celebrating our 90 yr old troublemaker

the party on sunday for my grandma went REALLY well!

there was a really good turn out ...
AND
our whole family was together
(the man in the top left corner is my grandpa's brother - the one of 4 that is still alive)

there was a chocolate fountain ...
(seriously ... can any party with a chocolate fountain not be incredible?!)

there was a table with a lot of memories that were fun to look at ...
(and take pictures of ... ha ha)



we ate a TON of good food ...

saw people we haven't seen in a long time ...

and had fun with my grandma.

so i would say it was a definite success.
NICE PARTY, MOM!

**********
as a side note --
have i mentioned how rowdy 90 year olds are?!

trying to get a picture of my grandma smiling always took a few shots.
she would wave at me ...
make funny faces ...
(i can't tell you how many pictures i have where she is sticking her tongue out at me)
and just plain ignore me. ON PURPOSE!

then ... i tried to get my great aunt in on a picture (she's the lady in the purple)
first they looked at each other ... said 'she wants a picture' and laughed.
then my great aunt grabbed the bunny balloon and it just went downhill from there.
i have to mention that i heard these same 2 flashed one of my cousins at the nursing home the other day as well!!

it was at this point that i gave up any hope that i had for a picture with my grandma and 3 great aunts - i couldn't even control 2 of them!
(my grandpa had 3 brothers and and all 4 wives are still alive)
the best i could get was the pic in the bottom left corner and you can't even see them all ;)

i tell ya ... i thought 2 yr olds were tough ;)

cousin fun

we went to WI this weekend for my grandma's birthday party.

that meant lots of cousin time with aiden.
thankfully it was a BEAUTIFUL day on saturday and we were able to get outside and play - A LOT!

90 years!!!

today my grandma turned 90!
that is so crazy to me!

90 YEARS!

over the past few years her ability to do a lot of things has diminished.
it's hard for her to see, it's hard for her to move, and it's hard for her to hear.
it hasn't been fun to see ...
but it has sure made me thankful.
thankful that when i see her ... i can look past her aging body and see so much more ...

i see the lady who made the raggedy ann and andy dolls

i think back to going over to her house for great homemade dinners-
i can still picture both of the houses they lived in!

i think back on the MANY containers of cookies and goodies that she made SO frequently-
especially at christmas

i look back and think of the love that she had for my grandpa -
and the funny ways that they expressed it.
i can still picture him joking with her.

i think about having to experience the sadness of losing my grandpa with her :(
it wasn't fun - yet to share that raw emotion is actually something i can look back at and am extremely thankful for.

i think about how excited i was when drew was born. that one of my grandparents was actually going to get to meet him ...
and how extra special it is that she has gotten to know ben and alex as well ...

on the flipside, each time i see her i think about how incredibly special it is that my kids have gotten the chance to get to know her.

my grandma is an amazing lady.
i'm pretty sure she won't be reading my blog ...
BUT ...
i didn't want that to stop me ...
i want everyone ... mostly my kids ...
to know how special she is to me and how special it is that we can celebrate her birthday today.
HAPPY 90TH BIRTHDAY GRANDMA!

APRIL FOOLS!

so far today ...

*the boys woke up to tape across their doors

*everyone woke up to find clothes other than their own in their closet

*i woke up to a spider taped on my door

and

*our bedroom door handles were taped together (from the outside)

there's a little bit of mischief going on around here ...

NOW ...

i'm just waiting for them to rubber band the faucet.

a little b-ball fun

using our tickets that cost us a whole 81 cents ...
drew, alex, and i went to the timberwolves game last night.

it wasn't very busy - or exciting -
it is the timberwolves afterall
BUT ...
that didn't stop either of them ...
both boys got VERY into the howling.
and they yelled 'GO WOLVES' pretty much all night long :)
for a while i was feeling a little sorry for the guys sitting in front of them :)
alex obviously had NO idea what he was cheering for - so he yelled even during the halftime show :)
BUT ... he made it through the entire game - and liked it ...
and i never expected that.
so i can't complain.
it was a fun night out on the town with 2 of my favorite boys :)

2 hours of birthday fun!

tonight we had the boys birthday party.

when you get 17 boys together you get
a. a whole lot of energy
b. a whole lot of noise
c. a whole lot of craziness

BUT ...
you ALSO get ...

d. the PERFECT group for 2 hours of laser tag, food, and arcade games.

they all had so much fun!
and i'm sure they are all sleeping very well tonight.

happy birthday boys!

i do ... FOR REAL!

this afternoon we were on our way to ikea

i had drew and ben in my car and as usual they were covering a wide variety of subjects :)

at one point they started asking me about my grandparents

this eventually led to what my maiden name was.

at this point drew had to stop to make sure that ben understood what that meant.

'it's like this. when daddy and mommy got married -

then mommy's last name changed to daddy's last name.

and when mommy gets married to her next husband - then she'll take his name.

and when daddy marries his next wife - then she'll have to take daddy's name.'

i didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

of course i stopped him and explained that stacey and i plan to never have another husband or wife.

what is sad to me though, is that divorce is so prevalant that my kids think it is normal and something that will inevitably happen.

now i realize that noone plans for their marriage to end in divorce.

and it happens. i get that.

BUT ... after today i realized that my kids need to understand the vows that stacey and i took.

i don't ever want them to question the stability of our relationship.

i want them to understand what marriage means to us ...

and i want them to understand that when we said 'i do' ...

it was SO much more than a name change.

it was 2 people saying it won't be easy, we won't always get along ...

but we're in this together ...

and i am commited 100% to never having to change my name again

ben's puppy love

ben and his pluto are inseparable.

today as we were driving in the car ben was 'putting pluto to sleep'
he told me that ... and added ...

'mom ... pluto needs at least 4 naps a day.
yesterday he only got 3 and he was such a crab.
he was jumping all over my head last night when i was trying to go to sleep.
i just CAN NOT let him miss his last nap today.'

oh ben,
now if i could just get alex to understand that 4 naps a day would make him more fun to be around ...

all about me - according to ben

i got this on facebook - but wanted to do it on here so that i would have it to keep.
i sat down with ben and asked him each of these questions - and his responses follow :)
anyone reading this ... sit down with one of your kids and do this ... and then let me know when you do so i can read it too :)



1. what is something that I always says to you?
'i love you ben'

2. what makes me happy?
'when i do stuff that you can't do and help you'

3. what makes me sad?
'when i do bad stuff'

4. how does your mommy make you laugh?
'when you do jokes'

5. what was i like as a child?
'i don't really know that, mom. maybe you had freckles.'

6. how old am i?
'thirty one'

7. how tall am i?
'well we would have to measure you to figure that one out.'

8. what is my favorite thing to do?
'go to the y'

9. what do i do when you're not around?
'play with alex'

10. if i become famous, what will it be for?
'for being a rockstar'

11. what am i really good at?
'yoga'

12. what am i not very good at?
'you are not good at skateboarding.'

13. what do i do for a job?
'you do NOTHING. HA HA HA!' (literally that's what he did)

14. what is my favorite food?
'tacos'

15. what makes you proud of me?
'when you take good care of charlie.' (his stuffed dog)

16. if i was a cartoon character, who would i be?
'minnie mouse'

17. what do you and i do together?
'go to places like don pablos.'

18. how are you and me the same?
'we both have freckles and eyebrows'

19. how are we different?
'i have blue eyes and you have brown'

20. how do you know i love you?
'because you say "i love you ben".'

21. what do i like most about your daddy?
'that he has beautiful blue eyes'

22. where is my favorite place to go?
'disney world'

roll with it ...

for the boys' birthdays they were able to go pick out their own heely's
(thank you, grandma!)
we set out this morning to buy them -
and then came home to a GORGEOUS day that allowed for MUCH (very needed) practice time.

they started out practicing on the basketball court ....


they soon realized that wasn't working too well :)

SO .. i decided that maybe they should practice by holding on to a stroller.

SO ...
drew pushed alex ...



AND ....
well ...
although we have 2 strollers ...
we didn't have 2 riders.

ben still needed some weight so that the stroller didn't tip ...

SO ... we had to get a little creative ;)



should you drive by tomorrow,
and see one of my kids pushing around a bag of charcoal ...
they aren't crazy ...
they're just learning to skate ;)