happy birvalersary!

For the past 6 weeks Kam has been doing an OB rotation in Cleveland which pretty much left me as a single mom for the last 6 weeks. During that time I celebrated my birthday, valentines day and my anniversary all without him. However, this last Wednesday was his very last shift and since he didn't have to go to school on Thursday or Friday we decided to take a little mini vacation to celebrate all the missed special days. We went to Sandusky, Ohio to Castaway Bay, an indoor water park, part of the Cedar Point Resorts. I knew Braden was a fish, but I didn't realize how much Carter loved the water too. They both couldn't get enough!

 Carter loved the slides. He went up and down, up and down pretty much all day long and when we were not in the pool he would ask to go on the "wawa slide."

Braden got to go on some of the big kid slides!

 Swimming with Dad

 We took the boys in the wave pool and both of them got a little nervous about the big waves but they did like sitting in the shallow end letting the waves come hit them.

  While at the resort the boys got to meet their favorite Peanuts character, Linus!

 Braden also got to watch a Charlie Brown movie and Snoopy read him a bedtime story. {Carter would have come too but he fell asleep...I guess the water wore him right out!}

We all had a really great time and it was a really fun way to celebrate...with all the people I love!

Career Day

Today is Career Day Braden's school. He has been learning about community helpers for the past two weeks and today the kids got to dress up as what they want to be when they grow up. For the past week I've been asking Brady what he would like to be when he grows up and his usual answer has been either Spider Man or Batman. He has also said that he would like to "fix animals when they get hurt." Last night I asked him one more time so I could get something together for him to wear today and he said, "I want to be a Cowboy!" So a cowboy he is!

He was so excited to be a Cowboy that he even slept with his Cowboy Gear...such a funny boy!

happy heart day

Our Valentine fun started on Saturday when the boys and I made sugar cookies to give to our neighbors and of course for us too. Growing up, my mom always made heart shaped sugar cookies frosted pink with our names written on them with white frosting. I love sugar cookies and I have done my best now that I don't live near my family to keep this tradition going.

Don't they look yummy?!

I wanted our valentines to be a little more personable this year since we couldn't hand deliver our valentines to our family so we decided to use pictures of the boys. There are lots of red barns out here in PA so we took a drive to find just the right one to use as our backdrop. I think they turned out pretty cute.

 The final Product

On Valentines day, Braden had a fun party at school and the boys got to pass out their valentines to their friends. We also ran a few errands looking for something special for our awesome dad and unfortunately the running of errands wasn't very fun because while we were in Target, Braden turns to me and tells me, "This is the worst Valentines Day ever!" The lady in the isle near us said that was the saddest thing she'd ever heard. It broke my heart because I was trying so hard to make the day special for both my little valentines. From there we headed home and later I asked Braden if this was still the worst Valentines Day ever hoping that maybe he'd changed his mind. He said it was better now that we were home and then went and got a heart-shaped ring out of his valentine treats and gave it to me and told me he wanted me to have it because I was the "best mom ever!"

When Kam got home from school we gave him his valentine treats and ate a special valentine dinner of creamy potato soup and heart shaped cheesies.

 And we had these yummy cupcakes for dessert 

(made by our awesome neighbors!)

Happy Valentines Day!

me and my llama

Do you remember the clip on Sesame Street where a girl takes her pet llama to the dentist? Well, whenever I go to the dentist I think of the song that she sings while they show what happens... "me and my llama, me and my llama, we're going to the dentist...." I only mention this because this last Monday was Braden and Carter's very first visit to the dentist. Actually, Braden has been once before, but all they did was count his teeth so I don't think that really applies as a real first trip. Kam's last rotation for school was down at a hospital where they do a lot of kids dental cases and he became a big fan of one of the dentists, Dr. Gretz, so we decided to make an appointment for all of us to get our teeth checked. The boys were both amazing! They held really still and opened their mouths really wide. Both the hygienist and Dr. Gretz said that they have never before seen any 2 or 4 year old who were as good as these two were.

 Braden went first and was a great example of what to do...

...which helped Carter be such a great patient!

 At the very end of his teeth cleaning, the hygienist 

let Carter hold Mr. Thirsty all by himself.

Most of us had a clean bill of health which is great considering it's been nearly 2 years since we've been to a dentist but Braden, unfortunately, has two very small cavities in his back molars so we will going back to have them filled in a couple weeks. Lets hope he does just as good then as both boys did on their first visit.

a birthday for ME

My birthday this year was rather lame, but I guess that's what happens when you get old. Kameron was out of town in Cleveland on rotation and since I don't live near any of my family I pretty much had no one to celebrate with other than my boys so I decided to go do something fun with them. We went to the Children's Museum and we had a really great time. This visit we spent most of our time in the Studio where they boys painted special pictures just for me.

Carter didn't really want to paint with the brush!

Braden painted me some squares.

We spent most of the day at the museum and we were pretty tired so we came home and had my favorite dinner, cereal! While eating, my friend Janey came up and brought me an ice cream cake she had made for me and then later after trying to take some timed photos of us and the cake my other friend Julie came over with a birthday surprise and she took some better pictures for me.

All in all I guess it wasn't a horrible day. I got lots of cards and notes from people I love that made me feel really special and my boys gave me the best gift just by giving me lots of hugs and kisses. Braden even sang Happy Birthday to me about a hundred times and at the end of the day he told me, "Mom, I hope you have a better birthday next year." He is so sweet and intuitive, and in reality, if every birthday was like this one, that would be okay.