My favorite month is here :)

Look at how she loves her daddy!

 Felix hosted Nationals at the new Brown pool. It was a very intense tournament, and as usual, I was reminded once again just how much I can't handle competition!

 He is sitting here, in what I believe to be the last 22 seconds of a game- where they are up by 1, and the other team has the ball. Seriously? How does he do this day in & day out? My legs were shaking. I'm not joking.  I could hardly contain my excitement that they were about to win one of their most important games, and I could almost picture him jumping up and down on the deck crying as he hugged the team. I had the video camera rolling at the last 5 seconds, focused on him to capture his reaction on film while I kept my eyes on Emma & Levi running through the stands. I heard the buzzer.....looked over, and the wrong team was cheering. In the last second, the game was tied and into overtime we went, and lost. Felix said he never wants to see my video.

"uh-oh. daddy doesn't look happy down there!"

 So, when we went to cheer him on the next day, Emma brought a sign "Go Bruno" and proudly hung it over the guardrail to put a smile on her Daddy's face. And it worked.

With the season over, Felix came home and got right to work setting up the brand new swingset Bubbe & Grandaddy sent the kids for their birthday! I am in love with the bench swing it came with, and have clear memories of playing on ours as a kid when we were still living in NY.

But Felix isn't the only one working around here! About 7 years ago, I completed a certification course in preschool fitness and really enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. Then, when I was pregnant with Emma I drafted a little outline for a children's fitness program that would be run in a private facility, thinking I could work on something like that while being a stay-at-home mom. After Emma was born, I didn't want to leave her side for a minute, so any type of work was out of the question for me! However, about a year ago while renewing my group-ex certification, I took yet another preschool fitness course and decided it would be really fun to try on my own. And here we are!
I have been working hard to develop a class that is fun and developmentally appropriate for the kids. After much support from Felix & my friends, gathering all my equipment & music, and practicing on Emma & Levi in the living room, I finally got the courage to do a demo class for Emma's friends. And my amazing neighbors let us use their newly renovated barn behind our house (they turned the 2nd floor into a hair salon). I had 6 kids for the class- they loved it, I loved it, it went so much better than I was expecting! And so, the next step was to teach at Emma's preschool. I did that last week and it was a blast. The teacher's really liked it, and want to hire me to teach next year!


With Felix's season ending, we talked about me getting in a little girl time in NYC with my friend Michelle while he watched the kids at home for a weekend. We are lucky that his work is so unique and comes with such a flexible schedule, but by the end of the season I am WORN OUT! I know, I know, he should be the one who is worn out, and he probably is, which is why he is such a superstar husband and daddy!!!

Felix's mom came up to visit and help with the kids while I hopped on a train to the city. I was really looking forward to just sitting on the train in silence for 3.5 hours. I even ended up on the "quiet car" without knowing it. Super exciting. Except the lady next to me kept talking to me.
I have to admit, although I was once a city girl using public transportation most of the time, I was a bit overwhelmed when I arrived at Penn Station on a Friday afternoon druing rush hour.
We had a GREAT time! We packed in as much as we could and Michelle made sure to fit in all my hot spot dining requests! We started off at a mexican place for dinner followed by a comedy show, then had "brunch" the next day. I'm sorry, but I still disagree about the whole brunch thing. If it's after 12pm, it's not called brunch. But it was still delicious. I had challah french toast. Then we got manicures & pedicures, picked up tickets for my very first broadway show (Michelle was on show #26 or so......leaving us to very slim pickins for our performance choices!), shopped around for a bit, grabbed some Ray's pizza for dinner, and headed off to Broadway! We finished off our late night at a bar near her house, just like old times.

For my last day we met up with one of Michelle's friends, started off yet again with  the so-called "brunch" at 1:30pm, and actually just took it easy and watched a chick-flick in the movie theater,  followed by a stop for dinner at the famous Shake Shack. Yumm-o. I really had a great time, much thanks to Michelle!

Meanwhile, back home the kids were having a blast with Grandma. I heard they played all day, getting constant attention, cooking, playing on the swings, coloring, and learning all sorts of new things. Felix said he was able to get a lot done around the house because the kids wouldn't leave Grandma's side! It was hard to say goodbye :(

Mother's Day!

What a wonderful day we had! This year felt very special for some reason- different than in the past. I think it is because the kids are older and it seems more "real" that I am a mom. Emma's preschool surprised the moms with a really special gift from the kids, that I was totally not expecting. It was a nice canvas bag painted with their handprints turned into flowers, and inside was everything for a complete breakfast in bed! A bowl, plate, spoon & fork, homemade muffin, small box of cereal, granola bar, apple & bag of tea! Along with a special note with questions about me that Emma answered. Like- that my favorite food is marshmallows, and my favorite thing to do is go to the marshmallow store and to play with Levi. And that I am 3 years old and have blue eyes. Oh, and she wants to get me a pumpkin for a present. Should I be concerned that not one thing she answered was true on there? Except she did say my favorite person is her Daddy.

And her Daddy is pretty great! He thought a lot about how to make this day special, and brought us back to the diner we went to last year for Mother's Day to get my once-a-year favorite breakfast, eggs benedict!

I like our happy little Mother's Day tradition.

 After breakfast (clearly, I can't call it brunch because it was at 8:30am), we went to a small little park by our house and had a great time together as a family!

They like playing "restaurant" in this part. One orders at the counter, and the other pretends to get the item. They are so cute!

Emma is assigning seats in the big fire truck

Telling secrets to daddy with the big microphone thingy

Big boy! He is becoming a playground expert!

LOVE

 We came back home and hung out in the backyard, on the hammock & swings, and then Emma & I went shopping for some flowers to plant while Levi napped at home with Felix.
We picked out beautiful, bright pink azaleas and decided they would work perfectly to jazz up our weedy rock garden alongside the driveway.
Emma was so excited to help me dig the holes and plant the flowers. She had her own shovel, and she really was a great help. Unfortunately, the entire thing has turned out to be a disaster.

The rock garden is ugly to begin with, weeds are growing all over the place even though I have put down a weed barrier and we have been pulling them out as much as possible. The bricks are all crooked and dirty, and the whole thing is just a mess.

Not to mention, it's been less than a week, and I think we have managed to kill all of our beautiful flowers.


This was taken the other day. Today, they were even more brown and soggy.


And it just gets worse in the front of the house. Our bushes are way overgrown, but I'm nervous to trim them because I'm afraid they will end up looking even more ridiculous! At this point, I actually don't think it can get much worse. Someone please nominate us for HGTV yard crashers!!!


But we should always look on the bright side! Big divets in the driveway make for fantastic puddles when it rains. And nothing is more fun that getting filthy right before naptime!!! Emma had rainboots on, jumped right in and was having a blast.

 Then came this little monster. In his furry lined crocs, jumping right in and loving the mess. By the time he dunked his head, I just sat back thinking, I am the most fun mother ever :) Then I stripped them down naked and told them not to touch a thing as they climbed the stairs to the tub!

 With all this flower planting, Emma has been very excited about nature. We have a random assortment of flower seeds all mixed together in a pot sitting on our windowsill. Emma is anxiously waiting for the first sprout to pop through the soil. We also have (what was) a hearty basil plant on the windowsill. Unfortunately, when I checked on him today, his leaves are starting to crumble and he seems sad. What is wrong with me?!?!?!?!?

Emma picked these random leaves off trees & bushes while we were at the zoo with her school fieldtrip. She carried them all the way to the car, arranged them nicely on the floor for the ride home, came in the house & told Felix to close his eyes while she made his "flower". I was so proud to watch her working hard, arranging them in her special way, and securing them with tape and apparently a random gemstone she found! Then she handed me a piece of paper and asked me to write this note. She is such a sweetie!