Perfect Fun

My friend always tells me I have "the perfect family," presumably because I have been married to the same man for almost 10 years and we have one boy, one girl, one dog, one cat, American flag out front, white picket fence out back, we are attempting to grow a vegetable garden and until recently drove a mini-van.  

This weekend, we added a Badminton Set to the yard... and as I was making this purchase, I thought about that comment & began to wonder if by "perfect" my friend meant total dorks!!!

Parenting at its Best

While I would give anything to have another child, because I just LOVE, LOVE, LOVE babies, there is something wonderful about having a 6 year old and 3 year old who can entertain themselves.

Case in point - this afternoon after swim class - Henry and Kyra were very sweetly playing on the computer.  They have both rediscovered Thomas the Train (Henry was a HUGE and I mean HUGE fan of Thomas when he was Kyra's age) and were on the Thomas website.  So Brad and I laid down on the couch & recliner and took a bit of a cat nap.  We were in the next room, we would have heard screams, and it wasn't a deep sleep by any means.

At one point, Kyra came into the living room and asked me to play the Thomas Matching Game with her... half asleep, I think I said, "Yes Honey, set it up" and she did.  A few minutes later, at least I think it was a few minutes, she said, "Henry do you want to play Thomas Matching Game with me?" and Henry said rather loudly, "Yes, Kyra I will play with you because I do not want you to play all by yourself."  

Cat nap over!  

Of course, now that the two of them have fallen asleep, you don't see me trying to get them to play with me!  No, on the contrary, I've got close caption working on the TV and am about to turn the telephone ringer off!!

New PJs

I bought Kyra some Dora the Explorer PJs, which she thinks are the coolest thing ever. She is just loving Dora these days. Anyway, the PJs came as a set of 3 - top, shorts & pants. I put the pants & top on her last night - the pants are wide leg and rather flowy, not like sweatpants if you can picture it. As soon as she was dressed, she said, "Oh look, I'm like a mother!"

I didn't quite 'get' why she said that until I put on my own PJs later that night & realized that ALL of my pajamas are oversized, flowy pants!

If only the battery on my camera hadn't died, I'd have taken a picture for you...

"My Mother" by Henry James

One of the best things about KDG is the plethora of goodies they did with the kids for Mother's Day.  Henry was SO excited to give me each item - small heart shaped clay bowl he made in art, butterfly hand prints and a couple of cards - one with his picture in it.  They were all great!  I think my favorite was a fill in the blank that he was given, which he colored & then glued to a pink piece of paper.  It read as follows, with Henry's hand written answers (completely accurate) in italic:

My Mother

My Mother's name is Danielle.

My Mother is 37  years old.

My Mother's hair is brown.

My Mother likes to play with me.

My Mother's favorite food is vanilla ice cream with choc. syrup.

My Mother's favorite color is red.

I love my Mother!  Happy Mother's Day!

Love, Henry

Then today, perhaps in an effort not to be outdone, Kyra came home with a picture she drew for me for Mother's Day.  It was a picture of a pumpkin... and for the very first time, her drawing actually resembled exactly what she said it was!!

Discover This

Today, after dance class & swim class, we took the kids to Discovery Place.  They are currently having a CIRCUS exhibit so I thought that would be cool.  First we checked out the dinosaurs, of which the kids were really not a fan.

Then they both got to sit in the chair that goes up based on air pressure... or something... did I mention this is first & foremost a science museum?  I probably could have learned a thing or two had I been able to read the posted signs, as opposed to getting pulled into a hundred different directions.

Then we were off to the "big tent."  This was really cool.  They had a bunch of things for the kids to dress up as - ring masters, clowns, strong man, animals too.  Henry had a blast!  He wanted to be the ring master & he stood in the center of the tent & used this big megaphone to shout out what was happening next at his circus.  It was really cute!

Kyra is really strong, isn't she?

Time for a costume change...

Kyra was not a fan of the costumes... partly because they were too big for her!

Costume change #3 for the Boy - this one he loved because it was a coat w/ tails, which he referred to as his cape & he stared at himself in the mirror, doing karate moves & twists & turns!

Another favorite was the "who dung it?" exhibit... I kid you not!  Four piles of dung with clues about the animals & you had to guess which it was.   This is Kyra in front of zebra dung.

And this is Henry in front of (and touching I might add) the elephant dung, plastic of course, but life-like looking, don't you think?

Then we went downstairs to check out some other things, but spent most of our time in front of a blue screen where if you pressed a button, you could look at yourself on TV and it was like you were a real weatherman.  Henry really liked this one too - he kept moving so much though that I couldn't get a picture of him.  He was cracking us up - saying things like "heavy rain along I77 moving towards Raleigh!"

So Discovery Place is no Strong Museum of Play (in Rochester), but it made for a fun afternoon nonetheless... and the pizza we had on the way home made for a really easy dinner!!!

Henry's Birthday - Part 3

Last Saturday, we hosted a birthday party for a few of Henry's friends from school.  For the first time, we had it at our house... now, a bunch of kids in my house is not exactly MY idea of fun, so I really  worried how to make this party fun for them.  Then believe it or not, I came up with the idea of doing a pirate party & a treasure hunt in our yard.  Honestly, I can't believe I thought of it because I'm about the least creative person I know.

So I got each kid a pirate hat and had two crafts for them - color your own pirate bandana and then make your own pirate medallion.  I wish I took a picture of the dining room before the kids got in there - it was decorated really well if I do say so myself!!  Here are a few pics of the kids coloring.

Two minutes into it, one little boy said, "I'll finish this at home... what's next?"  So we moved on to the medallions and then went outside for the treasure hunt.

Brad actually thought up 6 or 7 clues, all of which rhymed, and he used coffee to stain the paper & then dried them with a blow dryer, which made the clues look old and weathered.  Very cool... he is VERY creative!  The treasure they were hunting were the goodie bags, which were well stocked I might add... some of which was chocolate candy that melted in the heat, but I digress!

I've mentioned that Henry is a HUGE fan of chocolate and frosting right???  I do wonder where the boy gets that from?!?!?!

I think the kids really did have fun, even if they spent the last half hour upstairs playing Wii!!

These next few pictures I took on Sunday morning - mostly because Kyra was being rather silly but insanely cute!!!

Henry's Birthday - Part 2

On Saturday, we had Brad's parents and sister over for some tasty BBQ and to celebrate Henry's birthday (again). 

Notice his cake... now, if you are paying close attention you will notice it is EXACTLY the same cake as the one we celebrated with on Friday.

Here is the thing on the cake - Brad didn't want to serve a 1/2 eaten cake on Saturday and Harris Teeter sells these cookie cakes for $8.99!!  You do the math!

Henry's FAVORITE gift and I mean FAVORITE gift was from Ammy and Paw Paw...

25 Junie B. Jones books (you gotta love the Scholastic book orders)!!!  Henry just LOVES Junie B.  I must admit, she is a funny girl, but likes to say "stupid" and "dumb" quite a bit... Henry knows he can only say those words while reading Junie B.  He told my in-laws that his dreams had come true because this is exactly what he wanted and that this was his best birthday since his 5th birthday!

Henry's Birthday - Part 1

As if not finding time to post about Easter wasn't bad enough, I haven't found the time to post about one of the most special days in my life!  Super Bad Mommy!!

Last week Henry turned 6 years old.  I can not believe that my first born child is SIX!!  I still get weepy when I think about his birth and I can still remember every minute of that day!!  Henry was SO excited for his birthday.  He reminded not only me & Brad, but his teachers and classmates, all week long that his birthday was on Friday.  It was all he could talk about.

Sadly, my main man came down with yet another bout of strep throat on the day before his birthday!!!  So he could not go to school on Friday.  As bummed as he was about that, he was equally happy to spend the day at home with me, watching Scooby Doo and playing Wii!  My mother flew in for the weekend too, which always makes my kids happy!

Henry was SO EXCITED to get the Connect Four game... he loves this game.  So I played with him - I played about 5 games with him and that stinker won 4 of the 5.  Brad played 3 games with him & they tied one, and each won one.  My mom played a few games with him and lost every game to him.  He is REALLY good at this game... I don't know how he does it because I'm older, one would think I'm smarter and I should win!!!  I think I'll challenge him to a rematch tonight!  Honestly, I have no idea where the kid gets his competitiveness from!   

Easter (A Little Late)

Bad Mommy!  I was so excited to post pictures from our Disney trip, that I didn't post anything about Easter.  I'll keep this brief, but here are some pictures from our Easter Sunday - spent at Ammy & Paw Paw's house, going on an egg hunt.  My dad also sent the kids a box of stuff and what they liked best about it was the bubble wrap!!

Disney Day #7 - The Last Day

Our last day in Disney was VERY eventful.  I "slept in" until 5:45 but we were still able to get to Disney by 7:30.  The same characters were out front, so Brad quickly got himself a couple of fast passes to Space Mountain and then we immediately hit the Buzz Lightyear ride & Peter Pan's Flight.  

Now, when we got off Peter Pan's ride, Henry said he did not feel good... his tummy hurt, he had to "go" to the bathroom and then he didn't even want to wait in line for 20 minutes (our longest wait for a character) to meet Ariel.

So while Kyra and I were in line to meet Ariel, Henry sat on Brad's lap, said he wanted to go home and then threw up all over himself.  What to do?  It was only 9am... oddly, once he threw up, Henry felt much better, so our excellent parenting skills took over and I took them to Toon Town while Brad went to Space Mountain. 

The kids LOVED Toon Town!  Mickey and Minnie's house is in there so we went to Minnie's house first - so cute!

Her living room...

Her kitchen...

They were doing a dance on our way in to Mickey's house, but his house was kind of under renovation so not as charming as Minnie's...

Toon Town also has a little play area for the kids to play in and Donald's Boat... it is this huge boat that has water coming out of it - the kids seriously LOVED this thing!  They spent an hour trying to run from the water, or in Kyra's case, trying to get hit by the water!

She was soaking wet by the time we left the Boat - I had to buy her a new dress!  Note Henry's new shirt above (to replace the one he threw up on).

The last ride in Toon Town was a kiddie roller coaster - Kyra's first roller coaster ride ever.  She absolutely LOVED it!  She laughed & squealed through the entire ride!  We had to ride it 2 times.

While waiting for our 2nd turn on the ride, Henry informed me that he'd had an accident... his hiney threw up, as he calls it.  So we had to ditch our lunch plans with Pooh & Gang and went back to the hotel to take naps.  The kids really wanted to go to the pool when we woke up, and Henry seemed to be feeling better, so I took them back for a bit while Brad started packing.

On Saturday around 7:45am, we were packed and about to go in to the hotel restaurant for breakfast when Kyra threw up on me.  This did NOT bode well for our 9 hour ride home.  She was either throwing up or sleeping the entire way home - poor thing.

But by 4pm, we were back in Cornelius and her stomach bug had passed.  I spent the next 4 hours doing laundry and unpacking while Henry played Wii and Kyra ate almost everything in site!

Our Disney Vacation is over... it was a great trip and one I hope the kids will always remember!!