29 hours

29 hours ago my kids realized our sweet pal neighbors returned from their 7 week Germany work/family staycation.

For the past 29 hours my kids have been DRIVING ME BATTY... Why?

a) they love Henry and Jane and have absolutely missed them...

and

b) SADLY, it's really the B...

the real b) Henry's mom may have happened to mention that they brought the kids souvenirs but happened to call them surprises...

I was not witness to the "surprise / souvenir" language because I was on the phone taking care of important business (I switched my 15 year old cell phone number to a local number!!! HUGE. 15 years of reciting that number! All now gone... E and B of the future, I don't think you realize the sacrifice I made moving to NY... 15 years of the same number!!)

Ben woke up at his usual 6 am this morning. But, instead of starting every morning off like he normally does, "Mom, can I play the iPad?" he said, "Mom, can I get my surprise from Kim now?"

I explained that everyone was still sleeping and he totally got that and asked, "Can I play with the iPad then?" Yes, yes, dear sweet Ben...

We were out the door by 9 am and didn't see their car in the driveway until our kids went to bed so sadly the surprise never went down. It did not stop the children from asking every 17 minutes when the neighbors were coming home!

Seriously - it was hysterical. Ben: "Mom, I ate all my waffle, can I get my surprise now?" "Mom, I watched Curious George, can I get my surprise now?" "Mom, I pooped, can I get my surprise now?"

At one point Emma begged me to call Henry's mommy and ask her when they were going to be home. Daddy jumped in and reminded our children they should simply be grateful our friends thought of us while they were traveling and we needed to have patience until the timing was right. Emma in her cleverness quipped, "No, I don't want the present, I just want to hug Jane because I haven't seen her in so long."

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

Needless to say, we missed you awesome neighbors! Mommy and Daddy have plowed through the chocolate you gave us... Oh, wait, we didn't share it with the kids. Oh, crap, maybe if we had, they wouldn't be so obsessed.

Nope, they would just be sugared up obsessees!! (Thank you for the chocolate! Thank you for giving us so many laughs watching our kids struggle with patience! Feel free to hold off another day or two!)

Low tide makes me happy.

Our flight home from Florida was thankfully uneventful. We took off around 7pm, Ben fell asleep before we took off and slept half the flight. When he awoke, he asked for the iPad and was all happy McSchmappy.

Thanks to Abuelita's washing machine, we came home to a suitcase full of clean clothes - which made for easy unpacking and diving right into Summer vacation. The kids are taking swim lessons at the beach this year (vs a pool last year). It's been fun to watch them progress - especially on Friday, it was wicked windy and there was quite a surf (we rarely get one on the north shore because we are off the Sound versus the open ocean). Emma's class has three kids and 2 instructors, Ben's has 4 kids and 2 instructors so the one on one time is a pretty awesome ration. Ben calls the swim lessons "Ocean swim school" and I crack up every time he says it.

We were out the door by 9am for Daddy's softball game this morning. The kids played "tennis" on the court next to the field, then escaped the hot sun under our beach umbrella. That umbrella has been the best birthday gift ever - this is the third summer with it and it is still going strong. After the soft ball game we raced to West Meadow Beach for LOW TIDE! I didn't bring my camera but low tide at that beach is AWESOME. The sand bars go on forever and we just walk and walk and search for all kinds of fun ocean critters. At one point Ben noticed I was still wearing the baseball cap I wore to the softball game and although he is fluent with the language, he still mixes up sentence structure here and there. "Mom, you are wearing your still baseball cap!"

We grabbed a pizza on the way home for a late lunch and now Daddy is practicing the South American in him and watching 'football' in Espanol on TV while the kids are quietly playing in their bedroom. WAIT? WHAT? Playing quietly? Something must be up, I better go check...

Yeeeeeeep, Em was putting sticky lip gloss on all her baby dolls. Great... (Ben is actually quietly watching soccer on the couch with Dad!)

Monday is the new Funday!

The Florida fun continues... Today we drove an hour north to the Lion Country Safari!! It was beyond awesome!!

We drove through the safari - took about 50 minutes - in the car. The animals roamed free, you were the visitor and there were many signs reminding you to keep the windows up and the doors locked. The kids had a blast for the first 20 minutes, started to lose patience the next 20, then were bouncing around the back seat the last 10... Mommy tried real hard to understand their cooped-up-ness, but I really just wanted them to chill so I could enjoy the GIRAFFES, my uber-fav animal in the whole wide world... Sadly the giraffes were the last on the safari and I was laying down time outs and penalties every 12 seconds and did not get to enjoy them as much as I would have liked. (And by would have liked - I wanted to get out of my locked car and walk over to them and climb on and go for a ride!) This safari was great, we stayed in our car driving 10 mph, the animals roamed free. We saw tons of animals up close and personal...

Well, hello, friend, don't scratch the Cadillac, okay?

Senior Zebra just may be my second favorite animal. If I had (illegally) rolled down my window, I could have given this dude a good snuggle, he was that close...

Will you be my friend, yes or no?

At this point the kids wanted to bust out of the car and roam (or play AB on the iPad...), I was lucky to even get this pic... We were super close, closer than I have ever been to my tall necked pals. Yay!

Wanna be my pet? I have a giant side yard with lots of leaves!

At the end of the drive through safari was a kid friendly amusement / water splash park.

I gotta renew this kids contract with her commercial agent... 

Bongo Ben - this kid had rhythm!

We ate lunch and then wandered the grounds. Emma - super brave girl - rode a camel all by herself! She said it was super "bumpy" and a lot of fun...

Move over Cleopatra.

We got to feed my best pals the giraffes - $1 per leaf of butter lettuce! Those pals were happy campers and the park made big bucks on the experience! (We got video - not pics,  I cannot seem to post video, grrrrrrr.)

We enjoyed the ferris wheel as a family:

I'm not tall enough on my own, but with dad by my side,  I can RIDE!

Ben was finally tall enough for the giant slide! He, Em and I raced. Emma won, Ben and I tied. Good fun, no pics...

This last pic is my baby girl at 5 years and weeks away from 6. Despite her ability to frustrate me on a minute to minute basis (she has a very strong mind of her own and is not afraid to voice it - Em, as much as you drive me batty, don't EVER change), she is a great kid and I LOVE LOVE LOVE this super casual pic - it should be a cover mag photo... freckles and all.

Who wants to sign me?

1 of probably 4?

The first born turns SIX in a few weeks. As we are in FL with Abuelita and Grandpop, we needed to celebrate. The supermarket here in FL, Publix, makes the BEST cakes. Look at the goodness for celebration ONE of probably 4 (sometimes it seems we party all summer long for this kid!).

It tasted as good as it looks!

I wish I could figure out how to post the video for the birthday song. She was bopping about and Ben was dancing his booty off. It is PURE awesomeness.

This pic is pretty good though, right?

Soooo, Emma, how did it taste??

Is it okay for princesses to lick their plate clean? 'Cuz I'd really like to...

Summer!

We have been busy beavers and school has only been out for a day and a half!

When I was growing up I wanted my ears pierced but my parents said not until I was 8. I'm not sure why that arbitrary age was "the when" - maybe Gramma Lou can fill us in someday... I always said when Em asked, I would let her and the asking came last week. It being close to her birthday I used the occasion to offer it up as her birthday present. She was very excited to go after school on Thursday. It was a girl's afternoon out and we hit up the piercing place at the mall. She chose 14k gold hearts with a pink color stone as her starters and she was incredibly brave about the whole process even though I could tell she was a bit scared about it hurting. They (smartly) asked if we wanted both ears done at the same time, we did, and before you know it - shazam! - the girl was sporting twinkling earrings at almost age 6. She hopped of my lap and I could sees tears welling up in her eyes, "Mama, it really hurts." "Don't worry, bugs, it will stop hurting soon." "But when?" "By the time we walk out to the car." A couple of tears spilled over and possibly scared off the girl waiting in line next to get hers done (sorry!) but she toughed it out and was all smiles and giggles when we got home and showed them off to Daddy.

Obviously, this is the BEFORE shot...

Friday was the last day of school. The dismissal was at 10:15 (ridiculous...) so Ben and I went to the school to pick her up and wave goodbye to all the teachers and busses as they honked their way off campus. It was a ton of fun and no tears were shed. She found out her teacher for next year will be Mrs. Coyne, another super star - Emma is definitely 3 for 3 with the top teacher in each grade so far (preK, K and 1st). I think this will be an inclusion class, which I am excited about - Em is so nurturing with the kids who struggle, I think this will be a great chance for her to develop those skills even more. She was disappointed she will not be with her bestie, Anna, but she will be in the same class with her awesome pal Kendall, so that certainly helped her get over the disappointment fast.

Sparkle and Shine - her tshirt says - that is what Emma does best!

We hit up our private beach with our 5 favorite families from Kindergarten for the afternoon. We figured hanging out with them would soften the blow of school being out - yes, at this age there is sadness when Summer vacation starts (more so for the Mommy than anyone else - ha!). It was the perfect afternoon, not too hot, no humidity, and a nice breeze of the sound.

That is Ben eating a bagel on the beach. Alliteration at it's finest.

We hopped on board an airplane yesterday and made our way to Florida for a visit with Abuelita and Grandpop. (Compliments of the Christmas flight fiasco - remember we were diverted to BWI at 2am and spent the night in the airport and then they left our luggage behind...? I complained and they gave us $500 worth of vouchers.) All was fabulous upon takeoff - until Ben starting shaking again and crying out with his hands over his ears, "I want to go on a slow plane! I want the plane to land! I want to play on the land!" over and over for a good 20 minutes! I could not do anything to calm him. It was so sad. Finally Daddy and I swapped seats and he snuggled him hard and busted out the iPad and Angry Birded him into calmness. Madness. This kid has flown a million times - I don't know why he is so afraid of take off all of the sudden. Abuelita picked us up at FLL and surprised the kids with Christmas like gifts when we got to their home. Ben was STOKED with his new AB on thin ice game. He couldn't wait to rip into the box, "Look, Grandpop! It's an Angry Birds game!!!"

Open it up!

The kids got to bed pretty late, but that did not stop Ben from his usual 6:30am wake up. No rest for the Mama - I'm supposed to be on vacation! Emma was up soon after asking when we could go to the pool. It rained all morning until about 10, then as Florida skies often do, the rain stopped, the clouds parted and it turned into the perfect swimming day. Emma remembered all her skills from last Summer and was excited to realize she can now touch in the 3 ft shallow end. Ben cannot touch, but the kid is still fearless. No floaties needed! We taught him how to sit on the edge of the pool and lower himself into the water while hanging onto the edge. Then how to hand over hand (or monkey) to the safety of the ladder or steps. It's a great skill to master when you can't touch the bottom and I am glad he figured it out so fast.

Watch me jump!

Catch me, Dad!

Funny things our kids say:
Emma asked if she needed a shower after the pool (she knows she needs to shower after the beach because she is covered in sand and salt), we said yes because she needed to wash the chlorine off. She replied, "That's right, if we don't wash the chlorine off, people will try to swim on us."

The walk to the pool is about 10 minutes from the house. Both kids were wearing their new sandals. Ben pointed out that Daddy was wearing flip flops and said, "Those sandals walk on water, Dad!" I wonder if they are the same model our pal, JC was wearing 2000 years ago.

While at the pool, Em was contemplating if she wanted to just jump in or take the stairs. Ben walked right up to her and pushed her in! It was so freakin' funny but so dang wrong - how does one punish a kid when it was an adorably cute maneuver that at first wielded tears, then laughs when she realized she survived?

Geronimo!

I feel like Belle

We had an awesome Father's Day! Saturday evening we got together with pals and had a family BBQ until well into the night. The kids had a blast (catching fireflies included) and melted down from exhaustion on the four minute car ride home. Good times! Sunday morning we were out the door bright and early for Daddy's softball game. So many games have been rained out this year so the season has extended into the Summer. It was a beautiful day though and we enjoyed being outside for the entire morning. Daddy spent the entire afternoon in the kitchen doing whats Daddy likes best and the kids and I played the day away. Ben decided that "pants were optional" and looked like this at one point on the couch:

I'm practicing for when I am a Dad. Where's my can of Schlitz?

Emma and I enjoyed the gorgeous day on our balcony. We possibly played every single board game we own - and guess what - she is actually PLAYING them with me now, not just going through the motions. You have to watch her though, she will cheat! The things you learn in Kindergarten...

I'm cute so I can get away with it - BUT NOT AGAINST MOMMY!

The day ended like it often does with books and snuggles, but I love this pic so much - especially on Father's Day.

Kids, you have one AMAZING Daddy.

Notice the train table in the above picture. Remember how Ben asked for one for 3 years straight and Santa finally found one on Craigslist last December? Remember how he played with the tracks and the bridges and the tunnels OFF the table and the table just collected junk and dust? Well... I'm getting ahead of myself...

NEXT, Emma has a Summer birthday so her teacher asked us to celebrate it early on Monday. It was super fun! Daddy read a book to the class, I baked cup cakes, Ben ate three (who's counting) and Em got to wear the birthday crown in school all day. (And, by the way, wears it whenever she is at home!)

"I fit right into this Kindergarten thing, Mom! Shall I just skip pre-K?" says Ben.

As I handed out the awesomely creatively most magnificent looking cupcakes to the 5 and 6 year olds, one kids said to me, "Emma's mom, why is there toothpaste on top?" Seriously? Decorating fail. Silly Mommy!

Killing two birds with one stone - sugary cupcakes and toothpaste to clean it away! Brilliance!! I tell ya!

Today was a beautiful day - it was also Emma's last full day of school so while she was away, we treated Ben to our last ever full day of two on one time (Daddy cleared his schedule so he could hang out). We headed out east to the farms and enjoyed STRAWBERRY PICKING! The berries were perfect!

No, Dad, pick this one!

I love this next pic. It was very bright out and he is squinting hard to keep his eyes open. The funniest part about this pic is he looks like he is in pain but really this is his best "I'll pick 'em but don't bother asking me to eat them" smile. Such a little turkey!

I get Ben's share!

Seriously, what kid will not eat fresh picked, taste explosion local strawberries??? Ben, that's who.

Okay, back to the train table that was collecting dust and junk. I listed it on craigslist 7 weeks ago and NOTHING! Nothing, I say, until today. (Long Island hasn't quite discovered the wonders of craigslist!) A Mom finally called me today and bought the table for her 2 1/2 year old son. I kept all the good mountains and tunnels and bridges and simply sold the table with extra tracks he didn't use and generic trains. (We held onto all things Thomas.) As I was sorting the goods and cleaning the table with spray he asked, "Whatcha doin', Mom?" "I'm cleaning the table so we can give it to a little boy who doesn't have one." "Oh, okay. Just don't sell my trains and bridges and stuff." Not a tear was shed - except maybe by ME! Because I have precious landscape back!! I used the cash to buy a cool bookcase ($10 left over!!) and we now have a LIBRARY! No more a few books here, a few books there! I really do feel like Belle when Beast gives her the library. The only thing missing are the cool ladders she gets to climb to grab the books on the top shelves...

And here, in the East wing of the Penthouse, you will find our wonderific library...

Report card

I cannot rotate this, so take my word for it, her scores are awesome.

I quote, "It has been an absolute pleasure to be Emma's teacher. You couldn't ask for a happier, hardworking child. Emma puts her heart, smile and greatest effort into all that she does. She loves to learn and to apply her developing skills. Emma will only continue to display these innate attributes as she continues her academic career..."

Whenever she hangs with pals for playdates, the parents give glowing reviews. We do love us this kid!!! But... feel free to scroll down and read my previous post!

We got us a smarty pants!

Pants on fire, again

Emma is a GOOD kid. Seriously, my next post will be her "report card" from school and how freakin' awesome she really is. But, dear readers, Emma has developed a new "challenge" - she is the queen of little white lies. The good news is, she still owns up to serious infractions. The bad news - the white lies are becoming more and more frequent. Needless to say, Mommy and Daddy will not tolerate it and she has been losing privileges left and right. Example numero UNO:

Zombie Boy

So, I'm tired. Really tired. I love me some sleep - good solid 6-8 uninterrupted hours...

I haven't been getting that. (And I shouldn't complain... it's only been a month or so, I have pals going on 6 years of interrupted sleep...)

So, let me start again:

Dear Ben, Hey buddy, so whatsahappenin'? You used to be the go to bed at 7pm, fall asleep within 3 minutes of your head hitting the pillow and sleep straight through until 6am kind of guy! Why, at age 4 years and 5 months would you want to revert to newborn phase - yes, buddy, you are up and demanding my attention every 2 hours!

Last night you scared the crap out of me. It was 3 am and I rolled over and your face was there - right there! and I screamed! I screamed loud! You might as well have been saying, "Braaaaaaiiiins. Braaaiiiins!" with the way you were staring at me. After my scream, you climbed right into my arms and said ever so sweetly, "Don't be scared, Mom, it's just me." You snuggled in so wonderfully until my thumping heart beat slowed itself and we both fell back asleep for an hour or two...

Zombie Ben. Don't chew me up tonight. Sleep well my sweet prince, so I can, too. I love you!

June bloom

Back in LA,  June was cloudy and grey and gloomy for the entire month. Then July hit, the clouds burned off and it was 100˚. We don't get the 100˚ temps, but the humidity makes it feel about that some days and last week was rain rain rain, so it was a bit gloomy - but Mother Nature was working with us once again and gave us a bright and sunshiny weekend!

We still hang out with our pals pictured below a couple times a week. They are in a different school district though and we are now making separate friends so we don't hang out nearly as much as we used to. Funny how that works. George (on the right) is going through an "I hate girls" phase, too, so he isn't much fun for Emma to play with anymore. I love this pic of them cozy on the backyard swing last Tues evening.

Ben, are you picking your nose??

We've been enjoying the private village beach more and more. This pic was snapped yesterday. Guess what I did while the kids were playing so very well together? I READ A WHOLE CHAPTER OF A BOOK!!! My babies are growing up...

Like my framing? I couldn't see the lens at all because it was so bright! Total guess shot hoping to get both kids in frame.

Em has been nonstop bugging us to play with the pencil blasters since she played with them at her girlfriend's house last week. It was sunny and warm this morning so I shooed everyone out of the house and the blasting began. Daddy was the target of favor today!

Why is Mommy still dry?

Our village celebrated 50 years of incorporation today with a picnic at the waterfront. There was a live 60s band, games, face painting (Em got a flower, Ben got a Bad Piggie), and free cotton candy. Em ate hers in about 12 seconds, Ben had one nibble and was like, "No, Fanks." I took a bite of his and spit it out. Man, that stuff is sweet! How the heck did I eat an entire bag of it at the fair every summer? Nasty!

Can I have seconds? NO. Can I eat Ben's? NO! Can we go get ice cream now? YES!

Kids schmids - or Cryptic ramblings...

Let's talk about me for a minute.

It has been one heck of a week. All experiences to learn and grow from.The blog in my head will explain it in more detail if you are interested, but first you may need to buy me some Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate... Not the real good stuff - 85% is too much goodness, just the 58-60% stuff.

Today was an interesting day. I will start out by saying I am incredibly grateful for the friends we have surrounded ourselves with here. I needed some 'hard core hours with my kids' babysitting this week and everyone I called came through. We are blessed, BLESSED - I tell ya, with the awesome "village" (and it really does take a village to raise kids) with which we are surrounded.

Do y'all remember when 3 (yes, THREE!!??!!) years ago, we loaded the kiddos on a plane with Gramma Lou, put all our stuff on a semi, loaded two dogs and the left over bags into our wee little Toyota Matrix and headed across the country? The first three days we leisurely wound our way through California, Nevada, Idaho, Wyoming, and South Dakota, then - missing our babes - we set the cruise control at 75 and spent 15 hours a days for the next 2 days speeding to PA to be reunited?

Emma and Ben, just a reminder here why we chose to do that... About 4 years ago our mentors at our company challenged us to open an office in unchartered territory. They specifically asked, "Where do you want to raise your kids?" We wanted a) great public schools; b) seasons; c) culture d) a need for what it is we do (our business).

Long Island had all those qualities and off we went.

Three years later and I am convinced we made the RIGHT choice. a) I'll talk about in a minute. b) we have got us some SEASONS - can you say hurricanes? Blizzards? Awesome Fall foliage? The SMELL of Spring? c) Our beautiful beaches, NYC in our back pocket... 'nuff said. d) Our biz is flourishing and allows me to make my own schedule so I can be home with my babes when I need to - complete control over my time and income and no "boss" to answer to... Yes, please.

Enough, Mom, what is this post all about?? Let's talk about a). Great public schools. Our school district is small. For example, there are 4 Kindergarten classes and each has 20 kids. We win honor after honor for excellence in education, #546 in all schools in the entire USA, etc etc etc. That's all well and good but today I understood why. Why is this school so special? I was asked (as a PTA board member) to sit in on the interviews for assistant principle for the next school year. There were 10 of us on the committee - 7 academics, 3 "laymen". (me = layman) I cannot say any more (!) because I signed a confidentiality agreement, but I can and will say I now know why this district is so great - the entire process was democratic, fair, awesome, compelling, a learning experience, and instilled in me a calm knowing that what we chose for our babes is AWESOMEness at its finest.

(Henry's Mom - you seriously will be unable to leave when Henry's Dad is done with his higher education next year... Seriously...) I'm just sayin'.

In conclusion - (was there ever a real introduction or a body?) I love my husband. I love my kids. I love and appreciate my family. I love and appreciate my friends. I'm feeling blessed. And Emma and Ben of the future - you are the bestest kiddos a Mommy and Daddy could ever EVER hope for. WE LOVE YOU. Ramblings - out. :)

ahhhh, school bus

Emma's school bus only has kids K-5 on it. The Ks are required to sit up front and the 5th graders are in the back. As much as that helps to shelter the little ones from the "talk" of the big ones, every once in a while something slips by and Em will tell me about it as we walk up the hill to the penthouse from the bus stop.

Today she said, "Mom, guess what. Lucas got in trouble for saying the eff you see kay word on the bus." (Yes, she spelled it and did not say it.) I found this slightly fascinating because Brian and I have NEVER used this word in front of our kids (yes, we used to have potty mouths, but when the kids were born - we cleaned up real fast) so I am guessing she found out just today that this is a bad word and she shouldn't say it due to the reactions from the other kids on the bus when Lucas said it.

Someone told the bus driver and he wrote up poor Lucas ( a fellow kindergartener with older siblings) and is sending him to the principle's office tomorrow which will instill great fear in any young kid - I wonder if he will get much sleep tonight?