It's Father's Day: Hooray!

Obviously, yesterday was Father's Day, which means that today, I'm sharing my social media shout outs to my husband in honor of his big day.  

I'm enjoying this very special Father's Day. Jim has given me three wonderful children and he has given them years of stability and knowing a father's love. His love is priceless, and gives them the ability to have a positive male role model guiding them through their lives. He's grooming our sons into future fathers and teaching our daughter the qualities that she should seek in a man, so that she can have a wonderful father for her future children. Plus, he's keeping money in their wallets since they won't need therapy to complain about an absentee dad. Happy Father's Day, Jim you're the best! 

It's My Favorite

Christmas time is my favorite; probably because it's right before my birthday, everyone is in joyous spirits and the house is filled with kind of beautiful things.  Decorating is crazy though... advice from parents of older children, when does the fighting/ornament breaking/disregard for the lovely ambiance that I'm working hard to set up- stop?  Is it around 4 years old?  'Cause that'd be nice.  Every year I expect that the boys will be too delighted by the sounds from the TV seasonal music station that their fighting will be temporarily put on hold, but that's not happening.  But... it is getting better.  Only a handful of smashed ornaments and one or two meltdowns each; I'm cool with that.

We had a few firsts this year: first train set, which was immediately broken and still remains off the tracks in the family room, first Christmas in our new house and first time that Cullen took a real interest in helping to set things up- more man business as he would call it, I suppose.  The results are perfect- for us.  I love all of the planning and time it takes for this to take shape, it's a nice way to spend time together, even if it is mixed with some fighting and crying, because it's what we do and how we do.

Look Who Found The Nice Camera

This weekend, we loaded the boys into the car and packed up a lot of stuff, then grabbed some drive-through Chick-Fil-A and headed on down to the Jersey Shore, which if you live in the North East, you know is the only thing to do to mark the beginning, middle and end of summer.  As we were leaving, I told Jim, "I'm gonna take a lot of pictures."  When we finally made it home, the grand picture total had climbed to 437 and we were all exhausted.

Now, sit back, relax and enjoy this photographic journey of what the beach looks like for us:

There's carefree babies in umbrella strollers rumbling up and down the boardwalk.

There are happy, happy, happy kids that are treated to orange soda, which, last time I checked, probably isn't made from real oranges.

Brothers share their chips, man.  

Brothers are pushy until chips are acknowledged and eaten.

Rides.  That's all I really have to say.  Lots and lots and lots of rides.  There's meltdowns over rides, there's kids who want to ride all of them and kids who want to ride only one.  

There's shuffleboard.  Look at Aunt Megan, what a player!

And breaks from shuffle board for some snapshots.

Strollers are a great time for joking around and having a good time.  Three year olds are particularly fond of walking.

We were brave and signed up for paid for 20 holes of miniature golf.  Considering that there were six people, three of whom are under eight, we fared pretty well.  No crying, quite a few holes in one and plenty of cheering and by that I mean helping yourself to picking up your golf ball and dropping it into the hole.

Return of The Rides: Balloons and Bears.

I don't know, for someone who was cryin' up a storm to go on the rides, they sure do look bored...

Patiently waiting for Daddy and Zeta to come down the log flume. Remember to lift your feet while you're going up, or you will definitely have wet shoes.

And last, but certainly not least on his list, a big bag full of cotton candy; the blue kind, not the pink.

Friday Short

And this is my all-time favorite picture of the three of them. 

Don't they all look like they're in completely different scenarios?

Trucks, Trucks, Trucks!

What the fascination is with boys and trucks, I will never know; however, I'm grateful any time that there is an opportunity for the boys to get up close and personal with some of them.  This weekend, there was an annual event in our town, all of these rad trucks come and collect in a large municipal parking lot and little boys (and a few girls) come and pretend for a little while that they're driving these massive things.  It's mildly amusing as a parent to see them touch those dirty steering wheels, sit in the back of a police car (you know, where they put the perps) and claw their way up mud splashed running boards and steps, but it's also overwhelmingly joyful as a parent to watch their little eyes light up when they realize that they can actually do all of that and not get in trouble for it.

There were highs of the day: getting to drive the fire truck and have the siren wail and there were lows: having a sword shaped balloon pop less than five minutes after getting it, but overall the boys (including Jim) had a blast.

Check out some of those mad balloon skills... ten seconds later, it was gone.

This is pretty much how I envision Arden's first day of school going.  Cool older brother chillin' and little brother trying to figure out how he can climb out of that bus.

I'm not sure what this victory was all about, but it looked awesome from the ground.  Maybe it was the climb up the seven foot ladder.

This kid is totally mine, we never pass up the opportunity to cheer for ourselves.

And now, the day is done and shockingly someone's not very happy, which is also another trait of mine.

Merry Christmas

Dear Everyone Celebrating Christmas,

We hope you have a wonderful day, which to us means wrapping paper flying through the air promptly at 7:00 am, lazy brunches spent stuffing our faces with bacon and mimosas (not together though) and good times with family and friends.  And who can forget the hours spent on the couch enjoying that classic-before-it-should've-been: A Christmas Story.

Love,
Me-Me, Jim, Cullen and Baby Arden