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Free ice cream & Happy B-day Nana

Posted on June 5, 2010 9:50 pm by TheAngelForever

Dear NHL & JSL,

Today, we had a very busy day. We started off going to get both of you new shoes for the wedding that we are going to. Of course, they did not have the right size in stock for NHL. Thanks to this, we went to the mall where another store was holding a pair for us. After we picked them up, tried them on and paid for them we decided to wander around for a little while. As we were walking, I remembered that Friendly’s was having free ice cream today from 12-5. I asked Daddy if he wanted to do it and he said yes. Since it was only 12:30, there was hardly a line and we got our ice cream fast. The two of you were very surprised with the treat and enjoyed it.

NHL, you decided that you wanted strawberry ice cream in a cone. JSL, you wanted chocolate, but we opted to do it in a cup to make it easier. Daddy had Apple Pie a La Mode, and I went for my usual Cookie Dough. We all enjoyed it and then went to several more stores and had a quick lunch.

After the mall, we went to BJ’s to get a few things for the house and for the picnic for NHL’s class. By the time we were finished, everyone was really tired. We went home for a little while and then met Nana, Papa and Mimi at the diner for Nana’s birthday dinner. Things were a bit shaky at times since everyone was cranky, but we made it through.

We went back to Nana and Papa’s house to play for a while and celebrate Nana’s birthday with a little cheesecake. It was fun watching JSL playing dominoes with Mimi. Before we knew it, the sky was getting dark and it was time to go home. We had a busy day and hope to be able to run around and have some fun around the house or at the park tomrorow.

Love,

Mommy

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birthday Dear Kid Saturday family jl jsl nhl photos shopping weekend yummy

Shoe shopping woes

Posted on June 4, 2010 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Let me start by saying that I am not the kind of girl that likes to go clothing or shoe shopping. If I find something that fits and I like it, I will buy several of the item to last and call it a day. On Sunday, I went out to look for a dress to wear to a family wedding coming up soon. Nothing that I had worked for a number of reasons, so shopping was a necessity. My mother and father took me to look in places that they had seen dresses. After no luck at Kohls (no dressy items at all), we went to JC Penney. My mother had bought her outfit for the wedding there and knew that they had a good plus sized department.

We got to the department and there was a lot to browse though. Of course, any two piece items were automatically out. My top and bottom are much different in size. I could technically go to the non-plus size for pants and skirts, but not tops. *sigh* There was a large display of summer dresses without sleeves. I was ready to dismiss them when my mother talked me into trying them on. She reminded me that I could always something to put over my arms if I wanted it.

The first dress I tried on left me without words. It fit, almost too well. The length was perfect, the sides were high enough to cover my bra and the girls were in place nicely. My mother asked why I never wore sleeveless items. I think this reminded me why. Most items are not made to fit like a dress and show off too much bra or even more that should not be seen. I kept trying more dresses on and fell in love with another dress. My mind immediately went to the cocktail parties at BlogHer this summer. I walked out of JC Penney with two new dresses at 50%. A quick call to TechyDad made me realize I was lucky not to be home.

Now the hunt is on. I need a pair of shoes to match my dresses. If at all possible, I would like silver wedges so they can be worn with both. Thursday, I spent the day on a shoe hunt. Talk about frustrating! Thanks to a high instep, cute shoes are hard to find that fit. Shoe after shoe did not work. I really liked a pair of silver wedges at Macy’s, but after 3 minutes the leather left a nasty looking rub mark on my foot.

Looking online is great, but I really need to try something on. Not sure I have enough time to order something in case it doesn’t fit. I did find a great looking pair of shoes called Cupcake from the YOU line by Crocs. Before you roll your eyes, check them out here:

So my question to you this week:

Do you like to go shopping for dressy clothing and shoes and why do you feel this way? If you are a shoe expert, any suggestions on where to hunt would be greatly appreciated.

Update: About 30 minutes after I typed this on Thursday evening, I was talking to my mother on the phone. She was near another shoe store and asked me to meet her there. Thank you Super Shoes! I found several pairs of shoes that fit, were cute and worked with my dresses. Not the best photo from my cell phone, but it will do for now (modeling shots were on Twitter last night).

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Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the MckLinky there if you are participating.

Aloha #102

Categories:
BlogHer family me moments shopping TechyDad vent

A wedding we will never forget

Posted on May 29, 2010 9:04 am by TheAngelForever

Dear NHL,

It seems like yesterday, Memorial Day weekend 2006. It was a very special weekend for our family. Uncle I was getting married, so Aunt M officially joined our crazy family. You decided to make things more interesting. On the car ride to the wedding, I noticed something. Your eye was glued shut. *sigh* This was the beginning of what we now lovingly call the Buffalo jinx!

Not only did you have pink eye, but the next day you spiked a really high fever. You were miserable and we were quite worried. Our doctor called in medicine for you (assuming you had an ear infection) so we could get you ready for the wedding. That weekend we became quite familiar with many pharmacies in the Buffalo area. Each time we had to do medicine, you fought us. You did not want to take anything, but we forced the issue.

On the day of the wedding, I was not with you much. I went with Nana to get our hair done. When I came back, you were running around the hotel room playing. As I was almost ready to leave, your temperature started to go up again. I felt so guilty, but I knew Daddy would take care of you with Nana and Papa’s help.

The next time I saw you, you were dressed in your cute little tux. You had a job to do. The two of us were in the wedding and going to walk down the aisle together. You were so adorable, even with your ultra pink cheeks. It was two months before you would be three, but you took your job seriously. You watched over the pillow with the ring making sure nothing happened to it.

Then, the moment we will all remember. Uncle I and Aunt M were under their chuppah. The room was quiet listening to the rabbi reciting the ceremony. Suddenly behind me, I heard a familiar little voice loudly declare "I need to go potty!" Oy! Daddy took you out quietly to the bathroom, where you apparently had no business to take care of. The two of you came back into the room and sat back down. Seconds later "I need to go potty!" boomed across the room again. Thankfully this time around, Daddy kept you out of the room. Both times the rabbi was quick on his feet and made a jokes about how these things in life happen and when you have to go, you have to go.

That night at the reception, even while sick and heavily medicated, you danced like a super star. You loved seeing all of our family and spending time with them. I’ll spare you with a few details of what happened when we forced your medicine at the dinner table. Let’s just say we learned our lesson the hard way.

Why did this come to mind today? One very important reason is yesterday was Uncle I and Aunt M’s 4th Anniversary (HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!!), so it made me relive the day. Another is we are going to another wedding in a few weeks. This will be your second wedding and JSL’s first. Daddy and I already have a plan on where to sit so we can have a quick escape route just in case. You taught us a very valuable lesson at your first wedding. Now here is hoping that your second wedding is filled with healthy vibes, quiet little boys and is fun and memorable for different reasons.

Love,

Mommy

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If you want to participate in Dear Kid Saturday, head on over to Cutest Kid Ever by clicking on the button below.

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Dear Kid Saturday family looking back nhl photos road trip sick kid

Presents and Thank you notes

Posted on May 21, 2010 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Some people may call be old fashioned, but I still believe in hand writing thank you notes to people. If someone takes the time to give you something special, the least you can do is write a note and add a personal touch. I think I owe this to my mother. She taught me to always write my thank you notes quickly and then I could use my new gives or deposit my checks. When we got married, I had my letters out to people within two weeks of getting back from our honeymoon – not too shabby!

When I was teaching, I made sure to mail notes to any student’s at their homes. If it was winter break, I wished them a Happy New Year. When it was the end of the year, I thanked them for a fun year and wished them a wonderful summer vacation. On the flip side, I also worked with my students on the art of letter writing. We read The View From Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg (love this book for so many reasons) and talked about the importance of a good "bread and butter" note. We thought about people in our school that helped us a daily basis that could use a nice thank you and wrote them notes to brighten their day. It was always interesting to see who the kids would select from within the building.

Last weekend was JSL’s third birthday party. With the celebration came these presents:

Since the boys are still little, I am the author of their notes. NHL is getting to the point where he can do them, but larger amounts of notes can be too much at six. While I was writing the notes for JSL on Wednesday, I decided to get him involved. I left space on the bottom of the note for him to draw a picture for the recipient with crayons (act surprised everyone when you get them). As I handed the card to him, I told him who it was for. He would shout out their name and immediately begin a special creation for them.

When JSL was done, the card came back to me to go inside the envelope. He was so proud that he helped Mama. I guess getting the kids involved in thank you note writing as young as possible is a good thing.

So my question to you this week:

Do you hand write (not e-mail) thank you notes to people? Why do you or don’t you write them?

P.S. This is my 100th Aloha Friday – I think I need to write Kailani a personal note to thank her for all of these weeks of fun!

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Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the MckLinky there if you are participating.

Aloha #100

Categories:
Aloha Friday birthday family jsl looking back milestone photos

Winnie the Pooh 3rd Birthday Party

Posted on May 20, 2010 11:12 am by TheAngelForever

As I have mentioned in the past, JSL is quite ~~obsessed~~ in love with Winnie the Pooh and friends. Since our trip to Disney in February, he has declared that he only wants to wear items with Tigger and Pooh, watch their movies/shows and play with those toys. Thanks to this, we knew exactly what theme would be in place for JSL’s third birthday party over the weekend.

Everyone arrived to the party as we were still preparing the food. During this time, we had a little fun and excitement that many of us could have lived without. When we took the pizza bagels out of the oven, I put them down onto a trivet. Mistake #1 – it was plastic and must have adhered itself to the bottom of the cookie sheet. Thanks to this, when TechyDad put the cookie sheet back into the over. . . the plastic trivet went in to bake.

Nobody noticed anything until the time was up and we were pulling the goodies out of the oven. At that point, TechyDad and I both saw flickering. Sure enough we had a fire. Both of us yelled to get attention of others to come and help. I immediately turned off the oven and made sure the kids were not coming into the room. Meanwhile, my father and TechyDad worked to make sure that the flame was going out. It was at this point that we figured out the culprit of the fire. Luckily it went out pretty quickly, but left a rather large mess. This is what the rack that had the trivet and cookie sheet looked like in the end:

When all was said and done, nobody was hurt, the oven appears to be ok and the food was fine. Here is the food that was served for lunch:

We had veggies and dip, whole grain white rice (testing it for a review), vegetarian "meatballs" with sweet and sour sauce, pizza bagels, Mac & Cheese (Toy Story shapes), and mini bread bowls filled with two types of toppings.

As some of the kids cleared out from the kitchen, Uncle M sat down with NHL, JSL and SG. They were too cute sitting there together and chatting together, so we had to take a photo.

As we transitioned from lunch to cupcake time, the kids were able to play and baby be held by lots of people. JSL and SG had a ton of fun with each other, while Mimi and Aunt T held baby BA.

Two weeks earlier, I asked people for suggestions on what kind of Winnie the Pooh cake I could make. In the end, I went with something I had done before and was suggested by Maryellen Hooper (you are such a Rock Star – love ya!). I made cute cupcakes wrapped in Winnie the Pooh and Tigger liners and had JSL’s characters parading around them on the table. Simple, practical and no real worries. I had wanted to make a giant cupcake, but was not sure how it would work with egg substitute (my niece is allergic to eggs). Since there was no time for a test run, we did regular cupcakes. Here are all of the goodies ready to be devoured:

Thanks to my handy dandy decorating tool and Aunt M for helping me with operation frost and sprinkle, the cupcakes came out really nicely. It was soon time for the little guy to be shy and have everyone sing Happy Birthday to him. After several attempts, he was finally able to get the 3 candle blown out with a little assistance (we were all a little fire phobic for a reason ya know).

JSL had asked for chocolate cake with chocolate frosting (not my kid), so we bought those to make. When it was time for him to eat his cupcake, he did not want it. Note him eating it with a spoon and not being too enthusiastic. Meanwhile big brother and cousin SG loved theirs.

Once the kids were cleaned up, it was present time. More on this tomorrow for my Aloha Friday topic/question of the week.

It really was a nice party. Aside from the fireworks from the oven, it went rather smoothly. One thing is for sure, thanks to that we will always remember JSL’s third birthday party.