grubbin.

phil's been on vacation the last two weeks.  ok, say it with me-- YAHOO!!!  i've probably said this before, but this time it's felt like a looong time coming.  and as always, it's gone by much too quickly.  but we've had a great time being together as a family and now i get to relive all the fun memories here.

on top of that, phil has 30 days left of residency.  (hooray!)

on top of that, we're moving in 21 days.  (we found a house!)

on top of that, i have 4 boxes packed.  (ehh, what's the rush?)

anyway, where was i?  oh yeah, vacation.  vacations are rather nice, aren't they?  to kick off this vacation, phil and i had a date night!  (oh, how we'll miss parents' night out).

so for this date, we decided to go for low-key, good grubbin'.

initially, i was going to go the sensible route.

until phil pointed me to the bottom of the menu.  i think even he was surprised by the speed at which i whooped, "YEAH BABY!!"

the meal began innocently enough with this tasty bit of cornbread 'n butter.

and then, these arrived.  hello, delicious.  but i must warn you...

be afraid.  be very afraid.

then came the 'healthy' portion of the meal.  hey, there's veggies right there!  and fruit in the back!

and then, well, it got downright ugly at this point.  juuust kidding.  we remained civil in the midst of all the carnage.

i will spare you the picture of the meal's aftermath.  but it was good grubbin'.  to say the least.

always fun to reunite with the kids after date night.  this one is especially cuddly when she's reunited.

more adventures with these monkeys coming soon!  :)

mother's day.

ok, i'm really late in posting about mother's day, but stuff like packing and trying to find a new place to live seem to have taken over my attention lately.  but i still wanted to slip this one in!

so a couple weeks ago, i (well, lauren and i) went to the kids' school for their mother's day celebration.  it was supposed to be a special time for moms and their ONE kid.  but when you have two kids in the same school doing the same activity in different classes as well as another smaller kid who must go where you go, well then, you kinda just gotta improvise.  so i did the best i could, but still ended up feeling a little guilty.  :(

i started off in allie's class.  she was so excited to see me AND lauren in her class.

my sweet girl didn't mind that her little sister was tagging along.  instead, allie specifically asked me earlier that morning if i could bring lauren to her class because she wanted her there.

she totally loves her role as big sister and really loves showing lauren the ropes.

the play dough table continues to be allie's favorite.  as it's been since the first day of school.

and little sister?  she was in heaven.  she's been wanting to be part of this class ever since she started walking.  and this was her big chance!

unfortunately, we only had thirty minutes to divide between both kids' classes, so it was time to hop on over to mikey's class before i knew it.

and there, we found him hard at work making a surfboard necklace.  i told him beforehand that i would be later to his class since i was going to be in allie's class first.  he totally understood and didn't seem to mind but was glad to see us when we did get there!

i quickly pieced together a necklace for this one to wear.

and he kept at it until he had his whole string covered.  the silly face was for my camera's benefit since he was well aware that i was clickin' away.

me and my boy.  yeah.

she insisted that i take her picture as well.  and it was serious business, man.

time to sit on the rug!

ms. tanya read "what moms can't do" aloud to the class.  mikey loves listening to stories read aloud.  i think this is probably the only time the boy sits still.

did i say this girl was in heaven before?  well, i was just kidding then.  THIS was her moment of heaven.  sitting on her own color square with all the big kids?  oh heaven, definitely.

ok, so the reason why i ended up feeling guilty was because i had allie stay in her class (which she was fine with even though she would be the only mom-less kid there) when i went to mikey's class.  and according to allie, after i left, her teacher also had rug time with the class and read them a story.  and at the end, the teacher told the kids to give their moms a big hug.  and *gulp* i wasn't there to give allie a hug!  but without missing a beat, allie said, "but mommy, lexi's mommy did something nice.  she let me give her a hug instead!"  and she was happy as could be about that.  but i was so sad that i wasn't there.

but soon enough, everyone headed over to have lunch together.  we found allie, made it through the food line, and found seats next to mikey's friend s.  these two can talk endlessly.  well okay, my boy can talk endlessly.

but, mikey does stop talking on occasion to listen every once in a while...

but not for too long.  heh heh.

there were coloring pages and crayons at the tables which made you-know-who very happy.

give her a juice box and she's good to go.  gotta love a low-maintenance gal!

in spite of feeling a little sad and harried, i was still so glad to be there and to be able to spend precious time with my kiddos.

and i think little sister felt the love, too.  :)

his party.

mikey had such a good time at his friend's bowling party last month that he wanted to have his birthday there, too.  so that's what we did.  we invited his whole class as well as some of his church friends to the party.  picture twenty small kiddos unleashed upon a bowling alley and you might understand why i needed most of this week to recover.  ha ha.

actually, everyone was really good and had a great time.  it was just LOUD.

and mikey had the time of his life.

i love that boy.

the great thing was that the bowling alley provided pretty much everything-- food, entertainment, party supplies, party hosts, set-up before and clean-up after.  all phil and i had to do was bring snacks, the cake, ice cream, and optional goody bags.  and if you know phil, you know that goody bags are NOT merely optional.

they are a must.

and if you know phil, you know that goody bags quickly turn into goody buckets filled with candy, chocolate, water guns, and water slingshots.  oh my.

while phil loves the buying of the goodies, i love the assembling of them.  and the taking pictures of them once they're all ready to go.

we picked mikey up from school and raced over to the bowling alley to get ready for everyone else to arrive.  mikey's friend j. came first.  and before i go any further, i must say that the rest of the pictures are snapshots at best.  i've discovered that trying to be both party host and photog makes me stink at both.  and yet, i still keep trying!

we put chips, strawberries, and grapes on each of the tables to munch on while they bowled.  and apparently, mikey figured he could munch and bowl simultaneously.  (phil also put hand sanitizer on each table which we made them all use repeatedly).

mikey uses his whole body to express himself.  you don't even need to see his face here to know what he's thinking.  am i right?

mikey got to bowl with his best buddies from school.  and it was like pulling teeth to get them to stand still for this picture.  boys.

the girls, on the other hand, actually asked me to take their picture.  the holding of hands was their idea.  girls.

and this is another one of mikey's best buds.

whenever it was any of their turns, the others would all go to add moral support and cheer for each other.  so pretty much, the boys stood and wiggled and played the entire time.

mikey's best friend, t.  i love how affectionate they are.

mikey really likes his friend, m.  mikey always tells me how m. is so big he can even pick mikey up!  little does he know that m. is a year younger than he is.  sigh.

one of the kids' older sister also came and was a lifesaver because of this.  i pretty much didn't see or need to hold lauren during the whole party.  i love big sisters!

after an hour of bowling, it was time to line up to go upstairs to the party room.

this is when s. (on mikey's right) said, "this is the best party EVER!!!"

and this is when s. gave mikey a big ol' bear hug and said, "THANKS for inviting me!!!"

"who wants cheese pizza?"

and this is why my ears are still ringing-- twenty small kids, each armed with a party horn, all enclosed in a party room.  phil's idea. 

i had meant to get a family picture, but of course i forgot.  so this was the best i could do.  and i'm not in a single picture from that day.  not entirely a bad thing though.   ; P

getting a peek at the birthday cake.  this was the only lame part-- the party hosts lit the candles while the cake was here in the corner instead of taking it over to mikey first.  so mikey had to go stand here by the cake while everyone else was back at the table  and sang to him.  i was videotaping it, but it happened so fast i didn't get a single picture of it.  and mikey's back was to us anyway.  so no one really got to see the cake before it was cut up and served.  argh.

here's the cake that no one saw.  : p

but besides that, the party was a big hit!  happy birthday to my awesome little guy!  i love you more than you know.  :)