The Big Day!

Here she is in all her excitement (& nerves) getting her final cast off!

She did great and the surgery site has healed very nicely. She is a little stiff still and VERY CAUTIOUS about her arm, she holds in bent close to her body but she is doing great!

Tomorrow is the big day!

After spending the last 8 weeks in a cast Annie gets it off tomorrow. I think as her mom I am as scared for her as she is excited. Having the cast hasn't stopped her from doing things - we just spent a few hours at the lake and she was a fish in the water. But once the cast comes off her arm isn't protected anymore and I think I may become the worrywart mom!

Hopefully all goes well.

future rockstar!

Each of our kids have different but great personalities. One of the favorite traits Audrey has is she is a ham. She really is funny and has great timing it seems - especially for being only 2!

Saturday her dad got her this dress up outfit and she had the best time putting on a little show for us! Maybe someday we will be watching Audrey Lee instead of Hannah Montana.

Father's Day Weekend

For Father's Day weekend we decided to take the kids on a little weekend get-a-way. We spent Saturday morning at the Moore's having a fathers day brunch then loaded the kids into the car to head to San Francisco.

We took the kids to the Exploritorium. We had such a fun time. Charlie was so funny - he kept asking "is this going to make me smarter?" He loved all the experiments and hands on activities. He really loves numbers and science and just really enjoyed getting to try out all the different things. The girls had a great time too - even Audrey got into it and loved touching things and she loved the mirror exhibit they had - they had all sorts of lights and mirrors that displayed images in different ways.

After the museum we headed to the Wharf but it was so crowded that we decided to go to our hotel and check in. The hotel may have been 5 star according to priceline but the service was horrible!!! It was in an interesting area. It was right next to the TransAmerica building and bordered China town and the Italian area so we walked to a little Italian restaurant and had a great dinner.

We drove around after that and took the kids down the crooked mile and across the Golden Gate to a look out point. It was fun to do the things we remember doing with our family with our own kids.

Sunday morning we got up and headed out to the East Bay to find a beach to take the kids to. We ended up going to Stinson Beach and the kids had a great time playing in the sand and finally talked us into putting on their swimsuits - why I don't know I would have been fine in long pants and a sweatshirt but when you are a kid I think the water just calls you! They had so much fun swimming and splashing around.

Chickens

So the other night I made eggs & ham for dinner with biscuits so we could have our homemade jam the kids & I had made. I made 10 eggs thinking that would be enough for everyone for dinner. Well after Charlie had 2 servings of eggs and 4 biscuits smothered in jam I looked at John as we were clearing the table and asked how many eggs I would have to make when Charlie was a teenager and what happened if this one is a boy - can you imagine our grocery budget then? John without missing a beat just looked at me and said don't worry, by then I will just buy you some chickens so we have plenty!

I can hardly wait!!!

You learn something new everyday!

So the other evening Charlie asked why we call him Charles when he gets in trouble. John said to him, "well Charles is your real name and Charlie is your nickname. When you get in trouble we are frustrated with you and call you by your real name so you know it is serious." Charlie responded, "I didn't know that, I thought it was just a nickname for when I was in trouble."

Today it's the table!

So today we spent the day running errands but we did some fun stuff too. I took the kids to the movies and saw Madagascar 2. The theaters have a free summer program where they show 2 movies each week - it is always fun because you don't have to worry about your kids being loud because one it's free and everyone else has noisy kids too.

This afternoon I came home and finished my table project. I had gotten a huge vase with hydrangea's and made a table runner. I think it turned out great!



Table Before!





Finished Table & Naked Audrey!

Annie's Arm Update

I should have posted this earlier in the day since it was our big thing today.

Annie got her pins out! Like most things in life the anticipation leading up to it was 1000X's worse than the actual event. This morning I had to literally carry her to the car screaming because she didn't want to go. The poor thing hadn't slept well the last few nights because she was so "nervous" as she would tell us. And a couple of times a day for the last 4 or 5 days she has had meltdowns where she sobs over the pins being removed. We tried to pass along all the positive things we had heard from different people who had pins removed. She truly has been a trooper through this whole experience so we totally understood and sympathized with her being scared.

Once we got to the doctors she did great. She was a little panicky because John was running a few minutes behind us but once Daddy was there it was all right. She did cry a little when the Dr. started to pull out the pins but once John told her they were all done she was fine! The actual scar from the surgery looked beautiful (if that is possible but being one with lots of scars I can honestly say it looked really good) the Dr. did a great job during surgery. Her arm is healing up beautifully and she will be in this cast for another month.

She was so excited to pick new colors for her cast. I will take a picture in the morning but her cast is purple with white stripes - that glow in the dark & blue glitter. She gets stopped constantly by people telling her how neat & cool her cast is.

We are just glad that everything is healing fast and correctly and that she isn't in any pain!

Project for today..

So I thought I would journal some of my projects. About 2 weeks ago I found someone in our neighborhood giving away 6 dinning room chairs for free. They had a pretty worn black seat cover so this weekend I found some fabric and recovered them. I think they are turning out great! 3 down - 3 to go...(the pictures aren't great - I used John's phone)

Really?

So today on the way home we were listening to a Kids CD and I was singing along to Michael Finagen and Annie from the back seat says:

"Mom, STOP singing - it is hurting my toes!"

Oh well, I knew I was a bad singing but to hurt her toes?

Projects...

So owning our house has been lots of fun. We have done quite a few of the things we have always said we would if it was ours. We just painted the master bedroom & bath and had tile put in. For some dumb reason we had carpet in the master bath. I can't wait to take my first shower in the bathroom tonight and not have stinky musty carpet underneath my feet when I get out. We have painted the front door and lights on the front of the house, we have had the fence raised in the back so you can't see right into our neighbors yard. We have put ceiling fans into the kids room and a new huge one in the family room.

I am loving the freedom to do what we want with the house and can't wait to finish even more. Next is to sit down with the kids and decide on how to decorate their bedrooms!

Last day of school!

I remember being a kid and the last day of school was always so exciting. As a mom I think I am just as excited as Charlie if not a little more!!! I am sure come a month I will be ready for a schedule again but as of right now I can hardly wait for the break of summer! Lazy days and fun with the kids! Yeah for summer!!!

quote of the day...

Housework is a treadmill from futility to oblivion with stop-offs at tedium and counter-productivity. Erma Bombeck

This about sums up my life some days!

Where did May go?

I can't believe June is here already. I think I have been looking forward to this week for months! School is out tomorrow and we are all so excited to have summer here, as low key as it is going to be.



May has seemed to pass in a blur. Earlier this month John and I went on a quick trip to NYC to go to Brett's college graduation from NYU. What a great time we had. Brett showed us some of the neat NYC sights and we had a great time visiting with him, John's parents and sister Cindy. Brett's graduation was at the new Yankees Stadium and it was really neat to see it (although I think John would have loved to get to see a game there as well!)

After our quick trip we got home and with in 15 minutes Annie had fallen on the trampoline and broken her arm. She ended up needing orthopedic surgery that night to have her arm reset and pins put in, she had broken off the end of her tibia and it was floating down below her elbow.




She was such a trooper. She was more worried that she was going to need a shot than if it hurt or not. She wore her splint for 10 days and now she is in the next cast. She wears this one for another 2 weeks then she will have the pins taken out and be in another cast for 4 to 6 weeks depending on how it is healing.

Right now she has a very cool pink & green stripped cast with green glitter, who knew that casts could be such a fashion statement!




Well the rest of the month has gone by in a blur it seems... baseball is over this week and both kids and John had a great time. Charlie finishes first grade tomorrow. It has been amazing to watch him this year, we are so proud of him! He has learned so much, he is doing great in math and I am always so happy when I hear him read something to me. He is so sweet and will now read stories to his sisters! Annie is excited to know that next fall when Charlie goes back to school she will be there for kindergarten. Audrey is getting so big as well. This morning I had one of those moments when I turned and she seemed so big all of a sudden. She is our little ham and loves to make us all laugh!



We have started some home improvement jobs. We painted our master bedroom & bathroom. We are having the carpet ripped out in the bathroom and tile put in tomorrow! We will post pictures when it is all done but I love the colors!

And yes, to top it all of the new ticker on the side of the blog is right, we are expecting #4! I am feeling pretty yucky these days and just want to curl up in bed. The kids had been really concerned why I have been so sick. Charlie would come into the bathroom and tell me daily that I need to go to the doctor because I am throwing up so much something has to be wrong. We told the kids last weekend and they all have been pretty sweet about it. Annie wakes up everyone morning and puts her hand on my tummy to see if she can feel it yet. Charlie told me this morning when he was curled up on my lap that he can hear the baby and Audrey is sure she has a baby in her tummy also!

Hopefully as summer is here I will feel better soon and we can all enjoy a nice lazy summer!