Hershey Park

We decided to take the kiddos to Hershey Park last weekend to see the Christmas lights. Brooke was psyched of course because of her love of chocolate, inherited of course from me. I was a little nervous about the cold. I had a snowsuit for Jenna but had to go buy one for Jared. I am so sick of the boy clothes that have to have either trains or dinosaurs, or sports stuff on them. I found one plain snowsuit but it was thin and didn't seem too warm for a day outdoors. Next to it was a very fuzzy warm but very ridiculous looking blue puppy dog snowsuit complete with ears and tail. Function had to win out over fashion with this one for a day outdoors in 40 degree weather. I think Jared almost cried when I bought it. The look on his face when it was actually on him said it all. I will torture him with these photos when he's a teen. He looked so goofy but so stinkin' cute at the same time and it kept him soo so warm.


We had a great day and the weather was freezing but we had so much fun doing the rides and seeing the lights that it wasn't too bad. And the chocolate was fabulous!

One proud mommy

My little girl amazes me everyday. Most recently it was seeing her up on stage in her first dance recital. She danced to "Pajama Time". She did a great job and I couldn't be prouder!



I should also mention that after the show we saw Santa there and although he did seem to enjoy talking to the kiddies...he REALLY enjoyed talking to GG. He was actually hitting on her! He "made" her sit on his lap and even sang to her. He couldn't remember Brooke's name but surly remembered my grandmothers. Hmmm, Santa needs a new Mrs. Claus?

Santa, better watch that hand!

Jenna was fascinated with his beard.

A Little Behind...

Ever since Jared and Jenna turned 6 months my life has gotten super busy. I don't know where my days go and by 8pm I am exhausted. Luckily they are still on a good schedule. I still get everyone to nap at the same time everyday which buys me some alone time, except that it is usually spent vacuuming up Cheerios and scraping dried banana goo off the tile. But, I wouldn't have it any other way. Both babies are mobile now, Jenna does a traditional crawl and is cruising the furniture and Jared has gotten really good at his army crawl and is starting to pull up on things. They are really beginning to understand things we say to them and Brooke is still their favorite person. They're waving hi/bye and beginning to clap and I LOVE the spontaneous open mouth slobbery kisses I get!
Now that I have my Mac back I'm going to try to keep more current.

Update some pictures...

Drinking and Driving

There is something seriously wrong with this picture. While Mike was cutting the grass over the weekend, Brooke, deciding to be very helpful, offered him a beer by driving it over to him in her Escalade. Completely her idea. Still, let's look at the positives: 1) She chose a Lager and not one of the crappy beers in the fridge and 2) She made sure to put the seat belt on the bottle of beer, just in case she got pulled over. Mike declined the beer and sent her back to the house to mix him a jack & coke.

The many hats of a mom...

We all know the many hats a mom wears: teacher, doctor, chef, taxi driver, referee, maid- the list goes on and on. Well under my hat today are a few extra (no, many) gray hairs. That is because today I was an EMT. As Brooke was sitting at the island eating her lunch and squirming (as Brooke does) she fell off her stool. She was hanging, practically upside down from the island with one foot up on the stool next to her and the other foot twisted behind her stuck through the rungs of the chair. She screams "help me" and starts to cry as I ran around the island and picked her back up to a seated position.

Just as I sit her up and am about to scold her for squirming so much she grabs at her throat and then *silently* starts digging in her mouth with both hands as she begins turning different shades of blue. I push her hands away and tried sticking my finger in her mouth. When that didn't work I quickly picked her up and performed the Heimlich maneuver folding her in half over my fist- her body hanging over my arms like a towel over a clothesline. Out pops the chewed up carrots and broccoli and she begins gasping for air and crying- so so scary!

She looks at me like "what the hell just happened?" and says "Mommy, you saved me." She still had no idea why I had to pick her up like that and hurt her little belly but I explained it to her. She kept saying how she couldn't breathe. Today I was the Higgleytown Hero (one of her favorite shows)!

Good thing I made an appointment with my colorist this morning.

Miss Independent

Well today was the first day of pre-school. I wasn't as sad as I thought I'd be but probably because Brooke was so cool about going. When we got there both classes were upstairs in the big room playing with play doh. I walked her downstairs to hang up her jacket and back pack (I had to make up things to put in there b/c a preschooler does not need a back pack).
I showed her where her cubby is and told her what to do. The whole time she kept saying "I know Mom, I know...I'm fine Mom." Then she says "Bye Mom, I'm going upstairs...Bye" without so much as a kiss. I told her that I WAS going to walk her up and help her find her place...a mother needs to feel somewhat useful. I'm not ready to send her off to college just yet but sometimes I have the feeling that she has such a strong self-confidence that she would be fine going.
She gave her teachers flowers that she picked out of my pots on the porch and found her place to do play doh. There were some major criers, but my girl didn't blink an eye when I left. I was probably more upset than she was. The 2.5 hrs flew by though and when I picked her up she was happily playing on the playground but was excited to see me- which finally made me feel needed.

Sometimes the best things are unplanned

We have been trying take Brooke to Dutch Wonderland all summer but things kept coming up. We thought we would spend two days doing the rides, water park, and outlets. As the end of the season started creeping near, I decided I'd be happy if we just got one day there. So we decided that Sunday was our day. On Saturday we woke up early to a beautiful day and when we saw how hot and humid Sunday's forecast was we decided to pack it up and go Saturday for the day instead.

When we got to Lancaster we had to hit a few "key" outlets first and then went to DW. We were surprised to see that the water park was open since I saw online that it had closed for the season. Mike and I looked at each other and said 'wanna stay the night'. Well, I did have a change of clothes for everyone and enough diapers. Definitely not everything I would have packed, but do-able. We decided to look at it as an adventure. We found a hotel down the road and then went back to the outlets to get a few more things we needed- $5 bathing suit for Mike, $1.99 pj's for Jared (Jenna wore her's for the car ride b/c she was napping), a $10 beach towel, and Target for tooth brushes. We were sort of roughing it, but it was fun!



We spent all afternoon doing rides and seeing shows at the park and then went back to the hotel for an early bedtime. Brooke got her own bed and Jared and Jenna slept in between Mike and I. They were so happy to be sleeping next to one another again. They had one of their best night's sleep ever! The 12 inches of space that Mike and I each had left made for one of the worst night sleeps for us. Brooke had an entire queen size bed to herself.



The next day was more fun on the rides and splashing at the water park. It ended up being a great mini-vacation!

The princess of Dutch Wonderland is named Princess Brooke.


Jenna's first ride.


Brooke FINALLY got to milk a cow.

Five Months

Well this is a bit late. But now that I've finally got this blog up and running I keep writing posts in my head but sitting down and typing them is another story. But tonight I had some time and wanted to brag about my babies. In turning 5 months Jenna and Jared have had some firsts.

Look at those 2 little teeth!

We have a sitter!!

And a MOVER! Not exactly a crawler, but she pushes up and flops down to get herself closer to a toy and she's getting good at going places backwards.


Hmm, a duck...

Let's see how he tastes.

On the way to Cape May....

Last weekend we went to the Cape May zoo.  It was perfect weather and we had a very relaxing and fun day.  I tried to get some good pictures of us since no pictures of me have been taken since Jared and Jenna were born. Guess who does all of the taking? 
They're almost doing "Speak no evil, hear no evil..."

Brooke pretending to be a flamingo.

First One...could be the last

Well, I felt left out. Everyone else is blogging. I thought I'd try my hand at it and the MoMs (mom's of multiples) blog www.oprahmoms.blogspot.com  gave me the confidence to start my own. I think I'm usually the last at doing these things once the peer pressure finally gets to me. But, I thought this would be a good way at keeping everyone (who is interested) updated on ALL of us...5 is suddenly a BIG number.