Mother's Day

Since, I have done my fair share of shopping for myself these last few weeks, I told Mike no gifts for Mothers Day. My sweetie still got me flowers. I have my two beautiful, healthy children and that is all I need! We went this morning and say Candace Cameron speak at church (she used to be DJ Tanner on Full House). She was a great speaker. Came home and didn't work (first day in probably 5 months) and took a 2 hour nap. It was my favorite part of Mother's Day. Went out to dinner with Mike's mom and dad to a cute little Italian resturant, had a few cosmos and a wonderful dish of fattening pasta. the only part missing was spending Mother's Day with my Mom and Grandma. I miss them terribly on holidays.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO ALL THE WONDERFUL MOMS IN MY LIFE!!

May 9

We went to a BBQ at a friends house and the kids stayed up until 10pm and didn't even fall asleep in the car. I know we sound like the biggest losers but that is latest our kids have ever been out. Good friends, good food and good drinks!

Fieldtrip Friday

Since the weather is finally getting nicer, I took the kids to a small local zoo (Cosley Zoo in Wheaton if you are in this area) this morning. It was the perfect size. It took us about 1.5 hours and most of the animals were animals were farm animals or local Illinois animals. Mia is learning her animal sounds so she loved it and honestly they just love being outside and running around. Everything is finally turning green!

Mother's Day Tea

Tyler's school had a Mother's Day Tea today. It was very sweet. They sang songs, gave us presents them made, told us they loved us and then we had coffee and juice - no tea much to Tyler's confusion and cookies. Only two weeks of school left and I am not sure if I am excited to be off our schedule or if I am really going to miss a few hours with only one child to chase around Target.

Say Cheese!

I love looking at these pictures as a series...

May 1 - Tyler's First Baseball Game

Mike took Tyler to his first baseball game tonight to see the minor league team the Kane County Cougars. He got a free ticket for reading 30 books a month for preschool. He had so much fun - really enjoyed the hot dog as you can see. The bouncy house was also a big hit :-)

Hungry Girl Book

Ok so I got the new hungry girl cookbook and it is so good. I got it at Costco for $10! If you are not familiar with Hungry Girl check out her website. I have made a bunch of things out of it and since we don’t like a lot of artificial sweeteners I just sub those out. A lot of whole grain and vegetable recipes and Mike and the kids have no idea they are eating something healthy. The banana pancakes, cinnamon rolls (not really healthy but only 150 calories), egg dishes and broccoli slaw are amazing. I have so many of the pages bookmarked to try. The other thing I discovered because of this book are VitaTops - OMG!! You will never believe that they could have so many vitamins, so few calories and taste. I bought the Deep Chocolate ones at Super Target in the freezer section and the kids and I ate them all on one day. You can buy them online and I am sure Whole Foods and the more high-end stores have them. Now the are not cheap but they are extremely healthy and have a lot of fiber which Mia needs so I am willing to pay the $1.25 or so a muffin top. I toast ours. You have to try these!

Phoenix Zoo

April 18 - Papa's Birthday

Arizona Scenery

Why We Love Arizona

This is pretty much what we did every day - swim and play outside in the sunshine and gotta love the sibling harmony!

The Kitten

The day before we arrived in Arizona, my sister-in-law found a kitten that was only a few hours old. It was the tiniest little thing and she took constant care of it, feeding it every two hours and tending to its every need. The kids and (dog) were just so amazed by this little kitten. Tyler loves babies so this was right up his alley. We were in the process of trying to find a foster cat or shelter to take it in but unfortunately it passed away. We don't know if it was sick or just needed its mama.

Easter Brunch

Easter Morning

Easter morning pretty much went the same way Christmas morning went - Tyler wakes up crazed at an ungodly hour, Mia sleeps in, has to be woken up, wants a cup of milk and then shows little to no interest in opening her gifts, which just makes Tyler go nuts. It will be interesting to see if this changes over the next year but maybe not. Mike is not a morning rush person and Mia may take after him.

(Tyler opening Mia's basket for her while she observes)

(Enjoying my milk)

Easter Fun

(I had to post this picture even though it turned out awful but it shows my lovely husband mocking me late at night)

(This beautiful Easter bunny arrived a couple days before Easter from my very thoughtful Aunt Sue)