Crazy-Fun Birthday week

The first week of May is when we decided to celebrate all of our kids' birthdays. Smart, arent we. So, on the morning of May 1st we were 

out of the blocks and well on our way in a birthday party bliss marathon. We woke Reagan up early to breakfast in bed, as per her birthday wish. She also got a new big bike

 a few presents and lots of hugs. 

She was pretty excited to go to school for her birthday dance and spanks from her teacher. I took her doughnuts to share and she was really a celebrity at school that day.

I think her favorite present was a light up HSM shirt. it was my favorite because it was $3.00.

That night we went to the Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner because Reagan swears spaghetti is her favorite food. 

We told Abbie we were pretending it was her day too so we could do the major partying on the same night.  After a yummy pasta dinner, we headed to Build-a-Bear workshop. It was fun to watch them, pick out their bears. Abbie decided on a unicorn named Sparkles in about 5 minutes and Reagan took much longer. 

My heart bleeds for her when she has to make a choice because I HATE making choices too. so we were quite a pair... it took us much longer.

The night was so much fun that we strolled through the Gateway enjoying the energy and people out at night. Then Abbie had a meltdown after falling off a metal chair outside Ben's Cookies, so we hightailed it to the van.

Yesterday I took Abbie out with her 2 friends and a cousin to Classic Skating. They played for 3 hours and ate almost an entire large cheese pizza! it was fun to see them having so much fun. 

We wrapped up the week with a cake fest for 3 little birthday girls and lots and lots of singing.It was a great week and fun to have such sweeties to celebrate.

thankfully, I have a 361 days until the next birthday party marathon. Now, if I can just make it through Mothers Day...

Pancake Puppies

We were out on Saturday and were picking up the girls from the my BIL's house and of course we stayed to talk for a while, when we left it was 11:30pm and the girls kept saying how hungry they were. I was ready to drive through Wendy's but as we drove by Denny's he must have read my mind. So we pulled in and were seated by our good friend Kevin ( he was there last time we got a craving for the puppies. We are undecided if he is gay or just super friendly/weird). While we were eating Abbie was looking around and said "Mom, I want to buy that baby." I had her say it again because I thought it was so funny. When I asked her if she would buy a boy baby she said, "No, they are stinky."

I found this little review of the Pancake Puppies (for those of you that don't eat at Denny's after midnight and have no Idea what I am talking about) I don't think I could have said it better.

Foodies enjoy!

There are so many levels of wrong with Denny's Pancake Puppy dessert. The mutant cross between a pancake, beignet, and hush puppy, this delectable treat is addictive in its delicious, oh-so-bad for you simplicity. Crusty, humble fried pancake bites, coated in cinammon sugar and served with warm syrup for dipping, these may indeed be the cruelest thing to come out of a Denny's since...the Denny's.

Damn you, late night diners, and your evil, evil temptations!

Healthy Dinner... Not!

This was my mashed potato fakeout dinner. Cool huh! Dan and I rocked the April Fools day this year. First I got Reagan out of bed at 6:00am and told her she was late for school. I had her running around thinking she was going to miss the bus. :-) Then I told her to look at the clock. she said "it's 7:15, do you think they are going to recess???" I laughed because my awesome prank didn't work because she isn't that good at telling time yet. hehehe I still had a good giggle later. She thought it was funny too and couldn't wait to tell her teacher that I had "fooled" her.

I also pranked my mom. I had Abbie call her and told her that she had broken her arm. Grandma of course beleived her because... well because it was Abbie. Then Abbie burst out and said "April Fools Grandma!" it was funny, for me. Grandma was a little bugged.

Finally we spend about an hour making "dinner" we followed the instructions in Family Fun and created "mashed potatoes" from ice cream and caramel, "fish sticks" made of cookies, and "peas" made of taffy. We felt pretty good that our trick would fly, but Reagan was on to us from the start. She said "hey, this smells like ice cream." The second trick was that we said she could eat it for dinner. She was sure we were kidding, but we were serious! She still was not convinced, so we said she could eat some left overs and then eat her "dinner." It was a fun and silly day for me! I think this is my new favorite holiday.

My double life

I confess, I think I have been leading a double life. Last night while I was getting ready to go out to see the PCD and Britney Spears concert (and applying waaay too much dark eyeliner), I realized it. I was going through my day and I thought okay, here I am going to a concert where there is going to be a lot of frivolity, I will stay up until 2:00 am on a school night and tomorrow, I will get up at 7:00am get dressed, get my daugter on the school bus, and then be a chaperone for the preschool field trip. How cool is that! I truly get to have my cake and eat it too! I get to be a Mom of two adorable girls, have cool friends who like to have fun, have a husband that loves me even with a few extra pounds and too much eye-makeup, AND go out and party once in a while to remember what it feels like to be a teenager.

Here are a few of the fun pics from my double life. This all happend with in 24hrs.

The show was AWESOME! The Dolls sang all their songs, had a ton of energy and really rocked their fishnets.

Britney put on a fantastic show, circus acts, fire, acrobatics, lip syncing, dancing, costume changes and lots and lots of high energy fun. It was a great night! We even had fun watching the drunk chicks next to us fall over and get lost.

Thanks to Anne for being my concert buddy. We always manage to rock our socks off. Who says blondes have more fun??

Great read

So I just finished a great book. I read it in about 5 days and it was spellbinding. Not what I usually read, but capitvating anyway. I actually felt smart reading this... strange.

American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld.

It is a novel about a fictional character based on Laura Bush. It was facinating to me to learn about a woman so important in history that has such drastically different views than her husband. I loved the way the story unfolded as if she was sitting with me telling it from start to finish. It also gave me a little perspective on what it might be like to be the Wife of the President and not want the fame and influence that goes with it.

When I finished it this morning, I was overwhelmed with the reminder that it is okay to be different and think differently than my spouse. We can still have a great marriage even if we don't see eye to eye on every issue

Spring has brought me such a nice surprise...

Ok, not! After returning from a week long hiatus in the sun with perfect weather we got another treat of nice spring time sun. I even got a little sunburn while selling girl scout cookies. It was sheer bliss. See, I am not a big fan of winter, I am diminishing how much I don't like the snow, so Spring is my 2nd favorite season ( summer rules) because it means that there will be an abundance of rain (which I love) and sunny afternoons (which I love).

So when I woke up Wednesday and saw this I was so mad I wanted to punch someone. But instead I grabbed a shovel (the blower was put away) and started shoveling. Yuk. Mother nature is such a "Spring tease."

Spring Break!

Nicole's Spring Break Top 10

1. Riding a Zip Line 200 feet long and 300 feet above the ground through the jungle of Belize.
2. Swimming in a Mexican Cenote (underground caves filled with clear water)
3. Driving a beat up Jeep with my posse and getting whistled at by Mexican construction workers.
4. Getting a 60 min massage on the beach for $20!

5. Eating delicious food anytime I wanted.
6. Spending some quality time with my hubby of 10 years.
7. Playing dress-up with my BFFs
8. Riding the water slide on top of the ship while going 17 knots in the Caribbean.
9. Scuba diving in the Bahamas- we saw about a dozen Lion fish.


10. Going to dinner with Nacho Libre

11. Doing all these awesome things with awesome people while wearing awesome shoes. Keens rock. (another post another time.)Other great highlights...

We spent a great day in Costa Maya enjoying the beach, yummy guacamole and doing some serious shopping for my recuerdos (souvenirs).


My favorite recuerdo- a true Mexican Sombrero in the colors of the Mexican flag.

We got a "bonus" excursion when we missed our connecting flight in Washington DC and had to stay the night. We rented a van, piled in and visited some of the memorials on the Mall. It was a cold and rainy night that was full of adventure!

When I look back at these pictures I am still amazed that we actually took this vacation! it was one of those things that had been an "idea" for nearly a year and here we are! We did it!