Be Back Soon........

Birthday Party

Happy 4th Birthday Jaylyn!!!!

3 BFF's and a night of FUN, FUN, FUN!

Fun in the Sun

Playing, dancing, running, laughing, jumping, swimming, basketball, eating, chatting, chasing bees, and climbing trees equals.....

Super duper fun play date with Kyle, Owen, & Meera.

This is what Summer is all about!

Paint...

This is the second time we have been to Color Me Mine and we love it! You name it they have it from paints, to stencils, to sponges, to every kind of paint brush under the sun, stickers, and fun stamps. Last time we went, Zoe made a bowl (which she uses all the time). This time, she opted for a Mohawk monster which is right up her alley and super cute.

We painted and chatted, painted a little more, chatted a little more. It was fun. After all that painting, we went to Panera for lunch.

It’s been a long two weeks with Shelli out of town and Zoe is counting the seconds until she is ‘back from working!’

Staying Active

For the past couple weeks, Zoe has been taking two classes at the YMCA; a Zumba dance class and a yoga class. All the classes are for kids and by the looks of it they are all having a good time. I think I’m the only parent who stands at the door watching almost the whole time. I think it’s so cute. Zoe will glance over at me and give me the 'two thumbs up' signal, letting me know she is totally enjoying the class.

All the kids look so adorable. We knew Zoe would love the Zumba as much as she likes to dance and show off her 'moves', but she is doing extremely well in yoga too. The point of the yoga was for her to find her inner Zen. She is one busy bee who doesn’t (won't) slow down for a second. We thought this would be a perfect class for her to have a little ‘Zoe time’.

Baby Clothes

Anyone who is anyone knows that Zoe is a complete Tomboy. She just isn’t into ‘girly’ stuff. Well, ever since Jackson as come into the picture, Zoe has been absolutely obsessed with him. He goes everywhere with us! We can’t go to a store without someone stopping Zoe to talk to her about him or to make sure he is a doll and not real.

This morning, Zoe was feeding Jackson and said, “Wow, he needs some new clothes!” I couldn’t agree more – LET’S GO! We jumped in the car and ran over to the thrift store. Zoe carefully put Jackson in the buggy, strapped him in, and went straight to the infant clothes. I let her do it all on her own without saying a word. I sat back and watched as she went through the clothes racks, tried on different outfits, and even picked out a bib. She even went so far as to try and buy him shoes but, I had to draw the line somewhere – HA!

We left with three outfits and a bib for $2.50. It was a fun way to spend the morning with my daughter and ‘grandson’.

Sleepover

Zoe had her very first sleepover Saturday night! ALONE! WITHOUT MOMMY! She has had sleepovers before but I was always there with her or I would let her fall asleep somewhere and bring her home later that night. (A fake sleepover)This was the very first time she went all by herself. Zoe and Cadence have been friends for a couple years. Zoe loves hanging out with her and of course loves her parents just as much!

A couple days before the sleepover, Z and I were in the bookstore and came across the most perfect book, “My First Sleepover”. She wanted to buy it for Cadence so they could read it before bed. Zoe even wrote a little something in the book for Cadence so she would remember the sleepover – FOREVER!

The girls had big plans. They went to see the new Winnie the Pooh movie, went swimming, ate pizza, and did crafts. Of course a sleepover isn’t a sleepover unless you stay up late and have the parents ask you several times to pipe down and go to sleep. Tammy, who is about to give birth in a few weeks is a amazing in my book. I don’t know how she did it but she and her husband are rock stars in my eyes!

When Zoe got home, she couldn’t catch her breathe fast enough to tell me all the stuff they did. She thought it was the coolest thing in the whole wide world. She was pooped! (She slept for hours.)

I was working this weekend so, a sleepover worked out perfect. I’d be lost without my friends. I don’t have many here but the ones I do have are simply amazing. They keep me so grounded! Tammy and Dana came to the rescue this weekend BIG TIME! Thank you ladies (and Jamal)! I’m so blessed to have such great friends.

Of course I want Z to experience all these things but, it just reminds me how fast she is growing up.

Meet Jackson

There is a new addition to the family, his name is Jackson. We have the hardest time finding dolls that are (as Zoe says), “brown”. However, today, Zoe and I were at the thrift store and I hear her say, “MOM, MOM, MOM, I found this baby and I realllllly want him!” When she turned the corner, she had this adorable baby in her hands. He almost looked real! Zoe says right away, “How much is it?”. No price tag on this poor baby so Z found the first person she could that worked there and asked them how much the baby was. The woman went to the back of the store and came back holding it like it was a real baby and told Zoe, “It’s $6.50, Are you going to buy this baby?” Z without hesitation says, “YES!”

As we continued to look around, Z tells me the baby is a boy and his name is Jackson. I’m sure the name and sex of the baby has something to do with my 1 year old nephew, Jack. When I asked Z if that had anything to do with it, she smiled and said No!

Either way, we welcome baby Jackson Petsch to the family with open arms!

Jersey Shore

Zoe and I took our first mommy – daughter road trip together. Sure we do lots together but, we’ve never jumped in the car and gone on a road trip just the two of us. We packed an overnight bag, snacks, cd’s, a cooler, and hit the beach. The closest beach to us is about an hour and a half away!

First stop, Dunkin Donuts for breakfast before hitting the open road. Zoe was beside herself, and of course had to get it to go because she couldn’t bear the thought of eating there when we needed to be at the beach sooner than later. I’m surprised she was able to eat she was so wound up -She got a bagel and chocolate milk. I got coffee.

As soon as we got in the car, I hear, “Mommy, turn the music up!” – You got it! I was barley able to hear the GPS. I had to keep looking up for a visual in fear I would miss our exit! The ride was so easy, we got to the hotel at 10:30ish. We were not sure we were going to be able to check in but, we wanted to at least park the car and get beach passes. The guy at the front let us check in. This was the beginning of one of the best trips ever!

We went into the room, I had explained to Zoe most beach hotels are pretty small and not the fanciest. She is always concerned about the bathroom size. Why you ask, because Zoe loves to take a bath! Needless to say, the bathroom we had was so small we had to leave the door open to get in and out. The room overall was nice. I was extremely happy with it. We had a fridge, microwave, air conditioning, and we were 2 blocks from the beach. What more did we need? I would definitely stay there again. http://www.duneshotel.com/

Zoe and I grabbed all our beach stuff and walked to the beach. I had the cooler and beach bag, Z had her sand toys and beach chair. The whole walk– TWO BLOCKS – I hear, “Are we almost there?” You would have thought we were walking 12 miles. We get to the beach, our toes hit the sand, we find the perfect spot for the day, and all is forgotten. We spent the entire day playing in the sand, jumping in the water to cool off, walking the shore looking for shells, snacking, and enjoying lots of mother-daughter chat. Zoe even came and laid next to me so we could both listen to my ipod. Yep, we were singing and people were looking at us but, that didn’t stop us. We were in the moment. Laughing, rolling around on the towel, and just being silly girls. It was priceless!

The walk back to the hotel we felt sandy and oily. We wanted to take showers and get cleaned up because Z had BIG plans. It was BOARDWALK time! She wanted to ‘win’ something on the boardwalk!!!! When we got there, we bought tickets to ride a few rides, then we worked our way over to the ‘games’. She lost a few and right before she was about to give up, we tried one more game where you had to pop a balloon to win something. I thought she is bound to win something here (fingers crossed) BAM!! She won a cute purple dolphin she named Perry. She had $3 left from her allowance and she couldn’t spend it fast enough. She went to the arcade and played a few more games.

Next stop, Aquarium – ON THE BOARDWALK! It was amazing. http://www.jenkinsons.com/aquarium/ We went in and took it all in. This was the first time I’ve seen Z so into something. I mean she went from tank to tank asking me to read her everything about all the different fish. She even got to touch a horseshoe crab, starfish, and stingray. It was so cool. (Perry came along too!) They had penguins, seals, turtles, so many neat things! After all that excitement, we worked up an appetite. We walked around the boardwalk until we found something Z wanted. She wanted shrimp, then grilled cheese, then salmon. She was all over the place. She decided on grilled cheese and fries. Who doesn’t eat fries on the boardwalk? It’s a MUST DO, the fries are the best! She got a bucket of fries and we ate them ALL!

On our walk back to the car, she wanted to have dessert so we stopped at the candy store so she could get a few pieces of taffy. She wasn’t quiet ready to go back to the hotel yet so we just sat down enjoyed them on the boardwalk. At that very moment, I looked at my baby girl, the one person I would sacrifice my entire world for with her bucket that had her fries in, Perry the dolphin, and her taffy and I said to myself this is why I work 7 on and 7 off...AT NIGHT. It allows me to have my days free and to have 7 days in a row off. This is what it’s all about. I will never forget this trip. I may not know if I’m coming or going half the time but, the one thing I know without a doubt is the love I have for my child. I’ve never seen her smile or laugh so much. It was simply perfect!

Mimi’s schedule is super packed with travel the next couple months however, Zoe talked about her the entire time. “I wish Mimi could see this!”, “I wonder if Mimi would like this ride?”, “I wish Mimi didn’t have to be on a plane so much!”, “Is Mimi at her hotel?”, “This fish has spiky hair like Mimi!”, “I want to bring Mimi back to this place, she would love it!”

By the time we got back to the hotel, neither of us could keep our eyes open. I washed my face and brushed my teeth, looked over at Zoe, and she was out for the count. I walked over to give her a kiss and she said in her sleepy voice, “Thanks Mommy! We had so much fun together!” That was all I needed to hear, enough said, The End!