heyMamas

Summer Vacation Part I

This summer I am taking two vacations, one right now and one at the end of August.  We spent the first two days at the beach and the last two days at our favorite hotel out East. 

There was a whole lot of this...

And this...

And still more of this...

And about four hundred and fifty of these...

We just got home tonight, but are heading to Adventureland {and if you don't know what Adventureland is, it is exactly like this movie!} tomorrow and then off to the beach for two more days. 

And Friday, Drew and I are going back to our hotel for two full days and two full nights of uninterrupted ALONE time.  Holy crap!

NO breaking up fights, or getting interrupted, lots of sleeping in, quiet magazine reading, swimming without carrying kids on our back, ohmygod.....I can't wait.  We have only done this once before which was on our ten year wedding anniversary and Belle was nine.  We waited forever to be able to go away without our girls!

The girls will be at my Mom and Dad's house and I am so excited to just be Drew's girl for two whole days.  The sad thing is, as excited as I am, the second I drop them off I will miss them so completely. 

Here's to hoping I can get over that and enjoy my time alone with Drew.

xoxo

 

Father's Day 2011

We had a great Father's Day yesterday with Drew. 

For one of the first times ever, I was prepared with a gift!  Drew and I are not big gift-givers although there have been a few great exchanges over the last 15 years.  Usually though, if there is ever anything that we really want, we just go and buy it and rarely wait for a special occasion to do so.

So, this year I actually made a gift!  

I made a photo book, which is even better than buying a gift.  It took me hours.... but he loved it and it was so worth it. 

Here are a few pages...

{This was the front page.  Lily got a little cut out....she wasn't very happy about it.}

{Then I wrote a little story to go along with the pictures.}

I am sure for many of you that have made photo books in the past, this is NOT impressive at all, but if you knew me, you would be sooo impressed. 

 

 

Drew absolutely loved the book and will always have it to remember why it is that we love him so very much.

Belle and Lily gave Drew wonderful gifts and Lily gave him a card, of which the cover is featured up top and the inside picture is below. Please trust me when I say this drawing looks exactly like Lily when she is on the field playing soccer. 

For real....this is what she looks like right down to the peace half shirt with the sugar lip tank top pulled all the way down over her bicycle shorts.  When she wears this outfit, she literally leaves Drew speechless as he is not sure where she is headed when she leaves the house. 

The mall or the soccer field??

 

 

And Happy Father's Day to my own Dad for always being such a beacon of wisdom, well except maybe the time he called me right after Drew asked his permission to marry me to tell me what was going to happen and then ok,  I guess when he did it AGAIN to my sister after we told him specifically, when this sort of thing happens, DO NOT TELL THE BRIDE TO BE. 

But what are those two indiscretions in a lifetime of sound decision making?

I love you DAD!

Learning To Forgive

I have one daughter who would forgive anyone for anything and another one who can not a hold a grudge per say, but talk you to death with why she is mad or upset with you.

Last night we had a really bad night. 

I couldn't do anything right at all which seems to happen quite often these days, at least according to my girls.  I told one daughter {which I think at this point and the potential trouble I may get in, shall remain nameless} to get over something that her sister did because I was trying to teach her not to give her sister so much power over her, by reacting to everything she says.....but that backfired.

Horribly.

So me trying to move on with the night expeditiously, turned into World War Three. 

I apologized profusely for her feelings being hurt and promised that I would examine my words much more thoroughly before I dared to let them slip out of my mouth the next time.

But we still had to talk about it a few more times until it was 9:30pm and I really just thought I was going to lose my shit. 

So learning to forgive and getting over arguments in a timely manner is going to be a theme in our house over the next few weeks. 

So the child that I mentioned in the first paragraph that would forgive anyone for anything, wrote me the note below and the other one didn't say a word, even today when I got home from work and asked her if there was anything she thought we should review about last night....

Kids are really cute.

My Baby is Eight

Yesterday this beautiful little girl turned EIGHT!

 

 

My baby's eight.   

How can this be happening so fast?

 

 

When she was one, she carried two pacifiers around in her mouth and three in each hand.  They were purple.

When she was two, she had a voice deeper than her Father's. 

When she was three, she would scream bloody murder when Mommy or Daddy left her with anyone other than us.

When she was four, she still needed me to fall asleep with her.

When she was five, I told her now that she was a big girl she needed to fall asleep by herself.

When she was six, I felt like she needed me less and her friends more.

When she was seven, I felt like she was leaving for college at any moment. 

And now that she is eight, I just wish for time to slow down.

 

 

My little birthday girl, I love you more than I ever thought I could love someone.

Happy Mother's Day

I hope all the Mother's in the world who work tirelessly, day in and day out with almost no thanks at all.....had a chance yesterday to be doted on, even if it only lasted for five minutes and even if it was self induced doting.  

Happy Mother's Day!!

This was what I had to show for my Mother's Day before we headed out to two different back to back sporting events on two totally different parts of Long Island along with a side excursion to Ikea because that can't be a bad thing.

{Lily made me this tiny plant holder which says, "Mom, my love blooms for you..."  Precious.}

 

{This is the view from the top of the plant holder.} 

{Lily's card, which cracked me up for a few different reasons, the biggest being that she painted my nails red which would NEVER, EVER happen.} 

{Belle's card which I loved, especially the face to the side of the big heart with arms and legs.  What is that?}

{Lily gave me this amazing paper weight which gave me a laugh because do people even use paperweights any more?  Do people even have paper on their desks anymore??  I sure as shit don't.}

{And last but not least, Belle gave me this picture frame because Duh, I am the coolest Mom in the world.}

Much love to all your Mother's!  Rock on!!