Photo Hunt Saturday - Sweet

This week's photo hunt theme is sweet. I thought about posting pictures of our frequent trips to the ice cream shops this week (or as Moe says, "go get i-crem at the pet shop") but I was too busy eating my ice cream and trying to stay cool that I have no pictures. And while ice cream certainly is sweet, I decided to go with pictures of cakes. The following cakes were my kids birthday cakes. As for their cakes, we try to think outside the box and do original cakes.

EINEY

Einey's 1st Birthday

Einey's 2nd Birthday

Einey's 3rd Birthday
She ended up with two cakes because a friend made one by surprise

Einey's 4th Birthday

Einey's 5th Birthday (Friends)

Einey's 5th Birthday (Family)

MEENIE
Meenie's 1st Birthday
I forgot to buy/make her a cake this year and called Husband in tears the night before. He went the next day and found this cake which matched her theme. Funny story is 2 year old Einey insisted her sister wanted a chocolate cake for a month. When we cut into the cake, we found out it was.... chocolate.


Meenie's 2nd Birthday

Meenie's 3rd Birthday

Meenie's 4th Birthday cake (Friends)

Meenie's 4th Birthday (Family)

MOE

Moe's 1st Birthday
Party favors were REAL Beta fish

Moe's 2nd Birthday

Our wedding cake(s)

Birthday Bash at the Beach

Tomorrow is Meenie's 4th birthday. Today we invited a few friends to meet us at a local lake for some summer fun. While planning this, I never thought it would end up to be the hottest day of the year (so far). Those of you in New England, I don't think I need to tell you how HOT it was today. Those of you not here, it was Freakin' Hot! Around 95 with high humidity. Thankfully up at the lake, it was cooler. Plus you had the water.

Anyway, we arrived and served up cake first. I figured it would be best as I didn't want the pudding to sour. Then we basically hit the water.

Up close of cake

I brought sun hats for the kids to paint, but it was just too hot. So I sent them home with the moms and they can paint them later. I also gave each kid a new pail and shovel, sunblock and swim goggles. There were three families and 15 kids total. One other family had a last minute emergency so they couldn't make it. All in all, it was alot of fun!

Meenie

Moe

Husband and Einey

Sunflower House Progress

June 18th

June 21st

Tollbooth Schmollbooth

Saturday night, Einey and Meenie spent the night at their Mema's house, so Husband Moe and I decided to go shopping. We needed to get Meenie a birthday gift anyway. We were driving East on Rt. 20 and accidentally hopped on the Pike. We were planning on taking 146 S to the Shoppes at Blackstone Valley, but I was not paying attention.

A quick check of pockets, wallets, my purse and little catch-all places in the van yields no cash whatsoever. Just a bunch of pennies. The tool fee for the next exit was $.25. We came up with 25 pennies as we were exiting the pike. So I pull up to the tool booth and before handing the cashier a handful of pennies, say "your going to hate me, but this is all I have". She smiled and said "there are 25 here right" while chuckling. We assure her there were and then decided to ask for directions back to 20. While laughing (after we explained how we came to be on the pike with no cash) she asks "do you have enough for another toll? Um nope, maybe 15 pennies laying around... She was nice enough to shut off her sign and give us directions back to the Shoppes (which we easy and once we got off the exit, we knew where we were anyway) and asked if we had money to spend. Ha!

I blame it on living in a state without tolls. I never use them! And of course, I never keep cash on me anymore.

Thanks for tollbooth operators with a sense of humor!

Photo hUnt Saturday - Shiny

This week's photo hunt theme is shiny. Last year, when Meenie was at the Children's hospital, I would often sit under this sculpture to take a few minutes and just breath. Or I would call and update family members. At mid-day, the sun would just shine off the red ball and send color around the room.

That special friend....

The other day, I got a birthday package in the mail from my best friend. My best friend isn't someone I've known since childhood. She isn't a college roommate. Nope. She is my first and very best "mom" friend. When I was pregnant with Einey, Husband was forever pointing out other moms-to-be or telling me about the pregnant women he saw at work. We took a six week birthing course and at the second to last class, Husband points out the new couple in the back of the room and tells me that she's the lady from the mail room at work. Weeks pass and the babies are born and we don't see them again. I convince Husband to pass on our email addy through an acquaintances at work because at that time, a few other moms from that class and I were getting together to take weekly walks. She contacts us and we've been friends since!

Her daughter and mine have been best friends since. And even though there are now miles between us, daughter still talks about her friends as if she sees her alot. Their first move brought them a few states North of us - just a 4 hour drive away. We made that drive about 1/2 dozen times a year or met them in the middle for the day. Their second move brought them further South - about an 9 hour drive. And now their third move has brought them even further South. So now the day trips or weekends away are kind of out, but there are still phone calls, surprise boxes of goodies and pictures by email. And of course, memories from the past.

So this package arrives and she's done it again. She's gotten me a perfect gift without knowing it. In the box, was a set of five red cereal bowls (or very large ice cream bowls) with a cherry on it. Last year, there were five sailboat plates for out frequent outdoor meals. Whats the significance in 5 red bowls? The fact that they match! In my house, my girls have taken to fighting over their dishes. They are constantly arguing over who gets the Darth Vader plate or the My Little Pony cup. They have even gotten to the point when I pull out their dishes, they lick a plate as if to claim it. Or they grab a handful of food as a way of claiming it. I've gotten to the point that I tell them if I hear them asking for a specific plate, they aren't having it and probably won't eat!

To have all the same dishes for all, eliminates that problem! So once again, thanks for the great gift and for knowing exactly what I need!

2 am Wakeup

Tires squealing. Crash. Jump off couch. Run upstairs. Husband leaping out of bed. Did you hear that? Where was it? Silence. Nothing to see. Smell that? Burnt rubber. Neighbors in street. Phone. Flashing lights. Police car. It's Graduation night, right? 2:10 am

Last night I was awoken form a sound sleep to the sound of squealing tires and a crash. It appears (from the skid marks in front of six houses) that a car came barreling around the curve in the road and lost control. He seemed to have hit one or two parked cars 3 houses down from us. Unfortunately this is a yearly occurrence during the summer.

Cars drive to fast and cannot negotiate the slight curve in the road three houses up from ours. Or they come flying off the side road.


2006: 2:30 am - Again, the tire squeals and crunch. Looking out the window, there was a car upside down on the sidewalk between a telephone pole and stone wall. It appears that this car came off the side-road at said curve in the road above. Power was out for about 8 hours.

2005: Same scenario, different landing place. The car hit the stonework at the end of neighbors driveway. We called the cops that time. The car left, but as police and fire truck were on the scene, the car came back. Young teens who ended up doing weekend work to repair the stonework and other odd jobs for neighbors. This reminded the neighbors of the exact same crash years before that sent the said stonework flying into the previous owners of my home's cars.

There have been no fatalities.

So far, so good...

Thursday evening, the girls and I went outside for a bit. I wanted to water my flowers and adjust the stakes on the sunflower house. What ended up happening was the girls and I playing a ton of games I haven't played since I was their age. We played Duck, Duck Goose, Tag, Freeze Tag, Stuck in the Mud (another Tag game), Red Light, Green Light, Mother May I and Simon Says. It was great! I almost wished I had more kids so it would be even more fun!

Pomfret Street Cemetery and Cemetery on Rt. 44

Friday, summer vacation Day 2 was very nice, very nice indeed. Husband surprised me by taking the day off of work (for my birthday), getting up with the kids and making breakfast. We had though about going out to Newport, but by the time we got cleaned up and stuff, I decided I would rather grab a few letterboxing clues and see how many we could get. We only ended up having time for two different locations, but that netted us a total of 8 more stamps! Oddly, both location were in cemeteries, so I spent my 27th birthday traipsing around graveyards. But it was alot of fun! And very relaxing, quiet. The first cemetery had gravestones dating back to 1713! It was amazing to be surrounded by objects so old. And the details inscribed on the stones were amazing! Meenie managed to find every woodchuck hole in the cemetery as she walked around. I really thought the girls would have been bored, but they seemed to really enjoy themselves! After lunch, I was able to just sit and relax. My friend brought over a rose bush she brought for my birthday. It was perfect, I had one space in along my fence close to my other rose bushes and I was just saying to Husband that we needed to get something to put in that spot (we had tomatoes there last year - so I'll need a new space for them now). The girls (and Husband) brought me a GC to Old Navy, 5 books (unfortunately, I've already read 2 and am now working on Wicked - so much for summer reading) and an MP3 player (I am so sick of just listening to kids music - it's about time I had some adult lyrics to listen to! Now to figure out what I want to download. Feel free to post suggestions in the comments section.


Saturday was back to work for Husband. We got up and luckily, both girls had the early soccer games (usually they have different times so we are there forever). Even better was they were playing on adjacent fields, so I could stand on the grass between the fields. Even the drizzle didn't bother us. As the rain started to come down a little more heavily, I was enjoying watching them, Moe was carting around an umbrella much to big (I didn't take my camera out as it would have gotten much to wet) and the girls were enjoying playing. Unfortunately, the games came to an abrupt halt with the arrival of thunder. Those storms lasted 1/2 the morning! The rest of the day was just having fun in the house.

Sunday I actually got to take an hour long bath - alone! Moe played quietly in her crib and Einey and Meenie played quietly down stairs. No fighting, no arguing, nothing! We went to church and then stayed for their family fun day. We were there for almost 3 hours (wow!). The girls played games, bounced in the bounce house, dance and ate lots of food. They even tried to win a cake by doing a "cake walk" (musical chairs). They were given a cake anyway even though they didn't win. I was finally able to get them to leave and then we played outside for most of the rest of the day. The girls played their new games together and I worked in the garden. The sunflowers are now up to Moe's forehead and the other girls shoulders. Pretty soon, it will be high enough to make the roof!



Summer Vacation Days 2 -4:
Kids - Happy
Mom - Relaxed, Happy
House - Lived in, mostly clean

Edited to add pictures

Photo Hunt Saturday - Shoes

This week's photo hunt theme is shoes. Shoes are something we definitely are not lacking. My In-Laws insist on buying the girls shoes all the time, regardless of how practical they are. This picture was taken last September at a deserted beach. Moe had lined them up after we had kicked them off.

Sigh..

Sometimes I don't know why I bother.

My clean floors that I just mopped earlier today stayed clean for 2.5 hours. Until Moe woke up and we got home from running errands. Not 2 minutes after walking in the door, she dumped orange kool-aid all over the floor.

Kinderbration

I almost forgot to post a finished banner for the Kinderbration. here is is hanging on the stage.

Summer Vacation - Day 1

Einey started her first day of summer vacation by sleeping in until 8:30 am. When she woke up, she had breakfest and watched a bit of TV (shows she doesn't get to see when she is at school). So far, she hasn't argued with her sisters once (although they have done alot of whining/bickering amongst themselves).

After a little TV, we headed to the park to see our weekly playgroup friends. It was weird needing to watch out for three kids. I have gotten used to just watching out for the two. Einey wasn't to impressed, because it was mostly younger kids. The public schools do not get out for another week. So even though it was kids she grew up playing with, not being around them for 10 months really made a big difference.

But then, one of her really good friends from school arrived at the park. It was great for Einey to see one of her friends. She acted like it had been forever since she saw her friend and not just yesterday. I definitely need to plan some play dates for the summer with her school friends! They had fun playing on the swings and the monkey bars. Einey really needs to work her muscles so she can do them her self. I may make that goal for her for the summer, if she's willing.

After lunch and getting the two younger one's settled down for nap/quiet time, I had some cleaning to do around the house. mainly cleaning out my oven (yuck!) and washing the floors (again! - every time I wash them, someone immediately spills something on it. In this case, it was juice. And milk. And cereal.), so Einey got out some paint and has been making some wonderful artwork. She really likes to make crafts so I will have to plan some art activities for this vacation.

Days on vacation - 1
Kids - Happy
Mom - Relaxed, Happy
House - Clean

How does your garden grow?

This week in the garden....




And as of June 1, this is the progress on the sunflower house. They are standing between 1 and 2 feet tall.

I have a confession to make...

Sometimes I dream about being a working mom.

Don't get me wrong, I love being able to stay at home with the girls. I love not needing to conform to a clock - being able to be free (which is somewhat limited as I now need to at least be on time dropping daughter off for school). I love staying in my pajamas if I feel like it. I love hearing them laugh, seeing them explore the world around them. I love not needing to rely on others to raise them. I love teaching them everything they know.

But I dream of coming home from work to a clean house - one where juice isn't spilled on the floor 15 times a day. One where the kids are actually happy to see me, having missed me all day. One where I can have piece and quiet (somewhat) during the day. Where I can go to the bathroom alone. All by myself. And no one interrupts me. Where I don't feel I have to defend my choices or explain what I did all day. "Yes hon, I did do something besides sit on my ass all day, even if the house looks the same when you left" to . It does take alot get it to look that way. Sometimes, it actually looks cleaner than what it starts off at. Those are the days they actually nap and I can get ahead.

Even though the days are long, the kids grow up way to fast! So when I awake from my dreams, I am glad I am able to stay home with them.

Photo Hunt Saturday - Art

This week's photo hunt theme is art. Art is a stimulation of the senses. It is unbounded creativity released by an individual for others to experience. There are no boundaries in art.


The picture's that follow are some watercolor art, painted by Einey, Meenie and Moe this evening. As a treat, and because they love all things artsy, I allowed them to paint on the deck after dinner tonight. Unfortunately, we left them out on the deck to dry and got hit with a sudden downpour. By the time I made it outsdie, the paint had all been washed off.


And while I can appriciate art, I am not artist. In fact, you probably don't want to be anywhere near me when I am wielding a paintbrush. Husband on the other hand can usually be found, paintbrush in hand. If you want to view his gallery of work, click here. He has made quite a name for himself painting these figures. In addition, he has designed and drew the program for our daughter's dance studio, gives the girls cool tattoos, and drawn numerous pictures for the kids. I am trying to get him to illustrate a children' s book, but I would guess I would need to find an author first :P


Now if you excuse me, I need to go design/paint a banner for the Kinderbration. This I think I can handle...

Please click on the links to see other cool art!

What's that Noise?

Hear that?

Come closer?

Hear it?

Me either.

It's the sound of quiet. Granted the girls are sleeping and I don't have to rush off to get Einey as she is visiting a friend after school.

But, but, it has been like this all day.

We went to the park this morning and I actually got to sit on the edge of the playground and just sit. And do nothing. If I had a book, I would have read it (but of course, I didn't). I did have to do my duty on the swings and monkey bars, but other than that, they didn't need/want my help. If this is signs of things to come, I'll take it!