Slackin'

Yeah, so it's been a while since the last update!  And yes, the weather this April has totally sucked!  But...that doesn't mean we've been sitting around doing absolutely not thing!  Here is a quick play by play for the month of April, which somehow seemed to just blow (literally) by!

1.  The week after Purim, we had to bust out the princess dresses once again for the Princess and Super Hero at the Costick Center.  It's a night full of food, dancing, nail paining and just running around having a good ol' time!  The Schwartz's, Becker's, and Larson's joined us this year.  The kids had a blast, and it wouldn't be Michigan if there wasn't a snow storm as we were leaving!

2.  Who doesn't love a little Chuckie Cheese action?  The answer to that is...me!  But the kids absolutely love the germ infested place and who am I to stop my kids from having fun?  We actually met up with some old daycare buddies.  I told Sydney that we were going to meet up with Nolan and Sara, but didn't tell her that Brendan and Kyle would be there too!  She was soooo happy to see her boy Kyle.  They played like it was just yesterday!  It turned out to be an awesome night...but that doesn't mean that Chuckie Cheese doesn't have the WORST pizza in town and the crappiest prizes.  Did we really spend all that money so the kids could win some sweet tarts?  Yes we did.  And since that day, Lizzy hasn't stopped talking about the darn place.  One night, it got so bad, that she didn't fall asleep until almost one in the morning.  She doesn't usually get out of bed, but on this night she kept getting out saying, "Okay, Daddy, let's go to Chuckie Cheese now."

3.  Speaking of Lizzy getting out of bed!  Lizzy is no longer in a crib!  We haven't completely converted to her full size bed, but the rails are off the crib and it's now a toddler bed.  She's doing very well!  She only fell out once, and she doesn't really get out!  We figured it was time since we've started the whole potty training excitement.  She has to be able to get out of bed if nature calls!  She's doing okay...not quite there yet, but hoepfully it will come soon!  Sydney was trained much quicker, but I have to give credit where credit is due.  I think Sydney was trained at daycare with Helene.  We aren't seeing the same results at this daycare; particulary because for sanitary reasons, you can't send your kid in underwear.  I don't think Lizzy is going to learn if she can just go in her pull up whenver she wants.  But she'll get there....I have faith!  I do know one thing...I am NOT buying anymore diapers!

4. Spring break!!!  Woooo hooooo....for Sydney at least.  For us, it means sending her to daycare and spending more money...which we didn't do.  Instead, we shipped her off to Midland for the week with Grandma Polly and Grandpa Joe.  Sydney had an absolute blast.  She called me to tell me that the mall in Midland had a McDonald's AND a Target...I mean, she was totally excited about this!  At least she's easily pleased.  This McDonald's also has vanilla milkshakes...hopefully, she still thinks that only the Midland one has the milk shakes or else we're in big trouble...the kid likes junk!  They also took her to see the movie Hop and out for ice cream, and to the library.  I don't think they ever stopped moving!  Lizzy missed Sydney so much.  She kept saying, "where's Sydney, where's my sister?"  She was pretty upset!  It was very cute to see them reunite when Sydney got home.  I really missed Sydney...Lizzy is very high maintenance without her.  I never realized how much Sydney entertained Lizzy!

5. Tiger's game!!  The next weekend, the Larson's invited us to their suite at the Tiger's game.  I was so bummed that I couldn't go.  I was busy at a mom-to-mom sale selling all of the kid's clothes.  It turned out to be the most beautiful April day, that hardly anyone showed up to the sale.  So, I was upset that I wasn't with the rest of the family.  Jason took the girls alone.  It was opening day, so they got to ride the ferris wheel, merry-go-round, and run the bases for free!  They had so much fun and came home totally pooped.  Lizzy keeps saying that she wants to go to the ball game!  It was a great experience for her first game!  She doesn't know what it's like to sit in "normal" seats! 

6.  This year, we had a small Passover at my dad's house.  The food was good, and of course the kids wouldn't sit still for the sedar or eat any of the food, but Jason and I enjoyed the meal and kids had fun running around...oh well!  No one said they were perfect.  Their favorite part was the "wine".  They were acutally given wine glasses with sparkling grape juice and Sydney just kept chugging hers like an alcoholic.  It was kind of funny...she kept on asking for "more wine, please".

7.  And last but not least, since I'm sure I'm forgetting about something, like my dad's birthday and all of my schlepping around to dance and swimming and play dates and two birthday parties (one for Jonah, and one for Chloe), but this weekend Sydney and Lizzy went to Traverse city with my dad and Gail for the entire weekend!  They went to Nolan's first birthday party and had an absolute blast staying and swimming in the hotel.  Lizzy could not wait to go swimming.  She talked about it ALL week.  She doesn't really know what Friday means, but she said all week, "I'm going swimming on Friday after my bed."  Which finally was true on Thursday night!  They woke up so excited on Friday and took off around 11am.  It was a nice break for Jason and I.  We went to dinner and movie on Friday night.  It was fun, except is was so freezing outside!  And then the next day, the sun decided to shine and it actually reached 72 degrees, so we went down to Comerica Park and caught some great Tiger baseball...maybe I'm a good luck charm!  It was a great weekend!

8. Oh, shoot...I knew I'd forget something.  Last thursday, I took Sydney to play bingo at a retirement home at the JCC.  I thought it would be good for her to brush up on her numbers and do a good deed at the same time.  The residents there LOVED Sydney and were so thankful that we came to help them out.  Mayn of them are hard of hearing so we sat next to some of them and repeated the numbers.  Everyone wanted us to sit at their table.  Sydney received many compliments and we both left feeling pretty good.  I took her out for ice cream after for doing a good deed!  We had fun together!

So that was our April!  Definitely not boring!  The only thing missing now is some nice weather.  With all of these rainy April days, we are bound to have many May flowers and hopefully some really warm weather...I need it!

Growing Up

Okay, seriously...when did this kid get so grown up?  The way she speaks and dresses lately makes it seem like she's on a fast track to becoming a teenager.  She has to pick out her own clothes and tell me EXACTLY how to do her hair.  She made me buy her hair clips so that she could start doing her hair by herself.  And she is always complimenting me..."Oh, you're shirt is really cute today"  "I like when you wear your hair like that", etc.

Yesterday, I really felt like I was holding a conversation with a grown up.  Out of the blue Sydney asked me who my Grandma was and I told her that I had two but they had died.  She asked me both of their names and who they were married to.  And then I told her that I called one of them Mama because when I was little, I couldn't say "Grandma".  Then, Sydney just said the cutest thing ever and she was totally sincere.  She said, "I'm really happy to know that."

I keep telling her to stop growing up so quickly...but she's not listening...

Dancing Queen...Or Should I Say Princess?

This weekend was Purim.  If you're not sure what that means...go look it up!  As far as I'm concerned, you dress up in costumes and go to a carnival...so that's what we did.  We don't really belong anywhere, so we tagged along with the Beckers.  When I was little, I remember always taking home a little goldfish in a baggie that would die an hour later...but no fish at this carnival!

(Of course Lizzy refused to smile)

The kids had SO much fun...way more fun than I thought they would.  Sydney totally impressed me.  I thought she was this shy, reserved, littler girl.  Not the case.  She was busting quite the moves out on the dance floor.  I thought she would spend the entire afternoon in the bounce houses, but she was having a blast and even went into the center of the floor for a little solo...I was very impressed and proud of her!!  I couldn't even get her away to eat lunch, I kept taking little bites of food out to her on the dance floor!

Lizzy also had a lot of fun.  She also enjoyed dancing, but her favorite part was the bounce houses...this kid just loves to jump and doesn't get tired of it.  She did get stuck in one of them and had to be rescued, but her favorite one was for older kids and she managed to get through the obstacles with no problems at all, she's quite the climber!  One cute little story...there were two clowns there making little balloon animals,etc. and they had red, white and blue wigs on.  So, when we got there, Lizzy said that she saw some "Americas" and I didn't think anything of it.  But then later on, a clown gave her a balloon, and she said, "Mommy, the "America" gave me a balloon.  It's crazy that she has no clue what a clown is, yet associates red, white, and blue with America.  Even as we were leaving (we were pretty much the last to leave because of my dancing queen) the clowns were walking to their cars and she said, "the America's are leaving."  So cute!

It was definitely a fun afternoon!

Liz the Lizard

Okay, sooooo....when and why in the world did I sign up to bring home a lizard from Sydney's school for four days?  I think it all must have happened at the beginning of the year when Sydney's was begging me and I caved and figured February was so far away.

Anyway, I get to Sydney's school and the Science teacher says, "Are you Sydney's mom?  Here's the lizard.  She's all ready to go"  And while he starts telling me that I'm supposed to give it water and crickets and romaine lettuce, I'm thinking....ohhhhhhhhhhhh sh*t, I'm going to kill this darn thing.  I don't do crickets very well...or Lizards for that matter.  I must have agreed to the lizard because it had the same name as Lizzy...I thought she would think it was neat.

About Lizzy...she doesn't think it's so neat!!  The poor girl is petrified of the lizard.  Well, she thinks it's a dragon...but still, she hates it.  We have it in the kitchen and Lizzy is seriously avoiding the kitchen at all costs.  She makes us carry her through the kitchen.  This is so bad, but when she wasn't behaving, we threatened that we would take the lizard out of the cage and wow, did she ever shape up quickly!  I feel bad for her though!  Hopefully she'll get used to this thing over the next four days.  When we first brought it home, she said, "it's looking at me, it's looking at me. I don't like it.  I don't want to eat it"(no clue why she thought she would have to eat it)!!

Sydney doesn't mind it so much.  She just keeps telling me that "the crickets are REALLY freaking me out, mommy."  The bottom line...we were not the best family to send a lizard home to.  I'm just hoping the lizard comes out of this experience alive and that Jason enjoys dealing with crickets...because I'm not doing it! 

Guess we won't ever be purchasing a lizard! Although...it sure is a lot quieter than Savannah!  Just kidding...we love Savannah...most of the time...

Spur of the Moment

Let's be honest, Home Depot type stores are not a kids favorite place to shop at.  But, sometimes (or a lot of times in our case) you just need stuff and the kids have to come along.  We are planning on getting new hardwood floors, so last weekend we headed over to Lumber Liquidators to pick out the exact floor we wanted.  Sydney was less than thrilled to come along.  She fought tooth and nail not to come with us, but she lost! At first the kids were awful...I mean, they thought they were being good running up and down the different types of flooring, but to the other customers they were probably flat out annoying and driving people nuts.  So, eventually the owner came out with some crayons and coloring books (and even gave them some carrots to munch on) and finally they sat still long enough for us to pick out the floor.

On the way home, we decided that we would paint the entryway and family room before getting the floors installed, so we thought we would stop at Home Depot before heading home.  We felt bad for the kids, so we stopped at Little Daddy's for a little lunch.  As usual, the kids wasted our money and pretty much ate nothing.  They happened to put pita bread on the table for Jason and I to go with our salads, and when I told Lizzy to eat her lunch, she just said, "no, I'll just eat these triangles."  She thought it was cool that the pita was shaped like triangles so that's all she ate for lunch.  Jason ended up eating her grilled cheese.

Anyway, we went to Home Depot next.  The kids were extra awful...Home Depot and Lumber Liquidators in one afternoon...not the brightest idea.  But I will say, that after many tantrums (by the kids, of course) we managed to pick out a great color (at least I think so).  It will really lighten up the room...I am so over all of the gray in my house...time to go!

Finally we got home after a not so exciting afternoon...however, I had a blast, I LOVE getting new stuff for the house!  Lizzy took a much needed nap and Jason and I started taping the walls in preparation for painting.  It was an exhausting day, but then I got a text from our friends Brian and Andi.  They wanted us to meet them at the mall for dinner.  As busy of a day that we just had, I was all about it.  There is nothing I love more than spur of the moment plans.  I love them because you don't have to be committed or tied down to a certain date and time.  If it works, it works...if not, so be it!  This time it happened to work out, we thought this would be a happy ending to the day for the kids.  So off we went to the mall to see Jilly and baby "Wanna" (as Lizzy says), but it's really Elana!  We ate at California Pizza Kitchen...Sydney loves their mac and cheese and actually ate it.  Lizzy thought it would be cool to waste even more of our money.  I'm pretty sure she ate bread again!  The kids had fun together, and Jilly only knocked one of the waitresses down once...I HAD to laugh...what is that word...Schadenfreude....taking pleasure in other people's pain.  That's awful of me, but I thought it was hillarious!  She wasn't paying any attention to where she was going and didn't have a tray of food or anything, and didn't get hurt...so it was just funny, right?

Then we let the kids play in that germ infested play area at the mall!  The kids had an absolute blast!  We literally had to drag them out of the place after an hour!  An hour!!  Can you believe we let them play that long?  Apparently it's the place to be on a Saturday night...It was so crowded!  But the kids didn't care!  Sydney even told me that it turned out to be the best day!  Our spur of the moment plans sure turned the kids day around!

Lizzy's Big Day

Well, it wasn't THAT big of a day.  But for the first time, she actually got to do something that Sydney didn't do!  Usually it's all about Sydney...dance, swimming, etc.  Today, Jason took Lizzy to see Sesame Street Live.  She was pretty excited (although you would never know from the picture.  She hates getting her picture taken!).  She kept saying that she wanted to go to Elmo's house.

Unfortunately, I stayed home with Sydney who has been battling a fever and awful cough, so I didn't get to see her reactions the show, but Jason said that was so happy when they all came out on stage.  However, as time went by, she was kind of anxious to go.  I'm not really surprised.  Lizzy and "sitting still" don't really go hand in hand.  But it was fun for her nonetheless.

Actually, now that I think about it, yesterday she got to fly solo as well.  I took her to the library because we had to return a movie...sad I know...we go to the library with all of those books...and we come home with movies.  Anyway, they have a free music class on Saturday mornings which I go to sometimes and Lizzy loves it.  She is such a ham and dances up a storm in the middle of the floor.  I bet she was just as happy there as at Sesame Street Live.  She was so sweet, she even picked out a Strawberry Shortcake movie for Sydney since she was sick.  Maybe next time we will check out some books...maybe...we would probably lose them amongst all of our books (we DO have a ton, and I DO read to my kids).  Afterall, the movies are free....goodbye Blockbuster!

I'm Not Naughty!

So, every year, Jason goes on a little road trip to an MSU basketball game with friends.  I'm totally cool with it, I'm always running here and there and leaving him home with the kids.  But why is it, that every single time he is gone, that everything is just out of whack?

I swear, Lizzy is like the best sleeper ever.  She always has been.  Once she is down, she doesn't wake up until morning (well, actually we have to wake her up during the week).  So, the one day the Jason goes away, she forgets how to sleep...apparently!  When I went upstairs around 11pm last night, I notices a bright light shining under her door.  I went in and she was fast asleep, but her light was on...weird!  So, I guess she must be taller all of a sudden because she can reach the light switch from her crib.  She had obviously been playing and was sleeping in a crazy position.  I decided I would definitely be moving her crib in the morning.  Well, then around 3:30 am, my annoying dog pushed open my door, and there was that bright light shining under her door again.  So, I went in there, and there she was...jumping up and down in her bed having a grand old time.  She yelled at me, "get out of here, I'm not being naughty!" **  At 3:30 in the morning, I decided that now was the time to move her crib.

** Speaking of "not being naughty", that is Lizzy's new favorite phrase...at least for this week.  This is what she says when she actually is being naughty and she knows darn well that she is.  Last night, I went into the playroom and she says, "shhhhhh, get out of here, I'm not being naughty, it's okay".  I'm like, "yeah right, what are you up to you little stinker."  Of course, she somehow manages to find candy and was shoving it into her mouth.  I guess I can't be entirely mad, because we apparently don't have it out of her reach...another sign that she is all of a sudden...way taller...she never used to be able to open up our junk cupboard...and let me tell you...she does it very very very very quietly!

In the meantime, Savannah decided she would wake up Sydney too, so here we were...all awake at 3:30.  Eventually everyone went back to sleep, but then of course, Savannah wanted to go outside and then came in my room to drive me even more crazy because now she wasn't tired.  I swear, this happens every time Jason goes away.  He never believes me, because on any given day, the kids are awesome!

So...here's hoping for a better night tonight!  At least everyone will be tired...