Monday, April 23, 2012

Hello 3-0

Last week I celebrated my big 3-0 and boy was it fabulous!  I had no hesitation about turning 30 and was so excited when my hubby told me that he had planned a surprise weekend for me!  This was the first time that I had ever left Aiden and while I was incredibly nervous about being away from him overnight, I knew that eventually it would have to happen!  Being the paranoid Momma that I am, I left about 5 pages of notes for Nana and Pops...I knew he would be in good hands and probably completely spoiled but I was still a nervous wreck!
On Friday the hubs and I packed up the car for destination unknown.  Have you ever tried to pack for a weekend away to a location that is undisclosed?  It was torture.  Throughout the entire trip in the car Leif kept the navigation screen off, his answers to my questions vague, and he would not even tell me how long we would be in the car.  After sitting in traffic for over an hour and listening to the navigation say "continue straight" for what seemed like an eternity we finally reached our destination....NYC!!!!  We checked into the hotel, freshened up, and headed out on the town for our first full night without our boy.  We had a relaxing sushi dinner followed by some drinks at a fun pub near our hotel!

As sad as it is to say, we were in our hotel a little after midnight and SO ready for a full night of sleep with no interruptions and no alarm clock in the form of a 2.5 year old.  As we were getting into bed Leif asked me if I wanted a gift early...YES PLEASE!  So he grabbed his xoom tablet and handed it to me and hit play!  He had put together a 15 minute video of pictures of me from the time I was a baby to now with video clips from some of my best friends wishing me a happy birthday and talking about our friendship!  I was a mess...I cried, laughed, and watched it 3 times in a row!!!  It was AMAZING!!!

Saturday after we woke up...LATE...we got ready and headed out for lunch.  After lunch Leif says that we have a 2pm appointment that we need to make????  So again, destination unknown...after walking a few blocks he stops me and says "Ok, we are here"...

Wicked on Broadway...
We were a little early for the show so he recommended that we hit up the bar next door and have a "Wickedtini"...YES PLEASE!!!

The show was amazing.  I have always loved music, dance, theater, and performing so it was an incredibly mesmerizing experience.  I could have probably watched it over and over again and see something new everytime.  At intermission Leif asked me what I thought..."I want to be up there dancing"...I'm a dork!!!

After the show we headed back to our hotel to get ready for dinner.  Once we were ready Leif said that he had heard about this bar and wanted to go there before dinner to have drinks...again, I just followed along because I knew he wouldn't tell me where we were going.  We took a cab to a fun little Irish pub that "someone" had recommended to him.  As we walked into the pub Leif headed past the bar and toward the back of the restaurant.  As we reached the back I heard "SURPRISE!!!!"  I looked up to find my family and  friends there to surprise me for my birthday!  I was in SHOCK!!!  I was so confused to see all of these familiar faces in this big city during our weekend away!  It took me a while to really register the thought that the people who mean the most to me were standing in front of me at a bar in NYC!  To be honest I was a little overwhelmed!  The "party" was complete with food, drinks, a cake, presents and some beautiful letters from those who love me!  It was amazing...
Our next stop was to hit up the town...we hit up a few bars, danced, sang karaoke, and had AMAZING conversation!  The whole night I just kept hugging everyone and saying "I can't believe you are here"

My Momma

My bestie and her hubby...came from MD
My sister left her 4 month old baby to be there for my day!!!

My Bro....

The karaoke couple!

My girl...

LATE night poses!
After a night and weekend like this, I have spent a lot of time reflecting on just how lucky I am.  I can't help but think about the value of relationships.  I truly value all of my relationships and I really just want the same in return.  As I get "older" and my time for "hanging out" becomes much more rare, I realize how important that time is, not just for me but for my friends as well, and my goal is to maximize that time with valuable relationships!  I am completely overwhelmed by the lengths that were taken to surprise me and to make this night happen!  Hotels and flights were booked, babysitters and doggy sitters were called in, people took off work and sacrificed precious family time for some (awesome) Teresa time!  THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to each of you who went out of your way to make my 30th so memorable!!!  I really really try to always be a giver with out wanting in return...but, selfishly, sometimes it is really nice to be on the other end of the gesture!!!
Finally, I must say that my man went to the ends of the earth and back to make this weekend so amazing!  Somehow between working long hours, studying, and being a great father and husband, he found enough time away from me to plan an amazing birthday!!!  I am not sure how he did it considering he can't access email at work, I am always home with him, and I am completely nosy...but he did it!!!  THANK YOU my love for making my 30th Birthday unforgettable!


Sunday, April 8, 2012

It takes a village...

They say it takes a village to raise a child...well, it also takes a village to get a picture of a group of children!  Picture this....6 mommies, 6 daddies, 2 grandma's, 2 grandpa's, and 1 great-grandma plus 9 children under the age of 4!  We had a fabulous time hunting for Easter eggs in an absolutely beautiful location!  We decided to get a group shot of the kiddos...all hands were on deck for this mission!!!

Let's dump the eggs out of the basket...

OK, everyone sit down...

Are we ready???

Is anyone looking at the camera?

Wait, don't leave yet...
Where's Jack???

almost there...

close...

Happy Easter 2012!!!
You should have seen us!!!  The "paparazzi" lined up trying to get all of the kids to look in the same direction at once!  Eventually, we made it work and I think we all had such a great time!!!  Special THANK YOU to the Amber and Jim for hosting all of us!  Check out how awesome our backdrop was for today's festivities...
Not too shabby!!!
Happy Easter!!!
 

Saturday, April 7, 2012

scheduled...

This will be short, sweet, and to the point!  I have scheduled my surgery to have the tumor in my head removed for April 26th at 8:30 a.m.  We are waiting until the end of the month because Leif's schedule will be a little less dense and therefore allow for him to actually be there for my surgery!  I have already done my pre-op and we are ready to go!  During my pre-op appointment the OR nurses were so encouraging and comforting!  They will be the ones with me before, during, and after my surgery!  They promised that they wouldn't let the doctor shave too much of my hair :-)!  They also reassured me several times that this is exactly what they would do if they were in my shoes!  My recovery time will be 1 week so please pray that I can relinquish control for that time...my mom will be here to take care of Aiden and I just hope that I can let go enough to allow her to help me!
We have tried our very best to personally share the news with the majority of our family and friends but at the end of the day I am sure I missed a few...sorry if you didn't get the phone call!  I am sure Leif will keep everyone updated on surgery day and with a week of recovery I will be posting so much that everyone will be sick of me!  Thank you again for all of the emails, calls, texts and messages!  I appreciate everyone's love, prayers, and support!
Happy Easter!!!

Friday, April 6, 2012

Early Birthday Love...

I LOVE Birthdays...not just mine but all birthdays!  I think birthdays are a big deal!  I usually celebrate my birth month!  Every weekend in the month of April is dedicated to celebrating my birthday!  As I get older...nothing has changed!  I will be turning the big 3-0 next week and I am not the least bit upset about it!  We have been so busy lately with putting our SC home on the market, searching for a new home in VA while living in RI (confused?), getting ready for my surgery and the hubby's work schedule becoming more time consuming that I have completely neglected my birth month!  But lucky for me, those who love me have not!  Yesterday I received 2 surprises in the mail...I LOVE getting mail!!!
First, I received the most thoughtful card from my mom.  My mom is a card person...she takes her card giving very seriously!
The next surprise was in a white box that looked like it contained checks...there was a return address but it wasn't from anywhere that I recognized!!!  Inside the box was this...
I, of course, did what any other adult my age would do when they receive a gift a week before their birthday!  I immediately opened it :-)
Mother of pearl heart Pandora charm!
HUGE THANK YOU to one of my best friends Alison for the beautiful and thoughtful gift!  You sure know how to make a girl feel special!

Normally, I spend my birthday with my best girls, my man, and lots of wine!  This year our schedule just doesn't permit time to travel to my favorites but don't worry ladies, we will make up for it this summer!  It's not as exciting being so far from my family and my best friends on my birthday but the hubby has a fun weekend planned for us so I am really anxious to see what he has in store!!!  I am sure it will be blog worthy....

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Bunny Bait


After posting a picture of some Easter treats that I made for Aiden's class, several people suggested I blog about it!  So here it is...the details of "Bunny Bait"!  First let me say that I did not design or even think of this idea on my own.  Like many, I found this cute idea on Pinterest and just had to try it!  I will tell you how I did it and then I will tell you what I would do differently!!

Ingredients:
2 cups rice chex
2 cups pretzel sticks
1 bag of tender white popcorn
1 bag of white melting chocolate
Easter M&M's
Spring Sprinkles (think cupcake sprinkles but in spring pastels)


Spread Chex cereal, pretzels, and popcorn on cookie sheet (I used wax paper on my cookie sheet)
Melt white chocolate according to directions
Pour over first 3 ingredients and stir to coat
Sprinkle on spring sprinkles (do not stir after this or else you will coat colored sprinkles in white chocolate)
Add M&M's
Let sit until chocolate is completely cool (to speed up the process put it in the refrigerator for 20 minutes or so)
Break apart and put into bags with pre-printed label...again, I did not design this label...I simply found the template, printed it to card stock, cut it out to fit the candy bags I bought at Michael's!  Easy Easy...

Here is what I would do differently...
Less popcorn...the amount of popcorn was overwhelming and it sucked up all of the chocolate.  I only used 3/4 a bag...next time I will use 1/2 a bag
More Chex cereal...I think Chex with a chocolate coating on it is way more appealing than popcorn...the chex got lost in the popcorn so next time 3 cups of Chex.
My pretzel sticks seemed really long so next time I will break them up
More Chocolate...I used 1 bag...could have used more!
More Sprinkles and M&M's...I found myself adding sprinkles and M&M's to each bag for color...
One last tip...spread the mixture as thin as possible on the cookie sheet...it was hard with all of that popcorn but it makes it easier to coat everything in chocolate and spread the sprinkles and M&M's more evenly for better color appearance!!!
Aiden Approved!!!

Monday, April 2, 2012

My baby can read...


OK not really...Aiden received the cutest book as a gift for his success in potty training.  It's not your average "go pee pee in the potty book"...It's a book about "what to know when you gotta go"!  We read this book a million several times a day.  Aiden now likes to read it to us....here is a little clip of my baby "reading"!  (Sorry for the bad quality..I am new to the iphone) 
In case you can't hear or understand him, here is a little transcript of "what to know when you gotta go"...

"Plan Ahead!  Don't wait too long!  Go Potty Before you sleep!  Excuse yourself!  Knock first!  Be sure to lift up the seat!  Close the door!  Don't lollygag!  Never forget to wipe!  Wash your hands!  Flush and zip!  Always turn out the light!"

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Gearing up for Easter...



The other day Aiden was in one of his chatty moods!  If I have failed to mention it, the boy loves airplanes.  He always talks about going on an airplane and taking trips on an airplane (or helicopter haha).   Sometimes we have the funniest conversations...here is our conversation from Friday.
"Mommy, we are going on an airplane tomorrow"
Me: We are?
A:  "Yeah, we are going to Charleston to see Nana and Pops."
Me: Awww sweetie, I wish we were but guess where we are going tomorrow?  We are going to an Easter fair to see the Easter bunny.
A:  "Oh, I love the Easter bunny, he's my favorite.
Me:  He is?  Aiden, do you know what Easter is?
A:  "Yeah, it's the Easter bunny's birthday!"

I had about 2.5 seconds to make a parenting decision.  Do I correct him, even though I think for a 2.5 year old his response was a.) adorable and b.) pretty ingenious (Christmas is Jesus' birthday so Easter has to be someones birthday) or do I quickly figure out how to explain the true meaning to him???  I tried to do a little of both...encourage his imagination and creativity with a laugh and a hug and then I tried my very best to explain to him the Resurrection of Jesus Christ...I'll be honest, he didn't get it!  But I did my best...So Moms out there, how do you explain the true meaning of Easter to your LITTLE ONE with out stifling his imagination and still preserving a tiny bit of magic and excitement that only a fluffy bunny can bring???

He gave the bunny a high-5 but wouldn't get near him with out Mommy...better than his response to Santa!