S'more please

There are half days at school ALL week. So what is a mom to do? Today, I thought I'd get creative with snack time. We had smores! Yummy for your tummy smores!

Recipe:
One graham cracker split in half
One Hershey Kiss
One smear of Fluff (or as us West coasters call it, Marshmallow Cream... it's not the same.)

Ok, I am not exactly waiting for that recipe to be published in the next edition of "The Joy of Cooking", but it worked for me. And the kids were completely impressed with mommy for a split second or two. The impressed part actually came when I inserted the graham cracker into the toaster oven for about 20 seconds to melt the kiss. "Whoaaa Mommy, yook at dat!"

Both Juliana and Kevin were impressed with this snack, although Kevin wanted NOTHING to do with eating it. That's the definition of a picky eater! He chose to eat a bag full of Teddy Grahams instead.

Go ahead and try this incredible recipe at home. Just don't blame me if you burn your house down from putting it into the toaster.

He's how old?!

Happy Birthday Patrick! My big brother is, ummm well, an old man today. Well not really, I just have to use the 4 year age difference to my advantage somehow.

First photo: Uncle Patrick and Kevin at Patrick's rehearsal dinner, April 2006.
Second photo: Uncle Patrick tickling Juliana. Taken during one of our California visits in 2004.
Third photo: Patrick, my brother-in-law Kyle, and Jason at Kyle's house. Taken in 2004, I think.

Box o' Smiles

I tried Smilebox again. Here is "FALL IN OUR HOUSE".

Make a Smilebox photobook

Veterans Day adventure

On the next ballot... Veteran's Day should always be the first monday of November. Just an idea.

We took advantage of having a day off from school and went somewhere fun. We drove about an hour to our destination, had lunch, then went on a bunch of rides. Kevin had a blast on ALL of the rides. You'd think he would have gone on one or who during our Six Flags adventures, although he has always been so terrified. Today, we went to a smaller amusement park and he loved every ride. Obviously Juliana did too.




Afterward, we stopped at McDonalds for ice cream. The kids were so excited to find out that McDonalds has ice cream. They had a few bites, then played in the play area for about an hour.

From there, we came home. Then off to the gym for gymnastics and mommy get-rid-of-fat-hips exercises.

That's our day.

No more tubes, needles...

THE TYPICAL "NOT ME MONDAY" RULES DO NOT REALLY APPLY TODAY. I WANTED TO DO IT ANYWAY.

I could not bring myself to write about this yesterday. This was our story just one year ago... November 9, 2007 was the beginning of a nightmare. As the days piled on top of each other, my heart sank deeper and deeper wondering what in the world was going on and when it would all end.

I remember sleeping next to his crib hearing the countless monitors beeping, watching the nurses give him new bags of nutrition, cleaning up his bed nearly every hour from bodily fluids all over, listening to his screams each time they missed a vein because they were all collapsing, hearing a doctor and nurse shake their head each shift wondering what was going on, watching his big sister look at him from afar because she was terrified of all of his tubes, looking around at the other children and parents in the hospital with desperate looks upon their faces.... and it goes on and on.

Here we are one year later, and we are still figuring out what is going on with our little guy. Luckily he has not seen a scary doctor or nurse for any IV's, needles, or anything like that since July. I'd like to stay away from all of the pain, screaming, and terrified "help me, they are hurting me" eyes,




You'd never know that he has gone through so much. Right now he is dancing to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and loving every minute of it. He played soccer at the gym today, and told me all about kicking the ball into the coach's tummy. OOPS!

One day, we will figure out the medical mysteries going on. Right now, he seems to be okay, so I'm running with that idea... for now.

Birthday continued

Ok, my mom arrived yesterday afternoon ready to be Grand for about a solid 24 hours. No small feat for her!

Jason and I left the house, went to pick up friends, and headed into the city. We all got ready for the evening, and met up at the cruise location. It was drizzling out, although just enough to make it look like I threw on clothes to go to the grocery store, rather than actually getting ready for a fun night out on the town. My hair was, ummm well, pretty pathetic after a few minutes of arriving on the pier. So we wait in line to get on the boat, get our photo taken, and head to our table.

As we sat down at the table, I noticed a bucket with a bottle sitting in it, champagne glasses, and chocolate truffles too. I assumed all of the tables had that. I was wrong. Sweet Kerri asked for those to be at the table for my birthday. This is why I always say, I HAVE THE BESTEST FRIENDS IN THE WHOLE WORLD!

Once the boat started moving and we finished the appetizer, we headed outside and froze our tooshies off. It was chilly and windy outside. Hence the windblown photos.

The rest of the boat ride was just as you can probably imagine. Talking, laughing, eating, drinking, doing stupid Titanic impressions, taking pictures, then repeat......

We got off of the boat after 3-4 hours, and knew our night was not quite finished yet. We ended up at an Irish pub to have a few more drinks. The drinks were terrible, it was starting to get late, so we called it a night.

This morning we had a fantastic breakfast, then headed home.





I am having a "night out" hangover right now. Not because I necessarily drank too much. I'm just kinda in a fog right now wishing I had more nights like last night. Awesome friends, fabulous hubby, my birthday, and laughing. There is not much more I can ask for.

I Love my birthday!

I've had one of the best birthdays in recent memory (and tomorrow it is just going to get better). I began the day with a bunch of facebook messages, myspace, e-mail cards, e-mail messages, text messages, and even old fashion phone calls too. I even got a shout out in the school parking lot from a parent after she heard Juliana singing to me. I'm a lucky girl!

Jason, Kevin, and I went out to lunch together while Juliana was at school today. Nothing special, but Jason suggested it, so why not. Then we picked Juliana up from school, came home, and then Juliana and I headed to the movie theater. Just us girls at her first movie theater experience ever! We got popcorn and water (she has never had soda) by her request, and went on to the theater. Her eyes were open wide with the selection of seats to choose. The movie, Madagascar 2, was quite good. There was a lot of adult humor in it, although nothing that would stand out in a child's mind that could be used as naughty language or overtly obnoxious. The characters did say "stupid" and "butt" a lot, so Juliana got all giddy with those words since they are not allowed in our house. I just rolled my eyes and moved on. Anyway, our little movie outing was a success!

We came home, then went out to dinner. Yes, I am now over 450 lbs just from today. Ewwwwwwww!

Oh, I can't forget the yummy Coldstone cake that we had when we got home. We all shared one enormous piece of cake. Now I am full, and ready to veg on the couch for the rest of the night.




Thank you to everyone for all of the sweet birthday calls/messages. I have the bestest friends in the whole world! So what if that is a statement that a 5 year old would make.

Tomorrow afternoon, evening, and night are a continuation of my birthday celebration. ADULTS ONLY... that sounds a bit sleezy. I don't mean it that way, I should actually just say, NO CHILDREN ALLOWED!