One cherry, two cherries, three cherries, MORE cherries!

May 30, 2008

The kids just could NOT take it anymore... we have a cherry tree in the backyard and THEY WANTED CHERRIES! When they came in the house with about 8 cherries that had fallen from the tree and were less than appetizing in appearance I decided it was probably time to pick a few. I wasn't sure not ever having a cherry tree before. They looked nice and red though. It seemed to take FOREVER and they boom, they went from greenish orange to RED in about a week.

The kids were so excited I said yes they were jumping up and down pointing and yelling "cherries"!

The ceremonial first pick shot.

My little Magster hard at work.

Max hard at work too, working on EATING cherries NOT collecting them.

Aren't they beautiful!

First days loot... That's about FIVE pounds of cherries! I took the photo in front of the coffee maker hoping it would show the size of the bowl but it really doesn't. The bazillions of cherries on that tree are unbelievable! It doesn't even look like I've touched it!!!! Anyone living nearby who wants cherries PLEASE let me know.

Cute video of the kids picking and eating.

If anyone knows anything about cherries and can identify these that would be great. I thought it was a Stella tree but apparently NOT. Stella's have dark, sweet cherries like the Bing. These have yellow flesh and while sweet it is an understated sweet. Really good because they ride the line of sweet and tart therefore, in my opinion, great for snacking and still good for pies. That is if I have the mind, and time, to seed the 300 cherries necessary for a pie. So if anyone knows what kind of cherries these are please speak up and if anyone knows a quick and easy was to seed cherries that info would be appreciated as well!

So this is what I pay $1000 a month for...

May 28, 2008

Maggie's school put on a "play" and parent social hour today. I use the word play loosely. Really folks, I know they are 2 - 5 years old but this was S. A. D. saaaaaad. I was going to post the video of Maggie's teacher "explaining" how this so called play developed but you all really don't want/need to see that. The problem is the Montessori Philosophy of self directed learning taken a bit too far. Apparently because the kids were interested in flowers and how they grow the school chose this flower play theme. BUT, the kids decided how THEY wanted to participate. If they wanted to say something, great, but THEY decided what to say. If they wanted to get up and move or dance, great, but THEY decided how and when. You get the picture. The kids are mostly 2 and 3 years old. Really? My Maggie LOVES to talk, dance, sing etc... but she sat on her bum looking bored too. What part did she like? The part where she got to sing - duh! How silly of her not to write her own script. Really it was no big deal and she looked waaay cute but for that kind of money I expected them to try and show off a little. NOT!

Maggie's class

My flower.
Could she BE any cuter?
See, she is so bored she is starting to strip. Someones got to add a little excitement to this show.
The class singing...

I also got a video of them singing a song in Spanish but the battery on my camera died so it didn't copy yet. It was cute. The above song and the Spanish one were the highlights of the show.

That and my mom took us to lunch afterward.

THANKS MOM!!!

And for ice cream...
I'm not sure,
Do you think she likes it?
And Max...
Well, he didn't want to be rude and NOT eat it!

May 27, 2008

FINALLY! Here are some photos of my angel...

From the day she was born,

to her first birthday. I LOVE this photo!

To birthday number 2.

And now my baby is THREE!!!!



Please do click on the video to hear the Fabulous Flynn's singing happy birthday. Or maybe you want ear plugs...

So poor Maggie only had a family party. I know, she is deprived. The reality is the kid was born on a holiday weekend and NOBODY was in town to celebrate with her. So sad. But the good news is she is still too young to really care as long as there is cake and presents!

Such a good big brother helping to set the table.

What a good Papa, he even picked out pretty princess plates while Mama sat on the couch with hot tea and LOT'S of tissues!

Check out the cake... notice anything....

I sent Mike to the store because I was just too sick to make the cake. Very depressing but at least he found a Barbie cake which is all my little princess wanted, and it was PINK too.

The family "cheese". Gee do you think Mike and Max are father and son?

I don't think Maggie likes chocolate cake!

How old are you princess? "I three years old day juuuus like Max!" Confusion ensued as she looked at her TWO fingers and tried to count to three. Silly girl. Thankfully Aunt Natalie was there to straighten things out!

Oooh, present time!

Thanks for "working girl" Barbie Aunt Nat! And Liz thought "Mardi Gras" Barbie was bad... you should have seen the fishnet stockings! In my sisters defense she did say they ALL looked a little under dressed at Kmart. Guess that's what happens when you don't go to Target ;o) No worries, we "lost" the fishnets but still have the cool briefcase, sunglasses and hairbrush. Really Maggie LOVES Barbie so more clothes is easy. THANKS AUNT NATALIE!

Playing with Aunt Natalie who bought her ALL the cool stuff. Check out her "birthday girl" tiara, diamond earrings and sash.

Mama never did find her birthday gifts. So AFTER the party Papa went shopping (during nap time) and came home with some cool new roller skates, a planetarium for the bedroom ceiling which Mama REALLY thought was cool, and a few other things. I think it worked out well for Miss Maggie because she got MORE presents after her party too! Gotta love little kids, they don't know and they don't care... she got cake, ice cream and 2 sets of birthday gifts to open. What's bad about that?

Magic of one kind and another

May 24, 2008

Today is Maggie's birthday - yeah! I will post photo's etc later but first...

Max and Maggie were doing "magic tricks" the other night. It was so cute. So I took a video with my new camera YEAH! The magic is funny all on it's own but also is funny how Max gave me an opportunity to show all those with little ones just how well MAGIC 1-2-3 works. That's the discipline program we use. Now granted we have been using it for over a year now but I will say it started working this easily in a matter of days. Watch the MAGIC...

Ugh!

May 23, 2008

So my beautiful baby girl is turning 3 tomorrow, THREE! Yikes! Guess she's not really my baby anymore huh. The part that sucks is I'm sick, very sick, my nose is literally running off my face. I love to make original cakes for my kids. I don't know why... it's just my thing. So Mike bought a cake. It's a nice cake. It has Barbie on it like she wanted - and there are princess plates etc but.. I'm disappointed. And to top it off... I LOST HER PRESENTS! Seriously, this is bad. I bought them a while back anticipating being busy, as usual, at the last minute and now I cannot find them. How bad a mother am I? Guess who is hoping to feel better in the a.m. so she can rush to the store and buy something.

My baby is turning 3 tomorrow and I feel sad. No fancy cake, no presents, and I have a cold. It will be better tomorrow, right?

Happy early birthday angel.

GET SOME!

May 19, 2008

The half marathon was fun but... WE MISSED MIKE two times!!!! Ugh! We did see Uncle Jim and Aunt Michele finish though. I will post photos, sometime :o) To check out how my handsome and rugged husband performed go here. ** Never mind... the link didn't work. I guess you can't save the "results" page just for you. But he finished in a little over 2 hours and I am proud :o)

In other news, I just finished one of the Pilate's workouts. OMG it kicked my a**, LITERALLY. I did the butt and thigh "burn" which was a mere 20 minutes but oh my... it does burn. I did these while preggers with Max and now I know why I still looked good. Give me a month guys and I will be back in fighting shape! Also, for anyone who may or may not be interested, the P90X workout by Beachbody also rocks the house. I am combining them for a fitter me before the fatter me takes over.

Merrily we roll along...

May 17, 2008

Pretty much describes how I feel. Life just keeps "rollin' on" but most of it's good. We went to Port Discovery Children's Museum in Baltimore yesterday. Soooo much fun! I would post photos but I haven't loaded the software for my new camera yet. Is it me or is there ALWAYS something on the "to do" list that needs to be done but just isn't as important as all the others? Anyway, Colleen and her kids came and it was money well spent! They have a 3 1/2 story climbing structure with slides, zip lines, ladders, tunnels - you name it, they've got it! Max and Cub were a sweaty mess by the end of the day. We also enjoyed the water room, of course, the sensory area, a real life size cafe (with menus, money, plates, food, adult size booths, cash register, I could go on), a pet shop, farmers market, computer games, an assembly line (that was totally fun, the kids raced to "assemble" puzzle pieces on a conveyor belt). And that's just the stuff for preschoolers!

Tomorrow Mike is running the Marine Corps Half Marathon in Fredericksburg. Which really means I should be asleep because we are leaving at 5 a.m.! I am SOOOO not a morning person. Ah the things we do for love ;o) I do want to go and check out downtown. We haven't been since we moved back and I love all the shops. Also my brother and sister-in-law will be running so we have many people to cheer on. I PROMISE to take photos but I cannot guarantee how long it will take me to upload them!

Oh, and I uh bloglifted from Liz the "Shelfari". So much fun! If everyone adds a shelf we can recommend books to each other without even talking! I am interested in the cookbook you posted Liz, do you like it?

Okay, I must go get some sleep...

And you wonder why I don't post much...

May 13, 2008

Where to start! Let's see, first I didn't mean to start a debate over the family of 17+ thing it just was interesting to me how one family could feel so blessed by all those kids when, personally, I'd rather not wash my hair for 17 days, eat 17 worms, run for 17 hours or jump off a 17 story building! But that's just me... And if anyone is interested check out the Quiverful website Morgan found, it's "interesting".

Second, I had a fabulous mother's day and birthday weekend. Lucky me, two days JUST FOR ME right in a row! We had lunch with a family that is in the Colombian Army but living here so the husband can attend the military school in Quantico. They were REALLY nice people. They made us a traditional Colombian meal, showed us photo's of all the cool places to visit and even gave me phone numbers of their friends and family in Bogota so that we could stay in touch and get help for the numerous questions from "where's the mall" to "what is the best school in our area".

Third, we STILL have our dogs and I have posted them in the paper AGAIN. The woman we picked also has a horse. And, of course, the horse got sick about 2 days after we met her. Now the horse needs to be moved to a special stable with special medical care... Needless to say she no longer has the resources to take on our dogs. Then the family discovered that a newborn is a lot of work - duh! They have a 3 year old too, did they really forget that quickly. Apparently that's a yes. So we are back to square one.

Fourth, the toaster oven and t.v. broke. Then the shower in the basement developed some cracks in the grout and I noted a hole in the shower pan, the upstairs bath started leaking into the downstairs hallway (yes those are both NEW bathrooms) and Maggie knocked two balusters loose from the front porch. YIKES! So Mark, our contractor, came out to check out the bathrooms and will fix them tomorrow. We bought a toaster oven and my dear sister Natalie gave us a t.v. she wasn't using. Mike needs to fix the balusters but that's no big deal

Fifth, no we're NOT done yet. The guy in Bogota Mike is replacing is causing some issues with our report date. It's a long story but when we leave is now up in the air and we could end up leaving a month earlier than planned. So I have a TON of work to do! I have decided to stop my language training because there is NO WAY I can get everything done once the kids are out of school. Maggie's school goes through the end of May and Max the second week of June. But the first week of June we have a week long course in Fredericksburg to attend so really, I need to quit while their is still time to get something done!

Whew, sorry for the loooong post. But now you understand a bit. I must go and clean out my closet now before fetching the rugrats from school.

Happiness to some...

May 9, 2008

Is another's worst nightmare!!!

Has anyone seen this family tv show, The Duggars have 17, yes that's SEVENTEEN, children!!!! And the Discovery Health Channel was billing this as a Happy Mother's Day show.

And if I have any friends out there who think this is great but don't have the time, money, and/or health to pull it off... sorry if I offended.

HAPPY BURDAY DAY!

May 6, 2008

At least that's how Maggie says it ;o)

So today I realized that my very best friend, Nancy, and my nephew and my dear friend Liz ALL SHARE THE SAME BIRTHDAY! It's no wonder I love them all so... they are fellow Taureans. Yes, I am a bull too, just ask my hubby. And also I suck because, while I did remember to call each of them and wish them a very happy day, I did not even get one card out - I suck, sorry guys! Maybe you'll get guilt presents in the mail... Okay Joshua, my nephew, definitely will!

So HAPPY BURDAY DAY!!! Hope you all ate more cake than you should have and got lot's of fun gifts. Next year, cards will be in the mail BEFORE the big day - PROMISE!

Hurrah! and Boo hoo :o(

May 2, 2008

We had 2 really great families come by to see the dogs on Saturday morning and both want to take them home! It is such a relief. The first family obviously loved dogs and had a few previously because they were undaunted by Claddagh's inability to keep her feet ON THE FLOOR! She gets soooo excited that she can't help herself. Her little paws keep bouncing off the floor and then General doesn't want to be left out so he tries to shove her aside and jump up a little higher to get the advantage etc... Most of you know, my dogs LOVE people and new people who give attention are tackled! Both are fine one on one but together the need to receive love is so strong they compete and it turns into doggie chaos for the first five minutes or so. Then they resume their normal lounge positions... unless of course someone is offering to rub a belly! Anyway, the first family was not fazed by the craziness. The Dad was in shape and loves to play ball with the dogs, take them for walks and/or runs (Generals idea of a good time is to jog with Mike), they have a large fenced in yard and were just, in general, really nice people. But they have a 3 1/2 year old and a newborn. Yes a newborn as in all of 3 days now! But Mom and Dad insist they have time.

The second family also were not fazed by the craziness. Matter of fact the woman and her daughter sat on the floor and ooh and ahhed over how cute and friendly they were. General immediately assumed the position (lying on his back and basking in the tummy rub) with the daughter while Claddagh ran circles around the mom rubbing against her and trying to lick her. This family is a single mom with 2 college kids. She has had many dogs, up to 3 at a time, and is looking for someone to give all her love to now that her kids are gone. She has a house that backs to trails with streams for the dogs to play in. She also boards a horse on a farm for the dogs to join her on the trails if they like. She is also one of those crazy dog people who pays big bucks for sick dogs with things like cancer to live as long as possible. In other words, a health ailment for the dogs would not equal the end of their life. Which is good because if they get sick before she's had them long enough to REALLY feel the love I know she'll still take care of them. Does that make sense. I think we are leaning towards her so the dogs will be number 1 on the priority list. They haven't had that since Max was born and I think their turn has come again. Her only downside is she is single and therefore at work all day. But if they get walks every night and lot's of tummy rubs and playtime on the weekends I think that makes up for the lack of daytime love.

What do you all think?

So I'm happy we have 2 good choices but I will be sooo sad to see them go :o( Ugh, and what to tell Max! He calls General his buddy. So sweet...