Catch up Tuesday....

Today is April 14, 2009 and I am going to try to play catch up. A lot has happened since I last posted anything. I will try to give a quick rundown to keep everything up to date so to speak.



We have had Sammy, our newest member, for about 3 1/2 weeks now. She has adjusted to the new house, kids and the routines we keep. For some reason she has adopted me as her special person. She is very attached to me and ALWAYS is with in eyesight of me. I can't leave a room without her following or tracking me down. She gets along well with the kids. They do a good job keeping her exercised and love to play with her. I think in time she will watch over the kids in a very loving way and be protective of them and our family.

We started the kids baseball & softball practices. Ken has his own pee wee team this year and also assistant coaches for our oldest son's team. He has his hands full and is liking it! He has a way with the kids and its great to see him in action! Kayley has had one practice up to this date and she did very well. I decided to switch her to a different coach. She seems happier with the girls on this team and I am glad I did it. To see the smile on her face when she was on the field with her friends was priceless. I believe she will benefit more from this team and her coach is very enthusiastic. He makes it fun and that is what she likes!!

The kids were off the week of April 6th - April 13th for their spring break. Of course, in true Northeast Ohio style, the weather just plan old sucked! It was chilly and it even snowed. Needless to say....we were pretty bored and were climbing the walls. I had hoped that we would have nice weather so we could do somethings outside but that didn't happen. Maybe next year we will actually get away for a vacation. (That would be the year that it would be sunny all week and in the seventies!!) Kaden, Kayley and me did decorate one tree outside for Easter. We hung colored eggs from the branches and put up some Easter rabbits. It looked cute!


I took the kids to my parent's house for Good Friday. Traditionally, we color Easter eggs on that day. This was the first year that I really did not have to help the kids. They handled it all on their own for the most part. Sign of the times that they are getting older I guess. I just let them go and they did a nice job with the eggs.











This brings me up to Easter Sunday. Ken and I agreed that getting the dog was part of the kids Easter so we intentionally did not go over board with the Easter goodies. In the past, we have and this year it was not as big. I think the kids were happy with their baskets and were still excited to see what the Easter Bunny had left for them! Since the weather was not crappy outside, we did do a little egg hunt at our house. In the past we have taken the kids to the park for the community egg hunts. Due to Kayley having gymnastics we weren't able to make it. Anyways....the kids had fun and it worked out pretty good. I had fun hiding the eggs and taking pictures of the kids as they hunted for their eggs. I would imagine, in a few years, this will be a memory and the kids will be too big to partake in such activities. So, I enjoyed the moment and was glad I took the time to make up the eggs and hide them.

Kaden's birthday fell on Easter this year. He turned five. I was a little worried how to handle a holiday and birthday on the same day. We told him that he would have a party following the holiday weekend. He was OK with that. I still felt that he needed to be recognized on his birthday. The family had scheduled a large family dinner at a restaurant and I didn't want him to be forgotten. I decided to bake him a small cake and take it to the restaurant so we could at least sing him "Happy Birthday". He seemed to like the singing and blowing out the candles. Personally, I think the cake was the best part of the dinner. The restaurant served a special Easter buffet. I was disappointed in the food. It wasn't as good as I had hoped. I didn't even go back for seconds because I truly was not thrilled with food. That was kind of a bummer. We don't eat out like we used to, so I was looking forward to a good meal.

We excused ourselves early from the restaurant to head to my parents house. My parents are always so excited to have the kids come over and see their baskets! They also do an egg hunt at their house as well. All the kids had fun looking for their eggs that dad hid outside. I am so glad he put so much effort in to having the kids have fun. It turned out to be such a beautiful spring day to have the egg hunts outside. In the past, we have had to settle with indoor egg hunts due to inclimate weather. I personally was happy to get there so I could eat a ham sandwich and potato salad. After the let down dinner, I was a little hungry so it tasted great!! All and all it turned out to be a great holiday. At times it was a little stressful and I had issues with having to travel so much in one day. I would prefer to stay home on a holiday if given a choice. Sometimes I feel we spend way too much time in our vehicle on the road during holidays. Ken always makes the effort to be with his family so I have to respect that value he continues to install in our kids. Family is important to him and he does his best to insure that the kids see family during holidays.