This 4th of July holiday weekend we took off for a mini vacation.  We headed south to my very favorite hotel, the Westin Diplomat in Hollywood.  It was everything we hoped it would be and more!  The weather was perfect, the pools were fun, the beds were super comfy, the kids were even well behaved!  We were lucky enough to have a lot of friends with the same plans and because of that we enjoyed many laughs and large meals.

Here are a few photos from our relaxing weekend, there are many more to come -

First, let me show you why I love this place so much…

Yes, really.  And yes, really, these are photos from this weekend.  The pool and beach didn’t look like this for long but they were still very beautiful and very relaxing when other people showed up.  This is one of four pools at the hotel so you never noticed that the resort was bustling; there’s so much room to spread out!

And this is how excited we all felt when the plans were made and we were on our way.  A family vacation was so overdue!

The one photo we got of the kids together this weekend…

She may owe that pole dinner.

At the pool…

Our friends Bettina and Dan and their daughter Helena happened to be staying the weekend at the resort as well.  The kids loved swimming together!

Rachel, Robby, and Ayla were also at the resort as were thier friends Nicole and Chris and their children Nicholas and Carsen.  You haven’t lived until you’ve looked for a dinner reservation for 11 people 30 minutes before you’re hoping to eat!

Nicholas is such a cool kid!  A lover boy with a little Dennis the Menace mixed in for good measure.  We had a blast, he has such personality!  At one point I was holding Helena (above) and Nicholas (below) was playing with us.  Someone joked about how easily I could pass them off as my own kids.  I’ll just have to borrow all the redheaded children and wish their parents luck with the stubborness and sass that comes with the color! 

Chris and Carsen                                                                     Little Miss

For the fourth we were unknowingly misinformed and decided to take our chances watching fireworks from Rachel and Robby’s room.  Little did we know we would have been much better off on the beach, where we originally planned to go, but then we would have missed this amazing view of the city and the light show.

The city after a few cocktails…

The monkeys…

And a certain little someone learned a new trick while on vacation… she now STANDS!  Where does the time go!?  Buh-bye baby Kate, hello toddler land!

And just for fun we relived a few moments.  I told you this place was my favorite!

(Noah at 4 months)

(Kate at 9 months, who doesn’t know how not to smile)

(Noah at 7 months)

(Kate at 9 months who apparently heard she was going to be late for lunch)

Still think they look exactly alike?!

Unfortunately when we got home reality smacked us in the face!  Monday was right around the corner, grocery shopping needed to get done and the laundry fairy never showed up this weekend.  Oh, and there was a leak in our roof that was flooding our laundry room because of all the rain.  Fun times!  At least we’re tan!

This weekend we went to the new Monkey Joe’s.  It was pretty nice but a little deja vu of any other indoor play place.  Bounce houses, slides, parents who don’t supervise their kids, you know – the norm.  I was a little taken aback that they wanted $5 for Kate (or any kid under 1 for that matter) who can’t really enjoy the facilities as nothing is age appropriate but whatever.  So we went and Noah had a blast (of course) and he played hard!

Here Kate is waiting to leave.  This is what Walter and the kids do while they wait for me to get it all together.

At Monkey Joe’s Kate got an ID bracelet so they knew who she belonged to.  She was fascinated!  Please excuse the bad hair day!

I know the face says “special” but she was beyond excited!

And Noah loved climbing and sliding!

Do you remember the last time you felt joy like this!?

Afterwards we went to visit our friends, Katie, Bill and Liam, in Coral Springs.  It’s been about ten months since we’ve been able to meet up and I think Liam was Kate’s size back then.  Now he’s a walking, talking fool who is still just as heartbreakingly adorable.  When we were headed in Noah asked if Liam had turned into a boy (awwww…) and indeed he did.  It was a lot of fun catching up and both of our kids were passed out before we left the neighborhood.  I guess a good time was had by all!

This is Liam the last time we saw him -

And now -

Airplane!

Stubborn…                                                                                and sweet…

Ok, so for those of you who love physical comedy (me), this is priceless.  Katie was sending Liam down the slide and Bill was catching him.  He hasn’t gotten the whole slide thing down pat yet.  Well Bill was playing with Kate and Katie launched Liam.  Walter is too polite to photograph how it turned out but from the second photo I’m pretty sure you can figure it out.  He was still going full speed ahead at that point…

But as boys do, he brushed off, and moved on.

And Daddy was on slide duty for the balance of park time.  Thank you for everything Bill and Katie, and for giving me a laugh at your son’s expense.  I know, I’m horrible.

Then on Sunday we went to the waterpark with Rachel, Robby and Ayla and had a blast!  We didn’t get any photos unfortunately, besides, I’m not sure you would consider me swimsuit model material anyway.  But the kids loved it and Kate was crazy in love with splashing.  She couldn’t even sit still on the lazy river, she wanted in!  And to top it off Rachel and I went down one of the big slides.  We were the required 42″s tall but I was still a little apprehensive.  It was a big slide with several flights of stairs to get to and some high walls to coast back and forth on.  Once we were up we felt a little better about reliving our teens since we weren’t the only non-kids at the top… until the lifeguard turned to me and said “You can go now, M’am”.  I guess this thirty year old is fooling NO ONE! 

Happy Monday all!

Happy Father’s Day out there to all the fathers and dads!  Walter and I are so fortunate to have great relationships with our fathers.  Today we honor them and of course the kids and I will be celebrating Walter as well.  We don’t have any big plans.  The only thing on the agenda is to spend the day together and at some point make it over to my parents’ for dinner and a dip in the pool.  Walter’s family is, and has been, working really hard on building a new home for his brother and unfortunately weekends are the only time they can invest at the moment so we won’t be seeing them.  Hopefully Ian is going to have everyone over to make up for all the missed Sunday dinners when the kids play and we all get to visit (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).

Anyway, I wanted to blog and brag about Walter on Father’s Day.  Anyone who knows him, knows that Walter has always been a big kid.  He’s the guy that the little girls and puppies flock to.  He’s so much fun and he is genuinely interested and playful and full of useless knowledge about things kids love (like cartoons, planes, and action figures).  I never had any doubt in my mind that Walter would be an amazing dad, and he is.  And although he always finds himself a bit helpless during the newborn stage, he is the man with the infants and toddlers!  Always on the floor with them, making crazy faces, playing fun games, turning a temper tantrum into giggles – he’s a blast for the short people. 

It wasn’t until the past year or so though that I realized what an amazing man and father he is.  When things are great, so are people.  When things are hard, relationships can get sticky.  I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not the best of company when the going gets tough and the stress creeps in.  During these hard economic times and patches of uncertainty and frustration, though, Walter has been amazing.  He takes all the worry onto his shoulders and still walks around with a smile on his face.  He is an amazing provider (if only I weren’t such a great spender), a true friend, a hard worker, a pillow fight, a bath time giver, a bed time book reader, a master of imagination, and an awesome housekeeper (again, if it weren’t for my bad habits).  Our family has never felt the stress and pressure.  We’ve never worried, although there is much to worry for.  I don’t know how things would be if it weren’t for him, nor do I wish to even entertain those thoughts.  Today is a day to celebrate the man he is and the amazing father he has become.

I love you huney and I am so grateful for everything you do!  Thank you so very much for being the father of my children and for caring and taking care of your family so effortlessly and happily.  I can’t imagine life without you and I wouldn’t want to ride this crazy roller coaster with anyone but you!

I love my family.  I love how crazy and quirky they are.  I love how different we are.  I love how we stick together through tough times and sticky situations.  I love that they would do absolutely anything for me.  I love that when my cell phone rings at 8am and 5pm every day I know exactly who it is (it’s always Lindy).  I love that my sister spent way too much money to chat with me during her trip to Japan.  I love how much they all love my kids.  I love how they love to remind me of every embarrassing thing I ever did in public. 

My mom recently had surgery (nothing serious, nothing related to her long gone breast cancer) and strangely it’s been very uniting.  I laid in bed with her, Kate, and my niece Julia today and we all chatted, laughed, and entertained Kate.  It’s one of those moments that just sticks to your memory.  Thursday my sister, Nikki, and I plan to invade her bed for some quality time and I’m sure that will be just as fun.  I hold those moments close like the times when my mom stayed with us after having Kate.  They are just so awesome!

So along the lines of them doing anything for me I suckered Nikki and Julia into a photo shoot.  My new online site (details soon) offers hair accessories but I didn’t have any good photos of the products.  They loaded up all their pretty dresses and dragged over for a shoot during the horrible rain storms and a surprise ant problem.  They were such troopers!  They even stayed afterwards to babysit so Walter and I could go out!  Anyway, I got some photos for my site but I got two others that I am in love with.  Two that I want to hang up all over my house.  The last time Nikki and Julia took photos together Julia was tiny.  Like preschool tiny.  I love having an updated photo but why, oh why, does she have to look more like Nikki’s sister than her daughter?!?  12 going on 25!  What’s with these kids growing up so fast!?  I’ve had the first photo hanging in my house since the day I took it.  I’m not sure I can take it down, maybe I just need a bigger frame.

Then                                                                                             Now

And here’s one of Julia that I love (that’s one of the hair accessories by the way).  She says she looks “fat” and “ugly” in this picture.  Mark my words young lady, you’re going to wish you were this “fat” and “ugly” in 25 years.  What I wouldn’t give…

*And it did occur to me that when I said “my family” you may have been expecting a story about Walter, Noah, and Kate.  They’re pretty amazing too!

We’re STILL waiting for Comcast to fix our internet.  It is so frustrating!  In the meantime we signed up for DSL which isn’t as good but it’s something.  I’m so over our connection issues!

I wanted to share some sweet pictures with you.  We went to my mom’s for Memorial Day and Kate got all dressed up for the party.  She even wore her Cole Haan shoes!  Keep in mind I don’t have anything from this designer but I couldn’t resist these hot pink patent leather penny loafers.  She seems to be pretty fond of them too.

We also took the opportunity for Noah to get an updated photo with his Grammy.  We wanted to do this at his birthday party but she wasn’t feeling well.  A few days late but well worth the wait.  The last time we did this (on his first birthday) she was bald as a baby from chemo.  Now she’s the picture of health and we’re so fortunate for this very happy ending!

Poor Grammy, Noah hates photos.  I wonder why!

I’m organizing a riot down at Comcast’s headquarters – who’s in?! 

We have been without internet for two weeks now and it’s killing me!  I never realized how much I use the internet, but I also never knew how much time I spent on it either.  I’m really enjoying the extra family time!  Tomorrow a fourth moron technician will grace us with their presence and try to fix our internet issues, in the meantime I’m hanging at Rachel’s trying to get some work done.  I’ll let you know when we’re up!

One thing that came and went without a blog post was Noah’s 3rd birthday!  His birthday was on the 21st and it was a happy one!  The Saturday before we celebrated at home with a small gathering of family which was fun and without incident.  The last time we celebrated at home, which was his first birthday, I lit the kitchen on fire!  On his actual birthday, Walter took the day off and we played with friends.  We went out to breakfast, played at Busy Bee Kidz, went out to lunch and Rita’s, then to a waterpark, then out to dinner.  It was a jam packed day and no one napped.  Everyone was able to stay in a great mood through it all and both kids were sound asleep before we pulled into the driveway that night.  It was a lot of fun and I hope to share pictures soon.

In the meantime I have a few from the park and a poem that will always remind me of “my Noah”.

I am your parent you are my child
I am your quiet place, you are my wild
I am your calm face, you are my giggle
I am your wait, you are my wiggle
I am your audience, you are my clown
I am your London Bridge, you are my falling down
I am your Carrot Sticks, you are my licorice
I am your dandelion, you are my first wish
I am your water wings, you are my deep
I am your open arms, you are my running leap
I am your way home, you are my new path
I am your dry towel, you are my wet bath
I am your dinner you are my chocolate cake
I am your bedtime, you are my wide awake
I am your finish line, you are my race
I am your praying hands, you are my saving grace
I am your favorite book, you are my new lines
I am your nightlight, you are my sunshine
I am your lullaby, you are my peek-a-boo
I am your kiss goodnight, you are my I love you

Our little monkey is growing up so fast!  It seems like just yesterday we were sharing the news of my pregnancy with him.  Although he has yet to get past the “terrible twos” he’s on the verge of potty training, he’s very independent, a stubborn little man, a self dresser (sorry fashion police), a big brother, a toy stealer, and the light of our lives.  He is such a character and although he often drives me mad I love him with all my heart!  Happy birthday Noah Schmoah!

Why are there only 24 hours in each day?  We seem to have so much to do and so little time.  I’ve never had so much laundry, housework, dishes and now business to take care of – oh, and these kids are cutting into the schedule as well with playdates, birthday parties and summer fun.  Because we’ve been so busy I have a ton to blog but as I’m sure you’ve noticed that has fallen to the bottom of the priority list.  While I play catch up, know that we are all well, that we just celebrated the best Mother’s Day and the kids are growing like weeds!

Here are some photos from our first attempt at dying Easter eggs.  My God, I don’t know how our parents did it for so many years!  It’s such a happy memory for me but either the kids aren’t old enough, coordinated enough, or interested enough.  It sure was a learning experience for us all.

Lesson one – a plastic table on a tile floor in the middle of nothingness is still not enough space to keep food coloring from finding it’s way to every stain hungry fabric in the house.

Lesson two – the colored dye is supposed to go in the corresponding colored cup.  My bad.

Lesson three – that little wire hook thing that holds the eggs, well, it’s not nearly strong or sturdy enough for three year old hands.

Lesson four – my son has no interest in coloring Easter eggs but his (Jewish) friend Ayla thinks it’s a pretty cool tradition even if she doesn’t understand that gentle and eggs belong in the same sentence.

Lesson five – my son will always like the stickers best in any project we ever do.

Lesson six – given the opportunity, my son will put stickers on ANYTHING, including other stickers and furniture.  He gets that from Walter (don’t ask)!

Lesson seven – I’ve either lost my skill and talent for coloring Easter eggs or my standards were much lower as a child.  I remember how beautiful they were when we were little and these look, well, like three year olds did them; sadly that’s really not the case.

Ta da!

Lesson eight – no matter how ugly an Easter egg, they make delicious deviled eggs.  Is it me or is there something really wrong about making Easter eggs into deviled eggs?

Most weekends we usually sit around asking “what do you want to do?” until it’s mealtime, or nap time, or bed time and we almost always do nothing.  A few weeks ago we actually got out of the house and went somewhere different!  We took a trip to the Museum of Science and Discovery in Fort Lauderdale.  We had a great time and loved watching Noah explore.

They have tanks and open exhibits of all kinds of animals.  Some of these fish were bigger than Noah!

And they also have people walking around with some of the creatures for a more up close and personal experience.  Noah would not touch this baby alligator – no way, no how – but I did!

They have a toddler play area where Noah could have spent the whole afternoon.  Tons to explore, climb on, try out… here he’s taking Kate for a drive.  It’s looks like she’s concerned about the odometer!

In the play area they had a bubble station.  I’m not sure who enjoyed this more, ok, we all know who did but it was for the kids – right?

This climbing structure was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen!  I wish I could have tried it!

On the right is the perpetual motion clock (or something like that) – it’s very cool to watch!

After checking everything out we stumbled into a behind the scenes tour of the facility.  We got to see some crazy stuff but unfortunately we also had to listen to Noah whining “I want to go home!”.  So after checking out what the animals ate, climbing behind all of the tanks and over scaffolding we ducked out of the tour halfway through.  We had a good day and everyone enjoyed a great nap afterwards.  Where do you like to adventure to?  We could use some new ideas!

And here’s the third attempt at Kate’s 6 month photos -

Can you say heiney?

I love her back wrinkles!

Porcelain doll anyone?  The hair accessories are again courtesy of Dainty Diva Designs.  These photos are for their portfolio as well as our blog.

 Looking over the hundreds of photos again makes me realize that we got more good ones than I realized which means there was some unnecessary torture.  Oh well, I’m certain it won’t be the last time we overdo it with the pictures!

And because we always try to sneak in a photo or two of Noah, here’s what we bribed him into -

First, his beloved monkey had to have a photo shoot.  We’re seriously considering framing this and putting it in his room.  Poor monkey is looking ROUGH but is no less loved.

Here’s Noah in need of a haircut…

I would love to tell you that this next photo was completely unstaged, unbribed… but I know you’re smarter than that.

Feeling like we didn’t get enough photos of Kate looking like her usual, happy self I took her outside one morning to torture her some more.  These were slightly more successful but doing the photos at feeding time was risky.  Doing them after would have shown you more than you wanted to see of what was in her bottle so it’s a double edged sword.  Any way, here’s Kate in the backyard striking a pose -

Kate can flip from her back to her belly so fast that it was hard to keep her still.  She’s still perfecting her sitting technique though but she’s getting good!

Kate was so interested in the grass.  She tried so hard to scoot over to it but eventually decided it would be easier just to pull the blanket toward her.  Once she finally got hold of it she totally freaked out.  I guess it’s not the texture she was expecting.

This is one of my favorites!

This is how Kate looks 99% of the time.  She is the happiest baby I know!

And in case you’re wondering why I shot her on a drab gray blanket it is for comparison.  Here is Noah at his six month shot.  What do you think?  I get so many different opinions about how much or little they look like each other.

That was so much fun, I can’t help myself… here are a few more.  They grow up so fast!

And no, it doesn’t matter how much they resemble each other or how quickly they hit their milestones in comparison to each other.  It’s just fun watching them both grow and seeing them become little people.  They are so different from each other and so perfect.