Seashells, Dinosaurs and an Etch A Sketch

I'll admit it, some of the best conversations I hear are the ones I'm not involved with. The boys have bunk beds and recently realized that they can carry on conversations when they are supposed to be sleeping. These conversations can range from how to build their next battle ship, to comparing dinosaurs and sometimes even their plans to get to Mars. Tonight I heard them giggling and couldn't help but peek in on them. Sometimes you just never know what you'll find them up to!

Jacob set up a tent for Joshua's bottom bunk by hanging their baby blankets from the top. This is normal however what I found behind the blankets cracked me up. Joshua shimmied a flashlight in between the top mattress and the wood slats so he had area lighting. He was eagerly working on his Etch A Sketch, creating a map to the treasure. (Per Joshua, I need a map because I keep driving past the treasure and never stop. The nerve of me...) At this point I'm still not shocked. I only became confused when I saw seashells lined up, 3 Playskool Hatchling dinosaurs next to them and a bouncy ball. Joshua explained that the seashells are the water for the dinosaurs and the bouncy ball is the magic that makes them come to life.

Mind you, that Jacob was "asleep" the entire time I was dealing with Joshua. He even humored me with a few novelty snores but couldn't help himself to take a peek when he thought I wasn't looking. Even though they were up to no good, I'm so thankful that they have nights like this to use their creativity and have some good ol' fashion fun. Now if I could only get them to do this before bedtime!!

Kiss Kindergarten Good Bye

It's official, the bud graduated Kindergarten!! He did amazing this year and we couldn't be prouder of him. Jacob not only excelled in his academics (he's reading DRA level 28 books!) but he also did a great job of transitioning to the new demands of school. Jacob was lucky to have a great teacher who understood his quirks which played a huge part in him excelling. It's weird to think that it was only a few years ago that we dropped him off for his first day of preschool.



Jacob was super excited about his Kindergarten program and practiced the songs nightly. (He even busted out into song and dance one evening at Chickfila while I was placing our order. It was insane and hilarious!)



Matt, Joshua and I climbed to the top of the bleachers so we could have a great view of the show. Not long after, the kids filed on to stage and that was all it took to make me ball. I'm talking, full fledged "Who's the crazy mom?" kind of tears. I didn't have too much time to sulk down memory lane because Joshua accidentally kicked the flip flop off of my foot and it fell alllllll the way to the floor.

In an instant, I went from The Crazy Crying Mom to the White Trash Mom who only wears one slightly tacky gold flip flop to a Kindergarten graduation. Klassy with a K!


The kids did a really great job and I was so excited that Jacob gave me a little love while he was on stage. The best thing about Southern Boys is that they always love their mama's!


The families were invited back to the classrooms for a reception before being dismissed for the day. It was really sweet to see Jacob having so much fun with his friends. I am so blessed that he had such a great teacher and kind students to spend the year with.



HOLLER!!!


And then Joshua discovered Pixie Sticks...


I'm so proud of my little guy and can't wait to see what happens in 1st grade!! While looking for a preschool picture of Jacob, I found a few others of Jacob that I had to post. They just made me smile!!

A young genius at work!


The Preschool Ladies Man








Look how little he was and he STILL talks about Chuchi's wedding


My Little Hunter




First...and Last...time he cut his hair


One of Henry's 10,000 birthday parties


Ice Cream with the horse


Spring Break Scranton Style


Can't grow a beard? Draw one!


I am so thankful to have Jacob and Joshua in my life. The thought of them growing up can be scary but keep reminding myself of all the fun we have ahead of us!

Will You Maui Me?

Matt and I recently ditched the kids and went for a sweet vacation in Maui!! When we started planning this vacation, it was supposed to be a family vacation to the Florida Keys. But as the planning progressed, it turned out that my lovely sister-in-law offered to keep the boys so Matt and I could go on vacation alone.

Most people drop luggage off curbside at the airport. Us? We drop off kids!!


This is a HUGE deal for us because we don't have family close enough to use as a regular babysitter. Plus our schedules completely conflict with each other so we don't see each other during the semester. (No lie, we will go 16 weeks without eating dinner together!!) So needless to say, we needed some alone time!

We decided that we better make this trip baller because there was a lot to celebrate. First off...no kids!! Besides that, we had my birthday, mothers day, fathers day, wedding anniversary and Matt's 10 year anniversary with Continental.

Because Matt works for Continental we fly standby. This can be tricky and definitely has it's good points and bad points. Good point, after 10 years of Matt being with Continental we now fly completely free...no more $25 round trip tickets, baby! Bad point, getting bumped off a flight by Revenue passengers and then enduring insanely long layovers (I'm talking 19 hours...) Oh, and then there was the earthquake that happened while we were in LAX, but no matter how hard I tried I couldn't find a way to blame it on Matt!

Bad point...Hour #15 in the Presidents Club


Good point...1st Class!! Margaritas, lobster, salads, steak and made to order ice cream sundaes makes for One Happy (and bloated) Amy!!


Landing in Maui confirmed that the good points outweigh the bad points!

Matt did a lot of research and found a great apartment in Paia which is perfect because it was away from all the tourists. We quickly became regulars at a little restaurant/bar down the street and the owner joked that we even had our own table.

Our Place


Backyard


Most of the trip was low key and only involved a bikini and local beaches.




While I'm a beach bum, Matt loves mountains so that meant that we had to venture to the top of the 10,000 foot volcano. I'll admit it, the volcano was amazeballs!! (10,000 feet is the point in a flight where they tell you that portable electronics can be used!)





Standing outside in 50+ mph winds and looking DOWN at clouds. A tad creepy...






I'm a secret Geology nerd which means that we had to hunt out lava flows and black beaches. Huge sea turtles were all in the shallow waters of Makena beach and would come right next to you. Best part of all, we were the only people there. Amazing!!





We made two trips ot Wailea which is a touristy part. During the morning the beaches only had a few locals along with the life guards in training. (They ran that beach for hours. Hence, I will never be a lifeguard in Hawaii!)

Better them than me!!


See them stiiiill running in the background. Sucka's!!


As the afternoon progressed, tourists started to hit the beach so we bailed and went back to our side of the island.

The last beach we went to was again a local spot. There I met my idols, Rhonda and Randy. There were Fabule$$! I'm not sure if you know, but I refuse to age gracefully. I'm hanging on to my youth and will fight this aging-thing tooth and nail. I have no shame in being inappropriately dressed at an old age and truly believe that gold lamé is the best thing ever. Apparently I'm not alone in this thought pattern because these two ladies rocked bikinis, tall boys and Marlboro Menthol 100's as they baked in the sun. I couldn't help but think that this will be me and Kisha 50 years from now. Of course I had to befriend them and managed to talk up a storm for about an hour. They were AWESOME and shameless about being cougars! Poor Matt was almost pounced on and I did nothing to stop it! Their stories about working for Playboy the 70's were amazing but not nearly as amazeballs as their gallbladder scars. I'm happy to say that I have their phone number and will surely give them a ring when we go back next year!

Amy & Kisha in 40 years. Future looks good to me!!


So did we have a good time? YES!! It can be so hard for me and Matt to kick back during the school year. His work schedule, kids in school and me in school quickly puts a damper on any fun that we try to have. The silver lining to our schedules is that when we do get away, we have more fun than any honeymooner can! We were laughing and flirting so much that a few people even asked us if we were on our Honeymoon!!

Shuffling, Studying & Sweeping to Showers, Sun & Sleeping!!

If you know anything about me, it's that I love (I mean really LOVE) to sleep. The problem is that when school is in session, I get very little of my beloved Zzzz's' Instead get to do plenty of shuffling the kids around, studying and sweeping up the mess we leave behind. Thankfully that hot mess of a routine is over and it's now time to reap the benefits of summer!! The goal of my day is to at some point get every person showered, soak in some sun and of course...sleep!! This new schedule has left me little time to blog so I am a bit (and by "bit" I mean months) behind. I'm going to try to catch up over the next week because it is going to rain and that freed up my time that would have otherwise been spent in the sun.

Since I'm catching up in no chronological order, I'll start with today. Eventually I'll catch up on the major life events that have slipped through my lazy blogging fingers.



We met up at the beach with some friends and the boys enjoyed playing with somebody else instead of each other. (Sidenote, my boys that rarely fight with each other are at the point in the summer where they are about to kill each other. I've resorted to turning up the music loud enough so I can't hear them and will only turn it down once they stop fighting. Bad parenting? Probably. Effective? YES!!)



The little boys (Jacob, Joshua & Nick)played in the water and the big boys (Matt & Michael) planned out hunting, camping and fishing trips while girls (Amy & Alison) relaxed and sipped lemonade on the beach. The thought of the boys going hunting made me happy because any trip that requires camouflage results in an automatic shopping trip for ME. This is exactly why I love when Matt goes hunting.



Back to the beach.... So the kids play and played and played. By the end of the day, we all have some part of our body that resembles a lobster but hey, it was worth it!



We spent the night at the boys Cowboy Grandma's. They love staying there and part of the trip usually involves a stop at the fish hatchery. They have been going there since they were little but never get tired of playing with the critters in the touch tank. (I even learned something new today. Did you know that crabs with red tips on their claws are the girls? It's like their claws have nail polish on them. Who knew they were so stylish!!)





We made one more final (and FREE!) stop at the local museum before we got on the road. It amazes me how much fun the kids have at any museum, regardless of how big or small. They played with a little airplane simulator and Jacob flew better than my husband...who works for an airline!!





We made it home safe and sound but the surprises weren't over yet. Jacob lost another tooth. He's not so excited about the actual tooth fairy, but the fact that it's "payday when he loses a tooth." What can I say, my kids are awesome!!

28 + 1

It's that time of year again. It's unavoidable and happens between taxes and death...birthday. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my birthday. A whole day dedicated to me and celebrating me...well, it's fabulous! The downside is that I am officially another year older and refuse to age gracefully. I have no shame in saying that I'll be the 90 year old lady at the pool, completely Botoxed up rocking a tacky and inappropriate bathing suit.

For a girl who despises the thought of getting older, I've ironically done a great job of dragging out my birthday to a two month affair. It started in the first week of May when Matt bought me my dream camera. I was thrilled with this surprise and would have been happy if that the only thing done for my birthday. However, some other people had some plans up their sleeves!!

I woke up to a great party on my actual birthday put on by the boys. Matt had work that morning and the boys did it all by themselves. They made a banner and planned out a series of games for the party. I'm sorry, but playing Chutes and Ladders at 9am with two great little guys is a fabulous way to start any day. Seriously, those two little guys rock!





I pretty much assumed that was it for my birthday until the girls took over. We had a Memorial Day BBQ and the kids swam their little hearts out. (Well, most swam except for when Joshua fell into the deep end of the pool less then 5 minutes after we arrived. Matt nearly had a heart attack and didn't take his eye off the little guy the rest of the time!) While Matt was on life guard duty, I enjoyed chatting with the girls and was surprised by the most delish triple chocolate cake! (Trust me, I would know because I ate not one, but two, huge pieces. Kudo's to Kimberly!) The BBQ was followed by a girls night to the movies to check out Sex & the City 2. The movie was HOrrific but the company was fabulous!!





Who needs a fork? It was THAT good!!


Celebration complete? NO!! The next night was went to the Astros where we had super-sweet seats. This was my first Astro's game and I had a blast. We ate, giggled and chatted...and occasionally took a brief break to watch the game!



We don't have a picture of the 4 of us because my fancy camera was a bit much for the 60 year old man behind us to figure out. Next time, there will be two of us on camera duty!! Either way, here is my Birthday Crew!


We may not have a group shot, but I do have a picture of THIS guy. He was busting moves at random times. So awkward but so amusing.


Yes, I know I am completely spoiled rotten. The thing is that I'm incredibly grateful and humbled by everything my family and friends have done for me. The three most important things in my life are my 3 F's: Faith, Family and Friends. It's a great feeling to realize that all three areas are not only fulfilled, but completely intertwined with each other. Thank you to all everyone who not only make me feel special on my birthday, but everyday. From Pennsylvania to Texas and everywhere in between, I hope you all know how much I love you.

Time to get to bed. The Birthday Celebration still isn't over. I have a date with my hubby in Maui!!