Party Animals

Well, guys - it is that time of year again.  May. The month of many celebrations.  Five to be exact.  One for Mother's Day, one for my birthday and guess who the other THREE are for?  Yep - you guessed it. Our oldest pride and joy....

It started with the first weekend in May.  We had Avery's "kid party" on Saturday and her "family party" on Sunday.  We typically would have done these both the following weekend in order to combine 4 of the 5 celebrations in one weekend (and nearly kill myself in the process of entertaining so much in a matter of 2 days), but this year, Josh's 20th high school reunion was the same weekend as Mother's Day, so the weekend before it was.  Well, shortly after sending out the invites, I received an email from one of the mom's of a boy in Avery's class saying that her son's (who was invited to Avery's party) was on the day of the party, so would be want to do a combined party at our house?  It worked out great!  Man - I'm telling you - splitting up responsibilities makes for a MUCH less stressful party - even if you do end up with 52 people at your house.  The weather was touch and go all week -including the morning of.  But, thankfully, by the time the party rolled around, it had stopped raining.  It was chilly, but no rain, so I was happy.  No rain, a bouncy house for the kids and booze and food for the parents = a great party!

 

 We were lucky enough to have Lindsey make the cakes again this year.  Wyatt requested a Scooby Doo cake and Lindsey found an idea for a rainbow cake, so she made that for Avery.  Aren't they incredible?  Scooby Doo  is actually all fondant.  So totally edible...And, the rainbow cake?  Rainbow all throughout!  Pretty impressive.

 

 

 So, Sunday was her party with Josh's family.  This is the party where I make her cake.  Why don't I make it for the kids party you ask?  A) I have way too many other things to prep for and I don't have time to spend on the cake, B) I don't feel like making one that is big enough for all of those people and C) I am not skilled in cake making like Lindsey is and I am not willing to risk the possibility of having to use things like coffee mugs to prevent the cake from falling in front of anyone else other than family....

 Yeah...as it turns out, when they say and 8 inch pain, they really mean that.  I however used a 9 inch pan and yet still cut off the same proportions on the top and on the bottom.  This clearly led to a purse that was too tall and too skinny.  But, cute nonetheless, right???  I also tend to keep the themed parties to the family, which is somewhat ridiculous given that clearly kids would get a bigger kick out of a Fancy Nancy party than adults, but seriously?  Do you know how expensive plates, napkins, balloons, etc. are for themed parties like that?  Not only that, but this gives me an excuse to use paper plates with the family so that A) they don't see the chips in my real plates and B) I don't have to wash them when we are done.  It also gives me an excuse to make adults wear ridiculous things on their heads, which I just find comical...clearly, as you can see in the picture, my brother in law doesn't find it quite as funny...

Grammy and Grampy got Avery a see saw, which as you can see was put to use immediately upon receiving it.  When I told someone about it, their first question?  Did Earle put it together?  HA!  They know us all too well.  But, no - this one, Grammy and Grampy actually put it together themselves. 

Onto the following week...Opa and Grandma came into town for Avery's actual birthday!  And, of course, you can't just do nothing on her actual birthday just because you have already had TWO parties at that point.  So? We had another party!  Grammy and Grampy came over that night again for dinner (ribs per Avery's request) and we let her open our present - her first (and most likely only given the cost of the thing) American Girl Doll - and my parent's present - a princess microphone which attaches to a CD player (or iPod) so that she can sing her favorite songs (really, really ,really loudly and really frequently).  Thanks, Opa and Grandma! 

Oh - and, just in case we forgot about Al during all of these Avery celebrations, he made sure we knew he was still around by taking EVERY single ball that he owns and throwing them around the yard.  It's amazing  how quickly he can distribute, yet how slowly he can pick them up...

And, the celebration continued on Friday...I took the day off of work and we all went to the zoo! Of course, first, we had to stop at Five Guys for a burger...

When we got to the zoo, one of the first things we saw was this crazy bird.  I've never seen anything like it - he saw the kids and immediately came over to the window and started pecking at their hands.  It was pretty cute.  The added bonus was that Avery actually remembered the bird later on when she saw a woman with really spiked, strange looking hair and commented that she looked exactly like the bird that we saw!  I have to admit - I was thinking the exact same thing...

 And, of course, the classic "Opa holding the kids up to see the animals" picture...

 And, the classic "kids sitting on the elephant statue" picture...

Now...onto a celebration for ME!  Well,not really.  As I mentioned earlier, it was Josh's 20th high school reunion on Saturday night, so I guess it was really more about him, but whatever.  I partook in the fun as well.  Given that we had 2 babysitters staying with us, we were able to take off and stay in Providence for the night!  Just to give you an indication of the fun that was had, these are the only two pictures of Josh and I that we have from the evening.  And, yes - that was a pitcher of margaritas, which I should not have even been looking at after the wine consumed earlier that evening - much less drinking.  Bad, bad decision on my part...

Needless to say, Mother's Day was a bit "low-key."  It involved a lot of relaxing on the deck, napping, walking on the beach and then finally a nice dinner, which Alex clearly enjoyed...

If you've actually made it this far and are not exhausted (or on the contrary - bored out of your mind), just imagine how it was actually living this week.  I'm spent.  However, not spent enough to be flying to Richmond, VA tomorrow morning at 7 am out of Logan (aka - waking up at 3 AM to leave at 4 AM to get to Logan by 6 AM - UGH!) to spend a weekend with 3 good college girlfriends. Stay posted my friends.  Stay posted...

BFF's

It's funny - I find myself getting embarrassed when I say "My best friend..."  I feel like the term is so middle school and yet I'm still using it at the age of (almost) 35.  But, the crazy thing is that the description still works for Sara and I. We've been BFF's ever since 1st grade and still are and always will be.  Unfortunately, given where we both live, we don't get to see each other nearly as often as we would like.  However, when we do, it is like we just saw each other yesterday. 

We've come up with a pretty good system in terms of making an effort to see one another. Sara typically flies out to RI sometime in the spring, I am out there in July with everyone in my family, so I always see her during that week and then this last year, I went out there in November, which we are hoping to have happen again.  So, 2 weeks ago was her visit during the spring.  We had a great time.  I was introduced to the world of gluten-free dining and cooking, as she is doing a gluten-free diet.  I have to be honest - given my obsession with food and lack of focus when it comes to the ingredients, etc., I figured it would be really challenging to find things to cook, but it really wasn't!  We did a lot of lettuce wraps, salads and eggs.  And, I even managed to find 2 restaurants with an entire gluten-free menu! 

We spent the weekend taking walks with the kids and the dog and then on Saturday night, we went to see a cheesey chick flick at the movies (The Lucky One) which was ok.  I can't really tell you much about it other than Zac Effron (sp??) is HOT.  Damn.  And, after the movie, we went out to dinner - it felt just like old times! 

The kids had a great time with Auntie Sara as well.  Avery was thrilled, as she received her first makeup kit for her Bday.  Needless to say, she wore eye shadow all weekend from that point on. 

Overall, it was a great weekend with my BFF!

A Morning of Misunderstandings

Avery's birthday party with her friends is this weekend.  And, every birthday party, I have tried my hardest to come up with something creative for the favor.  My thought is that I would rather spend money on one "larger" thing vs. a bag full of small things that eventually just get lost or thrown away.  A couple of years ago for her 3rd birthday we did sand buckets with shovels, etc.  Last year, we did kites for everyone and this year, I found these super cute purses (at Walmart nonetheless!) for the girls which I'm going to put nail polish and something else in

and then these missile things for the boys. 

So, anyway - unknown to me, the Walmart bags were brought into the house (vs. staying in my trunk), so of course, Avery immediately spotted the purse and asked what it was for.  So, I told her but then made her promise not to tell her friends (because, of course, when you have a cool favor, the way to make it that much cooler is to have it be a surprise). So, she promised.  Mind you, I figured this would be impossible for a 5 year-old girl to keep a secret such as this, but I figured I'd try.

Well, this morning, Avery walks into Alex's room as I'm getting him dressed and she has this very concerned look on her face.  So, I ask her what is wrong and as she stumbles on her words a bit, eventually she confesses that she may have "accidentally" told Sophie about the purse.  I mean, I'm not kidding people.  You would have thought that she hurt her brother or something with the way she was looking at me.  So, I SWEAR I did not get mad.  I really didn't.  I just kind of looked at her and said something like, "Avery - I thought that we were going to try and not tell the girls?  Just don't tell anyone else, ok?"  But, seriously- it was in no way in a mean or angry tone. 

So, I'm done getting Alex ready and I walk into Avery's room and find her with her face buried in her covers on her bed SOBBING!!!!!!!!!  The child felt so badly that she told Sophie when she wasn't supposed to that she was sobbing in her room!  Talk about feeling like the worst mother on the planet!  So, I'm hugging her and explaining to her that it is ok and that I'm not mad and of course, the big Al Man has to know what is going on.  So, at this point, he is on the bed and gets really close to me and whispers, "Mommy, what happened??"  And, he wouldn't accept the "Nothing" answer, so I tell him something like, "Avery just feels badly because she told Sophie something that she didn't think that she could."  So, Al disappears. 

Next thing I know, Josh and Alex are walking up the stairs and Alex is holding an ice pack for Avery.  Apparently, he went downstairs and told Josh that Avery was crying because Sophie was a bad friend and Avery needed some ice.  

So, basically we went from Avery confessing that she told Sophie about the purse, me apparently getting mad about it and then to Sophie somehow coming out of nowhere in Avery's bedroom and being a bad friend because she did something to Avery to cause Avery to need ice. 

Now, while everyone clearly misunderstood what was really going on with everyone else this morning, one thing was very clear.  Somehow, somewhere along the way of raising Avery, we managed to do a pretty good job of a) teaching her to listen to us and not to lie and b) of having a conscience and wanting to do the right thing and somewhere along the way of raising Alex, we taught him to be a good brother, watch out for his sister and to help her when needed and I'll be honest - I'm pretty proud of ourselves for that. 

Florida 2012

Man - I am really not feeling overly creative with the titles of my posts lately.  Sorry about that. 

2 weeks ago, we took our annual trip to Florida with Josh's parents.  I will say, this is the first plane ride where I felt as though we had truly made it.  Made it to what, you ask?  To the point where traveling is not overly stressful.  Both kids are at a great age to be on a plane.  They just kind of get it now (yes, even the Big Al) and it is just easier.  It also helps that we had a direct flight to Orlando from Providence, which was just over 2 hours.  Although, lesson learned - if you fly to Orlando with 2 young kids, EVERYONE will assume you are going to Disney and you will have to give them that evil "Stop now while you are ahead" look every time they start saying things like, "Oh - are you going to see Mickey??"  Of course, typical Avery - "Nope!  We're going to wait a few more years until we are older and can appreciate it."  That's my girl.

In the past, we had gone to West Palm Beach, but this time around, one of Josh's friends from law school who lives in FL had told us about a great, kid friendly place in Palm Coast, FL, which is about 1.5 hours north east of Orlando.  So, Palm Coast it was.

Anyway - we got there and hadn't eaten lunch yet, but figured it would be easy enough to get off of the highway and grab McDonald's on the way to the hotel.  Um...no.  Apparently, no one in Orlando eats McDonalds (or any other fast food chain for that matter).  No joke - there was not a single "food off of this exit" sign around.  So, we took our chances and got off of an exit only to drive around for literally 30 mins before finding Burger King.  As you can imagine, by this point, both kids were sleeping, which was great.  They ended up sleeping the entire 1.5 hours and woke up just as we pulled up to the hotel. 

So, I knew that this place was bigger than the one that we used to stay at in West Palm, but holy crap!  I'm pretty certain it was nicer than our house (well, besides the kitchen counter tops because, really, what could be nicer than ours? :)).  It was 3 bedrooms, 3.5 bath with a living room, a kitchen (with all Viking appliances), a laundry room and a huge patio.  I mean, look at this place...

The whole resort was great - it had about 5 pools - one of which had sand surrounding it, which was a great alternative to the beach (the Atlantic in April is none to warm) then the "kids pool" was almost like bath water, which allowed for us to stay in it for as long as the kids wanted to without getting cold AND it had a great water slide and then a few other random pools.  It even had a little play area outside the restaurants so that the parents could eat on the deck and the kids could run around and play. 

Mind you, this was also the root cause of us spending a ridiculous amount of money on balls (that were too big to bring back with us, mind you) for Alex.  The second he walked by and saw kids throwing balls around?  It was all over.  Although, I say that, but I think that we would have been suckered into buying them anyway, as the kid literally appeared lost without a ball to bounce around the house or to throw in the pool.  Obsessed people.  Obsessed. 

THEN, the real bonus?  There was a pool that was about 5 feet away from our room that NO ONE knew about.  I mean, I'm not kidding - it was actually kind of eery because it was so quiet.  But, needless to say, it was ideal for when the kids were napping. Josh and I worked out a great deal - I went by the pool for the first hour of the nap, then came back and Josh went to hit golf balls for the second half (there was an 18-hole course on the property). 

The entire trip was actually quite relaxing and was filled with...

eating most meals on the patio (which is one of mama's all time favorite activities)

But, also eating out (which comes in a close second of favorite activities)

Playing in Grammy and Grampy's jacuzzi bath tub

 Pouring really cold pool water on Mommy's feet

 And, just playing in the pools and in the sand

 All in all it was a great trip.  Thanks again, Grammy and Grampy!