A big day!

Camryn turned 4 today!!! But before we started celebrating, I had a race to run.

We yanked the kids out of bed at 5:45. Dylan couldn't wait to give Camryn his present so she quickly tore it open but sadly had to leave it behind because we needed to get on the road.

We packed the rest of her present to open when we were out to lunch but John conveniently placed them next to her carseat and she unwrapped them all in the car!

With birthday excitement underway, we arrived at the race. Did I mention Dylan was running his first race? So we both picked up our bibs and t-shirts and waited to be called to the starting lines.

He ran his 1/4 mile race in 1 min 46 seconds and came in 4th!! He was excited to receive a metal and I was beaming with pride.

He is in the gray shirt

The kids had some fun while waiting for me to cross the finish line:

 I had an amazing run! The course was fabulous, weather perfect and I kept a steady, comfortable pace. I finished in 1 hour and 52 minutes!!! 7 minutes faster than last years half marathon!!

We quickly switched the focus back to Camryn. I wanted to take her to The Sundae Spa, a special salon for kids to get manis and pedis that looks like a ice cream parlor and every service comes with a sundae. She doesn't like the idea of anyone other than me painting her toenails, so we moved on to plan B: Camryn's choice.

Turned out to be a fantastic day.

We went to her favorite playground:

Rode the backyard zip line and jumped on the trampoline:

Got the biggest ice cream cone we could find:

















And, if you haven't noticed from the above pictures, tried on all our new birthday outfits!

Mermaid dress was the gift from her big brother

We must have heard her say, "I get to choose because it's my birthday" a bazillion times. Even down to the temperature of their bath water!

She also referred to things she "used to do when she was 3." But after the busy day we had, I can see how she feels like yesterday was an eternity ago.

Flashback Friday

Life goes by too fast. My youngest is about to turn 4!!!  How did that happen? So I'm dedicating my first weekly Flashback Friday post to Camryn!

4/29/2008
I knew I was in labor but Dylan's music class wasn't over yet.  I continued to dance around the room, banging my instruments and twirling my scarf.  I didn't want to miss out on this moment, the last time it would be just me and him.  When class ended, we stuck to our normal Tuesday schedule of eating lunch with dad at work.  I walked Dylan down to Walmart to get a few things, all the time pausing in the aisles to let a mild contraction pass.  I still didn't let anyone know what was going on.

I drove home and laid Dylan down for his nap and thought it would be a good idea for me to try to get some sleep too.  That's when my water broke.  I called John and told him to come home, called my mom and told her to come over and then called the doctor and told him we would be right there.  John had to drag me out the door because I wanted to wait until Dylan woke up to tell him we were going to the hospital to have the baby.  But I knew I couldn't wait.

The doctor cleared me to go the hospital and called to let them know I was on my way and the baby would be here soon.  My first delivery took less than an hour and he was just hoping I would make it.  The rest is kind of a blur.  I immediately was taken to a room and sat in a rocking chair while a nurse attempted to put in my IV. After her third try and her asking me to sit still, my husband lost his cool.  He voiced his concerns about how quickly it was all going to happen but everyone seemed to be taking their sweet time.  To appease him, they let me get on the bed while they prepared the room.  But the baby didn't wait...one push and it was out.  No IV, no doctor and the bed wasn't even broken down to catch it!  I kept asking; "What is it? What is it?"  But everyone was so frantic no one answered me.  Then, after what felt like an eternity, I was told it was a girl!

And that's how Camryn came barreling into our lives.  On her terms and when she was ready. And that has been her ever since. A vivacious little girl, with a big personality and even bigger heart. Her unique fashion sense and quirky sense of humor make me smile every day.  I can't believe 4 years are gone in a blink of an eye and couldn't imagine a day without her!

Junk

Dylan's latest words of wisdom:

"Mom, do you know what junk means?"

"Like junk food or just plain junk?"

"Just junk."

"Yeah, it means garbage or stuff that you don't want, like broken toys."

"My friend told me it hurts if you get kicked in your junk and pointed at his privates."

"Well.....we don't call our privates that.  Let's just stick with the real name."

"Ok, but whatever you call it, it still hurts if you get kicked there!"

A taste of summer

A week of no alarm clocks and spending all day with the kids, paired with the amazing weather had me longing for summer. We spent all our days outside, at the beach, in the yard or on the road. If we weren't riding bikes, we were hiking.  When were weren't jumping on the trampoline, we were building sand castles.  We even took a day trip to a science museum where Dylan was a surgeon and Camryn was an azure butterfly!!  We started the week off with a pizza-que with some friends at our house, incorporated ice cream cones into our daily diet and ended the week with a pizza-que at a friends house where the kids played manhunt well past their bedtimes.

Check out some pictures of our adventures:

We rode bikes through Hammonassett and stopped at the beach to let the dogs swim and the kids play.

2 happy dogs + 2 happy kids = 1 happy mom

Lazy mornings with no where to be

Liberty Science Center in NJ (yes I went to NJ on my April vacation...no judging)

Dylan the excavator

Dylan performs surgery on a banana

Just hanging around

An azure butterfly

Lady Liberty

 A nice bike ride on the Farmington Canal trail lead us to Brooksvale farm where we had a picnic lunch.

The ponies looked hungry too

This morning we were all a little melancholy getting back into our usually routine. All itching for summer to hurry up and get here...and you know what there are only 38 days left of school!!!  But who's counting?

Excuses are like...

We all know how the saying goes. And I have an excuse for my neglectful blogging. Actually I have several:

2 kids
2 dogs
A job
Cleaning
Laundry
Training for a 1/2 marathon
And the list goes on.

But they aren't good excuses because that's life. There will always be something that needs to be done. I love to write and record these stories for the kids.

So just like I make time for all those other things, I'm penciling "blogging" into my schedule.

I can't tell you how many posts I've crafted in my head while I'm in the shower or on a run and they never make it to my blog.

So when three people asked me this week if I gave up on my blog, I answered with a resounding NO and promised to get back into the habit.

So stayed tuned because I have a lot of catching up to do!!