Date night

Its amazing how it feels to get out. Chris met me at Jen and Roman's by 8:45 and after us girls prettied up we headed out. We immediately all agreed to go to Westbrook Lobster, and because it was after 9 pm, we didn't have to wait long. We were given our little lobster buzzer and Jen and I took a few minutes to wander the cases full of seafood while Roman and Chris contemplated which lobsters they would choose.

A few minutes later we were seated, we ordered some drinks, and studied our menus. Chris and Roman decided on lobster and Jen and I decided to share a fried platter...yum!

To make a long story short, we all got our food. Chris in particular decided on a 3 lb lobster! And it was huge. And he devoured the entire thing! Then pulled the tail off and out spilled tons of eggs.... it was gross..lol

Can you believe how much Chris' lobster cost? I couldn't believe it. I've actually banned Chris from ordering lobster again for a very long time. That sucker cost $51!!!!! But my fried seafood was really good and Jen and thought we were pretty smart for sharing it.

After dinner we went to Frankie's where they have an upper deck with music and drinks. Hung out there for awhile, had a great time, and Roman had us laughing in our seats by the end of the night. He was studying several other people that were there for the night. Mostly younger kids (I call them that now! lol) You know the crowd? There to hang out with friends, hoping to hook up with someone of the opposite sex. We all studied their body language, whether they were sitting or standing, whether they were touching anyone else...etc... It was quite interesting!

We finally headed back to my SIL's house to pick up the kids. Snuck in the house, spoke a few words with his sister, grabbed the kids and headed home.

It was so nice to get out! Almost made me feel young again ;)

TGIF!

Another weekend! Yay for weekends, although this is the B.A.'s weekend with Ryan and Emi so I'll only have the 2 little ones. But... my SIL agreed to babysit so Chris and I can go out tomorrow night without paying tons of money to a babysitter! Still not sure what we're going to do since Chris won't even be home from work till 9m, but maybe out for a few drinks and appetizers. Doesn't really matter, what only matters is that we're getting out. It doesn't happen often enough!

I was supposed to do my tag sale tomorrow, but the weather was saying we might get showers, so I held off. Truthfully, I wasn't looking forward to dragging everything out on my own since Chris leaves early for work. But, I also didn't want to unpack and repack things into boxes every time it started to rain (which we did last year). Yeah, and look what happened. The 11pm news says no rain. Go figure :)

I want to at least start school supply shopping, but the school won't have the lists ready for another 2 weeks. So, I've been just picking up the usuals...crayons, markers, folders, etc....So at least I won't have to do it all at once.

I did go to the oshkosh outlet yesterday to search for the skirts that Molly has been needing more of. And I got the most adorable jean ruffled skirt, along with 2 cottons ruffly ones that are identical(except for color) to one that she already has...so at least I know she'll like them! I also picked up a few matching shirts, along with a few in a bigger size for next year. And guess what? The most I spent on any one item was $4?!?! Pretty good for oshkosh. While I'm shopping getting the good deals on summer clothes, I really should pick up new school clothes, but I can't do it! At least not for a few more weeks. Its just too hard to buy long sleeved shirts, and pants when its warm outside. Plus, really, for the first few weeks of school the kids will be wearing summer clothes anyway. So, no rush.

Anyway, thats all for now. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

The cycles of summer

Heat and oppressive humidity to warmth and low humidity. Thats how my summer goes here. I watch the local weatherman like a hawk, waiting for his forcast that will tell me whether tomorrow will be a "puffy ankle" day or a "skinny ankle" day.

The last 2 days have been hell. Lower 90's with barely a breeze and high humidity. No air conditioning, thats gotta be the worst. I don't want to move, I don't want to clean, and when I do clean or just stand there doing the dishes, sweat pours down my face.

Thunderstorms rolled through tonight though, and as I type right now, I can feel the breeze of the cool front coming through my front door. Soooo nice! The next five days will be "perfect" in my eyes. Upper 70's, lower 80's with low, low, low humidity. Upper 50's at night to provide awesome sleeping-all-night weather to the kiddos. I love this part of summer..its the humidity I hate.

Anyway, on another note, while Ryan was at Jen and Roman's, and Emilie was at Russ and Cherie's, I suggested to my almost 5 year old nephew that he has a sleepover at my house, and he was so excited!

Well, he was excited until bedtime rolled around. Then he became hysterical. I felt so bad for him, because its got to be scary to sleep over a different place when you're so little. But, I perservered. With his parents blessing, I held on for the rocky ride. Russell is a child used to getting what he wants. And while I didn't want to keep him if he really, truly was scared, I was also afraid that if I brought him home, he'd never want to sleep over again. Plus, it had been a long day.... we were at the beach all day long, and with playing and stuff, the kiddo was most likely overtired. So I held on. I tried convincing him that he didn't hate our house, that he didn't hate the boys' bunkbeds (he has the same bunkbed at home!) and that he didn't hate his cousins. He was just tired, and as soon as I brought him into my room, into the air conditioning, and the quiet, he fell asleep almost instantly. An hour later, he woke up to use the bathroom, and exclaimed how HAPPY he was to be sleeping at our house! And he was soooo proud that he fell asleep here! LOL It was just too funny.

Anyway, not much obviously going on here. Chris is off tomorrow so he'll be doing kid duty and I might be able to run a few errands and clean a bit around here without the kids trailing me messing everything back up.

Have a great Thursday!

Sunday sunburn

We all went to Hammonasett Beach today with Jen and Roman. It was a gorgeous day and the beach was packed, which of course, was to be expected. It takes time to get ready to go to the beach though. I'm not the great in preparing for things. I didn't pack anything until this morning and after stopping at the store to stock up the cooler and actually getting there, we were there 2 hours after what we were planning. But it was so much fun. Its the first time in about 2-3 years I even remember going into the water past my knees, and actually walking aroud in only my bathing suit! I was still uncomfortable because my body is still far from perfect, but I did it. And I laid out in only my bathing suit. A big deal from a girl who's been over 100 pounds overweight for years. And I did such a good job of sunscreening my kiddos and myself that no one burned except for me, on my face.....cherry red!

Anyway.....I would have taken pictures but my camera's broken. I tried replacing the battery and its a no go. Its weird though, I can access my favorites and look at the pictures that are saved on the camera, but if I turn it to any other setting, it just turns off. So tomorrow I'm packaging it up and sending it out to hopefully be repaired. It should only take roughly 5 days, so hopefully I'll get it back in usable condition. I just want my camera back! So many photo-ops come up when a person doesn't have it.

Nothing much going on. Emi has been at my brother's house since Saturday and I won't be getting her back until Tuesday. Its amazing how the dynamics of the household change with just one person gone! The other kids are behaving, I'm getting stuff done, and although I do miss her, she's only 15 minutes down the road and obviously having a great time. On Tuesday we'll be going back to the beach and spending the day with my SIL Cherie and my nephews. Its supposed to be a scorcher though..... in the 90's, but what better place to be than the beach?!?!?

I've rambled enough... have a great Monday!

Opinionated child #4

Have I mentioned lately my troubles with my youngest lately? Not specifically troubles I guess, but mostly a difference in opinion between her and I.

Molly has decided to be particularly difficult everyday. With everything. Maybe she's gearing up for kindergarten, or maybe the "stress" of being the baby of the family has encouraged her to speak up a bit. Not that she's ever had trouble with that...she's always been a brute, she's had to be, being the youngest.

So anyway, I'm used to picking out Molly's clothes for her. I set them out, she wears them. No longer does that work. My girl refuses to wear anything other than skirts. That's skirts. Not dresses, not shorts and shirts, but SKIRTS. That wouldn't be that big of a deal, except she only owns 2-3 skirts. And I don't do laundry everyday, so there's always the possibility of a temper tantrum.

The other day we were headed out for family therapy and her skirts were in the wash, so I put out this really cute shorts and shirt outfit. She flatout refused to wear it. It doesn't even work to "let her choose" some shorts and shirt, because if there aren't any skirts in her closet, she freaks. Anyway, I practically had to take her out in her underwear, because she threw such a fit I was about to go crazy. I tried being the "firm" mother by just telling her she was going to wear shorts, I tried dressing her myself, I tried bribing her.

I ended up taking a skirt out of the laundry pile. I don't want her to think she can have her own way, but at the same time, I don't know what else to do. I figure though, I need to pick my battles. This weekend, since she needs clothes to start out the school year anyway, I'm going to the mall to find some clearance deals on SKIRTS. And I'm going to stock up, cause who knows how long this craziness will last!

Not much to say. A beautiful day here in CT. Happy Thursday!

I'll be the one selling the cucumbers

When I planted my garden a few months ago, I started a small plot. I've never really attempted growing anything edible and if it failed, well, at least it would be a small failure.

When all the plants started coming up, I was reluctant to thin the plants out. I mean, I was actually growing something, and I was going to pull up the plants? But I did, with the exception of the cucumbers. And of course, I didn't think they'd get as big as they have! These babies have spread like wildfire. They're climbing over the yellow squash plants, already on top of the cantalope plants and growing out onto the lawn. There are tons of cucumbers growing. Still in the small stage, but they're definitely growing! What will I do with all these cucumbers? I'm going to be on the side of the street throwing them through peoples car windows as they drive by! Either that or I need to find a creative way of eating them :)

My pumpkins have still been growing and finally are producing female flowers. With tiny little baby pumpkins underneath. But I'm disappointed. The one that I was keeping an eye on, fell off. Don't know if that means that the flower wasn't pollinated or not, so I might do a little hand pollination just to be on the safe side.

Anyway, boring talk about my garden. Weather is a bit better around here. We had an awesome thunderstorm roll through last night and the humidity broke although temps are still hot. Today we have family therapy at Rushford, Chris is working a half day, and I think we'll definitely go to the beach tonight. And I told the kids if they were good, we'd go to Dairy Queen afterwards. I also need to get a new battery for my camera. Seems I left the shutter open on the 4th of July and for some reason the batteries won't charge back up. And while I'm at the store I need to get new ink cartridges for the printer. I've been putting that off for way too long! Wish I could figure out why my printer won't scan. Just rambling now, sorry about that.

Anyway, I'm off to exercise... hope everyone has a great day!

Boredom

Waiting for the humidity to break. Tomorrow's the day. Makes it so hard to breath, and since I'm one of those in no central air land, everything feels sticky. The carpets feel wet, its gross. The only room that has a/c is my bedroom, but no t.v. or anything else in their besides the bed, so basically the kids and I hit the bedroom every once in awhile for a quick pick-me-up.

For me, I bitch when its hot and I bitch when its cold. I'm not happy unless its fall or spring. So we're bored. Still haven't gotten the beach pass so we can't go there. Too hot for the playground, so I'm letting the kids hang out in the kiddie pool. I'm trying, unsuccessfully, to clean the house. And then I have tons of excuses. First, my soap came on, and I needed to feed the kids and myself lunch. Now I need to file my unemployment, online of course.

And while I'm online I might as well check out a few blogs. Oh, and I should check my bank balance. And while I'm remembering, I might as well do some searching into backpacks for the kids for school.

But when I finally get off, Ryan will be home, and everyone will want a snack. Then the kids inevitably will fight about something, I'll put on a movie for them, and try to start doing something, but by then it'll be dinnertime. Maybe after dinner we'll go to the beach since it'll be less crowded and hot. Unless we get those thunderstorms the weather has been predicting for 3 days now, that we haven't gotten.

By the end of the day I just want to relax, because dammit, its hot in here.

Am I overreacting?

Another weekend over with the kids spending the night at the B.A.'s. As you all know, I very much dislike the B.A. because of all that he's done to me and how he's behaved. The guy's a jerk. And he doesn't have a clue about parenting. He can pretend to, and he can tell me how his new wife does things. (even though her children were taken away from her!) but really I don't think he even tries.

Two weeks ago, when the kids came home on Sunday we ask them how the weekend went, what they did etc... We ask them every time they go. On my part its interest about what my children did when they weren't with me, and interest about what the B.A. did. Its as simple as I want to protect my children.

First thing I had a problem with was the fact that Ryan was allowed to play video games not appropriate for his age. Can't remember the name of it now, but it includes shooting and killing cops among other things. When I questioned the B.A. about it, he told me that his wife and him allow Z (the wife's son) to play them. And Z is only 11 yrs old. Now this is a big deal to me. I don't want my kids doing things simply because other kids are allowed to. Its not acceptable in my eyes. What upsets me even more is that the B.A. doesn't see where I'm coming from. He just doesn't get it! I told him that I hoped he'd agree with me and not feel as if I was telling him what to do. He agreed not to let Ryan play anymore.

Second thing is that the jerk doesn't feed them. Granted, its not going to kill them to miss lunch, but its his responsibility since he has them till 2pm, to feed them breakfast and lunch. The first thing Ryan and Emi say walking in the door is that they're hungry. So, I've talked to him about that too. I don't think he gets that these kids need to eat. They're growing. While it won't stunt they're growth, kids aren't meant to go 6 hours between eating. And the kids aren't comfortable asking him for something to eat, so they haven't.

Third thing is their bedtime. Again, its not going to kill them to go to bed late, but it messes with my semi-schedule that I have going for the summer. Emi told me tonight that while at the B.A.'s house last night, she didn't go to bed until 2:30 A.M.!!! She's only 10 yrs old!

See, I'm on a roll now. The B.A. has them every other Saturday. Do you think he calls them the 2 weeks in between visits??? Nope. Then he finally does have them for a day and a half, and leaves them with his new wife (that has called me a bitch in front of my kids). She'll take them to the store, and let them spend close to $10 of their own money on candy!! The B.A. will use the time he has with the kids to do yardwork, and errands and stuff for friends, leaving the kids their with his wife and her kids (my kids playmates, of course!) while he goes off and does his own thing.

Then there's the pillow thing. He had the kids bring their pillows to his house. Hello?!?! Buy them their own pillows for your house... I'm not going to supply their pillows! I've already had to remind him twice to make sure the kids have sunscreen on, and he doesn't even follow up with them when they leave to make sure they have everything. Emi left her toothbrush. Again, not such a big deal, but as a parent, his responsibility is to remind them and I think, help them get their things together.

It just sucks. I don't want the jerk in the kids lives in the first place, but you know, here in CT its all about the fathers. Screw the mothers who have spent every single day with their children. Its all about giving the bio-father a chance. And he's been given that chance and totally blows it.

I know, or at least can hope that the kids will see this jerk for what he really is as they get older. It just sucks wanting to protect my kids and having no say when they're with him.

And I know it seems as if I might be making a huge deal out of all this stuff. But its all this little stuff thats making me realize that the B.A. doesn't have a clue. So I just keep taking it one weekend at a time. But I seriously want to call the B.A. up and schedule a meeting to discuss all these things, but that wouldn't do much good either.

Fun as always

Because of the weather we never ended up going to the beach. Cloudy,cloudy,cloudy. But... we have a little park here in town that just installed a sprinkler play area! Since Ryan and Emi are with the B.A. tonight we took Matt and Molly down and they had a blast! So much fun! The park is actually right in the hot sun so I thought it was very appropriate that they put this water park in. There were tons of kids there, where normally the park would be deserted. They ran around for a good hour and then played on the swings and stuff. Saw lots of friends and Chris and I got to hang out in our chairs...lol

Chris and I still have very little energy. This cold seems to be taking it all out of us, and I think it might be time to make a visit to the Dr.'s office. Matt was invited to sleep over at a friend's house and despite our hesitation we let him. Its so strange.... we have only 1 child! Molly went with us to Jen and Roman's for dinner and ended up being quite demanding...probably because she was the only one with us!

Molly also got the opportunity be the first one to meet Jen and Roman's new puppy! He's 10 months old, so he's not a brand new puppy, but he's so adorable. He's a boxer mix and his name is Chase. Apparently his owner was a college student that had to give him up once she moved home. He had only spent a few days at the human society when Jen and Roman claimed him as their own. As Jen would say "I'm working my way up. First with a fish, then a few cats, and finally a dog. Next up is a baby!"

Okay, enough with me, I tend to ramble. Have a great rest of the weekend!

TGIF

There's something about Friday's. Doesn't matter if I'm working or not, I love them. May have to do with the fact that its payday though. Thats always a good thing!

Not much going on around here. We haven't done much because of Chris and I being sick and Ryan going to Rushford every day. It kinda stinks. We had plans to do a few days trips, but again, with Ryan being at Rushford and not getting home till almost 2:30 the majority of the day is gone. Neither Chris nor I feel like doing anything. This cold has completely drained us.

Not sure whats going on this weekend either. We were supposed to have our tag sale tomorrow, but because we haven't had any energy we haven't collected things from around the house and gone through things. Then there was the idea to go to Misquamicut Beach tomorrow with Jen and Roman instead. Chris is home, and although Ryan and Emilie wouldn't be here, it would be a good day to go. But the weather is iffy. The parking is so expensive, and I don't know if I want to go if the day is going to be cloudy.

To be truthful, I don't want to do anything but lay on the couch and cough. But we'll see... we gotta get out and have some fun. Just wish I wasn't sick.

Happy Friday!

Yuck

I'm sick with a cold. I can't even remember the last time , so I'm guessing I was really due for this. By Monday, Chris was coughing and blowing his nose. By Tuesday I had a little bit of a cough...just enough to feel it in the back of my throat, although that was all I had. Then boom, it hit me. I'm so fricken miserable! Its so bad that I'm going to the Dr's tomorrow if it keeps up. Last night both Matt and Molly climbed into bed, and no matter how many times I returned them to their own beds, they kept coming back! And you know when you're sick, one side of your nose gets stuffed up (at least mine does) so I end up flipping from side to side in bed to clear my nose. Couldn't do that with both kids in bed. Needless to say I didn't sleep at all last night. My lips are already chapped and my chest is so congested I feel like I'm gasping for air.

I keep trying different over the counter meds to see what will at least take the edge off for me, and so far nothing is working! The one good thing about this is that I don't want to eat. Maybe finally I can get back to losing weight again.

Sorry I ended up whining about this. Its kinda all I can think about since ,you know, I can't breathe. I'm hoping I'll start feeling better by tomorrow!

My vegetable garden

This year, for the first time ever, I started a veggie garden. I planned for months for the perfect location that was close enough to the hose and yet in a majority of sun. And its been doing good!

I have one zucchini plant that has exploded in size. And so far, one zucchini on it. I planted cucumbers. I didn't anticipate them needing as much room as they've traveled so far, so they're kinda all over the place. The feelers, or whatever they are, have wrapped themselves around my cantalope plants. I don't know if they could "choke" them, so every once in awhile I untangle them. No cucumber yet though. Cantalope is doing well, but no fruit yet. I have one tomato plant with lots of baby tomatoes on it. And my yellow squash is doing awesome. Little baby squash all over the place. The only other thing I have is bush beans. They were doing well up until 2 days ago. And now I think they have some sort of disease. Some of the plants have withered and died and the others have brown spots on the leaves. I'm so disappointed because I love fresh green beans, and now I don't know whether or not I should pull out all the plants or leave them until they're completely gone. I don't know if this disease will spread to the other plants. Need to look into that.

Otherwise, my flowers are doing great. My pumpkins plants next to my backdoor though. They look good. They're huge! But last week I was so excited that I actually saw bees pollinating between what I thought was girl and boy flowers. And then we'd have pumpkins! But my BIL gave me a little lesson. He pointed out that all the flowers I have so far are all male flowers. So no pumpkins. But... I've been doing alot of reading up, and have read that the male flowers come out before the female flowers, so I still have a chance. But heck, if no girls show up, I'm going to pull those plants up. They really are huge!

I'm hoping that my veggies do good , because if they do, I'm expanding next year. I just never thought I'd get this "into" growing vegetables... its been alot of fun!

It was good

Had a pretty good birthday! Glad its over though. Birthday's aren't that big of a deal when we get older. I would have been perfectly happy to ignore it. I don't know, I think it just gets embarrassing. It was pretty great though.... my mom made me tuna pie, which is a dish from my childhood. Its soooo good! She also made me a pineapple upside-down cake. I actually cried! It meant so much to me that she would go to all the trouble after being up early and working all day. And this tuna pie isn't a simple thing to make. It takes several hours to make, which is probably why she doesn't make it anymore. Chris finally got me a memory card for my camera, which I needed, but I almost never buy anything like that for myself. And Jen and Roman got me software for my camera..... its really cool.. and I can't wait to try it! So all in all it was a good birthday. Now for the rest of the summer I can concentrate on my eating and exercise. No more excuses for eating badly. Anyway, I'll update again later, if I have a chance!

I don't want to admit it

But its my birthday today. I'm 31 yrs old. Technically not "30" anymore, but in my 30's. Yikes! I'm trying to accept it, because really, what choice do I have? And... I'm trying to remind myself that I don't FEEL 31, so it shouldn't shake me up so easily. Just tell me to shut up, k?

Yesterday was Chris' work picnic and it went really well! We were expecting about 60 people and some didn't show, so we actually had closer to 45. People even had fun! The kids were running all over the yard with the hose, and the adults played horseshoes and we even got a game of volleyball started. So much food though. We still have tons left, so it looks like we'll be eating alot of hotdogs and hamburgers this week! I swear though, I'm sooo glad its over with. I'm was trying to get my house into shape, because even though the picnic wasn't inside, people would need to pass through my kitchen, into the hallway, where they could look into the livingroom, and then finally into the bathroom. I managed to get my curtains made. And I think they came out really well. Cleaned the livingroom carpet, but didn't get to finishing up the painting. This morning I worked nonstop. Between cleaning and cooking and the kids...I'm exhausted. Of course Chris was here to help but for the majority of the morning he was out in the yard mowing and then to the store for ice and stuff.

And , I didn't even eat too much. Yet. I was too busy running around doing all that needed to be done. Now its finally over, and we can get on with the week. We're trying to plan some day trips for this week since Chris is home. But Ryan goes to Rushford every day and doesn't get home till 2:15 so that kinda limits us. And next weekend they're with the B.A.

Speaking of Rushford, the nurse practitioner called me today to let me know of Ryan's blood results. Everything came out good with the exception of one thing. His thyroid was showing some elevated numbers that she suggested I get checked out. Its still within the normal range, from what I understand, but its on the higher end. So we're going to fax the results to his pediatrician and we'll see what he says about it. One step at a time with all this stuff.

But the best thing of all for me? I get to "sleep in" this week! LOL

Getting down to business

Lately, I've been contemplating whether or not to continue blogging. Its such a great outlet at times, but more often than not, I don't have much to say. At times I need to be careful of what I write, because of people who may or may not be reading.

What it really comes down to, is that I don't really know who is reading this. I'm not the best at leaving comments on others blogs, because I tend to get into this mode of reading and catching up but forgetting to leave comments because I get in this streamline of reading one and going on to the next. But honestly, everyone loves comments and I'm no exception.

And I know that most of the time, what I write is very uninteresting. I'm boring, really. I look at my title, and realize that my life is crazy because of my lack of discipline and structure regarding the kids. Its not crazy because I'm involved in so many things, thats for sure.

So here's what I want you to do. If you just come by once in awhile, or come by all the time, or are here for the first time, leave me a comment. Just this one time. Even if you've commented in the past, drop me a quick hello. All you have to say is "hi". Really!

Just let me know if you come here. Thats all I'm asking. I'd like to continue blogging, but if not many stop by here, I might as well keep a paper journal. Just not sure at this point what I'm going to do.

not so lazy days of summer

Summer is barely in full swing, and I must declare that I have absolutely nothing interesting to share with anyone. Its not very often that there is anything interesting to write about, but I really don't have a clue. Nada. The kids have been nonstop fighting. I've been nonstop cleaning. Not really, but it sure SEEMS like it! I do have one thing though, now that I think about it.

I signed Ryan and Emilie up for a Maritime Education class. Its one of those things that the community offers, and its so awesome at times like this to live near the water. It goes by lottery, because its extremely popular, and Emilie got in for this week. Today they went boating, and she came home so excited because she was able to steer. They'll be exploring islands, learn about fishing, navigation, stuff like that. Tomorrow they'll be helping to pull up lobster pots. I'm hoping that Ryan gets into a week later in the summer.

Anyway, thats really all for now. 5 days till the big party. I'm making a schedule for myself to get everything done.

On the schedule tonight: Painting!

Oh, baby!

Another year gone by. Already? The old saying goes "it seems like it was just yesterday", and how true is! Molly is turning 5 years old today! It seems like just yesterday I looked like this:

The picture is crappy... I apologize. For some reason I couldn't scan the picture, so I took a picture of my picture. I came across it while looking at my albums tonight and couldn't resist posting it.

And I couldn't stop myself from showing this "after" picture of her. A few days old at the most, snoozing with her big brother.


And how's she's grown. Full of opinions, full of determination to do things "her way". I was thinking back to 5 years ago, thinking of how the night before she was born, our family was out watching fireworks on the beach. Thinking how huge I felt, and looked!! Earlier that day I had cleaned the house top to bottom and made a huge dinner for our entire extended family. Then thinking of how while Chris and I were in the hospital, the other kids were being watched by my dad at our family's annual Fourth of July picnic.How when she finally entered this world, and Chris called to let everyone know, there was a big cheer heard in the background. How happy Emilie was to get her baby sister, when everyone thought Molly would be a boy.

I could reminisce for hours! But I'll leave you with this last picture. Tonight, my baby girl with the infamous doll cake. The same cake my mom used to make for me as a little girl. She picked the colors, she picked the little kitty sitting on the skirt, because cats are her absolute favorite things these days. Happy 5th birthday, Molly!