Toy Room

See this???



This is how the kids' toy room looks today....and how it looked 2 weeks ago.

Now, check this out!!! Look what happened in a 20-minute span while I was upstairs prepping dinner.



Yea, it's been great fun cleaning this mess...it's exactly what I would choose to do with my free time the last few weeks!!! Oh well, I did get to throw out 3 bags of crap. I also gave 2 boxes of baby toys away. Now, I just need to methodically go through each box and bag each toy set to sell at our next MOMs sale.

Another Giveaway

Go check out Mrs. Southern Belle. She's hosting her first giveaway. You have the chance to win one of her handpainted signs.



I can easily picture this hanging in our sunroom or family room. Mrs. Southern Belle will announce her winner tomorrow so get over there quickly and enter.

Ahhhhhhhh....

Mr. O arrived home last night around 11p. It was great watching the kids' reactions this morning when they realized he was home. After much snuggling and tickling, Mr. O and the kids headed downstairs for breakfast. I noticed it was 8:37am.

Next thing I know I wake up and it's 9:22a. I hear lots of laughter and running around downstairs. I have a smile on my face and am thankful for my power-snooze. I am ready to take on the day.

No Sweet 16 for Mr. O...

Mr. O made it to the 2nd round of his Vegas blackjack tournament, but unfortunately he did not advance to the 3rd round. Oh well, it was nice to hope for some kind of payout.

On the flip side, I'm happy that he is coming home today. I've told the kids that he is coming home tomorrow as his flight does not get in until 10:30p. They are going to be thrilled to see their dad when they wake up in the morning. I'm thrilled that I get to sleep in and then enjoy a nice home-cooked breakfast made by my gourmet husband.

Have a good weekend!!!

Diamonds are a girl's best friend...

Scary Mommy is giving away diamond earrings she received from her husband on Valentine's Day.

Check out her site for your chance(s) to win!!! You will have to subscribe to her blog. You won't regret it though, because she is hilarious.

March Madness

I look forward to the NCAA tournament every year, and love watching the games with Mr. O after the kids are all ensconced in bed. Unfortunately, this year I'll be watching them all by my lonesome. :( Mr. O will be having a blast, though. He's in Vegas...I can just imagine all the different bets he can make on the games. I hope he comes home with more money than he left with.

Mr. O, my brothers and my dad traditionally go to Vegas every year on Super Bowl weekend. This year when they went Mr. O entered a promotional Black Jack tournament. The qualifying rounds for the tournament was spread over a 3 week period. No, Mr. O wasn't there that long...he was just there for the 3-day weekend. All the contestants had to do was play one 30-minute round. At the end of the qualifying rounds, the top 64 contestants were invited back for the March Madness Blackjack Tournament this weekend where each of them will vie for the $250K payout to the top winner.

Please, please, please God let Mr. O be the Blackjack King this weekend. I can only hope, right?!?!?

Slainte

Simple Breakfast

My kids have always been big breakfast eaters; Me, not so much! When Tank asked me to make pancakes today, I was happy to join in. I just couldn't resist a pancake with fresh raspberries and blueberries...it was so yummy!!!









P.S. Did you notice the girls are wearing their princess dresses? The first thing they do every morning is shed their PJs for their costumes.

Spring Swap

Semi-slacker Mom is hosting a Spring Swap!

I've been reluctant to join another swap since I got shafted in the last one I participated in. Apparently, the same thing happened to Semi-slacker. I have to give her credit for wanting to organize one though. Now that the February blahs are over, I'm truly looking forward to Spring...If only this snow would melt and the weather would warm up!!!

For the Spring Swap details, click here!

Snow Play....

3 posts in one day...that happens on a snow day!!!

The kids finally decided they wanted to get all decked out to play.

Here are some snow angels in the making...





Banana was more interested in building a fort...



She got this far...



...then quit!!! :)

DON'T you DARE think about throwing that at me, Tank?

Super Mom

Everyone in our neighborhood has their satellite dish on his/her roof. Not us!!! We were satellite virgins when we moved into our house 5.5 years ago. When the DTV installer came to our house, I INSISTED that our dish be placed off our deck. Mr. O wanted to be like the Joneses and put it on the roof. I told him we WERE the Joneses. And, good thing I did!!!

I wrote earlier about getting the kids out to make snow angels. When I opened the door to do a quick shovel of the front steps, they wanted to stay in!!! It was too cold and windy for them. God, I love them...they are sooo smart! They decided to play dress-up instead...



They also wanted to watch a Sponge Bob movie in their play room! Great...that would give me time to get the kitchen cleaned up. In the midst of straightening up, I hear the kids screaming, all upset!!! It turned out we lost our satellite connections.

I looked out our dining room window, and saw this...



Okay, it was Super Mom to the rescue!!!

First, I had to dig out...



...then, I had to carefully sweep the snow off the dish, praying that I didn't move it from its position.



I walked into the house to kisses, hugs, and "Thank you Mama."

I knew that decision to put the dish on the deck would pay off some day. Do you think this Super Mom would climb on the roof to please her children??? Ha!

There's no day like a snow day!!!

After eating a big breakfast(pancakes, bacon, fruit salad), we will soon be out making snowmen and snow angels. Unfortunately, we left our sleds at Mim & Pop's house after our last ice storm. Later in the day, we may ride over there to get them. What fun we will have today!!!

In my last post about the kids' caricatures, I thought my youngest looked more "made-up" than my oldest. I'm not going to write out her name as I don't want the unnecessary hits on my blog; my immediate thought was she looked like a child model with the initials JBR. I don't thinks so much anymore, but that was my first gut reaction. What do you think?

Caricatures...

This was taken at Disney World in January. I don't think this artist quite captured them, especially the girls. They still look cute, however!



Please tell me...does my youngest remind you of anyone?

A Lilly Giveaway

The Preppy Princess is hosting another great Lilly giveaway.

She's giving away two items from the new line, both in the Cabanarama pattern. Her giveaway includes one of the Latte Da! mugs and the Take Note Mouse Pad. The Take Note Mouse pad consists of a standard-size mouse pad topped by a pad of Lilly note paper. Go check out her blog post for your chance to win…you can enter up to 5x.

20 February--

Happy Birthday, Ned and Nora! Your sisters and brother will be blowing out some candles for you tonight.

Ned and Nora were born 7 years ago today (02.20.02 at 05:12 and 05:13). Ned lived almost 10 hours and Nora, 15 hours. It’s been a heck of journey since their births and our loss. But, if this was the only way I could have met them, I would do it all over again. They impacted my life so deeply, irrevocably changing it for the better.

In those first days and months after their passing, though, I never believed that life would be OK or better!

It is better!!! Ned and Nora have me the gift of HOPE. I’m an earthly mom now as well as a “’heavenly” mom. After 5 months of bedrest, Banana & Tank were born in October ’03. KK, (“the Trip”) was born in May ‘05>

Time has a way of making you better, no matter how much you need to laugh, cry, grieve, etc. Thankfully, it does not have the power to make you forget. I will never forget my Ns.

Summer Loving!!!

I'm patiently waiting for Spring to arrive. I'm tired of seeing the bare trees and brown grasses. I'm looking forward to scooting around on our Razors and teaching the kids to ride bicycles. The twins and KK got their first bikes with training wheels back in October. Unfortunately, we have not had much riding time.

On this cold blah day in February, I received some much welcomed mail, so much so that I want to wish Spring away (not really, but close). It was our lease agreement for a beach home in the Hamptons this Summer. I wish we could stay the whole Summer, but I'm thrilled that we are staying a little longer than normal.

I grew up in NYC and from the time I was 10yo, my family spent the whole Summer in the Hamptons. We even made the 1.5 hour trip every weekend throughout the school year. That was actually a drag when I was in high school. My parents still have their place there, but unfortunately our family of 5 has outgrown it. We've been fortunate, though, to find reasonable rentals within 5 miles of their home.

So, this is what I'm looking forward to!!!

So Sleepy...

Happy belated Valentine's!!! I hope everyone got struck hard by Cupid.

Never again will I brag about looking forward to sleeping in!!! I haven't had a decent night's sleep since I wrote that post on Wednesday. First, Tank got sick. He was better by Friday when KK started with the high fevers and vomiting. Then, yesterday afternoon Banana started feeling hot. Great...just great!!!

Another Fun Giveaway

Semi-Slacker Mom at Confessions of a Semi-"Slacker" Mom loves to play bunko. For the past 5 years, she's been playing with a group of 12 women that meet monthly. Not only do they get together for a fun game and cocktails, they also host fundraisers and adopt one or two families at Christmas-time. There's nothing semi-slacker there!!!

If you like to read, she's giving away a copy of The Bunko Babes, a story about friendship among a group of women of varying ages facing life's challenges and triumphs. Go leave a comment if you want a chance to win.

My neighborhood circle has a monthly bunco game. It's fun to get out without the kids and the husband and just DISH about anything and everything.

Weekend Preview

I'm really looking forward to the 3-day weekend coming up. Let me count the ways...

1. I get to sleep in 3 mornings in a row. Granted, that usually means I'm lucky if I'm still in bed an hour after the kids get up. But, an hour is an hour...

2. For the first time in 6 years, Mr. O and I have a date on Valentine's Day. We were damn lucky to get reservations anywhere. We waited until last week to place them. Most places we could be seated only before 3p or after 9p. Uh, I don't think so. We finally landed a primo reservation (6:15p) at McCormick & Schmick's...not too shabby!!!

3. We are going to see Mickey Mouse again. No, we are not heading back to Disney World; that would be nice, though. We are going to see...



...at the Verizon Center in Washington, DC on Sunday. The kids are PUMPED. Do you notice the mad teacups in the photo? I can't tell how many times I was spinning in a teacup. Tank is excited to see that the Incredibles are featured in this show...I think he's getting tired of being outnumbered by princesses.



After the show, we're going out for dinner someplace nice but kid-friendly!!!

4. No matter how late we're out on Saturday and Sunday, I get to sleep in the next morning. I already addressed this in this post, but the more I keep repeating it to myself, the more I'm smiling. :)

Awesome Giveaway

My sister at Mom Times Two is hosting a great giveaway. Go check out her blog and leave a comment for a chance to win either Ina Garten's back to basics cookbook or Bunny Williams' Affair with a House.