birthday boy fun .....

Look how excited Trevor was to blow out his candle! He was so cute!! In lieu of a big party, we opted for something that Trevor would want. After all isn't that what a birthday is really about, doing what the birthday boy would love to do? Trevor's favorite place this summer by far is Adventure Island Water Park. He is now old enough to ride some water slides and definitely old enough for Splash Attack. We went with our dearest friends, Michele and her three girls!

Trevor loves to play in the water. Although he is only 3, he has the courage of a 10 year old. He never is scared of anything ..... but that scares me:)

And here is a picture of the all the kids. They all get along so well, probably because they have known each other as infants....and have grown up together. It wouldn't be a birthday without having these girls around to help celebrate!

Erin and Courtney have a very special bond. It reminds of a bond that twins have. When they are together they are inseparable. They talk the same, they finish each others sentences and they act like this ...

And here is Rachael .....GOOFBALL !

And Splash Attack ... Rachael, Alexandra and Courtney ....


We closed the park down. Left at 9pm, it was so much fun! Trevor was exhausted, but he had a great birthday.

And for the 4th we had a family BBQ at Erin's sister Sherry's home! Had another great day of fun. The kids swam until after dark and watched the fireworks from Sherry's pool. And after all the talking that Trevor did about how he wanted to watch the fireworks, he was a little scared of them and hid inside...but we watched through the window and he was very happy with that!

Happy Birthday To Our Baby ...

July 3, 2006

Born 7:26 pm

8lbs, 11oz.

Where did the time go? I honestly feel like this picture was taken yesterday. It is a strange feeling when you realize your last child is 3 years old! There will be no more two-year olds in our home again. It is hard to wrap my mind around that.

Trevor was born on July 3rd by my choice via a very smooth induction . He was the most beautiful baby, his skin was so perfect and his face was so full. My 1st son, Erin, was born on his due date and weighed in at a lofty 10lbs, 3oz and neither myself or the doctors felt like that is a record that needed to be beat. See Erin, was born naturally and my body didn't need a repeat performance of that. Trevor's due date was July 10th, he would have easily passed the 9 lb mark by then. With that being said, it was time for Trevor to receive his marching orders. The only date that was open was July 3rd and that would mean he would share his birthday with his Papa, and I thought that was a very cool thing!!

Trevor by far is the busiest baby we have had! There is a reason that the last baby is the last baby. Either that or I'm just so much older that I am exhausted.
So here we are, Trevor is three today. We have NOT mastered the art of using the big boy toilet. We are trying but as of today, we have not had any luck. But I must stress, we are trying. He loves to drink from a cup without a lid. I, however, do not like that. His vocabulary can rival any 4 year old out there. The things that child says sometimes catch me off guard. He rides a bike with training wheels, not a tricycle, a bike. And tackle football is a favorite, not because he enjoys football, but because he enjoys a good tackle.

So Happy Birthday to my baby boy. Can someone please invent the magic potion to keep him just the way he is??

what is that smell??

Yes I do, today is my birthday and I dont' want to be the age that I am.

So Happy Birthday to me!! I told baby Trevor that today is my birthday and he said "Happy Birtday me Mommy" ! Love him !! And Rachael in her super sweet, half asleep whisper, wished me a happy birthday and then I went to wake up Erin and he said ...... Today is your birthday mommy and it is like 50 other peoples birthday too ! How funny is that. He is such a little joy!

While my Mother was in town we had an early celebration. My favorite cake EVER is Angel Food Cake !! LOVE IT ...and bonus...It's low in calories!! And she made my all time favorite meal from when I was a child, Open Face Chicken Benedict! I was overjoyed by the deliciousness of my dinner. And, I am seriously craving more. Good thing Mom will be back in 4 weeks :)

My kids did the sweetest thing for me. They sent me on a birthday scavenger hunt. They made me work for my gift! It was so much fun....They went through so much effort to make it fun.

As soon as I arrived home last Friday, I was greeted by 3 very anxious children and a note telling me to "proceed to our lake and on a tree, will be two balloons in view and you will see a note for you"!

And then that note said "You found it, good job and now round two. Proceed to XXXX BlahBlah Way, and on a table waiting for you with a birthday cake and it may be in two, but look inside and you will find another clue for you"! So cute ... And by the way ... That address happens to be my friend Beth!! She rocks ... what a team player ...

I chased notes and balloons around for what seemed like 30 minutes around my neighborhood. It was so much fun! At the end was my brand new Pandora Bracelet with a "J" charm! YIPPEE !! I was so excited !!

So lets fast forward to today ......I am at work today. On my birthday. Oh well, it is just another birthday. They seem to come so quickly in recent years, which is very concerning!

I would rather be relaxing ... something along these lines .....

The girls at work were so thoughtful and gifted me with such an appropriate charm for my new Pandora Bracelet! How great is this ....
It makes coming into work today so very worth it!

Can't wait to go home and see my family !! I really hope I don't have to cook :) and I hope there is some birthday cake waiting for me.

Rachael's Birthday Round-up

After a super wonderful weekend of winning soccer in Naples, we hurried back to celebrate her birthday at home with Daddy, Erin, & Kasey !! No kidding, I made in home by 12:45 yesterday. I'm not saying I was speeding, I am saying there wasn't much traffic :)

We went to a late lunch with Pappy Ralph and then came home to open her presents and have some birthday cupcakes. I'm not a fan of having left over birthday cake around, so a 6-pack of cupcakes and some ice cream worked just fine. Just so you know, she did have a birthday cake with her soccer buds on Saturday night, so she wasn't cake-less! This Mommy wouldn't do that.

Here are some pictures. She looks so happy. It was her birthday and soccer team just ran away with the weekend ... It doesn't get much better than that for this 11 year old.

Here is Rachael opening her last gift and it was a big one .... her Ipod touch !! She is daddy's girl and this was his idea. It was a hit, she was very excited ...

We went to lunch with Pappy at Cheddar's. Here are a couple of pics.

And finally .. I couldn't resist.... Trevor is such a little train wreck ... but boy did he love the cupcakes. He ate his and lil' Erin's and wanted Daddy's !!

So now Rachael is 11 .... but I told someone today she was 10 .... I guess there is an adjustment period!

celebrate.

Here they are ... Pictures from Erin's 8th Birthday.

He had a great birthday and received all the gifts he was hoping for! He told us the "we are the best mommy and daddy ever!". We love him to pieces!!

He hasn't had his birthday with his friends yet. We usually do this in September, because his birthday falls so close to the beginning of school and he doesn't really know his classmates yet. He did tell me that we would like to have a "putt putt" party like last year. Yippee, that was an easy one to pull off!

We went to Chili's for dinner. Rachael really wanted the the servers to sing Happy Birthday to him. So we did, and he instantly dove under the table as soon as the clapping started! Totally hysterical..

Here are the pics of him opening his birthday presents. He is such a ham!!


The Balloon man was at the Restaurant! The kids love that guy. Unfortunately he offered Erin a Balloon Sword not realizing that Trevor would find great uses for it. Let's just say that we all spent the night dodging blows from the balloon sword!!

happy birthday Erin.

Today is our little Erin's 8th Birthday. I can't believe he is 8 years old. I don't think there is a sweeter, more loving little boy on the face of the earth.

Here are some cute things about Erin:
* Born August 22nd, 10lbs 3 oz. Yes, he was a big baby!
* He loves soccer and he is very good at it
* He hates to lose at anything
* His favorite video game right now is Guitar Hero
* He is in the 2nd grade
* Trevor thinks that Erin is his personal wrestling mat, and Erin loves it.
* His favorite food is chicken nuggets
* He is obsessed with airplanes
* He loves the beach
* Weather concerns him. He gets worried about storms.

He really wants a Nintendo Ds Lite for his birthday and we are still waiting on his dinner / restaurant of choice. He was a little bummed that he had to go to school on his birthday. But I know he wanted to tell everyone that today is his big day!

Here is a picture of Erin at 8 years old. He was born before the digital camera phenomenon, I didn't even think to scan a picture of when he was a little one.

kasey's birthday.

I seem to be a little late posting some well over-do pictures of Kasey's birthday! We went to dinner and she took along two of her friends. They had a good food, good friends and a good time. Erin, Erin, Trevor and I sat in the next table over, so they could talk and not have us looking over them.

Trevor really likes Kasey's friend Brittany, alot! He flirted with her the entire dinner! Cute Stuff!

For the first time in Kasey's 17 years she did not have a birthday cake with us. She left the restaurant and went back to Brittany's for a cake with the rest of her crew. We were were left with a candle-less piece of chocolate cake. Trevor sang "Happy Birthday" anyway.

Here are some pics of Kasey and her friends....

happy birthday Alexa.

Alexa, today is your day! And I hear you are telling everyone. Happy Birthday little sis'. Your 11 years old today! I hope you and Rachael are enjoying your time together in Old Orchard Beach, Maine. Have fun, play hard and make today a special one!

Trevor's Birthday

Wow, this was a crazy holiday weekend. We didn't stop at all, only to fall face first into our beds at night! I want to share it all, so this is going to be a very busy posting week. We did so many things; Erin was on vacation and we went to Adventure Island, Busch Gardens twice, Trevor's Birthday Party, a big 4th of July party at Aunt Sherry's and the fireworks.

One post at a time ... beginning with a big one, Trevor's 2nd birthday.

Trevor turned 2 last Thursday, July 3rd! We had a little birthday party with some close friends and family at Chuck e Cheese. I'm not a huge fan of the mouse, because of the whole "Chuck E Cheese Disease" thing. In case you aren't familiar with that lingo, that's what we call it because it is almost guaranteed that one of my kids will be become sick within 48 hours of playing there. But they love it, so who am I to mess with their play time!

We had such a blast! The kids had fun and Trevor loved every minute of it! His friends all played and ran around like wild children. Even Kasey and Nanny came straight off the airplane from Chicago and we were very happy to see them. Nanny even ate the pizza, she said anything that wasn't' Chinese food was good food !! That's some funny stuff!

Trevor sang Happy Birthday and "cha cha cha" the entire day and I hope that everyone who called to wish him Happy Birthday enjoyed the Trevor version of the song, that was his little gift to you. I know it made me smile all day!

He loved everything about his cake. He loved blowing out the candles the most. I think we lit the candle 10 times! I apologize in advance for my singing voice, I'm definitely not American Idol material! Here is a video ..

And here are some pictures of the birthday party ...

{Big shout out to Chris and Dawn, now Trevor can show his Tampa Bay Rays pride ...Yup, we are in 1st place}

And the best picture of all :

{I told you he loved everything about his cake}