The other day we met one of Maggie's friends at the park for a playdate.

Not one of her many imaginary friends...

A "real" friend that she goes to school with...

And really enjoys playing with....

I love it when Maggie has a playdate with a "real" friend!

BTW, Maggie has a ton of imaginary friends and is constantly telling us all kinds of stories about those friends. It tends to drive me a bit batty at times, lol!

Ben's creation

After all of the requests from my blog readers I have scanned Ben's art work so you can see what he was hard at work coloring...

I think this is AMAZING for a 14 month old who can't sit still for more then two minutes!!!

(Ok, so I will admit, no one actually asked but I wanted to share!!!)

Ben coloring

Have I ever told you before....

That this baby does not sit still???


Ever???


Even when he is coloring...

With a big red crayon...

On a piece of paper...

That has horses on one side...

And is blank on the other side...

And, can I just say...

That I think it is just adorable, and funny....

To watch my active little artist hard at work???

BTW, this is only when he was coloring in the playroom, he made the rounds around the whole downstairs with his red crayon and piece of paper.

Creepy crawly animals

Today we went to the library for a "creepy crawly animal show"... Our library is great like that, they hold lots of fun stuff for us!

And I am sure you all know by now that my children are absolutely wild about animals. All animals. Especially creepy crawly ones. Well, and farm animals too. Basically, all animals.

We saw lots of great friends there! That always makes it even more fun!

And the kids got to sit right up front!

Which was slightly alarming when the animal guy set the alligator on a table just a mere feet from the kids heads and wasn't even holding on to him!

Thankfully the alligator stayed put!

Ben and I sat in the chairs in the back. Ben liked the animals but it was a little too long for him to sit still.

It was a lot of fun and we are looking forward to more shows at the library this summer!

the art gallery

This morning Maggie, Connor, Ben and I attended the opening show at the best art gallery in the whole country! We were among the fairly small group that were given the honor to attend such an amazing event...

Here is one of the most featured artists at the gallery today!

Some of her works of art could be found in her famous "Image Making" book.

My favorite was the "Seahorses kissing"

Followed by "Pink Bubble Bath" as a close second...

This was, by far, the best art show that I have ever attended! Sadly, due to me forgetting my camera, I missed out on the opportunity to get pictures of the artists. Other guests did get some so I am hoping they will share with me.

After the show most of the group went out for lunch at a local restaurant. The kids had a tour and were able to make their own pizza. (I think this is key in getting kids to eat and will be allowing the kids to make their own pizza at home!)

Then we took a trip to see my dear friend Christine and her new baby Timmy, who is home by the way! He is just adorable and is such a peanut at just under 6lbs! Mom and baby are doing well!!!

Katelyn's day...

Katelyn had a wonderful birthday. She must have said 10 times, "This is the best birthday ever!".
It started off with her favorite breakfast of bacon and cheese scrambled eggs along with a slice of coffee cake!


I surprised her at school with lunch from our favorite pizza place and some cotton candy! Next time I need to remember to call her best friend's mom before hand and get permission for her to eat pizza with us.

Then we had an early dinner of "nana's spaghetti" which came out ok. It was the first time I cooked it and I think I cooked it too long.

After dinner we had birthday cake. A very yummy ice cream cake!

I couldn't believe how well she blew out the candles! My asthma girl, her lungs are nice and strong right now!

Then she opened her gifts and was very excited to have received tennis rackets and balls!

We can't wait to go to the local park and try them out!

Some of you that are friends on Face Book know about the gift that Maggie and Connor made for Katelyn. It was a magic potion made of baking soda, paint, water, sugar, cinnamon, soap, and surely some ingredients that I am missing. We still don't know what the magic potion is supposed to do but Katelyn said it stunk! LOL, I just love the creativity and imagination!

Finally we headed off to Katelyn's show at school. It was a musical show that the kids have been practicing for a while now.

We watched as Katelyn did a great job! She had butterflies on the way there but said that it was pretty easy and fun after-all.

After the show we gave Katelyn 8 roses. Her papa used to give her them every year so when he died we kept up the tradition.

She only brought 7 home though, she decided to give one to her teacher who happens to share the same birthday!

What a great day!!!

Connor, why is that on your head?

Connor, honey, why do you have a toilet seat on your head?

You don't know either, hmmm, interesting...

Guess what Katelyn said when I took the picture... "Connor, you know mom is going to put that on her blog, right?"

She sure knows her mom, lol!

My jumbled thoughts on this special day...

Eight years ago, on this very day, at 7:30pm, I gave birth to my first born monkey...
I became an official Mommy...


My water broke at 1:30am, 4 weeks before she was supposed to join us! It took me by complete surprise. As the matter of fact, I thought for a second that I peed my pants. But quickly realized that wasn't the case since I had just gone potty two seconds before. Chris was down stairs on the couch, fast asleep, in front of the TV.
I called down, "Chris"
He said, "yeah?"
I replied, "My water broke."
He FLEW up the stairs! I don't think his feet even touched the ground.
He said, "Are you sure? Maybe you peed your pants."


I packed a bag. Chris finished the nursery. I showered. Chris showered. I tried to sleep but the contractions were coming on very fast. Off to the hospital we went. We called Nana. She came. I labored ALL DAY! I hated the Nubane. I LOVED the Epidural.

Finally at 7:30pm my first baby girl was born and placed on my chest. She had already captured my heart and was now laying on it.
Only for a minute though. I said, "Is her breathing ok?" The nurse said, "I better take her over the warmer."
I called over to Chris who was by her side and said, "What's her name? She doesn't have a name!" Chris said, "She looks like a Katelyn Irene."
A few moments later they came over to let me know that she was having a hard time breathing so they were taking her to the NICU.
I was scared. Chris went with her. He came back a while later to tell me she weighed in at 8lbs 1ounce and is 20inches long. I didn't believe it, she was a month early, I told him to go check again. He did, he was right, she was a BIG preemie. They brought me a Polaroid picture of my new baby. I was full of LOVE for her!
She had fluid in her lungs but was doing well. She didn't need too much intervention but they wanted to keep a close eye on her. She spent the night in the NICU. She didn't know how to suck and was spoon fed formula.
She joined me in my room the next day and I held her close constantly. I LOVED her already!

Katelyn is already 8 years old. She is one of the most amazing, smart, kind, sweet, loving, helpful, empathetic, and terrific children I have ever met.

She is thoughtful and kind beyond her years. She has welcomed 1 sister and 2 brothers into the family and is the BEST big sister there is.

I am so proud, so blessed, so lucky, so thrilled that this little girl is my daughter.

That SHE made me a MOM, eight years ago today.

Happy Birthday Katelyn!!!

What do you think they are doing?

Any ideas on what is going on in this picture???

Maggie is pushing Katelyn in her "wheelchair" and Ben is going along for the ride...

This seems to be a new favorite activity around our house. Sometimes the person in the "wheelchair" gets pushed but other times he or she has to use his or her hands to turn the tires to roll around. You know, like a real wheelchair?

Apparently Ben thought it was his turn and climbed in.

Thankfully he then didn't fall out...

I love the imagination and creativity of my children!

More flowers...

Remember the flowers that my sister gave to me on Thanksgiving? The ones that I LOVED and was slightly obsessed with?

Last week I used the pictures to decorate my "scrapbooking picture frame". It looks so beautiful, in my opinion!

Then the other day when I was at Michael's I saw this floral arrangement....

The colors are not as bright and beautiful but I did really like it. I didn't buy it even though it was on sale. However, the next day I went back and picked it up because I couldn't stop thinking of how nice it would look on top of my jelly cabinet.

It does look mighty nice if I do say so myself...

Homework is fun

Look at these amazing creations that my children's hands, smart brains, and imaginations came up with.

It was part of Connor's homework to build shapes with tooth-picks and marshmallows.

Since we had no marshmallows, and neither did the local drug store, we decided to buy gummie bears. They didn't work so well. We tried some Sour Patch Kids that we had in the house.

They weren't quite as easy as marshmallows would have been but they did the job. And, the kids had a fun time experimenting.

Homework was fun that night!