Me Too You

So I told her....

Jeff snapped a hillarious series of photos today. Lily was multi-tasking - on the potty, on the phone, checking her nails. So. Funny. Oh yeah, we're in trouble.

A sampling of Ben and Lily's birthday activities

It started with some presents, of course. Did I mention it was Princess and Spiderman birthdays this year? Yes, those were the themes. It is tough to have a shared unisex/multi-sex birthday celebration when everything is so boy/girl. But we are making it work. I am willing to bet this will get a lot harder in the future...

We headed to Explorer for a morning of school. I was the "Floater" today, which was nice so that I could somewhat follow them around. Being a somewhat rainy day, we pulled the jumping mats out and all the kids jumped and ran and generally wore themselves out. They did some art, examined some items in the science room (ooh, magnifying glasses - and have you ever seen such a cool magnifying glass/table/stool?). At good-bye circle time, Teacher Konne led the Happy Birthday thing for Ben and Lily. She made them each birthday crowns (by the way, this is part of my Explorer committee job on the Children's Education committee - to cut out these crowns for all the kids) and everyone clapped 4 times, blew 4 kisses, gave 4 hugs (well, 8 actually - 4 for Ben and 4 for Lily) and sang Happy Birthday. Ben and Lily gave all their school friends little sticker activity books (an assortment - mermaid, pirate ships, animals, etc.). It is days like this that I appreciate so much that I get to participate so much at the kids' school. A very nice day for sure.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BEN & LILY!!!! We love you so, so, so very much!

Ben and Lily are FOUR - let's have a cupcake party

Tomorrow is Ben and Lily's 4th birthday. Wow. They have actually seemed 4 to me for a while now. But it is amazing to think that 4 years have passed since they were born. It has been a long time and a short time, all at once. Nana and Papa are headed out for a camping trip tomorrow, so we had a little family cupcake party tonight. Princess and Spiderman style. It was simple and fun. Ava, of course, totally gets cupcakes, so she was right there with the big kids licking that frosting right up. We will be celebrating with Ben and Lily's BFFs Emily and Aiden and all their friends next week at Pump It Up. Wear socks and get ready to bounce, bounce, bounce....

Almost FOUR Milestones

Some big and important milestones happened to Ben and Lily today.

Ben went on his first ever playdate at the friend's house (Justin from Explorer) without me, without Lily, and even without us dropping him off and seeing where he was going to be and making sure he was ok. He was on his own. We took his car seat out of our car, put it in Justin's and off he went with his buddy. He did fine - had a blast and didn't want to go home when we came to pick him up (Lily didn't want to leave either, actually - ahhh...the draw of someone else's stash of toys). Justin's mom has an older child, so she's very used to the whole playdate/carpool thing. It was nice to have an experienced mom to reassure me that all would be well.

In the meantime....

I really should have set up a playdate for Lily as well, but this one for Ben came up a bit last minute and none of Lily's friends were available today, so.... instead we have a Special Girls Day. In other words, Lily and I had spa manicures and pedicures. Her very first professional pampering experience! She did very well and kept whispering to me "Mama, my fingers and toes are soooo pretty." That, and "Mama, I'm not scared. It doesn't hurt." She picked out the color for both of us (a pale pink with sparkles), sat in her big cushy spa chair, sipped her water and stared. Of course, all of the nice ladies at the nail salon (and, by the way, we went to InSpa, a posh new spa with all natural materials) wanted to ooh and aah over Lily, looking at her nails and telling her she was so pretty and brave and how exciting it was that this was her first time. All the attention was a little much for her, so she was quiet, not her talkative self. I didn't bring my camera, unfortunately, but I did take some photos on my phone, so I will get those posted up as soon as I email them to myself I suppose.

I'm so proud of both my big kids. They really are growing up. They'll be FOUR next week, after all.

Week One, Day Three of Boot Camp

As one of my non-New Years resolutions, I signed up for adventure boot camp. It is 6:45am and I just arrived home.  A friend has been doing this for months and I finally got crazy interested enough to join her. There were always excuses. Mine were, in no particular order - my kids still get up early and need me (but, really, not anymore), I can't afford it because I already pay for a gym (admission: I haven't been there since I was 6 months pregnant with Ava, who is now 20-months-old...), my only free time is in the evenings and if I got up soooo early I would have to go to bed soooo early and then I would never get to relax (relax? you mean, watch mindless TV and eat cookies?). This particular boot camp is from 5:30am - 6:30am. It is located 5 minutes from my house. I decided to throw out the excuses and get a move on, literally. Frankly, I need some time and effort spent for myself and the accountability and permission to do so.

I AM SO SORE!!!! My whole body is screaming for Tylenol, Advil, Motrin, Vicadin, Percoset. I am hobbling around. Add to this I have a horrible chest cold. Oh, and Lily has decided to choose this week to be scared of the dark all of the sudden. This means I, alternating with Jeff, am up 10 - 20 times a night to reassure her that there are no monsters, she is a brave girl, Ben is in the room with her to help protect her, to think of nice things like flowers, butterflies, and ballerinas, we love her, she'll be fine, etc, etc, etc. There really never is a good time to start something like this boot camp thing. But...it feels great to get something done for myself in the morning before the rest of the world wakes up and to stop all my excuses. Maybe it is the endorphins talking, but I am loving it and can't wait to go back tomorrow morning.