Recap in Pictures





Ok, grabbed the camera out of the car this morning so here are some pictures from the last 2 days.
As you can see…the boys got all decked out in their ties for the birthday party. Carlos wanted to wear his new shoes (I found some penny loafers on clearance) and has been so excited that his shoes actually have money in them. We did dimes because our little man has really little feet and pennies didn’t fit but either way our “Alex P. Keaton” is happy.

Who Knew?

Did ya know that they can now GLUE a wound together instead of stitch it?

The packaging didn’t quite look like this, but you get the idea. Trey crashed into a table at Saturday Club today and cut his head. It wasn’t horrible, but enough where we needed to take him into the ER. So, our day looked a little like this…

10am – swimming lessons

11am – drop off Levi at Art Class, drop off Trey and Carlos to Saturday Club

11:30 – Kendra and Dee to the Preschool Fair

12:15 – Mary p/u Levi and take him to Saturday Club

12:45 – Kendra and Dee to a movie (woo hoo!)

4:00 – Pick up boys from Satuday Club, rush home to change clothes

5:00 – Baby J’s birthday party at Campanas

7:00 – Levi and Carlos to Nana/Papa’s while Mama K and Mama Dee take Trey to the ER

11:00 – Home from hospital, pick up Levi and Carlos on the way home, take all the boys home to sleep.

Busy day today….I’m truly looking forward to tomorrow and having some time at home. I have no idea where the camera is at this point but I’ll post some pictures tomorrow.

The Recap

Man oh man have the boys put me through the ringer since we’ve been home. It’s not HUGE things, just all little things all day long. I guess that’s the price to pay for having a weekend of fun. I’m just about caught up on laundry, finally have the bags unpacked and some food in the fridge so here’s the blog entry I had promised about the trip.

The Vegas weekend….a recap!

We flew into Vegas around 2pm and went right to the hotel. We stayed at the Palazzo and the minute we stepped into the hotel we knew we were in for a treat. The lobby was gorgeous, with glass fountains, flowers and marble everywhere. We checked in and got a connecting room with Mary, which was perfect. We each had a suite with a sunken living room, a gorgeous black and marble bathroom and the most comfortable bed I have ever slept in. We relaxed for a little bit and it the town.

Summing up the weekend now…as it’s all sort of a blur. We spent a few afternoons reading our books by the pool and soaking up the sun, we had our fair share (and many others shares) of alcohol and some pretty incredible meals. I have to say that my favorite was a restaraunt in our hotel, Dos Caminos, that served the most flavorful food. We even bought the cookbook and returned there for our last meal in Vegas. Can’t wait to try making their guacamole (to die for!) and a red snapper that Dee had that was the most incredible fish I have ever eaten that we now are going to try to recreate at home.

We took in a show, Zumanity, which is a Cirque du Soleil’s new show. It was funny, sensual, breathtaking and I would highly recommend it. I have no idea how those dancers do their thing but going to a real Vegas show was the highlight of my birthday.

We took in a lot of sights, and our feet paid the price and were throbbing with the miles of the strip that we continued to walk. Vegas is deceiving, as all the hotels look so close but once you start walking you realize that they are, in reality, miles apart. The buildings are so massive you completly lose perspective. Just across the street ends up taking 20 minutes to walk. Our feet took a beating, that is, until we bought a pass on the “Deuce” which is the city bus that runs 24 hours a day up and down the strip. We joked around because each time we got on there was their slogan piped over the intercom, “Have fun, ride the Deuce” and we certainly did. There were interesting people on each trip and the drivers were wanna-be comedians as well. One trip we had a French family with two young children in front of us and it was cute to hear the little boy singing the Itsy Bitsy Spider in French.

Mary took part of Sunday to hang out at the spa and get pampered while Dee and I grabbed coffee, wandered the shops, gambled a little and found some t-shirts for the boys.

We checked out on Monday, headed to the pool for the afternoon (I’m feeling a little sunburn!) and ended our stay with another fabulous meal at Dos Caminos. We got to the airport with plenty of time to check in and found that our flight was delayed by an hour.
We ended up getting home around 2:30am and crashed. The phone rang at 5:30am with a call from DSHS asking if we would take an emergency placement of a 2 and 4 year old. With less than 3 hours sleep, and having not even seen our boys yet, I had to say no but it made getting back to sleep tough. We went and hung out with the boys before school at my parents house. Trey and Levi were jazzed to see us, but Carlos gave us the cold shoulder. Mama’s boy apparently was a tad angry with us but he warmed up in the afternoon.
So we’ve been dealing with “getting back to the rules” and pushing boundaries all week, it’s been a struggle but totally expected.

That’s the trip….tomorrow is business as usual:
Levi and Carlos have Aikido and I’m hoping they can hold it together to go see “Horton Hears a Who”. They are so excited. Busy weekend with swimming lessons, Levi has an art class, Saturday Club, a preschool fair (gotta start thinking about that for Trey) and a 1 year old’s birthday party…all on Saturday!

Las Vegas, Baby!










Some pictures from the trip….it was WONDERFUL to say the least. I will write more about it but I have a ton of laundry to conquer and speech to drive to and well, everyday life! Can’t wait to tell you all about the trip, though.

Happy Birthday to Me!

All my bags are packed.
I’m ready to go.
Im standin here outside your door
I hate to wake you up to say goodbye…..
what a sad song, but nah, it’s not like that this morning. The boys are up and we’re having some great snuggle time before we head to the lights of Las Vegas!
Nana and Papa came over last night for a birthday celebration and I got to indulge in my favorite Coldstone Creamery cake batter with sprinkles ice cream. It’s amazing. We got the carseats all set, went over some last minute details so I think we have everthing covered. It’s not like we won’t have a phone!
The play structure got done last night and the boys got about 2 minutes of swinging on wet swings before we came inside. The weather around here has been rough for the boys. Seems it’s bright and sunny in the morning, they take their nap with hopes of going to play outside and wake up with grey rainy skies.
Gotta go shower and catch an airplane! I’m sure I’ll return with many, many pictures and tales to tell. If you see my boys, give them a hug for Mama K!

Brain Expansion




So last night Mary and I had date night and went to hear Dr. John Gottman speak on “Raising Emotionally Intelligent Children” and Dee was gracious enough to hang out with all 4 kids. We went over early for happy hour at the Brooklyn, feasted on fresh oysters and calamari and drank a couple Blood Orange Kamikazis. YUM. What a treat. Got to the lecture and he was very entertaining as well as giving me some good insights into children’s emotional health. I think we’re pretty good about not squelching our children’s emotions (although there seem to be a LOT of emotions around this house) but this was a good reminder to use those emotional times as times to talk about feelings.
Today was MNMs (yeah for me…here’s a picture of Bev leading the discussion, but a bad one since it was from my phone!) and then we did some more building on the playstructure. It’s looking good, it’s really almost done. Carlos is loving being a helper and handing screws to us while we work.
Funny picture of Abbie…she jumped into Carolyn’s car this afternoon and was looking like she was going to drive away. She LOVES the car, but doesn’t get to go many places since the boys came into our lives. Three kids plus a dog in a car is just too much.
Countdown to Vegas…2 more “goodnights” as Levi puts it. We are so excited to go, but I have to say that I am really torn. I know we need a break, I know the boys are going to have the best of care but my heart just sinks thinking that I won’t see them for 3 whole days. I will miss them terribly while we are gone, I know. Being a mom does strange things to your brain. Four years ago if you would have said “Vegas, baby!” I would have sold a kidney to get money for the next flight out of town. Now, I’m having stress and worry about going? Weirdness.

Work In Progress

Today’s my day to do man work…I’m putting together the playstructure. I’m doing a damn good job, too, if I do say so myself. There are still lots of planks of wood cluttering our yard, but hopefully by mid afternoon they will look more like a fort. The monkey bars part is done and so is the swing part and the climbing wall. Just the main fort to go! I’ll post more pictures soon.

Interesting

This is a post from another blog I read. (http://david-mcmahon.blogspot.com/) ….our boys would be ticketed for sure!

Look Ma, No Hands
It’s not the gift of the gab this time, it’s the gift of the grab. The Italian supreme court has outlawed men from touching their genitals in public. Crotch-grabbing is an ancient superstitious habit in Italy that is believed to ward off the evil eye. It’s traditional for men to do it if passed by a hearse or when discussing serious illness or disasters. Judges pointed out that if men needed to grab their crotches, they should wait until they were in the privacy of their own home.

Baby, I Love To See You Smile

This is a picture of baby Ollie…I don’t know him and I don’t remember if I have posted this before but I just LOVE this baby. I check out all the newborns at the local hospital here, they are usually cute in their alien way and I think the names people give their kids are very interesting at times. Anyhow, Baby Ollie’s picture just touched my heart and always makes me smile. I have never seen a newborn picture like this one. Hope it brings you a smile to start off your week!