the heil family

this doesn’t really count

2011-02-26T23:47:00.001-05:00

I have been a major blog slacker. I know. And I feel guilty, I really do. Must be the Catholic in me. I feel like I should go to confession.

I have so many good excuses though as to why I have yet to blog about the major happenings like Connor's 7th birthday and Christmas, as well as the minor every day happenings. I need to update my background and my pics too. Ugh. I'm feeling overwhelmed just thinking about it.

I know this doesn't really count. It makes me feel like I did something though. I'm working my way back.

And here, I'm going to throw this random recent pic in too. Baby steps.

elf on the shelf

2010-11-30T23:39:00.002-05:00

This is our first year with Elf on the Shelf and he’s proving to be fun for the kids…challenging for us. Click ‘He's actually a little creepy’ for the traditional story of Elf on the Shelf. The little guy needs to be moved every night and we’re running out of places due to, 1. I started too soon and, 2. we just don’t have enough shelves! Johnny, named by the kids (something that must be done because the book says so) has found himself in some interesting places lately.

His first spot that the kids picked

He really did not know what he was getting himself into when he came home with us

Johnny has actually screwed up twice and was in the same spot as the day before. Luckily, the kids have been accepting of our explanation. We told them that he must not have had anything to report to Santa that night. Simple. Johnny also had a close call when his magical powers were compromised by Camryn touching him. Connor and Emily were a little distraught but we quickly told them that the ‘do not touch him or he may lose his magic’ rule only applied if they did it on purpose to play with him or move him to another spot. Camryn was actually helping him off of the floor after he fell and that was okay. Magical powers intact. Phew!

i’ve got nothing better to do

2010-11-17T00:04:00.001-05:00

This is what I do after the kids go to bed…

…organize and line up their stuffed television show characters. Notice they are in show order. For those of you not familiar, that would be ‘Yo Gabba Gabba’ (minus Muno and Foofa who may be on a date together somewhere else in the house), ‘The Backyardigans’, ‘Little Einsteins’ (minus Annie) and ‘Max and Ruby’, which is technically just Max because I couldn’t find Ruby. I was a bit thrown off by that at first because, let’s face it, who’s Max really without his big sister Ruby? She apparently is his guardian on the show since there are no parents. She makes the rules, cooks the meals, does the laundry, plans Easter dinner, takes him trick-or-treating, gives him money for candy, bathes him, and puts him to bed. I felt obligated to look for Ruby and then I realized, she’s probably looking after Annie from ‘Little Einsteins’ because she is also parent-less. I guess it’s kind of like ‘Peanuts’ was when I was a kid. No parents. What’s with that? It’s kind of weird when you think about it. And ‘Scooby Doo’…they were kids too, and ‘Josie and the Pussycats’. I mean both groups of teens traveled in vans, one getting themselves into dangerous situations and the other playing concerts. No adults. Come to think of it, the boys from ‘Different Strokes’ didn’t have real parents and neither did the girls from ‘The Facts of Life’. What the hell has been going on with kids’ shows since the 70’s?

A totally random and unplanned post stemming from my slightly obsessive-compulsive need to organize and line-up my kids’ toys. See, I’ve got nothing better to do.

october events: school and halloween

2010-11-04T00:35:00.002-04:00

I don’t know where October went. I really don’t. I posted four times in October and still didn’t cover everything that October had to offer. Here is what I missed:

Connor’s parent/teacher conference. It went really well. He excels academically, has good relationships with his classmates and follows the rules. I learned that he’s very organized (and saw the inside of his desk as proof). He keeps his things where they should be, and neatly. That’s my “everything has a place and there is a place for everything” in action. Love. It. And, he received Student of the Month. I’m very proud of him…he’s a wonderful little boy.Emily’s preschool pumpkin picking trip. This took place on ~~October 5th, October 12th, October 19th~~ October 21st. It was canceled three times due to rain! We were finally able to go on a beautiful day and Grandmom ended up being able to go because she happened to be visiting NJ for the week. Halloween school parades and trick-or-treating. I’ve had the kids’ costumes since August so I didn’t feel the rush of figuring out what they’re going to be and running around to several stores last minute as I have done in the past. It was easy this year because we went with Disney. Disney has a knack for making everything easier. Both Connor and Emily had school parades, thankfully on different days. They were excited to dress up with their classmates and march around and Camryn was happy to watch.

Above...Connor in his school parade and Daddy and the girls watching. Below...Emily marching in her school parade.

And last but not least, a picture of the kids right before trick-or-treating. This was the first year we all walked...no stroller, no wagon. They're getting older. Sigh.

our scarecrow

2010-10-30T00:43:00.002-04:00

This is something ~~I should have written about weeks ago but I’m such a blog slacker lately~~ we did this month that was so much fun. We built our own scarecrow.

The build-your-own scarecrows from previous years are all over our town starting in late September. The kids love them. They scream “scarecrow!” each time we pass one driving through town. Literally. Scream. So when the build-your-own scarecrow day was here (the Saturday of our town Fall Festival) they were so excited that they were going to make their own scarecrow. I had to establish three simple rules first:

1. We’re only building one. Mommy only has 20 bucks to ~~spend on straw and someone else’s used clothes~~ donate to the rotary club.

2. Our scarecrow will be gender-neutral to keep the peace. The girls wanted to build a scarecrow lady and dress her in pink and purple with jewelry and a purse. Connor wanted a boy scarecrow with no pink and purple and definitely no accessories.

3. We need to work as a team. Connor…you pick the shirt. Emily…you pick the pants. Camryn…you pick the hat. Mommy won’t pick a thing and do her best not to care about any of your choices. The clothes do not need to match. The clothes do not need to match. (I had to repeat this to myself several times.)

Even the scarecrow had enough

e-a-g-l-e-s

2010-10-21T23:30:00.001-04:00

This past Sunday I got to go to my first Eagles game in years, courtesy of my mom’s extra ticket, which was courtesy of my stepdad’s untimely gall bladder removal (sorry Paco). The weather was perfect, traffic okay, parking not too bad and it was a win. Can’t ask for much more than that.

This was interesting

View from the seats

Me ;)

Philadelphia and Citizen’s Bank Park (Let’s Go Phillies!)

Unfortunately the most memorable moment of the game was the hit that DeSean Jackson took. As bad as it looked on t.v., it was ten times worse in person. He didn’t move for what seemed like forever. It was awful.

Jackson leaving the field

Kolb played great…got NFC Offensive Player of the Week. Kind of ironic since Vick got NFC Offensive Player of the Month for September. I’m wondering what Andy is going to do for their game against the Colts on November 7th and Vick is good-to-go. Should be interesting.

jack-o-pie

2010-10-12T23:34:00.001-04:00

Carl’s morning activity with the girls while Connor and I were at school/work.

potty talk with emily

2010-10-09T21:21:00.001-04:00

Emily: Mom, I wish I was a boy.

Me: Why?

Emily: Because I wish I could just stand up and shoot pee out of a penis.

Me: Don’t we all Em. Don’t we all.

soccer saturday

2010-10-02T23:58:00.002-04:00

Today was the perfect morning for soccer. It was a beginning of Fall, sunny, jeans, 3/4 length sleeves and flip flops kind of morning. Beautiful. Connor’s games have been so much fun for all of us. He’s loving it…working hard, learning, gaining skills, scoring (that’s his favorite part). The girls are enjoying the games too but not for the soccer. They bring toys to play with and have made friends with other little sister’s who bring toys to play with. It’s just one big play date for them.

This picture makes me smile.

you’re rude

2010-09-26T23:23:00.001-04:00

This face. It’s the “You’re rude!” face. Camryn says this multiple times per day, mostly to Connor and Emily, but I have also been on the receiving end. I get it at times when she is corrected or not able to do or have something that she wants. It’s especially fun when she yells it at me in Target when I tell her to stay in her seat. For me, it’s usually accompanied by a very emphatic “No!”

Connor and Emily get the “You’re rude!” for a lot of different things: not sharing with her, arguing with her, taking something that she was about to play with, if they don’t do what she wants, bumping in to her and probably a dozen other things that I can’t think of right now.

Truth be told, I love it. She’s asserting herself these days and I find it very cute and very funny.

first days of preschool

2010-09-19T00:19:00.001-04:00

Emily had two “first”days of preschool this past week. Her first first day was Tuesday, I stayed with her, and it was an hour and a half. Her second first day was Thursday, she stayed by herself, and it was two and a half hours.

The first day. It was a breeze. She played, talked to her teachers, watched the other kids (none of them really interacted with each other) and got the hang of the room. They did a mini-circle time where they learned a poem and danced to a cd. They learned the pre-snack bathroom routine, had snack and then we made a project together. Easy. We celebrated with a stop at Friendly’s for milkshakes.

The second day. I could feel the anxiety in the air, probably mostly mine though. She had been telling me the day before that she didn’t want me to leave preschool so I was anticipating a difficult drop-off. I didn’t think she would cry a lot or grab on to me or anything like that, but I thought she might cry or tell me that she didn’t want me to leave. Much to my surprise, and despite the screaming and kicking (literally) that another child was doing, she kissed and hugged me goodbye, found a book to read and I was on my way back to work. I called the preschool about a half hour later to check on her. I didn’t call when Connor entered preschool, even though he was apprehensive, but I had to call because of the other child. That could be an entirely new blog…let’s just say that his behavior was slightly out of control and I was worried about her reaction. The director happened to answer the phone in the classroom when I called and she gave me a minute by minute account of what Emily did since I left and how she was acting. She was doing great.

Carl reported that she was positive about her afternoon when he picked her up. Later that day she gave me more details about what she did at school. She even told me that when I left, she wanted to cry but she didn’t. She was proud of herself. And I was proud of her too.

shout out to my hubby

2010-09-16T00:12:00.001-04:00

I need to give some much needed props to Carl. I seriously don’t know how he does it. He has been working six days (nights) a week since mid-July. Most of his shifts have been 10+ hours. Since I’m back to work for the school year, he can no longer sleep until whenever so he is getting 3-4 hours of sleep with the exception of his one night off. He needs to get out of bed at 8 a.m. to get Connor on the bus at 8:15 and start his day with the girls. He doesn’t rest, he doesn’t nap. He takes care of a 3 and 2 year-old…gets them up, dressed and fed, potty and diapers, plays with them, runs errands, does housework. He also runs his soccer training company from home so in his spare time (which really means when he is doing all of the things I mentioned because he has no spare time) he schedules training, emails coaches, talks with trainers and creates/sends invoices.

He does all of the things that a stay-at-home parent does but with very little sleep, a full-time job, a part-time job, only one day off and little-to-no complaining. Oh, and he plays soccer himself on Sunday mornings too…to keep himself fit and sane.

So ‘holla’ to my husband (D…had to steal it just this once)!

You’re the best. ;)

first grade

2010-09-13T00:25:00.001-04:00

Connor had his first four days of first grade last week and he is off to a smooth start. He was back to his old routine the first day, no problem. Alarm went on at 7 a.m. and he was in my bathroom by 7:03 to start his day. Bathroom, wash face, hair, dressed and downstairs by 7:15. When he got downstairs he remembered that he used to watch Monster Jam while he ate breakfast so he got a huge smile about that and turned the t.v. on. I got him his breakfast and I was out the door at 7:35. He finishes his breakfast by himself, gets Carl up at 8 and he's off to the bus stop at 8:15. It's so hard to believe he's almost seven and now spends an entire day away from us (although I've seen him every day in school so far...hallway, cafeteria and playground).

I really don’t try to see him often and I don’t check in with his teacher even though I work at the school. But I get around the whole building a lot during the day so I do get a chance to see him now and then. I try to keep a low profile when I do, not make a big deal. I just want to be his parent and want to keep the two roles as separate as possible. His teacher did stop me in the hall though on the first day to tell me that he was helping some of the other children find their seats as they entered the classroom. Warms my heart. ;)

the story of the three whales

2010-09-05T00:41:00.001-04:00

Today we became the proud owners of three of the exact same stuffed whales (pictured above) from the dollar section of Target. Why, you ask? Well, because we need three of the same stuffed animal. Doesn’t everyone?

All kidding aside, here is how it happened. My kids love Target. I love Target. We are big Target fans. The kids go to Target with a few expectations: (1) that they will get to ride in the cool three-seated shopping cart, (2) that Mom will bring a lollipop for each of them to enjoy while they ride in the cool three-seated shopping cart, and (3) that they will leave with something from the dollar section. Let’s focus on #3.

Connor finds a set of fact cards about Space. Score. They are $1 and educational. Can’t beat that. This is where Connor exits the story and it becomes all about the girls. Here is the typical dollar section story of Emily and Camryn. Emily sees something that she wants, tells me, and then Camryn tells me that she wants the exact same thing. I then try to convince one of them to get something else because I don’t want to buy two of the exact same thing. This usually does not work in my favor and I give up pretty easily because it’s the dollar section and it just isn’t worth the fight. Today was no different, thus I leave the dollar section with two of the exact same stuffed whales and two happy girls.

At some point during our shopping trip, Camryn throws her whale in the cart. She’s on to bigger and better things…she wants to hold the pop tart box. Emily continues to hold her whale. A few aisles later, we find a cute little princess backpack and Emily is starting preschool in a week so we buy it. She wants to wear it so I put it on her back and we make our way to the check out. Checking out is the most chaotic part of the trip. As soon as we pull up to the check-out, it gets a little hairy. This is when all three are ready to get out, they all want to help unload the cart, they argue over who gets to put what on the conveyer belt, the check-out person is trying to talk to me, the kids are trying to talk to her, I’m loading bags and paying. Needless to say, my brain is a little scrambled and I’m ready to regain my structure and organization and load everyone and everything into the car.

I have a system for when we get to the car. I load the kids in first and get their buckles on. This way, they can’t go anywhere while I am unloading the cart and neatly packing our items into the back. I turn on music that they like, so they are content. So I get in the car and Emily asks for her whale from the bag. I say, “Sure” and as I am getting out to get her whale Camryn says, “I want my whale too!”. Sure, no problem. I look in every bag I have. There is only one whale. This. Can’t. Be.

I start to retrace my shopping in my head. I don’t recall two whales during check-out. I go back to the cart return to check the cart. No whale. I ask Connor if he remembers two whales during check-out and he says no. I’m racking my brain, trying to think of the last time I remember there being two whales. I can’t remember. I check the receipt. One whale. I know that leaving with one whale is not going to fly. The sentence started to come out of my mouth, “Em…how about Cam takes this one and next time we come back to Target we will get you the whale” but before I could even finish, the look of horror on Emily’s face made me think, not such a good idea. Connor tells me I have to go back in to Target to find the whale, that it’s probably sitting on the floor somewhere and someone is going to get it. Emily agrees of course.

I stood there for a few seconds, looked at them all buckled in and ready to leave. The thought of pulling them all out of the car again to go search the floors of Target for this $1 whale…no way. But, I needed to get another whale so I decided that I would go back in. The dollar section was right at the front. I knew there were more whales. And the first check-out lane was 10 feet from there. I would be quick. I locked them in the car, and ran in and out in probably 30 seconds. Success. We now had two whales again.

After we got home and unpacked the bags, Emily wanted to wear her new backpack around. She walked around the house for a bit, went into the playroom and pretended to arrive at school. Upon her arrival, she unzipped her back pack and proudly proclaimed, “I found the other whale!”.

And that is how we came to have three of the exact same stuffed whales.

first haircut

2010-09-03T00:31:00.001-04:00

Camryn had her first haircut last week and it was somewhat spur of the moment. I say “somewhat” because I have been telling her all summer that she needs a haircut and she has been telling me “no” on going to get one. My plan was to take her when the timing was right, which basically meant that I would just keep mentioning it every chance I got and wait for the one time she said yes instead of no. That one time happened last Sunday and I jumped on it. Conditions were perfect. It was late morning. Breakfast was done. It wasn’t time for lunch. We had no plans. I said, “Hey Cam, want to go get your haircut?” and she said, “Yes”! It probably helped that I threw something in there about cool chairs to sit in and getting a lollipop. (I really focused on the lollipop part).

So Camryn and I headed out to Kids Kuts and she did great! She picked the princess car chair, sat very still, smiled and she was done in no time.

I think the actual hair cutting took two minutes. She got down, checked herself out in the mirror, picked a lollipop and we went home. She got a “first haircut” certificate and an envelope of some hair. I kept telling her what a great job she did and she couldn’t stop smiling. My last first haircut experience was a success.

the sweetest place on earth

2010-08-25T01:24:00.001-04:00

We went to Hershey Park last Thursday and Friday. It was the only trip we took this summer because of Carl’s crazy work schedule and even though it was only two days, it was perfect. I loved the drive, the weather, the chocolate, the Hershey Lodge, the shuttle to the park, the chocolate, the rides, the shopping, the chocolate and most of all…us spending quality time together.

Our room

Eating in ‘The Bear Den’ at the Hershey Lodge

One of the rides during our park preview the night before

Dunkin’ Donuts breakfast in the park

Our fun

A much needed nap on a Hershey Park bench

Characters (a.k.a. Hershey Guys according to Camryn)

Showing their ‘Hershey Height’ for the rides

Family picture on the ‘Coal Cracker’ flume

goodbye

2010-08-25T00:42:00.001-04:00

Kids are supposed to have whole milk until age two. The ‘experts’ say they are supposed to transition from bottle to cup at age one and of course, drink the whole milk in the cup. I know this because I had this. Once. Connor went from bottle to cup when I transitioned him from formula to milk. Age one. No problem. Emily and Camryn wanted nothing to do with milk in a cup. So…since I wasn’t so ‘by the book’ with the second and third, I kept the bottle around until age two. Yes I did. I feel like I should be stating my name and standing up at a twelve step Parents’ Anonymous meeting.

So, since Camryn turned two this month, this is goodbye. Bottles, you have served me well. You have held a special place in my life for the last three years and five months. We’ve laughed, we’ve cried. Mouths, floors, diaper bags, toy bins, minivan floors, strollers and car seats…you have seen it all. You’ve helped calm my children and helped fill their bellies. I will miss cleaning you and your bottle parts daily and I will miss seeing you in the bottle rack on the side of the sink. And bottle warmer, I can’t forget you. We’ve been through good times and bad. Late nights, around the clock feedings, early mornings. And you’ve worked like a charm through it all. Your job is now done. Enjoy your rest.

;)

birthday number two

2010-08-22T15:04:00.001-04:00

Camryn turned two years old on August 8th. I swear the day she turned two she went from baby to preschooler in a matter of minutes. She starts each day with a smile. She plays, talks and laughs all day. She will play anything her big brother and sister are playing but will also sit by herself and quietly look through books. She can also be rough-around-the-edges…physically tough and man can she make some mean faces. She loves her blankie, my chapstick and lollipops. We are so fortunate that she was given to us and we thank God for her everyday.

We celebrated her birthday with a party at home. Camryn wanted a “batman party” so that’s what she got. It was a beautiful summer day spent with family and friends and the kids had a blast on the waterslide. Pics are below…

It’s amazing how this 7 pound, completely dependent infant turned into a 32 pound, fiercely independent funny little girl in just two short years. It was the fastest two years of my life.

the highlights of our week

2010-08-07T00:23:00.001-04:00

Practicing picture-taking skills on the cats

Toe touches at the first soccer practice for the fall season

Walks on the path at the park

Goofy faces

Beating mom at air hockey

bowling night part two

2010-07-28T22:43:00.002-04:00

After I posted “bowling night” I was uploading recent videos from my camera and realized that I had taken two while bowling, one of Emily and one of Camryn.

In Emily’s video, note the little dance at the end. In Camryn’s video, note her surprise that quickly turns to disgust (I know the face well) that her second ball left the rack on it’s own. After the ball was gone she said, “get another one” and then pointed to the ball down the lane and said, “not that one”.

bowling night

2010-07-28T18:58:00.001-04:00

Last Friday night we went bowling with Aunt Sherry, Christian and Carter. First we met at Friendly’s, which was an experience with two adults and five kids in a booth. We were definitely outnumbered and barely made it out alive.

Above is a picture of almost all of the kids. Camryn wouldn’t go for it. She’s why I almost didn’t make it out alive from Friendly’s and her refusals continued at the bowling alley. Once the bowling started though, she was back to her fun self.

Emily, Carter and Camryn had to use the metal rack to get the ball down the lane while Connor and Christian were strong enough to bowl the old-fashioned way. Aunt Sherry bowled well…as for me, let’s just say that I would have benefited from the metal rack. It was embarrassing, especially when these four guys waiting for their league decided to sit at our lane with some beers and watch the entertainment. One of them even said they were learning some techniques from us. I was afraid to ask them what they meant.

Above…Camryn and Connor serious and intense about their bowling. Below…Emily not so much.

Connor, being competitive about everything, wanted badly to win so he kept checking the score. He was not winning. He was good about it though, although I think it helped that the 10th frame scores were not finalized because our hour was up. We all had a great time though and the kids are already asking to go again.

ocean city

2010-07-20T01:30:00.001-04:00

My dad and stepmom rented a house last week in OC so I took the kids down Thursday and came back Friday night. Since Harrah's Chester was getting ready to open their table games this past Sunday, that meant that there was no way Carl could take any vacation days to come with us. Today he is actually working his 7th day in a row and it's been very long hours each night. We missed him in OC but the kids really enjoyed themselves.

Highlights from our two days:

The rides. Wonderland Pier is awesome although I really think they need to go to a band system because using the tickets gets old. Connor and Emily loved the Caterpillar roller coaster. Since there is only one of me, I sat with Emily and enlisted Aunt Amy to ride with Connor. He gave her very clear instructions on exactly how she should place her arm around him for his safety. Camryn loved the cars that whip you around the turns and the carousel. I couldn't talk Connor into riding the flume with me. He said he'll do it next year.

The sleeping over. We all slept in the same room. It took the kids about an hour to settle down because they were so excited to be sleeping in a new place and in the same room. They kept laughing and talking to each other. It was a room with twin beds so Connor took one, Emily took the other, I put a pack n' play in the middle of them for Camryn and I slept in a sleeping bag on the floor. We went to bed late and woke up earlier than usual.

The beach. Connor couldn't wait to build a sandcastle, although I don't think he was as excited 10 minutes into it when he realized that building one with mom was nothing like building one with dad. I don't think I met his expectations.

He abandoned me pretty quickly to go sit with Grandpop down by the water.

Emily wanted nothing to do with the ocean. She wouldn't even stand on the wet sand that was further up from where the water actually reached.

Camryn loved the ocean. She wanted to stand by herself and got knocked down a few times. She kept saying, “Don’t hold me” and “Don’t help me”. Miss independent.

camryn’s personality in four pictures

2010-07-14T00:14:00.001-04:00

our week

2010-07-10T01:43:00.001-04:00

Monday was great. Reason #1: Carl was off. Reason #2: We met Dave, Gina and the kids at the Pitman parade. Reason #3: We ~~had the traditional July 4th BBQ~~ went to Friendly’s for dinner and ice cream. Reason #4: We went back to Pitman for fireworks. Connor and Emily kept telling me it was “the best day ever”.

I have to admit that the picture above is actually a “pretend you’re looking at fireworks” picture. I wanted a picture of them watching fireworks but knew it would be hard to capture once the fireworks actually started if the kids reacted to the noise. It was Carl’s brilliant idea.

Tuesday, another fun day. We went to our nephew Andrew’s 4th birthday party. Despite the 102 degree weather, the kids had a great time outside with the petting zoo and pony rides.

Wednesday, Connor swam on his own for the first time. This really deserves its own blog title so I won’t get blogger-mom-of-the-year for that. It was his 4th lesson and at one point Skylar (his teacher) threw the kickboard across the lane and told him to swim to it…and he did! Then she had him floating on his back and she let go and told him to kick his feet to the rope…and he did! He was so excited and I was so proud of him (and secretly really glad that he wasn’t the boy in the next lane over crying and screaming when his teacher tried to get him to swim with a noodle).

Thursday, we started our summer music class and were pleasantly surprised to see Nicole, Emma and Maddie in class with us. They are cousins of my cousin Danielle’s husband Jeff (I know, confusing)…point being that we see them at all of Danielle and Jeff’s functions so the girls know them too and although they didn’t show their excitement during music class, it’s all Emily talked about on the way home. She kept saying things like, “I can’t believe Emma is in my class” and “Mom, isn’t it funny that Emma is in my class”. I kept reminding her that she has a little sister Maddie too…and that she was there and then Cam would chime in “yeah Maddie too”. It was cute. Emily wants to know where Cambelle and Chloe are though…but we’ll let Aunt D off the hook since Kenna is only one week old. ;)

welcome kenna

2010-07-05T00:45:00.004-04:00

Welcome to the family Kenna Hope Botbyl! Danielle and Jeff had their third girl on July 2nd....healthy and beautiful. I was able to get up to the hospital to see them on Saturday, thus the pics below.

Welcome to the world little girl.

summer fun has begun

2010-07-04T14:54:00.001-04:00

We hit the ground running our first two official days off from school for the summer. The first day, I got out the new water ball and water slide that I picked up from Target and the kids had fun getting wet.

The second day, we went to Storybook Land. It was my first visit and a first for the kids. Carl had been there as a kid. I still can’t believe it was basically right in my own backyard and I had never been there. It ended up being the perfect day…it was hot but low humidity and it was EMPTY.

Last weekend ended with Carl, Connor and Pop Pop Heil going to the first Philadelphia Union game. It was so hot but they had fun. It’s awesome to have our very own MLS team now and especially right over the bridge and in Chester, PA…20 minutes away.

Yeah Soccer…Go Union!

school's out...kind of

2010-07-04T00:54:00.006-04:00

School (for Connor) and work (for me) was officially done on June 23rd. I, however, still have work to do. Paperwork. Lots and lots of paperwork and unfinished case management responsibilities that has unfortunately meant that I have been back at work for a few hours per day. But, it's still summer and there is something to be said for not having to set an alarm for 5:30 a.m. and not having to be somewhere by a certain time. I have to admit though, my workload has been looming over me this past month because I knew that it was going to be an impossible task to get it done by the last day of school. I was hoping for July 2nd. That has passed. Now I'm hoping for July 5th to be my last day. We'll see.

I was going to post about the kids' outside water fun and trip to Storybook Land last week but I'm realizing that it's too late for me to do this and I should already be asleep. I'm actually only up because I have do-it-yourself, firework-shooting neighbors who keep waking up my kids. Thank a veteran, be grateful for your freedom but please, don't shoot off fireworks in your backyard. They're illegal, and they're annoying to all of the people who have animals and small children. July 4th...bah humbug.

Next post..."summer fun has begun".

fun-filled weekend

2010-06-16T00:02:00.001-04:00

We had a busy, busy weekend. We fit three events in this weekend…a visit to see Thomas the Tank Engine, Monster Jam and a Heil Family Baptism. We were constantly on the go but it was so much fun!

This was our third visit to the Strasburg Railroad to see Thomas the Tank Engine. Our first was when Connor was 2 and a half, our second visit was when he was almost 4 (and Emily was 6 months) and now the visit was for the girls. He’s been over Thomas for a while now that he is 6 and a half but he didn’t mind going along for the ride. A few weeks ago I dug his old train table out of the basement and set up the tracks and Thomas trains for Emily and Camryn. They’ve been having a lot of fun with them so I thought they’d like to visit the real Thomas, just as Connor had. They were so excited to see him and take a ride on the real Thomas.

Monster Jam came to “The City of Monsterly Love” so Carl, Connor and I got tickets with Paul, Sherry, Christian & Carter and Dave, Gina, Justin, Andrew & Landon. It was awesome!

We arrived in time for the “Party in the Pits” where we got to get up close to several monster trucks. The best part was Connor getting to meet and get the autograph of his favorite monster truck driver, Jim Koehler, who drives Avenger.

Me and the hubby

Monster trucks in action

Heil family cousins after the show

And here’s how they finished up their weekend at the party celebrating their newest Heil cousin, Kenzie…

excited

2010-06-07T00:47:00.001-04:00

Excited is not a word I often, or really ever, use to describe myself. If I’m happy about something that happened or looking forward to something and someone says to me, “Are you excited?”, it never really feels right to say “Yes!” It’s just not me. But I love to solve problems and get organized so when I do both at the same time, well let me tell you, that is about as close to excited as I can get.

So here was the problem…

Specifically this area…

And here is the solution…

I love baskets but my baker’s rack was out of control and the baskets just weren’t cutting it. Some were storing things I just didn’t need and others just weren’t big enough to store what I wanted. So, I got rid of two of them, threw out some stuff that I didn’t need anymore, relocated some things and most importantly, found this AWESOME shoe storage bench online to solve the problem of the kids’ shoes. That mess of shoes on the bottom shelf had been killing me for months. As much as I tried, I could not keep it organized and I could never find the other shoe when looking for a pair. This bench is the perfect solution because it’s practical, functional and it’s orderly…just like me!

So after my purchase (props to my wonderful husband for putting it together for me) and some time spent reorganizing the area, here is what it looks like now…

I am pretty close to excited! ;)

what’s been going on

2010-05-30T01:20:00.002-04:00

Our last 2 weeks have seemed busier than usual. I could never remember all there is to blog about but luckily I’m a little OCD about writing everything down so I just checked my calendar on the fridge and here are the highlights from the last 2 weeks…

Music class continues. The girls and I are still going every Saturday morning and we love it. Only two classes to go.

Pitman craft fair. Emily and I went since she’s not napping anymore. I asked Connor to go too but he said he remembered going last year and it was “boring”. I was really only going to see the “Clip Lady” as my cousin Danielle calls her. She makes hair clips for little girls and now that I have a little girl (who since her first haircut and clip a few weeks ago is into wearing things in her hair), I wanted to let her buy a few. I was skeptical because I couldn’t imagine that any hair clip could really be that great, especially to stay in Emily’s very fine and very thin hair, but I am pleased to say that the clips are all that and more! I got to talking to the owner/clipmaker, Jayne, and found out that she lives in Mullica Hill and has her clips at a local children’s shop right down the road from me. So we’re a fan of the clip lady now…even Camryn is wearing them.

Butterfly parade. The lifespan of the Monarch Butterfly is the Science curriculum in Kindergarten. Not much else Science to cover I guess at age 5. Connor’s class started with a caterpillar in the Chrysalis stage back in September. It sat in their classroom, hanging from a twig in a green cocoon. After it emerged, it was tagged and “launched” from the Butterfly garden. Apparently they all fly to Mexico. The parade is at the end of the year and each class dresses up as a stage in the lifespan and then takes a 10 minute stroll around the courtyard at school.

Park hopping. We officially began our park hopping season when I took the kids to see their cousin Jeremy play tee ball. We couldn’t leave without using the play set. I love taking the kids to different parks in the area once the weather warms up. We’ll probably hit at least two or three a week once school is out (countdown has started…17 days left!)

Crazy hair day at Harrison Township School. Need I say more?

Laurie Berkner concert. My cousin Danielle heard about a free Laurie Berkner concert so we all went together. We (as in the kids of course) LOVE Laurie. I discovered her when Connor was a baby and she’s just an awesome singer/songwriter of children’s songs. The weather was supposed to be 75 and overcast (outdoor concert by the way). We were two minutes out of the car and walking up a hill to the entrance and the skies opened up. We tried to huddle against a building with our blankets (for the lawn seats) draped over the kids but we were all drenched. I kept telling the girls, as they shivered and got soaked, that it was an adventure. It stopped and somehow we found our way to actual seats because of some nice girl who told us she was going to ignore the fact that we didn’t have tickets for reserved seats. We must have looked really pathetic…two women carrying soaking wet blankets and bags, one pregnant, and 4 little soaking wet girls. Thank you nice ticket lady…it was awesome to actually have seats.

Baseball season ends. Connor’s first season is over and we are all going to miss it. He loved it and I love that he loved it. The girls had fun at the games too, always finding ways to occupy themselves.

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KG Field day. This is their fun, end-of-the-school-year, outdoor games day. I took a personal day to be a volunteer. I was in charge of the “golf ball on a spoon relay race”. Some of the kids were all business…very competitive and some could care less and were just goofy. It was fun watching and cheering them on (but no pictures :\).

Amy’s Prom. Amy went to her senior prom so I took the kids over to see Aunt Amy “dressed like a princess” as Em put it. When I went to my senior prom, Amy was two months. I. Am. Old.

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first haircut

2010-05-15T23:31:00.001-04:00

Last weekend Emily had her first haircut. I seriously think she could have gone another three years without ever having a hair cut on her head but I had it done now for a few reasons (none of which was because she really needed a haircut). First of all, I just felt it was time. I mean, despite her hair looking like some 6 month olds I have seen, she is three years old and it was time to let her experience the excitement of going and “getting your hair done”. Secondly, in everywhere but the length department it was looking like it needed a cut. It was growing uneven and the ends were still that fine baby hair that seemed to be splitting and ending up just frizzy most days. And the third reason…because I truly am hoping that with a fresh 1/4 inch off the ends, her hair responds by actually GROWING.

So…the haircut itself. Em was excited and totally into it. She told me that she wanted me to go first since I was also getting a cut. When it was her turn, she sat so still. It was funny because she would only move her eyes, like she was frozen. It took all of five minutes. My hairdresser, Dawn, put a little clip in her hair that had butterflies dangling off of it and we were on our way. Emily’s favorite part is the clip and she has been wearing it everyday.

em’s new room

2010-05-05T23:36:00.001-04:00

It’s. Finally. Done. Em’s room has been a work in progress since Easter weekend. I had a few days off then so I started the project, kind of impulsively (for me). I got some of the trim done and some of the existing stenciling painted over, didn’t have as much time as I thought I would and then the project sat when I had to go back to work. Working full-time really interferes with this kind of stuff. I really need to not work, you know, so I can paint rooms.

I typically paint at night, after the kids go to bed. Obviously Emily sleeps in her room so that wasn’t happening. After weeks of this literally eating at me…an unfinished, not even half painted, AND unorganized room, it made me sick. So I took a sick day Monday and BAM…done. I love it, yes I do. I’m loving the bright pink now, which I wasn’t sold on. I’m loving the green on the bottom (mostly because that was already there and meant less painting for me) and I’m loving the bright white chair rail that pops in the middle (also selfishly loving that because it was already there). Okay, so basically I only painted the top half of the room pink. There are still curtains to go up and some pictures that I want to hang on the walls, which I’m still finalizing plans for in my mind. I’m either going to go with framing some of her finger painting or going to download some free art and frame that (awesome decorating idea courtesy of my cousin Danielle). Until then, here’s her new room…

pajama day

2010-04-24T00:06:00.001-04:00

Today was “pajama day” at Harrison Township School. I don’t remember ever getting to go to school in my PJ’s.

phillies game with grandpop

2010-04-22T00:21:00.001-04:00

let's play ball

2010-04-18T21:56:00.002-04:00

Connor had games one and two of his first baseball season and he's loving it. He's playing coach's pitch and will have two to three games per week until the first week in June. Here are a few pics and a video from his first game.

camryn counts to ten...almost

2010-04-09T23:53:00.002-04:00

Camryn can count to ten so I tried to get it on video several times. As with many things the kids do, she did it perfectly, willingly, repeatedly and clearly several times...until I got the camera. This isn't too bad though considering these performances do usually totally fall apart once I get the camera. Here she is counting to nine.

emily goes to school

2010-04-06T19:56:00.001-04:00

Well actually, no she doesn’t. But pretty much everyday she tells me something that happened at school, usually something a boy or girl said or did. This is what she told me today:

“Mom, a boy at school said to me today, nanny nanny boo boo you don’t like Batman. And I said, yes I do, I do like Batman. And he said, no you don’t. And I said, yes I do! Yes I do! And he said, no you don’t. And then I tackled him.”

basket hunt

2010-04-05T00:21:00.003-04:00

Ever since Connor’s second Easter, when he was 16 months old, we’ve done an egg hunt. The Easter Bunny leaves the eggs and the kids need to find them in order to find their baskets. The first egg is left in the upstairs hallway, just outside their bedrooms. In each egg is a picture of the next location. This is all Connor talks about for days leading up to Easter, even more than the actual baskets. This year, Emily was also excited about finding the eggs that would lead to their baskets. And Camryn was right there with them, but was more interested in the actual eggs then the pictures inside and going to the next location. I took video of the hunt this year...actually two videos because due to a problem with the memory in the camera, I had to restart just as they were at the last egg that would lead them to their baskets. The first video ended up being about 8 minutes long and wouldn't upload here (you're saying thank goodness because who, other than me, wants to watch an 8 minute long video of my kids hunting for Easter eggs right?) The second video did upload and it's only about 1 minute...kind of a tease because watching it, you really can't get the full effect of the awesome egg hunt. It's only the last egg, which lead them to the place where the baskets were hidden. Take it from me though, the entire hunt was tons of fun. I'm sure this little clip will leave you wanting more. ;)

the trees are coming down part two

2010-04-02T00:39:00.001-04:00

One down, one to go.

she thinks she’s hiding

2010-04-02T00:22:00.001-04:00

the trees are coming down

2010-03-28T21:42:00.001-04:00

We just spent days cleaning these things off of our lawn…

They came from here…

Two trees on our front lawn that really serve no purpose but to leave a huge mess of these seed pods all over the lawn when they fall off in October. And they don’t blow away like leaves do. They sit in the exact same place that they fell…for months and months, through rain and under snow until the Spring comes and it’s time for us to clean them up. And the trees don’t even look that nice when they finally do get some leaves in April or May. There is no way we’re doing this again. The trees are coming down.

reorganizing and repainting

2010-03-27T23:49:00.001-04:00

More shelves, more bins, more containers, more baskets. It’s never enough. I don’t know if it’s that the kids are in three different stages in terms of what they play with, that we need to have boy and girl toys, or just simply that we have too much stuff. Whatever the reason, it seems that the playroom needs constant reorganizing. The latest section that needed help was this one…

So what do you do when you need to reorganize? Go to IKEA or course! I love IKEA…their furniture, their decorating and organizing ideas, their prices. And it’s a fun place…the kids love the children’s section. We always have a good time when we go and I feel accomplished heading home with something new to add to a room. This time around, we bought wall shelves to help reorganize the section above and here it is below, after the shelves…

Now for the repainting. I’ve been itchin’ to paint for months. The kitchen needs to be touched-up, Emily wants pink in her room, I’d like to do the kids’ bathroom and I’ve decided that I don’t really like our front living room. Which painting project did I choose? None of the above. I decided to go with the family room because all of the sudden I just became tired of it. We painted it New Year’s Eve 2002 and at the time, I loved it. We did a midnight blue on the bottom and a taupe on the top with a stencil in between (as seen below in the only picture I could find with the family room wall in the background)… But it had been seven years and I really needed a change. So after about a week of painting every night after the kids went to bed, and a little bit on a weekend day with their help…

we have a new family room! It’s simpler, brighter, cleaner, fresher. The color is called ‘rice grain’ and is basically an off-white. The room immediately looked bigger and brighter. I love it. The only thing I’m contemplating is putting up a chair rail and then maybe painting the lower part one shade darker on the same color strip. Carl thinks I’m nuts. I’m thinking summer project. We’ll see.

These are new curtains too. Unplanned…but the color I picked for the wall ended up being a match to the former curtains. I found these at WalMart and the green is the same green in our couches so they’re a nice addition.

music class

2010-03-22T22:00:00.019-04:00

The girls and I just finished a 10 week music class and LOVED it. It's a 45 minute class that's all about singing, movement and instruments...(you have to throw your talking voices out the window at the beginning of class). I was amazed at how quickly Emily and Camryn learned the songs and participated...like literally by week two. And with the class you get two CD's...one for home and one for the car so we have been singing the songs constantly, even working them into our everyday routines like during meals, going out, washing hands, brushing teeth, going to bed, etc. We love music in this house...it's a huge part of us already so this class just added to it. We're already signed up for the next session, which starts April 10th. Here are a few pics and one video from our last class...

Hand stamps...no class would be complete without them

Camryn's favorite instrument

The girls making their selections

Camryn pretending to (singing) "eat eat eat eat eat eat..." peas

Ms. Diane swinging Emily

birthday girl

2010-03-19T19:47:00.020-04:00

Emily turned three last Saturday, March 13th. We started the weekend off as we usually do, with our Saturday morning music class, which I know I haven't blogged about yet but I'll be taking pictures at our last class tomorrow so the blog will be coming ;). Emily was excited to bring Grandmom with us since she was here for the weekend from Florida. They sang happy birthday to her in class...thank God because she only asked me about 50 times during class if they were going to sing to her. After lunch, she opened her presents from us and then went off to nap in her new big girl bed. Her transition from crib to bed has been smooth.

On Sunday we celebrated her birthday with a small family party at our home. It was a great day and since Em had her two party requests, a Disney princess cake and Disney princess plates, she was good to go.

On Wednesday we celebrated at Build-a-Bear with Emily's cousins. Emily made "Carly", a purple iCarly bear, Camryn made "Blossom", a bunny with flowers all over it and Connor made "Patty", a St. Patrick's Day bear.

After the party, we went downstairs to say hi to the Easter Bunny and much to my surprise, Camryn was all for sitting with him and touching him. She was so into him that my father-in-law took notice and wanted to know why she seemed to love the Easter Bunny but cries when he approaches...he said he's going to buy a bunny suit to wear ;). So after Connor and Emily saw Camryn with the Easter Bunny and more importantly, the cheap little plastic cup that he gave her, they changed their minds and also sat with him. The picture actually turned out great...very cute.

Happy Birthday Em! You bring so much joy to our lives...our family would not be complete without you! Love you.

100th Day

2010-02-21T19:21:00.005-05:00

Tomorrow is the 100th day of school. Only 80 more to go...wahooooo! This is a big deal in Kindergarten because of the "100 Day" project. Each student is supposed to create a project that represents 100 of something. The projects are all displayed in the main foyer area of the school and they have a 100th day celebration in class. A lot of projects are 100 pieces of food. Goldfish, cheerieos, lollipops and hershey kisses seem to be popular each year. This year I saw two cakes with 100 candles. We thought long and hard for Connor's project. I didn't want to do what everyone else does (a lot of the projects kind of look the same or look like they took all of about five minutes to throw together). We brainstormed together and came up with..."Me at 100 different places in Harrison Township".

Harrison Township is made up of three towns...Mullica Hill, Richwood and Ewan, so we took a couple of hours on two days and drove around the township stopping to take pictures of Connor in front of 100 places. Connor and I had fun doing it, especially when we decided to jump out of the car in the middle of intersections and streets. Safety? Who cares about a little dangerous traffic when you've got a school project on the line. At each location, Connor posed in front of a sign so that you could tell where he was. We went to businesses, all three post offices, the police station, the fire stations, development entrances, entering the township signs, and random road signs. He put all of the pictures into a photo album, labeled it and project done! So much more fun and creative then gluing 100 pieces of food to poster board (no offense if you did that and are reading this...I'm sure it turned out great).

Front of the photo album

Two of the 100 pages

breakfast conversation

2010-02-20T18:29:00.009-05:00

The boys went to the KMart Hot Wheels event so breakfast was just the girls today. When Connor is around, there are usually topics of conversation (and a lot of teasing between him and Emily) but with just the girls, one comment leads to another and so on and none of it really amounts to anything. Conversation between the girls is often funny and very random. Here's a one minute sample of this morning's breakfast conversation:

Emily: Is Grace a cow?
Camryn: Nooooo
Emily: Is Grace a bear?
Camryn: Nooooo
Emily: Is Grace a cat?
Camryn: Nooooo...Yes
Emily: Poker Face
Camryn: Lady Gaga
Emily: Poker face
Camryn: Lady Gaga
Mom: (singing) PPPPoker PPPPoker Face
Camryn: Do it again
Mom: (singing) PPPPoker PPPPoker Face
Camryn: Do it again
Mom: (singing) PPPPoker PPPPoker Face
Camryn: Dance
Mom: You want to dance?
Camryn: Em
Mom: You want Em to dance?
Camryn: Yes
Emily: Dance pants, that rhymes.
Mom: It sure does.
Camryn: Sure does!

Emily: Bo buzz

Camryn: Bo buzz

(Both were laughing hysterically)

the beauty of snow

2010-02-12T23:27:00.005-05:00

Around our home...

snow in love

2010-02-09T07:14:00.007-05:00

We've had two major snowstorms in one week and I love it! I forgot how much I love the snow. I know, there's problems with it...schools closing, messy roads, shoveling...blah, blah, blah. It's just not a big deal to me. People complain about it so much it's ridiculous. Is it cold and messy? Yes. But it really is great. And the kids love it too, which is really what makes it totally worth it.

I think I've lost track of just how much snow we got this week. Something around 24 inches last weekend and 20 inches this past Tuesday into Wednesday. We (Connor and I) had a one hour delay Monday from the weekend snow and had off Wednesday and Thursday from the second round. That brings our total snow days up to three, which means we go three days longer in June. I'm not even going to bother complaining about it. We've been outside shoveling (yes, I did help) and we've been sledding twice. I drove for coffee in the middle of a blizzard on Wednesday morning and Carl went out for pizza when the snow slowed down a bit later. The roads were not that bad and everything is so beautiful.

Our sledding adventures...

something's gotta give...and it's been the blogging

2010-02-08T22:14:00.017-05:00

All kinds of interesting things have been going on over here at the Heil house since my last post. Unfortunately I have discovered that I am, in fact, not Superwoman. I have not been able to find time to blog. My typical time is right now, 10 p.m. at night, after the kids are in bed and after I've cleaned up for the night. Lately though, this time of night has been devoted to the treadmill and ab roller. There just isn't enough time to do anything else. I need to pick one thing to do with my time and blogging has been losing. I need to lose weight and get in better physical shape. And if I have one more person tell me that's ridiculous, that I don't need to lose weight, I'm going to scream. Trust me, if I didn't have to lose it (and I'm talking 20 pounds by the way) then I wouldn't be doing the treadmill and sit-ups after 10 p.m. at night each night. I'm eating less in terms of portions, counting calories and trying to stick with meals only...no snacks or treats. I'm also in a weight-loss competition at work so that's helping with the motivation. The most time consuming change though has been the exercising, which is a good thing...but something's gotta give and it's been the blog. So for now, I'll have to summarize all of the fun we've been having. Just for now though, until I figure out how to do it all. ;)

We've had snow, a Chuck E. Cheese visit, power outages, music classes, snow, a visit to the auto show, snow, playroom organizing, oh...and did I mention snow? And in between, the kids have been growing and changing in every way. Connor is blossoming as a big brother...so many moments to be proud of; Emily is truly becoming a preschooler as she gets closer to three...able to interact, listen and play at such a higher level; and Camryn's language growth alone over the past few weeks is just unbelievable...speaking 2 to 3 words at a time.

Here are some pictures that capture our last few weeks:

Emily and Camryn on the simulated roller coaster at Chuck E. Cheese

Connor and Mommy in the tunnels. As I was crawling through I couldn't help but think about all of the germs. I think pumping Airborne through the ventilation system would be a good idea.

You can't tell, but the kids are sitting in the dark. Our power was out for about 24 hours. I took them to McDonald's for dinner, hoping the power would be back on in time for the bath/bedtime routine. It wasn't...so we skipped the bath and I set up a picnic in the family room. I got them in their jammies, got their nightly snacks together and grabbed a pile of books. We hung there, snacking and reading until bedtime.

Above and below are shots taken during some of the playroom re-organizing. It's still in the works...before and after shots to come.

Philadelphia Auto Show. Connor's favorite car, above. He's in a Camaro, below.

Coming soon...a blog about the snow. Pics from the recent snowfalls, complete with sledding fun, deserve their own blog. Another 18-24 inches is expected tomorrow into Wednesday!

little drummer girl

2010-01-23T13:00:00.002-05:00

the things they say

2010-01-15T22:09:00.000-05:00

Connor and Emily say things everyday that are funny, sweet, interesting and silly. A co-worker of mine is always telling me that I need to write everythng down. I wish I could. I've tried, but there is just no way. My only hope is to blog what they say every so often. Here's one thing from Connor and two things from Emily, said today...

Connor:

"I hope you live to 100 so that when I'm 71 we can be old people together."

Emily:

"Mom, you go get the Snow White costume and I'll get the poisoned apples."

"Can you clean those dust rabbits?" (Pointing at the corner of the ceiling.)

report card

2010-01-11T22:57:00.061-05:00

Connor received his first report card just before Christmas. Harrison Township does "trimesters" so there are three report cards per school year (hence the "tri"...probably didn't need to explain that). Another fun thing in Harrison Township is the rubric grading system and the "B", "D", "S" thing, both of which need explaining and understanding if you want to get anything out of looking at the report card.

All subjects, with the exception of writing, are graded on a 4 point rubric. A "3" is the district's standard..."meeting expectations". A "4" is "exceeding expectations". You can kind of figure then what a "2" and a "1" mean. B=Beginning, D=Developing, S=Successful. I think that's it. Oh no wait, there is also the "-", "*" and "+" given to some of the skills listed on the report card under the subject areas. Just getting letter grades are a thing of the past. Now you need a college degree to read the report card.

I tried to link to the report card here but I have it saved as a pdf file and blogspot won't link it. In case I don't figure it out, here are the highlights:

He's in the "Emergent" reading stage. (Stages in order are: Pre-reader, Emergent, Beginning, Fledgling)
Mathematics, rubric grade of "4". Received a "+" in "number and numerical operations" and "patterns and algebra". Yes, they actually call it algebra.
Personal/Social Development...there are a lot of skills assessed here. He received an "S" in everything except "Listens Attentively", "Contributes to Group Activities", "Stays On-task", and "Performs Fine Motor Skills". Those areas were all a "D" for developing, which means he still needs support in those areas.

I'm not sure what the listening attentively thing is about. I'm not surprised about contributes to group activities...he doesn't put himself out there. The staying on task is related to his slow work pace. What can I say, Connor thinks a lot, is methodical and a perfectionist. Three qualities that I happen to have and like. He does well with time limits if he has a timer or a person to remind him. Otherwise, forget it...it will get done when he is done. I've always said he has no sense of urgency. And finally, performs fine motor skills is about his handwriting, which is so ironic to me. The irony is that his handwriting is awesome...I need to take credit because I'm pretty sure he comes by it naturally. ;) For school purposes however, with the exception of the first letter of a sentence, he needs to write in lower case and form his letters from top to bottom. This is not his preference at all and he lets me know it all of the time. He'd rather write in CAPS and form his letters from bottom to top. Since he's a rule follower he does comply, which has actually made his handwriting less legible, again ironic. Thus, his fine motor skills are "developing".

Connor did well. The best part is that he likes school and looks forward to going. He's reading and writing and shares so many things about what he is learning. He shares a lot about his classmates too like, who is " a good one" and who is "not a good listener" and who is "annoying" and who is "funny" and who "talks too much". He could go on and on and typically does, in detail. It makes me wonder sometimes what his classmates are saying about him to their parents.

christmas

2010-01-02T00:17:00.000-05:00

I feel like it took forever for Christmas day to actually arrive, and when it did it was gone so quickly. Christmas is really a week-long holiday, at least. Here's how our family spent it:

December 23rd...early dismissal for Connor and I. He had his classroom "winter celebration", a.k.a. Christmas party. Not allowed to call it that anymore...but there's a huge Christmas tree in the foyer of the school and a parent reads "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" over the school intercom system, go figure. That night, my mom helped me wrap almost all of the gifts and then when Carl got home from his indoor game, we finished up. I think we were up until like 2 a.m.

Christmas Eve...went to one of Carl's brother's (Steve and Roxanne) for the Heil family gathering. Since he has seven siblings and there are 19 neices/nephews, we only do a kids polyanna and a "wrap up something from your house that you don't want" gift exchange (the item has to be unused). I love the kids polyanna because, well...let's face it, it would be insane to buy for 16 kids. And I love the adult gift exchange because it gives us the oppourtunity to get rid of something that we have never used, and probably don't like or want. There's a lot of laughing during that...you should see some of the stuff that people get rid of. This year someone became the proud owner of our frog cookie jar. We scored because Carl chose a great gift (they are all wrapped when you choose). He got his sister Diane's gift, which was full of cd's. She works for Sony and gets one free cd a month...she has to take whatever it is and many of them she doesn't like. She stuck about 10 in a gift bag...Kenny Chesney, John Mayer, Kings of Leon, Mercy Me, Carrie Underwood, Bruce Springsteen, Frank Sinatra...not bad!

Cousin polyanna exchange

Christmas Day...kids got up around 8:15. They were excited, even about each other's gifts. Connor could have gotten through his in about five minutes but we were taking turns (because when am I not neat and orderly) and the girls were holding up the process. They wanted to open and play with every gift. Well, Em did and Camryn just wanted to play with Em's gifts. I think we ended up skipping over Cam a few times but they were all done by about 10 a.m. and ready for breakfast. I was going to make pancakes but didn't realize we were out of mix until it was time to make them. I looked up the "pancake from scratch" recipe in my cookbook and immediately thought, "yeah...um...no" so knowing the kids wouldn't eat eggs I came up with the only logical 3rd option...french toast! After breakfast and clean-up, the kids played with their toys, the girls napped, we got ourselves together, and then I started to make dinner. My dad, stepmom Jane, sister Amy and stepmom's parents were coming over at 3:30. Carl had to work, which sucked actually...but I knew that he would have four days off in a row Sunday through Wednesday so that made it better. Dinner turned out great and the kids had fun visiting with Grandpop, Mom Mom, Aunt Amy, Great Pop Pop and Great Mom Mom...and opening more gifts of course.

December 27th...gathering at our house. My extended family (cousin Danielle, Jeff and the girls; Aunt Pat and Uncle Gary; Granny Wilson) came over. The kids had fun with Cambelle and Chloe and enjoyed more gifts. It's always great when we can all get together, which is rare these days with our different obligations and schedules.

December 28th...my sister Dawn flew in from Ohio and brother Ken drove from Pittsburgh so we got to hang for a few hours and have a nice dinner. I miss them being around so it was a great visit.

The 28th through New Year's Eve, we didn't do much...a lot of hangin' around, playing with the kids and their toys/games. It was so nice for Carl to have off 4 days in a row. We even squeezed in a trip to IKEA, which is always fun and productive! We bought Emily her "big girl bed" and some more shelves for the playroom. The room is seriously out of control. I need another week off to go through it and get rid of some stuff. So, a few more days and then back to reality for me...back to work on Monday the 4th. January to March always seems to go the slowest at work. It's not slow in terms of the workload, but there are no major holidays or breaks coming up. I know, sad story right? I'll just have to settle for my next day off, January 18th for Martin Luther King day! Gotta love working in a school district.

I could have posted many, many more pics from our holiday gatherings but so many are just candids of the kids opening gifts. This one above, of the girls dressed up in the princess dress-up trunk clothes that Emily received from Santa, is one of my favorites. They have literally been rotating between princess outifts everyday since Christmas. Their faces say it all...it really was a joyful Christmas.

snow days

2009-12-27T00:46:00.000-05:00

This time last week we had two feet of snow and now we have nothing. The 50 degree temperature today and tons of rain washed it all away. It was fun while it lasted though (although I'm not too sure Carl would agree since he had to clear the driveway, sidewalk and walkway). I enjoy the snow and I'm so glad we live somewhere where we get to experience it somewhat, but not all winter like in North Dakota or Minnesota. I was telling Connor that when I was a kid, I would spend all day out in it when it snowed. I'd build tunnels and caves at the bottom of my driveway (actually my dad probably did all of the actual work while I watched and critiqued). He took me sledding all of the time and would pull me around our street on my wooden sled. I remember sitting in my living room when I was a kid, listening to the guy on KYW read all of the school closing numbers. I think my school district was 803 or 806 and I can remember the excitement building as the guy reached the high 700's and then all of the sudden it was 800, 801, 802...! I feel sorry for kids who grow up in Florida...there seriously is nothing like a good snowfall. Working in a school, I still get to experience snow days...that never gets old. I'm hoping for one more snowstorm before the winter is over so that we can take the kids sledding for the first time.

All three of them loved playing in the snow this past week. Saturday, Sunday and Monday went like this: dress kids for the snow, play in the snow, come in and take off all of the snow clothes, have hot chocolate, repeat. Here are some pics from the fun we had last weekend...

The entire dressing routine for all three probably took about 20 minutes

Camryn could not get up on her own after she was dressed

Emily throwing snow up into the air and then having it all land back on her face

All Connor wanted to do was throw snowballs at Carl and I, but definitely could not handle the retaliation

Emily wanted to throw a few of her own too

I love the wall of snow here behind Camryn

Connor kept trying to walk through the snow

Emily and Camryn making their way down the sidewalk

Connor kept trying to save his snowballs...he was carrying this one to a big pile of them

Our home...the upstairs window on the right is Connor's room. By the next day, it was completely covered by a snow drift. It looked cool from the inside.

Emily wanted to make snow angels the entire time we were out there

This is the only bad thing about playing in the snow

confession

2009-12-21T00:13:00.000-05:00

Forgive me blogger, it's been 5 weeks since my last post (the Catholics will get that). I really can't believe that I haven't blogged in 5 weeks. I'm going to blame it on (1) the time of year, (2) work and, (3) my attempt at exercising. I numbered my reasons because making lists always makes me feel better. So...(1) This time of year is crazy with Thanksgiving, Connor's birthday and then getting ready for Christmas. (2) Work has been mentally kicking my butt lately so I've been too tired to blog once I get the kids in bed. (3) I say "my attempt" at exercising because I have been making an attempt for the last month. I've been doing the treadmill and Wii Fit. Some nights have been better attempts than others but I am doing something, which is better than the nothing that I was doing. So there are my excuses for not blogging and here is my attempt to summarize the last 5 weeks...

We spent Thanksgiving at my dad and stepmom's house. Carl ended up having the night off, which was a welcomed surprise.

Thanksgiving weekend brought the yearly WTHS men's soccer game. Connor stayed for the whole game while the girls and I only stayed for about the first half. The odd years (Carl's team) won again...for like the 7th year in a row or something ridiculously longer than that. The even years are not representing.

We went to get our Christmas tree.

We celebrated Connor's 6th birthday with our gifts to him at home and a bowling party with family and friends.

We had fun decorating our tree.

The last five weeks also brought some milestones for the kids...

Connor was awarded Student of the Month for November. The letter home said, "this selection is based on demonstrating considerate behavior, respect for others and good manners in an exemplary fashion". He recieved a certificate and had his picture taken with the principal. Needless to say, he was very excited and we are so proud of him.

Emily took on potty training. We were in Target one day and she saw Disney Princess underwear. She asked to buy them and said she was going to use the potty. I said okay and basically went along for the ride. She made the decision and that was it. She rotates between Disney princess and Tinkerbell underwear, which she likes to specifically select each day. She also likes to change up her choices throughout the day, but that's okay...whatever works. She's still wearing pull-ups at night but she's doing a great job.

Camryn had her 15 month well-visit. She's now one pound away from Emily, in the 90%tile for weight (26 pounds). She's 31 inches tall, which is the 75%tile. Her language is taking off, her sleep continues to be great, she's funny, very affectionate, and just loves life.

free advertising for vitamin water

2009-11-16T23:27:00.000-05:00

I recently discovered Vitamin Water and it is so good...so good that I'm blogging about it. I never thought that I would use the words 'water' and 'so good' in the same sentence. I am not a fan of water and didn't drink the 10 gallons a day of it that you're supposed to when you're pregnant. I just don't prefer it. Truthfully I could live off of iced tea, lattes and coffee. I know, not so good.

So two weeks ago I was stuck at a workshop for my job and needed a drink, hence the Vitamin Water. It was yummy and I couldn't believe that it was just flavored water! And since I'm not typically a healthy drinker and eater, I think this may be just the thing for me. Good tasting water with vitamins, I mean seriously? Now maybe it's not that good for you, who knows, but by the looks of the ingredients and of course, all of the vitamins listed, it sure does seem as though it's healthy!

Each flavor is called something, like "sync" or "defense" or "power-c" just to name a few. Here is the coolest part...the labels. Each label has a funny little blurb about that particular flavor. And when I say funny, I mean I'm laughing when I read it. And I read the same one again and again. I don't even read books for entertainment. So now I'm getting vitamins and entertained at the same time...by a flavored water drink! You might be thinking that I either have too much time on my hands or that I've completely lost it but neither is true. I'm as busy and sane as usual. Here's a sample of what I'm talking about:

(This is written on the "defense" flavor and is my favorite thus far)...

"If you've had to use sick days because you've actually been sick then you're seriously missing out, my friends. See, the trick is to stay healthy and use sick days to just um, not go in. And this combination of zinc and fortifying vitamins can help out with that and keep you healthy as a horse. So drink up. Remember, don't overdo it on the coughing and sniffling (big rookie mistake). Just stick with the ever-elusive "24-hour bug". The symptoms are vague and people will actually encourage you to stay home."

Is that funny stuff or what?

potty talk

2009-11-14T23:40:00.000-05:00

Lately Emily has been into saying the words "Poop" and "Pee". She'll randomly add one of the words to the end of a sentence like this, "Can I be done with my dinner pee?" or to the end of a song like this, "Ashes, ashes, we all fall down poop." When this started a few weeks ago I initially ignored it. After a few days I decided to explain to her that those were "potty words" and that the only time she should be saying them is when she's in the bathroom or during a diaper change. It's actually very hard not to laugh when she says the words because it is funny but she'll immediately look at me so I have to make sure that I reinforce what I explained to her...they are potty words. It's definitely diminishing but still popping up here and there. Here are two recent examples:

Last weekend as we were getting out of the minivan to go to my nephew's birthday party, she asked me..."Mom, can I say poop and pee at the party?" I responded no, to which she asked..."Can I say poop and pee in the bathroom at the party?" So of course, I had to say yes.

And then tonight, two minutes after she went in her diaper she had this conversation with Connor:

Emily: (Walks up to Connor and points her butt at him) Do you want to eat my poop for lunch Connor?
Connor: (Appalled) No!
Emily: Why, did you already have lunch?

happy birthday blog

2009-11-13T23:23:00.003-05:00

My blog turned one year old on October 29th. In celebration, I'm going to create a book of my blog. This will be the last post to be included in the book. My cousin did this recently and she said her book turned out great..she loves it.

I started the blog at the beginning of a new chapter in my life, to record my year off from work and home with my kids. I also became a slacker with the baby books so I figured the blog could make up for that. (Apologies to Emily and Camryn because Connor has a really detailed baby book...sorry girls.) I had every intention of continuing this blog though, even while working full-time. I've been back to work for 11 weeks and I'm still blogging...so far, so good. I actually don't think I could give it up if I wanted to. It's for my kids. I guess there will come a time when they no longer want to be blogged about and I'll have to find other things to discuss. But for now, I still want to record every minute of their lives. I want them to know how much they are loved and adored, how funny they are, how smart they are and how much they have to offer, even at their young ages.

So, happy birthday blog. It's been a great year.

halloween

2009-11-06T20:54:00.009-05:00

We've always loved Halloween. It's my favorite holiday. We dressed up until we were into our 20's I think. Our first few years in this house before we had kids, Carl would dress up as something scary (a witch, a vampire, an old creepy man, and a scream guy) and he would scare the crap out of the kids in the neighborhood. It was so much fun. We would have people over, a kind of informal Halloween party, and just have fun watching the kids run screaming from our door. I laugh just thinking about it. The best year was the year of the witch. I wish I had a scanner so that I could put the picture in here. Carl put the witch from the Wizard of Oz to shame. He sat in our upstairs bedroom window and would cackle and talk to the kids as they were approaching. I'd answer the door and play dumb when the kids would ask me about the witch's voice they heard. Talking to the kids for 10 seconds would buy Carl just enough time to run downstairs and out the door at them or sometimes he'd go out the backdoor and sneak around to the front. I remember this one kid was trying to get away so fast that he fell on the grass and then was trying to crawl away quickly...hilarious. We tried not to do this to the really young kids of course. For a few years though, our house was the talk of the neighborhood and people couldn't wait to see what we came up with next. I had people asking me weeks in advance what Carl was going to be or do. That all stopped when we had kids. Our focus changed, we started trick-or-treating again instead of giving out candy and we also didn't want to scare the crap out of our own kids, just other peoples kids.

This year we had a fun week leading up to Halloween. The kids and myself met Connor's friend, mom and sister at Duffield's for the hayride and pumpkin picking. The rest of the week was spent making Connor's costume, which was all Carl. Connor and I had been out to every Halloween store around and couldn't find any costumes that he wanted to be. Carl came up with the idea of a homemade robot costume and did a great job with it. He got a lot of compliments and had so much fun wearing it. The day before Halloween was his school parade. And on Halloween, Carl actually got to take the night off from work (being a manager and having off on a Saturday night in the Casino business is pretty much unheard of). Grandpop and Mom Mom Petrilli came over for pizza and trick-or-treated with us.

Our neighbors always ask when we're going to start scaring again. It may be a year or two, but we will definitely be back.

Hayride at Duffield's

Connor's Kindergarten class

Camryn as Winnie the Pooh and Emily as Stephanie from Lazytown

Connor the robot

Getting ready to trick-or-treat

i just have to do it

2009-10-27T23:14:00.004-04:00

Here it is, a post about the flu vaccine. With the recent story about Desiree Jennings, I can't hold back anymore. There is widespread panic about the swine flu and upcoming flu season and I'm sure the drug companies are loving it. They get to make more vaccines, which equals more money for them. Add the drug company lobbyists that help put a spin on things just enough for politicians and the media to grab hold and run with it. This is why your average American is in a panic about the swine flu and flu, and then running out to get their vaccines. Well not me and not my kids.

In 1999 the FDA reviewed the use of thimerosal in childhood vaccines and found no evidence of harm, but as a precautionary measure, recommended removing thimerosal from vaccines routinely given to children. Thimerosal was removed from all pediatric vaccines in 2001 with the exception of the flu shot. There is a single-dose, thimerosal-free vaccine available but it is in short supply and not typically advertised. You have to ask for it. Do you know why? Well, I'm going to tell you...because it's more expensive. It costs less money to use Thimerosal as a preservative, enabling physicians to give the flu shot from multi-dose vials rather than a single-dose vial.

Most people will say that the chance of something happening because of the flu shot is rare, a one-in-a-million chance. Desiree, the woman in the video, stated that she would not have had the shot if she knew the risks. That is just sad. She should have known the risks, as rare as they might be. I do my research...on pretty much everything. On this subject, I've read the CDC report and the FDA report. I've read the position statement of the American Academy of Pediatrics and I've read documents written by the anti-vaccine movement. I am responsible for myself, for the choices I make. I am also responsible for my kids so it's even more important to me that I make decisions based on information, not on blind faith and trust. Be an active participant in your own care and your children's care. Do some research. Read. Seek. Find. And then make the decision that is best for you. But please, just make it an informed decision.

cam update

2009-10-25T00:30:00.003-04:00

Just a quick follow-up to my last post. Took Camryn to the pediatrician on Wednesday. He ruled out anything bacterial that would be the cause of the fever...strep, pneumonia, flu, ear infection, sinus infection. She had no rash, lumps or anything alarming on exam so the "rule-out" diagnosis was "it's something viral". The fever broke on Friday and she's fine. Five days of a high fever, no other symptoms. I'm glad it was nothing, but if a fever is the body's way of fighting something off, then I guess it was something. Just don't know what the something was.

stay away

2009-10-20T20:55:00.007-04:00

If you know what's good for you, stay away from us until the spring...maybe even the summer. If you see us coming, run for your lives. The kids are sick, again. It's going to be a long fall and winter.

I've been meaning to post about this for about a week and it was originally going to be called, "Going through the big D and don't mean Dallas", which is a country song reference. In the song, "the big D" means divorce. In my house, "the big D" means diarrhea...and lots of it. Connor got things going on October 1st. After seven days of it, I took him to the pediatrician. Since there were no other symptoms, they had me collect stool samples for the lab with these instructions:

Get a foil baking pan and mold it to the toilet when he has to go. Picture that for a second.
Collect the sample.
Divide the sample up among five containers and three slides.
Label everything.
Put one container in the freezer, one container in the fridge and leave three containers at room temperature.
Seal the slides in the envelope.
Take everything to Quest as soon as possible.

Piece of cake! Of course, he had to go in the middle of dinner and I didn't want to pass on an opportunity to collect crap in a baking pan, so off Connor and I went while the girls ate. After the collection, I gathered the containers and slides together in the kitchen, which was completely appropriate given we were in the middle of dinner, and I divided it all up into the proper places. It took about 10 minutes. A few minutes into it the kids wanted to know what the smell was. Seriously? My kids are smart, and knew what I was doing, so I was completely baffled by the question. I was like, "Uh...what do you think the smell is?" They really are brilliant kids but somehow that one got past them.

By the time all of Connor's results were in a few days later, the girls now had diarrhea. The results were fine...no salmonella, rotavirus, parasites, etc. The nurse practitioner told me to make an apppointment with a GI doctor, even after I told her that the girls now had the diarrhea and that it wasn't a problem exclusive to Connor. I didn't get that one. So, I used common sense and decided to wait it out instead of taking him to a GI doctor.

Today it's been one week since then and we seem to be in the clear. The girls were actually over it faster then Connor. He had 19 days of diarrhea. That's insane. We're over it though and already on to the next thing. Camryn is on day 3 of a fever. No other symptoms. Tomorrow is the magical day 4 that the pediatrician always says to wait until to call. So I'll call, and probably end up there tomorrow. I know there will be an exam, ear check, likely a strep throat swab because they always seem to do that no matter what. Maybe I'll even get to collect poop again.

in this corner

2009-10-13T23:48:00.003-04:00

Here's a clip of yesterday's Wii boxing match between Connor and Emily. You can't see it but at the end of the match, Emily took quite a blow to the face that sent her Mii into a backwards flip. Needless to say, it was a K.O. for Connor. I like to watch them instead of their Mii's. If I don't look at the t.v. then it's not like I'm teaching my kids to physically fight each other. I don't need to see fists flying and bodies falling to the mat. It's all about the denial. And the fun.

sunday, sunday, sunday (monster jam announcer voice)

2009-10-09T21:01:00.008-04:00

Last Sunday we all went to 'Monster Jam on the beach' in Wildwood. The weather was beautiful and the kids were great...even the girls who weren't as interested as Connor. Carl's brother Paul, his wife Sherry, and their boys Christian and Carter also went so we met up with them there and ate afterwards at Texas Roadhouse. It was a great family day.

Avenger. Connor's favorite.

This was interesting. Not a Monster Jam truck...it was the halftime entertainment.

Brutus. The only truck that rolled that day.

Connor and his cousin Christian after the show.

Connor held his ears, even with ear plugs.

Connor is a huge Monster Jam fan, he watches it every morning from 7-8 as he eats his breakfast and gets ready for school. He's been watching it since age 3. He knows all of the trucks, most of the drivers and owns 20 or so (the Hot Wheels version). Every trip we make to Target we head down the cars/trucks aisle and look for new Monster Jam vehicles. He builds his own courses using books for ramps. He lines cars up for the trucks to jump over and puts school buses in position so that the Monster Jam trucks "crush" them as they drive over top. Sometimes he has me time the trucks to see who's faster (it's his hand controlling their performance so it's interesting how his favorite truck always seems to win). And since he's a list maker like his Mom, he usually writes down the winners and then the winners take on the winners and so on until there is an ultimate winner. The real challenge for Connor is actually getting to play the whole Monster Jam scenario without Camryn knocking down the course and stealing the trucks.

sign of the times

2009-09-29T23:26:00.002-04:00

Emily told me that they were checking their email.

she's walking

2009-09-27T23:08:00.003-04:00

Camryn has discovered that she can walk, and if the laughing didn't get in her way, I don't think she'd ever fall down. Here's a short clip of one of her recent travels. Sorry for the lighting...or lack thereof.

even a camera should look pretty

2009-09-26T22:36:00.011-04:00

I wouldn't call myself a photographer, but I am a 'picture taker' and I love my camera. I take it everywhere because I always say that you never know when there might be a picture to take. I've said it so much that Connor now asks me when we leave the house, "Do you have your cell phone and do you have your camera?" My cousin Danielle is a fellow 'picture taker' and bought me the cutest camera strap for my birthday. She bought it from a seller on etsy, a website that features all handmade items. It was so thoughtful and I love it.

Taking a picture of it was a challenge, since it's attached to the camera.

live each day as if...

2009-09-18T23:35:00.004-04:00

I'm sure you've heard the quote, "Live each day as if it were your last". Today I heard someone on the radio say, "Live each day as if it were your first". It struck me. He was saying if you live everyday as if it were your last, that your entire experience that day would be overshadowed by the fact that at the end of the day, you're going to die. If you live everyday as if it were your first, you have no baggage, no preconceived notions, no expectations...just an entire day ahead of you, the first of many more. I like it.

happy birthaversary

2009-09-18T22:08:00.012-04:00

Our 11th wedding anniversary was last weekend...September 12th. It's exactly between my birthday, September 6th, and Carl's birthday, September 18th. So even though we're a year apart in age, we were the same age, 24, the day we were married. I've always thought that was cool. Since our birthday's and anniversary are so close together, we've always celebrated them together...whether it be one gift, one night out to dinner, or like this year...one cake.

Us, on our wedding day. I can't get over how young we look, which makes me realize how old I look now!

In addition to enjoying our cake last weekend, we also enjoyed our soccer! Connor's first game was Saturday. He's playing up a year, U7, but they still don't really win or lose. But, Connor kept score and told me that his team won the first game 2-1 and lost the second game 5-0. Carl's first game was Sunday. This will be our weekends now...soccer both mornings. And Carl gets in from work around 3 a.m. the nights before. Anything for soccer right?! Carl's game was a hike...Burlington Twp. It was nice weather though and Connor and Emily had fun passing the ball to each other. And, Carl scored two goals for a 2-0 win...yea Daddy!

Could the pinnies be any bigger?!

I love Cam's face in this picture. I was trying to get pictures of the girls watching the game but everytime I pull the camera out, Camryn gets ready.

we have a new normal

2009-09-11T23:34:00.013-04:00

It's been one week with our new normal and it's going well. I'm handling things fine on the surface but my stomach is still in knots...recovering from Connor's first day and my first week of consecutive days not being home with the kids. And now, I'm home for my weekend off and Carl is at work again just starting his work week...his "Monday".

I'm not sure that Connor's transition to Kindergarten could have gone any smoother. We have a morning routine established. Carl and I are both doing our parts. I have the 7-7:40 a.m. part, which is making sure he is up, dressed and given breakfast. Carl has the 7:40-8:18 a.m. part, which is making sure he finishes breakfast, has his backpack and gets on the bus. We are 'Team Heil', as I like to call us. Thank goodness we work well together (which really just means thank goodness Carl understands, puts up with, and executes my way of doing things). Connor has entered school each morning seeing my smiling face (a perk of working there). The first two days I was supposed to be in the main entrance lobby to help the lost, nervous and anxious kids find their way. The last two days, I just hung out there for fun. He said he loves Kindergarten and was especially excited about Spanish class.

Other happenings this week...

Camryn is very close to walking. She's doing well holding on to one hand and she's getting brave enough to let go and take a step or two on her own. Emily has decided that she would like to go to school too. She had been asking for a backpack so I finally got her one since they went on sale now that school started. She has no use for it but it's pink and it has Princesses on it. That's all that matters.

Stay tuned...soccer started this week! First practice was Wednesday and first game is tomorrow. Fall is officially here!

kindergarten orientation

2009-09-05T00:44:00.010-04:00

Tuesday of this week was Connor's Kindergarten orientation. It's cool the way they do it...the bus picks up the child, and one parent gets to ride to school too. So Carl got that job and I met them at the school.

Connor met his teacher, waited in line and then after a quick high five and "have fun" from us, he went to the classroom and we went to a parent meeting with the principal. The whole thing was about an hour and we met up with Connor in the classroom for the last 15 minutes. It's kind of weird for me since I work there. I've been in his teacher's classroom dozens of times so I knew what to expect. It was surreal to see him sitting at a table in her room, at his assigned seat, with his nametag on the table. He handled the whole thing great, although he looked nervous. He was quiet, reserved...his typical reaction in new settings. I'm really looking forward to him being there, learning and experiencing new things. His first day is Tuesday the 8th. Carl will put him on the bus at 8:18 and I will be there in the main lobby greeting all of the Kindergarten students as he walks through the doors at 8:30. He thinks that part is cool, because no other parents get to do that. He asked me last night if, in school, he has to call me Mrs. Heil.

the blog i've been avoiding

2009-09-01T22:31:00.004-04:00

This is the blog I've been avoiding. The one where I have to talk about my first day back to work tomorrow, my first day without the kids in 15 months. Over the last few weeks I've been going though denial, sadness, anxiety and anticipation (and not the good kind of anticipation). How I typically handle things is...I don't like complaining, my glass is always half-full, I don't like to make a big deal about things, I don't sweat the small stuff, I try to see the positive in every situation, I always know that someone has it worse. This is not how I have been or even want to feel about my going back to work full-time. I want to complain, make a big deal about it, sweat it, think and talk about the negative aspects of the situation and I don't want to focus on people who have it worse. I don't want to hear things like, "well at least you only work 10 months" or "at least you're home by 3:30" or "at least you work 2 minutes from your house" or "good jobs are hard to come by...you should feel lucky", etc., etc., etc. None. of. that. matters. to. me. The truth is, I just want to be home with the kids. End of story. I want to get them up in the morning, make their breakfast and clean-up after them. I want to help Connor and Emily play nicely together, and correct them when they don't. I want to see Camryn scoot around the house on her butt and see those first steps that I know are coming any day now. I want to make the bottles, clean the dishes, do the wash and plan their day. I don't want to miss one minute of what will happen between 7:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. But I'm going to.

The decision was between going back or resigning completely...my job was held for me, I'm grateful that I have a job where that is possible. I had to think about the long term benefits rather than the short term ones. I can only hope and pray that I don't look back on the decision five years from now and wish I had went for the short term.

15 minutes outside = 15 mosquito bites

2009-08-31T20:55:00.005-04:00

These are Connor's legs, courtesy of the killer mosquitoes at Grandpop and MomMom's house.

making good choices

2009-08-25T21:49:00.002-04:00

I talk to Connor a lot about making good choices. Emily is only two, but I know that she picks up a lot of what I say to Connor because I hear her repeating me. Her language ability is also very good for her age so I keep that in mind and give her the benefit of the doubt that she will understand what I'm telling her. So here's what happened tonight.

Sometimes I have to separate Connor and Emily when I leave them alone together, even if it’s just a minute. If I don’t give them an expectation, one of them usually does something to the other one and then it goes back and forth and escalates. So tonight, when I was going to take Camryn up to bed, I had Connor sit on one couch and Emily sit on the other. They had been at each other a bit when I was getting them ready for bed so I thought ahead to what might happen when I leave the room and go upstairs for a few minutes. I quickly came up with the couch separation. I told them, “Connor you sit here…Emily you sit here. Do not move from your spot. If you move from your spot, you will lose your book for tonight. Do you understand?” They both said yes so upstairs I went.

At the top of the stairs, once I was out of sight, Connor started telling Emily to get up. That little stinker. I almost intervened. I thought about going back down a few steps to reiterate my expectations so that Emily wouldn’t make the wrong decision. I thought, she’s two years old…am I expecting too much? Can she withstand the power of her older brother’s trickery? In my hesitation I heard something…Emily’s voice. I listened. She told Connor, “No, I’m not getting up Connor”. He kept at her…kept saying, “Come on Em, get up, Mom won’t mind.” And she repeated, “No Connor.” He said, “Come on Em, why not?” And here is what my two-year-old told her older and supposedly wiser brother (verbatim), “Mom said do not move and if I move, I will lose my book for bedtime”.

You go girl! I could not have been more proud of her.

tea party

2009-08-24T22:51:00.004-04:00

I'm into coffee, Emily's into tea. We have a tea party at least once a day. Here's a short clip of one from today. Camryn is starting to get in on the action too.

(Take note of the red socks. She would wear them everyday, whether they match or not. I try to bury them under other wash or in the back of a drawer but she seems to find them every few days.)

big brother junkie

2009-08-22T23:41:00.005-04:00

I can't get enough of Big Brother. For those of you living under a rock (or just not into reality t.v.) it's on every summer on CBS. I've watched it from season one when Will blazed a trail with his lies and "showmance". It's like Survivor, without the awful living conditions. I think the attraction for me is that it's like a social experiment and I love that stuff...human behavior at its best (and worst). I like to see how people act under pressure, if they're real or fake, caring or self-centered, if they're into their looks, if they're confident, intelligent, have their wits about them...or do they totally lose it at the drop of a hat. There are heads of households, nominees, vetos and evictions...and the winner gets $500,000 by way of a vote from the people who were voted out. Summer television entertainment doesn't get much better than this.

There are two downsides: (1) The viewing schedule is three nights per week. Two of the nights it's on at 8 p.m. and one night is 9 p.m. Getting the kids into bed by 8 p.m....no way, not during the summer. (2) We don't have any of the perks that would allow us to watch the show on the nights that it airs or see all the extra footage, i.e. no DVR, Showtime 2 or the Live Feed. I know, I know...poor me right? Thanks goodness for 'On Demand'. But, when my aunt sent me this link to constant, real-time updates, I officially became a Big Brother junkie. People who get the live feed actually sit at their computer and type everything that is happening and being said. There seem to be a handful of them who take turns posting. A part of me is like, do they not have a life? What losers...they watch the live feed and then type it all out for people who don't have the live feed but the other part of me is like, yes...this is awesome!

our evolution

2009-08-19T08:52:00.006-04:00

From the first picture taken in high school to our most recent picture taken the other day...our life summed up in four pictures from a Jersey shore photo booth, 20 years in the making.

baby bunnies

2009-08-12T00:09:00.006-04:00

We've always had a lot of rabbits around our house. When Connor was three he started naming them. There always seem to be three visible at one time so he thinks it's the same three rabbits...David Dot, John Carter and Kelly Martin. Yes, he came up with those names completely on his own and he swears he can tell who is who. Well, apparently Kelly has been getting it on with either David or John because yesterday we found baby bunnies buried in the mulch around the playset. There are four that we can see and they are huddled together in a shallow hole underneath the glider. Their eyes aren't even opened yet.

Anyone who knows me well knows that I went into 'animal rescue' mode as soon as Carl told me that they saw them. I was a little concerned this morning when I went to check on them and they were uncovered. I was thinking...where's the mom, are they hot, are they cold, are they hungry, did she abandon them, is some bird going to eat them, do they mind the ants crawling all over them, is the sun going to cook them, would they prefer shade, is the mulch comfortable enough...and on and on and on. And anyone who knows me well knows that I went right into the house and found a wild rabbit rescue website to answer all of my questions. Apparently the mommy rabbit only visits them twice per day to nurse them, once right before dawn and then at night. She doesn't want to attract predators but she keeps an eye on them from a distance. I don't know...I think Kelly was slacking today because I didn't see her anywhere. Also, baby rabbits can die from the shock of being handled by humans...I knew not to touch them but I didn't know it could kill them! I also learned that 95% of wild rabbits die before 6 months of age...most at the hands (or claws) of predators such as hawks and cats. Well, not on my watch!

I placed the umbrella from the kids' sandtable over the spot where the bunnies are so that the crows and hawks flying above can't spot them. I kept watch all day...some hawks were circling. Connor kept telling me if the hawks were getting close. No crows though. My only worry now is the one or two stray cats around. They can squeeze through our fence. I can only hope that Kelly Martin is protecting them like any good mom would. I'll be checking on them first thing in the morning.

happy birthday cam

2009-08-08T10:17:00.004-04:00

On this day last year, my youngest was born. Camryn has added so much to our family...it's beyond words. Happy Birthday baby girl!

August 7, 2008 - The day before she was born

August 8, 2008 - The day she was born
August 8, 2009 - On her first birthday

keith

2009-08-07T15:27:00.005-04:00

Urban that is. Thanks to my stepmom, Jane, Connor and I saw him in concert last Saturday and he was AWESOME. We already had good seats but when Keith decided to travel through the floor section towards the back and perform a few songs from a pop-up stage right in front of us, we were freaking (well, truth is I was freaking...Connor was much more composed).

holla to my mil

2009-08-04T15:26:00.004-04:00

Last week we had a funeral to go to so my mother-in-law stayed with the kids. While taking care of the kids she also got all of their wash folded. Something that takes me 3 days to complete took her 3 hours. I always say I don't know how she took care of 8 kids under the age of 10...and kept the house clean and my father-in-law fed. I think she secretly wears a cape. I'm amazed when I think of what her days must have been like. And she doesn't complain...ever.

plan b

2009-07-22T16:36:00.009-04:00

Almost 2 weeks ago (I know, this post is a little late) we attempted to go to the Spectrum for this blow-out sale that the Phillies, Sixers and Flyers were having on their merchandise. It was free parking, $1 hot dogs and drinks and started at 10 a.m. so we figured pack the kids up and head over early to beat the crowds. Wrong.

The line was all the way around the Spectrum and wasn't moving at all.

On to plan B. We were already over the bridge and didn't want to waste the $4 toll so we immediately racked our brains for what we could do. It took us about 30 seconds to decide on...

We love IKEA. The kids had fun trying out beds and looking at all of the cool stuff in the kids section.

We left with a kitchen chair seat pad for Emily (Connor already has one so she needed one too of course) and a cushion for our outdoor wooden bench that I'm repainting. Even though we didn't get the Phillies and Flyers stuff we were hoping for, it ended up being a fun morning out.

a fun week

2009-07-11T22:26:00.015-04:00

July 4th to July 10th...the weather was perfect. We had things to do, people to see, places to be...and when we didn't have plans, the kids made the most of just hangin' out at home.

July 4th...Independence day, bbq's, parades, fireworks. And our cats' birthday. Connor wanted to make them some food, tuna and chicken, but I told him we had a busy day ahead and it was the thought that counted. So the day started out with a celebration, well just some cat treats really. Colby and Jack turned nine and Grace, well, her real age and birthday are unknown because she was found on the side of the road but she's estimated to be about eleven and we gave her a July 4th birthday because that's when the boys were born. It should also be noted that my former cat Muffin, who my dad and I adopted when I was ten, also had a July 4th birthday...his real birthday. Weird huh? That's actually partly why I adopted Colby and Jack. I saw their birthday and knew it was meant to be.

Unfortunately Carl had to work so it was just the kids and myself for the day. We had my cousin Joe's wedding reception to go to later in the day so I went online and scouted out the local parades for the morning and chose Pitman. It was kind of boring, not anything like the Washington Township parades that I remember, but the kids thought the bands were cool. After the girls napped we headed to the wedding reception, where Connor and Emily had so much fun dancing.

That night after we got home, Daddy took Connor outside to light a sparkler. That was the extent of the fireworks for us this year. Fireworks used to be a big deal to me as a kid. I have lots of great memories of watching them from my home on Collins Lane. These days, I don't like to keep the kids up late for them and the noise from the local neighbors annoys me because the fireworks always seem to wake the girls up. I'm sure they'll be fun again when the kids are older. Below, you can probably tell that Connor wasn't completely into holding the sparkler. He didn't want to hold it but we encouraged him, a.k.a. I made him hold it and smile for the picture. He'll thank me for the documented memories one day, maybe.

July 5th...Mom Mom and Grandpop Petrilli's birthday celebration at their house. Sorry, no pictures. One of my didn't-bring-the-camera slacker moments. July 6th through 9th...Lots of outside time at home. See below.

July 10th...Went to Bethel Mill Park, now known as Atkinson Park. It will always be Bethel Mill to me though. I've always loved this park. I grew up there and got engaged there. I appreciate it more as a parent because the play areas are nicely kept, it's shaded, and my kids love the trails through the woods. And there is plenty of wildlife to see...squirrels, ducks, geese turtles and what they're staring at in this picture...

...an albino bull. What more could you want from a stroll in your local park?

for aunt dawn

2009-07-09T12:32:00.005-04:00

Happy Birthday! We miss you and hope you have a great day. This one's for you...

camryn's new trick

2009-07-03T14:42:00.003-04:00

Camryn is pulling herself up now, though still a little shaky.

outsmarting him

2009-06-30T18:36:00.004-04:00

I ordered a pizza for dinner tonight because I wanted to color and play longer. I also avoided the what-to-make-for-dinner decision because I knew Carl wasn’t coming home after work (he had soccer training). Em was jumping for joy but I knew Connor would protest. I’ve figured him out. He claims to not like pizza but I don’t even think that’s possible. I mean, who doesn’t like pizza, seriously. When I say that I’m ordering a pizza, he’s quick to tell me that he doesn’t like it or want it. He never disappoints. So this is what I have learned to do…I respond to him by saying, “You don’t have to have pizza if you don’t want to, I’ll make you whatever you want and Em and I will just have the pizza…no problem.” Nine times out of ten he decides that he wants the pizza. Every once in a while he calls my bluff and I have to make him chicken nuggets, but the other times, it’s totally worth the risk because I know that I outsmarted him. Yes, I know he is only five, but there is some satisfaction in that.

youtube...it's for kids too

2009-06-30T09:13:00.005-04:00

Even though it's mostly known for making ordinary people famous with their everyday antics "caught on tape", YouTube is also a good source of videos that are appropriate and fun for kids to watch. A few months ago Carl found this song & video and Camryn loved it. We haven't seen it in awhile but this morning as I was cleaning her up from breakfast, I started singing the song. She got this huge smile and then turned her head towards the computer. It wasn't on, but she kept looking for it. So, of course, I put it on and we watched it a few times. She was so excited to see it again. It's amazing what little things make them happy.

new old toy

2009-06-25T15:57:00.007-04:00

When Connor was a baby we bought a Power Wheels jeep at a yard sale for $40. Since we had a boy, it was a pink Barbie jeep, and we didn't know if we'd ever have a girl, we bought it with the intention of selling it on ebay. These things go for $269-$299 brand new and it was in really good condition. I cleaned it, took pictures of it and even wrote the ebay description but we never actually listed it. So it's been sitting in our basement collecting dust...until yesterday.

to the lady at the dunkin' donuts

2009-06-21T22:49:00.004-04:00

A couple of months ago a friend of mine, and another blogger I follow, wrote a letter to a lady at the grocery store who was talking on her cell phone the entire time she shopped. It was hilarious and so true. So with that in mind, I write this to the lady who I encountered at the dunkin' donuts today.

I cannot believe you actually threw your hands up at me when I finally honked at you. I am a patient person but you need to pay attention to what you are doing and stop the texting. I saw you coming and I yielded to you, even though I thought that I would be better off with you behind me. Well thank God I let you in front of me because if you were behind me, I'm sure the curb that you ran over twice would have been the back of my car had I been in front of you. Just so you know, because you were obviously completely unaware...THERE ARE OTHER CARS IN THE DRIVE THRU and guess what...THERE ARE OTHER PEOPLE WHO WANT THEIR COFFEE. When the car in front of you moves up, you move up. That's what you do in a drive thru. We don't want to have to block an entire parking lot when you don't pull your car up enough into the lane because you are TEXTING constantly! So freakin' annoying.

the past five days

2009-06-20T13:58:00.020-04:00

This week flew by. It started with a change in routine for us. Carl's days off switched...they were Monday & Tuesday and now they're Sunday & Monday. His hours also switched, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. instead of 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. Most people would think that's great because it's "normal" working hours but quite frankly, I hate it. 9 to 5 is really 8:30-7 for the most part so he hardly got to see the kids this week. When his ending time was 1 a.m., it was really more like 2-3 a.m. most nights but we were all sleeping so what did it really matter to us? He would just sleep a little later in the morning. I'm pretty good with change though...I vent to him a little, will blog about it now and then I'll be done. It is what it is.

So with the change came a new routine for me. Alone with the kids all day and trying to find fun and interesting things to do. Emily and Camryn are napping on opposite schedules these days so it is a challenge if I want to, or need to, get out of the house. Camryn naps from 10-12, Emily naps from 1-3 and Camryn naps again from 3-4 so if I want them to nap, we're pretty much home all day.

On one of the nice weather days, I cleaned out the garage and while I did, Connor and Emily found a slide hiding in the back.

They also found this toy bbq that makes bubbles. They had lots of fun with that and even though they played with it last summer, it was like it was a brand new toy.

And we had some not so nice weather so we had to be in the house on those days. During the thunderstorms, Connor and Emily cuddled. They are so love/hate these days...one minute they are yelling at each other and then the next minute they are hugging. This was a sweet moment between the two of them.

I bought them each a dry erase board at Target, which did keep them busy for quite some time.

And as usual, Camryn is happy doing anything. She decided that she prefers to play with a bag of Pasta Sides rather than her toys. Other things she prefers to her toys...cat toys, dirty shoes, fridge magnets, t.v. remotes, plastic bags, IKEA seat pads, window candles, and cell phone charger wires.

After I typed that, I realized how unsafe my house sounds for a baby! But the reality is, these are all things she finds while in her walker. I put her in there and she's on a mission. It doesn't matter how many of her toys I put on her walker tray, she goes for the stuff she shouldn't have. Luckily, I'm usually 10 steps ahead of her and quick to take something away. And when I need to do something for a few minutes, I just throw some puffs on her tray and I know I've bought myself some time.

Lastly, we had two fun outings this week...but sadly, no pics to go with. I was a slacker with the camera when we went out. We met my friend Matt, his wife Page, their kids Logan and Alex, and Matt's parents at Friendly's one night for dinner. We were supposed to go to the park first but the weather didn't cooperate. Matt and his family were here visiting his parents...he lives in Illinois. He's my oldest and dearest friend and it was so great to see him. And today, we went to Cambelle's 3rd birthday party (my cousin Danielle's oldest). The kids were very excited to go, had fun, played nicely and most important to them, got to eat cake! Seriously, all they talked about was cake on the way there.

10 months

2009-06-19T14:26:00.005-04:00

Camryn turned 10 months last week and I feel like I always say this but I can't believe she's been with us for that long. I feel like I was just pregnant, just had her, just getting used to life with three...yet I feel like she's been here all along and can't remember what life was like with only two. She's doing so much these days...waving hi and bye, shaking her head for no, saying mama for me, clapping, finger feeding, drinking from a cup and pointing. She can identify her family when asked...she looks at the person with a huge smile. And that's something she is constantly doing...smiling. She could be the happiest baby I have ever seen. She is so content to do anything, just goes with the flow. The only time she ever cries is if I hand her to anyone (except Carl). She definitely knows and loves her mom and dad. These days, she's sleeping great at night and takes two good naps during the day. When she wakes up, she could hang out in her crib forever just talking. She's getting very interested in real food...loves the Gerber puffs, pasta, toast, bananas, pizza and really just about anything she can pick up and feed herself. She's already becoming disinterested in the baby food. She's pulling herself up on anything and anyone within her reach and absolutely adores her brother and sister. When she sees them, she literally looks as though she's going to burst from the joy she feels. It's awesome to watch. She's a wonderful child and I can't imagine life without her.

This is Camryn's mode of transportation. She doesn't crawl, she scoots on her butt.

it's getting there

2009-06-13T15:46:00.008-04:00

The deck is just about done. The guy building it could only work on his days off, Wednesday and Thursday, and it has rained most of those days for the past 3 weeks that he has been here. Even with a friend of his and Carl helping a little, progress has been slow. This past Tuesday, my dad helped Carl and they got a lot accomplished. Then the deck guy and his friend (John and Jerry, but Emily likes to call them Tom and Jerry) worked again Wednesday. That was supposed to be the last day but the brackets for the railings were missing so they had to come back Thursday. And on Thursday, it poured so they didn't finish. They actually finished their day here digging their truck out of our backyard for an hour and a half. They were full of mud. Carl and I decided, since we're paying for every day that they work, no more deck guys...he's going to finish with the help of my dad tomorrow and Monday. They only have the stairs left and the lattice that goes around the bottom of the deck, so let's hope we'll be chillin' and grillin' on the deck this week!

Carl and my dad working hard

Connor and Emily hangin' out.

Just the stairs and the lattice and it's done!

another first

2009-06-06T23:41:00.014-04:00

As your children get older, the milestones that they reach become less frequent. During their first few years, there are a million "firsts"; first smile, first laugh, first time they track you with their eyes, first response to their name, first roll-over, first grasp of a toy, first sits, crawls and steps, first conversations, first potty's, first imaginations, drawings and pretend play, first tricycle rides, amusement rides and playdates. They continue to reach milestones, just not as many or as often. You even get bad at recording all of them as you so diligently did the first few years. And then, all of a sudden, another milestone sneaks up on you and you can't believe it's here. For me, this describes how I felt yesterday watching Connor graduate preschool. I don't know where the last two years went.

I remember his first day of school like it was yesterday. I couldn't believe that I was actually going to be leaving him somewhere...somewhere that I wouldn't be. That I wouldn't be there to know what was going on, what he was doing, or what someone was doing to him. He was quietly nervous as we entered school that day for the first of many drop-offs. He was brave, because although I could see the watery eyes and the look of uncertainty on his face, he didn't cry. He trusted that I knew what I was talking about when I said that he would be fine, that it was okay to feel nervous, but that he would love school. And he did. He told me today that he is going to miss his preschool, that he wishes he could go back there. He told me that he is nervous about Kindergarten but also excited. He's so mature, so confident, and in every way, so the son I hoped he would be.

Connor, Thomas and Jordan

Connor, Grandpop and Mom Mom

Getting his diploma

The school program was really cute. Connor had been talking about it for weeks because they were practicing every school day. There were a few skits; Connor was proud of himself (his words) that he was going to be playing Papa Duck in "Three Little Ducks" and that he was going to be carrying a bridge in "The Red Racer". Carrying a bridge made out of cardboard from one end of the stage to the other literally took 5 seconds...so fast that I couldn't even catch it on video, but his face was priceless. He had this huge smile, as if he had been given the starring role in a major Broadway show. They also sang songs...my favorite was "Jesus Loves Me", which they sang and signed. I made him do it for me again during breakfast this morning.

ring ring

2009-05-29T17:39:00.008-04:00

I walked into the kitchen to find that Emily had pulled a chair over to the counter and climbed onto it. Apparently our banana phone was ringing.

new deck

2009-05-28T23:33:00.003-04:00

Deck construction has begun!

We're getting a deck and I'm so excited (and excited is not a word that I use often to describe the way that I feel)...but we've been in our house for 8 and a half years and I'm tired of looking out at nothing and doing nothing in the backyard. All that is going to change now! With the addition of the playset a few weeks ago, an adjacent play area that is still being designed in my head and the deck, we are going to be hangin' out there a lot and I can't wait. Of course, Connor and Emily associate "deck" with pirate ships so they think it's being built for them to play pirates on, as they keep telling me. I guess I better get out and get them some pirate gear or I'll be walking the plank matey! (I know, I'm a dork).

sippy cup success

2009-05-28T23:11:00.002-04:00

I've been trying to introduce the cup to Camryn for months and, up until the last few days, she just wasn't interested. But now she's finally got it!

And as I was taking a few pictures of Camryn's sippy cup success, Emily said, "Take a picture of me wiping my face Mom", so here it is.

disney

2009-05-22T21:15:00.011-04:00

We're back from Florida and I'm officially having Disney withdrawal. I've been to Disney half a dozen times but it's completely different when you experience it through your children...it's so much better. Our flight down there went pretty well considering Camryn needed a nap but didn't fall asleep until the last ten minutes of the flight. She was a little restless for most of the flight so Carl and I just kept passing her back and forth. I kept thinking, thank God the woman next to me had her iPod on. She listened to music with her eyes closed the whole flight, probably imagining she was on a beach somewhere and not sitting next to a squirmy and sometimes loud 9-month-old. We took the Disney transportation bus from the airport to our resort, Pop Century. The bus is called the "Magical Express" and it truly was magic...it made our luggage dissapear for about 6 hours leaving us with no pj's for bedtime. It was annoying at the time because we were all tired and just wanted to go to bed but looking back, it didn't matter. The kids slept in their clothes just fine. We spent an entire day in the Magic Kingdom, not really planning to stay until 9 p.m. when the fireworks show ends the night over Cinderella's castle, but the kids hung in there GREAT all day so we made it until the end. The girls napped on and off in the stroller, we took our time getting around the park, the weather was great and it wasn't that crowded. We spent most of the next day at Hollywood Studios. The new American Idol experience was awesome and was Connor's favorite part of the whole trip. I could go on and on with tons of details about rides, attractions, characters, etc. but instead, here are some pics with captions to highlight our week.

This was the only "character" that Emily would take a picture with, probably because she was a real person (it's Sleeping Beauty). But as you can see below, she gave Cinderella the cold shoulder.

And although June, from Little Einsteins, is her favorite character in the whole world, even she got a little too close. Yes, Emily is actually pushing her away. June did get a kiss in though and as soon as she backed away, Em was beaming.

This picture of Piglet kissing Camryn is one of my favorites.

Connor posed with any character I asked him to but I should be in these pictures...Tigger and JoJo are my favorites.

He thought getting a picture with Lightening McQueen was pretty cool. This was probably the longest line we waited in...about a half hour.

And we got some good family shots

After Disney, we rented a car and drove to my mom and stepdad's house about 3 hours south. The kids got to swim in the pool and visit with family. Blog and pics to follow.

new (or at least gently used) playset

2009-05-09T21:36:00.007-04:00

We have a playset! I've been looking for months at the wooden ones, which can range anywhere from $300 t0 $1000 (I'm not counting "creative playthings", which are the same amount of money as a used car or a vacation to Europe). After lots of online research, reading reviews, comparing prices and getting mentally psyched for 12 hours of hard labor to put the thing together (that would have been Carl actually), we went with a gently used, less than one-year-old playset that was a steal...we couldn't pass it up. Thanks to my Dad and Uncle Gary for helping Carl...driving the hour and back, loading and unloading it into/from the truck, taking it apart and putting it back together! Once they got it into the backyard, it took them 30 minutes to put it back together. It's awesome and the kids have been having so much fun!

And here it is! (Pictures with actual kids having fun to follow)

bedtime conversation

2009-05-08T20:16:00.002-04:00

I wish I could record so many of the conversations I have with my kids. Like today, Connor asked me if bees and wasps go to hell to be with the devil. What?! I didn't even know that he knew what hell and the devil were. When I asked, he told me that he heard of them in a Rodney Atkins song (country musician). Rodney does have a song called "If you're going through hell" and he mentions the devil but ironically, the song isn't about hell or the devil at all. I guess I really need to screen his music choices better. So, onto my bedtime conversation with Emily tonight:

Em: Mom, I have a question idea for you.
Me: You do? What's your question idea?
Em: You need to use your magic wand and poof me into a snowball.
Me: I do? But I don't want to turn you into a snowball...I like you just the way you are.
Em: (Laughs) Yeah, I'd be too freezing cold.
Me: So why do you want to be a snowball?
Em: To roll down the steps and you not catch me. (She fell backwards down the steps a few days ago but I caught her just in time).
Mom: Oh, so if you fall down the steps again and you're a snowball then I won't have to catch you?
Em: Yep. I just roll roll roll to the bottom.
Mom: Okay, good reason to want to be a snowball.

The stuff they come up with.

goldfish

2009-05-06T23:34:00.009-04:00

Every parent knows that Goldfish are a must. They need to be in the house, the diaper bag, the car, everywhere you go, and at all times. Thank goodness they now come in a variety of flavors and some are even "made with" whole grain, which I know is a trick but at least it fools me into thinking they are somewhat healthy, or at least not unhealthy. I even love Goldfish, particularly the pizza ones. If you really want to spice things up, put peanut butter on them (assuming there are no peanut allergies of course). You can dip them in peanut butter or put peanut butter on them with a knife, whatever works for you. After I put the peanut butter on, I like to serve them to my kids like this.

Yum, yum, yum.