Thursday, June 28, 2007

If You Missed MY birthday...

Well, you missed a rockin' good time. Saturday3 of my college friends, 2 of my work friends and I got together at a local bowling alley. We befriended the group next to them, and "nametagged them". Which means that everyone was wearing random nametags thru out the evening. As it was my party, I got to name everyone. Some of the goodies include:

"I 'heart' Canadian Bacon" for my Canadian friend.
"I 'heart' German Sausage" for my German friend.
"Ask me to quote you my rates" (I have a friend who works at Allstate)
"I Touch people" (we were a group of Speech, Developmental, and Occupational Therapists)
I Make the Balls Bounce (The girl in the lane next to us dropped her ball)
Meet me at the copa cabana (the Dad next to us was wearing a funny Hawaiin shirt
Got Milk? (For my recently post partem friends)
Where's my wife?
He's at Home (these for the gay man in the lane next to us, who was SOOO much fun to hang with we shoulda gotten his number)

There were tons more, but as I was slightly intoxicated I can't remember them now. Or maybe that now I'm in my 30's I'll start remembering less and less.

We finished our rounds of Cosmic Bowling, and went for a high class and yummy dinner at Arby's and headed out to the ONE local bar/club in this area. It was a-okay though since we were the skinniest chicks in the joint (yes, even my 3 weeks post partem friend looked anorexic comparably) and it was a SUPER pick me up. We danced like Freaks and didn't care. We were awesome!

At the end, I had to relinquish my purple "Birthday Princess" Crown which I'm sure started out as a joke but I wore all night anyway.

Shout out to Sean, my brutha from anotha mutha (and good friend's hubby) who put "My Humps" on his I-pod just for me and saved my drunk dial to a computer file to replay at work. That just proves how big of a rock star I am, right?

Presents

Opening presents did NOT include sharp objects in the outlets, contrary to what evidence photos portray. Jack got a rockin' cool Davey Jones costume. Anyone who knows Jack knows that every day is pretty much Halloween without the candy bonus. This kid loves dressing up and has an awesome imagination.

He's got a good evil grimace too. Wonder where he learned that from????

Nate on his birthday

We celebrated the boys' birthdays on Nate's actual Birthday on the 21st. We had my folks, John's folks, our siblings, brother's in law Greg and Craig and Great Grandma Woods. Of course Baby Brooke was there too, and I think she had a good time. I mean, what's better than burgers and brats, mac-n-cheese, salads, watermelon, corn and cake? Uncle Richie had class and was sorely missed. Shout out to Kunkle Wish!


Here is the star of the show, pickin' up chicks in his ride. "Hey, you, wanna ditch this joynt??"
"Why yes, Nate. Let's go somewhere fun, like the zoo."
"Brookey, our house is a zoo. Lets just drive in aimless random circles instead."
"Sounds like a plan. You're the man in the driver's seat."
"I said TURN RIGHT."
"Woman! Stop being a backseat driver."
"Well, you shoulda turned."
"Whatever. It's my jeep now so either sit down or be quiet!"
"Do you see where I'm pointing? You shoulda turned."
"It's my party and I'll pass out before cake and presents if I want to." "What, it's Nate's birthday? I can out party him, totally. Look, I'm still awake, so can I open his presents?"

Why I F****ng HATE Diego

All moms know Diego...the little Hispanic boy who saves animals. He is basically Dora's (oh, you know Dora, she's EVERYWHERE!) male counterpart.

Trying to be a "good mom" and alleviate the constant guilt I unsuccessfully supress on a daily basis, I let Nate pick out which cake he wanted me to make. I was lovin' the idea of Elmo. 2 colors, no problem. And then he saw Diego, and I almost started crying right then and there. But, since Jack always got what he wanted, it's only fair to Nate to let him have the same.

Diego had about 17 steps to decorate him. Within those 17 steps was imbeded and not numbered about 10 more, thus, Diego was slightly improvised on and for anyone who knows better and is looking closely,

1.) Yup, I cut out his green and yellow patch entirely. Gone. See ya. Too hard.
2.) Yup, I improvised on the shoes that are supposed to be 4 shades of grey.
3.) Yup, I realize it looks like he has the manly chest of a 35 year old. Don't care bout that either.


A close up of the face shows that his eyes aren't quite right either, and his tongue is the wrong color. The saving grace of Diego was that he was made out of Swiss Chocolate Duncan Hines cake mix and tasted pretty darn delish.

Spidey on the other hand was a piece of cake...pun intended. He totally rocks! And no improvising was required. Awesome. Happy 4th birthday my love!!


What a cool action photo. We love you Nate! Happy 2nd Birthday you big boy!!

Friday, June 22, 2007

Happy Birthday Jack


Okay, so it was Jack's birthday. He got this apparently really cool toy if you're a 26 year old reliving your childhood play time every time you visit your favorite nephews.
Uncle Rich was very happy to "help" put together the Transformer. He got to play in the process. Trust me, nothing pisses off a 4 year old more than his uncle dominating his toy dom. But is was funny, and he's a good uncle, so anytime he feels the urge to play guys, he's more than welcome to make a visit.

Maddie on Vacation

She LOVED swinging on the playground at the campsite. Check out that crazy hair! We call the kids the 3 Stooges, and she takes the cake as Larry (Guess who Moe and Curly are?)
Giddy-up Cowgirl!
Loving the children's museum.
See mom! I can Drive a boat too!! Eating lunch at the museum...I mean, playing with tools....

Jack on Vacation

He's such a pioneer. This is at the Northwoods Children's museum, which was actually a LOT of fun. Until they brought out the bunnies. Then we had to leave because John's allergies got the better of him.

http://www.northwoodschildrensmuseum.com/ Playing at the museum. Jack loved this room that had a lot of cool stuff for imaginative play.

Being 4 means you get to do cool stuff on vacation. Like Go-Carting with Granpa while the little ones are at the cottage napping.
Let's just say, I'm glad I wasn't there to see this. Small car, fast turns, no helmet. I know he was safe with Grandpa, but I'm still his mom. I can have mini-heartfailure when I see these photos.
I think he had a good vacation. He got to go on the boat until almost 9 one night. It was him, John, and Granpa fishing. THAT is some good, special time for anyone that is truly priceless. Unfortunately, I was tending the little ones, drinking heavily, and chatting with Grandma, so I have no photos. I guess there are just some memories you can't capture in a split second photo anyway.

Nate on Vacation

This is our "vacation home". The cottage we rented for a week had an awesome lake view, a ton of space for us, and on the last night, bats in the belfry, so to speak. See the metal tube or vent or whatever on the upper left hand side? I think some were in there. In anycase, I was afraid they were going to come into the kitchen and give me rabies. What can I say? I'm a freak. Row Row Row your boat. The poor kid was too afraid to sit in a seat.
Okay, not on vacation, but at home here. It was too cute a photo to NOT put on the site.

Not so sure about the whole boat thing at all!
Blurry, but what a sweet moment. Daddy and Nate out on the dock checking out the panfish situation.

Ramblings...

I have not posted in a while, so here is getting everyone up to speed in a nutshell....

* Nobody meandered down by the lake on vacation, thus there were no random rescues and subsequent heart failure. I guess you can say that by this account alone, it was a good vacation. John however, was in (as his dad very rightly put it) his own version of Disneyland. On a boat. Alone. Fishing. Just the "alone" part is enough to call it Disneyland for me.

*Jack turned 4. Nate turned 2. I turn old tomorrow.

*Jack may very well be the first kid ever to get kicked out of Sunday School's Vacation Bible School. Apparently he had a horrible day yesterday that requires further disciplining today.

*On the first day of VBS, Eat Your Ham and his old lady wife Sierra came to visit. She is in a wheel chair, and they live in a tent. I found out later that it was Abraham and his wife Sarah, and they were part of the drama presentation to get the message of God and love across to the 4 year olds.

*Maddie had another appointment with the pediatric opthalmologist Monday. She will be having surgery to open her clogged tear duct on July 5th (I did NOT choose the date, they picked it for me). On Tuesday I took her to her pediatrician to get clearance for the surgery, which he approved except she has a raging ear infection that needs to be cleared up by next week in order to proceed. Will have to keep everyone posted on the developments of this.

I'm going to try and load photos so everyone can get a glimpse of the latest crickets happenings....

Friday, June 01, 2007

Guarantees

I can't promise my husband and family much in this life, but I'm pretty damn sure that thanks to Billy Blank's younger, bulkier, better looking brother who taught my kickbox class this morning, I'm not going to be able to move for about 3 days.

It's only 2 hours later and already I'm feelin' the burn.