Parties and Playdates!

These pictures are out of order.

We had a fun and busy weekend!  Today we went and had a cousin playdate with our cousins Addie, Blake, and new baby Logan!  Logan was the adopted miracle baby that my cousin Diane and Bill got right before Christmas!  He is getting so big and so cute!  He is already 4 months!  Addie and Gracie felt pretty proud that they got to hold him forthe picture.

This guy wanted no part of the picture taking process.  He was tired and ready to head home for naps.

But these kiddos played thier little hearts out.  Evie loves babies so was totally enthralled with baby Logan and all morning she kept telling me "baby Logan?"

I hope that my cousins kids are become good friends just like me and my cousins were.  The memories are priceless.

Here's my holding precious little Logan.

And my cousin Diane holding her son!  What a proud Mama!

Gracie and Addie have really become good buddies.  As soon as we got there, they stripped down and played dressup right away.  They played so good today.  There's even talk of a possible sleepover.....

On Saturday, we went to celebrate our friends Jackie and Olivia's birthdays.  Jackie just turned 5 and Olivia tuned 3.  They are the daughters of my friend Holly from work.  Our kids are around the same age and really all the gals I work and their kids are around the same age.  We are so lucky to have each other to share the ups and downs of parenting together.

Evie and Olivia had fun playing together too.

They were all about the balloons.

When it was time to eat, they all sat at the picnic table in the basement.

My friend Laurie's sons, Cullen and Mason were there and so were Becky's boys, Jacob and Luke.

Even Chuck got to go!  That never happens!

My friend Holly went to town with a Candyland themed party.  Although the weather dampened a lof of her plans,she still did an awesome job with decorations.  They signs her girls are holding are chalkboards where Jackie wrote "Do you want to play on April 28th?"  So cute!  And the cake lady made proud by making a beautiful and yummy cake!

She made these yummy cupcakes too.

Holly also had the candy counter set up too.  The kid could help themselves to candy and then as a goody bag, they could fill a sack with candy to take home.  Oh, and they even got a toothbrush too!  Ha!

Outside, she made balloons become lollipops.  Totally cute.  And speaking of cute, check out Patti!

The kids loved the cupcakes, especially Mason.

My girls are all about the frosting!

What a cupcake mess!

Gracie also had fun hanging out with Jacob.  He is a major bulls fan and a little cutie huh?

Evie was all about watching the girls open their presents.

Before we left too, we got to punch a dot and get a prize!

Totally cute idea.  I'm not sure I would have the patience to put this together.

But it sure was a hit with the kids.

The birthday party was a smashing success!  Can you tell?

After the birthday party though, we had dinner plans with my friend John and his son Matthew.  How cute is he?  He played so well with my kids and was so good about sharing all his toys! 

It was a great weekend but I am exhausted and enjoying one of the last episodes of "Desperate Housewives"  I think I am the only person that still watches this show but I like it and am sad that it is ending.

My Superhero Date!

I had a date the other night.  It was with this  sweet little superhero named Thor.  He looked so handsome with his winged helmet and toothy smile.  He was strong like superheroes should be.  He carried his hammer around to protect me.  This mighty man took me to Cracker Barrel where we dined on hamburgers and carrots.  We had applesauce for dessert.  He stole my heart.  I love this superhero of mine. 

(FYI-Thor (aka Presley) did spend the majority of our date wearing his helmet and holding his hammer. He got lots of compliments.  What a brave little boy)

Being A Mom....

I am a mom. This I know. I have 3 beautiful children. I see them every morning. I see them every night. I see them on the weekends too. But during the day, I generally don't see them. You see there is that other part of my life called work. I miss them when I'm there but honestly it is so hustle, bustle that I hardly even have time to stop and look at their picture that's on my desk. We spend every morning hustling around. Usually it's me scrambling to change diapers, or get clothes on, or brushing teeth, or grabbing for the neares Healthy Choice meal (the ones that I eat anymore) or remembering to hand out vitamins. I scramble to get everyone in the car. By the time that whole morning process is done, I am tired. And I know the day hasn't even begun. As I walk around to my side, nearly every morning I feel guilty. I feel guilty that I'm going to drop them off somewhere. I feel guilty that I yelled at them (as I do most mornings). I feel guilty that we didn't sit down and have breakfast together. I feel guilty that I threw a pop tart at them. (even though they ask for them.)

Well, this morning was different. My Monday babysitter (aka my mom) is treating herself to a little vacation at Disney World. (Part of me is jealous that she is there and I am not) but....that left me with no babysitter. So.....I got to be a mom for the day! I know it sounds silly but when you are not used to being home with your kids during the weekday, it's a different routine. It's not like the weekend where we lounge around in our pj's and I go through the weekly cleaning routine. We still had a schedule to follow. It's funny because before I had kids we always joked about using a sick day as a "mental health day." Well with kids you know there is no such thing as a mental health day. Unless they are not with you of course.

So like I said, we still had a schedule to follow. Gracie has preschool on Mondays and I have actually only had the priviledge of taking her a couple of times. Of course there was some scrambling this morning. But we got to sit down and eat breakfast and we didn't have to rush as much. There was a little bit of yelling because a certain 4 year old girl refuses to brush her teeth and get dressed but still........And just because my morning was a little longer, I didn't even shower! Nope, I threw on some sweats, combed my hair and brushed my teeth but that's it. (Don't worry, I did it yesterday).

We loaded in the mini and drove off to drop Gracie off. It's like curbside dropoff there. I pulled up and Gracie's teacher Miss Jane was like "Ah, you have the day off? You enjoy it." And I smiled and drove away with only 2 kids in the car. Part of the excitment of the day meant I could spend some time with just Presley and Evie too. That rarely happens. We took a quick trip to Target and then went to the library for storytime! We haven't done that since summer! I wish I had a picture of them sitting there all cute in front of the libarian. They sat good and listend to some stories and then it was time to break out some pom-pom's and dance.

They were so excited!

After some dancing, it was time to make a craft. They got to color and glue some farm animals.
We had to do the glueing part first because I don't really let them do that at home. Presley was slightly mad when it was all done. He didn't want to color as much as he wanted to glue. Look at him thinking about how he could glue some more.

After storytime, it was time to go get Gracie. I love going to pick her up. Last year I got to go everyday because it fell during my lunch. I enjoyed seeing the other kids, her teachers, and the other parents. It makes me feel more in the loop you know? (although most of the other parents had no idea who I was) When you pick up at Gracie's school, you have to go in and get them. Then when you leave, you can play in the little park they have there. So it was decent out so that's what we did. Mostly the kids had fun playing in the sand.

When I got everyone dusted off, we headed to "Old McDonald's" for lunch. I figured "hey, I only eat lunch with these kids twice a week so why not?" We got hooked up with some happy meals and ate.

Of course when you go to "old Mc'Donald's" you have to play too. And my son, who was recently scared of the tunnel structure thing, was all about keeping up with his sisters and climbing to the very top and going down the slide.

Once again, I had to carry him out of the place kicking and screaming "more play at old Mc'Donalds" but that's fine. I knew a nap was coming. Actually I was wrong about that. Only Evie napped today but I got to spend some time with Gracie and a crabby Presley. It was a good day that after I made a delightful pasta dish for dinner, I crashed on the couch. I'm not saying that that sort of thing doesn't happen when I am at work, because it does. Life is busy. It's exhausting. It's exhausting whether you work or not. Being with the kids on a regular day like today, makes me excited for summer! Which is coming up. 24 more days to be exact. Bring it on. Tomorrow we will be rushing around yet again.

Bouncin' Bonkers!

Needless to say, it's been rough around here. The husband was out of town last week and worked this entire weekend also. So besides working everyday, dealing with the kids alone everynight and this weekend, and getting up them early this morning to try out this whole "let's go to church" thing, I am EXHAUSTED! I feel like this...

So today to burn off some of that energy that 3 little ones often, ok always have, we went to the nearest bouncy house and let them run like crazy. Evie and Gracie love these places and this was the first time Presley got into it too. He was all over the place just like his sisters and even climbed and went down the slides all by himself! In fact, I had to carry him out of there with him kicking and screaming "more bouncy house." What a sight.

After we left, I drove slowly home hoping for the impossible (all 3 kids to fall asleep). I drove through Dunkin' Donuts to get myself some coffee cuz I live on caffine and then even drove by the new Chipotle to see when they were opening. Pending, it's Tuesday fyi! Yum! I will be treating myself to some deliciousness then!

P.S. 2 of them did fall asleep!