A Parents ONLY vacation!

WOW! Greg and I were SUPER LUCKY - we were able to get away for a parents only trip to Riviera Maya - thanks to LOTS of people (Erik/Brooke for a Tues night/Wed AM coverage, Paula for an extra daycare day, Auntie C and family for a daycare pick-up and dinner feeding, Grandma-Grandma for a 2 day, 2 night kid coverage, G'ma and B-Bob for a 2 day, 2 night coverage, and our wonderful neighbor's for a 11am to 4 pm coverage until we got home Sunday)~ not a small feat, however WONDERFUL for Greg and I none-the-less!!!!!
We had a great time reconnecting, eating meals that weren't cooked or cleaned up by us, adult beverages, sleeping in, swimming with the dolphins - a huge treat from Greg to check one off my bucket list (no pics as they were $25/picture!!!), kayaking, snorkeling, enjoying each others company ALONE!!! I love my husband and baby daddy!!! And boy were we excited to come home to our awesome kiddos, a quick reality check!!! :)

Bucket BOY and Toad GIRL

Patrick and I had some Mom and Son time alone, he carried around a bucket with his milk cup in it for an hour (Elise was playing with the neighbors). It was super fun to hang out with my little man - just us!






Elise was in a 32 min time out (she now has to be quiet for FOUR minutes - OUCH for parent and child)...during the screaming, Patrick put the puzzle bucket on his head walking around the house making goofy noises - his attempt at humor for me during the patience challenger!



Speaking of Elise, she is our little nature girl from birth! She found a toad and was so proud to pose with it, then let it go to "be wif it's famiwly". TOO FLIPPIN' CUTE!






Then she decided he (the toad) had never gone on a swing before :)

Siblings!

Too cute and too true to siblings...I was tickling them with my feet...talented Mom! :)

Happy FOURTH birthday Peanut!

We had an awesome Birthday Party/Mother's Day with 36 people (90% family) last Sunday. It really went perfectly as a controlled chaos and we are STILL eating left over food from the party (yes, I am my Mom's daughter and my Grandma's grand-daughter, you don't EVER want to run out of food, just in case some extras come! I'm kinda proud of this innate feature :)

One of my favorite things was that Elise wanted to let her cousins and brother share in opening her presents - we were very proud parents - that could have very easily gone the other way. HOWEVER, it showed our little girl's sweetness and thoughtfulness :)

Peanut, we can't believe you are FOUR!!! Time has flown by :) We are proud to be your Mom and Dad and Patrick :)

To explain this pic...3 days before her party, my Dad - B-Bob - asked what color Elise's dress for her party was. When she said Purple, I saw my Dad's eyes glow. He's had this purple wig for many many years (way before me!); he came down the morning of our wedding when I was getting my hair done in this wig. So when Elise saw him coming, she squealed "My B-Bob, he has purple hair (which she truly thought was REAL) just like my dress. Oh Gosh!" TOO CUTE!



Her scooter from G'ma and B-Bob. What I didn't get a pic of was her roller skates from G'ma G'ma (who we found out was a "semi pro" roller skater in her day!)



Here's the house that we gave (and Greg put up) to the kids for their birthday (the beauty of little kids - Patrick will never know in August!). They have spent HOURS in there, it's really cute!!!



4th birthday princess cakes



And of course the "Princess MOM" cakes - it was Mother's Day of course. Each set of kids had to have their Mom's cake for the celebration!