Charlotte's Birthday Weekend

Charlotte's birthday started off by checking out her many presents on the table. She got to open one that morning, a movie. Boys = jealous.

The cupcakes:

 Charlotte at her party, checking out the water balloons:

 Too shy to blow out her own candles!?

 Later that night, without the added pressure of friends, she did blow out her own:

 Mommy and Charby!

 Meanwhile, in boyland....

 Char's pretty ice cream dress!

 Posin':

 Sunday we went to see a play with gaga, here is Char in all her birthday glory - sunglasses, ice cream dress, necklace, bracelet, and fruit snacks.

 Getting ready for the play to start:

 Riding the merry go round:

 Lovely portrait taken by a boy:

 The rest of the pictures I downloaded (300 of them) all look similar to this one. Owen just snap-snap-snapped away the whole way home. I'll spare you.

Another installment of Owen's Camera!

What was found on Owen's camera this time? About 125 pictures of blur! Hooray! Here are the highlights:

Pictures of pictures are always nice:

The lamp: 

Owen, our photographer

Owen has been taking a lot of pictures lately. Here is installment one of Owen's photos. Coming soon will be his race photos - they are stellar!
Don't tell him, but he's getting a kids' digital camera for Christmas. I'm so excited to give it to him!!!

Race pictures

You can go here to check out race pictures of me.

You can go here to check out race pictures of Todd.

Oh, do I have a blog here?

Sorry, peeps. I forgot about my blog!
Recap time.
- I gained a pound a half at ww! I was pissed!
- It was jersey day at school on Friday and I dressed Charlotte as a white trash jersey girl. Right?

-Yesterday the kids were playing "backpack" (a fun game that consists of filling your backpack with a bunch of shit from the floor/shelves and then forgetting you put it in there a few hours later and throwing a massive temper tantrum because you want whatever it was) and we had to take another white trash picture of Charlotte, which led to each of the boys taking a picture of the other boy. Yay, Saturdays!

- Ran 6 miles today and it was good!

-We had our first "SNOW" day on Friday. Because of the massive rain and flooding, we had no school on Friday. Best day ever!!!

- That about sums it up.

Beach: 75% chaos.

Ah, the beach.....what a relaxing, beautiful, sunshiny way to rest before school starts.....ahhhh, smell the ocean air, feel the gentle breeze, listen to the screaming children. Screaming children?! Where's the sound of the waves crashing on the shore?! Where are the seagull calls and the gentle engine sounds of the advertising planes?!!!! NO WHERE BECAUSE I CAN'T HEAR MYSELF THINK OVER THE SCREAMING, WHINING, CHILDREN!!!!!!

OK, OK, it wasn't that screamy...but there were moments of total insanity at the beach. Here is a picture of Owen's usual location. We would be sitting on the beach, enjoying the moment for 4.6 seconds and he would say, "Can we go watch TV now?"

Beach baby Charlotte. Sand in every orifice and skin fold is a sign of a beach baby, right? Nevermind that she was afraid of the water. The beach we stayed at had these cute little swingsets spread out on the beach - great idea. Char would spend all day swinging if she could. Unfortunately for her, Todd and I would only push her for 30 minutes or so each day. (Mostly Todd).

The beach one night after dinner:

Muscle man Owen:

Building a sand castle. The condo we stayed in is two balconies above Owen's head!

The elusive bathing suit photo.....AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH....can you believe that I have lost 50 pounds! (We'll see how much I kept off while eating ice cream and cheese balls at the beach....)

Charlotte, during one of her timeouts for hitting Owen over the head with a shovel:

This is a pucture of Owen acting like "King Grog the Old" during Viking putt-putt. Cracked me up.

The adorable boys at putt-putt. :)

Charlotte, taking a break from putt-putt to sit in a dragon egg, and then demonstrating her putting form. Look out, LPGA!!

Riding a bullfrog. That's what she said.

Family photo-op. I set the camera on one of those swingsets, hit the timer, and BAM! Look how it turned out! I should be a pro.

Henry wasn't a big fan of the camera this weekend. Here he is, giving me the finger:

Before and after with Dawn

I have a friend, Dawn, who is awesome and wonderful! She is a twin mom, too, and we see each other maybe once a year because we don't live close to each other. So I thought it was cool when we saw each other last night and took our usual pic to do a little before/after!

This first picture is in Colorado in October 2008. I was pregnant with charlotte but didn't know it yet....Nice cheekbones!

This one is from New York last August - when I was at my highest weight. Cheekbones MIA.

And this one is from last night - look how skinny BOTH of us look (not that dawn ever looks not-skinny, but she is super skinny here!) Cheekbones coming back!

Henny boo and Me

After the 10k on Sunday.

Happy Mother's Day!

I am so thankful for my wonderful children and husband who got me some chocolate-covered strawberries and some yummy cupcakes for Mother's Day today! :)
I am thankful for my wonderful Mom who took me on a wonderful trip to Paris and has always instilled in me the importance of travel, being a democrat, and always taking the higher ground. Love you!

I am thankful for my mother-in-law who beats me at Words with Friends, outfits our children, and shares wine with me! :)

I am thankful for all the Moms in my life that have directly or indirectly had an impact on my life. What would the world be without MOTHERS? Love to you all!

And if that didn't melt your heart, then you are cold and heartless. But these pictures will: