Pursuit of Poppy

Happy Valentine's Day!

2012-02-14T20:32:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, we spent the day getting all of Poppy's valentine's ready for school. She was so excited to pass out her bookmarks...

We also made these yummy cookies and Poppy packaged them up and passed them out to grandparents...

This morning we were all greeted by chocolates and flowers at the breakfast table. Then as soon as we dropped Poppy off at school, Sam and I whipped up a heart shaped cake. Sam was not too happy when I didn't let him eat this cake at 10:00 this morning, but that's understandable.

Then it was off to the Korea House for dinner and back to our house for that cake...

Poppy checking out her loot from school...

And how sweet is it that Marc helped Sam make me a valentine - my favorite gift of the day!!!

weekend fun

2012-02-12T20:36:00.000-05:00

Poppy stayed home from school for the first time ever on Friday! She started complaining the night before about her cheeks hurting her and she felt warm and was really emotional. She woke up pretty much back to normal on Friday, but just to be on the safe side I kept her home. By about 11am I was looking for some new things to do to keep both kids busy so I whipped up this activity I found on pinterest...

It was just a ziploc bag filled with a teaspoon each of baby oil and two colors of water soluble paint and then you double seal the bag with tape...

They thought it was super cool- for about 2 minutes!!!

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Saturday morning, the boys stayed home and Poppy and I headed out for a day of fun together. First we had music class and a concert at suzuki strings. Then we went out for a quick lunch together and headed off to West Seneca to see a high school production of Beauty and the Beast. Poppy was super excited to see this musical and couldn't believe we were able to get a ticket to the sold out show. And then of course as soon as it started and she saw the beast on stage she said that she was ready to go home! After a while she relaxed and was able to enjoy the show, right up until the last scene when she hid under my coat! She is a hoot, this girl...

After the show she said that she really loved it, and then fell asleep about 2 minutes later...

Meanwhile, daddy introduced Sammy to the art of fingerpainting....

Marc said he really liked painting and even the cleaning up part...

Then we came home just in time to help daddy make some chocolate pudding...

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Sunday was nice and relaxing, just hanging out playing all day...

Sam accidentally knocked this tower over as soon as I snapped the picture and then he just kept looking at the aftermath with this look on his face, like he was about to burst into tears...

And now we're getting ready for some Valentiney fun...

Happy Birthday Uma!

2012-02-09T20:06:00.000-05:00

We celebrated my mom's birthday tonight at PizzaThursday. We changed up the pizza routine and ordered Moe's to go. Followed by almond cake. Yummmm.

lessons

2012-02-08T20:31:00.000-05:00

Tuesday - piano lessons...

Wednesday - ballet class...

Not sure what I was thinking when I signed Poppy up for both piano and ballet this year. Two days of lessons back to back is kind of a pain, and we would still like to see her in a team-orientated sport or activity. But now the problem is that she loves both piano and ballet, and I'm not about to sign her up for a third activity. Hmmm.

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So today was one of those days when I thought it would be really nice if I was back to work.

Sam bit me this morning. And wanted to be held all day. And he's heavy.

Sam has started this new little trend of pooping every time I get Poppy's coat and shoes on, Sam's coat and shoes on, and my coat and shoes on and are about to head out the door. Seriously, he's done it almost every morning for the last week. Do you even know how annoying that is?

Poppy and Sam played "monsters" all afternoon, which is really cute to watch, but leaves me with a headache every time. (all they do is scream and chase each other around the house)

I tried a new recipe for dinner (which was a lot of work to make). Poppy took one look and started whining. Sam took one look and pushed his plate away.

As Marc and I were getting the kids ready for bed (at 6:30 because we both just needed them to go to bed already!) I said I could really use a spa weekend getaway. Unfortunately that's not in our budget, but I do have dinner and (an adult) painting class with a friend on Friday night to look forward to!

Monday and a new(ish) haircut

2012-02-06T21:07:00.001-05:00

Playdate #1 - my friends from school, Carolyn and Tony, came over for a visit with their kids this morning while Poppy was at school. Bringing the "coffee klatch" back!!!

Playdate #2 - meeting up with all of Poppy's school buddies at the science museum after school....

(notice she is playing with all the boys, while there were plenty of girls to play with too)

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After naps - I love to see this thumb-sucking, blankie holding face looking at me...

Poppy made a new reading spot for herself...

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And I somehow forgot to mention that Poppy got her hair cut last week, which was a pretty big deal around here! I've been trying to get her to go to a salon for weeks, but she would have no part of it. Until I sweetened the deal with the promise of taking her to the bookstore for a brand new book of her choice after the haircut. So the next day, we went to her very first salon experience. She did such a great job, getting her hair washed and then sitting in the chair all by herself. She told her stylist that she wanted her hair cut just like snow white. And snow white is exactly who she looked like when she walked out of the salon...

How cute is her haircut?! Love, love, love it!

The weekend.

2012-02-05T15:39:00.000-05:00

Friday at the art gallery...

Saturday morning reading...

Sunday morning ballet exercises...

Nice relaxing weekend, just the way I like it!

Thursday

2012-02-02T20:59:00.001-05:00

I've discovered how to make homemade miso seaweed soup. This makes for 2 happy kids at lunchtime...

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Poppy and Sam discovered these hanging on their chairs today. Their own personal mailboxes so that we can leave them love letters and sweet surprises. Today they each had a sticker sheet waiting for them in it, and I just put a heart shaped container full of Kix in it for them to find tomorrow morning.

(they are actually Christmas mailboxes I found at pbkids on clearance after the holidays, and I just put a piece of felt over where it said "Merry Christmas" so that I can use them for different holidays)

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Playing games with cousins at Pizza Thursday.....

day in the life series

2012-01-30T14:39:00.000-05:00

I mentioned last week that my maternity leave is almost over and I am having so many mixed feelings about it! On one hand, I think that I will be ready to back to work. I miss getting up at a set time every morning, having to get dressed and look presentable, socializing with adults, bringing home a paycheck, etc. And most importantly, I absolutely love my job. On the other hand, it stinks that Poppy and Sam are going to be at two different places (Poppy in school full time and Sam at the same home daycare Poppy went to) and it really stinks that I have to work full time.

Regardless of my mixed feelings about going back, I am so, so, sooooo grateful that I had the opportunity to stay home with my babies for two full years. I know so many people that are not able to do that and I feel incredibly lucky to have spent so much time with my two favorite little people. These two years, living our simple life at home, have been the best years of my life. And I want to remember every single little boring detail during this time. Blogging has definitely been on the back burner for me lately, but I am about to step it up with a little "day in the life" series. I am going to try to snap a picture every day that really captures this period of time while the kids are still so little and our lives are so simple. Having my time to just hang out with Sam while Poppy is at school every morning, having lunch with Poppy and Sam every.single.day, the way they play together, helping me make dinner every day, reading together, I want to remember it all before the pace of our lives picks up. I won't be posting every day, but I really hope to take a picture every day until I go back to work...

Poppy's daycare. "Shhhh, my children are sleeping mommy!"

Poppy's first concert performance

2012-01-28T17:03:00.002-05:00

*Proud mama alert*

Today was Poppy's much anticipated concert debut. As I type this, I am still in shock that she did it! Her teacher asked her if she would like to perform on stage sometime before Christmas and her answer was, "No, I will let you know when I am ready." And then after Christmas her teacher asked her again and when I mentioned that we would go out for ice cream afterwards, she quickly changed her answer to, "Yes! When can I do it?!"

Here is the video, followed by a play-by-play in pictures... (The concert was at her music school - Buffalo Suzuki Strings.) (and check out Sam trying to get on stage just as Poppy was going on and then you can hear him applauding at the end)

Waiting for her turn to perform...

Introducing herself...

She did such a great job!

Taking her bow...

And the sweet treat afterwards...

We are seriously so incredibly proud of her. She has gone through such a transformation over the past few months - growing up both physically and mentally. And I am so excited that we stumbled upon Suzuki Strings. It was just this past summer that Marc and I both thought Poppy might like piano lessons and when I checked around for a place that would teach her at 4 years old, Suzuki Strings was the only place that I could find. It has been a huge time commitment, but seeing how confident Poppy was up on that stage makes everything worth it. I am a seriously proud mama today. :)

Happy Korean New Year!

2012-01-26T14:06:00.000-05:00

We have been quite busy this week, celebrating the new year. Last year I went into Poppy's classroom to make a Korean snack and read a book about the Korean culture. This year I was asked by the directors of her school to come in and present to the entire school. Poppy was soooo excited that I would be teaching her friends about Korea.

First I went into her classroom and made hoddeok (Korean sweet pancakes) which were a huge hit with the kids...

Then Poppy changed into her hanbok and together we did a little lesson about the Korean culture at chapel...

We talked about where Korea was on the map and how Poppy was born there, we talked about her hanbok and the tradition behind it, we showed them her dojang stamp and finally we listened to a few Korean songs.

I was surprised by how excited the students were to learn about Poppy's culture. They're still talking about how beautiful her dress was and how yummy the pancakes were. And Poppy was in her absolute glory being able to stand in front of the entire school with her mom. She said she wishes we could do that every day. Sniffle, sniffle.

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In other news, at any given time on any given day, you can find Poppy writing a love letter to Ty. It's her new favorite thing to do...

Yesterday we had a crafty playdate at Ty's house and Poppy made this beautiful valentine's day garland...

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I'm addicted to pinterest and I'm not afraid to admit it. But at least I've been putting my pins to good use! This was one of Poppy's all time favorite crafts we've done together...

And you know how I feel about owl crafts...

And I had a surprise 40th birthday party to go to last weekend and when I saw this idea on pinterest, I knew it would be a hit. And it was so easy to put together!

What I've been up to...

2012-01-21T21:04:00.000-05:00

1. Finding a school for Poppy for next year. This one has been both stressful and time consuming. Because we live in the city, we can't just send her to our neighborhood public school (well technically we can, but it wouldn't be a school that you would ever want to send your child to). We've been researching, attending open houses and testing for a variety of schools. So far our choices are:

- a public school that has a large gifted and talented program. Poppy recently went through IQ testing to see if she would be eligible for the GT program, and we also entered her name in for the lottery for the non-GT part of the school. There are over 1000 applicants for both of these programs and there are only 60 spots for both programs, total. Which means her chances of getting into this school is slim to none, but we're still holding out hope. This school would be our first choice.
- we have been looking into two private schools. I hate the idea of paying so much for her elementary education, but if we had to, we absolutely would.
- we are entering her name into the lottery for two charter schools in our area. We're still doing the research on these schools.
And I'm so sick of thinking about this. It's really stressful. All of the lotteries and test results are announced in early April, so now we pretty much just sit back and wait. Ugh.

Our future scholar!

2. Baking bread! I have been trying to bake our own bread for the past 3 years. This has resulted in a lot of really, really bad loaves of bread. I've thrown in the towel quite a few times, but recently tried again, this time with the help of a bread machine! I borrowed my MIL's and gave it a try. The very first loaf was a success, but still needed some tweaking. Finally, this morning I made the absolute most perfect loaf of bread, ever! I am so proud of myself! I can't believe it has taken me 3 years to do it, but I did and now I see lots of yummy fresh bread in our future.

Sam is obsessed with the bread machine. He stands there and stares at it all day. He's a weird kid.

3. Playing nurse. Sam got his first stomach bug this week. Yuck. And then Poppy got a touch of it and Marc got it. Double yuck.

Love this kid.

4. Making green smoothies! For Christmas I got a Blendtec blender and it has changed my life! (ok, not really, but I do love this blender!!!) I have been drinking green smoothies every day for the past 6 months and I was burning out the motor on our old blender. Now that I have my super powerful blender, I make even more smoothies and everyone drinks them with their breakfast. Poppy has been going through a major growth spurt and she is so proud to tell everyone that it's because of the spinach she puts in her smoothies. Both Poppy and Sam can be pretty picky about their veggies, so I love the fact that they get their daily dose first thing in the morning. Here's the recipe I started out with...

1 apple, cored and sliced (but keep the peel on!)
1 banana (I freeze mine first so that the smoothie is colder)
juice of 1 lemon
handful of frozen fruit (we usually do strawberries)
2 handfuls of fresh baby spinach (the more you drink these smoothies, the more spinach you'll want to add!)
1 cup water

Blend and enjoy! You won't believe how great these smoothies taste and make you feel!

Mmmmm! I love green smoothies!

5. Piano practice! Poppy has been doing so great at practice that her teacher has asked her to perform at a concert. I cannot believe that she is going to be performing all by herself on a big huge stage in front of hundreds of people. She is excited and ready!

Ballerina by day, piano player by night!

So, yeah, that's what I've been up to. Super exciting stuff. I've also started really thinking about how my maternity leave is almost over (well, I do have 7 more months left, but that will fly by). I have all sorts of thoughts and feelings about this, but that's a post for another time...

These two crack.me.up.

2012-01-11T20:03:00.000-05:00

Sometimes, I think the way these two get along is too good to be true. Sam is absolutely smitten with Poppy. He is her little mimic- he just follows her around and does the same exact thing she does all day long. And she loves it.

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Yesterday morning, Poppy woke up and whispered in my ear, "Mommy, last night I had a dream that we made a cake with m & m's!". So when she came downstairs after her rest time I had a cake all ready for her to frost and decorate with m & m's. Just doing my part to make dreams come true!

To say that she was in heaven would be an understatement. Love, love, love being able to do simple things like this with Poppy.

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Our new year's eve

2012-01-05T20:33:00.000-05:00

Our new year's eve tradition is to go to our favorite Korean restaurant for dinner. We always get there super early and are usually one of the only families there. We all look forward to this night all year long. So you can imagine our shock and disappointment when we pull up to the restaurant only to discover that they are closed for the holidays!!! I had to pick my jaw up from off the floor, just as Sam started crying in the back seat because he was hungry and Poppy started whimpering about how badly she wanted rice. We thought fast and headed over to the only other Korean restaurant in WNY, which is more of really casual, almost to-go place that we've never been to.

Unfortunately, the food was really disappointing, well at least for me and Marc it was. Poppy and Sam absolutely loved it (because it involved rice and noodles!)...

And I got scolded for dressing Sam in red. Apparently only girls should be dressed in red! Have I ever mentioned how often Sam gets called a girl? Almost every single day! Poor kid. At least his sister can relate (everyone thought she was a boy up until she was about 3 years old).

More important than the food was the fact that we were celebrating the new year together. 2011 was a great year for us and I'm hoping 2012 is even better! Today was spent booking our family spring vacation to Florida which reminds me of how much we have to look forward to this year!

Christmas 2011

2011-12-30T13:54:00.000-05:00

Each year I always forget how hectic the week after Christmas can be. Playdates, dinner dates, parties and get togethers galore! I'm finally surfacing to post a few pictures for Christmas eve and Christmas day.

Christmas eve, dinner at Marc's aunt's house...

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Christmas morning, scoping out what Santa brought...

discovering the stuffed stockings...

Lola loves hiding in her new bed...

Sam's new Thomas set was a big hit...

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After lounging around in our pj's all day, it was finally time to get ready for the family to come over...

Marc made standing rib roast for dinner (or Roast Beast with Who-hash, as we called it)...

And after dinner, everyone piled into the living room to watch The Polar Express...

Our sad attempt at a group shot...so sad this didn't turn out!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-23T20:15:00.000-05:00

Love

Marc, Amanda, Poppy & Sam

the countdown continues...

2011-12-21T21:29:00.000-05:00

December 14 - take a bubble bath!

December 16 - make cookies for firefighters and bring them to the firehouse!

Poppy and Ty actually came up with this idea on their own! Poppy is all about "the season of giving" and Ty is all about firetrucks, so it was a match made in heaven. They even made and decorated the cookies and were so proud to deliver them.

Poppy was super excited right up until they actually got there, and then she clammed up once she saw the firefighters (and would not even stand next to a firetruck for a picture). Ty was of course in his glory. Even Sam was checking out the trucks!

December 17 - eat breakfast inside of a gingerbread house!

Poppy claims to have no recollection of doing this last year, which cracks me up because she always remembers everything. Anyways, we headed north to the Great Wolf Lodge to have breakfast inside of the gingerbread house they build every year to support a charity. This thing is so cool! It is covered in frosting, cookies, candy and chocolate. The wooden structure that supports it is literally painted in chocolate (that melts when you touch it!). And this year they had a train that looped around the inside and outside of the gingerbread house, which was a huge hit with both Poppy and Sam...

December 18 - make salt dough ornaments to give as gifts to friends and family!

This was the first time we've done this and it was so much fun! Poppy had a blast rolling out and cutting the dough with cookie cutters, but painting them was definitely her favorite part.

This one was our favorite. We used Poppy and Sam's fingerprints to make the lightbulb indentations and Poppy painted them different colors. I think it turned out adorable!

December 21 - The Polar Express book was waiting for us under the tree!

We've also had quite a few "drink hot cocoa for a snack" or "read lots of books while snuggled on the couch" as fillers over the past few weeks. As challenging as it was sometimes to come up with a fun activity for the day, it has been so much fun to see Poppy's face light up as she read her daily note from Steve our elf. Making memories like these is what the holidays are all about!

More Christmas countdown fun...

2011-12-16T19:50:00.002-05:00

December 4 - write a letter to Santa

My favorite parts of her letter -

"I have been naughty and nice." At least she's honest!

"I am going to be a good girl for the rest of my life." Well, that lasted until the next morning.

December 5 - drink hot chocolate after dinner!

December 6 - this one was a warning from Steve the Elf about Poppy's behavior, reminding her that Santa is always watching! (no picture)

December 7- make a craft with mommy. (snowman garland)

December 8 - Steve the Elf made a special treat for Poppy and her friend Maisy who came over for lunch...

December 10 - visit Santa at Santaland!

{This was Poppy's first time sitting on Santa's lap!!!}

How adorable are these pictures?! I almost used the bird one for our Christmas card!

December 11 - make a gingerbread house!

Of course, both Poppy and Sam's favorite part was playing with the candy.

December 12 - family game night!

Hi-Ho Cherry-o and Candyland were played aplenty!

December 13 - Steve the Elf told mommy that Santa left a message for Poppy in her email. It was a Portable North Pole message. Poppy was excited and terrified at the same time...

Advent calendar

2011-12-12T19:52:00.001-05:00

Here is how we have been counting down our days 'til Christmas...

December 1 -

Steve, our Christmas Elf, introduced himself. He said that he would be keeping his eye on both Poppy and Sam and reporting back to Santa. While he's here, he also plans to provide lots of fun activities to get ready for Christmas. Today's idea was to watch "The Polar Express" before bed. Poppy would not take her eyes off the tv screen for a second. And Sam couldn't get enough of the popcorn...

December 2 -

Poppy receives the first gift of Christmas! She was awoken by a reindeer's bell resting on her bed. She couldn't believe that it looked just like the bell the boy gets in the Polar Express. The note in our advent calendar said that Poppy and Sam could open a large gift waiting for them under the tree. Would you believe that it was the Polar Express train set?! Poppy could barely believe it herself. She couldn't wait to get to school that day so that she could tell Ty all about her new train. And then Ty had to come over to see for himself...

(And Poppy is pretty sure that Steve, our elf, lives in the little village under our tree.)

December 3-

Aunt Jeanna gets to come home early, just in time for Christmas!!!

Poppy's piano debut

2011-12-08T14:41:00.001-05:00

Poppy is still doing awesome with her piano lessons. Just a few weeks ago she went from learning little songs on just one hand, to her first real song using both hands. The first week trying to learn this song was rough. But one day something just clicked and she figured out how to do it. She absolutely amazes me. Especially because I have been practicing this song just as long as she has, and I can't even come close to playing it.

My favorite part is that she absolutely loves playing! She loves practicing! Almost every single time she walks by the piano, she stops to play a quick song. And Sam is not far behind her with his love of the piano either, I'll have to post one of his videos soon...

Catch up

2011-12-04T19:38:00.001-05:00

I have been pretty much absent from blogging lately, but all for good reason. We had 2 really fun events that have taken up all of my spare time over the past month. First, it was my parents 40th wedding anniversary. My brothers and I decided to have a little surprise dinner and put together a simple photo album as a gift. Well the photo album turned out to be pretty epic. It was nearly impossible to do "simple" when going through 40 years of pictures. And we only had less than 2 weeks to work on it. So I basically used every spare second going through old pictures and scanning them, and then used iphoto to make a really cool photo book. And then Marc took all the digital files and turned them into a movie. And my brother found some old videos and had them make into dvd's. It all turned out super cool and my parents were surprised to say the least. The only picture I have of the night was this polaroid from the end of the night...

The next fun, but time consuming event was having a welcome home party for Marc's sister and boyfriend who just returned home from Iraq. We decided it would be nice to have the house all decorated for Christmas before the party, so we have been scrambling around to get all of that done over the past week. First it was the big tree hunting trip. Marc won this year and I agreed to go chop a tree down. I personally think this whole experience is over-rated and am more than happy to go pick one out from a tree lot, but I will admit that the kids had fun...

Finally, they found the perfect tree!

Timber!

My favorite part of the day was our stop at Ted's for lunch.

For the rest of the week, I diligently strung popcorn and cranberries, while Marc tinkered away in the basement playing with his new train set. This year he decided that Poppy and Sam must have the Polar Express train set. And that he would have to build an entire platform thingy for the train (and village) to go on under our tree.

After many, many, many hours of decorating, I finally present to you - our tree. I love how every single branch is dripping with ornaments, candy canes or icicles. Because you can never have too much on a tree, can you? And don't forget Marc's pride and joy, the train. (it's pretty darn cute how much Poppy and Sam love that train too)

With all of the decorating behind us, we were ready for Jeanna's homecoming yesterday. We were able to meet her at the armory, which Poppy was very excited to see. It was really neat (and emotional) to see the buses of troops being escorted by police and motorcycles and then all of the families cheering at their arrival...

(check out Poppy's welcome home sign she worked so hard on)

Aunt Jeanna is so strong!

Home, at last!

So as you can see, we've been quite busy lately. But now that the parties are over with, we get to relax and enjoy the holiday season. We've already started our advent calendar, which has been keeping us busy with fun little activities to get ready for Christmas. I'm trying to take a picture of each activity, so I will be posting those soon...

Gobble, gobble!

2011-11-25T19:28:00.000-05:00

We had an absolutely perfect Thanksgiving this year. I have so, so much to be thankful for. My family is definitely at the tippy top of my list. And we are all so thankful that Marc's sister, Jeanna, arrived back in the states safely last night from her tour of duty in Iraq. Poppy cannot wait to see her!

And here is a list we have been working on over the past few weeks...

Poppy was super into this. Every morning at breakfast she would excitedly shout out what we should be thankful for that day. My favorite was when Ty was over for lunch and the two of them together decided that we should be thankful for "friends". It was so sweet. And the fact that she wanted to put art and piano lessons up there melted my heart a little too.

2011-11-14T19:46:00.000-05:00

So many thoughts and things to post about, but not enough time to sit and upload pics and type. Soon. In the meantime, here are a few pics from the past month...

Poppy on her way to school on pajama day. She thought it was so cool that she got to wear her pj's to school. And it was one of the first chilly mornings of the season, so overprotective Marc made her wear mittens to school which look totally ridiculous...

This little boy desperately deserves a post all his own. So many changes he is going through. And he is at the exact age that Poppy was at when she came home from Korea. Crazy how different, yet alike they are...

And the absolute favorite part of my day. No matter how exhausted either of us are, I always look forward to reading together before bedtime...

Poppy & Ty

2011-11-05T14:52:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago, we met up with Poppy's best buddy, Ty, and his family at the Historical Society for a cute little Halloween event they were having. I haven't mentioned Ty in a while, which is funny because he has quickly become such a big part of Poppy's life. The two of them are pretty much inseparable at school every day and Poppy continues to talk about him all day and all weekend when they are apart.

Seriously, could they be any cuter together?!

They really are so adorable together. And it's so funny that whenever someone asks Poppy if Ty is her boyfriend, she's quick to say "No, he's my best friend." And then one day she came home from school and told us that her and Ty have decided to get married, but not until they grow up. And then a few days later she came home and said, "Ty's dad said that we have to go to college before we get married, so that's what we're gonna do." Seriously, sometimes I feel like she is at least 14, not 4.

Halloween

2011-11-01T11:00:00.001-04:00

Oy, picking out halloween costumes this year was quite the chore. I had it in my head that I wanted Poppy and Sam to have coordinating costumes - like Tinkerbell and Peter Pan (which is Poppy's all-time fave movie). Poppy says nope. Max & Ruby. Nope. We gave her all these super cute ideas. She shot them all down. After weeks of debate, she declared, without any further negotiations, that she would be a waitress (and Sam could be her "cooker", if he wanted). So without further ado, here is Waitress Poppy...

She looked adorable and she absolutely loved wearing it and being able to take everyone's orders. Sammy however, would have no part in wearing a chef's hat. Scroll down to see his costume...

After dropping off Poppy at school, I went home to make them a spooktacular lunch...

ghost made out of a cheese stick, monster jaw (apple slices w/ slivered almonds), banana ghost, mummy dogs, ketchup for dipping and apple cider

I was sure that the "monster jaws" would freak her out, but that was her favorite part...

Sam loved it too...

And then once everyone went down for their naps, I whipped up a batch of WORMS!!!

I am the worst at food photography and the coloring in this pic is horrible. They weren't bloody red, they looked more like browny-red, like real worms! I brought them to our halloween party, where no one would eat them because they were so gross looking! Not even my bug-loving nephews would touch them!

the cousins!

Check out Louis (sitting next to Sam) he was dressed as Charlie Sheen!

Then we flew back to our house to go trick-or-treating in our 'hood...

{Waitress Poppy & Sammy the Spider!}

Marc's (and Poppy's) masterpieces. Marc was so proud when a few families said that they go trick-or-treating at our house every year just to see our pumpkins.

And Poppy's favorite part of Halloween - passing out the candy! She did great, even when we had massive lines of people. We only went through 500 pieces of candy this year!!!

Fall craftiness

2011-10-30T20:05:00.000-04:00

We have been feeling all sorts of crafty over here lately. Here's a quick recap of what we've been craftin'...

Wax dipped leaves. We took a quick walk through our 'hood to collect leaves and then we dipped them in melted paraffin wax so that they won't get dried up. Waxing them was fun (Poppy especially loved doing that) but stringing them up was a pain.

Next up is our monster garland. I did most of the cutting and Poppy did the gluing and we both love the way it turned out! Idea from here.

We made our famous caramel chocolate apples. I love that Poppy can really help make these now, and she loves being able to tell everyone that she made them. We give these to all of her teachers and we bring them as treats to any Halloween parties we go to. Recipe for the best caramel can be found here.

I got out the acrylic paints and Poppy and I went to town on a few small pumpkins. Super fun!

And then for tonight's dinner, we had Jack-o-lantern pie (aka chicken pot pie). Kinda gross, kinda cute, right? Poppy loved it. (Well she loved the way it looked, but she didn't love having to eat the veggies that were in it, of course.) And I'm so bummed that I forgot to snap a pic of the mummy dogs I made for lunch yesterday!

piano update

2011-10-28T19:58:00.000-04:00

Poppy has been taking piano lessons for about 3 weeks now. She is blowing me away with how fast she is picking this up. I mean, blowing me away. And she absolutely loves it. We are taking lessons at Buffalo Suzuki Strings and the suzuki method is very unique. The first part of the process is that Poppy has a cd of all the songs she will be learning and they encourage her to listen to the cd daily. So I put it on her ipod and we have a copy in the car and surprisingly, she asks to listen to it all day long. And it's so peaceful that it calms Sam down if he starts crying in the car. I can't even remember the last time we had to listen to her princess songs - she really prefers to listen to the piano music. And then as soon she realized the songs on the cd were the same songs she was learning to play, it made her want to practice even more. She has already learned how to play 4 variations of twinkle, twinkle and her first real song, Honey Bee.

Between her daily practices (which she unbelievably has yet to protest about) and weekly lessons and music classes, this is all very time consuming. But seeing the results so quickly and to see how passionate she is about it makes it all worth it.

And as promised, here are all the rats we have in our house. A rather unusual amount of rats, wouldn't you say?

Pumpkins & The Lion King

2011-10-26T15:11:00.000-04:00

Last weekend, we picked a nice freezing cold, rainy day to head to the pumpkin farm. The rain stopped for all of 10 minutes, so we ran out of the car, picked out our pumpkins as fast as we could, and then ran right back to the car before we got drenched...

{This poor kid literally had about 10 layers on.}

..................

Then later in the week it was off to see The Lion King! We stopped at Poppy's favorite restaurant, Chef's, for dinner. This was Sammy's first time here (I think he liked it!)...

Can you see that nice family sitting behind us? When we first sat down, Sam would not stop turning around to stare and point at their food, until they finally offered him some. Super embarrassing. Have I mentioned how much Sam loves to eat?

After dropping Sam off at home, we were able to catch the train that took us to the theater. Poppy was so excited to see that her cousins were on the same train and even got to sit with us at the show. But she still can't believe that Amelia fell asleep during the second half of the musical...

It was a great musical, we all absolutely loved it. Poppy was a little scared of Scar at first, but she loved the music so much that she was able to uncover her eyes and keep watching. And she still can't believe Amelia fell asleep.

water adventures

2011-10-24T19:34:00.000-04:00

For the past few years, Marc and I have been dying to buy our own kayaks. After spending both weeks up at the cottage searching for kayaks to rent and never being able to find any available, we decided to finally take the plunge and buy our own. We waited all summer for the best sale and finally at the end of September we went for it. Luckily for us, my parents also really wanted to get into kayaking, so we struck a deal with them where we bought 1 kayak and they bought the other so that between us, we have 2.

We weren't sure if we would be able to use them this year, but a few weeks ago we lucked out with a bunch of really nice days, so we were able to take them out for a quick paddle in the Niagara River.

{Sammy trying to be a stow-away.}

{Uma & Upa out for their first paddle.}

{And then Upa came back to pick up Carter.}

{We couldn't believe how gorgeous the weather was that night.}

After Uma & Upa came back, Marc and I took Poppy for a quick paddle. By the time we came back to the shore it was dark already. And now it looks like we probably will have to wait until next year to use them again...

Pizza Thursday

2011-10-20T15:09:00.000-04:00

This picture was taken last Thursday at my parents house. Swimming in the middle of October is unheard of in Buffalo, so I had to snap a pic...

Sammy, cruising around in his pizza t-shirt, handed down to him from his cousing Louie...

Sammy is always the first one to start eating and always the last to finish. This kid can EAT.

{The two littlest littles of the family, looking for some mischief.}

My parents have been having all of their grandkids over every Thursday for pizza for the past few years. Every week, we all descend upon their house, pretty much trash the place, eat all of their food and leave within a few hours. I know that sometimes my parents get a little overwhelmed by the chaos (even though they would never tell us), but I hope they always know how grateful we are for these weekly get togethers. Poppy and Sam have been able to develop such close relationships with their cousins, to the point where they are almost like siblings with them all. And I get to stay in the loop with the goings-on of my brothers and SIL's as well. And it means one less dinner I have to cook each week. :)

Toronto

2011-10-12T15:26:00.000-04:00

This past weekend we packed up and headed to Toronto to meet up with some friends. Poppy had a blast catching up with her Korean buddies and Marc and I had fun catching up with our grown up friends. Unfortunately, we decided not to bring Sam with us because we knew that we would be on the go non-stop and Sammy doesn't do so well when he doesn't get to take his naps every day. (next time Sam, I promise!)

We did some research and found a bunch of kid-friendly parts of TO that were new to us. This funky boardwalk is called the Simcoe Wavedeck. It was even cooler in person. Poppy loved running up and down the waves...

You couldn't have asked for more perfect weather - sunny and warm every day!

{Poppy and Colin chillin' on a giant dog}

{during one of our quick stops at the hotel for a "rest" Poppy decided to put her ratty flashlights on her toes}

{Poppy trying to teach Colin how to toss a penny over his shoulder into the fountain}

{photo-op with the daddies after our sushi dinner}

We found this cool wavy bench on a playground...

{Colin, Alex, Brendan & Poppy}

My pictures don't even do our weekend justice. We really had such a great time exploring the city with friends and even meeting new friends for the first time. We're already thinking that this should be an annual event - can't wait til next year!

apple picking

2011-10-03T20:29:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago, we met up with some of Poppy's best friends from school and went apple picking...

As we were walking along the rows of apple trees, we kept hearing mooing cows in the distance. We were all surprised to see this at the end of the orchard...

{Poppy, Maggie & Ty - the three amigos}

How cute are they?!

Sam just wanted to pick out our Thanksgiving turkey.

This was our first time going to the Blackman Farms and we absolutely loved it. We'll definitely be going back again!

summer photo dump (pt. 2)

2011-10-01T20:40:00.000-04:00

At some point over the summer, we spent the day at Old Fort Niagara. I haven't been there since I was in elementary school! It was actually really neat and we would absolutely go back again.

Sam had fun crawling all over the grass, and Poppy had fun picking the "flowers".

These 3 got scolded by a uniformed officer for climbing this hill...

After we explored all of the buildings, we were able to watch a re-enactment of a battle. It was really neat (except for the fact that Poppy had nightmares from the people pretending to be shot during battle).

...............

Here's a picture from one of the 5k's I ran this summer. Poppy is my biggest fan...

Speaking of running, here is my sad update: after a summer of having fun running 5k's, I decided my next goal should be to run a half-marathon at the end of October. I found a 12 week training program and I was amazed that I could actually keep up with it. I made it to the half way point of my training and during my first 7 mile run, I felt a sharp pain in my ankle. The next day the pain was significantly worse, so I gave my PT a call and she said she could treat it. I'm still not sure what exactly the injury is, but I haven't been able to run at all over the past month. I'm finally at a point where my ankle doesn't hurt to walk on it, but it's so frustrating that the pain instantly comes back when I try to run. So needless to say, my chances of running the October half-marathon are gone. I definitely plan on getting back on track asap and setting a goal for the spring.

...................

One morning, I took Poppy and Sam blueberry picking...

I think Poppy picked about 100 blueberries and ate about 95 of them.

And I had Sammy in the baby carrier. It took him about 2 minutes to catch onto what was going on before he was picking and eating himself...

Needless to say, we didn't leave with too many blueberries in our baskets, but at least our tummies were full!

..............

And then there were tons of carnivals and fairs...

Sam loved seeing the animals at the Erie County fair...

and Poppy had a blast going on the all the rides.

So, we definitely had lots of busy, fun-filled days this summer. Today was our first cold fall day and I'm already looking forward to the fun things we have in store this season.

summer photo dump (pt. 1)

2011-09-26T20:08:00.000-04:00

We always keep our little point and shoot camera in the diaper bag, and apparently I used it to take pics all summer, but haven't uploaded it once. So here is part 1 of our summer...

In July we took Poppy to Toronto for the day to see a Yankees game (we left Sam at home because he's just too squirmy to sit for an entire baseball game in the smoking hot sun. more on that topic later.). On the way to TO, we made a pit-stop at Ikea to stock up on Ratty's. Poppy knows that we have an entire stash of them in my closet, but we only use them if she loses Ratty or if he's taking a spa day through the washing machine. She's only allowed to have one at a time (or else our house would be filled w/ rats because we do have about 100 of them and now that I'm thinking about it, it would be super funny to take a picture of ALL of them together). But here she is with her new stash of rats plus a bunny she talked us into.

The game was super fun and thank God, our seats were in the shade. Poppy had a blast pigging out on popcorn and ice cream.

...................

The following weekend was our annual weekend with my Godson, Gage, who we take to a Bisons game each year for his birthday.

Despite the 6 year age difference, Poppy and Gage always have a blast together. And of course, the highlight of the game for her was all of the junk food that she gets to eat - like cotton candy.

................

At the end of July was our annual Stonybrook camping trip. We were planning on bringing Sam, but at the last minute we decided to leave him at home w/ my parents instead. He was just barely learning how to crawl at this point and he was going through a phase where he wanted to be held 24/7 (because I was weaning him) and I knew that it would be a rough time for me if we did bring him. Next year, Sam.

{swinging on the hammock with Amelia}

{a banana and her beloved ratty fingerlights}

{her cousin trying to show her a katydid (on his hand), Poppy is grossed out and wants nothing to do with it}

{there were a lot of s'mores consumed this summer}

{She's got her camelbak and she's ready for a water hike!}

{taking a break for some beef jerky}

{waterfalls at the end of our hike, Poppy doing a ballet move}

{Marc going off with the kids to explore the waterfalls}

{I love the expression on his face, apparently the water was about 50 degrees}

.................

This next picture is from when we were up at the beach. The one night, Marc and I drove back to Buffalo to go on a sailing lesson/happy hour. Basically we went out on a sailboat with a few other couples and the captain of the boat gave us lessons along the way. You could get as involved as you wanted with the actual sailing of the boat, or you could just sit back and relax and enjoy a drink. We did a little bit of both and we had the best time. And now we want a sailboat.

My favorite part of this picture is the fact that Marc looks like a vampire because his face is caked with sunblock and his eyebrows are covered up. If you've ever seen Marc apply sunscreen to himself, it's hilarious- he has a tendency to "over apply". I was reading Interview with the Vampire at the time, which makes it even funnier. And I pictured him as one of the vampires until the end of the book.

And that concludes part 1 of our 2011 summer photo dump. More to come...

Agapa Day

2011-09-18T20:32:00.000-04:00

Yesterday we packed up the kids and made the loooong car ride to Rochester for an event at the Korean Methodist Church called Agapa Day. Aga means baby in Korean and Pa is the first two letters of Parent. It's basically an event where the members of the church share the Korean culture and build relationships with Korean adoptive families. This was our first time attending and I was blown away by the organization and hard work that went into this day. There were tons of events for kids of all ages, like origami, calligraphy (at the end of the day they had Poppy's name written in Korean in a frame for her!) and a photo studio filled with Hanboks for the kids to wear in a picture. They had a delicious lunch of rice, bulgogi, dumplings and kimchi. Then we all went outside for various Korean demonstrations. The first one was some of the little girls from Sunday school that were just starting to learn the "fan dance"...

Then we saw a Tae Kwon Do demonstration...and some of these kids were intense.

Then it was the grown women doing the "fan dance"...

After the demonstrations it was time for the family games! Poppy was a little hesitant to participate at first, but within minutes she was having a blast (which is evidenced by her tongue sticking out)...

Sam (who took his first steps today!) was happy to just play with this ball...

And then finally it was time for tug of war...

(Poppy is in the middle, facing the wrong way)

Our team lost all 3 rounds, but you can't say that Marc didn't put his energy into it!

After a long day of playing, learning and making new friendships, it was time to hit the road and head back home. Poppy has asked about a million times when we can do that again. I love the fact that the Korean culture is such an important part of our lives and it's so rewarding to see how much Poppy loves it too.

2011-09-15T14:49:00.000-04:00

Poppy has been all about picking out her own outfits lately. I'm pretty sure this one was inspired by Pinkalicious (or Pink-delicious as Poppy likes to call her).

first day of pre-k!

2011-09-12T14:49:00.002-04:00

I'm back! Our new computer arrived this weekend and I've been in heaven ever since! Besides all of the computer drama, we have had quite a bit going on around here lately.

Last week was Poppy's first day of preschool! I can hardly believe it! She is going to the same school she went to last year, but she is in the UPK program this year which is 5 mornings a week. At first I was unsure about having her go 5 days, but going any less is not an option. She only goes for 2 1/2 hours, so it's actually working out pretty good, and Sam naps the entire time she is at school, so I've been getting a ton of things around the house done lately!

The night before her first day we had our annual "Back to School Feast". When she saw the way that the table was set and I told her it was to celebrate her first day of school, she was beyond excited...

Poppy picked out the lovely red, white & blue flowers for the centerpiece. We had Korean bulgogi and rice for dinner with sparkling apple juice to drink. And chocolate zucchini cupcakes for dessert!

I'm pretty sure Sam liked the cupcakes. :)

A new notebook, a few pens and a chapter book to start the year off right! She has been bringing the little mermaid chapter book to school every day and one of her teachers reads her a chapter each morning. She loves it so far!

This year, I'm the room mom for Poppy's class and the teachers asked me to bring in snacks for the first week. I made these cupcakes (as seen on pinterest, of course!) and brought in a bag of fresh apples. Poppy was beaming when she got to bring them into the classroom. And they were so easy to make!

My big girl on her first day!

RIP macbook pro

2011-09-04T10:37:00.000-04:00

So I mentioned Sam's new nickname, Spaz. Well, I guess he's not really a spaz, he's just a boy. Quite the opposite of our gentle little Poppy. He's very, um, mobile. And energetic. He's got ants in his pants. But all boys do, don't they? Anywho, when Poppy was a baby, I used to always drink my coffee out of a travel mug with a serious leak-proof top because I was afraid that she would knock my cup over and we would have coffee spills all over the house. As she got older, I eventually went back to drinking my coffee out of a normal coffee cup. And so now that Sam is completely mobile, I'm not sure why I didn't switch back to my trusty leak-proof/spill-proof travel mug. Which brings us to the title of this post.

Yesterday morning, I put my big ol' cup of coffee on the coffee table in the living room as I got out my laptop to begin checking my emails. I'm not sure how I got distracted, but in enters Sam, who often looks like King Kong as he teeters and totters, knocking things left and right and suddenly the entire table was covered with coffee. Including my laptop. I actually didn't think there was any damage done because the laptop was closed at the time and I didn't see any coffee on the keyboard when I opened it.  A few hours went by before I had a chance to turn it on, and when I did it started smoking! Smoke came out of the keyboard! The autopsy was performed within a few hours at the apple store. Diagnosis: beyond repair.

The nice repairman at the apple store commented on how well I was taking the news. He said that he often sees tears when he tells customers "beyond repair". Well folks, there is a silver lining to this story. Remember earlier this summer when I mentioned I couldn't upload any pics because we were out of space on our computer? Well Marc has spent the entire last month backing up every single thing on our computer to various different discs and drives and thingys. He just finished backing up the very last video file the day before the "big spill". The only thing that was lost were the pictures from our last week at the beach. And I'm sad about that, but it could have been soooo much worse. Tragically worse.  Two important lessons were learned yesterday. #1 - make sure you are diligent about your back-ups! #2 - make sure you always use a spill-proof coffee cup when around energetic little boys.

And right now, I am using an ancient dinosaur of a laptop that we had sitting in the bottom of a closet, just waiting to be recycled. It's taken me almost an hour just to type this post! This thing is a beast. And it's a pc (shudder).  So until macbook pro2 arrives later this week, peace out.

We're back! (again)

2011-09-01T14:51:00.000-04:00

We are back from another amazing week at the beach. Packing up and leaving that last day was so bittersweet - we were ready to go home after a nice relaxing vacation, but it also meant that summer is officially over. Half of me is ready for fall and routine, but the other half of me hopes that September stays super warm and we can do a few of the outdoor activities we didn't get to yet.

Just next week Poppy will start pre-k! Both of my babies seemed to have grown at least a foot while we were at the beach. And the changes in Sam (aka Spaz) are so huge, he deserves a post all his own. More to come soon!

2011-08-20T06:55:00.002-04:00

We're off to the beach again for more fun in the sun!

See you next week!

2011-08-18T15:31:00.000-04:00

Last night, I ran my second 5k!!! Woo-hoo! It was so much more fun than the one that I ran a few weeks ago. Already looking forward to our next one in a few weeks!

{Don't we look cute in our vibrant colors? Ha, ha!}

{me, Kaitlin, Jen, Sarah & Andrea}

Jen and I started the couch to 5k program at about the same time a few months ago. So proud of us that we finished it!

Sam's 1st birthday party!

2011-08-16T20:26:00.000-04:00

We celebrated Sam's 1st birthday while we were at the beach. I remembered that the cottage we always rent has a nautical theme with the decor, so I decided to go with it. It was a little stressful planning a party for when we were away from home, but it turned out so great and looking back, I'm so glad we did. Sam loves being at the beach and I think he loved having his party there too.

{My favorite boys}

{Marc made paper sailboats and sailor hats. The boats ended up being a big hit with the kids.}

{We had goodie bags ready for the kids to bring down to the beach.}

{Birthday boy loved the decorations}

{Poppy was in her glory, with an audience to read to.}

{in anticipation of his first bite of cake}

{cupcakes, choco strawberries, and a big cake just for Sam}

{he didn't hesitate at all with his 'smash cake'}

{my children do enjoy their desserts}

{A week before the party, I asked Marc if he could make a paper sailboat to put on top of Sam's cake. He spent hours making a paper mache/ fabric keepsake boat for him instead. Didn't it turn out cute?}

{time to open presents!}

{after presents, we all headed down to the beach to light paper lanterns (I may or may not have gotten that idea from Tangled) but it was waaay too windy to light them that night.}

{my sweet birthday boy}

{he was such a mess by the end of the night, and the cottage only has a stand-up shower, so I had the brilliant idea to give him a bath in the cooler. He loved it! He stayed in there forever and did not want to get out!}

Happy Birthday Sammy!

Crystal Beach (part 1)

2011-08-14T20:33:00.000-04:00

Finally! For the first time in 3 weeks I am able to upload pics! I am so behind that I don't even know where to begin! I guess I'll start with our week at the beach. Here are a few of the highlights...

{Poppy decided that she could put her own sunblock on. Ha!}

{perfect weather. every day.}

{Poppy loved being in the water, as always. And Sam surprised us by loving the water as well!}

{of course, there was plenty of ice cream}

{did I mention the weather was perfect?}

And this is what I found in Poppy's room on our last day. It was dinner time and she skipped her nap to play at the beach all day...then she told me she was going to listen to an audiobook on her ipod...zzzzzz.

{exhausted!}

We had a perfect week at the cottage. We always make the best memories while we're at the beach. Looking forward to going back for another week at the end of the month! I have a ton more pics, including Sam's beach birthday party. Stay tuned!

2011-08-10T19:22:00.001-04:00

I'm still here! We came home from the beach this past weekend and we've been super busy ever since we walked in the door. I ran my first 5k last weekend! I've been sucked into a ton of really good books lately! We're going blueberry picking bright and early tomorrow morning! See? Busy!

I have tons of pics to share, but we are still in the middle of the biggest hard drive backup in the history of the world. I'm in the process of burning every picture and video to dvd before Marc backs them all up to our new external hd. And it's taking forever! Tons of pics to post soon!

2011-07-26T14:46:00.000-04:00

{calling someone on his "corn phone".}

{he's been known to have a bit of a temper while on the phone!}

So apparently I needed more than just a day for recovery last week. It's been so crazy hot and humid around here that we pretty much did absolutely nothing but stay inside with our air conditioning. Bleh. But it's finally getting nice out, and just in time because we have lots of fun outdoorsy things coming up! We're packing up for a little camping trip later this week, and then the day after we get back we are packing up for a week at the beach! Woohoo! Cannot wait!

Unfortunately, I still can't upload pics. I guess we've used up all of our space on our computer (and our external hd) with all of the videos Marc has been taking with the flip. Yeah, we need to come up with some sort of storage system for those. We're thinking about getting this. Does anybody else have it? Sounds like it would be a perfect solution to me! Hopefully I'll be able to upload once we get back from vacay. See you then!

recovering

2011-07-19T14:56:00.000-04:00

{wearing their camo jammies from Aunt Jeanna}

I'm trying to recover from a whirlwind week we've had. We had a fun visit from out-of-town friends, we've been having bbq's and family dinners, a Korean picnic in Rochester, a wedding, a little trip to Toronto, going to see Harry Potter (sniffle, sniffle) and a little 24 hour flu bug for me. Yeah, I'm tired. Today is my recovery day. And I do have pics from it all, but we're experiencing technical difficulties, so those will have to wait.

Oh, and did I mention that tomorrow is this chunky monkey's 1st birthday?! Sniffle, sniffle.

summer days

2011-07-13T14:49:00.000-04:00

..................

{soccer cousins!}

And check out Poppy's new favorite thing...

{practicing away...}

{Mom! I can't practice while you're taking my picture!}

Yup, we bought a piano last week. Poppy is starting lessons in the fall and she is sooooo excited. The lessons we are taking are very parent-involved, so I'm looking forward to it too. And Marc stayed up all night learning how to play the song that the ice cream truck plays. It was super cute. So basically it's undecided right now who is the most excited about our new piano - we all really love it.

Tie-dye!

2011-07-09T22:27:00.000-04:00

First, let me tell you about the audiobooks. I picked a few up for Poppy last week at the library. They're the ones that come with a picture book. I uploaded the cd's to an old ipod and gave it to Poppy along with an old-school set of headphones. This girl is hooked. She absolutely loves being able to follow along with the books that she can't quite read yet. The first couple of days, we literally had to limit the time she could listen to them because she wanted to listen all day long! Now it's been a week and the novelty is slowly wearing off, but she still loves them. I went online and requested a few more books - they definitely come in handy when we are in the car, or when I'm too busy to sit down and read with her myself.

And check out the super awesome tie-dye shirt Poppy is wearing. We made it at our super awesome tie-dye party we had a few weeks ago...

We had the family over and everyone made their own shirts. The kids had a blast doing it, and the shirts turned out unbelievably cute. I've been seeing them on all of the cousins lately and I just love them!

We even had tie-dye cupcakes!

The hardest part was that we had to wait 24 hours until we could unwrap the shirts and see what they look like. But we'll all wear them to the next big family party and I'll snap a pic of the family cuteness.

4th of July

2011-07-05T21:11:00.001-04:00

We had a great holiday spent at our usual waterfront location with family. Taking pics wasn't too high on the priority list last night, but here are a few we did manage to snap...

{Poppy has discovered read-along audiobooks and is officially obsessed. Another post to come on that topic...}

{Have I mentioned that Sam is officially mobile? At 11 months and 5 days he finally learned how to crawl! A new post to come on that topic too!}

{activities that weren't documented - friendship bracelet making, boondoggle, frisbee, snacking, chatting, etc.}

I thought it was a miracle that we were able to get him to fall asleep in his stroller by 8:00. Marc popped those earplugs in and he slept right through the fireworks!

The fireworks were the best we've seen in a long time! Definitely worth the wait! And Poppy just loved being able to stay up so late past her bedtime. Hopefully Sammy will be able to stay awake to see them next year!

the ice cream truck

2011-06-28T14:48:00.000-04:00

The following is a scene that happens quite frequently around here. The ice cream truck typically comes down our street anytime between 3 and 4:00 every day, which happens to be right when these two wake up from their nap.

So Poppy grabs her change purse and gets into position to wait...

and wait...

"Mom, shouldn't he be here by now?!"

"My sister is so silly for waiting like this every day!"

Then the whining begins. "Mom, I don't think he's coming today."

And then he comes and she practically throws her money at him...

And she orders the same Dora ice cream every time (because of the gumball eyes). And you would think I would have taken a picture of her eating her ice cream, but after all that waiting, she was sooo not in the mood for any more pictures. And that is what happens almost every afternoon at our house!

strawberries

2011-06-22T21:38:00.000-04:00

Saturday morning, we were up bright and early to hit up the strawberry fields...

Sam was happy as a clam to sit back and watch everyone do the hard work.

And Poppy was happy as a clam to be able to eat her weight in strawberries.

And then Sam began to get a little restless in the backpack, so I plunked him down in the strawberry patch. He knew exactly what to do. He went straight for the red, ripe strawberries...

...and did not stop eating them until he was pretty much covered from head to toe in strawberry juice. And then somebody was tired from all this hard work, and ready for a nap...

We had a great time. We were able to meet up with a bunch of Poppy's cousins and it was so fun to see how excited all the kids were to dive into the strawberries. As soon as we got home, the strawberries were washed and we made dozens of jars of jam, strawberry ice cream, strawberry daiquiris, a strawberry cream puff cake, and we froze a bunch of them for smoothies. Poppy just couldn't help herself from eating as many fresh strawberries as she could get her hands on. She honestly looks forward to strawberry season all year long, and so far, this year did not disappoint.

Father's Day

2011-06-20T20:48:00.000-04:00

Marc asked Poppy if she wanted to take him fishing for father's day this year. She happily obliged and off they went for the morning. Poppy caught a few sunny's, and Marc was happy that he actually managed to catch one himself. Towards the end, Poppy said that she wanted to sit back and read a book while she waited for another fish to bite. Within a few minutes, Marc said her bobber flew to the bottom of the pond and she started reeling it in, complaining that it was too heavy for her to do by herself. Um, that would be because she caught a 12" smallmouth bass!

Marc said she was beside herself with excitement because this was the first fish she could bring home and eat! Mind you, this is the same girl that is petrified of ants. I cannot believe that she is even willing to hold this fish up! She is so into fishing, it is adorable! And the only person more excited about her big catch was her proud daddy. This totally made Marc's father's day.

Happy father's day to the best dad these two could ever ask for!

gone fishing

2011-06-17T09:57:00.000-04:00

Marc was finally able to take Poppy fishing a few weeks ago. They met up with her cousins at Ellicott Creek and waited patiently for something to take the bait...

{Poppy's 1st fish!}

I think the total ended up with Tucker catching 2 fish, and Poppy catching 3! She was so excited and proud of herself. She can't wait to go fishing again!

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And here is what I ended up doing for end-of-the-year teacher thank you gifts...

A copy of Family Fun magazine, a beach towel and some candy to start their summer off right. I found the idea on Pinterest and it only took a quick stop at Target to get all the items needed. A few of you suggested making a Wordle cloud and then printing it and putting it in a frame. That's a great idea that I definitely plan on using in the future, but as a gift from the entire class, one of the parents designed a similar piece of artwork that they gave the teachers.

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Sammy here is giving mama a workout lately. He is almost 11 months and still can't crawl. He tries all day long, but he only ends up going backwards and gets super frustrated, which leads to constant whining (or grunting). He wants to be on the move soooo bad! I think he's gonna figure it out this weekend though. :)

One thing he has figured out recently is how to pretend to talk on the phone. All day long, he loves to either play with this phone (that Poppy can't believe was in Toy Story) or he just holds his hand up to his ear and pretends he's on the phone. It's so super cute!

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Running update: I just finished week 5 of the c25k program and I still absolutely love it!!! I've been running every other day since I started the program and getting my sneakers on taking a run around my neighborhood is something that I look forward to all day long. Unfortunately I just experienced my first (and hopefully last) knee injury. I've had pain in my left knee since I started running, but I figured that it was just sore muscles from never being used. After getting a new pair of sneakers, the pain went away for a few days, but then it came back and went from just hurting while I was running, to now it constantly hurts all day long. Yesterday I went to see a doctor that specializes in sports related injuries and he was able to diagnose the problem. Apparently my left leg is longer than my right leg, which is causing certain ligaments to become strained and now inflamed. An x-ray to determine the exact length difference, a lift in my right shoe, another new pair of sneakers and a few weeks of PT will get me back in shape to be running pain free. Isn't that crazy?! He said it was pretty important to stop running until I feel no pain at all in the left knee, which he thinks will take about 2 weeks. I'm super bummed about that, but he also explained the importance of working on my core muscles in order to prevent any further injuries, so that is exactly what I am going to do starting today!

2011-06-12T20:39:00.001-04:00

The craziness of summer has officially begun! Last week was Poppy's last day at ballet for the year. Her studio didn't do a full recital, instead they had a little show at the studio for the parents to watch. Poppy's teacher has been commenting to me a lot lately about how far Poppy has come in just the past few months. At the Christmas show she just stood there frozen, but at this show she actually performed!

After the girls did their first performance, they had two professional ballerinas dance in their pointe ballet shoes. It was really neat to watch. Then the teacher had the girls line up again to do another dance, and as they were lining up Poppy said (under her breath, but totally loud enough for everyone to hear), "Oh boy, this is going to be a lot of work for me!". Marc and I just about peed our pants.

The performance was adorable, and best of all, it was super simple - no big costume, no stage make up, etc. The studio had a little party afterwards and I volunteered to make cookies...

I couldn't find a "ballet" cookie cutter, so I went with roses instead. Didn't they turn out cute?

And then we signed Poppy up for another soccer team, this time an outdoor one. And her cousins and friends are all at this soccer practice, so it is extra fun for her.

And now this is her last week of school before summer break. Anybody have any ideas for a simple teacher thank you gift?

Poppies

2011-06-07T08:36:00.000-04:00

A few years ago, I wrote a post that explained where we got the name "Poppy" from. If you don't want to go back and read the whole post, I'll just sum it up by telling you that I fell in love with a small garden of poppies next to a church in our neighborhood. All of the poppies bloom at the same time and they only last for a week at the most. I've been trying to snap a pic of them for the past 4 years, and finally, last week I was successful!

And speaking of Poppy, I think it's time I give you all a little update about what she has been up to lately. Basically, ever since she turned 4 years old (which was less than a month ago), she has grown so much, both mentally and physically, that I can barely even believe it. Everything about her is different! Her clothes don't fit, her shoes don't fit, her hair grew thicker. She talks different! She uses funny expressions, has complex thoughts, can be a con-artist when it comes to negotiating or trying to talk herself out of trouble.

One of the most fascinating things is watching her learn how to read on her own. She has a ton of words that she has memorized from her favorite books, but suddenly, she is sounding out words and reading them! The first time it happened was when we were in a public bathroom and I was holding her up on the toilet and she was staring at the wall behind me and she said, "No food or drink." I was confused as to why she would say that and when I asked her why, she said, "Because I think that's what the sign says." And sure enough, it did. When I was taking down all of her birthday cards that I had set up on our table, she went through them and sounded out her cousins names and told me who each card was from. For some strange reason she is obsessed with words that start with the letter "B". Every day, all day long, she says, "Oh, mom! I just discovered that blue starts with a B!" "I just discovered that baseball starts with a B and has another B in it!" She has been doing that for weeks (but only with the letter B).

She's also loving both soccer and ballet. For a while over the winter she kept saying that she didn't like going to ballet, and I came to a point where I wasn't sure if I should make her finish out the semester, or let her drop out if she really doesn't like it. In the end I decided that we paid for it, so she would have to keep going, and now I'm so glad I did because she is back to loving it. She sings all of these cute songs she learned there and practices her stretches and even counts in french.

So yeah, basically Poppy has completely grown up right before my eyes over the past 3 weeks. It's seriously crazy.

feeling crafty

2011-06-02T14:38:00.000-04:00

I have been feeling quite crafty lately. Last week I went on a major shopping spree at the craft store and bought all sorts of new fun art supplies. I saw this butterfly art project (via Whatever) and knew that Poppy would love to make one herself.

Didn't it turn out great?! I love how bright and cheery it is hanging in our living room! And Poppy loved making it so much that we decided to make another one to give as an end of the year gift to her ballet teacher.

And we had a few leftover butterflies that we decided to use on a birthday gift... (if you are expecting a gift from us anytime soon, you can pretty much count on it looking exactly like this!)

And we are still plugging away at the art lessons from the art class we started back in March. Ever since the weather started getting nice, we have slowed way down, but we still enjoy working on them whenever we have a rainy day.

And I didn't want to leave Sammy out, so here is a picture of what I refer to as "Sam vs. cottage cheese". It's what happened when I left a small bowl of cottage cheese within his reach when I left the room to wash some dishes. Awesome.

Happy Memorial Day!

2011-05-30T21:09:00.000-04:00

{yes, that's a spare rib bone in his hand}

{he gnawed on that bone for hours!}

We've had a fun-filled busy week, and a fabulous holiday spent with family today! More posts to come soon...

What we've been up to...

2011-05-23T19:43:00.000-04:00

{Day with Thomas - from a few weeks ago}

So I mentioned Poppy's boy friend last week. This is the funniest thing. All of a sudden, out of no where, she has been talking non-stop about her friend from school, Ty. Luckily, he lives right around the block from us, so we've been meeting up for quite a few playdates lately. It is sooo funny to see how differently Poppy acts around him! They really are so cute together!

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And Poppy started playing soccer last month. I am shocked by how much she loves it! Marc usually takes her, but last week I was able to go with them and snap a few pics. I was impressed by how determined she was and she has already made a few goals during the little games they play.

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Then there's this little pork chop. Man, this kid can eat! But he will only eat the exact same thing I am eating! He doesn't want anything to do with baby food or any plain steamed veggies. His favorites are coconut curry chicken with peas and baked sweet potato fries w/ cayenne pepper on them! Oh, and rice! Between him and Poppy, we go through about 5lbs. of rice a week!

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We've been working on our garden lately and Poppy has been quite the helper.

In addition to a few flowers, this year we planted tons of lettuces, tomatoes, green beans and sugar snap peas. And a few carrots. We'll see how they do! Poppy is pretty excited to see the fruits of her labors!

And on the running front - I just completed my first week and I'm still loving it! Yay for exercise!

inspired

2011-05-18T20:55:00.000-04:00

So, I've been inspired by Jenna, to finally get off my couch and start the "couch to 5k" running program. I've had the app downloaded for well over a year (maybe even 2 years!) but I've always been able to find every excuse to put off starting it. But my post-preggers belly apparently isn't going anywhere on its own, and a membership to the gym isn't fitting into our budget anytime soon, so today I decided to just literally get off the couch and head outside for my first run. And I cannot believe how good it felt!!! It even started raining about 5 minutes into it, and Lola started dragging behind about 15 minutes into it, and I still loved it!!! Fingers crossed that I actually stick to it - and this isn't the type of thing that I would normally post about on my blog, but maybe if you guys check in on me to see how I'm doing with it, I'll feel more pressure to stick with it. K?

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{scooting to school, with a balloon for her boy friend - another post on that topic to come}

And I was determined to get a picture of Sam's wake-up smile. But first let's talk about that blankie. It stays in his crib and when it's time for a nap or bedtime, all I have to do is hand him his blankie and he immediately snuggles his face into it, pops his thumb in his mouth and falls asleep. Just like that! It amazes me every time! We could be playing on the living room floor one minute and then next minute if I bring him to his room and give it to him, he just knows to go right to sleep! I wish I could do that!

And that is the awesome smile I get every single time he wakes up. How super duper adorable is he?!

Birthday Party

2011-05-15T22:35:00.000-04:00

Finally, the last installment of Poppy's birthday celebrations! Usually, we throw a big party with all of her cousins and friends and family, but this year we decided to scale it back and just do a smaller party at home with the just the regular pizza Thursday crew and her Godparents.

Poppy decided on a "movie theater" theme...

{popcorn cupcakes}

{and popcorn for snacking on during the movie}

{Poppy requested bee bim bop for dinner, and we had to introduce it to everyone by reading the book}

{singing Happy Birthday for the 100th time that week}

{the kids were surprised that the cupcakes weren't popcorn flavored!}

Once all of the kids had their dinner and cupcakes, we corralled them into the makeshift movie theater, aka: our living room. We moved all the furniture around, hung a sheet on a wall and used a projector to show "Tangled". Marc even printed out tickets that the kids had to turn in in order to get into the movie theater.

{it was actually pretty dark in there and the movie looked really cool and the kids loved it!}

And the best part was that all of the adults got to sit back and relax and talk and eat, sans kiddos! It was a genius idea, if I do say so myself.

At the end of the night, we asked Poppy what her favorite part of the party was, and of course she said "Opening the gifts!". Her favorite gift by far was the fishing pole Marc got for her. She has been using it to "fish" all over the house, and has been asking if she can go fishing first thing every day. Marc is super excited to take her once it stops raining!

Lucky girl.

2011-05-11T14:16:00.000-04:00

Lately, I've been feeling like I just might be the luckiest girl in the world. There was a point in my life (when I was like 16 years old) that I swore I never wanted kids. Can you imagine?! And now I am the proud mama to the 2 best kids in the whole wide world. There was a point in my life when I swore I would never want to be a stay-at-home mom. Now, I can't imagine what my life will be like when I do have to go back to work. I am so grateful that I get to take 2 years off of work to be home with my babies. We are definitely a typical two income family, and Marc and I are making huge sacrifices to make this work financially, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.

The weather this week has been absolutely gorgeous and we are trying to enjoy every second of it outside. Poppy got a scooter for her birthday, so on Monday morning we scooted up to the playground to play and then scooted home for some lunch on the porch. Tuesday morning we spent at the zoo. Today we just played outside, and baked cupcakes for Poppy's birthday party tomorrow. The time that I am spending right now with Poppy and Sam is so precious to me. Our days like we've had this week make it all worth it when I have to pass on buying those cute shoes I really wanted, or when Marc and I decide that a 'night out' just isn't in the budget and we have to stay home and rent a movie instead. And I know that being able to stay home with your kids isn't a realistic option for a lot of people, which makes me feel even more grateful for this opportunity.

Every minute I get to spend with this cute face is worth a million bucks to me!

So for whatever reason, I'm just feeling really lucky these days. Lucky to have such amazing kids. Lucky to be able to spend so much time with them.

Poppy's birthday & Mother's day

2011-05-09T19:59:00.001-04:00

Poppy's birthday turned out to be fantastic. I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that she's 4. 4 years old! That's just crazy.

Her day started with her requested breakfast in bed. It was adorable how excited she was when she saw us carrying in a tray of muffins and donuts and juice to be eaten in her bed. Then we had Marc's family over for bee bim bop and birthday cake. Poppy said her favorite part of the day was opening all of the presents, of course!

Mother's day was fantastic as well. The night before Marc asked if I wanted breakfast in bed, but I told him he could take the morning off. Instead we went out for a nice brunch with family.

{our attempt at a family picture - I'm not sure why I'm the only one looking at the camera!}

After brunch, Marc and I hung out outside while the babies were napping. It felt soooo good to be outside all day! Once everyone was up we headed to Uma and Upa's for more playing and then dinner.

Check out the mother's day gift Poppy and I made for Grandma and Uma...

It's a bird feeder! We made a loaf of bread and covered it in seeds and then added painted sticks for the birds to sit on. Poppy and I thought it was rather clever, but everyone in my family seemed to think it resembled something that belongs in a toilet and they thought it was soooo funny.

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Poor Marc with all of these holidays. Just about every night this week, after I went to bed I could hear him get in the car and drive somewhere, and then come back an hour or so later. He was making runs to get stuff for our breakfasts in bed, flowers for mother's day, movies and snacks for our anniversary date night, etc. He did such a great job and I am so lucky to have him!

3 down, 4 more to go.

2011-05-06T14:04:00.000-04:00

My birthday this year turned out to be one of my favorites ever. It started with Marc and Poppy bringing me breakfast in bed. Poppy was soooo excited that we got to eat on our bed. She even requested that we do the same thing for her birthday.

Then the sun decided to make its first appearance in months! I was so excited to see my old friend! As soon as we were all dressed, I loaded up the stroller and we headed to the playground. Sam slept all morning in the stroller and Poppy had a blast with the playground all to herself.

Then we headed home where Poppy and I made my absolute favorite cake in the world - strawberry whipped cream cake! We even used the last of the frozen strawberries that we picked last June. And yes, some might think it's a little odd that I made my own birthday cake, but I love baking with Poppy. We really have so much fun in the kitchen together. I told Marc, I feel like Poppy and Sam both knew to just be extra good kids on my birthday. There was not a single tear or whining or tantrum or anything. Everyone was just so good and happy. It really made my day to be able to spend it with my family.

When I saw a picture of a "ruffle cake" on pinterest (of course!), I knew that I had to try making one myself. And it was so easy to do! Didn't it turn out cool?

And everyone surprised me with a Mexican Feast (my favorite) instead of boring old pizza for pizza Thursday. And the sun was still shining!!! It was such a perfect day!

I've included a video of everyone singing happy birthday. I was cracking up when I watched it, it sounds like there were about 100 kids there!

{Louis loving the fact that he's not the baby of the family anymore - he's a big kid now!}

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Then today was Poppy's birthday party at her school. I didn't think all the little boys in her class would appreciate a princess themed party, so we decided to go with owls instead. Poppy and I made demo crafts yesterday...

and then we all got up bright and early this morning to decorate her owl cupcakes...

and I went in and read an owl book to her class...

We read Wow! Said the Owl, which was a really cute book.

then we all made an owl craft! The kids really seemed to have fun with our owl theme, and Poppy was in her glory with everyone wishing her a happy birthday.

But the real highlight of her day is going to be when Marc takes her to "Day Out With Thomas" tonight. She's been talking about that all week long.

Still ahead: Poppy's actual birthday tomorrow, mother's day, and more parties!!!

sources:
ruffle cake
owl craft
owl cupcakes

Let's get this party started!

2011-05-04T13:48:00.000-04:00

And so the chaos known around here as 'birthday week' has begun. We celebrated my MIL's birthday on Sunday. We'll be doing my birthday at pizza Thursday, followed by Poppy's birthday on Saturday. And Mother's day on Sunday. Oh, and I almost left out our wedding anniversary on Saturday too.

Poppy and I were inspired by the cake the fairies bake for Sleeping Beauty when we made my MIL's birthday cake. Poppy didn't think we would be able to do it without magic wands, but I think we pulled it off. :)

All that celebrating means a lot of cake eating (and making)! I'll try to post pics of everything. We decided to tone it down with Poppy's birthday this year. Just smaller family parties and a party at school. She is soooo excited for all of the celebrating!

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I've been dying to catch Sam's sweet smile he gives me when he wakes up from his nap every day. So when I saw he was sleeping extra late on Saturday, I decided to go in his room and open his shades and try to snap a few pics of him waking up...

{sleeping baby - sucking his thumb and holding his blankie}

Wait a minute, this isn't the sweet smile he always gives me! That's the stink-eye!

Let's just say he was not happy that I had a big black camera in front of my face. As soon as I put the camera down, it was all smiles.

Disney

2011-04-28T20:23:00.001-04:00

We had an absolute blast at Disney this year. The weather was perfect, it was crowded, but not unbearable and it is just so fun to see Poppy (and Sam's) reaction to everything. There is something about being there that really is just magical.

First, we decided to stay in Disney this year. We stayed at the Port Orleans French Quarter, which was recently renovated. It was super cute and really looked a lot like the French Quarter in New Orleans. I wish I would have taken a few pics of the actual hotel - it was that cute!

The first day we just checked in and relaxed and then we decided to go to the Boardwalk for dinner. I was picturing us getting some ice cream afterwards and strolling along the boardwalk. Well, I think Marc described it best when he said "I feel like we're walking into a blow dryer." It was soooo hot. And humid. The entire boardwalk was just intense sun and heat, with absolutely no shade anywhere, and barely any other people either (because it was too hot!). We grabbed a few sandwiches and ran back to the ac of our hotel room. I took this picture of Poppy sitting on a bench in the lobby of the Boardwalk hotel while we were waiting for Marc to get the car...

{doesn't she remind you of Alice in Wonderland?}

Then the next morning we set our alarm clocks for bright and early to beat the crowds at Magic Kingdom. The first ride we headed to was Dumbo. Last year the line was always too long and Poppy didn't get a chance to go on it. But because we got there so early, we were able to go on it a few times with no lines. She loved it. We even brought Sam on it once.

After Dumbo, it was off to Breakfast with the Princesses. Marc made these reservations 6 months ago. I thought he was a little nutty about it, but it turned out to be so worth it. First we were greeted by Cinderella in the foyer and had a family picture taken with her. Then once we went inside and were seated, each princess came to our table individually and talked to Poppy and took pictures. Poppy was so excited to meet each princess, but she clammed up and got nervous and shy when they actually got to our table (of course!).

Ariel was the first princess to visit our table. We also met Jasmine, Sleeping Beauty and Belle. Poppy says that Belle was her favorite because she likes to read as much as Poppy does. The waiter also gave Poppy a magic wand and Sam a plastic sword. Poppy carried her wand around all day, and Sam was wielding his sword around all day too!

We went on a ton of rides. Poppy was just a hair too short to go on splash mountain, but she said she is going to eat her veggies so that she can grow and go on it next time. Her favorite ride was Peter Pan, which she made us go on at least 3 times.

Leading up to our day in Disney, I was pretty worried about how Sam would be. It turned out that he was a total champ. He slept in his stroller for 2 hours in the morning, woke up in time for lunch and to take the jungle cruise. Passed out in his stroller for another couple of hours and then woke up for dinner. We had dinner at the Crystal Palace where each table is visited by the Winnie the Pooh characters. Poppy could care less about Winnie the Pooh, but Sam absolutely loved these characters! He just stared at them and smiled. We have a video of Piglet kissing Sam over and over. It was so cute!

We stayed for the Electrical Parade which was the highlight of the day for Poppy. Sam was of course sleeping like a baby in the stroller. We were so exhausted by the end of the parade that we called it a night. It was so nice to be able to hop on the monorail and go back to our hotel, instead of drive back to our condo like we did last year.

The following day we just lounged at the pool all day. The pool had tons of fountains and water slides, which was a lot of fun.

Poppy even got to meet up with her friends Brendan and Colin while we were there! Everyone met at our hotel and we took the riverboat to Downtown Disney for dinner and ice cream.

Poppy was so happy that she got to boss two boys around. She was quite the queen. Maybe next year we'll be able to meet up again and spend a little more time together. Poppy has been asking for her boyfriends to come over ever since...

We really didn't get to take too many pictures because we were just so busy while we were in Disney, but it was such a great time. Magical.

more Easter celebrations

2011-04-24T21:03:00.001-04:00

Perogie making on Saturday morning...

The ladies of the fam. We worked hard and made hundreds of perogies that morning. We've been making perogies for years and I think we get a little better at it each year. They turned out really good this year!

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This morning, Poppy and I made "tomb rolls". We just used frozen dinner rolls, thawed them and then smooshed them in the palm of our hands. Then you wrap the dough around a marshmallow, seal it and then brush it with butter and cinnamon sugar. When you bake them, the marshmallow dissolves into the roll and creates a hollow cavity inside the roll. Find the full recipe here.

They were fun to make, yummy to eat and they were a big hit with the kids (and adults)! These will definitely be a new Easter tradition for us.

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Then we went to grandma's for a delicious brunch with family. After heading home for some quick naps, it was off to Uma & Upa's for a traditional Polish dinner and an easter egg hunt with the cousins...

{Melynda found the first egg!}

{searching in the garden}

{an attempt at a group shot of the cousins}

{chasing Tucker}

All in all it was a great holiday spent with family, filled with lots of traditions and yummy food!

Easter celebrations

2011-04-22T21:09:00.001-04:00

We have been having fun getting ready for Easter around here. Poppy and I made easter egg cookies to bring to the egg dying party with her cousins...

I love setting up the piping bags of different colors of icing and letting Poppy decorate her own cookies. She had so much fun with these.

Then today we did the world's easiest, cutest Easter craft. Check it out...

Is that not the cutest little lamb you've ever seen? I found the idea on Pinterest. Have you been pinning? I am totally hooked. I have found so many great ideas via pinterest!

And then Sammy has been giving me a run for my money in the feeding department. It started while we were in Florida, he has been refusing to let me spoon feed him and now he is even being picky about finger foods! The only things he will voluntarily eat are cheerios and avocados. Feeding time has quickly turned into drama around here...

This was my sorry attempt to get a few fruits and veggies into this kid the other day. I offered him sweet potatoes mashed and as steamed fries. I offered him kiwi. I made a paste out of green bean puree and rice cereal that I could roll into little balls so that he could pick them up and eat them. He said no to it all. I finally ended up sticking his beloved cheerios into the green bean mash so that he would have to pick them out and maybe a little bit of veggie would stick to them. That trick worked for about 3 cheerios until he refused those too.

For now, he wins the battle. Avocados and cheerios it is!

Tomorrow is perogie making, followed by a ton of cooking and baking. Poppy and I are making "resurrection rolls" (found via pinterest, of course!) on Sunday, those should be fun! This is our first time being home for Easter (we're usually in Florida) in years, so we are really looking forward to it.

And I know, I still have to post Disney pics!

FL (part 1)

2011-04-16T14:17:00.001-04:00

We're back! What a perfect family vacation! The weather was awesome. Well, it was a little on the hot side, but I won't complain about that. For the first part of our trip, we stayed in our usual spot in St.Petersburg. It was our first time flying as a family of four, and because our flight left right at Sam and Poppy's bedtime, I was a little nervous about how they would do. Within 10 minutes of take off, I nursed Sam and he was asleep in my arms. Poppy was occupied with a few new games on the ipod. Marc and I looked at each other and both let out a sigh of relief. And then exactly 1 hour into the 3 hour flight, Sam popped his little eyes open and was up without a chance of getting him back to sleep. He was tired and although he never actually started crying, he made me work at keeping him content for the rest of the flight. At the same exact time he woke up, Poppy declared that she was done with the ipod and started whining about being tired and bored, etc for the rest of the flight. It was exhausting, but we made it.

We headed to the beach first thing the following morning. Hot and sunny, just the way we like it!

Both Sam and Poppy loved playing in the sand. Luckily, Sam didn't discover the art of eating the sand until our last day at the beach...

I don't think I got any pictures of her in the water, but Poppy was a fish this year! She kept her floaties on all day and loved swimming in the ocean (or the sea as she kept calling it).

And of course, we went out for ice cream just about every night.

Coming up next, part 2 of our FL adventure - Disney World!

2011-04-05T14:58:00.002-04:00

{My sweet little pork chop.}

For being such a fussy little baby, Sam has really turned out to be such a good boy. He is an absolute dream in the sleep department. He's all about his little blankie. As soon as he feels it in his hand, he sticks his thumb in his mouth, rubs his blankie over his face and it's lights out. Without a peep, he sleeps at least 12 hours each night and takes 2 nice long naps every day. And when I open his door to get him once he's woken up, his face just lights up with the biggest smile as soon as he sees me. Makes my day, every single time. He's a piggie in the eating department. He can be picky about certain veggies, but for the most part, he eats like a champ. And as long as you have an endless supply of cheerios, he'll sit contentedly at the table until we are all finished eating too. And whenever Poppy is around him, there is sure to be a huge smile on his face. He just loves to stare at her and watch every move she makes. And she loves to play with him and help us take care of him, too.

{These two crack me up.}

As promised, here are pics of the absolutely beautiful bookshelf my dad made for Poppy's room. She lives on this thing. All day long, she asks me if I want to go read a book to her on her "library bench".

Isn't this what every little girl always wants in their bedroom? I know I always did.

Poppy and I have been trying to make it feel a little more like "spring" around here, so we decided to make these bird's nest cookies. Didn't they turn out cute? And they were super fun (and easy) to make with Poppy.

And with that, I'm signing off. The warm sunshine of Florida is waiting for us. I'll see you next week!

cupcakes and dumplings

2011-04-03T20:01:00.002-04:00

It's been another exhausting couple of days - but so fun! First was April Fool's day on Friday. I totally didn't expect Poppy to get the concept of April Fool's day, so I didn't plan anything fun or exciting. But when we explained it to her during breakfast and told her a couple of jokes, she was rolling on the floor laughing. When I went to pick her up from school her teachers said that she had not stopped giggling all day long. So during naptime I had Marc pick up a few things from the store for me and I made these "spaghetti and meatball cupcakes"! (click on this link for the how-to!)

I wish I had Poppy's reaction on camera because it was soooo funny. And then I thought she might be a little scared to actually eat them, but she dove right in. Next year I am totally making those for her class and reading Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs to them. I think a bunch of 4 year olds would get a kick out of that.

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This is the favorite art project I mentioned before. The first step was to coat a canvas with this acrylic medium that basically just adds a layer of texture. Then I gave Poppy a paper cup and a beaded mardi gras necklace so that she could press the shapes onto the canvas...

After letting it dry for a day, Poppy picked out a few colors of acrylic paint and finished her masterpiece. I think it turned out great, and so does Poppy. Every time she walks by her painting, she compliments herself on how beautiful it is. :)

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And check out the newest addition to our dining room...

We used magnetic chalkboard paint to paint the wall with, and then Marc added the trim to look like a frame. I love the way it turned out, and we are all having a ton of fun doodling all over it with chalk. (I had to laugh when I noticed what we had written on the wall while I took this picture - I got a coupon for a free donut and Poppy was worried that we might forget about it so we put our reminder up there, and Kuni, Poppy's beloved stuffed raccoon from Korea is missing, which explains the wanted sign)

Oh, and you guys can help me out with a debate. I'm super sick of the red walls in the dining room and I want to paint it a real light grey. Marc wants to keep the red. What do you guys think??? Keep the red or paint it grey? Please vote!

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Saturday was our annual dumpling day when everyone comes over to help make Korean dumplings (mandu) for Poppy's birthday. We made a ton this year...

Our little Korean helpers, hard at work...

After the Mandu madness, we heard giggling coming from Poppy's room and Marc found Poppy trying to "put Brendan to bed". How cute is that?! And check out the sneek peek of the awesome window seat bookshelf my dad made for Poppy. I'm having a cushion and a few pillows made for it and I'll take a better picture once we get them...

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Only 3 more days until we leave for the nice warm sandy beaches of Florida! I'm off to do more packing!!!

2011-03-29T21:04:00.001-04:00

We're still having fun with our art projects...

Today we started working on my favorite project so far, I can't wait to post pics of the finished product! Fun, fun, fun!

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Other than working on art projects, we've been quite busy around here. We're getting ready for our first vacation as a family of four. I hate packing for just myself. Having to pack for Poppy used to stress me out. Having to pack for all of us, including an infant who requires tons of stuff, totally stresses me out. So I've been trying to get a heads start on packing, running errands, thinking about getting my hair chopped off again, etc. Oh, and I've been reading this really, really good book (which explains my lack of blog posts lately). It's called "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls. I am absolutely loving it so far! And I just found out there is a "prequel" and I definitely plan on bringing it with me on vacation.

We are borrowing this little beach tent from my parents, and we set it up in our living room to see how big it is. Poppy immediately took it over as her "cave". Have you ever seen "Hoarders"? I know you have. Here is evidence that Poppy doesn't stand a chance of not being a hoarder when she grows up...

This was literally within 30 minutes of having this tent set up. Ca-razy!

Lately...

2011-03-23T20:10:00.001-04:00

...we've been enjoying our art lessons. This is our family landscape. Poppy was the director. She picked the paint colors and told us what to paint and where. I painted the grass, sky and clouds...

Poppy began painting the barn and the road and then directed Marc to finish it up for her...
Didn't it turn out cute?

Lately, we've also been enjoying our stroller and some time at the playground. The weather has been great, right up until the snow storm we got this morning.

She was pretending that she was driving a train with this wheel. She was the conductor and me and Sam were in charge of filling the coal cars.

This past weekend was Maple Weekend in WNY, so we packed up the car and took a drive out to Moore's sugar shack for some all you can eat pancakes and real maple syrup (Poppy came up with the idea to paint a farm for our landscape painting while we were on this drive).

The waitress brought out a bunny shaped pancake for Sam and I have never seen this kid any happier than he was when he was eating that thing. It was the size of 2 regular sized pancakes and he ate every last bite! And Poppy ate 6 regular pancakes, 3 sausage patties and 2 glasses of oj! I've never seen anything like it!

Saturday dinner

2011-03-20T21:46:00.001-04:00

I had every intention of taking pictures of the finished product, which was absolutely delicious, but we all had a really light lunch that day and were starving by the time we got these raviolis on the table.

We've busted out the pasta maker a few times over the past few months. It always surprises me how easy it really is to use. Any yummy. And Poppy loves being able to help out. She eagerly scoops up any and all scraps and calls them her play-doh and makes her own "pasta".

busy week

2011-03-17T21:41:00.002-04:00

Let's start with last weekend. We had a playdate at the science museum with a few of my co-workers and their kids. Poppy has been loving the science museum lately.

We tried to get a group shot of all the kids and out of about 20 pictures, this is the best one. Cracks me up.

They have this awesome exploratory play area at the museum and I'm obsessed with these blocks that they have. They look like they are wooden, but they are actually made out of a super dense lightweight foam. I want them for our house. This huge tower fell right on Sam's head and he didn't even notice!

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And then our art class started on Monday and has kept us quite busy all week. I created this "centerpiece" that now resides on our dining room table last week. Poppy loves having access to all of these art supplies and being able to doodle or color or work on a project at any time.

Here are a few examples of what we worked on...

We learned about primary colors, the color wheel, how to mix and create new colors, and about warm and cool colors...

Poppy was supposed to complete this worksheet, but she wasn't into it. Apparently Marc was digging it though - check out all of those details!

This is a project we did using the "cool colors" that Poppy chose...

I love working with the acrylic paints - makes me feel like a professional artist. Poppy however isn't too big of a fan because she has to wear gloves while using them (they're toxic for young children) and the only gloves we had were way too big. Luckily we found an art store that carries children sized latex gloves so we'll definitely pick those up and hopefully Poppy will change her tune about the paints.

This was a project we did when exploring mixing colors...

And we didn't even get to today's projects! This class is definitely keeping us busy, but we are all really having a lot of fun with it.

Today we started off by finishing up some art projects and then we headed into the kitchen for some baking. I wanted to make some St. Patty's day cookies to bring to pizza Thursday, but we didn't have a shamrock cookie cutter so we settled on turtle cookies (because at least they would still be green). Little did I know that the weather was going to be absolutely gorgeous today, so I ended up quickly frosting these guys while the babies were "napping". (Quotes around the napping because as of daylight savings time, Poppy has yet to actually sleep during her naptime. Grrr.)

As soon as they woke up, we busted out the double stroller and took our first walk of the year down to the playground. Just about everyone in Buffalo was outside this afternoon - the weather was AWESOME! Then it was off to the golf dome to meet the cousins for some pizza and a round of miniature golf. Everyone looked so cute in their green outfits and I'm kicking myself for not trying to get a group shot.

And just because he's so cute...

fresh air

2011-03-14T14:34:00.001-04:00

Getting ready to walk to the library last week...

(I love the fact that Sam is trying to figure out how he can get Poppy's hat in his mouth.)

(I love that Poppy is always so patient with him when he pokes her in the eye or pulls her hair. She always considers those to be signs of affection.)

We needed to pick up some books I had on hold at the library one night last week. The weather was just starting to get nice, but it was still cold and icy and there was mud everywhere, so I wanted to drive there. Marc insisted that we bundle up and walk (it is only a block from our house). And I am soooo glad we walked. It felt so good to get outside! I am soooo ready for spring! I am ready for summer and sunshine and the beach!

It is still yucky and muddy outside, but I think another walk to the library is in order for tonight. I'm hoping the book I requested for our online art class is ready. Speaking of our art class, today is the first day. I can't wait for Poppy to wake up from her nap so we can get started!

king cake and art supplies

2011-03-08T19:41:00.001-05:00

How is that for a random title?

Do you know what a king cake is? I saw them at Wegman's this weekend and decided to try to make my own. I found the world's easiest recipe and gave it a go today. I love the fact that it's supposed to look like a 3 year old decorated it! And my 3 year old loved decorating it!

Not only did it turn out super yummy, but it was also super fun. Tradition says you are supposed to hide a trinket, like a plastic baby or a nut inside the cake. So I stuck a nut in the cake before baking it. Just as I was about to cut into it, I explained to Poppy and Marc that there was a nut hidden in the cake and whoever got it was the big winner of the day. Poppy was intrigued. She declared that she wanted the first piece and told me exactly which piece to cut. Lo and behold - she got the nut! She was soooo excited! And I love the fact that she never even asked if there was a prize, just the title of "winner" was more than enough of a prize for her.

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I also spent the day running around getting supplies for our upcoming online art class! It starts next week and we are so excited! And if I'm being totally honest, I think I am way more excited than Poppy is. I've always wanted to paint with acrylics and use oil pastels. I seriously can't wait!!!

Just when I thought he couldn't get any cuter...

2011-03-06T20:13:00.001-05:00

hospital visit

2011-03-02T14:16:00.001-05:00

My mom had knee replacement surgery this week and is spending the next few days in the hospital. It's funny how much Poppy remembers about when I was in the hospital having Sam. As soon as I told her where Uma was having her knee "fixed", Poppy asked if I remembered when she brought me dinner and a cookie at the hospital, and a stuffed animal for Sam. I was relieved that she doesn't seem to think of the hospital as a scary place.

We made these bright and cheery "feel better soon" cookies yesterday. (don't ask - I don't know why I'm all about the cookies lately. Last night as I was finishing up frosting these after Poppy went to bed, I told Marc that I find it relaxing. Weird.)

And Poppy was very determined to get a book for Uma, because she's going to have a lot of time on her hands in the next few weeks. She really thought Uma would want a Thomas book, or a Clifford book, but I was able to talk her into an adult novel.

And then today was spent making a card. I love the things she comes up with to have me write in cards lately.

Dear Uma,
I really love you. Can you come over again? Are you going to like these cookies I made for you?
Love, Poppy

And Sam just sat there looking cute the whole time. He loves being able to sit at the table with everyone now that he's in his big boy highchair.

So tonight we're bringing up dinner and our little care package. Poppy is very excited about the adventure of going to the hospital for a visit!

the purge.

2011-02-25T11:45:00.002-05:00

I have been slowly working on a house-wide purge over the past few months. Room by room, I am getting rid of so much stuff! Lately I've been feeling so overwhelmed by the amount of stuff that can accumulate now that our family has grown. There are piles and piles that are going to goodwill, and the garbage bags and recycling are piling up. I love it!

One of the things I am getting anxiety over throughout this purge is photos and the storage of them. For the amount of pictures we take in this house, we need to come up with a better system. I am the worst at updating pics in frames or printing pics to put in albums. I have come across so many shoeboxes stuffed with pics (both old pics, new family pics and lots of polaroids). I have quite a few scrapbooks that I never found the time to finish. And then there are all of the pics just sitting on our computer that have never been printed. See, I'm getting all anxious just thinking about them all!

After much contemplation, I have finally come up with a plan. Here it is:

First, I have started flying through iphoto and sending piles of pics off to snapfish to be printed. Those will go straight into simple albums. No captions, nothing fancy, just pics in chronological order. That in itself gives me such a huge sense of relief. Even though we do back-up our computer (both to an online storage and an external hard drive), most of my anxiety was over the fact that if something ever happened to our computer, we could possibly lose our pics and I just hated not having any of them printed. I just finished our first album and I love having it available to flip through. And once I am caught up with the backlog of the last 5+ years, I will continue to print pics every few months and just put them in an album.

Next up will be finishing the scrapbooks. This will take time and I plan on working on them while the babies are napping. Once all of the scrapbooks are done, I am retiring my scrapbooking stuff. It was fun while it lasted, but who has time for scrapbooking anymore?!

I am also planning on sorting through all of the pics we have stuffed in shoeboxes and putting some in albums and chucking the rest. And then finally, I am going to work on updating the pics I have in frames throughout the house and I am also planning a "framed gallery wall" that will go all along the wall in our staircase. That will be a work in progress and I plan on posting more details about it soon.

Phew! My plan was a little longer than I expected, but that is what happens when you do absolutely nothing with the thousands of pictures you take!!!

So here is my question for you - What do you do with your pics? Are you good about printing and organizing them? Or are you ok with just having them stored on your computer? Do you have a photo organizing "system"? Any scrapbookers still left out there? Do tell.