Long weekend...

FINALLY it is warm in New England.  The sun is shinning, the birds are singing, and much to Steve's dismay, the lawn is growing.  Poor guy spent 3 hours mowing this weekend, I used to be able to help with it, but since I hurt my back I am too afraid of reinjuring it, so I can't do much but watch and cheer him on.

Tyler got a new video game this weekend, he loves video games and would spend entire days in front of the tv playing them if we allowed it.  Here he is in deep concentration.

I love that Juliana still likes to play.  I walked into the playroom the other day and found she had completely covered the carpet in blankets, not sure what she was doing, but it was cute.

When it came to bedtime Saturday night the kids decided it was time for a dance party.  Tyler loves to dance and Juliana likes to dance when someone else is dancing too.  They also did handstands, and Tyler spent a significant amount of time flipping over Juliana.  Those are some of my all time favorite photos, I love that they love each other and when they have pure fun...  there is nothing like it.

Monday Steve and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary.  We've been together for almost 14 years.  Hard to believe sometimes how much time has passed.

May 30th, 1999

May 30th, 2011

What's on your walls?

Juliana loves to do research.  Her teacher started having the kids do research projects this year and she thinks it's so fun to learn about new things.  The other day she decided she was going to research Poptarts, and from that "The History of Poptarts" was created and stuck to our living room wall.  I haven't taken it down yet as I don't know what to do with it once I do.

Finally.

After a long, long cold snowy winter the sun is finally shining and the temp is finally warming up.  Nothing puts a smile on my face more then seeing leaves on the trees and flowers of all colors popping up.

Not allowed in the kitchen...

So Steve was making himself a little lunch yesterday as he was working from home.  I was busy and not paying attention to what he was doing.... apparently he wasn't paying attention either.  I heard an odd sizzle coming from the kitchen and went to investigate.  I opened the oven and was greeted by a plume of smoke, followed by smoke billowing from the oven.  I turned off the oven and took out the unidentifiable objects from inside.  The smoke detectors began to go off... did I mention Steve was on a conference call?  This is what came out of the oven.

He thought broiling taco shells with a closed oven and then forgetting about them was a good idea...  I disagree!

Concert soloist.

The beginning of fourth grade all the students had an opportunity to choose an instrument.  Juliana chose the drum and was very excited that she could do it as there are only 4 students that can play drum a year.  And she is the only girl drummer, which I think she thinks is quite cool.  They had their final in school concert last week and Juliana did a drum solo.  She did fabulous!  We were so proud of her.

It was also the final chorus concert.  Her class has such amazing talent when it comes to the singing.  They just sound so fabulous you could sit and listen to them all day.  Juliana loves chorus and had so much fun.

Mother's Day 2011

This Mother's Day was my 10th being a mom.  It gets better every year as the kids get older and really enjoy celebrating my day.  Steve took them shopping the night before and they got gifts for me.  They came home with flowers for me, so cute seeing them walk in the door together both holding the flowers so they could hand them to me together.  They were pink roses, so sweet.

On Mother's Day Tyler was the first to come in my bedroom.  He hopped in bed and hugged me and said "Happy Mother's Day, can I get you anything".  So cute.  Then he ran downstairs to get his present.  He got me a candle in a super cute box that he picked out all by himself.  He also had made me a card at school with flowers of "jobs" that he will do for me.  Juliana then came in with another big hug and gave me her gift.  She wrapped the gift herself and decorated the paper, she wrote New Kids on The Block songs on the paper, love her!  She gave me a super comfy pair of pj's (I love pjs)!  We then went to Mohegan Sun  for breakfast then came back and spent some time outside as it was a beautiful day.  Steve of course napped and then it was time to do get some things done.  I can always get him to do one or two things around the house when it's my birthday or mothers day, so I always have a project.  He mowed the lawn and then hung some pictures that I had framed.  I have no patience for hanging and measuring, so I was super happy he did it for me.  Now I just have a couple of nail holes to fill, but they look great!

Another fabulous Mother's Day.  I have decided that Mother's Day is my most favorite day of the year!

Creations...

Tyler loves to make creations.  I hear him in the bathroom often with water running, and I know I'll have a mess to clean up, as he's making another one of his creations.  In the backyard with the hose, I know there will be mud and dirt and water everywhere, because he was creating a volcano or some other thing that will be sure to make a mess.  I always just let him "create" as he's a kid, and that's what childhood is all about.  Using your imagination, being creative, far too many adults have lost that somewhere along the way.  On Sunday he was very proud of his creation, Strawberries & Water, a simple creation indeed, but one that wasn't too messy that we could actually eat.

Easter - a little late.

So Easter was a little over a week ago and I am finally getting around to blogging about it.  I was VERY sick the entire week before Easter and have had so much to catch up on since.  The night before Easter the kids were so excited they didn't think they would be able to sleep.  I love when they get super excited, but it's exhausting when I am tired and they don't want to go to sleep.  But eventually they did and I was able to put out their Easter baskets (buckets) and then I went to bed so the bunny could come and hide eggs.  Juliana woke up at 1:30 AM ready to search for eggs, seriously girl, it's barely even Easter and there is NO WAY I am getting out of bed.  I sent her back to bed and she did fall back to sleep, but only for 2 hours and then was back up at 3:30 AM, only this time she had company, Tyler was up too.  They tried to get us to get up so they could search for eggs, ummm....  nope, not going to happen.  They asked every 10 minutes until 6:00 AM when I finally said, okay, we will get up and you can do your egg hunt.  Again, I love when they get so excited, but when it affects my sleep, it's not as fun.

Here they are coming down the stairs in the morning, they decided to hold hands so they could go together (basically so one wouldn't arrive in the kitchen faster then the other):

And there Easter buckets:

Ready for the big hunt:

After the hunt was over I baked some goodies for Easter dinner.  I made my brothers favorite Death By Chocolate and I made jello cupcakes.

Number 5!

Last night was the father daughter dance for the Girl Scouts.  It was the 5th year for Juliana and Stephen.  I love the preparation that goes into the dance, it's so fun to get Juliana dolled (her word) up.  We spent the morning shopping for the perfect dress, which was a little big but the one she really wanted.  Thankfully my fabulous neighbor Shirley took it in for her on short notice.  We also bought new shoes, earrings, and necklace (it says Daddy's Girl).  The older Juliana gets the more she gets excited about the getting ready part.  We spent a long time on her hair as she new she wanted it down and straight.  We used serum, a blow dryer, and a flat iron.  When all was said and done she looked gorgeous!

She loves having her Daddy as her date.

Her friend Kerri and her Dad picked up Steve and Juliana to go to the dance together, of course I took a few pictures.  They are just so cute!