Supermodel?!

A couple of months ago I was asked to model in this year's Spring Fling Fashion Gala which benefits the Miss Delaware Org.  At the time it sounded like fun and I knew It would be good encouragement for me to get back on the dreadmill so I agreed to do it.

Fast forward a couple of weeks...I go out and purchase the "model shoe" which is a platform heel that is probably 6 inches high but feels like 12.  I bought them pretty far in advance because my usual shoe these days are flats or sneaks.  I knew I would need time to practice.  The day after I purchase these devices of female torture, I fracture my foot and end up on crutches (with no help from the heels).  It occurs to me as I sit at the Doctor that I am such a klutz.  It's still a mystery as to how I actually obtained the stress fracture (running?).  So I realize that if it's possible for me to get a fracture doing nothing, imagine the damage I can create on these stilts that I am going to have to walk the runway in.  Total fear sets in!  I trip every single day...over my feet.  What on earth have I agreed to?!  And...it's just too late to back out.

Fast forward a few more weeks.  It's fitting day.  I was actually kind of excited for my fitting.  I was assigned Tiger Lili for my store.  I love Tiger Lilli...this store is every pageant girl's dream.  Lots of glitz, dresses and  sparkly jewelry.  I decided to wear my "model shoe" to the fitting thinking it would be good practice to walk around in them and then we would know exactly how long of a dress I could work with.  As I walk into the store I trip...yep, over my own feet.  I didn't fall but definitely stumbled into the store and practically into one of the individuals who would be my stylist.  I seriously wish I could have read his mind...or maybe not.  The rest of the fitting was pretty uneventful.  They stylists picked my 3 outfits out pretty quickly but then it took ages for them to find the perfect accessories.  I found this all to be pretty amusing since these days I have about five minutes to dress myself for the day and than I just pray that I don't end up with any applesauce, snot or something much worse rubbed on me until I make it out the door.  All in all, the fitting took about two hours.

Sunday was the big day.  When I woke in the morning my very first thought was, "God, please don't let me fall on my face today".  I realize that is really sad but none the less, it's true.  We were all assigned a "call time" for hair and make-up.  I had to be at the salon pretty early in the day to get started.  Hair and Make-up took place at a fancy shmancy salon in Wilmington and was so much fun.  I forgot how much fun it is to let someone pamper you like that.  I wish I hadn't been quite so nervous because I could have enjoyed it more.  Some of the other models were also pageant has-beens so we had so much fun catching up and joking.  The "real models" were also at the salon...you know the ones who are 6 feet tall and weigh 90 lbs.  I'm not even going to lie...their presence made me even more nervous.

After hair and make-up, we headed over to the Chase Center for rehearsal. A couple other Has-Beens and I watched the "real models"  work the runway.  We were cracking up because those girls knew exactly what they were doing.  They were spinning and swinging their hips and I'm still just praying that I don't fall at this point.

In the end...I didn't fall on my face!  And, I had a blast.  I actually enjoyed playing model for the day but I had even more fun goofing off backstage with some of my has-been sisters.  We laughed, set up a whole scenario for the single girls to get on the bachelor, made fun of each other and our outfits, took lots of pictures, drank some wine and enjoyed catching up with each other.  I will most likely regret saying this but...I hope they invite me back next year:-)

In my evening gown look

Bliss and I in casual wear.  Yee Haw!

Miss DEs 96, 11, 91 & 99

Brynn came to watch and just stole my heart.  You could tell that she was just really proud of her Mama.  It really made it all worth it.

One of the "real Models".  I wonder why they didn't give me this outfit?  Lol!!!

Children's Museum

On Friday Brynn's class took a field trip to Wilmington to go to the Children's Museum.  I was unable to go due to a meeting at work but fortunately Dan was able to make the trip.  They all had a great time and enjoyed a picnic lunch on the Riverfront thanks to the perfect weather. I'm not sure who was more ready for a nap....Dan or Brynn?

Brynn at the giant water table

Brynn and a couple of her friends "specting" some stuff.

The class

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Would it be okay if we all just pretended that I actually wrote this post last Saturday on St. Patrick's Day.  Okay...great!

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!

Colton and Brynn dressed up for their school parties. They LOVED the green hair!

St. Patrick's Day is extra special in my family because it also my nephew Hunter's Birthday.  We had a wonderful time celebrating Hunti's big day at Exbos (which is just a giant playland for kids and adults).  Happy Birthday Hunter.  We love you!

Colti and Dan

Happy Birthday Hunti!

The girls were not very happy being locked up!

Emma and Colton were about to rock it out!

On Sunday, Brynn had a birthday party at Chuckie Cheese for her school friend Elsie.  I took Brynn to the party and Dan and Colti stayed home for some guy time.  Brynn was in her element running around with all of her friends and dancing with Chuckie. 

What I learned at this party was quite shocking. I think my baby girl may have her first crush.  She and a little boy named Caleb hung out together the entire time.  They played, laughed, danced, held hands and looked so stinkin cute.  Now to be fair...Brynn would probably do that with any of her girl friends too...at least that is what I'm telling myself.  However...early in the school year Caleb did ask Brynn to marry him.  Hmmmmm...

Brynn and Caleb

Birthday Pictures

I always take off work the day of the kids birthday.  I want their birthdays to be special and I like to take them to Picture People to get their portraits done because I LOVE the idea of having a portrait from their actual birthday.  I have done this for Brynn and am determined to do the same for Colton.   I had scheduled an appointment for Colton on Monday morning and was quite pleased with myself that I was actually following through with my plan to do this on his birthday but then he got hurt on Sunday night.  I decided not to worry about it and just see how he was the next day.

We went to see the dentist first thing in the morning and got out of the office with just enough time to make it to our scheduled appointment.  Colton was feeling pretty good at that time and I thought why not give it a shot?  Brynn was also scheduled for pictures (She wants to go to school on her birthday this year so I figured this was close enough) so I just went with the thought that at a minimum I could get her done.  So with a swollen face, messed up tooth and bruise on his head I took Colton to get his portraits done.  I figured that this portrait will just be a reflection of where he is right nowJ

When I got to the studio, I explained to the photographer that I wanted pictures of each of the kids by themselves and pictures of them together but that under the circumstances I had no idea if Colton would cooperate. Colton was still pretty clingy at this point and just wanted me to hold him.

We started with Brynn who completely enjoyed the process and posed like a little model.  We then attempted to add Colton into the mix.  It was a rough start!  The photographer and I tried everything we could think of to get that boy to smile but he wasn’t  really feeling it.  I was literally sweating from all of the dancing and jumping around I did. It took awhile but he eventually eased into it.  By the end he was hamming it up like a pro.  We didn’t get any great ones of the kids together but we didn’t end up with a passable one and some great individual shots.

Hopefully next year this will be accomplished with a lot less drama!

Here are a few of my favs and few that are just funny:-)

 

Kindergarten Registration

I still have to catch up you up on my weekend of birthday madness but before I get to that I wanted to tell you that today was a very big day for my girl.  We took her to kindergarten registration.  It was a fairly simple process with lots of paperwork to fill out.  However, the whole thing was just kind of surreal.  It doesn't seem possible that my baby is actually going to go to THAT school next year.  Dan and I of course had a million questions.  At one point Dan asked whether we walk Brynn to her classroom or if there is someone else to do it.  When the register lady told us that Brynn would actually walk herself to her classroom my heart sank.  I wanted to yell, "BUT SHE IS A BABY!".  I am so not ready for this!  It just does not seem fathomable to me that I am going to drop her off at the door and she is going to have responsibility and a whole other life that I will have limited information about.  Did I mention that I am not ready for this?!

We did walk Brynn around the school a bit and showed her the important things...cafeteria, gymnasium, art room.  This is Dan and I's elementary school and it was a bit comforting that we pretty much knew the lay of the land.  It was a little like stepping back in time and it made me really happy to remember how wonderful most of those years were for me.  We even found an old Basketball Trophy with Poppop's name on it (This school is ancient and at one time was Felton High School which is the school that both of my parents graduated from).

I think Brynn is half excited and half nervous about this new adventure.  She was a little shy today but I know she will love every single minute of it.

Brynn with her new uniform shirt.

Happy Birthday Colton!

Dear Colton:

I can’t believe that it has been two years since you entered our lives.  You have brought more joy and happiness into our lives than you will ever know.  You are a little ball of sunshine that can make Mama and Daddy laugh and give us gray hairs at the same time. 

Last night I sat by your bed and watched you sleep for a long time.  I wondered what your future holds.  What will you be when you grow up?  What sports will you play?  Will you always love music?  Just like every night I thanked God for bringing you into our lives and allowing me to be your Mama.

You have settled in nicely at your new school now.  Your teachers adore you and often comment on how cute and ornery you are.  Mama and Daddy have been so impressed by all the things you are learning.  You can already say your ABC’s (this morning you were rapping the ABC song during breakfast) and count to 9 (after that it gets a little shaky).

On Saturday we had a Mickey Mouse (your favorite) themed birthday party for you.  We celebrated with a lot of our family and you just loved being the center of attention.  Mama and Daddy bought you a motorized motorcycle and Harley Davidson jacket.  You LOVED your gifts and seem like such a big boy riding your motorcycle.

Right now you love cars, Sesame Street (particularly Elmo), playing (and antagonizing) with your sister), T.O & Pumpkin and music.  You sing all of the time and have been known to make up your own songs as you go.  This morning you treated with a song and the words went something like this…”Happy,happy, happy Colton. Happy happy happy Brynnie.  Happy happy Elmo.”

On the morning of your birthday (Monday) Mama and Daddy had to take you for an emergency visit to the dentist thanks to a nasty fall the night before.  You were a bit terrified but very good for your first visit. 

We then went to the mall and got your pictures done (more on that later) and had lunch.  Grammie and I took you to the toy store and let you pick out a toy. Toys R’Us gave you a crown and balloon because it was your birthday and you were quite pleased with yourself.  You wore your crown proudly and picked out a miniature Woody and Bullseye from Toy Story.

That night you, Brynnie, Daddy and I celebrated your birthday with more cake and ice cream. 

I love you so much my sweet little Turtle!  Happy happy birthday!

Xoxo,

Mama

Colton's Birthday Crash

Sunday night Dan had run to the store for laundry detergent and I had just gotten the kids out of the bathtub and into jammies.  It has been a pretty exhausting day because the kids were still wound up from Saturday’s birthday party and the knowledge that Mama had taken off on Monday to spend Colton’s birthday doing fun stuff with them so I was counting down the minutes (which I thought were literally seconds away) until everyone was in bed and I could have a few minutes of alone time.  Colton and I had read our books for the night and for some reason he got out of bed to get something off of his train table.  As he is running back to his bed, he trips over his feet (graceful like his Mama) and the next thing I hear is a huge thunk.  I didn’t actually see the fall but just heard the noise.

He has fallen head first into his bed frame.  To be honest this is nothing new.  Colton has no fear and as a result falls into things on a pretty frequent basis.  My first thought was… “Well that will be a nice bruise on his head for the pictures that we have scheduled in the morning.”  It was such a loud thud that it never occurred to me that it could have actually been his mouth.  I swear that sound haunts me now.   I scoop him up and see that there is a ton of blood of coming from his mouth.  The first thing that I see is there a small cut on his lower lip that is bleeding pretty significantly.  As I’m taking him into the bathroom to clean him up he starts spitting up blood.  I sat him on the washing machine and see that his upper lip is also busted on the other side.  At this point I am trying to assess how bad the cuts are and then Colton starts pointing to his teeth.  There is so much blood in his mouth now that I think that one of his teeth is gone.  How I did not just pass out at this point I will never ever know. 

At this point Brynn has heard Colton (who never cries for more than a couple of seconds) screaming for several minutes. She wanders into the hallway from her bedroom and I don’t want her to see all of the blood (she is super sensitive) so I tell her to find my cell phone and put on shoes because we are taking Colton to the doctor.  With Colton on my hip I started running around trying to find shoes and my keys and to comfort him at the same time.  Brynn brings me my phone and I text poor Dan with “hospital!”.  I continue to wipe up blood with a rag and eventually realize that Colton’s tooth is not missing but it is crazily misplaced.  It is actually turned and pushed back.  Again…still amazed that I didn’t pass out! 

I go downstairs in an attempt to find keys and find Brynn trying to stuff her feet (clad with footie jammies) into a pair of dress shoes that are two sizes too small.  I tell her to find different shoes while I look for my keys.  She returns moment later with her snow boots on…whatever, that will work.  I still can’t find my keys but Dan has now gotten my text and calls me to find out what the heck is going on.  I am near tears at this point and tell him just to get home because we have to take Colton to the hospital because he has fallen and knocked his tooth out.

I get both kids buckled into the car and climb in the back with Colton who is still spitting blood and crying hysterically.  All he wanted was for me to hold him and I have never been so tempted to take him out of his car seat and do just that!

Dan arrives within a minute and we drive like bats out of…well you know where…to the hospital.  Dan drops Colton and I off at the door and once Colton is back in my arms he starts to settle down.  There is still a little blood and his face is starting to swell but he is calming down.  By the time we were called back to see the doctor he looks like he has gotten beat up but he is playing a little bit.

We see the ER doctor who is one of those people who prefers video games to actual personal contact…just a guess.  Colton will not even open his mouth for this guy (probably related to the fact that the doctor appeared afraid of children) so he calls in a nurse for back up.  Poor Dan had to hold Colton while the nurse held open Colton’s mouth and the Doctor looked at it.

The prognosis…nothing needs to be stitched up (thank God!!) and he needs to see the dentist first thing in the morning.

Dan and I went home for what was probably one of the longest nights of my life. Colton was in a lot of pain so I “slept” with him. He would sleep on and off but wake up whimpering and looking for me.  At some point I did fall asleep and I woke up to see Colton’s little face towards mine and blood was dripping out of his mouth and covering his pillow.  I did not sleep that rest of the night.

First thing in the morning (Colton’s Birthday) I call the dentist (these are seriously the greatest people in the world).  They tell me to come right away which is perfect because Dan and I are already on the way.  Dr. Quinn (who was my dentist when I was a child) took a look at it.  There isn’t much they can do at this point. The most important thing right now is to not mess with the blood flow anymore.  The roots are still strong.  Dr. Quinn believes that the tooth will correct itself somewhat though it will never move back to its exact original place again.  He gave Colton about an 80% chance of keeping the tooth.  Best case scenario is that he will have a very crooked baby tooth.  Worst case scenario is that the tooth will start to darken and they will have to remove it.  For the next 30 days we just wait…

Colton's first trip to the dentist.  He was terrified:-(

In the meantime my heart hurts so bad for the little guy.  His face was swollen for several days and he is on a “soft food only diet” for a week.  He is still having some pain and the slightest little bump to his mouth causes more bleeding.  I have gone over the whole thing in my head over and over again.  What if I had waited for Dan to come home before putting the kids to bed?  What if he hadn’t been wearing footie jammies?, What if I hadn’t allowed him to get back out of bed?  Sigh…just one of those times that you wish you could go back in time! 

Anyway, any and all prayers for my little man are appreciated more than you know!!

Fortunately cupcakes are on the "soft food only" diet!  I was trying to get a picture of Colton's tooth.  This doesn't really show how bad it is but you can see some of the bruising on his gums:-( 

Get Well Soon Colby!

Last week Dan and I were at a funeral in New Jersey.  As we are walking out of the viewing I pull my phone out to check on the kids and there is a text from my brother-in-law.  The text says that my nephew Colby has hurt his arm and is on his way into surgery.  It turns out that his attempt to hurdle over an ottoman ended up in him needing two pins in his arm. 

Colby is doing much better now but still not back to school.  I am so sorry that he got hurt but have had so much fun with all of the texts and facetime phone calls I have received from him.  We love you Colby!!!  Hope you feel better soon.

Colby after surgery

Colton's Birthday Bash

On Saturday we celebrated Colton's birthday with a Mickey Mouse themed party.  Colton is crazy about Mickey Mouse and I must admit that (thanks to Pinterest) I had a blast decorating.

This was actually not a Pinterest idea.  I adapted this from the Lollipops that I made for Brynn's birthday last year.  Just call me Martha...yea right;-)

Wreath...idea courtesy of Pinterest.

Tissue paper balls...Sorry you have to see all my decorations but I am not that crafty so when I do make something I am SUPER proud!!!

Colton's balloon which both kids are still playing with...worth every penny!



Colton's party was just family but we had such a wonderful time. We ate lots of yummy food and just enjoyed hanging out.  Colton was in his glory because he had most of his favorite people all in one room and he was the center of attention!



Dan and I gave him his big birthday gift which was a motorized motorcycle and a Harley Davidson jacket.  He loved it and appeared to be quite proud of himself.

Colton loved his birthday cupcakes but was a little overwhelmed with everyone looking at him and singing.  It was a great party.  Colton was quite a sleepy little birthday boy at the end of the day.  Thanks everyone for making it special...you guys are the best!!!

Birthday boy!!!

Madi's Birthday Party

I am so behind on blogs.  I have had a CRAZY couple of weeks and have tons to tell you.  I think I may need to blog twice a day to catch up:-)

A couple of week's ago Brynn and Colton were invited to their friend Madi's birthday party which was held at the gymnastics place.  I knew that Brynn would love it (because she just went to another party there) but was completely surprised by how much fun Colton had.  He had a giant grin on his face the entire time and was quite the little dare devil (which wasn't really a surprise).  The ball pit was his favorite.  I couldn't even get him to come out to eat lunch and Colton NEVER turns down a meal.  He did come out later for a cupcake:-)  He also adored the trampoline and I had to carry him off of that kicking and screaming.

We all had a blast at the party.  Even the adults got into the action and took turns on the trampoline.  I seriously want to have MY next birthday party there!!

In the ball pit

Birthday girl.  Happy Birthday Madi!

Brynnie enjoying her cupcake

Bounce, Bounce, Bounce!

Ronnie...Basket Ball Champion of the World (or at least of our family).

Last week I finally got the chance to go see my oldest nephew Ronnie play basketball.  In my head Ronnie is still 5.  I don't know why 5 but I just can't seem to get past that. So in my head this was going to be a friendly little game where they played on half the court and everyone cheered for both teams and no one really cares who wins.

Well...Ronnie is actually 10 and this was some serious stuff.  They played on the full court and it was really competitive.  People were screaming like crazy for their team (okay...so that was mostly my family) and the crazy man in front of me kept yelling at his child to get her head in the game (nope...this was not my brother...my brother was the crazy man BEHIND me:-)  ).

It was STRESSFUL. I have never really been the kind of person to stress out when competing in something but man watching someone you love is a complete different story.  You just have to sit there with NO control over the situation and Ronnie's team kicked some serious basketball booty so there was really no reason to stress.  We all had a great time and were so proud of Ronnie. 

I think it may be time to accept it...the kids are growing up:-/

Ronnie's Cheer Team

Team Pic

Future MBA All-Star

Sweet Girl

The other day I was have a pretty crappy day at work when all of the sudden I got a text from Brynn's teacher.  "Oh lord", I thought.  Texts from the teacher generally are not good news.  Fog delays, sick kids, lice in the classroom...you get the idea.

I opened the text and found the following picture.

Brynn had made the picture all by herself and the teacher was really impressed.  It made my entire day much brighter.  I'm so thankful for fabulous, thoughtful teachers and daughters!!

I love you too Brynnie!!!

Congratulations Destiny and Family!

Hey there.  I know I haven't written anything in a long time now so I just wanted to drop in:-)  It's not a lack of material but a lack of time that has kept me away. 

I will be back soon with lots of new posts but in the mean time I just wanted to send a huge congratulations to my friend Destiny and her whole family on their newest addition.  Camden Reed P.  arrived on March 2nd.  Isn't he gorgeous?!

I'm not even going to lie...I am holding a serious grudge here.  Who looks this good after having a baby?!?!