Playdates and Princesses

We had wonderful, awesome, loyal friends...unfortunately most of them have moved/are moving away. My good friend Amy and her son Liam(and husband!) moved away last August. We've missed them so very much. My kids ask about Liam all the time and can't understand why we don't just walk up the street to see them anymore. My other good friend, Angie, will be moving with her family in June. I'm already feeling lonely! Fortunately, I've built the kinds of friendships with these ladies that will stand the test of time and distance and I have no doubt that they'll be my friends for life. Thankfully, Amy and Liam miss us as much as we miss them and they made a special effort to come visit us last month. We had SO MUCH FUN! They kids were ecstatic to see each other. Liam came running into our house as soon as his mom parked the car and he and Maura gave each other the biggest hug and ran away to play as though no time had passed at all. It was so sweet that it brought tears to my eyes! Lily and Dawn soon arrived and the kids played like a pack of screaming banshees and had so much fun all morning.
Three of the amigos stopped their running for a quick drink break. Unfortunately, Sarah couldn't be there that morning. so we missed out on having everyone together at the same time. Because Liam moved in August, he's missed everyone's birthdays. We decided to have a group birthday party and celebrate with cupcakes. They kids LOVED having their own candle and we sang to them all at the same time.

Maura and Lily had already celebrated their birthdays this year, but Liam and Tristan had not, so they were excited about our little celebration.

"Birthday girl Lily" and "Birthday boy Tristan" couldn't wait to blow out those candles and dig in!

I love, love, love my friends and I'm so blessed to have them in my life. Thanks, girls, for all the fun and all the memories. I'll hold you in my heart forever!

Below: That same day, my mom called in the morning and asked if Maura and I would like to go to the Disney on Ice show. "YES!" I didn't buy tickets this year due to budgetary restrictions and then regretted it because I'm not sure how much longer Maura will enjoy all things princess. After our play date, Maura slipped into the obligatory princess costume and we headed down to the arena. I'm not sure who was more excited, me or her!

Thanks Grammy!! We're so glad we got to share this special treat with you! We couldn't wait for the show to start, and when it did it was truly magical!

Tinkerbell was first, which thrilled Maura to no end. She even had a wand that sprinkle real pixie dust. LOVED it! Minnie and Mickey took the stage next and introduced all the princesses and their princes. Everything was done in true Disney style and it was so much fun.

My girl taking a break from all the magic at intermission. Though she really wanted a light up wand from the show, this cheapskate mommy couldn't cough up the necessary $20, so Maura had to content herself with the wand I brought from home for her. She wasn't too disappointed and she quickly revived herself when Grammy arrived with popcorn.

Cinderella dismounted from her magical carriage, everyone came to meet her...

and they all lived happily ever after! Have you ever wondered if their happily ever afters included screaming babies in the middle of the night or vomit in their laps? Disney just never seems to show that part! Anywho, it was an awesome day and I loved sharing it with my girl and my mom. And we all lived happily ever after!

Fire Safety Day

Tristan has LOVED preschool this year. I truly did not know what to expect when I signed him up this year. He's not exactly a child who likes to sit still and listen to a teacher, and up until this year was not a child who enjoyed being dropped off anywhere. Things could have gone really badly with his introduction to preschool and I was fully anticipating having to pull him out of school after the first few weeks if he didn't make a good transition. Thankfully, he has LOVED every minute. He frequently asks in the morning if it's a school day and he gets very disappointed on Tuesdays when Maura goes to school without him. He loves his teachers, Ms. Sharon and Ms. June and he likes being part of a class. From what I hear from the cooking teacher, he REALLY loves Cooking because it also involves eating! There are so many fun activities each day and now that the weather is finally nice, he's enjoying playground time at school. All this pales in comparison to the last school day in March. It was community helpers month and the fire truck showed up at school. There's nothing like a shiny red firetruck to get that little boy heart pumping! He was so excited!!
We had to go to school all decked out in our firetruck shirt, yellow rain slicker and fire hat. He talked about this event ALL WEEK leading up to our Thursday school day. I wasn't sure how it could possibly live up to his expectations, but I believe it did. He insisted on wearing his fire hat backwards. I wasn't sure why at first, but I think he thought the brim should go in the front. Smart. I guess that makes sense!

All the kids(around forty!) gathered in one room to see the fireman. One gentleman went over fire safety while the other got all dressed up in his gear. He kept taking his mask on and off to show the kids that he was still just himself underneath. He got down on the floor to crawl through the rows of kids so they could see him up close and personal and hopefully not be scared of him in the event that they had a fire. That's Maura's head to the right of the fireman. I don't think she knew what to think!

After the fireman's demonstration, it was time for each class to go see the firetruck. Tristan's class was first and I was so glad because I'm not sure if he could have waited!! As you can see, he was among the first in line to get into the truck and he was anxious to get up there! He was so proud of himself!

My little fireman! He's such a cutie! I love that he loves all the classic little boy things; cars, fire trucks, tractors are his things!

Below: Maura was pretty excited about her firetruck visit too! She found a real fire hat in the truck and tried it on for size. I'm pretty sure she wouldn't have been able to hold her head up if she had actually strapped it on!

Maura's Rainbow Riders class had an impromptu dance party on the back of the firetruck. That's Rachel, Avery, Londyn, Maura, Eli and Amelia. Most of these kids have been together in class for the past three years. We're going to miss this crew! We loved our Fire Safety day and one of our children's favorite dinner time activities now is being quizzed over fire safety tips! Maura even likes to practice Stop, Drop and Roll! I guess you can never have too much fire safety awareness!

Daddy's Hotel

Brent has been an Army Reservist for longer than our entire marriage. That's ten years, folks, for those of you who are counting. Other than our deployments, most of his Reserve time has been spent right here in our hometown. For the past two year, though, he's drilled at Wright Patterson Air Force Base. I have always had plans to join him up in Dayton during one of his Reserve weekends. He stays in a hotel while he's there, and we've always wanted to go along for the weekend. We've just never made it happen. Last month I finally made a conscious effort to make it work out. I figured we were already going to be halfway to Dayton after our trip to the zoo, so we'd just continue on and meet Brent in Dayton for a night of fun. The kids were super excited to see "daddy's hotel." I'm not sure if they really think the hotel is daddy's or what, but I know they had a great time.
The kids were most excited about swimming in the hotel pool. They haven't been swimming since the summer and they couldn't wait. Maura is a great little swimmer. She can't wait till she's old enough to join the swim team. She's begging me to put her back into lessons too. She's my little fish!

Bennett loved the water too. He splashed until he was sputtering from the water in his face. He kept trying to wriggle out of our arms and take off on his own. Looks like he's going to be a wild man in the pool just like his brother. Tristan was LOVING the water and kept climbing out so he could jump back in. I'm so proud of my big boy. He'll be swimming on his own before we know it!

We went out to dinner and had a great time with the kids at a steakhouse where you can throw the peanut shells on the floor. That is the ultimate dining experience for Maura. If we ever ask her where we should go for dinner, she always suggests somewhere we can throw peanut shells. Later, we went back to the room, let the kids watch a movie on the laptop and loaded them up with cookies and M&M's. They had absolutely the best day ever. Maura told me that. Zoo, dinner, swimming, movie, cookies. It doesn't get any better than that for a kid! Unfortunately, bedtime was a little rough and it left me questioning why I had even attempted to get three kids to sleep in the same room, but we survived. We'll have to do it again soon, especially after June when Brent's sister Amy and her family relocate to the Dayton area. Can't wait!!

On that same weekend, Mom called to ask us to dinner. Uncle Brad was home!! He was only in for the day, but we were so excited to see him! We hadn't had a chance to visit since Christmas. The kids acted like they were getting to see a celebrity!

Uncle Brad couldn't believe how big this baby was! Back at Christmas, Bennett wasn't even sitting on his own. The kids had a great time playing around in the yard with Uncle Brad and enjoying the beautiful spring weather. They are such lucky kids to have such a wonderful fictive uncle. We'd like to make him a real uncle one of these days!! We love Uncle Brad!

Wild Animals

We spied some wild animals just a few weeks ago. We went to the zoo to soak up some of the beautiful spring weather and saw these wild ones... Oh, wait those are my two crazies! We drove up to the Cincinnati Zoo to enjoy our zoo passes for the first time this year. Whenever I have annual passes to a location, I always feel pressured to use them as much as possible. I've been waiting for the weather to be nice enough and it did so over Emily's spring break. Grammy, Emily, Lorie and Alex met us at the zoo and we anticipated some fun! Of course my kids needed snacks BEFORE we even entered the place! They look like two monkeys...and they act like them too!

The day was a bit cloudy and overcast and we did have to take shelter in the reptile house to avoid a passing shower, but we had a great time. Bennett LOVES being outside and just waves has arms and kicks his legs in excitement. He got excited every time we saw an animal. I can't wait for him to be able to tell me about them.(I know I just wished for my child to talk. Believe me, it would be easier than the screaming that he does when he's frustrated that I don't know what he wants! You'd never know from that face, though, would you?!)

The kids were excited to share their zoo with Aunt Emily. I don't think Emily was quite prepared for the zoo with kids experience. Everything just takes a LOT longer. The kids were so interested in the reptiles that we spent a ton of time in there, we lingered in front of exhibits that they liked, we even went through a few exhibits twice. We had a potty standoff with Tristan for at least a half hour. All this adds up to time taken away from actually seeing the zoo. She'll understand someday!

Below: We went over to the children's zoo and met a friendly turkey. I've never seen a turkey this tame. When the kids petted him, he actually closed his eyes like it was soothing him to sleep! They LOVED it!

The zoo nursery was a little underpopulated, but the attendant got the wallaby out of the cage and the kids loved watching him. Bennett was especially interested in the wallaby because he moved so much. He got a kick out of seeing the wallaby jump around and the lady kept feeding him marshmallows. He was really cute. We turned the corner to look at the other animals and realized they were Bennett's Wallaby. How appropriate!

Alexandra loved seeing all the animals. She kept making animal noises for them, however misguided. She loved seeing all the animals from a distance, but when Lorie tried to get her to pet the turkey at the children's zoo, she was having none of it! She loved this black bear, though. He looked just like a teddy bear.

I think Grammy loved having all her grandkiddies st the zoo at the same time. They WERE all awfully cute! We really had a perfect day for the zoo, despite the small rain shower. It was comfortable temperature-wise and the zoo was not at all crowded. The only thing that could have made it perfect is if Daddy and Aunt Katie could have been there!

What a fun day with all the animals...mine included. We're looking forward to many more zoo trips to get the value out of that annual pass! The kids and I weren't quite ready to pack it in and stop having fun for the day...nope, we piled in the car and drove on up to Dayton for more fun and games! More posts to follow!