Mother May I

Go Outside...

If Lily could have it her way :) she would live outside!!  I have to keep our front door locked because she can open it and escape.  She constantly wants to go bye-bye.

 These blossoms were in the back not too far from our home

 After watching Kate blow these "wishing flowers."  Her cuteness was killing me

Go Camping...
Speaking of living outside we wanted to take advantage this time of year of nice temperatures and minimal bugs/mosquitoes and we went camping.  It's so fun to see my kids excitement and anticipation for it...the love going camping!
We borrowed a canoe and enjoyed a nice family outing on the lake together, although Lily was not too sure about it.

 Such a good sister

 All I had to do was point out the "quack quacks" for Lily to calm down.

 We tried to put Lily to bed a little earlier than the rest of the kids.  She sat in her crib, talking and singing to herself.  Tommy said, "Lily's crazy." And then we hear a "hey!"  We all had a really good laugh.

 Poor Kate fell on her lip, not once, but twice!  Poor girl.  She was a good sport about it though.

 Jake told a riveting Indian Bob story when Indian Bob served in the French and Indian War.

 Go to the playground...
Look at those dirty knees

 One day Lily got an apple and the next thing I know...she ate the whole thing.  Core and seeds included, everything but the top part of the stem.

 While Jake and Tommy headed off to go camping for Fathers and Sons, I took the girls on a bike ride on the canal path.  Rachel found a place to explore, "where nobody has gone before" and found paradise.

 And the little ones could have spent the whole night throwing rocks into the canal.

 In her element

 Finished off the evening with a movie night.  I chose Homeward Bound because I knew they would all enjoy it, even Lily.

 Tommy lost his first top tooth.  I think it's really cute.  I completely forgot about tooth fairy duties and luckily he slept in and I was able to get it done.  Phew!

 I had a fabulous Mother's Day.  Jake went above and beyond with the meals he prepared for me.  I was very impressed, and it was really delicious.  My kids gave me lots of homemade gifts and pictures, I absolutely love it!
Had to document this Mother's Day picture of the true story of trying to capture a nice photo.

 Lily, sit still??  Maybe when I'm reading a book, but not outside on a beautiful day.

 She's already starting to have opinions on the clothes she wears and we're seeing the beginnings of tantrums.

 A couple random shots.  Oh the fun I get to have with these two girls at home.

 We had a great time at the circus one night.

 Kate's story time never ceases to amaze me.

 I love our "backyard"

 Our Memorial Weekend was a hot one.  I think they made about $13.

 Rachel learned and practiced how to french braid my hair and she put pigtails in Lily's hair.

 Kate asked every day for weeks, "how many days until we go to the swimming pool"  I would sometimes say the wrong number and she would correct me.  So why do they ask???  We sure are lucky to have it.

SSSssseven!

I'm always a little skeptical when Tommy reveals what kind of birthday he wants.  But they always end up being a lot of fun!  This year he wanted a snake birthday.  This subway sandwich was his idea.  I had a couple kids say, "where's the pizza?!"  Ha ha!  And then nearly half of them were vegetarian, which we did get...but I guess not enough.

We played a couple of snake games and I had a snake craft prepared but these boys were way too wild.  I also planned to play snake in the grass, but we ended up running out of time.

I came across the idea of having an expert bring in some snakes.  When I started to do some research I learned that their packages were pretty pricey.  I did some looking and asking around and found a great deal with this NJ snake man.  It was a surprise for Tommy and it was SO fun!!!

I for one am NOT a fan of snakes, but this was fascinating!!!!  I loved learning all the interesting facts about these animals.  I was even okay to touch a couple.  I can do scaly, not slimy, and as long as he was holding it :)

Tommy loved every second of it!

Rachel was having a great time as well

It was so cute to watch her take notes of all the interesting facts.

I was really proud of Kate for being so brave.  We had one or two boys at the party that did not like snakes and opted to play inside instead.

Handcuffed by the corn snakes

The big ones

The biggest one, a burmese python, was named banana peel.

Honestly, this birthday is going to be hard to beat.

A couple nights before I was trying to find a good way to frost the cake.  I saw ideas using candy but instead I came up with the idea of using the pushed dot technique that I learned in my cake decorating class and I was really happy the way it turned out.  And it actually didn't take very long at all.

The cake was literally devoured in seconds!

I was pretty exhausted afterwards.  I don't know what I was thinking when we made the list of boys to invite.  Every single one of them came and boy did they have a lot of energy.  Good thing Lily was such a good helper!

A good birthday at school

He requested spaghetti and meatballs for dinner.  I added fun snake breadsticks too :)

He was so anxious to get his transformers so he can play "civil war" with his friends at the bus stop

He's becoming quite the Star Wars fan too

The other item on his list was a remote control helicopter

A few months ago he asked me to make him a stuffed animal.  I told him I really didn't know how to do that, he then asked for a snake and I thought it sounded pretty simple.  It was!  Maybe $10 of materials and an hours worth of time.  He sleeps with it every night.

I was planning on left over cake, so I had to make a few cupcakes on Monday, his actual birthday.

Transformers, more than meets the eye, Transformers, robots in disguise.  My kids were amazed I knew anything about Transformers.  Thanks to my brother!

As we were cleaning up after the party Rachel headed out with her friend to the pet store and bought Tommy a pet frog for his birthday (despite our no pet rule).  She used her own money and made up his habitat and everything.  They've enjoyed watching him jump around and eat crickets...we'll see how long he lasts.  I hate crickets!

Meet Peter the frog.

A successful birthday!  Now I can take a rest till fall.