It Was a Zoo Day!

Dylan LOVES the zoo! So lucky for him, we had a birthday party at the Phoenix Zoo today. We've been going or hosting birthday parties every weekend since the last weekend of February and this was the finale. What a way to end the season. :) Well...not a complete end, but a break. ;)

The party didn't start until 10:30am so we met up with our friends, the birthday boy's fam, beforehand to see some of the animals. Strapped with a fully loaded double stroller

we headed to the giraffes first while Ava hung out in the stroller eating her breakfast. We wove through the paths heading toward the children's area. Dylan found this climbing area he loved!

 Ran hung out with Ava...

The party was in this great covered area that overlooked the duck/turtle pond and the monkey island.

Birthday boy, David, and his family!

We ate pizza and played in this nice breezy area. The kiddos made monkey visors then did the traditional birthday celebratory things. :)

David, Dylan and Cameron

Dylan and Christine opening their goody bags!

Dylan got the polar bear!

What was Ava doing during all of this?

She was being social. :)

Our last stop was a little ride on the carousel. Ava watched while Dylan and Randy tried it out. Last time Dylan tried a carousel, he was so serious!

August 2011

Today...March 2012

It's amazing how much these kiddos change! I think this kid is ready for Disney! :)

All the kiddos from the party were also on the carousel, but I only got Michelle and Christine. Oh wait...you can see the birthday boy family in the background. :)

Again, what was Ava doing? Well she had just woken up from a snooze on Randy so she was waving at all of our friends. :)

When we got home, everyone crashed! Eventhough both kids fell asleep in the car, they still went down for 3 hour naps! Dylan even chose to go straight to bed from the car. This is very rare!

So by 5pm, everyone was rested but still lagging from our fun-filled sunny zoo day. We need to do this more often!

One of Those Days

I went to bed last night ready to have a good productive one-kid morning. Dylan loves school so these days are usually so nice. Well, I should of known we were going to be all over the place today when Ava woke me up at 5am. Yes...that's right, 5am folks. Argh!

Ava has been struggling a bit with her sleep schedule lately due to a growth spurt and cutting molars. Not only is sleeping through the night questionable, but so is the afternoon nap. So when I woke up to the screeching, I wasn't surprised, but bummed that I may not be getting back to sleep. By the time I got to her room, she was silent...so I didn't open the door. No need to disturb right? Well about 25 minutes later, at the point of almost sleep, she goes for round 2. Now I know it is about food. After she guzzled a bottle, I thought I had at least an hour left to sleep.

That was until the bathroom light flipped on at 6:05am because Randy had to go to work early. Really? We don't have a door separating the bathroom from the bedroom so when he wakes up so do I. The scary thing about this early wake up is that Dylan usually follows shortly after. This time he also woke up with a howl. His pull-up leaked so I had to peal off his pj's. I should have known then what kind of day it was going to be, but I was tricked because Dylan then crawled in bed with me and the Disney channel for another 1/2 hour. Awww!

Like every Dylan school day, Ava and I dropped him off then headed to the gym. She isn't a super fan of child watch right now because we took 2 weeks off; forever in toddler time. I left her screaming and hoping that she would find her happy place. Since I had errands to do after the gym and I wanted to wear her out for her afternoon nap, I planned on showering there. Planned is the key word...I walked out with the same bag untouched. Thirty five minutes into a good lifting session, the lady in the purple shirt walked in and gave me the nod. So...I picked up my shower bag and went to retrieve my upset little girl. Again, maybe I should have stopped there. ;)

Target was our next stop. I had all the necessary items for a successful trip...a food pouch, cheerios, a couple small toys and a list in order to be quick. Just because you make a plan doesn't mean it works. Ava decided to squirt her food all over herself twice. You might ask, twice...why did you give it back to her? Well, it was time to eat, it makes her sit still and she's usually better at this. Also, the shirt was already a mess so how much worse could it get right? So now she has a nice orangy-green pattern all over her new shirt.

Let's just say by the time I got to the register, I was carrying a squirmy Ava while pushing a cart full of stuff that included a big plastic bin to hold our St. Paddy's Day party stuff so there really wasn't room for her in the cart anyway. I attempted to change her diaper on the way out and ended up doing WWE with her on the changing table.

The Rolling Pin is a great name for her maneuver!

**Can I just add that when I searched images for "squirmy baby" among other things, this was the best I got! All the pictures were these babies lying perfectly still. Who are these babies?! I didn't get one of these!

Anyway, I was literally holding her down on the table with by forearm while she screamed and wiggled like crazy! I'm sure there were people on the other side of the door wondering what was going on in there.

I know I was pushing it, but I decided that if she slept the 10 minutes it took to get to Fry's, I could put her in the bjorn and tackle the grocery store. I had a list and it wasn't long. She did do well there. :) The reason I include this is because when I got home I realized I forgot to buy three items needed for my chili. Really? I went to two places where I could have bought these items. Argh! I blame it in on the 5am wake-up!

What saved both Ava and my sanity was how damn cute she was even if she was a mess! She did have a clean shirt and two perky ponies before we left. ;)

After I got rid of the shirt, she ran around having such a good time. It was almost like she was saying, "See mom, I wanted to stay home all day!" So...I decided to take a few pics. :)

Our self pic

She then decided to destroy the toy basket. Oh well.

Time to pick up Dylan and I was ready for some quiet naptime. Dylan must have played hard at school today because he was in royal shape when I picked him up. I was deceived for the first 5 minutes with his excited smile. It then turned to tears, frustration and just a hot mess right there in the classroom. I don't think he has ever done this.

At naptime, Ava went right down. Dylan went down with a whole lotta patience on my part. He burst into tears during story time! He was so tired and didn't know what to do with himself. By 1:30pm, I had both kiddos down and boy did I need a break. I literally sat on the couch and stared at the tv while watching the OnDemand version of Smash.

Love that show by the way!

In order to save the afternoon once everyone woke up, we went outside.

He's being a "soccer guy".:)

I intended to get great pics of Ava too, but then she headed towards the rocks...repeatedly. Oh well.

All in all, exhausting and bewildering day. I was productive in some ways, but I was also bewildered at the amount of emotion and the range of that emotion that floated through my house today. I didn't check the moon tonight, but tomorrow is a new day. It is a day at the docs so we'll see how it goes. ;)

Trying to get back to the routine

As you can see, my blog had a facelift! I thought it was time to make it look a little more exciting. :)

So now that all the birthdays are over, it is time to get us back on our regular schedule. Now, don't think that means it will be time to relax because we are just as busy, just in a different way. Randy took the day off yesterday and we had plans to get out and do something as a family. Unfortunately, a migraine had other plans. So, Randy lied on the couch for a little while and it became a stay-at-home in the comfies day.

Dylan is 100% Daddy's Boy right now!

The weather wasn't too great anyway. That means that today really felt like the start of my week.

After all of the wonderful birthday food that I have been gorging on the last week,

the gym was a MUST! I was doing so well until the weeks of celebration began. I did great the first week, but then I think between being tired and having so much sugar around, I just gave in. Now I'm paying for it. ;)

Not only did I have to get back into the routine of the morning workout, but Ava did too. She wasn't so happy with being dropped off at child watch today. That is putting it mildly. I was actually surprised that one of the purple shirts didn't come and get me in the middle of my workout. Knowing that I have a few party lbs to take off, I hit the elliptical. Lately I've been cranking up the resistance so that I have a tough time chatting while working. :) A little morning sweat was a perfect way to start the day!

The morning continued smoothly as I started on all of the housework. There is quite a bit that needs to get done, which sometimes causes me to procrastinate, which just makes it worse. Today I decided to just start with laundry.

I have all week to get this place in order, no need to stress about everything right? :) I really had only two things I HAD to do today...pick up Dylan from school and buy Ava formula. Other than that, I/the kids get to decide what we're doing. ;)

Before picking up Dylan, the minivan rushed off to Costco for Ava's formula. Let me just tell you that Costco needs an express line!! I was behind a family that had a ton of stuff which can be an issue when in a hurry, but this family also didn't speak English very well. I watched every line move faster than the one I was in! Costco currently has a comment kiosk right out front which I plan to go back to. I was in a hurry because I had to pick up Dylan so they escaped my comment card, but not for long. :)

As the day wore on, the kiddos were falling into line. :) I watched a little DVR and folded laundry while they napped. Well, Dylan napped and Ava chatted away in her crib. I've got two kids with the gift of gab. Where do they get this from? :)

I would say that we started of the week in a positive way, which is hopefully a sign for the rest of the week. Laundry is done, which should really be a huge celebration. Hmmm...what will Wednesday bring? After the gym, we'll just have to wait and see.

Dylan wraps up our month of birthdays!

He was the last of the March birthdays and I think we went out with a bang! :) Yesterday Grammy and I took Dylan to see his first movie in a movie theater, The Lorax. Ava was napping with a sitter so we had no worries regarding her. :) We were lucky to have a nice size group of friends join us in the fun.

He did such a good job! He sat very still and was into the movie for the first hour. After that, he needed a little encouragement, my lap and some stand-up time. Overall though, the movie was successful. 

After all of the grandparents got in town, it was time to open presents. He has been waiting to open presents for weeks now. We've been to so many birthday parties that he was ready for his own presents. :)

"I'm going to play with this everyday!"

After getting a hockey helmet, he wore it while opening the rest of his gifts. LOL!

The trampoline is going to be great for hot summers and cold winters! Thanks Oma and Opa!

Today was Dylan's birthday party!! Being that today is the best Irish day of the year, St. Patrick's Day, we had to really go big with Dylan's party! It also had to be different from Ava's party since that was last weekend. We started by renting a bounce house to keep the kids occupied. :)

The kiddos seemd to be having a good time!

I also had a bunch of eats for the kiddos and the adults. :)

All of the sweets plus an adult beverage. ;)

We also had real food including Subway sandwich, chips & salsa and my favorite Pinterest party day discovery...

Fruit Rainbow!

My rainbow had double the amount of fruit!! I love this idea!

Dylan went to bed late last night so he had waves of pure happiness and times of emotion. When it was time for cake...he was ready. He needed a sugar pick-me-up!

A little later, we had the happy Dylan back opening up his gifts!

This could be a weapon against Ava.

Hockey/bike pads!

Before everyone left, Dylan decided to dress in full hockey gear!

Thank you everyone for coming to celebrate with us! Dylan had a wonderful birthday!!

March Birthday Madness!!

Wow! We are in the middle of birthday madness over here! It all started with Ava's birthday last Friday and her party on Sunday. Her first birthday party went very well! We had a bunch of friends over, yummy eats and lots of laughter. All ingredients for any successful party.

Welcome to our home!

My first attempt at cake pops!

Cupcakes are always yummy, but I bought way too many! :)

Let's Party!

We set up a backyard of fun for all the kiddos to play.

Lovin on daddy!

 If you remember from Ava's actual birthday, she wasn't a big fan of the icing on her cupcake. Well, she did the same thing with her birthday cake. I stuck her hand right in the center.  She looked at it then cried. LOL!

Dylan enjoyed his cupcake though. :)

She wasn't into actually opening the gifts, but once she saw what they were and heard any type of music they made, she was hooked. She loves the baby dolls! Dylan helped me open all the gifts. :)

We had a good time! She ran around as little Ms. Independent and enjoyed it all! Well...maybe all, but the frosting. LOL!

Next up...Randy's birthday tomorrow. I've got gifts to wrap and a cake to make. My brother's birthday is Thursday...I need to order his gift. :) And finally...Dylan's birthday on Friday! He will be having a St. Paddy's birthday party so this week is still full of planning and organizing. I'm looking forward to all of the green shamrock fun!