to have the closets unpacked & organized!  This week I even got to DRY MY HAIR!!!!!!  I’m loving this 🙂

Aside from my new time to clean, this free time has given me something I was sure that I’d lost for good.  An appreciation of my little girl.  As a SAHM I find it difficult (understatement) to appreciate my daughter as much as I should.  I was finding myself day-dreaming of returning to work….only to be knocked back into reality by the screaming toddler attached to my a$$!  I am not the girl who loved their job but gave it up for the well-being of their family.  I hated my job.  It was bad for me, it was bad for my family, it was just bad.  At first, I enjoyed staying home with my infant because I love babies.  The cute, cuddly kind that take bottles & nap on your chest or in a swing.  The babies that cry when they are hungry, tired, gassy…and coo, smile & lay nicely in your arms when they are happy.  Toddlers….scare the CRAP out of me!  They know what they want and will scream and whine until they get it.  They will throw themselves down on the floor in public if you dare to say “hi” or initiate a conversation with another adult.  If they can’t speak the language (any language) than NO ONE CAN!!!!  They are little tiny dictators.  To me, this isn’t fun.  24/7 being ruled by a tiny tot…blows.  But now that I have some time to myself, I can see again that all those things are true, but in between the screaming fits (caused mostly by lack of sleep or snacks), they are really funny!  at least my A is.  She is starting to put sentences together, imitate me, request things with actual words, dance, sing, and just generally do funny things!  Without the time to myself I was not able to see this stuff!

The other day she had school, than she napped & when she woke up she was happy & it was beautiful outside!  I took the opportunity to take A & T down to the beach!  I am so happy to live in this great beach city & be able to take them down to play in the sand on a whim!  My kids literally have Long Beach sand in their toes!

Toes in the sand

Wish us luck in the photo contest!  We were a favorite last week again, but not the winner!  We are going to keep trying!!!

The Paper Mama

Paper Mama Photo Challenge: Fav Photo of September

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So we didn’t win last week, but we were a “favorite”!  I’m pretty proud of that!  The subjects are 2 of my favorites!!  Check out the winners & the rest of the favorites here!

This week I get to choose my favorite photo from September!  Hand down, I love this one…

“This is the Life”

My favorite thing to do in September is to go to the beach.  The “season” is officially over, which means that it is pretty empty, the weather isn’t too hot to breathe, and T can come with us!  Boy does that boy love the beach!  He is the best behaved dog when he is on the beach!  It makes me want to fill my living room with sand…

Here are my 2 babies enjoying a snack and the sun on the beach on a beautiful September day!

The Paper Mama

Sunday Funday…with a chainsaw, 5 kids, 2 dogs, 6 adults, some football, a BBQ & a skillet cookie!

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Sounds like fun huh?!

Well, remember hurricane pear tree debacle that was this & this?  Well we can add the following to the end of that story…

Mister LK pulling up the stump

Ahhhh no more tree!

The boys actually got that thing out with the combination of a chain saw, a jigsaw & a jeep!  They felt very cool to be able to use the jeep to pull the stump up and out!  I can’t wait to get the Mister on the project of a new trex deck out there (with a wading pool)!!!!

Then we took a little rest & went over to J&D’s house to play, have a BBQ & watch football.  The kids had a blast!

Remember when I said yesterday that Miss A loves her a good hoola hoop?!  Well she was practicing overtime at her cousin’s house!

Then she moved on to the jump-rope!

Little M had other ideas for fun activities that afternoon!Like riding his Daddy's shoulders!And sweeping!

He also thought it was a good time to check out some 3D stuff in his cool glasses!

The babies weren’t the only ones having fun that day!  The bigger kids found fun things to do too!  The girls enjoyed their afternoon making “chalk dust”…which I’d never seen done before.

I thought they might want to paint with it…and they did…but their canvas of choice was strange…


Yup!  The dog!  *Don’t worry – no animals were harmed in the making of this fun day!*  We didn’t let them paint the dog with chalk…and we didn’t let the dog paint herself either!

Mr. IP thought it would be fun to be an attack child…

Or maybe he was pretending he was on a row-boat….who knows!  He obviously thought it was funny.

Pre-Dinner snack of goldfish!!

This day also marked my little girl’s very first 20 minute temper tantrum.  For the day she looks back on these posts to see her “firsts” I’d like to point out that this tantrum was over a Capri Sun.  I don’t really give A juice ever.  She drinks water like it’s going out of style & she eats like a champ so I just don’t see the need for juice…but the big kids were having Capri Sun & A wanted one…BAD…we had to leave the table & sit inside for 20 minutes until she calmed down…then we had to hide the juice packs when she came back out!  Fun times A…thanks.

We came inside after dinner & got into PJs & had some dessert!  It is all about moderation…and since I saved her from having pure sugar for dinner, I gave her some cupcake!

Not that most of it got in her belly – more like her eye!

For the adults, AG & I made an ooey gooey chocolate chip skillet cookie!  Super easy to make and really delish!

By the end of the night the little ones were exhausted & A thought she’d help her mommy out after getting sort of cleaned up … probably giving me a hint that she’d appreciate me stopping to take pictures about now!

Thanks to the P family for such a fun day!  We’re looking forward to picking apples/pumpkins with you guys this weekend!!!