Is It Spring Yet?

Ok, so it is 3 AM and after having been awakened by my son, I became a complete insomniac, and instead of staring at the ceiling, I decided to blog. I am a bit behind, and besides, this was a quiet time- or so I thought- to blog uninterrupted and quietly. Then, my daughter decided to give us her typical morning wake-up call - which btw usually comes at 5am. The baby whisperer would not be happy- I have been apeasing her with a bottle at that wee hour for the past couple of mornings. As a result, my new Bobbi Brown concealer has been getting a workout, lets just say. Anyhoo.....Here are some fabulous shots of my past few weeks. Easter has come and gone, and frankly I am tired of giving Ben chocolate eggs for breakfast. No, I am not kidding. I have only myself to blame, and because I won't let him eat every last one of them in one sitting, I am left with rationing them out until they disappear. What was I thinking? Next year the Easter Bunny is going to get crafty and creative and go lighter on the chocolate. Of course, I have to do my part in getting rid of the pesky eggs too!

The weather has been so frustrating to say the least. It is cold, rainy, and Easter Sunday was spent in record lows. Our beautiful pink dogwood got stung badly by the frost on Easter morning, but I know it will make the warm weather that much more enjoyable.

Maddie has a big day coming up! Tomorrow she will be one year old! The year went by fast- and blurry. She is growing and turning into a little girl. She is crawling and pulling up, and balancing well, but not ready to take the toddle plunge. She is so speedy on all fours, that I think she is sticking with the most efficient mode of travel for a while. She loves baths and laughing. She loves her big brother, and is doing quite well while suffering thru the short end of the sharing dilemma.

Ben is excited to have his cousin Carly visiting right now. He really looks up to her, and as a result lots of good things are rubbing off- so my hope is that they can spend LOTS of time together in the future. Come on you guys!! MOVE TO KNOXVILLE!!

anyway, I digress.

Check out these photos. Last weekend, we made a pitstop in Nashville, and got to glom on to the Easter festivities at Cheekwood Botanical Gardens with My brother and family. Even with the very cool weather, we had lots of fun.

Well seeing that it is nearly 5 am now, I think I better go perk some joe.

Ben discovers chocolate bunnies on Easter morn.
Maddie is all dressed up for Easter Sunday
Maddie and newest cousin, Jessie gracious spectators on the Easter Egg hunt.

Ben has fun at Cheekwood Botanical Gardens-what a fun time.

Tennis Anyone?

Ok, I swore I would not be one of those moms who would push their toddler into sports. But, to date, (Ben is 3.4 yrs. old) He has taken "mommy and me" gymnastics, ice skating lessons, and now tennis lessons. Hey- the kid is a natural athlete! I have to admit, he does have fun, and I just consider it organized, albeit expensive play. The city of Knoxville has a great tennis league and I happened to stumble across this opportunity for Ben to take lessons for just 30 minutes every Monday afternoon for 10 weeks! Best $60 I ever spent. Ben's buddy Mason got to join in the fun and it got off to a great start. On the way to lessons, I asked Ben what he wanted to be when he grew up- he said, "A tennis lessoner" to which I said, "What?" and he said, "You know, a tennis boy." So there you go, a star is born.

Spring Break Rocks

I have always loved the sound of "Spring Break". Memories of forays to Panama City and fantastic road trips come to mind. Then, it was all about relaxing. Now, it is all about finding people who will help me entertain my children; aka babysit for free. LOL.

.ouch, the truth hurts. Seriously, like most activities with my toddlers, I do love a plan, so we planned on seeing some grandparents, and due to the fact that one in particular was babysitting in Nashville, we just crashed the party and went there a few days. Hats off to Uncle Tom Tom and Auntie Rob Rob. Having an infant around is like round the clock work! Mine is just turning 1 soon, and I have all too soon forgotten the joys of a baby baby. Just look at these three cousins though- they all played very well together, we sure missed Carly though. Everyone is growing up so fast! Dee Dee and the kids and I planned a fun day due to the nice weather. We went to Palmer Park in the beautiful Belle Meade area of Nashville and chatted with all the nannies. Yes we did. That's how we learned that they had live bunnies at Phillips Toy Mart- truly the coolest toy store I had been in ever. I even had to go back by myself and load up on cool toys for young and old. The nights were filled with American Idol of course, and a great visit from surrogate Auntie Carol. Big shout out to CC! Our last day's visit in Nashville was spent picking beautiful daffodils. Ben loved this. Just check out these Kodak moments! Now a trip to middle Tn would not be complete without a visit to our favorite watering hole- Tullahoma, TN. Specifically, Chez Burfitt. Now talk about some wonderful free babysitting. All the young ones there know how to entertain a three and one year old. A Big shout out to Sid, Sam and Corey G! Many thanks for playing with my kids, and bearing thru the noisy night of so called sleep. Many thanks too, to Aunt Donna and Uncle Wade. We are looking forward to the summer.

Let's Stay Home Today

Friday is the only day of the week we don't have anything scheduled -so, we decided to forego the library and just have pajama day. After getting spoiled by spring weather, we had a cold snap, or blackberry winter, and we did not have the advantage of the great outdoors as an activity option, so we had to get creative. Ben decided to set up his store, and proceeded to empty my pantry. Ok, I just have to let go and get messy right? Then, even though chilly and rainy, we donned our rain boots and played some hoops. I did not last long, but I think Ben could have lasted lots longer! Well the day sounds idyllic, and if I was still working, I am sure I would be jonesing for a day like this, but by 1:30, after both children refused to take a nap, (it was not pretty- so if you are reading this blog and think i am the mother of the year, think again. It was Friday, mind you and I had dealt with a traveling husband and out of town company. Now we were all "cozy" inside for a day, and no nap??!!Was it happy hour yet?) Ok, I digress.

I decided to institute "rest time" where Ben would sit quietly in his room, Maddie could hang out in her crip- she likes books too. They would quietly read, and rest of course. Now, stop laughing. Ben just used his creativity to decorate his bathroom! Luckily, these were special bathtub crayons- who invented these?? Anyway, the rest of the day goes like this, I piled both kids in the car and headed for Starbucks. 1/2 of my crew fell asleep, so a sleeping 3 year old is a beautiful thing come 3:00pm. So, I did not disrupt a good thing, and let him get some much needed rest from all that creative .....play. We went on to have a good, although exhausting beginning to our weekend, many thanks to Dad for coming in from the road- and rescuing me! We went to Chilis for dinner, and enjoyed ice cream for dessert. Nights are getting better- as we have gotten Ben to sleep all night- just in time for Maddie to start waking again. Hey, I signed up for this , right!



This next photo took place sometime last Friday, this is a shout out to my friend Amy - thanks for this idea. It is designed to be done with ice trays, but I couldn't find mine, so we used styrofoam bowls(sorry Al) three had colored water and three were clear water; Ben used an medicine dropper to mix the colors. This kept him busy for some time, and he enjoyed it.















We are spending more time outside now thanks to Spring! Yea! This photo shows the sibling love going on here at our house. Maddie is learning to fend for herself! I think they will have great fun playing together eventually. It is fun to watch them grow together. I think Ben is going to be a great big brother, although, at three yrs. I don't know if he has fully grasped the job description. We are working on it though.

Squish Squash and Cozy Coupes

Is my life great or what? I am amazed at how tiring this job of motherhood is, but occasionally I stop and say- dude, this is really something. Maddie is growing so fast, and Ben is, well let's just say, a trip. I took these shots when we had a fun day of art and play. Ok, ok, it lasted about 28 minutes, but hey- it was structured and it wasn't too stressful! And, it makes me look good- ha. Seriously, this was a great-albeit not original project that Ben loved. I call it squish squash, and I found the recipe in my Preschoolers Busy Book - a great resource. This is the recipe:
1/2 C corn starch
2 C water
boil water and stir in cornstarch. Add food coloring of choice and when cooled put in a zip lock bag- then they can squish it all they want. Also, they can trace letters or use plastic cookie cutters. Note to self- don't use cheap zip locks- use the real thing!
Fun stuff. We did get lots of mileage out of the bag shown here.

Isn't Maddie a good driver? The paint job is compliments of Ben circa Summer '06. Nice.

Blog-o-licious

Wahoo! I love Spring. I hope this is the real thing and not a teaser, because I actually sweated today, and did not wear a coat and now I can't wait for Summer! My children wore sandals, and played outside which lead to lovely bedtime rituals. They crashed. Which, for Ben, is virtually unheard of.

Some milestones took place recently. First of all Todd turned 40!! More on that later. Secondly, Maddie had her first haircut! Many thanks to Miss Tracie. Maddie is really stealing my heart lately, I just wish you all could give her a sqeeze too. After the haircuts, we were getting in the car, and Ben decided to pull a trick on Maddie- I swear this was not a Mom set-up! Truly a blog-worthy moment, don't you think. Following this, we went on to enjoy todays incredible spring-like weather, and played outside

Here are some shots of our time outside:

Come on February

Is it me, or is the shortest month of the year seemingly dragging on forever? I am so ready for spring- as are most people; hey at least I live in the south- we are looking at 70 degree weather by the end of the week. So I should just stop my whining right now. We did get a little dusting of

snow,and we had a little fun. It is President's day weekend- a very underrated holiday I must say. We took a jaunt up to Pigeon Forge this weekend, and the crowd was quite sparse. We toured the "upside down house" better known as Wonderworks, Amusement Park for the Mind. More on that later.

So, Family Valentine's Day was fun and as I try to begin some family traditions , I sure hope this one sticks. We had a nice dinner with a wimpy attempt at decorating! But Ben really liked the flower petals- he called them mushrooms at first. Maddie really enjoyed her chef-boy-ardee ravioli- you would not believe how she can put them away!

Lastly, I just wanted to leave family and friends with snapshots of my beautiful blessings. It has been a difficult week, as it started with terrible news of a great loss. A family we know and love lost their 16 mo. old daughter on Monday due to a tragic fall. My heart goes to the Myers family. Lauren's little life was a blessing to so many. Her funeral and eulogy led me to appreciate my friends and family all the more. So, to my loving family and friends far and near- I love you. I am so thankful for the blessings of my children, my brother, sisters and brothers in law, aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, neices and nephews, friends, my Mother and my Father, Mothers and Fathers in Law, and of course my husband. I am also thankful for Jesus Christ who saved my life. Life is Good.

Geez I am a Lazy Blogger!

Ok, both children are asleep, we have no company, and the boxes are pretty much all unpacked. Unfortunately my trusty blog readers are either out of town or have given up on me- Margaret, I hope you are still there! Anyway, I wanted to post some photos, and update friends, family and the random voyeur (where is Tucker- how do you spell that??) My friends son recently won the Knox county spelling bee- way to go Tucker...anyway, I digress.

Winter can be such an isolating season. We parents with kids are relegated to germy indoor playgrounds or the trusty- glad to have- home. We are new to our neighborhood and are looking forward to warmer months so we can get out and meet some buddies. Here is a shot of our new hood. We have this HUGE hill made up of two empty lots across the street from us- it is massive- the only thing missing is lots of snow. I just noticed, too, that Dad is all bundled up, but Ben is strangely coat free. hmmm. please, noone call dhs.

A beautiful thing going on now, is that I am watching Maddie grow up before my eyes, so I thought I would share some great shots of her. She loves to eat, and that is great. She is trying out her independence. She is crawling and exploring everywhere. Thanks to big brother Ben, she is learning to fend for herself too.

Another great aspect of raising children is watching them develop friendships. My girlfriend and I "trade" playdates every Monday, this past Monday was our turn to host Ben's buddy- what fun they had. They washed dishes-during which they both got soaked. Then they opened a "store" complete with a cash register- and the contents of my pantry.

Otherwise we have been busy and enjoying kids and family. Parenting is the hardest yet most loved job I have ever had. Every day is a gift.

Also a note, today is my Grandfather's 91st birthday. He is an amazing man. This is my shout out to him I suppose. He has never used a computer that I know of, but I think he would enjoy this blog. So, Grandaddy, here's to you, your life and all that you mean to your family.

A New Year- Old School Fun

Ok, I know I have been very behind on the ole blogging scene, but I have had a few things on my plate. The move has taken place and we are in our new house. Ben and Maddie have been adjusting nicely, and I am happy to say we have finally gotten a little sleep, albeit not a full night since the move, but improved- let's just say! Well, sleep deprivation leads to lack of motivation for blogging, so I am happy to say welcome back all you readers! It's all good.

I can't believe it is already Mid-January! Life comes at you fast. The advent of preschool is a wonderful thing- and I must say, it is a big part of my sanity. But, imagine having the wonderful two plus weeks of no preschool, and then after going back just one week, bam! they close preschool again for a teacher work day. Now, as a former teacher, I fully appreciate the need for teacher in-svc. etc. But- let's just say absence does make the heart grow fonder. Well, in response to much time with my toddler, I decided to head out into a well planned and active day as I tried to keep my 3 yr. old busy. Maddie hung in there as well and helped out along the way. Did I mention we have tried dropping the nap for Ben??? Nothing like kicking a mom when she is sleep deprived! ...ok, as I always say...I did sign up for this. chuckle.

Many thanks to Dee-Dee who gave us the foam letters in a crafty gift. With a formula fed baby, I find myself with a plethera of formula cans, so we decided to decorate one and make a drum, or a letter can - Macaroni was dyed with food coloring and pasted on top with that cool Elmers clear glue. Sweet. Then Ben helped clean up while Maddie looked on- and learned.

Well of course, all that crafting leads to hunger, by making old faithful, juice pop-cicles- old school. We did add a strawberry to the orange juice. Does anyone remember School House Rock? All in all it was a great day, but I do miss nap time. What a glorious thing, napping. This time is fun- I'll admit exhausting. Teacher appreciation week is coming up, so I intend to participate fully.