Bragging on my girl

Ellie hit a single and double tonight the only two times she was at bat. Also, she was the first person to cross home plate this season for her team!

Home-style partying

 We celebrated Sam's birthday last night with some pizza, breadsticks, and cookie cake.  I really don't thing Sam understands the concept of birthdays, but he enjoyed the singing. And the food.  I love this picture because it shows how protective Ellie and Jack are of Sam. 

They are seriously always watching out for him.  I think part of it is that they don't trust my parenting skills, but whatever.  I also have several pictures in a row of them making faces which I failed to notice as I was taking the picture. What a bunch of weirdos.

 

 

Since today is Sam's actual birthday, I wanted to acknowledge it in some way, but my creativity and time is seriously limited at 6am.  So, they had a healthy breakfast of donut cake.



Ellie and Jack have swim clinic this afternoon so I think I am going to go pick up some cookies to share with our little friends poolside to continue the celebrating.  And, because y'all know how I like to drag out birthdays, we are doing the big family party on Easter Sunday for both Ellie and Sam. Party on.

Dear Sam at 2 years

Dear Sam,

    Happy birthday, Sambo! You are turning two, but everyone assumes you are much older because you are a beast!  Seriously, kid, you are wearing shirts that Jack wore a year ago. Not only do you look older than your age, but you desperately want to be older.  You want to do everything your brother and sister do...especially Jack.  You get angry if we try to make you sit in a stroller or force you to stay indoors when Ellie and Jack are running free.  We drag you along to all of their activities and I know it frustrates you that you can't be on the field or in the pool with them.  Soon enough, Sam. Soon enough.

     You still don't like to snuggle or be held, but you do greet us with hugs and a happy, "Hi!"  You say, "I love you" and press your body into ours for a second before you are off and running.  The one time you really let me hold and love on you is at church, but I think that is just because you are so terrified that someone will take you to nursery.

  Like your brother and sister when they were two, you love Elmo. No, you REALLY love Elmo. I am talking obsessed.  You would watch Elmo for hours if I let you. But you refuse to watch any other part of Sesame Street so we have to forward to Elmo's World or you will start throwing remotes and screaming.  I finally wised up and downloaded a few Elmo's World episodes. 

  The one thing you like more than Elmo is riding tricycles outside or playing at the park.  You love playing outdoors.  You also like riding your ride-on toys indoors and you do fast loops around our downstairs. 

  You still don't talk a whole lot because you are waited on hand and foot by everyone around you.  I had your hearing tested a couple months ago and the ear doctor said you are just the typical third child.  You are remarkably clear when you need to be, though. For example, "I want more" is crystal clear.

  Sam you are so stubborn and strong-willed, but you are funny as heck.  You really do have a great sense of humor. You have all of us wrapped around your little finger because you are so dang adorable.  You are the perfect bookend to our little family.  I love you forever, Sam the Man. Happy birthday.

Love,
Mama

The start of swim season (in the midst of baseball season)

Swim clinic started yesterday.  Swim clinic is three weeks of swim classes to get the kids ready for swim team.  The have preschool, beginner, and intermediate levels.  I put Jack in the preschool clinic even though they specifically said it isn't swim lessons and all kids should be able to swim. Let's be honest, Jack can't swim.  He can dog paddle for a few feet until he needs to take a breath.  But I was optimistic and enrolled him anyway.  He loved it, of course.  I love Jack's age...they just love everything. So, Jack's swim clinic was from 4:00-4:45, Ellie's was from 5:15-6:00, and then Jack had a t-ball game at 6:30. Luckily for me, everything was at the same location and we had lots of friends also participating in the clinic so we just set up camp on a picnic blanket and enjoyed the evening.

Elmo on the iPad...my saving grace

I guess the sun was too bright for Sam

Tom finished up with track practice and met us at the pool just in time to take Jack to his t-ball game and I took Sam and Ellie home for baths and bed.  Tom gets a little frustrated watching Jack play t-ball because he kind of just stands around doing nothing and ignoring all instruction. I kept getting texts describing all the happenings (or nonhappenings) and the last text said, "I'm not going to any more games."  I was like, "Heck yeah, I'll do the games and you do baths/bedtimes!"  When they got home, I asked Jack how his game went and his enthusiastic reply was, "GREAT!"

In other news, Sam's 2nd birthday is tomorrow!  Tom has track meets for the next 4 days. Basically tonight is the last night the kids will see him until Sunday since he leaves for school before they wake up and track meets last until after they are in bed. So...we are having our little family party for Sam tonight. He doesn't know when his birthday is anyway. Actually, he doesn't even know what a birthday IS so we are all good.

Weekend recap with a million zoo pics

Here are the pictures my dad sent me of his campout with Jack.  They were delayed getting there because of an accident on the highway so they had to take their hike in the dark.  Jack normally is in bed by 7:00 and he stayed up until midnight.  Needless to say, he was in heaven. My dad? Probably not so much.

Hiking in the dark

He shared this tent with his grandpa, two uncles, and three cousins

My dad woke up early Saturday to get Jack back to me in time to go to the zoo.  I really wanted to get there in time for the animal encounter, but the encounter turned out to just be an armadillo, snake, and iguana.  Ellie and Jack still loved being able to touch them. I was too busy chasing Sam around, but my friend, Amanda, came with us and acted as photographer. Good thing, because these are the only pictures I took:

My little monkeys

It may not look like it, but Sam LOVED the Easter Bunny!

The kids really loved the zoo. Sam was a huge pain in the butt, though, because he didn't want to be in his stroller when Ellie and Jack were free. So, I would let him out and he would just take off--not caring about staying near us at all.  The kid is stressful.  I am so glad I decided not to take him on the cruise with us.  Oh, I haven't even blogged about that yet. OK, so my dad is paying for the entire family to go on a 7 day Caribbean cruise right when school gets out for our family reunion.  After doing some research, I realized that the ship isn't really that friendly for the under 3 crowd.  The toddlers can't even go in the pool or the kid-zone. And with Sam's resistance to strollers and his proclivity for escaping, I just felt like the cruise would be really stressful with him along.  Not to mention that he would really limit what shore excursions we could do. Ms. Donika said she would watch him for the week, but I have never left any of my kids for more than 3 nights.  I was seriously conflicted, but after polling (and annoying) everyone I know, I decided leaving him with his beloved "Geeka" was for the best.  I am now really looking forward to the cruise! And after Sam's 40+ minute tantrum yesterday, I am REALLY not regretting my decision.  I really love Sam, but the boy is STUBBORN...I have no idea where he gets it from. Probably Tom.

And now for a million zoo pictures, courtesy of Amanda.

I don't need to go to the zoo to see monkeys

Everyone helps wrangle Sam

Apparently, armadillos are carriers of leprosy. We used a lot of hand-sanitizer after this.

I love Jack's face in all of these pictures

And I love Ellie's face...trying not to show how much she is loving it.

Ewwww...sssssnake!