Happy Birthday, Aryn!

Today is Aryn's birthday. She is now five - hurray! To celebrate, we went to Pump It Up! (that seems to be a theme with us this summer). The superstar and his cousins had a BLAST bouncing, sliding, running, etc.! We went out for dinner and had yummy pizza (not so yummy for the superstar who doesn't like pizza! He ate french fries.) Even Uncle Paul was at the restaurant for dinner. A nice birthday surprise! The princess did NOT want to sit in her high chair so her Aunt Karen held her and fed her for most of the meal. The rest of the time, she was kind of wandering around the table and eventually, sat by Grandma. After dinner, everyone went to Grandma and Zayde's house for Barbie Birthday cake. Aryn opened the rest of her presents and we all had a good time!

Happy PUI birthday again...

Celebrating Aryn's 5th birthday at Pump It Up!

traveling day

Today the superstar, princess, and I drove up to visit my parents, Grandma and Zayde. We are also visiting with my sister and her family who live close by. We stopped about half way up and had lunch and walked around an outlet mall. We did pretty good on the ride up. Tomorrow, we will be celebrating a very special birthday - Aryn is turning 5!! Since my sister, bro-in-law, niece and nephew were out of town for the superstar's birthday, we kind of re-celebrated his tonight. He got three new Lego sets (2 Star Wars ones that he really wanted!) and was super happy about it! The superstar also had a sleepover with his cousins - awesome!!

A Productive Day!!

Today, the superstar, princess, and I went swimming in the pool. Herbie came over and joined us in swimming - what fun! There were several other families/groups of people there this morning too. The superstar wanted to play with them all and the princess "ooh"ed and "ahh"ed at all their splashing. We all had fun!

After our pool time, we had lunch and then Herbie and I worked on some stuff for the coming school year. We enjoyed our "arts & crafts" time together. :)

The princess did some of her own arts & crafts...

The superstar went to karate class tonight. He was disappointed that his favorite Sensei, Jonathan, was not there. It was Jonathan's birthday and the superstar had made a card for him. Tonight was also the last night the superstar will be going to the dojo for classes until September. We decided that after going for a year, he needed a little break. We'll miss going to classes but will be ready for them again in September!

Good news day!

Today we found out that Herbie will be staying in Kindergarten! She had been moved to teach another grade level (PK ESE) and really wanted to stay in K (and I really wanted her to stay too!) So when she called this morning after she got the good news, we were both ecstatic!! We celebrated by going SHOPPING and had lunch out. It was super fun! Uncle Drew met up with us too about half way through our shopping excursion and we all had a lot of fun - at least I know I did!

After getting home, I got two phone messages with more good school news. An exciting day!

Later this evening I spoke with my friend, Spinnie, and got her caught up on all the "gossip"/news that I know of. I found that she is also a J. Picoult fan! We'll have to start a club this year at school...


The Superstar had another swimming lesson this morning. He's doing so great! I'm very proud of him. Today he did a lot of going under the water and learned how to pull himself out of the pool. We have another lesson next week and will practice until then.

Birthday Party Day!

Today was the Superstar's birthday party. We had it at Pump It Up! It was sooo much fun! The kids (and parents) got to play in a whole bunch of giant inflatable bounce houses and slides. I have taken the kids a couple times this summer to play at Pump It Up for pop in playtime and we always have fun. This time was even better since we were celebrating the Superstar's 6th birthday. After all the bouncing, sliding, and dancing to the Superstar's favorite song, "Low", we got to go into the party room. The Superstar does not like cake (???where did he get that from???) so we got a GIANT chocolate chip cookie for his party instead. It was goooood!

We took a few super group pictures...Even the grown ups got into it!

Happy 6th Birthday Superstar!

Today is the Superstar's birthday. How did 6 years fly by so quickly! I spent the day remembering that special day 6 years ago - the intense contractions, the waiting all day, the relief when the doctor said, "let's do a c-section! This kid's not coming out on his own!", the fear I felt in the operating room, the complete joy when I first saw my precious baby. Ahh...memories!

We started the morning with a bagel breakfast (yum!) and then went swimming with Grandma.

After swimming, the Superstar opened his presents from his grandparents. He got a Spiderman Wii game, Spiderman backpack, and Spiderman lunchbox! Plus a new outfit for first grade. Thank you Grandma and Zayde!

The Superstar went out to lunch to Subway with his Grandma and Zayde. He watched a lot of Transformer cartoons in the afternoon and then we went to dinner at Bob Evans. Delicious! The waitstaff brought the Superstar a balloon, special 6 year old birthday card, and an ice cream sundae! What a nice surprise!

After dinner, we had the Pirate and the Mermaid & parents and Herbie come over to our house for cake and presents.

Grandma had bought matching dresses for the Princess and the Mermaid so us Mommies decided to dress them alike:

The cake had a surprise inside. The Superstar and his Grandma planned to have a RED cake to surprise everyone. We were all surprised. It was good. The Mermaid and Princess enjoyed sharing blue Jello-O with Grandma feeding them. The Mermaid said, "good!"

All of the kids played and played. The Princess enjoyed sharing her toys with the Mermaid. The Mermaid enjoyed exploring new toys.

It was a fun day and evening for all. Thank you for joining us! Happy 6th Birthday, Superstar!

1st Swimming Lesson

The Superstar had his first swimming lesson today. He did VERY well! I'm very impressed with how well he did. He learned to blow bubbles and stick his face in the water. He did alligator crawls around the wading pool and learned to do ice cream scoops with his hands. Good job, Superstar! His swimming teacher was wonderful :)

The Princess enjoyed a bagel and cream cheese this morning for breakfast. Yum!

The Superstar and Princess' Grandma and Zayde came down this afternoon for his birthday tomorrow. Grandma made a cake for him to decorate. It was a lot of fun for him.

Then, the Superstar got silly with the handle for the cake holder:

The Superstar is very excited that this is his last day of being 5. Tomorrow is the big day - 6!!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

a Birthday Party for the Pirate!

Today we went to the Pirate's birthday party. We had so much fun! It was a safari/Kung Fu Panda themed party. We had pizza, cake, & ice cream. Then, the pirate opened his presents - good stuff! And then, we went over to the nature park/zoo area and saw a lot of neat animals. It was hot out but who cares? We had fun!

sitting at the party tables

the Pirate & Mermaid while we sang "Happy Birthday"

don't worry Pirate, no one wants it now!

are those party guests or part of the Kung Fu Panda cast?

the balloon animals were a BIG hit - and good for big POPS!

piglets! only 12 days old...cute!

that rooster should be caged...they kind of freak me out!

the Superstar has hatched!

so has the Princess!

The Superstar thought seeing the animals was the best part. The Princess liked running around with the big kids, see the animals, and seeing me hold a 3 week old baby (human!). My friend Jaime who just had her second baby came to the party with her 3 yr. old daughter and 3 week old son. I got to hold "Petey" (not his real name - I've been joking with Jaime that I would call him that but I did good and called him by his real name the whole time!). The Princess liked saying "hi baby", patting his legs and blowing him kisses. We had a wonderful time at the party - thanks for inviting us, Pirate!