Weekend Trip

Last weekend James got me a gig photographing a wedding for one of his co-workers. It was the perfect opportunity to visit Palmyra, New York. It turned out to be a free trip. And as you can see from Jake's expression in all of these pictures, he couldn't have been happier to be there.

Let us not forget...

Naomi. She turned 3. Three. III.

Ne Ne. (pronounced neigh, neigh...like the horse) I am actually pretty ticked about her new name. Just recently she has started telling me, "My name is Ne Ne." O.K. So remember how I called her Scout? Well, that was my nickname for her. It never stuck. She didn't like it. James' choice was Ne Ne. I thought it was hideous. Well, of course, like everything she wears, she has also chosen her own nickname. Her dad's choice. James is now 3 for 3. He has chosen every single child's nickname. Bug, Mooch and now Ne Ne. James =3, Jessie = 0. Whatever!

We celebrated Ne Ne's birthday a week early. While family was still in town for William's baptism. She was lucky evough to have two other girl cousins with birthdays within a month. We got them all. Naomi, Eliza and Maddie.
It was princess...of course.
A week later James and I sat in bed wondering if we should tell her that her "real" birthday was the next day. We cut our losses. She would never know. The "real" day came and went. But her birthday was not forgotten. We love her just the same. Possibly a little too much. She makes us laugh. She drives me crazy. She walked into church today and did this really loud deep breath and sighed, "I hate this place."
She takes after her mom. She just says it like she feels. Oh, great. I can't wait for the future.
We love you Ne Ne.

The Bug

Yes, we are infested by bugs in our house this time of year. But The Bug that I wish to talk about is the one who fills my life with absolute joy. The Bug who just turned 8. I know, I know. I know what you are thinking. How could I possibly be that old? Well, I am. Deal with it. I have an 8 year old.

What a perfect birthday. William had Grandma Cheryl and Aunt Stacy, Grandma Nettie and Grandpa Geoff, Uncle David and Aunt Kristine, Uncle Joey and Aunt Ashley, and his cousins Josh, Maddie, Ty and Eliza all come in town...just for him. It was a magical weekend.

If you are at all wondering what exactly you do when you have an eight year old, I will tell you.

You just look at him. And you look really hard. At a person that once rested willingly in your arms. And you think. Really,really hard. Basically, everything you do that day will be really, really hard.

And you wonder.

So far in his life...

Could I have done better? definitely

Could I have done worse? yeah, pretty sure

I probably should have disciplined him more

I probably should have taught him how to answer the phone and make phone calls

Does he know how to make his own peanut butter and jelly sandwich? I think so. hmmm.

I should have taken him skiing more. Or camping. Or lots of things.

But I didn't.

Could I have loved him any more?

The one question I can answer with absolute surety.

I can sleep well tonight.

I have loved him with every fiber of my being. For the past eight years.

Undoubtably longer.

I love you, Bug. But you probably already know that. And that's good.

Hey, I've done one thing right.

Here's to being 8.

What kind of birthday cake is this? Are you wondering? You should be ashamed of yourself for not knowing. It's a CIRCUIT BOARD, silly. What else could it be? Uncle David and James created it lovingly...in no time at all. Not that you could tell. It has electricity wires, circuits, batteries. You know, everything you may expect to find on your regular old circuit board.

William got a real circuit board for his birthday. I found it an Amazon. Funny enough, Grandpa Geoff bought him one at Radio Shack. Who would have known besides Grandpa Geoff? I told William the other day that I had to buy it on the computer because it was so rare. He looked at me in astonishment. "You mean, you had to buy me my present on the computer? Wow, mom. I didn't know you loved me that much."

Apparently, if you buy your kid a present online, it means you love him super, duper much. Score!

The BULL-CUT

The cut after the cut. Jake turned half of Naomi's head into a mullet. The other half was fine. A friend suggested I take my only daughter to "Famous Hair." And so I did as I was told. This is what happened. I guess that is what you get for taking your child into a place called, "Famous Hair." Lesson learned.

I will share with you three of my favorite comments I have received since this traumatic experience,

1. My friend and her girls hoped into our car to head to the Science Center. She glanced back. And then she glanced back again. In all seriousness she asked, "oh, what happened to her hair?" I told her. She told me that Jake actually did a better job. Apparently I should have left Jake's cut.

2. I took the kids to the hospital on Saturday to see their dad. One of the nurses came up to us asked about "the hair. " I told her I took her to a "salon" (I didn't tell her it was called "Famous Hair," I was too embarrassed. Her response, "you mean someone with a license cut that?"

3. I was walking around at my favorite new thrift shop yesterday looking through the racks of moderately used clothing. A lady turned onto our row and loudly asked, "oh, what...is that pixie cut back in again?"

I told her what happened and she kept pressing me. "Well, did your son get in trouble?" I was caught off guard. "Uh, yeah." "Well, don't worry about it honey. It will eventually grow back. The good news is, is that she is still young."

Is it seriously that bad?

I will never forget when our family was in New orleans when we were younger and my little brother, Joey, had a bull-cut. We were walking late at night and a guy walked past us and said, "nice helmet, kid."

Every time I see my baby girl, I always hear that same phrase in my mind.

"Nice helmet, kid."

Easter Sunday

Happy Easter Sunday!
We had some of our neighbors over. The kids were down in the basement for quite some time. After, of course, they didn't eat a darn thing. My fabulous Easter feast was not well accepted from the 5 kids 8 and under. Oh, well. The 30+ year olds ate it.
The kids surprised us with a fabulous puppet show. It ended with a Grand Finale of Ninja Jake and the defeat of the adults.

The kids taking their bows.

Easter egg hunt

Easter egg dying.

Until next year. We love you, Easter.

One of THOSE days

I love THOSE days. Not because I LOVE those days, but because I can look back and laugh my head off. It was one of THOSE days.

It started off with a breakdown.

We're on day 3 of Spring break.

Day 1: Pump it Up

Day 2: Cleveland Science Center

Day 3: was yet to be decided. I was too busy having a breakdown. My house was in complete disarray. The play room smelled like a mix between hard-boiled Easter eggs ground into the floor and pickles. Naomi has a tendency of getting them out of fridge and leaving them all over the house.

We HAD to clean the house. I even scrubbed the toilets. Amazing, I know. I don't know what got into me. Well, actually i do. It was the brown ring around the toilet seat that I couldn't stand looking at one more time. I realize now that my mom must have been pretty good scrubbing toilets when I was young because i never remember the brown rings inside the bowl. hmmm...

The doorbell rang. It was William's friend Ethan on his bike. I couldn't keep four kids inside all day on a rainy, wet day. We heading to the zoo.

One the way out of the zoo I made the boys sit (and I mean SIT) "right in that corner" because i had to run Nomi to the potty. I came out super fast and the boys were gone. Of course they were. Luckily I spotted them walking out of the gift sho. Jake was smiling from ear to ear. Apparently, he did some dirty work and fished out a quarter from the wishing stream outside the zoo gates. He decided to head on inside to buy something with his "lucky quarter" His brother and friend helped him find a lizard tattoo. The only $.25 thing in the store. I wonder what the sales lady was thinking when a six year old handed her a muddy quarter that he had just retrieved from the pond in front of her store.

They grow so fast. Already making purchases on their own. With their own money. That they steal from innocent zoo ponds.

When james walked in from work, I walked out. I headed to my favorite discount store. This doesn't even compare to T.J. Maxx. I mean, this is where all the stuff that doesn't sell at T.J Maxx or other discount stores goes. I love it. Well, suffice it to say, I don't always find myself being in the company that I would want my children to find themselves in. Tonight was awesome. I heard through the racks this lady yelling at her husband on the phone. "A PLANT holder. I want to buy a plant holder." "Oh, G** you can't even understand me. No, NOT a CRACK holder, a PLANT holder." "Listen to me. PLANT...PPPPP. As in, P for (I couldn't hear what she said), L as in LOOOOOSER, A as in A**, N as in NOT ,and T as in truck." Than she turns to her friend, "Oh, G** he still doesn't understand me. I can't believe this." "Here, she yells at her husband through he phone, talk to her." She shoved the cell phone to her friends ear. "She wants to buy a plant holder," she calmly told the husband. Apparently the husband understood and she handed the phone back to the yeller. "Gosh, I'm making him talk to you from now on. He can't even understand me."

I'm not sure if she bought the plant holder. But it sure made my night. What an awesome way, to end an awesome day.

Spring Break Day 4. Wait until tomorrow.

Easter 2011

Luckily, I took Easter pictures 2 days before Jake took scissors to his sister's hair. I think it may be a right of passage. A sibling cutting the little sister's hair. I'm glad it's over. Right of passage:COMPLETE.