Showered with Love

My very best friend, Emily, was showered with love today as she prepares to become a mommy. She is expecting her sweet daughter at the end of September. It was a lovely day full of her close friends and family. We are all so excited to meet Baby Coffaro!

Our Summer Bucket List

At the beginning of the summer Thomas and I created a list of all things we wanted to do while out from school. It's nice that we accomplished most of the things and we still have a few weeks left of the summer. Here's our list:

1. Swim Lessons (2 sessions completed at the YMCA)
2. Chuck E. Cheese (thanks to Owen's birthday party)
3. Bowling and Arcade at Firkin Kegler's (we went twice)
4. Story Time at the Library (Loved the baby storytime)
5. Golf at Tee it Up (too hot)
6. SeaWorld (too hot)
7. Free movie at Oviedo Theater (both boys loved it)
8. Go to a Splash Park (going next week with Thomas' BFF)
9. Amaya Papaya (lots of fun)
10. Go to the Zoo (and we got to see Mr.Richard perform, too!)
11. Stay in our Jammies (oh yes....we did this on many days!)
12. Go to the Beach (well....I'll be doing this without the kids next weekend, but we're planning a weekend trip when it cools off a little bit.)

We also had Nathan's 1st Birthday Party, Thomas' 5th Birthday seeing Toy Story 3 along with our first trip to Walt Disney World. We also battled many coughs, sneezes, fevers, ear infections, sinus infections and breathing treatments. Thank goodness I didn't have to use my sick-time from work. We met up with lots of friends including two that moved (or in the process of moving). All in all, it has been a great summer. Before you know it, I'll be packing lunchboxes and backpacks getting ready for our crazy morning routine. I'm so lucky that we were able to do so much this summer and I have to admit, I'm a little sad that summer is almost finished.

Amaya Papaya!

Today we went to a fun place called Amaya Papaya! It is full of fun, bright colored toys for kids ages 5 and under. I had heard several mommy's talk about it and when groupon.com offered half price admission tickets, I figured it wouldn't hurt to check it out. So, after swim lessons we headed over there. The boys loved it! Thomas had fun dressing up as a race car driver and playing with the magnetic fishing set. Nathan loved all the colored bead toys and wearing safety goggles. Nathan noticed a rail where they had puzzles. One of the puzzles had a picture of a boy on it. He tried to kiss it! It was so cute! They even have an indoor sandbox which Thomas was happy about but Nathan didn't care for it too much. It started to get crowded so after playing for about an hour we headed out. It was certainly another fun, air conditioned summer activity.

Mommy Group

I consider myself very lucky. I get to have the best of both worlds. I get to teach, which I LOVE and I get to be a stay-at-home mommy! (well, during the summer.) Since so many mommy groups meet in the middle of the week in the morning hours, it's hard to find a group of moms that have children similar in age and have many things in common. A few Seminole County teachers decided to create a mommy group that meets on days that we are out of school. The summer has been full of fun mommy group adventures. This week we went to the Millenia Mall since Pottery Barn Kids has story time on Tuesdays. It was a bit disappointing, so we decided to cruise around with our stollers and head to the food court for lunch. Afterwards, the children played on a padded carpet. They had so much fun chasing each other! It was a super fun, air conditioned playdate!

My Escape Artist

Nathan is definitely my escape artist. He officially can get out of the jumperoo, scale a baby gate and twist around while buckled up in his chair while eating and actually stand up. The little chair is strapped on to one of our dining room chairs, which helps save space. Well, to play it safer than sorry, we got a big boy high chair...with a 5 point harness! This little guy is not getting out of this chair! He absolutely loves it, too. It's nice that there is an activity bar that he can play with while I am getting his food ready or while cleaning up after he eats. We think it's only a matter of time before he figures out how to climb out of his crib. Yikes!

Poor Lady

Some of you know that we adopted a new cat after our stubborn, sweet Morris ran away in January. (Which he is currently living at the house behind ours, yet will not come home. Long story!) We noticed that Lady was not eating well and was having some potty issues. She would get so excited to eat, but just couldn't. We took her to the vet where Ken's sister works and had some xrays taken. Turns out that Lady had a cancerous tumor growing and pushing against her stomach which is why she was having eating and potty problems. We decided that we didn't want her to suffer. After work Ken went and sat with her. Thomas took the news pretty well. He still talks about her and misses having a pet. Even though we only had her for about 4 months, it was very sad that she left us. She was a sweet cat and will be missed.

Our Little Houdini

Nathan has proved he loves adventure and danger. He has proven this many times. Crawling on top of tables. Standing on chairs. Now, we can add escaping from his jumper to the list. The other day I was addressing some envelopes at the table and all of a sudden, Nathan was playing near my feet. I had put him in the jumper so that I could actually finish the task I had started hours before. I was shocked to see him out of it. So, I decided to place him back in it and watch how the escape happened. So...this is how it happened...within seconds.