Sasha's Birthday

This lovely lady is my marvelous mother-in-law - Sandi.  She is affectionately known as "Gram" or "Sasha" by her grandchildren.  "Gram" totally makes sense, a cool and classy way to shorten grandmother.  "Sasha", on the other hand is a bit different.  When Keira first started talking she decided that she would call her "Sasha".  It's been Sasha ever since.  It's kinda nice, a special name for a special lady.

These are the grandkids.  Michael is 17, Scotty is 15, Keira (almost 4), and Finley is 16 months.  Have you ever seen a better looking group of kids? 

Keira is pretty pleased to be the only girl.  She has her older cousins wrapped around her finger.  Both boys have such sweet spirits.  Cindy & Harry did a great job with these two.  I'm excited to see the places they'll go - where there lives will take them.  

I sent Shawn to buy birthday cards for Sasha.  He bought this one because it reminded him of his mom - a Mary Kay lady on the front. 

That's all I'll say about that.  

This is a homemade red velvet cake with cream cheese icing tinted "Mary Kay pink".  It was made by our dear friend Teresa from her cupcakery "Sweet T's".

It is HANDS DOWN the BEST red velvet cake I have EVER had in my life.  I should know.  I happen to be a cake connoisseur.  You know you want some ... I do. 

Before we dove into this heavenly cake goodness, we allowed Keira to sing Sasha a special birthday song.  Keira had been proclaiming that she wanted to sing a song from the moment she arrived.  We all gathered around, giving our undivided attention to this sweet blue eyed little girl.  Keira then proceeds to break out in a chorus of Beyonce's "All the single ladies".  It's such a moment when your not quite 4 year old grandchild starts singing, "...If you liked it then you should've put a ring on it ... uh uh oh uh uh oh oh oh oh uh uh oh ...."  It's even a more special moment when Sasha started singing along.  I guess she is "Sasha Fierce".  Perhaps Keira knew that way back when.  

So happy happy happy birthday to you Sasha.  How blessed we are to have you.  We love you very much!  "uh uh oh uh uh oh oh oh oh uh uh oh ... "

Fin's Fantastically Gigantic Feet

OK, so it's no secret. My son is huge. It should be no surprise that his feet are pretty darn big too. I decided he needed a pair of sandals for the summer. Unfortunately, the only place to purchase those oh so necessary "extra wide" shoes is .... you guessed it - Stride Rite. Better get my wallet ready.

So today we go on our big journey to the mall. I'm thinking I can just waltz in, pick out some sandals and be done with it. The sales lady says "let's measure him ... just to be sure." So, I place his squirmy "little" foot on that metal plate and sure enough ... he is a WHOLE size bigger!!! That would be a 7 extra wide!!! A 7?!?!?!?!? He's 16 months old for crying out loud!!

So, I make her measure again. This just can't be!! Once again, there it is ... 7. I put his tennis shoes back on (they are a 6 XW). I feel for the toe - sure enough .. toes scrunched up. Yep, once again, mother of the year.

There it is ... partially out of necessity, partially out of guilt - we walk out with not one but TWO pair of 7 extra wides. I bet those stride rite sales people saw me coming a mile away.

While we are on the subject of Fin and foot related issues, can I just say that I have been buying Fin a massive amount of socks lately. It seems like I can never find the kid a matching pair. Could the washing machine be eating the lost lonely socks? What gives? Well, I reach down to grab a toy that rolled under Fin's crib. Low and behold I hit the sock mother load. It seems my little man has become quite skilled at hiding his socks. Apparently he takes them off before he falls asleep and drops them against the wall, behind the crib.

Why .. you ask?

Because he is "Fintastic".

Double Trouble

Do you remember your childhood best friend? Do you remember the havoc you raised together? This is Katelyn, she lives down the street from us. Katelyn and Keira have been tight since we moved here two years ago. When you are (almost) 4, that equals half your life. The two K's have birthdays that are literally only 6 days apart. They are in the same preschool class. They are besties, most of the time.

Who is the instigator of the two? That is debatable. Depends on the day ... tired factor ... level of hunger ... phase of the moon, who knows. They get along swimingly, they are the sisters that neither one of them have

Of course, sisters do fight. They annoy each other. Worst of all, they compete. I think I heard various forms of this all day today, "yes it is ... no it's not ... yes it is ... no it's not ..." You get the idea.

So today I mentioned smoothies in passing. (Keira calls them smoochies) After lunch the two K's were quick to remind me about the "smoochies". So, I break out the blender, fruit, yogurt, milk ... the whole nine yards. If you've been to any disney show (disney on ice, disney on stage, etc..) you've seen those cups. I've been saving them for a Martha Stewart moment. Then I watched an episode of hoarders last night and decided it's time to ditch things such as this. Alas, the smoochies buy them some time.

A frothy, delicious fruit smoochie in a cute cup with matching straws et all. I start to carry them to the table: "I want Cinderella ...", "No ... I want Cinderella...". Should've saw that coming. So we came up with a suitable way to decide who gets what ... rock, paper, scissors. Neither one of them really understood that but, I digress.

Katelyn takes one bite and declares it "gross". Naturally neither one of them would touch the cups. So, Fin and I had our fruit servings for the day ... and then some. Pointless story, I know, just a little taste of my day.

Hope your day was full of fruity goodness too.

16 months today ....

It seems like just yesterday that you looked like this ....

Sixteen months have flown by!

What's your personality like?

You are very confident at home. You try anything once and get grumpy if your freedom is restricted in any way. Away from home, you are reserved and a bit shy. You do flirt with the ladies though. You are interested in how things work. You've taken the TV remote apart 3 times. So much so that now we have to replace it. Overall you are a happy go lucky sort. However, when you get mad .... you get MAD. Foot stomping, arm waving temper tantrums are your speciality. You LOVE your sister and think she is hilarious. She, on the other hand, tolerates you. Don't worry, she loves you and plays with you more and more the older you get. I apologize now for the amount of bossing you around she is going to do.

What can you do?

Shake your head "yes" or "no" to answer questions

Say: "momma", "Da Da", "Dog", "Bye Bye", "hi", and "hey"

You clap your hands, wave, and point.

You LOVE to play with cars and actually make a "vroom vroom" noise when you push them across the floor.

You are a big time "phone talker". Any object that even slightly resembles a phone goes to your ear. You can carry on some pretty intense one sided gibberish conversations.

You are a talented climber. So much so that we have to be very aware of anything you can climb on.

Your favorite foods are macaroni and cheese, corn, and ANYTHING sweet (you get that from mom).

Here's to you big boy! We are so blessed by you and look forward to watching you bloom!

Easter Fun

It's hard to believe Easter has already come and gone! We had a nice one. As usual, we headed out to Shawn's Aunt & Uncle's farm in Wilmington. They do a fabulous egg hunt for all the kiddos. It was a warm day but extremely windy. I'll take the wind over the weather from Keira's first egg hunt when the farm was covered with snow!

It should come to no surprise that Fin was not at all pleased with the wind. We saw quite a bit of his lower lip.

The kids were hilarious. They raced to find eggs and keep their balance as they forged their way through the gale force winds.

Keira is only a year younger than her two second cousins, Carlie and Thane. The three of them get along really well. It was interesting to me to watch them on their egg missions - totally oblivious to each other. It was a huge reminder that they aren't babies anymore. They are most certainly big kids, and when there are eggs to hunt ... they are on the case.

Notice Fin's furrowed brow. Does he look like daddy or what?

Keira was happy with her bounty. Each egg was filled with small treats. She was so focused on opening and examining each one ... she was quite annoyed with my constant picture taking "intrusion". I heard several exasperated 3 year old sighs.

Fin ... again, not thrilled.

Just when I thought Easter was lost on Fin, "Sasha" (Shawn's mom) taught him how to open the eggs. That changed his opinion a bit.

This year several of the eggs were filled with gold coins. If you found a gold coin, you got to pick a stuffed animal from a big stash Aunt May had set up. BRILLIANT idea. Just look at that face. Please understand that Thane is not a fan of having his picture taken. Imagine how proud he was to actually pose for me! It worked out that every kid pretty much found a coin. Including .....

....this little girl who ....

now has a new friend named "Fluff".

Hope your Easter was blessed!!

Great Friday - Part 2

Isn't funny how this picture makes Fin look so small. Or maybe it just makes my head look really big. Must be that gigantic brain I'm sporting. He actually likes this backpack carrier quite a bit - probably too much. I was a bit afraid how things would go since he has a tendency to run at the slightest hint of freedom. I guess nature was more than his confidence could handle. He cried every time I put him down.

Awe.... one big happy, sweet little family.

OK ... this is probably a bit more accurate.

So after a long day of fellowship with mother nature, what is better than a quick stop for ice cream? Certainly no complaints from kid #2 or kid #1, for that matter. (no complaints from the momma either)

Here's to a GREAT Friday!! Hope your's was great too!!

Not good Friday .... GREAT Friday. Part 1

OK ... so I know I've already gotten behind with the whole blog thing. That first post just wore me out. I thought it would be easier. Now that I've played with it a bit, I hope to be much better. Anywho .... I'm playing catch up now. Starting with Good Friday. This had to be my favorite day of our 3 day weekend. We loaded up the kiddos and headed to the nature center. Well ... first you have to catch Fin. He seems to think it's hilarious to run in the opposite direction. Little does he know that I fished out Keira's old bunny backpack kid leash thing. I'm NOT afraid to use it either. Well, maybe a little afraid. He's considerably larger than Keira was.

So, after loading up the 5,000 things we seem to need for an outing, and successfully strapping the little man into his car seat ... we arrive at the nature center. This is where Shawn and I got married so we spent some time explaining it all to Keira (who could honestly care less). Then we were off on an adventure.

The nature center has the most amazing daffodil blooms this time of year so that was fun for all of us.

Keira's been into watercolor lately so we brought along some supplies and let her little artistic soul soar. Pretty good for an almost 4 year old ... but then, I'm partial.

Shawn's had this weird "breaking out in hives" thing going on since he got back from New Zealand. It's bizarre. He's pretty much been in a constant benadryl haze. Fin was also in a pre-nap state. He wouldn't really let you put him down - which is fun with a 32 lbs baby in the middle of nature. So, my visions of photographing my beautiful offspring surrounded by scores of daffodils didn't quite materialize. Oh well....

Onward and outward we trudge. In your case, that means continuing to part 2. I can only manage to get 5 pictures to upload per post. That just doesn't quite work for a GREAT Friday.