We've had a crazy and hectic couple of weeks around here.  I was planning on doing individual posts for each event, but well, you get a photo dump instead.  Here we go...

My birthday started with breakfast in bed.  This was a first for Sam and I think he could get used to living like this...

and we finished celebrating my birthday at Shogun.  Sam did not take his eyes off the hibachi chef for 1 second....

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Poppy's end of the year piano recital...

She played "Go Tell Aunt Rhody" and she did such a great job!  We are sooo proud of her...

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Poppy had her first ever soccer game!  She is loving soccer this year...

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Her last day as a 4 year old.  I begged her to not turn 5, but she refused.  She said we can always pretend she's still 4...

This is what I got when I asked her to smile for the camera...

Strawberry ice cream cone cupcakes to take to school for her birthday...


Her birthday lunch was a sprinkle sandwich (which she loved, of course!)...


And then we had Marc's family over for a Korean dinner followed by birthday cake...

She could not believe I put real suckers on her cake.  She barely took a bite of her cake, went straight for the suckers and then told everyone all night "They're real suckers, ya know.  Really, they're real.  You can eat them!"

Sammy enjoyed his sucker too...

and Poppy even played a few songs for everyone at her party...

One of the favorite gifts- the book that goes along with the Arietty movie (which was sooo good, btw)...

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In addition to non-stop partying lately, Marc has been building a treehouse/playset in our backyard.  Everyone is sooo excited about this...

Both Poppy and Sam are quite the helpers...

 

It's going to be so cute when it's done - I can't wait!

Speaking of being so cute, I could just watch these two play together all day.  Today they were pretending Sam was the doctor and Poppy was the doll's mommy...

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 Happy mother's day!  Hope everyone had a wonderful day.  Mine was filled with family time and relaxing...

Stay tuned - Poppy's big birthday party post coming up next...

I'm not sure what's up with my blogging funk lately.  Sometimes I think it's time to throw in the towel and call it quits, but then I remember why I blog in the first place.  I do it for the memories and to have something that Poppy and Sam can look through to remind them of all the fun things we do together.  

Just tonight we went for a quick trip to the playground.  As I was walking out the door, I thought to myself that I should grab the camera.  Then I thought- don't bother, we're only going for a few minutes.  But I grabbed it anyways and I was so glad I did.  It's not that I took any award-winning pictures, but I want to remember every trip to the playground, and pictures help me remember.

After we put the kids to bed tonight Marc and I started talking about how fast time flies and before we know it we are going to be our parents age and Poppy and Sam will be starting their own families.  Time flies by.  But pictures help keep the memories strong.  So I will try to take more pictures and I will continue to blog.

Here's what we've been up to lately...

Poppy's school held an art gala.  Our proud artist showing off her work (it's the picture in between Marc and Poppy and she said it's a picture of a carnival.  Duh!)...

Fishing with cousins...

 Poppy had the first catch of the day...

Sammy thought it was so cool to hold Poppy's fish...

 Our trip to the playground tonight...

playing hide-and-go-seek in the rose gardens...

Daddy being a goofball...

Oh, and just wait - once I go back to work (and start bringing home a paycheck!!!) I'm going to get an iphone (yes, I might be the last person in the world without a smartphone) and one of those new super small DSLRish cameras and I'm going to take sooo many pictures!  Just wait!!!

Finally getting around to posting some pictures from Easter...

At the easter egg hunt at Aunt Jeanna's...

  Poppy was so excited that she found the "golden egg"...

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Easter egg hunt with the cousins at Uma & Upa's house...

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Have I ever mentioned how much Sammy loves his dessert?  Cupcake face...

Or have I ever mentioned how much he loves his blankie?  This is a common scene around here...

 It's a Sammy-monster!

And these two are peas in a pod.  Inseperable...

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A quick game of soccer with Ty...

 Until Sam took a little break to look for airplanes...

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Dumpling day!  Getting ready for someone's 5th birthday...

We've been kinda busy around here lately.  And really tired.  Sam had a hard time adjusting back to sleeping by himself in his room once we came home from vacation and he has been keeping me up all night and getting up toooo early in the morning.  And if he hasn't been waking me up, Poppy and Marc are waking me up with their coughs.  Every night for over a week.  But as of yesterday, Sam finally seems to be back on track, and hopefully Marc and Poppy are getting over their coughs, so this mama should be coming back to life soon...

Here's what we have been up to...

We did a fun craft to decorate paper easter eggs.  First, you cut out large easter egg shapes out of thick paper.  Then fill a tray with shaving cream... 

smooth it out a little bit...

dribble a few lines of different colors of paint and then gently run a chopstick to marble it...

smoosh the paper easter eggs into the shaving cream/paint mixture...

when you pull it out, you'll have peaks of shaving cream and paint...

and then you take a squeegee and gently scrape the shaving cream off...

and you are left with this cool marbled easter egg!

we have these beauties hanging all over our house now...

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we re-organized kitchen cupboards (which is always so much more fun with my two little helpers)...

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Sam and I made these cupcakes while Poppy was at school yesterday and then when she got home, Poppy decorated them...

didn't they turn out cute?!...

we brought out easter cupcakes over to Poppy's cousin's house for an easter egg dyeing party...

and an easter egg hunt!  At first, Sammy wasn't sure what this was all about...

but once he caught onto the fact that there were treats inside of the eggs, he took off running...

Lots more easter egg hunts and family parties to come this weekend...