Samantha's Birthday

The slideshow below shows a few pictures from Samantha's birthday, her party and just a random cute picture from her soccer game on Saturday. Her birthday on Tuesday started out great when she came down the stairs and saw her bike (Thank you Grandma and Grandpa!) and her most favorite present of all.....her huge singing mylar balloon! Of course the theme of her birthday was Disney princesses and the color pink. Princess bike, princess balloon, princess cups and plates and everything in the color pink. We are going to have to do a totally manly birthday for Alex because the girly hormones flowing through this house after this week are making me nauseous! The day of her birthday we played with some cousins, went to lunch and had a shopping spree at Toys R Us. Although, I don't know that you could call it a shopping spree!! I figured she'd be able to pick out 3 or 4 toys in our budget and in reality she only got 2! Toys are too expensive! But she seemed happy with her purchases and that's all that matters. Plus, we don't want to spoil her too much, right??

Saturday was her birthday party at Kangaroo Zoo and the kids had a blast! We stayed for about 2 hours and the kids were tired and hungry and sweaty by the time we left. In fact, so were the adults from just chasing the kids! We came back to our house and had pizza, cake and ice cream and of course presents! Samantha smiled a lot the whole day and I smiled a lot when her uncle Greg taught her how to ride her bike. She has been frustrated with it all week and hasn't wanted to ride it until magical uncle Greg figured out a way to teach her that she understood and this morning it was the first thing she wanted to do! Thank you Greg. I think it was a successful birthday for her and she seems happy to be 4! The doctor said she is doing well; 50th percentile in height and weight and seems healthy and right on target for her age. The nurse was nice enough to measure and weigh Alex as well and he is only a few ounces less than her and 1 inch shorter. No wonder everyone thinks they are twins!

Thanks to all our family for making Samantha's birthday very fun and special!

Samantha's Birthday Party

I love the History Channel!

The kids are in bed (not sure if they're sleeping) but I'm watching the history of Rome on the History Channel and it is fascinating! I've never been a huge history fan and always got poor grades in the subject in school but I love the way The History Channel brings things to life and makes things so clear. Nero sure was a bad-ass! I want to go back to Rome now and take Andy. Because he's never been. And I have. And I like to rub that in his face. And Florence. And Venice. ALL those places Andy's NEVER been. HA HA HA HA.

Olympics

Who else is SO excited for the Olympics??? I am a huge Olympics fan and plan on ignoring my house, my kids and my husband for 2 weeks while I plant my butt on the couch and eat Cheetos while cheering for the good ol' USA! I think swimming is my favorite. But diving is great too. And of course track and field. And then there is gymnastics. Wow, I think I have a serious Olympic addiction!

Happy Birthday Samantha!

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!!!

Today you turn 4 years old and you are officially making me feel old! Daddy and I were talking tonight and realized that you are out of the “toddler” classification and into the “preschool” group! Wow! Which, by the way, you are SO excited for preschool. If I would have known how much you wanted to go to school I would have put you in preschool last year as well. My bad. You talk non-stop about school, you make up games and pack your backpack to go to school almost every day. I really hope that you keep this enthusiasm for school your whole life. You are so smart and I know that you can learn anything you want to and you will excel at anything you put your mind to. You are so driven and passionate and I think that if we put you on the right track now you will never go astray. At least that’s what I pray for every night!

You have not been an easy child but boy are you fun!! You are very witty and say such insightful, smart, funny things that I know you will always keep us laughing. I think my favorite thing about you, Samantha, is your ability to show compassion to everyone around you. You are always concerned for others and when you see someone upset or crying you immediately want to help. What a great quality! I can’t count the number of times I have struggled during the day and you have brought me a stuffed animal and your blankie to comfort me. You are especially concerned for Alex which I LOVE to see! When you get a treat in primary or dance class or soccer, you always save a bite for Alex. That makes me feel like I might be doing something right. You two are such good friends and I hope that you always will be.

I really wish I could come up with all the right words to describe you and your personality but you are just too big for any words I know. You are larger than life. Sometimes Grammy and I call you and Alex “forces of nature”. Please take this as a compliment! You have been such a difficult child to parent but I also think, because of that, the rewards for raising you right are going to be that much greater!! It would be so much easier to be the parent of a child who loved the entertain themself (which you don’t) or a child who was easy-going (which you’re not) but you make me grow and stretch myself and you are helping me learn patience and unconditional love and because of that, I wouldn’t change one little thing about you!!!!

I want you to know how special and beautiful you are and how much I love and adore you! I always call you my baby girl to which you reply “I’m not a baby, I’m a big girl!”. FYI, no matter how old you are you will always be my baby girl. I used to think that if you just got a little older you’d be easier…..it turns out I was wrong and I just wished away you being a baby, for which I am forever saddened by. Now I am just trying to savor each phase with you because I know it won’t be too long before you won’t want to rock with me anymore and you will discover many other people more fascinating than me that you will want to spend your time with. Until that day though, I will rock with you whenever you want and spend as much time with you as possible! You are my whole world!! I love you so much baby girl! Happy 4^th Birthday!

Momma

Because we rock!

Just now Andy had the kids in the tub while I dropped something off at the post office. I got home and wasn't trying to be quiet or sneaky but apparently the kids didn't hear me come upstairs until I'd gotten some clothes out and walked around for a while. They suddenly heard me close a drawer and I heard Samantha ask Andy what the noise was and ask if it was a monster. Andy yelled "Hey big scary monster are you there??", at which point I jumped into the bathroom and screamed. Let me just say, the reaction was AWESOME!! Both kids started screaming which lead to crying. They really didn't know it was me. You may think Andy and I are mean for laughing, but come on, it really is funny!! Once they finished crying they found it funny and we continued scaring them for a while, so don't feel too bad for the kids. They recovered quickly.

Samantha's first soccer game

Samantha had her first soccer game this morning and she did so amazingly well and it was the most entertaining soccer game I've been to! And I've been to a soccer game in Rio!! I think we all know how 4 year-olds play soccer.....in one big bunch! Samantha kept up with everyone and tried her hardest to kick the ball. She even ran in the right direction most of the time. The best part was that she had a smile on her face almost the whole time. She was hot and sweaty but didn't complain at all. What a trooper! She also wanted to play this afternoon and practice outside so I think that's a good sign.

Very concentrated.
In the middle of the game she was showing her new friend her pink shoes! Girls have priorities.
She was so cute and excited to be goalie.

As you can see, she was a very effective goalie.

The rest of our day was very fun since the kids both took naps and we were able to go to dinner, get a little shopping done and watch the storm come in before bed. Usually they go to bed so early we don't get to have much fun with them but when they are rested they are hilarious and fun and I so much enjoy being around them.

The ol' swimming hole

Friday morning my family came over for a nice morning swim which turned out to be hot and very fun. My dad had the day off of work so he even got to join us. It brought back a ton of memories of vacations with my family and swimming in the hotel pools. My dad would always let us stand on his shoulders and he would flip us in the air and we would do a back flip into the water. Of course, we'd always try to dunk my dad in the water which we could never do and, come to find out, we still can't!
The kids were great and had such a fun time, which, as we all know, is why we do this stuff anyways.

My mom, dad, Cameron, Spencer and me.

Cameron enjoyed Grampy and I throwing him around.

Samantha swimming on her back kicking her legs.

Alex finally learned how to hold his breath under water. He opened his eyes as well and enjoyed looking under the water.

Happy Birthday Mom!

My mom's birthday was 2 days ago and last night my sisters and I went to dinner and a movie with her to celebrate. It's always a lot of fun to hang out with just the girls and we were very girly and saw Mama Mia. I had no desire to see the movie - no real good reason why, I just didn't care about it. But I must say, it was great! It was sweet, the music was fantastically ABBA and Pierce Brosnon provided the comic relief with his singing. I was so happy to be able to celebrate my mom with 3 of my best friends!

On a side note the kids asked this morning what movie I saw and since then they have been calling me Mama Mia. I kind of like it! I decree I should be called Mama Mia henceforth!!!

Zoo

I took the kids to the zoo this morning (man was it hot!) and it made me realize how big they are getting! We didn't use a stroller because they've outgrown it and just fight sitting next to each other. Oh, and between the 2 kids and the stroller it's about 100 pounds to push!! They just walked next to me, didn't complain about being tired and didn't even drag their feet too much. Besides it being so hot it really was a fun time. I've been waiting for the day that i could take them places like that by myself and it looks like we're there!

I desperately want to work in this office

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Boys rock!

I love having a boy because the kids are playing outside and are naked and dirty and I REALLY didn't want Alex running through my house all dirty like to go to the potty. So he just peed in the corner of the lawn. Although, I do remember doing that as a kid at my aunt's house when we would swim in her backyard. Going in the house and taking off my swimming suit was too much work. Might as well just pee on the grass!

My jungle

These are my herbs. My parsley is even taller and more gigantic than when this was taken about a week ago. My basil was struggling for a while but now it's taking over as well.
I have 6 tomato plants here and they are all producing very well and getting huge. None have turned ripe yet.
In my opinion, there is nothing better in the summer than fresh tomatoes picked off the vine. My kids will just grab ones off and eat them while they play outside. We have 2 plants growing right now from seeds leftover from last year. They are growing in odd spots though which is going to make them difficult, but worth it. Almost every night when our tomatoes are ripe we have a tomato, mozz and basil salad. YUM!!! We just miss our fresh mozz from NYC. Andy used to pick some up at Grand Central on his way home and it was to die for! That was one of our favorite things about living there. Pathetic, I know.

She's going to make a great mom!

Samantha wanted to color in the family room to which I responded, "No, because your brother has a tendency to color on things he shouldn't. We will color in the kitchen.". Samantha turned to Alex, held his chin in her hand and said, "Alex, you need to be responsible!". Sing it sista!!

Andy's recruits

Andy recruited the kids to help him wash his car the other weekend. As you can imagine though, it didn't take much persuading. My kids will take any excuse to get wet. They sure look cute in their swimming suits if you ask me! Samantha is going to be a knock-out. We are in so much trouble come dating time!

Merrie

This here is our new pet. Yeah, a fish. A boring ol' beta fish. But we were at the pet store and this is the easiest pet to bring home!! The name comes from one of the hobbits from Lord of the Rings. Andy and I decided a while ago that every pet we have is going to be named from LOTR. How cute is a dog going to be named Frodo??? I know!! I'm on a waiting list for a parakeet and it's name is going to be Pippen (Pip for short).

When we brought the fish home we made sure to tell the kids that fish don't last forever and can die pretty quickly....you know, just to prepare them. (Andy and I don't have the best track record for keeping fish alive). So almost every morning Samantha comes down stairs asking "Is the fish dead yet?". Yup, we love this fish!

Mom Ears

I think they should do scientific studies on the ears of mothers. We seem to have this amazing ability to pick out our child's cry over 20 other kids and yet block out their screaming and talking when necessary. In the car, for example, I can pretty much block out anything the kids are saying and fighting about whereas Andy goes NUTS. He can't handle the singing and talking and I'm all like "What singing and talking?". I guess it's a matter of survival. I'm also very bugged by the "phantom" cries that you hear in the middle of the night. You hear the wind blow or a car and automatically think it's your kid making noise. Oh wait....it usually is Samantha calling out!! Nevermind.

Save Me!

It's only 7.25 am and the children are sitting at the kitchen table eating and coloring and fighting and screaming about Peter Parker (Spiderman). Samantha is singing a "Peter Parker is a girl" song which is driving Alex crazy because he knows deep down that Peter Parker is a boy. Yeah, it's going to be one of THOSE days!

recipes

I still have a ton of bananas, so to all of you who offered a yummy recipe please email them to me!! krandy at gmail dot com.
Thank you, thank you!

Bum galls

Both kids napped yesterday (praises) so we took them out for ice cream for their reward. Samantha chose neon blue cotton candy flavored ice cream with bubblegum balls mixed in. Tempting, I know. We were sitting down enjoying the ice cream when Samantha asked Alex if he'd like one of her bum galls. I was offended at first and I didn't even know what bum galls were! I finally clued in that she was trying to say gum balls but got a couple of letters mixed up. Needless to say, we had a good laugh.